“Fuck, Fuck, Fuck”, I blurted after a quick dip in the lake.
Suhas was profusely laughing while taking the snaps. I looked around and people near me were smiling. Expressions on their faces were saying, “Been there, Done that”. I was relieved that no Sikhs were around to hear me. I felt bad for having uttered those words in one of the most sacred places of pilgrimage on earth for the Sikhs. I took another quick dip in the freezing water and came out shivering. But it was worth all the effort.
Short Version – Go to 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th Aug during which we actually trek in the valley.
Seeds:
I am not sure as to whose plan it was originally to trek in the Garhwal Himalayas. After making sure that there is no place left in our stomachs for more pizzas, we went back to Vijay’s place. Since Vijay was heading to the US for further studies, there was nothing much left to inquire about his future plans. I casually asked Suhas, as to what he was planning next. As usual he had a plan ready. Suhas told me that he along with 9 other people was going for the Valley of Flowers trek and I could join if I am interested. After thinking for about a minute I said I would join them. Suhas took some time to confirm if I can hop in, and after his confirmation, finally, with some 20 days left I booked my tickets.
7th Aug(Delhi):
Scheduled departure of my flight to Delhi was 8AM. I was ready to board the bus at 5AM. Pace of the bus worried me a little which made me get down in middle and book Uber. I reached the airport at around 6.30 AM. After having stuffed a subway burger, I was ready and looking forward to the journey that was about to begin.
Train to Haridwar from New Delhi station was scheduled to leave at 11.50 PM. So I had more than 12 hours to roam around in Delhi. We were all meeting at the New Delhi station.
Team:
Suhas – Friend from Engineering days
Akash – Suhas’s cousin
Rishita – Akash’s wife
Supreetha – Suhas’s cousin
Chetan – Akash’s friend from his PU days
Naren – Akash, Chetan’s friend from Engineering days
Navya – Naren’s wife and friend of Akash and Chetan
Nisarga aka Akka – friend of Naren and Navya
Kiran – Suhas’s colleauge
Vishwa – Kiran’s Engineering friend
(L-R : Chetan, Akash, Rishita, Supreetha, Suhas, Navya, Naren, Vishwa, Kiran, Nisarga, Myself)
I didn’t know anyone other than Suhas in the group. Akash and Supreetha’s names were constantly on Suhas’s lips, so I knew that they were travel buffs as well. Kiran and Vishwa were already in Delhi when I reached. Nisarga was supposed to catch us in Haridwar. I didn’t know that Kiran and Vishwa were also new to Delhi, I thought they must be having some friends to show them around.
I had checked with some of my colleagues about which places to visit in Delhi. I thought Akshardham temple would be good which I came to regret later. Yes the temple has some good architecture but I was expecting a serene place and it turned out to be a Religious Shopping complex. I learnt that the BAPS trust which handles the temple does some real good work in the sphere of spirituality and I plan to visit their smaller temples to actually get to know them better. Scorching Sun of Delhi made it worse for me and I blame the sun for ruining my Akshardham temple visit.
When I left Akshardham it was already 4 PM. I then decided to visit the famed Chandni Chowk and have some Delhi street food. Poverty and dirty streets of old Delhi came as a shock to me, at the same time I also found myself appreciating the effort put by Delhi metro in building a metro station there. (Considering the pace of Bengaluru metro)
Within 10 minutes of walk from station I found a temple, a Gurudwara, a mosque, a church and a Jain temple in the vicinity(Speak of religious tolerance).
I aimlessly strolled in the streets for some time. Some of the famous eateries I had noted down were very close. First I savoured Jalebis fried in Ghee and Rabdi at the Old famous Jalebiwala. I had to struggle a lot to find the Parethewali Gali as Google was completely helpless in finding the place. While looking for theParethewali Gali, I found a Red Wall, which turned out to be the Red Fort. By the time I reached the rear side of the Red fort, I was too tired of walking and decided to head back to the alleys of Chandni Chowk. After walking for some 20 minutes I was finally able to locate the Babu ram Devi Dayal Parathewale. But as soon as I saw the deep fried Parathas I decided not to eat them. I then headed to the Nataraj Dahi Ballewala to savour some amazing Dahi Balles.
