Chapter 1 - THE HUSTLING FOUR
It all started with a plan to go for a trek. The plan was confirmed only at the last moment and the green light was given by ourselves. Only few knew about this plan. And only we knew the timing of this plan i.e. just two days before. The plan was to go for a trek, climb a mountain and come down. If there’s more time, then we could go around for new places.
We packed our bags, got whatever we could. Most important things were trekking shoes, winter jacket, gloves, cap and a torch. We moved from our homes early in the morning. Abdul and myself started the travel on a bike to Coimbatore. On our way, we bought medicines for cold, fever, pain killers as a safety measure.
We reached Coimbatore and we bought a sleeping tent and made our way to the bus stop. We met Plato and Arun who were also accompanying with us for this epic journey. We boarded the bus by 1 pm to Chennai. We stopped at a place for the lunch where we purchased few clothes. After few hours, we noticed that our departure of the Delhi train was at 10.30 pm and we were running late. So we went to the driver and asked him to drive fast.
The driver was friendly to us and he did his best to go fast. At one point, the driver said that the bus wouldn’t go past the 100 km/hr mark as the speed control was enabled in it. Still the driver gave his best efforts. Abdul and myself dint move from the front seat. We stayed with the driver till the end.
We came to know that we would never make it. So Abdul asked his friend to come to a stop named Tambaram. The driver risked everything for us. Then we got down and went to a stop called Perungalathur. Plato clocked around 110km/hr on that heavy traffic road and we made it to the Perungalathur stop. We carried our bags, which weighed around 8-10 kg and ran through the platform to board the train.
Chapter 2 - TRAGEDY OF TRAIN
Unfortunately, we missed the local train. We boarded the next train and were heading to the Central Railway Station. We got down and ran all the way to the platform 6 to board the Tamil Nadu Express. We could not make it as it took of 2 minutes earlier. We acted quickly and booked tickets to Nagpur. In few minutes time, the counter was closed. We just booked the tickets in time.
We had around 40 minutes for the train so we came out to have our dinner. After dinner, we had to search for the train and we boarded it. Luckily, we got our tickets confirmed in a matter of seconds and that too the same compartment and same bay.
We thought we would catch the Tamil Nadu Express as it was 1 hour late. But next morning, we came to know that our train was 6 hours behind the Tamil Nadu Express and we couldn't catch it. So we planned to book another train from Nagpur to Delhi.
We booked the train from Nagpur to Delhi. It was around 2.30 pm and our train was supposed to reach there by 2 pm. Shockingly, our train was 2 hours late and we dint know whether we could make it in time. We even thought that, if the train was operated like a bus, we could convince the driver to go fast. Funniest thing was that, we got the ticket confirmation for the Nagpur tickets as well. The journey, whether we would make it or drop it depended on the train.
To our surprise, the train reached the station by 2.40 pm and the Nagpur train was 15 minutes late. We boarded the Nagpur train and continued the journey to Delhi. We managed to get a glimpse of the railway station as there was few minutes to spare.
We bought some oranges as Nagpur was famous for oranges. We boarded the train to Delhi and only then we found out that they were not oranges but mozambi. All we were thinking was about the train and were blindfolded.
Chapter 3 - TO THE ROADS
We spoke about these all night and went for sleep. Next day, we were closing into Delhi and a person asked us to look a mountain closely. We dint find anything special about it. When we came closer, we came to know that it was the garbage dump of Delhi, that turned into a huge mountain. It was too big.
We came out of the station and boarded a bus to the ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal). No one knew hindi, but we managed to ask some people and finally boarded a bus to ISBT. The only Hindi we knew was, "ISBT bus hey, kithna time hey". From there, we booked the tickets to Kulu, Himachal Pradesh. We had to wait for 3 hours for the bus to come.
It took nearly 15 hours to reach Kulu. We reached there by 5 am and were shivering. We boarded another bus to Kasol. We reached Kasol by 8 am in the morning. We booked a room and rested for a while.
Chapter 4 - KNOWLEDGE, FUN & EXPERIENCE
We explored Kasol, visited the Manikaran valley and the hot springs in there. Later that day, we ran out of money as there were no ATM’s. We were able to get back to Kulu. We had money for 2 persons to make it to Kulu. If we couldn’t find ATM’s working it would be an one way trip. Fortunately, we got the money from an ATM and continued our journey.
