Mapping your Himalayan holidays

Ever since the Maruti freed us and spurred driving holidays in India, journeys from Delhi to Jaipur, or Mumbai to Goa, or Chennai to Pondicherry have evolved into little more than long commutes over extended weekends. Which is why the absence of good driving guides has always remained a mystery to most. For, the moment you decide to go off the tried and tested route, there are as many suggestions as there are people. Even the route from Delhi to Bikaner, which I must have taken dozens of times, involves a town-to-town plotting of the journey so that, each time, we've got lost, stumbled through rough patches, been misdirected (of course, there are no signages), sometimes even made it in record time, and have entered Delhi (on the journey back) through south Delhi (by choice) or west Delhi (which now looks unrecognisable, courtesy the Metro) and even north Delhi (purely chance).

All this because there are no good maps or guides available to help you plan your travels with any degree of confidence. The usual "road maps" of India are hopelessly outdated, especially given the Golden Quadrilateral's progress. At least the GQ has signages, but go off it for any distance and chances are, you'll be stopping every few kilometres to ask for fresh directions.

The honourable exceptions, so far, have been the Outlook Traveller Getaway weekend guides that have effectively plugged the gap and, now, this new series from Rupa. Driving Holidays in the Himalayas that includes independent guides to Uttaranchal, Sikkim and Ladakh (and also apparently Zanskar).

The author of these cheerful and well-laid-out guides is Koko Singh, who, clearly, has travelled extensively in the northern parts, and has thankfully decided to share some of that information with those itching to get into their cars and head for the hills.

But Singh, it must be said, is dictatorial in his approach. The guides may help you get to Mussoorie or Nainital, or drive around Ladakh, but you aren't exactly spared the pains of having to plot your own itinerary independently. For, Singh is like a sergeant major bellowing "The next morning you must hit the road at 6 a.m.", or urging you to take walks the moment you've reached the day's destination. Largely, that's because he hasn't restricted himself to plotting routes and describing the journey or the destination, but to actually weaving in itineraries. As a result, you're compelled to follow his nine-day option, or continue for another week in another direction, making it difficult to forge your own route. As in the case of Mussoorie, say, to which most Dilliwallahs might head directly from Delhi, but which the guide to Uttaranchal maps through Barkot (in Pauri Garhwal). With a little application, you can chart your own route, but that's the whole point: Singh doesn't make it easier.

Yet, Singh knows his Himalayas, and particularly Uttaranchal, where he plies you with alternative routes, has heaps of pointers on flowers and sights and other attractions, and is not beyond serving up a reprimand about the "blinkered, lop-sided policies of the administration" and the "short-sightedness of businessmen" for ruining such places as Kempty Falls, for instance.

Where Singh is most helpful (provided you follow his itinerary) is in hand-holding you all the way, plying you like a personal navigator with information that is both relevant as well as extraneous but enjoyable. It is these insights (and not a little humour) that make these guides helpful, for along with distances, the time taken to drive from point to point, the actual places from where you turn towards your destination, are woven legends of ghostly sightings, local legends, off-route recommendations and so on.

All guides have small sections on history, people, religion, economy and so on that, ideally, should have been at the end of each guide. But what is interesting, as an instance, is his visual explanation of the Buddhist wheel of life, which is visually represented in all Buddhist settlements in the Himalayas""great to mull over when you are relaxing with presumably Singh's favourite beverage (Old Monk, going by the references to the brand) in some remote location in the Himalayas. The practical tips, reccos and the like prove especially helpful, but in these days of internet bookings, to not provide email addresses for hotels is a disservice that is allayed only to some extent via the discount coupons (dining, accommodation, river rafting) and lined pages for taking notes.

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DRIVING HOLIDAYS IN THE HIMALAYAS
Uttaranchal, 280 pages, Rs 595
Ladakh, 184 pages, Price not mentioned
Sikkim, 196 pages, Rs 395

Rupa
Koko Singh