After having satisfied the hunger, I decided to head back to New Delhi station as I was feeling feverish. Near the station some people were watching the Olympics Archery Quarterfinals. I joined them and watched the match for a while. I had a feeling that India might lose, so I headed back to the station. By 7 PM I was at the New Delhi station. I had to wait for another 2 hours before Kiran and Vishwa joined me at the station. By 11 PM everyone was at the station. After boarding the train, had a brief chat with everyone. Then I and Suhas headed to our coaches. We tried doing some seating adjustments which were not fruitful. We chatted for a while and went to sleep.
8th Aug(Haridwar):
We reached Haridwar around 4.30 AM and went straightaway to our place of stay, Tayal Dharmashala. This booking was done by Bluepoppy holidays, our tour planner. We covered our sleep quota a little and had breakfast around 9AM. We didn’t have any specific plans for Haridwar, so decided to take a dip in the holy Ganga and set off to Har ki Pauri(Lord Shiva’s steps), a famous Ghat in Haridwar. We were all exhausted from the walk we took to Har ki Pauri. A dip in the Ganga brought us alive. Looks like Nisarga had done some research about Haridwar and we got to know that there is famous place nearby which serves delicious Puris. We had to walk for about half an hour before we could find the place. A Sweet and spicy curry made of pumpkin was a treat to the taste buds. We roamed a bit around Har ki Pauri and then retired back to Tayal. I saw a big queue for entering the Mansa Devi temple nearby, but nobody in our team was enthusiastic about visiting a temple, so I let it go.
Chetan had a big task waiting for him in Tayal. He and Akash had arranged a bit of Hash(Hashish). Chetan was now carrying the hopes of 10 people to prepare a good joint. He was the joint boy during the entire duration of the trip and he did an excellent job. Effect the of Hashish wasn’t lasting long, so we cursed the Babas we got it from and left to have lunch. A small hotel next to the Tayal Dharmashala offered great food at an economical price.
After taking some rest, we went back to Har Ki Pauri, this time on a rikshaw, to watch the Ganga arati. The Ganga Aarati was a treat to our eyes, as non of us had seen such a sight ever before. Navya, Rishita and Supreetha offered Diyas to Maa Ganga. We strolled a little near the Har ki Pauri and went back to Tayal.
9th Aug(Haridwar – Joshimath):
As per the plan we were supposed to leave for Joshimath at 6.30 AM. Roads in Garhwal are prone to landslides and it is always advised to leave early. Although, the distance is less than 300 Kms, it took us 11 hours to reach the destination. We left by 7:15 AM. Our driver, Rajeev Tyagi, was a man good at making lofty claims. It’s said that, If you want to sell a lie, add a little truth to it. He did exactly that, during the entire duration of our journey. Nevertheless, he was excellent behind the wheels and we truly came to appreciate his driving skills while going to Badrinath as it was the most treacherous route in our trip.
We stopped for breakfast at Byasi and for lunch at Srinagar. On our way we crossed some of the famous Prayags in the region, DevPrayag, RudraPrayag, KarnaPrayag and NandPrayag in that order. Rajeev initially tried to make us understand which river meets which tributery where, but gave up later after knowing that it was too much for us to take at one go. We were elated at seeing the small streams and waterfalls, unaware of the far greater ecstacy that we were goingto witness in the next 4-5 days. The tranquilizing effect of travelling in the evergreen Ghats watching Ganga and its tributeries flowing effortlessly, is something that cannot be explained in mere words.
Our speed was hampered a little at 2-3 places because of the landslides. These roads are maintained by the Border Road Organization(BRO) and as a result they were cleared steadfastly. We didn’t have to wait at any place for more than 15-20 minutes.
(Waiting for the landslide to clear)
10th Aug(Joshimath – Ghangaria):
Our stay at Joshimath was arranged at Hotel Dronagiri. Our guide Ashish Panwar, had briefed us on the trek that we were going to carry out a day before, and we ready to roll by 7:15 AM. But due to delay by another team from Bluepoppy, we had to leave at 8:15 AM. After a delicious breakfast at Govindghat, which is another 20kms from Joshimath, we took a Jeep to go to Pulna village from where the trekking actually starts. This distance is around 3 kms. But because of the landslides, we could only cover one km on the vehicle. So we began trekking from there itself.