Our next stop was our trek to Shrikhand Mahadev. We spent some time in Kulu before boarding the bus. We had our breakfast there and explored the city. We had momos for the breakfast. It was the first time I had momos. We went in each shops and started to bargain all the things we saw. We had around 2 hours to board the bus and we wanted to do something useful.
We got some information about the trek and few places to explore. Later, we boarded the bus to a place called Aani from Kulu. It took around 8 -10 hours of journey. We made friends with the driver and the conductor. We came across lots of apple trees. We went through a traffic congestion. It was a small road and only one vehicle could pass at a time.
It took some time for our bus to pass through. That was the time, we planned to make use of. We got down the road and managed to gather as much as apples we could. When the owner came, we were no where to be found. We were in the bus and the driver understood what had happened, so he switched the headlights off and we moved pretending to be invisible. We shared it to everyone and still we had around 2 kg of apples left.
Chapter 5 - Aani and Base camp
It was nearly 3 hours of journey and we got down before Rampur as per the conductor’s instruction.
We found few people who are heading towards the Shrikhand. We spoke with them and travelled with them to Shrikhand. They were Virender, Satpal, Rajesh and their friends.
We made it to the first base camp, where we were issued with medical certificate and had to register ourselves. We moved around 1 km and had our lunch and started the trek. We managed to keep half of our luggage in a storehouse, including the tent. So we had only the necessary items in our bags. Still, our bags were heavy.
Chapter 6 - Day 1
The total trek was 72 kms. According to us, it was divided into several sectors. The jungle, rocks, woods, rocks, flowers and finally steep hills with snow.
Our friends whom we met, asked us to wait in a camp as we moved fast. Once we reached, we bought some noodles which was the only food that we got. It costs around Rs.80 -100. We waited for the others there and once they came we continued our journey. We stopped in a camp for the nightfall with our new friends. It was too cold out there, despite the sweater and the jackets we wore.
Chapter 7- Day 2
We got up in the morning and started the journey. We checked the altitude now and then. We really got upset only when we climbed around 3000 meters and had to go down for 1000 meters. It was the only way, and we made it through. It was during then, we saw the glacier for the first time. It was a great sight.
After few kilometers, we had to cross a huge glacier. We could even see water flowing underneath it. It was not that safe as it would break anytime. We crossed many glaciers and it served as the source for fresh water.
Finally, we made it to the last base camp at noon. We thought of going to the peak, but the entry was closed. So we had to wait in the last base camp. On our way to the last base camp, so many people asked about us and encouraged us to make it to the top. They were unable to reach the peak, so they wanted us to reach there.
Chapter 8- Day of Hustle
Next day, we started by 3 am leaving all our bags in the tent, as it would be the toughest part of the journey. It was raining and it made the trek even tougher. We climbed the mountain as fast as we could. At one point, I went too fast and got slipped due to the rains. It was a slope and thank God, that I had a pole to support. Then, Abdul and myself started to take the lead. We went so quick as if we knew the way.
I stopped him and asked him, whether it was the correct way and he said, “in order to reach to the peak, we had to go top”. I was convinced, but then there was no way. So we turned and shouted that it was the wrong route. Suddenly, they started to move right and we found the way. Since we moved way too top, we had to cross a glacier while others had to cross a river.
After so much of hustle, we made it to the top. I was so happy, but it dint last long. They said that it was the Mansrover, the last water spot. I hardly found any water, everything was ice. I didn't find a way from there. All I could see was a stee hill. Actually, the real trek started from that point.
Chapter 9- Trek
We made up our minds and dint wanna go back, so we started to climb the hills. It took lot of effort. Like, we used our hands, legs and even our body to support us, but we made it top. We had everything but that was our weakness. We had a pole, water bottle and a torch to climb the hill. But, we can't use them if we need to climb the hills. I kept the water bottle in the winter jacket and put the torch in my mouth. Only then, I could use my hands to climb.
It was 3 am and the only light source was the torch. So, we had to do something. At one point, we had rocks covering both the sides. After that, when I turned to my left, all I could see were clouds. We were like standing above the clouds. After few minutes, once I climbed another rock, there was nothing to support me. I was on the peak of some mountain and I had walk over it to the next peak.
Suddenly, we had to come around the peak, as it could not be climbed. We got to move quickly around the corner to maintain our balance and to reach the other side. In some situation, we faced ice around the corners of the mountain and we had to support ourselves with the poles and move slowly. This was the dangerous part of the trek.
