On The Mountains

You know the butterflies swirling in your tummy feel when your travel day finally arrives, I am no different . I unpacked, packed for the Nth time before I left signature 707, golden blossoms saying bye to my buddy family. Reached Bangalore airport an hour before the Schedule. I was clearly the odd man out with my travel gear in the big busy airport full of businessmen. The Flight landed me safely in Delhi at 22:45. My uncle, my travel partner, who travelled from chennai received me. Biggest hurdle for a TamBram travelling north is the national language. Thanks to 'Learn Hindi in 30 days' by anonymous author. The Ola driver took extra pain in his ass, dropping us at the railway station for our on time train. It was almost midnight when we reached our RAC berth. It was a very good night indeed.

How many days do you get to sleep in a state and wake up in another ? That was one such day.

Haridwar was too busy to receive us. We dragged our bags with half opened eyes at 4:00 to catch the bus that goes to karnaprayag.

'Hey don't look at us like that, we are not aliens' was the line running continuously in my head while standing in the queue. Getting seats in the bus was the second hurdle we faced. It was a bumpy drive for about 7 hours from Haridwar to karnaprayag. The third hurdle we faced was food, you will know why.

Bus halted in devaprayag for breakfast.

Me-'Bhaiya, Kaane ke liye kya hai ?'

Bhaiya- chapathi

Me- teek hai, dho plate.

While lunching in karnaprayag,

Me-'Bhaiya, kaane ke liye kya hai ?'

Bhaiya- chapathi

Me- adei, teek hai, dho plate.

Bloody every freaking restaurants, day and night, It's the chapathi they cook, sometimes with aaloo stuffed inside and call paranthas.

Post lunch, we moved further to tharali, Dewal, lohajung in share cars, and bus from lohajung to Wan village. Mohan bhai arranged our stay for the night and dinner. Oh it's the same chapathi again. After dinner, we played carrom with the village locals. Most sweetest bunch of people I have met.

Another happy sleep.

A patterned knock on the door disturbed my sound sleep. A boy with giant smile wished us good morning. He was our guide for the trek. Jayveersingh, who is awaiting his 12th result seemed to be the happiest boy in the entire whatever. 7:30, we were served hot aaloo paranthas.

We kick stared our trek at 8:00. Jayveershingh took us to the wan temple. Destiny played its part. We met the craziest group of trekkers, Tarun, Vinod, Nitin, Anu, Alka, Jeet, Jathin, Sonika, who were part of Dare2Gear. After a tiny introduction, they gave us an option to join them. The 10 of us set on our dream journey from Wan. Bedni bugyal was our destination for the day. 13 long km of inclined climbing seemed easy, but I was in for a rude surprise. Carrying a 65 litres wildcraft bag on your shoulder, even a 3km walk is tough. 8 hours of walk took us to bedni. playlist of Coldplay made the difficulty look good.For people who are planning to do the trek- the last THREE Km to bedni will be a real mental and physical challenge. Carry a lot of raisins.

Bedni, what a lovely meadow. One of Asia's best meadows, placed in 11157ft above sea level. Tents were set in no time. We were buckled up with our sweaters, gloves and caps. Mount Trishul was visible to our naked eye, our first sight of snow mountain made everyone excited.

It was frisbee time with Vinod sir, and my ever young uncle. Solid 40 minutes run in the top made us better. The sun slowly waved good bye for the day. We all came under one roof. We had our proper ice breaking session. All the 8 had one thing in common, Trekking. Desi fast beats were echoing in the small hut. Dinner was ready, and you already know the menu. 21:00 we went into our sleeping bags.

Tip2 - On high altitude treks, Spending those extra bucks will help you big time. Never compromise on a good sleeping bag and tent. It was a quite sleepless night.

P.S - If you have a mixed bunch of trekkers, form a group of two and have a fun race to top and down, for better journey. You will have a good fun.

The Sun was up early. I am not a morning person on a normal day, but it was not another day. I was excited to march forward to new heights. The most amazing part was the early morning rituals with a scenic view.

started our journey to Bhagwabasa around 9:00. Bhagwabasa - Bhagwan's house. Lord Shivas place of stay.

A 3.5Km moderate trek to patar nachauni and 3.5 semi difficult trek from there on to Bhagwabasa. The wind played flute with the trekking poles. To add on, play your favourite playlist and walk, viewing the beautiful meadows. More than you, your soul, mind will attain its peace. No honkings, no mails, no phone calls, no social medias. It's just you and the nature. Wear a smile as you see people walking past you. Trekkers are the most beautiful people you will ever get to see. A simple Hello will get you friends in mountains.

