The Rise of Spirits

Finally back in my home after an awesome trek. And guess what....I now have bsnl broad band connecton......Good bye to intermittent blogging...continuous thoughts would start pouring into my blog from now on. Firstly let me start off with my trekking experience.

As a trekking enthusiast, I wanted to go places, not for sight-seeing (This can be done even after you have grand children!), but exclusively as a challenge. Inspired by the previous trek....I came up with this idea of going on a trek to North India. Myself, KS and piddhi, all three of us wanted to get out of the monotonous life offered to us by our dept. in our final year. We had the passion....but we had absolutely no idea, where to go. We started searching in the internet, for places. It was very unfortunate to know that we had missed the bus to the himalayas, arranged by the YHAI (Youth Hostel Association of India). It was the cheapest way a student can go to the himalayas, as all the facilities provided by them are for subsidiced rates. So!...we had to fix our own intenerary now.

After talking to my uncle at Dehradun, who works as a forest officer, we had decided to go to the garhwal region of Uttaranchal. We were advised by him that Kumaon region does not offer so much for trekkers.

Trek Day 1, June 16th

All ready with a backpack, a hand bag...and a camera around my waist. Flight from hyderabad to Delhi. Departure at 5:45 a.m. This is my second flying experinece! I reached the airport with a cash of 5k. As soon as I approached the Air Deccan counter, the notice that all flights from 17th to 22nd have been rescheduled, caught my sight. Thank god that 16th was spared! Anyway hats off to Air Deccan for the promptness it maintained on this lucky day, which happened to fall in one of its intermittent days of consummate customer service. Once in Delhi, I had to wait for about half-an-hour for KS and Piddhi to arrive from Chennai.Luckily or rather I should say, surprisingly their flight was also right on time. Finally, the three of us were united.....and we were ready to rock (I was surprised to see Piddhi....his back pack was half his size!)

Next Destination: ISBT Kashmiri Gate - 230 bucks (pre-paid taxi)

Bus service in any state cannot be compared to that in A.P. Knowing this fact, it was no big surprise that we could not spot a single bus with decent comfort. Erra bassu dhinalu gurthu ochhayi!

Destination: Dehradun ISBT via Chutmalpur thus avoiding Haridwar - 7 hours journey

Once cramped inside this bus we swore never again to travel in any northie bus for such along distance! But who cares! All discomfort faded out when our sense of humour started kicking in. The only advantage of travelling with northies is, you can talk any damn shit. We were surrounded by so many people, even then, it was like we already owned the bus. The lost freedom of space appeared in the form of freedom of speech :)). We started talking about the moti auntie and her daughter sitting behind us....cursing them for the missiles they started launching making a huge gas tragedy (use your discretion), we also talked about a bomb shell sitting in the line of my view at the adjacent window. Once we reached the Dehradun ISBT, we had to find our way to my uncle's house.

Destination: Ashirwad Enclave - 200 bucks on auto.

We had entered a palace! Although my uncle's house was described by my sis, I had never expected that we would stay in such a big house. So far so good! Mesmerized by the climate we had immediately decided to go out for a walk. Night's dinner was awesome, cooked by the chowkidhar Rishipal. Made our back packs ready with all the required stuff.

Trek Day 2, June 17th

The next day morning started off at 6:00 a.m. We travelled to the taxi stand in a govt. vehicle, provided to us by Bupinder Singh (Uncle's friend).

Destination: Uttarkashi (200 bucks per head) - 6 hours

We were actually so ignorant that we expected Uttarkashi to be chillingly cold! To get a picture of our ignorance check out this pic!.....KS in a leather jacket!!

Uttarkashi: The temp here was actually 25 degress celcius!! LOL!. The first day of our stay at Uttarkashi was not as pleasant as it had been in the previous days. D.C.S Rana, the person who was supposed to guide us happenend to be in Dehradun, where we were in Uttarkashi. The worst part is that we could not contact on his cell as he was stuck in a remote place near Chamba. After our failure in getting an accomodation in Kot Bungalow (Forest rest house), we had decided to spend this night in some hotel room (200 bucks). The actual plan was to start trekking today and reach Agoda, midway to Dodithal and rest there, so that our bodies would acclimatize to the low pressure at such altitudes.