Once we completed all those, we had to walk straight to a mountain. Then, we had to climb the final glacier to reach the peak of Shrikhand Mahadev. It took some time to make it to the top, but we made it to the top. It was a glorious moment, as the sun started to shine like we were gifted with enlightenment.
We were sitting on top of a rock for 20 minutes talking for sometime and still couldn't believe that we made it to the top. We saw only around 25 people who made it to the top. We surely were gifted. When our friends came they asked us to move closer to the peak. To the Shivling. We would've moved earlier, but then it was a footwear restricted area. Can you imagine that a place above 4300 metres high and covered with ice was a footwear restricted area.
Chapter 10 - The Peak
Yes you've read it right. It was a very big Shivling sitting right on the peak. That's why it got the name Shrikand Mahadev. We dint wanna remove our shoes but then wanted to go closer. So we had no choice but to remove our shoes. It took some time to make that decision. We even thought not to go any closer. But we got the chance to reach top that many have desired.
We removed our shoes and dint know where to keep our legs. It was shivering. Everything was covered with ice. It just lasted for few minutes. Then, we dint feel a thing. We took part in the ritual. We thought it was over, but one of our friends asked us to go around the peak. We went with him.
We had to step down and then move around the peak, yet another treacherous path. The way was too small and only one person could pass. According to me, if one has to pass through, they had to lean to the peak. The are more chances to fall if we miss step. At one point, we could barely keep a foot. We had to move through inorder to make it to the other side.
On the other side, they had some tridents or thrishools for worshipping. We came around 80% of the peak and I thought there could be a way from there. To my disappointment, there was no way but to go back through the way we came. I found it difficult as I was complaining to Abdul about the small pass. Everyone found it difficult and I was the only person to speak about it. All these took around 20 minutes and we've been there for 40 minutes. We took some pictures with our new made friends and they left as soon as possible. Abdul and I took some time in wearing our shoes and were amazed by the beauty of nature.
After few minutes when we found everyone leaving, we also started to leave. We spent nearly an hour there at the peak. It was on our way down, that I realized that going top was easy when compared with coming down.
Chapter 11- Memories
We clicked few pictures on the way to the last base camp. Since we started early in the morning and faced lots of hardships, we were not in the mood for photographs. But once we were nearing the peak, we started. We kept our phones inside our jacket so that it stays warm enough.
Our phones worked only few seconds before shutting down. We had to come up with other ideas to capture the awestruck landscape. We used a power bank to power our phones and it worked. It lasted more than few seconds. So, taking pictures also was not easy. We couldn't check whether the picture was good or not.
We made sure to capture as much pictures as we could. It was tough time operating the phone wearing gloves. The touch screen doesn't work and so we had to remove the gloves, which was even more terrible. We improvised it by using selfie stick. No matter what we did, it just lasted few seconds.
Our phones doesn't work due to the severe cold and altitude issues. So we thought that from next time, to use a cam instead. That would do the trick.
We took lots of pictures on our way down. Every five minutes, the clouds change and provide spectacular views. We never wanted to return but stay. The flowers in the Parvati valley were amazing. It was sad that we had to go through the Parvati valley early in the morning. Since we started by 3 in the morning, we never knew what was in our way. Only on our way down, we realised how beautiful it was.
Chapter 12 - Way Down
We couldn't stay on the peak for long, so we started our way down. Some were skiying on the glacier. We had to be careful on the glaciers. So it took some time. We tried to ski but turned out bad. We couldn't control the momentum. We moved slowly and on our way down we saw people who wanted to make it to the top so badly that they don't care how their body responds.
We were so lucky that we were young and made it to the top where many failed to reach. A proud moment filled our hearts. We had to go back the same way and that means to cross all the glaciers and treacherous paths. A person in front, suddenly slipped and fell over a slope. To be precise, it was a slope of a mountain. My brain processed a notion that he's gone. But to our surprise he stopped at the edge and somehow made it top. We nearly witnessed an accident. From then, we took extra effort to be safe.
People who are afraid of heights never look down once they are top. But in this case, no chance. We had to climb down a cliff. At one point, there was nothing in front. We had to place our foot at correct places to maintain balance. Worst scenario was looking down. We were above 4000 ft from ground level.
