Kainchi Dham and the tea road
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Day two. West, and start at seven.
The ashram, the bell temple, the tea terraces and the fruit market, all on one road west.
This is the day that decides whether your trip feels calm or rushed. Kainchi Dham parking fills from about nine and the road backs up by eleven. Leave at seven, be finished by nine, and the rest of the day unfolds gently. Every distance below is the road distance from our gate, not from the previous stop.
Leave at seven. This is the whole trick
Shree Kainchi Dham
The Neem Karoli Baba ashram, and the reason most of our guests chose Ramgarh. Go for darshan, the traditional viewing of the deity, early: parking is limited and fills from about nine, and by eleven the road backs up a kilometre in both directions. Leave here at seven and you will park easily. Shoes come off, photography is restricted inside, and mobile signal in the valley is patchy, so agree a meeting point before you get out of the car.
On the road home
Golu Devta Temple, Ghorakhal
The bell temple, four kilometres up from Bhowali. Golu Devta is worshipped across Kumaon as the god of justice, and devotees whose wish has been granted hang a bell. There are now thousands of them, along with written petitions tied to every surface. Whatever you believe, the sight of it stays with you.
Late morning
Shyamkhet Tea Garden
Rolling tea terraces on the same Ghorakhal road, with the hills behind. Rs 40 to enter. For another Rs 100 they will dress you in traditional Kumaoni clothes for photographs, which sounds silly and which families enjoy far more than they expect to.
Same stop, ten minutes
Ghorakhal Tea Factory
The same site as the tea garden. The factory floor is not open to visitors, but you can buy green and black tea at source and there is a small art gallery. Honest warning from reviewers: the visit is short and the tea is priced above the market.
Last stop before home
Bhowali fruit market
Bhowali is the fruit hub of Kumaon and this is where the produce collects before it goes anywhere else. Bargain, and buy early for the freshest. Also the place to pick up bal mithai, the chocolate-brown local milk sweet, to take home.
A longer add-on, past Nainital
Khurpatal Lake
An emerald lake below Nainital that most visitors drive straight past. No boating and very few people, which is the point. The colour shifts with the sky. A small Mansa Devi temple sits at the viewpoint above it. This one stretches the day, so pair it with an early finish at the ashram.
A dedicated dawn, another day
Kilbury and Pangot bird sanctuary
Part of the Naina Devi Himalayan Bird Conservation Reserve, 580 recorded species across oak, pine and rhododendron. It sits beyond Nainital, so treat it as its own early morning rather than an add-on to this day. Drive slowly and keep quiet.
Every drawing here is waiting for your photograph.
We have illustrated these places rather than borrowing pictures that are not ours. If you photograph one of them, send it to us. If we use it, your name goes underneath it and stays there. Each stop above has its own Send your photo button, which opens WhatsApp with the place already named so we know what we are looking at.