Maharastra in monsoon!!!

Before I start writing about my current experience, I would mention my previous experience about traveling in Maharashtra. In summer of 2007, I was doing my internship with an FMCG company based out of Mumbai. And I was to travel in & around Mumbai, to understand consumer behavior & then recommend strategies to increase sales for one of their brands. Initially I was happy with my project, I would get to travel to new places, good organization, nice guide, etc. But then Mumbai started showing its true colors. It was a series of bad incidents spread across those two months, which made me hate the place till even today. Some bad incidents related to local trains, some bad experience as a customer, bad weather & end result being the fact that I still do not like going to Mumbai. And I am sure that this hatred is mutual, as even post those two months I have had bad experiences in Mumbai. But the only mistake which I made was projecting the same image on Maharashtra.



I recently got an opportunity to spend 2 months in & around Pune. The areas to be covered were Pune, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Satara & Raigarh. Riding the perception developed during summer internship (4 years back), I was skeptical this time as well. But since that was a long time back & my disappointment was more from Mumbai than other places, I went with an open mind. The idea was to travel as much as possible & form fresher opinion.

View from halfway to Parvati hills

After landing there first thing which I liked was weather, it would drizzle throughout the day. Not so much as to drench anyone, not so less that you wont feel the tiny droplets. There is something about the rains that you can keep walking for long hours without feeling tired. So the start was perfect & I was beginning to look forward to all the weekends I was to spend at Pune. Pune city itself has plenty of greenery everywhere, making it look better. Inside the city there are plenty of hills & two rivers (Mula & Mutha) runs through the city, adding to the beauty of the city. This does not mean that development wise city is behind, there are plenty of malls, hotels, restaurants, IT parks, SEZs, official complexes, hi-end residential complexes, etc to qualify the city for being called a mini-metro. It has a perfect mix of both natural & man-made elements, which no one city has, at least not in India. I like the city so much that out of the 2 & a half months stayed there only once i went to Mumbai for spending a weekend, even though i had no friend in Pune & plenty of them in Mumbai.

Pataleshwar Caves



So out of all the places visited in pune city, my favorite is Parvati hills. Its on top of a hill, from where you would get a perfect view of the entire city. Most of the junta which comes there is either for spending some time with a view to die for with their loved one or for taking a hike in the morning/evening. Very few of them actually come for visiting temple. Now there are other temples on hill in pune, like chaturshringi, etc, but view from the top & more natural feel, wins it in favor of Parvati hills. Its a must visit place for someone who wants to do sight seeing in pune.

Aga khan palace, there is nothing great about this place. Its a nice place, with peace & quiet, where people come to visit the place where Gandhiji spent some time & Even aga khan did his bit during the freedom struggle. Small little museum is there, where i liked a statue. But nothing which would make you think about visiting again.
Wada- There are plenty of fort like structure in the city, which are not well preserved & are used by youngsters as a place to spend time with their love of life or by families to have a weekend picnic. Nothing to like about these places as they are not maintained, people working have no sense of ownership, they couldn't care less is someone is dirtying the place & overall you come out disappointed after the entrance had showed promise.
Lal baug- This was an interesting place as they have entire history of Pune town on display here. I spent a decent time here & liked what i saw, only thing which i didn't like was that at places they had just mentioned things in Marathi, with no translation. For someone who wants to know about history of any place or dynasty, this is a nice place to spend a day.
Jangli Maharaj Temple & Pataleshwar caves- Mandir is a normal mandir, nothing to write about. Cave though was a place where one can decently pass time for more than an hour. And the place have plenty of good restaurants around, so overall it was half a day spent well.
Saras baug- The biggest mistake of my life, which i realised as soon as i reached the place. It was as if i had reached a local train station of mumbai at the peak hour. A sea of humanity, doing god knows what. It was used only for picnic & religious purpose, there was a temple there.
Katraj- Yes I did go there. Its like a advanced version of Zoo, where animals are kept in pseudo natural habitat. Didn't like it much, would not go there again.
Even though it does not have many places which makes you go 'wow', because of the weather & greenery the experience was good.