Once we reached the Manasrover, the end of cliffs, we sensed a moment of relief. There were lots of rocks and we had to go over them. It wasn't the correct way. But still, we took it. The local people there were so fast in moving over the rocks. They jumped from one to the other. We couldn't do it for long. Finally, we came to the end of Manasrover.
Our eyes were set for the most beautiful things, as we came across the valley of flowers. It was a beautiful sight until we realised that was the way we took top. Soon the valley of flowers were not that good, as we stomped our way through it and the early morning rains made it worse. What a wonderful sight it would be to see the valley of flowers untouched!
We made our way back to our tent in the last base camp. We had some food and slowly started our way down to the foothills of Himalayas. We couldn't stop taking pics as the landscape kept changing every now and then. We stopped at every camp to have some tea as it was too good. We managed to come half way down by nightfall. We gazed at the countless stars and dint wanna move from that place.
Next day we started a bit late and made it to the exit by noon. It was hard to depart from that place but still we said goodbye our new friends and headed to Rampur. We checked for the bus from Rampur, unfortunately there was none and we had to spend the night at Rampur. We bought some apples, oranges and charged our mobiles in a nearby shop. We stayed all night and finally boarded a bus to Rehkong Peo.
Chapter 13 - Monastery and Rekhong Peo
Rehkong Peo is the closest place to Chitkul which is the last Indian village. We woke up early in the morning and were awestruck by the roads. We were indeed traveling through one of the dangerous roads in the world. We made it to Rehkong Peo by noon. We checked in a hotel and dint waste anytime and started to explore three place.
We went in a Buddhist monastery and found it amazing as it was peaceful. We are the only people there. We spent sometime and sat over a slab until we fell asleep. Our body was so tired as we had no rest after the trek. Once we realised it, we went to the hotel and slept for a while. We woke up by 7pm and found the climate to be shivering.
We had some food in the hotel. The hotel had pictures of Himalayas. View of Pokhra lake, Everest, The Annaporna range and more. We admired the interest of the hotel owner and put them in the list of places to visit in the near future. The food felt so tasty as we had only noodles and tea for the past 3 days.
Chapter 14 - Last Dhaba and the border
Next day morning we packed some bread and Hershey's for our breakfast and headed to a nearby fishery. After that, we had our breakfast there. Then we boarded the bus to Chitkul by 12 in the noon. We reached Chitkul by 1.30. We made some new friends on the way. From Chitkul, we heard to the Indo-Tibetian border. We had to walk for 40 minutes and we came to know about our new friends on the way.
When we reached closer, a cop came and warned that we are not allowed after that point. Even photographs were not allowed. But we managed to click some. We spoke with him and then he bought us a ride back to the village. On the way back we clicked some pictures of the border which we were never meant to. We had to come back soon as the last bus to Rekhong Peo was at 3.30pm. So we made sure that we are on time. We said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to the hotel.
It all started with a plan to go for a trek. The plan was confirmed only at the last moment and the green light was given by ourselves. Only few knew about this plan. And only we knew the timing of this plan i.e. just two days before. The plan was to go for a trek, climb a mountain and come down. If there’s more time, then we could go around for new places.
We packed our bags, got whatever we could. Most important things were trekking shoes, winter jacket, gloves, cap and a torch. We moved from our homes early in the morning. Abdul and myself started the travel on a bike to Coimbatore. On our way, we bought medicines for cold, fever, pain killers as a safety measure.
We reached Coimbatore and we bought a sleeping tent and made our way to the bus stop. We met Plato and Arun who were also accompanying with us for this epic journey. We boarded the bus by 1 pm to Chennai. We stopped at a place for the lunch where we purchased few clothes. After few hours, we noticed that our departure of the Delhi train was at 10.30 pm and we were running late. So we went to the driver and asked him to drive fast.
The driver was friendly to us and he did his best to go fast. At one point, the driver said that the bus wouldn’t go past the 100 km/hr mark as the speed control was enabled in it. Still the driver gave his best efforts. Abdul and myself dint move from the front seat. We stayed with the driver till the end.
We came to know that we would never make it. So Abdul asked his friend to come to a stop named Tambaram. The driver risked everything for us. Then we got down and went to a stop called Perungalathur. Plato clocked around 110km/hr on that heavy traffic road and we made it to the Perungalathur stop. We carried our bags, which weighed around 8-10 kg and ran through the platform to board the train.
