Ranikhet is in Uttaranchal and a
perfect hill station to visit. Its story goes like this; many years ago, a
beautiful Kumaoni queen Rani Padmini fell so deeply in love with the green
glades and meadows of a tiny hill paradise that her king, Raja Sukherdev, built
her grand palace there and named the place Ranikhet, or queen’s meadow. My dad
have always talked about Ranikhet as a paradise on earth, but today when I see
it I understand why dad liked Ranikhet and still now wants to visit it. As I
approached to Ranikhet my eyes were watching the best views of all to the left,
the ancient, snow clad Himalayas. I wanted to
relax under a pleasant sun and gaze leisurely at the beautiful Himalayas with sipping my cup of tea.
There are government orchards at
Chaubatia, 10km to the south of Ranikhet. We went with a picnic basket and buy
some seasonal fruits from the orchids. Then there was Bhalu Dam which supplies
water to the Ranikhet and is also famous for fishing.
From the bus stop there is an
Army Golf course at Upat which offers golfing at high attitudes. Also there is
an old temple dedicated to goddess Kali from where the town of Kalika gets its name lies just a kilometer
away from Upat.
Another 13km down the Almora road
this village had many beautiful picnic spots. We wanted to take a walk in the
forest so we strolled down Ranikhet from behind the Army Holiday home to the
AMU guest house. We liked the walk from the Mall towards this same guest house
as we saw many old British bungalows here.
Then a little path took us
towards the Kumaon Regimental Centre. The KRC Museum
displayed memories of wars that the regiment had fought.
I picked up some woolen fabrics
and few small things from the Mall. Ranikhet comprises of two main areas of
tourist interests; the Mall and the Sadar Bazzar. The Sadar is full of hotels
and guest houses, the crowded ones and the Mall is peaceful place.