Enroute to Raigarh

My first trip outside was to Raigarh district & right from the journey to the trek upto Raigarh Fort, to the towns i visited, everything was breathtakingly beautiful. As soon as you enter the district, its lush green hills all around & in between again there would be some water body here & there. I was in love with the place & driver had to face the brunt of it as i made him stop the vehicle almost after every half an hour. Spent 3 days in the district, best experience being trek up to Raigarh fort. It is not as crowded as the ones visited in pune. It is at a considerable height hence the views are awesome. Even the climb up was amazing as the path was made in a manner that not until last 30 mins, you get to see the fort. One has to cross 3-4 hills in order to reach the one where remains of the fort is there. Also the path is beautiful making the experience even more exciting.

Waterfall on the way to fort

I loved the walk up to the fort as I got an opportunity to click loads of pictures & nature had a nice mix going there. Deciding what to click & what not to click became difficult as it looked great everywhere, in all directions. It was also good because there was no one else on the way & you feel like you own the place. After catching the first glimpse again it took me some 20 minutes of fast paced walk up to reach the point where fort was. It was completely foggy & hence it took me about 30 minutes to find a guide, who would give me details about the fort. Even after i found a guide, both of us didn't have a common language. Hence he had to go to the other side & get a decently Hindi speaking guide. As you keep moving out of pune you find little less acceptance of Hindi, and more and more preference of Marathi.

There was a small pond named Ganga sagar, which was created by a pandit, who brought water from varanasi at the time of coronation of Shivaji maharaj. Today it still have plenty of water, majorly through rainwater & the water is clean as well. And the best part is that it adds so much to the dilapidated fort, it is a unique thing to find at a fort at this height.



On the way down from the fort





Stairways to heaven @ Raigarh



After taking a decent tour of the place, I had to go down quickly as it was a working day & even though I had started early & climbed quickly, I was cutting it thin. So I climbed down in 30 mins, took the cab back to Hotel. But before this I had a detailed chat with the guide about the Life of Shivaji. There is lot of pride involved when people talk about him & the same was visible here as well. He spoke about Sinhagad, Aurangazeb, Shivaji's wives & reason behind multiple marriages, current literature on Shivaji, myths about shivaji which are not true, etc. And this was the second occasion post Daulatabad fort, where i was given a brief about the great man, but the level of passion was exactly the same. I was staying at a place called Mahad & there were some good restaurants which would serve you awesome thalis.

Post this I went to Alibaug, which was not great. Even though i just spent a day there, I dedicated my entire evening to explore more about Alibaug & I realised that its an average place at best.

View from Nivant hill resort

Next up was Satara & I was to be impressed, big time. The first reason to be impressed was the beautiful journey to Satara, I loved the 3 hours spent. Post that we had lunch at a Gujrati hotel, which offers awesome thali. But the best part was the Hotel at the Kaasgaon. Now Kaasgaon is not that well known a place, at least I had never heard of it. But when I was told its just about 30 mins away from satara town, i readily agreed. It was on a hill overlooking satara town, & the view from up there was just to die for. You just had to step into the balcony to get an awesome view, which was a lush green valley surrounded by hills, followed by Satara town. So major time went just looking out from the balcony, took a little walk to an old temple. Also there was a valley where lots of different types of flowers would bloom & ahead of that there was a river. So we woke up early morning went to see the flower valley, sadly it was not in full bloom because of lack of rains. Then we went to the river, which was the favorite picnic point for the locals. It was a nice place with nice view, we did spend some time here.

River near Kaasgaon

After finishing the work for the day we decided to go back to pune via Thoseghar, a place with waterfall & huge windmills. Waterfall is called 'Dhabdhaba' in Marathi, term coined by someone who heard the noise a waterfall cause from close point. It was raining bad when we reached & visibility was getting worse, so we decided to brave it up. We went down took some pictures & went to a tea-shop-cum-restaurant & had a much needed tea. Then we went to the place where they had windmills operated by Suzlon & the place again was beautiful. A combination of fog, huge windmills & good looking flowers & plants worked for us, hence we decided to spent some time there even though pune was some 4 hours away & we would reach only close to midnight. Overall Satara was the best place for me in the entire trip, even though i missed out on tourist attraction like mahabaleshwar & panchgani.