Initial 3 kms were somewhat steep and all of us were walking slowly to keep company. We had an early lunch near Bhyundar, 5 Kms from Pulna. During the heavy snowfalls of winter Govinddham(Ghangaria) is vacated and people settle in Bhyundar. After lunch, I could not keep up with the others’ slow pace, and left with Suhas. We reached Ghangaria by 5.30 PM. The last strech of 3 Kms was also steep. We also met a professor from SJCE, Mysore, Mr. SampathKumar. Supreetha was his student and she identified him pretty quickly. We had a nice little chat with him on his itinerary and about other happenings. He had a group of 6 people of same age as his. Everyone except him had taken ponies to reach Ghangaria. We also got to know about pricing by other tour planners. The most popular and also one of cheapest tour planner was GMVN(Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam), run by the Uttarakhand govt. GMVN charges around 7000 Per person, for the entire trek.
Everyone was exhausted from the 13 KM trek. Our masseur, Anil helped us ease some pain. After the trek, my metabolism had probably bounced off the walls and I could eat almost anything and everything thrown at me. After dinner, we played rummy for a while, but later it started to annoy as 10 of us where playing and it used to take close to 3-4 minutes for one’s turn to return.
11th Aug(Ghangaria – VOF – Ghangharia):
We started around our usual time of 7.30 AM. We had spoken to some of trekkers who returned from VOF the previous day; Pushpawati river bed is 9 Kms in total from Ghangaria. The first 3.5 Kms were a little steep, after which the terrain became easier to walk. Walking another 3 kms from the river bed would take us to the closer view of nearby glacier.
I had made up my mind to reach the river bed by 11 AM. Some were having hard time catching up, so I decided to part ways and walk faster. I reached the big rock(a milestone) by 9.30 AM, heavy rains welcoming me. I abstained from taking too many photos, for various reasons, one I am not a flower person, two I wanted to spend maximum time at the river bed and I wanted to find some secluded place and spend some time alone. After walking for some time, I couldn’t see a single human being for about half an hour. There were lot of streams on the way, some big, some small. Final two streams were somewhat difficult to cross and I could see some people stumbling to find balance. At one such streams, I didn’t have the courage to cross alone. (I didn’t want help per se, I just wanted somebody to notice, if I drown :D)
I reached the river bed by 11:45 to see only 9-10 people around. I had missed practicing Shambhavi Mahamantra in the morning, so I decided to practice it at the river bed. The ‘enlightened’ me then decided to have lunch. Stale and cold parathas were difficult to eat, but I stuffed them in my mouth anyway. I conversed with some of the trekkers there about other trekking routes and their itineraries. One person with whom I stroked a cord was a fellow named, Abhishek Verma, a student from Gorakhpur. He had a lot of information on trekking routes, two of which I found very intriguing: Swargarohini trek and Chandrashila trek.
We left the river bed early (12:45 PM) as the weather condition was getting worse and we feared some of streams on the way might get swollen. We were at the big rock by 2 PM, only to find our 3 guides waiting for me. We started walking steadfastly and found Kiran who was helping an old lady in descending. Kiran asked me to relieve him for a while and I then helped old lady. She was from Pune, both of us beingMarathi Manus, we bonded well. Once the steady decline was over, she decided to walk alone. I Walked a little more distance to find Suhas and Supreetha still enamored by the beauty of what seamed to them like amazon forest. We then walked slowly to reach the hotel by 5:30, after having some snacks and tasty Gulab Jamun in the Ghangaria village.