Uttarkashi is a very small and beautiful town on the banks of river Bhageerathi. he scenery was just awesome. After placing our luggage in the room, we had to take some rest and the best place to hang out was on the banks of river Bhageerathi. We could see many people meditating in this peaceful environment. But it was just not possible for three bachelors, deluged with so much beauty around them, including the opposite sex, to keep their racing minds on hold. Nevertheless I had decided to spend some quality time on these banks once our trek was over, hoping that we would get used to 'all' kinds of beauty around us. Its just that we had no patience to meditate then. At times we tried crossing the river by stepping on a few stones visible to us, but after a few slips here and there, while trying to step over stones engulfed by the gushing water, we realised the true intensity of the flow and decided not to do so. We were screaming, ripping on each other (espcially piddhi), making the place look like a kindergarten playground, at times getting a few wierd glances from the locals, but who cares!....we were having the time of our life!!

We had tired ourselves so much by now, that hunger started calling upon us. We had a good dinner in one of the road side eating stalls. Most of our food during our trek consisted of paratas with dhahi....it was a good feeling for me, getting a break from eating rice all the time (consider the last 5 years I spent in Chennai, where people eat rice and only rice!). Paratas in these stalls tasted awesome. Looking back, now I feel that there was a kind of purity that dawned upon me when I had reached Uttarkashi. Back in the city, now I dread eating in a similar road side stall, referring to the number of e-coli bacteria present in the crap they make! As a matter of fact, we cared so little about our hygiene, it was like we had entered a place so pristine! Now comparing this with our c(sh)ity life, where we hold ourselves from eating mouth watering dishes made in dinghy places, wash ourselves with anti-bacterial soaps, and staying paranoid of catching cold......, it makes me feel that we are indeed in a shitty place!

Hoping that the next day would bring all our plans into action, we had a good sleep, although I cannot resist myself from writing about a dicovery we made in the small room we were resting. We spotted two holes in one of the door closed from other side of the adjacent room, tiny enough to conceal the viewer, and large enough for a lens to fit in! Ever wondered how hidden cam porn videos are made?! Well, we were in a place where such videos were without doubt made, atleast in the recent past! After a while in the night, we heard some tourists entering the adjacent room...it was then, our raunchy little brains started working!...BUT after a few peeks, unfortunately, we learnt that the adjacent room was filled with boozing MALE SARDARS!!

Trek Day 3, June 18th

Destination1: Sangamchatti (about 10 k.m from Uttarkashi) - By jeep
Destination2: Dodithal (about 22 k.m from Sangamchatti) - Trek




The next day, went as planned. Rana was back in Uttarkashi, and he promptly came to our room at 8:00 a.m, accompanied by Binor Kumar Butt, who would be our guide for the trek. Soon we were on our way to Sangamchatti on a jeep arranged by Rana. With our backpacks and two beddings...we were 'all ready' for the trek. Lifting our backpacks, we were sure that it is impossible for us to carry our backpacks and trek, as we were supposed to trek 22 k.m in one day, which is generally not advisable, to avoid fatigue. Hence, we hired two mules called kacchars in hindi. The mules left before us....and their speed was just unbelievable. Our crazy guide wanted to catch up with them, even after started so late. He made us literally run for about 400 metres uphill, which drained us in the hot sun. Now I could see with my own eyes how people living in the mountains have such a good stamina! Soon we had to open the Tang that we had brought with us to quench our thirst. Me and KS had decided not to follow Binod, coz we had to climb 22 k.m, and at this pace it was impossible. We preferred a layed back trek.....enjoying the nature....and capturing every intriguing aspect of it on our camera, while Piddhi followed Binod...only to realise later that he had missed out in being a part of the pictures we had taken in the initial stages of the ascent and also the energy drain he had to go through during the fast paced trek!

The kacchar guy had left early with his mules to reach Agoda in advance and make the arrangements for lunch. To our surprise, our ill luck continued as all the places where we could get food were closed as this was the rainy season and the number of people who trek are very few at this time of the year. We reached Agoda at around 1:00 p.m and were really pained looking at the situation, as we had only tea and a few snacks that morning. We have decided not to stop, as the guide kept luring us that we will soon find food. During the trek we were accompained by three couples, who had good stamina, as they were from Uttarkashi, similar to Binod. They had brought their lunch, as they were aware of the situation, while we guys were starving!! After a one hour trek, from the time we reached Agoda, we started cursing Binod for not providing the promised food! (This was only impulsive....as we were really starving!). With increasing altitude, we could feel the lowering of pressure, our hunger intensified, and our hands began to get cold.

More pics @ My Yahoo Photos

On our way to Agoda.....an awesome feeling!!

Piddhi down and out of enthu with energy drained out!

KS: Bhagwan ke naam pe thoda chaaval babaaa!!!

Finally all of us were drained out, and our limbs started getting chiller, when we could find the much needed respite at Manji, a small village. The villagers cooked food for us....believe me! no food in the world could replace what we eat! We had a good nap along with all the others, who had accompanied us through out the trek. Guess what!... We got an opportunity to try the HUKKA!