Chapter 2 - TRAGEDY OF TRAIN
Unfortunately, we missed the local train. We boarded the next train and were heading to the Central Railway Station. We got down and ran all the way to the platform 6 to board the Tamil Nadu Express. We could not make it as it took of 2 minutes earlier. We acted quickly and booked tickets to Nagpur. In few minutes time, the counter was closed. We just booked the tickets in time.
We had around 40 minutes for the train so we came out to have our dinner. After dinner, we had to search for the train and we boarded it. Luckily, we got our tickets confirmed in a matter of seconds and that too the same compartment and same bay.
We thought we would catch the Tamil Nadu Express as it was 1 hour late. But next morning, we came to know that our train was 6 hours behind the Tamil Nadu Express and we couldn't catch it. So we planned to book another train from Nagpur to Delhi.
We booked the train from Nagpur to Delhi. It was around 2.30 pm and our train was supposed to reach there by 2 pm. Shockingly, our train was 2 hours late and we dint know whether we could make it in time. We even thought that, if the train was operated like a bus, we could convince the driver to go fast. Funniest thing was that, we got the ticket confirmation for the Nagpur tickets as well. The journey, whether we would make it or drop it depended on the train.
To our surprise, the train reached the station by 2.40 pm and the Nagpur train was 15 minutes late. We boarded the Nagpur train and continued the journey to Delhi. We managed to get a glimpse of the railway station as there was few minutes to spare.
We bought some oranges as Nagpur was famous for oranges. We boarded the train to Delhi and only then we found out that they were not oranges but mozambi. All we were thinking was about the train and were blindfolded.
Chapter 3 - TO THE ROADS
We spoke about these all night and went for sleep. Next day, we were closing into Delhi and a person asked us to look a mountain closely. We dint find anything special about it. When we came closer, we came to know that it was the garbage dump of Delhi, that turned into a huge mountain. It was too big.
We came out of the station and boarded a bus to the ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal). No one knew hindi, but we managed to ask some people and finally boarded a bus to ISBT. The only Hindi we knew was, "ISBT bus hey, kithna time hey". From there, we booked the tickets to Kulu, Himachal Pradesh. We had to wait for 3 hours for the bus to come.
It took nearly 15 hours to reach Kulu. We reached there by 5 am and were shivering. We boarded another bus to Kasol. We reached Kasol by 8 am in the morning. We booked a room and rested for a while.
Chapter 4 - KNOWLEDGE, FUN & EXPERIENCE
We explored Kasol, visited the Manikaran valley and the hot springs in there. Later that day, we ran out of money as there were no ATM’s. We were able to get back to Kulu. We had money for 2 persons to make it to Kulu. If we couldn’t find ATM’s working it would be an one way trip. Fortunately, we got the money from an ATM and continued our journey.
Our next stop was our trek to Shrikhand Mahadev. We spent some time in Kulu before boarding the bus. We had our breakfast there and explored the city. We had momos for the breakfast. It was the first time I had momos. We went in each shops and started to bargain all the things we saw. We had around 2 hours to board the bus and we wanted to do something useful.
We got some information about the trek and few places to explore. Later, we boarded the bus to a place called Aani from Kulu. It took around 8 -10 hours of journey. We made friends with the driver and the conductor. We came across lots of apple trees. We went through a traffic congestion. It was a small road and only one vehicle could pass at a time.
It took some time for our bus to pass through. That was the time, we planned to make use of. We got down the road and managed to gather as much as apples we could. When the owner came, we were no where to be found. We were in the bus and the driver understood what had happened, so he switched the headlights off and we moved pretending to be invisible. We shared it to everyone and still we had around 2 kg of apples left.
Chapter 5 - Aani and Base camp
We reached Aani and rented a room. We met a person there, who has been to Shrikhand twice. He said that it was a tough trek and it would take a minimum of 3 days to complete it. We spent that night there. Next day, Abdul and myself got up early as planned but Arun and Plato couldn’t get up. They said that they would come next day. So we had to leave them and headed to Rampur.
It was nearly 3 hours of journey and we got down before Rampur as per the conductor’s instruction.
We found few people who are heading towards the Shrikhand. We spoke with them and travelled with them to Shrikhand. They were Virender, Satpal, Rajesh and their friends.