12th Aug(Ghangaria – Hemkund Sahib- Ghangaria):
A lot of people we met in the past 2-3 days were of the opinion that the trek to Hemkund Sahib was way more difficult than whatever treks we had done, in the past 2 days, some even said that, it is 10 times more challenging than the VOF trek. This made some of us uneasy; Naren decided to take pony to reach the Hemkund Sahib, as he was already suffering from shoe bites. Navya and Vishwa accompanied him. Rest of us decided to walk. We left a little early than our usual time, by 7 AM. I once again decided to leave others behind, as I couldn’t catch up with their slow pace. Solitude is something which I have always enjoyed and I never miss an opportunity to grab these small moments of loneliness. I did miss taking pictures with everyone though, at the same time I was also aware that, it was the price to pay for some loneliness. (Whoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god – Aristotle)
I did try making smalltalk with some of the fellow trekkers, to get to know more about Hemkund Sahib. I met a Sardar from Lucknow, Sunny Paji, who acquinted me with the history of Hemkund Sahib and about Guru Gobind Singh Ji, to whom this Gurudwara is dedicated. It is believed that, Guru Gobind Singh ji in his previous life, medidated here, as a result of which he was born as the son of the Ninth Guru of Sikhs, Guru Teg Bahaddur. Guru Teg Bahaddur and Guru Govind Singh lead the Sikhs and Hindus during one of the worst periods of Indian History, i.e, during the Aurangajeb’s time. The atrocities that were committed on Sikhs and Hindus during his period can form the contents of a far bigger post or a far fatter book. I only learnt later that, the Gurudwara that I had seen in Chandni Chowk, Gurudwara Sis Ganj, is where Guru Teg Bahaddur was beheaded.
We (Sunny Paji and I) reached the starting of the steps at 9AM. We waited there for a while for Sunny’s uncle, who had been doing this Sangat for the past 15 years. There were 2 routes to reach the Gurudwara from here. One the steps, the other being the normal route made only recently. Sunny urged me to take the steps as it is a traditional and old route. We started again at 9:15 AM and it took us another 30 minutes to reach the Gurudwara.
(With Sunny Paji and his uncle)
Sunny Paji advised me to take dip in the lake soon, since the body will be hot and sweating from the trek. I wanted photos of me taking a dip in the lake, so I decided to wait for Suhas who was right behind me when I had last checked. Suhas and Chetan arrived at 10 AM and I decided to take quick dips in the lake. Water was freezing cold and I could feel parts of my body going numb after one dip. I thought 2 dips are good enough for me, having seen Sunny, a devout Sardar taking one. Later after seeing Chetan, Kiran, Vishwa taking 3-4 dips made me feel, that I could have taken more dips. Akash was a league apart and he decided to jump in the lake directly instead of taking teeny-tiny dips.
(Gurudwara and the Laxman Temple)
After the dips we headed to the Gurudwara and sat there for some 15-20 minutes. By this time we were joined by everyone except Akash and Rishita. We had sizzling Kichdi and hot tea in the langar and waited for them. After waiting till 1.30, we decided to descend only to find Akash and Rishita near the entrance of Gurudwara. We were of the opinion that, they could have taken the ponies halfway instead of pushing themselves so hard, only to admire their spirits later. (For Breaking bad fans out there, this felt like a demostration of Mike Ehrmantraut’s most valuable teaching: No half measures). We descended slowly, all of us quite aware of the fact that the trip is drawing to a close, having finished the ascents in particular.
13th Aug(Ghangaria – Badrinath – Joshimath):
Descent from Ghangaria, felt almost effortless, after having trekked the difficult terrains of Hemkund Sahib and VOF. Me and Suhas reached the trek end point, Pulna village around 10 AM. Ashish had told us that, if we want to go to Badrinath, its advised to reach Pulna by 11 AM, which we thought is possible for everyone. While waiting for others, Me and Suhas went to Gobind Ghat to collect Prasad. We were shortly joined by everyone and after freshening up,we decided to visit Badrinath.
There was confusion on whether to go to Auli or Badrinath. The former has a ropeway and happens to be a famous tourist destination during the winter season. I was personally more interested in going to Badrinath, as we had visited only one temple during our entire trip so far, Sri Laxman temple, behind the Gurudwara. Uttarakhand, considered Devbhoomi by Hindus had lots of temples to offer, being so close to one of the Dhams and still not visiting it didn’t seem like a good option. The ropeway offers a good view in the winter as we can see, the snow-clad Garhwal Himalayas and in the month of august we would be seeing the same mountains that we had stayed in for the past 3 days.
