Lakhaniya Dari - One of those where water falls on you!!!

Destination - Lakhaniya Dari

Note - All the pics shown here are from my earlier trip when the water was less. I wrote this blog after a trip when the monsoon was at its heights.


Date - Saturday, August 16, 2008.

Origin - Vanarasi

End - Varanasi

Group Size - 5 (YV, Amit, Prashant, Anbalagan and myself )


Lakhaniya Dari - A breathtaking water fall near the ancient city, Varanasi. This is among those very few water falls where you are the bottom and the water falls on you. This fact increases the excitement hundred times. At the final destination, you will be surrounded by rocky walls from three directions and exactly in front of you water will be falling from a height of more than 80 m. The small drops of water carried by air will touch your face and soon you will realize that why people wish for heaven? It is not a place where you get down from your vehicle and have the view. You have to walk 2-3 KMs over stones, mud, rocks and water to reach the final destination. Do not worry! The whole path is less than long and more than short.


Lets reach there from BHU main gate, Lanka. Face the BHU gate and take left (towards east) from there. The road is not good so be prepared for the fun. After some time, you have to take a right. First right turn is the route which hits the main highway where you will meet the Toll Plaza. The guys there may ask you pay something between INR 50-100. This is not a good option because you will not be using that highway for more than 5 minutes. So do not take that first right turn and take the route from the “Samai Ghat” to reach the by-pass. You can ask the local people “the way to reach the Ram Nagar Bridge – By Pass via Samai Ghat”. See the map below which is taken from wikimapia.org. Click on the image to enlarge it.

This highway is part of the road network of Golden Quadrilateral in India but you will be using this just for crossing the river Ganges. Just after the bridge gets over, there is a road on the left going down the road. Take that road and then a right under the By Pass. This is NH - 7. See the map below. Click on the image to enlarge it.

This road is generally good except the rainy season. Drive carefully because children from villages and people on bicycles my come to your way many times.

After few KMs you will reach Narayan Pura and there will be a V turn. Take a left from there. There should be a board indicating the direction. Do not hesitate to ask from local people in case of confusion. Just after taking this way you will cross a double track electrified rail way and a water canal near by. This is the confirmation that you are on right track. See the map below. Click on the image to enlarge it.


Note: At the time of writing, wikimapia.org was not having the road beyond this point in its map. So choose the "Hybrid" and "All Places" options in it and then enlarge it atleadt up to 4th level to get some idea.

Now the road is straight. After driving for around 30 KMs you will reach hilly roads. Slow down there because you are not far off from your destination. You will see lake on you left and then some mountains beyond that. This view is gorgeous and you would love to take snaps. But take care from wild animals if you want to go far off from the road.

Little bit ahead you will see a small bridge on road. On left there will be water falling down the rocks. There is also a yellow colored board on left mentioning “Lakhaniya Dari” in Hindi. This is the place you can park your vehicle.


Start walking now with the Jungle rule – Follow the water stream. Remember that you have to go up stream. You should be able to find many local people around. They come here, cook their food and have fun. It is a nice picnic place for them.


After walking some distance you will reach mud and then the rocks. Take caution while walking on the rocks because they are very slippery. There is no hard and fast way to reach the final fall. But you should be able to find the way made by earlier travelers. During rainy season the water level is really high and then you have to use your own intelligence because all the normal ways gets covered by water.


Last time when I went there, we had to cross the stream two times and the water reached up to waist level. I suggest to get in side the water in spite of getting high on the rocks. The water is not deep and you can take support of rocks with some effort. On the other hand, if you slip down from the rocks then you can get your bones fractured. As you move ahead, the place will get covered by more and more dense trees. The light reaching the land will reduce and air flow will decrease. In some time you should be able to feel the sound of falling water and there you are!!!

Enjoy the place!!! You can reach behind the falling water also. Take extreme caution and walk over the rocks from the right and reach behind the falling water. This place gives you some movie kind of feeling. You are sitting inside a small cave sort of place and water is flowing in front of you and then beyond that there is the whole world. The below pic shows this.

Avoid to take a dip in water at this place. The water is very deep and rocks are mysterious. My senior at BHU lost his life there. Every year there are cases when people get in to water and then never come back. So if you want to get into water, walk some distance down stream and then do what ever you want.


Eat and Drink - You will not find much to eat around. At the place of parking there is a small tea stall. You call also find some packed biscuits there. However, on the road from Narayan Pura you will find many Dhaba. On an earlier trip, I enjoyed paratha over there and they were delicious. Its good to carry water bottles with you if you are not fine with the open water served at eating places. There are many beer shops available on the path way. But again, avoid to walk on the rocks until your mind is in 100% normal state.