We made it to the first base camp, where we were issued with medical certificate and had to register ourselves. We moved around 1 km and had our lunch and started the trek. We managed to keep half of our luggage in a storehouse, including the tent. So we had only the necessary items in our bags. Still, our bags were heavy.
Chapter 6 - Day 1
The total trek was 72 kms. According to us, it was divided into several sectors. The jungle, rocks, woods, rocks, flowers and finally steep hills with snow.
Our friends whom we met, asked us to wait in a camp as we moved fast. Once we reached, we bought some noodles which was the only food that we got. It costs around Rs.80 -100. We waited for the others there and once they came we continued our journey. We stopped in a camp for the nightfall with our new friends. It was too cold out there, despite the sweater and the jackets we wore.
Chapter 7- Day 2
We got up in the morning and started the journey. We checked the altitude now and then. We really got upset only when we climbed around 3000 meters and had to go down for 1000 meters. It was the only way, and we made it through. It was during then, we saw the glacier for the first time. It was a great sight.
After few kilometers, we had to cross a huge glacier. We could even see water flowing underneath it. It was not that safe as it would break anytime. We crossed many glaciers and it served as the source for fresh water.
Finally, we made it to the last base camp at noon. We thought of going to the peak, but the entry was closed. So we had to wait in the last base camp. On our way to the last base camp, so many people asked about us and encouraged us to make it to the top. They were unable to reach the peak, so they wanted us to reach there.
Chapter 8- Day of Hustle
Next day, we started by 3 am leaving all our bags in the tent, as it would be the toughest part of the journey. It was raining and it made the trek even tougher. We climbed the mountain as fast as we could. At one point, I went too fast and got slipped due to the rains. It was a slope and thank God, that I had a pole to support. Then, Abdul and myself started to take the lead. We went so quick as if we knew the way.
I stopped him and asked him, whether it was the correct way and he said, “in order to reach to the peak, we had to go top”. I was convinced, but then there was no way. So we turned and shouted that it was the wrong route. Suddenly, they started to move right and we found the way. Since we moved way too top, we had to cross a glacier while others had to cross a river.
After so much of hustle, we made it to the top. I was so happy, but it dint last long. They said that it was the Mansrover, the last water spot. I hardly found any water, everything was ice. I didn't find a way from there. All I could see was a stee hill. Actually, the real trek started from that point.
Chapter 9- Trek
We made up our minds and dint wanna go back, so we started to climb the hills. It took lot of effort. Like, we used our hands, legs and even our body to support us, but we made it top. We had everything but that was our weakness. We had a pole, water bottle and a torch to climb the hill. But, we can't use them if we need to climb the hills. I kept the water bottle in the winter jacket and put the torch in my mouth. Only then, I could use my hands to climb.
It was 3 am and the only light source was the torch. So, we had to do something. At one point, we had rocks covering both the sides. After that, when I turned to my left, all I could see were clouds. We were like standing above the clouds. After few minutes, once I climbed another rock, there was nothing to support me. I was on the peak of some mountain and I had walk over it to the next peak.
Suddenly, we had to come around the peak, as it could not be climbed. We got to move quickly around the corner to maintain our balance and to reach the other side. In some situation, we faced ice around the corners of the mountain and we had to support ourselves with the poles and move slowly. This was the dangerous part of the trek.
Once we completed all those, we had to walk straight to a mountain. Then, we had to climb the final glacier to reach the peak of Shrikhand Mahadev. It took some time to make it to the top, but we made it to the top. It was a glorious moment, as the sun started to shine like we were gifted with enlightenment.
We were sitting on top of a rock for 20 minutes talking for sometime and still couldn't believe that we made it to the top. We saw only around 25 people who made it to the top. We surely were gifted. When our friends came they asked us to move closer to the peak. To the Shivling. We would've moved earlier, but then it was a footwear restricted area. Can you imagine that a place above 4300 metres high and covered with ice was a footwear restricted area.
Chapter 10 - The Peak
Yes you've read it right. It was a very big Shivling sitting right on the peak. That's why it got the name Shrikand Mahadev. We dint wanna remove our shoes but then wanted to go closer. So we had no choice but to remove our shoes. It took some time to make that decision. We even thought not to go any closer. But we got the chance to reach top that many have desired.
We removed our shoes and dint know where to keep our legs. It was shivering. Everything was covered with ice. It just lasted for few minutes. Then, we dint feel a thing. We took part in the ritual. We thought it was over, but one of our friends asked us to go around the peak. We went with him.