Bhandardara

Next on the agenda was Nashik & surrounding area. I had planned to cover Bhadardara also on the way. So the idea was to spend one night in Nashik town, one night in Bhadardara & return post that. Bhandardara is one of the weekend getaways from mumbai, its a small villages build around a river. Wilson dam is built on the river & acts as a tourist attraction here. When they open the Dam & let the water flow, more often than not, there is a decent human population watching the beautiful scene. And there are a few properties here for travellers, one being MTDC guest house, which is basic & cheap, also offers a great view of the place. And there are couple of private resort which are tastefully made & offer all the modern amenities which can be expected, namely Yash resorts & Anand Van resort. I put up at yash resorts, but since the stay was for a night only there was nothing to write home about the place apart from the fact that they serve good food & locational wise they have got a great property with all kind of amenities, like gym, sports room, swimming pool, etc. But the fact that the place is surrounded by nature in its best form, is the top draw. I woke up early & went for a walk to the dam & it was beautiful. There is a full trail which makes you circle the river, taking about 4 & a half hours, but since it was a working day i had to be satisfied with a little walk around the place.

At Kalsubai withGanpat

Post that I checked out & went towards my next destination which was Kalsubai. Early morning, the village of Ghoti was already awake & school children were on the street as it was time to reach. With a colleague of mine i started the trek, we reached the first point which was a small temple. Post that my colleagues said he would not move ahead, I can go on my own if I want to. Keeping time in mind i decided that I would be back by 2 hours. The idea was to cover as much as possible & reach the top in 1 & a half hour. But path wasn't that great, it was full of sticky red mud, making it difficult to walk. Still we went at a decent pace, but half way i was told that it would take a longer time & normally it would take 6 hours from that point to reach the top most point. We still covered 70% of the path, and it was already 2 hours. Hence we had to start descent & that too at a high pace, as I didn't want my colleague to wait for too long. We covered the downward journey in less time & on the way found that quite a few of villagers from the village below own land on the way to the top. They carry their tools & do cultivation there. Goes without saying that the terrain & views were great & the path was such that i managed to look around the mountain completely. Came down & we started off for the market where we were to spend a decent time. But it wasn't the best of the day & we had to travel a lot visit far off markets & we returned to pune only post midnight.

Kalsubai- Random stairs that you find on the way up

Sinnar bus terminal

Something interesting that i encountered while I was going to Nashik was the bus terminal at a small town called Sinnar. Now I do not have much of a proof to show how beautiful & modern it was apart from an unclear pictures taken from moving vehicle, but I would not be exaggerating while saying that it was better than quite a few Airports in India. Not only was it nicely made, but it was maintained as well. Kolkata Airport would not come even remotely close to the quality of architectural work that has gone into the making of Sinnar Bus Terminal.

 

Random flower @ Sinhagad

Post that the only decent venue which I covered was Sinhagad, but the sad part was that the entire plan was ruined by an extremely strong rain. Initially I though that it was manageable & hence I started walking in the rain, but soon I realised that it was futile as visibility was zero & nothing could be seen. Still I spent as much time possible, but as soon as i gave up and came down the rain stopped. It was sad, but since it was getting late I decided to spend some time & start moving towards pune. It was during this small walk that i clicked a few pictures, which came out rather nice. Quite a few would trek up to the fort, but I could not see a single trail. If I ever get to go back to Pune, I would definitely go back to Sinhagad Fort, with much less rain.

People clicking themselves @ Sinhagad

Now I do accept this wasn't a typical exploration trip or a vacation, but the fact that I could mix work with pleasure added to the experience. The idea of working in a territory like that is extremely appealing. This trip helped me to erase the past associations with Maharashtra, basis time spent at mumbai & build new & improved image of the state. And the time spent here made me want to spent more time, but I would like to come back only during monsoon, as the state looks best when it is washed with rain. All the greenery makes you feel better about the place & weather just adds to that, making it a deadly combination.

