CALCUTTA 01

many city walks here.
the ones i did this time were :

park street to esplanade via all the small lanes then come out onto the main road and do a round of the maidan to end up at victoria memorial

lake gardens and southern avenue: there's a beautiful mosque in the middle of the lake

kalabagan : next to navina cinema on prince anwar shah road. its a very pretty locality and makes for a wonderful short walk

2 bookshops worth a visit
seagull books in bhowanipore 033-2476 5865/69
earthcare books on middleton street 033-2229 6551

DMAS

Department of Mountaineering and Allied Sports
Govt. of Himachal Pradesh

they have a bunch of (very reasonably priced and well organised) courses peppered throughout the year... from high altitude trekking to advanced mountaineering
website : http://www.adventurehimalaya.org

MATHERAN

93 kms from mumbai by road, turn left at chowk on the old bombay-pune highway NH4
trains upto neral on the bombay-karjat line


plenty of walks around matheran
good easy trek from neral to matheran

some nice places to stay:
Lord's Hotel
prop. Shiavax Lord, 022-26106978/32968614, 02148-230228
closed for the monsoons

Cecil Hotel
prop. Yezdi Irani, 09821148428, 02148-230216
closed for the monsoons

Hope Hall Hotel
prop. Nancy/Maria/Joseph Vaz, 02148-230253/230193
by far the most quirky of the hotels, there's a plethora of pets and large rooms with fairly basic facilities here. open in the monsoons but the sheets get damp and musty.

SOLANG NALLA

2 treks here
solang nalla - patalsu peak : a day trek
solang nalla - beas kund : can be done as a day trek or you can trek to the beas kund base camp on day one, climb up to beas kund and head back on day two. solang-beaskund-solang is approx 30kms

delhi to manali : overnight hptdc buses and a bunch of private ones.
HPTDC
chanderlok bldg, 36 janpath,
oppo imperial hotel, new delhi
011 23324764

manali to solang nalla: s.t. buses thrice a day OR
hitchhike

solang nalla : raju paying guest house
prop. nandlal a.k.a. neenu
09816166045
skyneenu@yahoo.com