We had to step down and then move around the peak, yet another treacherous path. The way was too small and only one person could pass. According to me, if one has to pass through, they had to lean to the peak. The are more chances to fall if we miss step. At one point, we could barely keep a foot. We had to move through inorder to make it to the other side.
On the other side, they had some tridents or thrishools for worshipping. We came around 80% of the peak and I thought there could be a way from there. To my disappointment, there was no way but to go back through the way we came. I found it difficult as I was complaining to Abdul about the small pass. Everyone found it difficult and I was the only person to speak about it. All these took around 20 minutes and we've been there for 40 minutes. We took some pictures with our new made friends and they left as soon as possible. Abdul and I took some time in wearing our shoes and were amazed by the beauty of nature.
After few minutes when we found everyone leaving, we also started to leave. We spent nearly an hour there at the peak. It was on our way down, that I realized that going top was easy when compared with coming down.
Chapter 11- Memories
We clicked few pictures on the way to the last base camp. Since we started early in the morning and faced lots of hardships, we were not in the mood for photographs. But once we were nearing the peak, we started. We kept our phones inside our jacket so that it stays warm enough.
Our phones worked only few seconds before shutting down. We had to come up with other ideas to capture the awestruck landscape. We used a power bank to power our phones and it worked. It lasted more than few seconds. So, taking pictures also was not easy. We couldn't check whether the picture was good or not.
We made sure to capture as much pictures as we could. It was tough time operating the phone wearing gloves. The touch screen doesn't work and so we had to remove the gloves, which was even more terrible. We improvised it by using selfie stick. No matter what we did, it just lasted few seconds.
Our phones doesn't work due to the severe cold and altitude issues. So we thought that from next time, to use a cam instead. That would do the trick.
We took lots of pictures on our way down. Every five minutes, the clouds change and provide spectacular views. We never wanted to return but stay. The flowers in the Parvati valley were amazing. It was sad that we had to go through the Parvati valley early in the morning. Since we started by 3 in the morning, we never knew what was in our way. Only on our way down, we realised how beautiful it was.
Chapter 12 - Way Down
We couldn't stay on the peak for long, so we started our way down. Some were skiying on the glacier. We had to be careful on the glaciers. So it took some time. We tried to ski but turned out bad. We couldn't control the momentum. We moved slowly and on our way down we saw people who wanted to make it to the top so badly that they don't care how their body responds.
We were so lucky that we were young and made it to the top where many failed to reach. A proud moment filled our hearts. We had to go back the same way and that means to cross all the glaciers and treacherous paths. A person in front, suddenly slipped and fell over a slope. To be precise, it was a slope of a mountain. My brain processed a notion that he's gone. But to our surprise he stopped at the edge and somehow made it top. We nearly witnessed an accident. From then, we took extra effort to be safe.
People who are afraid of heights never look down once they are top. But in this case, no chance. We had to climb down a cliff. At one point, there was nothing in front. We had to place our foot at correct places to maintain balance. Worst scenario was looking down. We were above 4000 ft from ground level.
Once we reached the Manasrover, the end of cliffs, we sensed a moment of relief. There were lots of rocks and we had to go over them. It wasn't the correct way. But still, we took it. The local people there were so fast in moving over the rocks. They jumped from one to the other. We couldn't do it for long. Finally, we came to the end of Manasrover.
Our eyes were set for the most beautiful things, as we came across the valley of flowers. It was a beautiful sight until we realised that was the way we took top. Soon the valley of flowers were not that good, as we stomped our way through it and the early morning rains made it worse. What a wonderful sight it would be to see the valley of flowers untouched!
We made our way back to our tent in the last base camp. We had some food and slowly started our way down to the foothills of Himalayas. We couldn't stop taking pics as the landscape kept changing every now and then. We stopped at every camp to have some tea as it was too good. We managed to come half way down by nightfall. We gazed at the countless stars and dint wanna move from that place.
Next day we started a bit late and made it to the exit by noon. It was hard to depart from that place but still we said goodbye our new friends and headed to Rampur. We checked for the bus from Rampur, unfortunately there was none and we had to spend the night at Rampur. We bought some apples, oranges and charged our mobiles in a nearby shop. We stayed all night and finally boarded a bus to Rehkong Peo.