A State with a soul & many "Invisible Salesman"- Mizoram

I had read an essay written by Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayana 'Agyeya' in school, where he talks about how he wanted to travel & so he just packed his bags & took off. With no specific destination in his mind, he reaches Assam & then the journey goes on with loads of interesting events. It did leave an impact, as I still remember the plot. Inspired by the author, even I have liked the kind of traveling where not many things are planned, you reach the destination & figure out what, where, when, how, etc. Also the fun part is that you interact with a bunch of locals to get information & the same gives you a feeler about the place. And of course little struggle add to the overall experience.

With the same strategy in mind, me & jojo decided to travel in Mizoram and all we had planned was dates for Kolkata- Aizawl return journey. Everything else was to be decided post we land at Lengpui Airport. Though we did read a few articles about places to visit & we were biased towards "Rih dil", Mizoram's biggest lake which was in Myanmar, & we wanted to trek to Phwangpui. But as planned earlier, we didn't plan for anything.

Jojo at the dam

After landing in Mizo land & taking the ILP (Inner line permit), we started looking for a tourism kiosk or information center. No one even understood what information center or a tourism kiosk was. So we were at the airport without a plan or the next destination. Finally after some deliberation we decided to reach Aizawl & figure things out from there. So we reached the market and tried figuring out possible destinations. But the idea of getting to touring office was still there in our head.After much struggle & help from our driver Sangtea, we managed to reach tourism office. But that office was for administrative purposes, so again we were back to square one. But there were a few ladies who found the idea of tourist coming from outside north eastern states amusing. They decided to help us & one of them was sweet enough to consult us on all the options available. She gave her unbiased views on locations, helping us to make a better plan. Nonni, that's the helpful lady working in tourism department, kept calling us post that to check on our well being & to see if we need any help. Everyone we interacted with in Mizoram was surprised at seeing two guys, one from Calcutta & other from Chennai, on a vacation. This led us to believe that not many people visit Mizoram for traveling. This was something which was hard to understand, as the place was beautiful & people nice & friendly. So after planning for next couple of days we started for a small place call Reiek Tlang. We reached the place, not before stopping at a dam on the way & having a light snack at a small shack. 

Chana, tea & extremely hot chutney



Walking on one of the trails

Unlike other places, Reiek Tlang doesn't have any private lodges/guest house/hotels etc. But they do have a government owned property which was cheap, but at the same time extremely beautiful. It was slightly above the main town and quite a few trekking trails would originate from the resort. We would have spend just the bare minimum time in the cottage, thanks to my head-lamp, as we kept on exploring the place till late evening. We would walk to the highest point possible & then late evening we would go to the village & spend time at a small tea-shop-cum-restaurant. Folks there would watch some Korean channel. It was friendly place were locals would come for a friendly chat & light meal. We would sit there & have our own conversation or silently watch them chat away. We tried quite a bit from their menu as well, apart from a Mizo version of 'sakkarpara' we didn't like much. But still I would rate it highly for the feel of the place. The place, like most of the places in Mizoram, was run by females, a mother-daughter duo.



A cave on the way

One morning we went for a trek to the tlang (stands for 'mountain' in local language). After crossing a few caves & small waterfalls, we reached the hill point from where we just had to go up. After a while weather changed completely & it got so windy that it became difficult to balance & walk. We still went to the top, though we missed out on a second trail as it became extremely foggy & with the wind, the combination was deadly. The place had a few fatal accidents in the past and we didn't want to add to that list. We came back, not before clicking a few pictures & videos. Also there were a few chairs put in awesome locations, with a dead fall in couple of steps in front. Jojo & me took turns to get clicked. During walk back the wind was so strong that we couldn't even hear each other properly, but it was great fun as I shot a video with Jojo in the lead.