Road to Badrinath was a perilous one, with lot of landslides. The roads were very narrow and a minor misjudgment from Rajeev could have taken us directly to the roaring Alakananda River, which is believed by the locals to be one of the angriest rivers. We took around 50 minutes to reach Badrinath. On reaching there, we had a delicious lunch, which tasted better, probably due to the mediocre food we had while at Ghangaria. Since the temple was closed between 12 – 3 PM, we headed to Mana, the last Indian village before we reach the Chinese border.
(Landslides on the way to Badhrinath)
I had come to appreciate Nisarga’s photography skills of late and was regretting not staying closer to her in the last 3 days. Everyone got photos clicked near the Bheem Pul, a bridge made of a single rock thrown in such a way by Bheem as to help Droupadi cross the Saraswati river which comes from exploding from under the rocks. This is believed to be the route taken by the Pandavas during their final journey to the heaven. There is a lot fascinating history for this place and Mana also falls in the way of some of the interesting places. One, the Swargarohini trek, other being Vasudhara falls, which as per the beliefs, doesn’t drench the sinners. The falling water drifts away if a sinner stands beneath it.
We left Mana at around 3:15, Ashish was visibly unhappy as the weather can get highly unpredectable as the day progresses, around this part of hills. We finished the Darshan of Shri Badri Vishal quickly as the crowd was thinner. After buying some Prasad and clicking some photos we were good to go by 4 PM. When we were deciding on whether to go to Auli or Badrinath, we had thought of Badrinath as just a famous temple, but the jouney to Badrinath and back turned out to be equally enthralling.
Everybody was busy making calls to their near and dear ones after reaching Joshimath, since the last 3 days were spent without any connection to the outside world. I wanted to visit the place where Adi Shankaracharya had taken Samadhi, but totally forgot it after reaching the room.
14 Aug(Joshimath – Haridwar):
Rajeev wanted to leave early from Joshimath at 5 AM for no apparent reason, which was finally streched to 6:30. By now, we had gotten used to the landslides and trusted Rajeev’s instints. Everyone was contemplating whatever their great minds were capable of contemplating, aware of fact that the trip would be over in a matter of hours. We stopped for breakfast and lunch at Pipalkoti and Srinagar respectively. Rajeev had become kind of emotional and to avoid the traffic that we were greeted with in Rishikesh, he drove through the alternate route of Cheela Dam. We had a hard time finding a hotel to stay, due to the long weekend coupled with the auspicious Shravan Somvar.(Return stay was not covered by Bluepoppy)
15th Aug (Delhi):
Our train was delayed by some 20 minutes, as we left Haridwar at around 6.45 AM, our arrival at Delhi was at 12.30 PM, delayed by another hour. My flight to Bangalore was at 7.30 PM. Vishwa and Kiran had theirs at 6.30 PM, others at 4.30 PM. Initial plans were to have lunch at some of the famous places in Connaught Place, but later the early flying guys backed out. Vishwa, Kiran and I went to the CP Haldiram. None of us was in a mood to roam with the fiery Sun of Delhi on our top and decided to leave for the airport. We arrived at the airport by 3.30 to find the rest of our team still checking in their bags. We wished our farewells to them and began waiting, eager to reach Bangalore. I was home at 12 AM.
Epilogue:
During this journey I got a lot of time to reflect on various things happening around me and my small likes and dislikes. I got to know that I truly like walking and running and I have kept that practice still going. My other major conclusion was that being healthy is the most important thing of all and I am trying shape up myself in a better way.
Although, trip was a little expesinve, I wouldn’t have visited this place if it weren’t for these guys. What I liked about my team was that they were good at initiating something and taking it to the proper conclusion. Other famous tour planners were, GMVN and Youthhostel. One can also rent bikes for 4 days from Rishikesh – Haridwar if he wants to do things in his own time. There are lot of Gurudwaras and Langars on the way which offer free food and stay. Next on my radar are Gangotri to Kedarnath trek and Chadar trek. If anybody is interested please drop me a mail.
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