Reached Patar nachauni in 3 hours. The base camp for many trekking clubs. It's the centre point of the trek. If you have reached this point. You have done half your destination. Halt there for the best tea. Anything hot in that weather is pure gold.

Another 3 km incline walk will get you to Kalu Vinayak temple. You will get your first hand on snow. Yes, you can touch them, feel them, and play throw games on your buddies. If you have reached Kalu Vinayak, you have reached your snow point. It's snow, snow, snow from there. The weather gets worse. You have to be prepared with your thermals, rain proof gloves, jackets. Oxygen availability is minimal. Train yourself hard, take long and deep breathes.

500 meters, you will reach Bhagwabas. A stay you will remember for a very long time. The difficulty you will love. A sheer test to your body and mind. A controlled party is allowed. Stop well behind your capacity. Be it booze for the cold weather or weed for the peace. You may witness snow fall during may, June. Be extra careful on each and every step. You don't want to get your leg sprained or fractured. Hit your sleeping bags sooner than your actual time.

Carrying a good book will help you kill time in tents, especially during snow or rainfall. I would suggest Shiva trilogy any day for such trips. The silver lined moon looks closer and brighter. Sleep in its light. Sleep to the rhythm of your heart beat.

Best time to wake up on your trek to roopkund is 3:00 in the morning or night, as you call it.

Walking in snow is always going to be a challenge. 3Km up hill, you will reach the mystery lake. It has different stories to it. I am not going to bore you with theories.

A memorable trek in the moonlight will give you chills. Carry your rain sheets all the time. The weather there is a moody bitch. You can never guess her.

The sun slowly Sneak peeked. It took us 5 hours to reach the peek in the sloppy snow path. Though We never cribbed about it. It's totally worth it. You stand parallel to the clouds. You can proudly shout and say, yes, I have done the summit. It's not something every one can do, not during the snow time, not during the early may.

The frozen lake is an absolute delight to watch under the sun. A small shiv temple is located 15700 feet above. After a good one hour halt, we decided to trek back to bhagwabas.

Two options are open, you can either stay in bhagwabas one more night or can trek back to bedni for the day. We chose the former. We decided to enjoy the beauty of snow, one more night.

23Km down to Wan is a tough task ahead. Add on to that, the make up kit of the chicks delayed us by an hour :p. Down ward trek is, will always be my favourite part. Started close to 10:00 from bhagwabas, reached bedni at 13:00. A nice meal and some fresh oxygen felt good. We commenced further at 15:00 and reached Wan at 19:00. Exhausted, no shame in accepting it. The joy of completing the trek was more than the pain we underwent. We found our beds. We were back to our comfort zone. We were back to western toilets. We were back to tasty foods. We were back to the reality.I hated it here. stayed awake revisiting the 4 beautiful days.

A special thanks to DARE2GEAR for being there throughout the journey. I don't think without them, it would have been this fun.

I hope our journey continues. :))

I thought all the surprises for trip ended last night until I met the 4 Bengalis. We spent very less time together but it was enough for us to get along real good. The four amazing people stood alone from the crowd of engineers, with different fields to their names. I got slapped hard by guilt for two continuous hours. The girl reminded me of the solitary reaper. Her voice accompanied by the early morning breeze is holding my head space. I realised a lot of hard things during the conversations I had with them. I cursed fate for bringing us together at a wrong time. We bid adieu and started our journey to Rishikesh.

We, me and my uncle reached rishikesh at 22:00. We arranged a stay in swamy dhayanandha Saraswathi ashram. If you had asked me for a stay in ashram a year ago, I would have been pfft, I guess, I grew up mentally. It was calm there. People came there to service and expect peace in return. We threw our luggage and hit the bed.

I slept peacefully to Mumbai Indians loss.

A day in Rishikesh.

A busy tourist city, where you can find people across globe. Rishikesh had two things, river rafting and ashrams. We ticked both. River rafting in Ganga is a must do thing if you visit rishikesh. A evening Aarthi in the Ganges of Ganga is another must do. The 30 minutes there had a huge impact on me. You don't live a life like this every single day. You can always party the other 364 days. I personally don't believe in statues, but I loved the chores and the vibes. The view of sun set was just a bonus.

We started from Rishikesh - Haridwar to catch our train for Delhi.

We killed our time in Delhi with cheap shopping before we waved goodbye to the trip.

I walked as slow as I can toward the flight. I dint want the trip to end. But It did as always. I promised myself I will travel again soon.