 


living at the edge :)

 

A few of the skull on display, including that of Jojo & Beiseia

Post this we took a guided tour of "Typical Mizo Village". The idea was pretty simple, they recreated the village as they used to be a few decades ago. The experience was worthwhile because of good execution of reconstruction & well trained guides adds to it. They are keen to show you things & are full of enthusiasm, and at times they are visibly disappointed when the enthusiasm is not reciprocated, as was the case with one local family. But we had enough & more enthusiasm for our guide, Mr Beiseia (meaning "hope" in local language). He showed us around, with live demonstration of hunting equipment, of course he didn't kill any animal as the demo was given on our hands or random lifeless objects. Also during the tour he showed us skulls of various animals, wild boar, mountain goat, monkey, bear, tiger, elephant, etc. We were also told about various roles which existed in a village, King, Head huntsman, etc.

For our next destination we zeroed in on a place called Hmuifang, but to reach there we had to come back to Aizawl. After reaching Aizawl we realised we were out of cash, so after looking for quite a bit we found one functional ATM. Then we went to a mall, which was the only place where you can get the local wine, Zawlaidi. So the plan which got evolved was to get a bottle, decide on the mode of transportation & have some food before leaving, in that order. In the wine shop they would sell only one product, Zawlaidi wine. It was extremely cheap, selling at around Rs 140 per bottle. We had food at random places, trying different things. Food wise we couldn't find anything which was great, but we were satisfied because typical food places where we would go would have awesome view & the combination worked for us.

tea, nature & us

Jojo & our friend from Myanmar

For transportation, we thought we would take an option where we can interact with locals. So we took tickets for a shared sumo, after waiting for about an hour we started towards hmuifang. In the car we started chatting with people who could understand Hindi, found many people who have come from Myanmar and have settled here for good. Tried to understand more about their country, but language barriers made it difficult. We parted ways, not before clicking pictures together.





View from hmuifang resort

We reached Hmuifang on time & again the resort left us spell bound. It was beautiful, again it had cottages & one can look in any direction to admire nature. Just beside the resort there was a government project of a natural park, which was more like a huge jungle, with multiple walking trails. Out of nowhere we would found a machan or a wire bridge or a bench. It was something which was completely natural, with just a few human addition. Overall, it was an impressive effort with an absolutely fabulous execution.

one of the wire bridge at the park

Post visiting the park we went to take a look around & found a few dhaba kind of joints, which one would typically find on highways. But construction was at its minimum, small villages or settlements here & there. Imagine one small wooden house in middle of a path with a view to die for. Every house would have a animal shed outside them, again with a mix of animals, cutest of them being piglets. Kids playing in small groups, most groups playing football, cricket was not to be seen anywhere. After we were satisfied with what we had seen for the day, we decided to return for some food, wine & a well deserved rest, as next morning would again be an early one. We were told that on Sundays it is difficult to find public/ shared transportation. So we decided to call our Man Friday, Sangtea, to give us a ride back. But even for calling we had to walk for about a km, as the reception was poor or non-existential at the resort, which incidently is the thing I love the most about such places.

Till now we had admired Mizoram for its natural beauty, now it was our turn to admire Mizos for their beauty. Every single person would put their best clothes on for the Sunday mass, its like a weekly party they would go to. The cycle never stops, its their way of balancing their life. And women would look so beautiful & elegant in their Sunday dresses. Mizo women can pull off anything with grace, this is an established fact in our books. We watched men, women, children, impeccably dressed in their best clothing, sharing jokes, gathered in groups & looking extremely happy. In the end we decided to spend less time at the airport and more time at a tea shop which was close to a church. The idea of watching human beings, who are so happy & living in the moment was pretty good. It kept us at the tea shop for quite some time.