Bicycle on Bengaluru (Bangalore) roads

While roaming on the terrace, I was looking to do something new in life (as usual). This time I aimed for a bicycle. So I did some basic googling and without much exposure to this field I went to Arcot Srinivasachar street, City Market, Bangalore.

The bicycle Market here: I feel that this is basically a selling market and dealers do not care much about servicing. They have got old shops and may not be able to give you demo because most of the cycles are packed and disassembled. But I asked them and they gave me 4 demos by taking the pain of assembling the bicycles. The roads are jammed so one cannot think of test ride. I got the demos because I was going to spend good amount. This market is definitely cheaper than the fancy and exotic showrooms which might be available in Bangalore.

I got this model, AVON Jockey. A short review of it follows.

http://www.avoncycles.com/boys-bicycle-display.asp?id=285

I paid INR 6300/- for it.

It has aluminum body which makes it very easy to carry in elevator to my flat at seventh floor. It is very handy to carry in hands during traffic jams, red lights, country side etc. Whenever I go to M. G. Road, whole of the road is blocked by the Metro Rail Project and rest by long cars. I was very comfortable to carry my bicycle in hands and then to walk on footpath. There was another model from Hero with almost same specification but with Iron Body. That was 2000 less in cost. I think I made the right decision to pay more to the seller.

It has got front and rear shockers. I feel that this makes ride very comfortable and won't hurt you at wrong places. At this time I can not say about the longevity of these shockers. May be I will add that after a year.

It has got 18 gears. I strongly suggest to get a bicycle with gears if you want to make the ride a fun and not a burden. Gears will make your ride little bit easier on ups and make you fast on downs. But, frankly speaking, I do not see a need of 18 gears(at least in city). May be 6 or 12 are enough. I got 18 because because it is not possible to customize this machine according to your need. :)

Personal Experience:
# It is good(not great) bicycle.
# The ride is smooth and the shockers are good.
# Gear transition is smooth and they never got stuck.
# It has got front and rear long metal mud-guards. These days most of the geared cycles are having either no or short mud-guards. These are made up of plastic. In city , you won't be doing the stunts as a mountain biker. So when the roads are wet, these long mud-guards save you from the road dirt that flies off with the rotating wheel. This was the unique feature in all the models that I considered.
# The pedal has very good metal grip. Due to this your feet will never slip from it when you are applying break or crossing a bumper in speed.
# The rod under the seat is not long. So, if we want to raise the seat to a higher level, you may need to change the whole section.
# Brakes are cantilever type with rubber shoes. I would prefer disc brakes. But for that, one has to put in more money.

Recently, I got a speedometer/odometer installed. It cost me 350/- bucks. I purchased this from Raja Cycle Mart. There is a good mechanic, Lalloo. I got the reference from another blogger. I went there and the experience was good.

Directions for Raja Cycle Mart: Reach to townhall and start moving to City Market. Hardly moving 20 meters, on left you can see this shop.

Check out wikimapia. I marked this there
http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=12.9633878&lon=77.5843763&z=17&l=0&m=h&v=2


Many times people ask me about my experience on Bangalore roads. They say that the traffic is terrific and how safe is it? For all of these people, I have following words:

I use Cab to commute to office and I felt that two wheeler drivers are quite unsafe on roads. After roaming around on bicycle, I realized that the condition was not that bad which I *assumed* earlier. I noticed that people are sort of good to bicycle riders. Then one day I went to Office on my bicycle. I stay at Koramangala and Office is 11 KMs from my home. The route is (Sony World-Jagsandhara-Agara-Sarjapur Junction-Marattahalli). I leave my home around 7 in morning and leave office at 4 in evening.

My view got changed when I tried it myself. I know, the safest bet is to get in side a car. But except that I think bicycles are good to move around the city.

While raining, its very tough to ride bicycle because there is no motor inside and its all your muscles. I prefer to wait at some place. This can be treated as a limitation. :)

I still use Cabs but jump over to my bicycle around 2-3 days a week depending upon weather and schedule. :) Believe me, the time difference is just of 10 minutes one way!!!

So this is how I had a view some time back and now it got changed when I tried it on my own. :)

Points for getting on bicycle:
1. Fun
2. Healthy
3. Cheap
4. No Pollution

So, believe me. Borrow a bicycle from a kid around your place for some time and give it a try. For the first few times, you will feel strong pain in your knees. If this pain disappears and the riding becomes fun for you, go and grab your own bike.

Happy Cycling!!!