Chapter 13 - Monastery and Rekhong Peo
Rehkong Peo is the closest place to Chitkul which is the last Indian village. We woke up early in the morning and were awestruck by the roads. We were indeed traveling through one of the dangerous roads in the world. We made it to Rehkong Peo by noon. We checked in a hotel and dint waste anytime and started to explore three place.
We went in a Buddhist monastery and found it amazing as it was peaceful. We are the only people there. We spent sometime and sat over a slab until we fell asleep. Our body was so tired as we had no rest after the trek. Once we realised it, we went to the hotel and slept for a while. We woke up by 7pm and found the climate to be shivering.
We had some food in the hotel. The hotel had pictures of Himalayas. View of Pokhra lake, Everest, The Annaporna range and more. We admired the interest of the hotel owner and put them in the list of places to visit in the near future. The food felt so tasty as we had only noodles and tea for the past 3 days.
Chapter 14 - Last Dhaba and the border
Next day morning we packed some bread and Hershey's for our breakfast and headed to a nearby fishery. After that, we had our breakfast there. Then we boarded the bus to Chitkul by 12 in the noon. We reached Chitkul by 1.30. We made some new friends on the way. From Chitkul, we heard to the Indo-Tibetian border. We had to walk for 40 minutes and we came to know about our new friends on the way.
When we reached closer, a cop came and warned that we are not allowed after that point. Even photographs were not allowed. But we managed to click some. We spoke with him and then he bought us a ride back to the village. On the way back we clicked some pictures of the border which we were never meant to. We had to come back soon as the last bus to Rekhong Peo was at 3.30pm. So we made sure that we are on time. We said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to the hotel.
Chapter 15 - Cross roads of destiny
Next day, we planned to go to Kalpa. While waiting in the bus stand, there was a bus to Tabo and we boarded it. A sudden change of plans. Tabo is a village in Leh. The roads were so dangerous as we had to stop due to falling off rocks. There was a crew whose job is to clean the fallen rocks from the road. The roads were so thin that only one vehicle can pass at a time. It would be a one hell of experience for the bikers.
On the way, there were so many river crossing, sudden land slides and we can't expect anything on how the roads would be. It was a great journey. We stopped at a place called Naco. It was the only place looked green. We met someone from Tiruvanamalai in South India. He worked for the government and was there as a minister was visiting the place. We spoke with him and moved to Tabo.
We reached Tabo by 4 in the evening. We had no money and thank God there was an ATM. Then we moved into a monastery and checked in for the night. We roamed all over the place and the next day, we explored as much as we could and headed back to Rampur.
Chapter 16 - Chandigarh and way down
We managed to get some apricots and dry fruits. From Rampur, we boarded a bus to Chandigarh via Shimla. We stopped at Shimla by night. It was cold and we had no time. So we headed to Chandigarh the same night. Next day morning we reached Chandigarh and we reached our room. We spent sometime with our friends talking about the experience we gained in the trip. We roamed on the roads on Chandigarh and started to explore it for a while, as we had to wait for our friends Plato and Arun.
That night, we went to the Sukna lake. We had a spectacular view of the lake and spent few hours there and finally headed back to New Delhi for our train to Coimbatore. We reached Delhi by time and boarded the Tamil Nadu express and we were all set.
Chapter 17 - Running, Chasing
It was a two day travel to Coimbatore. On the way back, our pockets were empty. We had to buy food for the night and the next day. There's no way of withdrawing money from the ATM. We checked the timing of the train and came to know that it would stop in Vijayawada for 5 minutes. That was the maximum time it would wait. So, Abdul and myself planned to go to the ATM in the railway station and come back within 5 minutes.
The train reached Vijayawada and before it stopped, we got down and were running on the platform. On the way, Ticket collector stopped us. He understood our emergency and showed us the nearest ATM. To our bad luck, the ATM was not working. We went outside the railway station and managed to withdraw money and came back running to the train.
The train already started to move and I managed to get in but I couldn't find Abdul. He managed to get in the last compartment of the train and we were lucky. We finally reached Coimbatore and managed to get home with nothing but empty pockets. We shared the apricots as many started to rot. Thus our North trip was filled with running, chasing and sudden change of plans.
THE END
Awaiting for more on this trip and hopefully about out trip too...!
ReplyDeleteThat's one of our best trips. So, it will take time. Thanks for your comments.
Delete😍😍😍😍
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