Jojo sleeping

We started for airport when we could not delay it any further, as the airport is 32 kms outside Aizawl in a town called Lengpui. Reached before time, so after check in we went to a place where many people would come & see flights take off. There were benches put up there for people to sit, which jojo decided to use for a power nap. While interacting with one of the local I was told that there never used to be this much security at the airport. One would simply turn up with family and food & spend a perfect day watching aircraft take off & land. Currently they have to pay a minor fee, but its still worth it for the family. In the meanwhile Nonni, our helpful lady from state tourism department who had called us multiple time post our first interaction with her just to check whether we are having it easy or not, was to receive a "thank you" call from us. She even gave calls to people in places we visited, like manager at Hmuifang resort, just to ensure we have a comfortable stay.

While the same can be debated about many states in India, but Mizoram does surely have a soul, a pure one at that. The Assamese caretaker at the Reiek Tlang resort had told us that he came to Mizoram for a holiday, loved the place & decided to settle down here itself. He doesn't like people from back home as they are not as honest & not as hardworking. According to him the concept of stealing doesn't exist in Mizoram, its only now that people from other neighboring states are traveling here that some stray incidents are being reported. He also mentioned that all the inmates in jails are mostly from other states. He is currently married to a Mizo lady & planning to raise his family in Mizoram only. Through out the journey Sangtea never even once locked the vehicle, with open doors & open windows we would wander off, he wouldn't even think about the possibility of someone stealing his car. Local politicians are also extremely helpful & down to earth, we were told. Villagers would simply knock on their doors to settle any dispute. Nonni was a government employee, and she was the most helpful one I had encountered in my life.



The epitome of the faith-in-humanity which exists in Mizoram is evident in the phenomenon that I named "Invisible Salesman". Typically people living on hills would have a day job apart from farming, so early morning they would set up fruits & vegetables in a shack, put a price tag with details of each & every item. After coming back in the evening they would find the exact amount of money with the balance produce kept there. This practice has been going on for ages & people do not think of it as much. For me it was an eye opener, as the customers at these shacks were not just their fellow villagers, even the travellers from distant towns stop by to purchase the fresh produce. Would definitely like to return one day, with more time on hand, as there is plenty more to be explored about Mizoram & Mizos.

Chadar Trek Randomness

Will not write about how easy or difficult the trek was, as it would dilute the objective behind this blog. This post is dedicated to all those incidents/events which were beyond the regular aspects of a trek. Also the idea is to record interesting stuff from the trek, so that years from now if i revisit this page it would make me happy & hopefully reach for my backpack

• Stretched start- We had a perfect plan, we shall meet up at delhi airport a day before our early morning flight & figure out how to spend the night. So after watching Sherlock holmes-2 again @ Ambience mall, we headed back to the airport, not before having a tea at a roadside tea stall @ 1:15 am. After having an early breakfast all we needed was some sleep, so we dozed off after entering the aircraft at around 6 am. I woke up and saw that it was 9 am already and aircraft was on land. Then we were informed by the attendants that the flight never took off, it was snowing in ladakh.





Spending night at Delhi airport

• Announcement- We landed at about 11:30 am, it was bright & sunny outside. We were not carrying any warm clothes on us, it was all checked in. Then came the announcement, were they mentioned the outside temperature. It was -8 degrees, I confirmed it twice and got the same response. I was wearing a half shirt & i could feel what was in store for me as soon as i came out of the aircraft. It was fun running towards the airport, but then luggage took 20 minutes to arrive.

• Missing trekker- We were greeted by the agency guy outside the airport & there we met the 3rd trekker, an American, for the first time. The agency guy took us to the car and asked us to wait, as he was waiting for the 4th person, a Czech . After more than an hour & post some 25 calls, we decided to make a move as the airport was completely empty but for the employees. Also the breeze was not enhancing the entire waiting experience. We did not heard from or about david for next 3 days, post which he came to the guest house, barely hours before the departure. He knew ladakh well as it was his 7th visit, so he decided to spend some time on his own. And he didn't have a phone on him, so he could not contact anyone, he knew the place where he needed to turn up eventually, so confidently he went around meeting friends made during past trips.

• The contingent- When we started towards chilling, the starting point for the trek, there were 20 odd men on the bus accompanying us. My initial reasoning was they must be taking a lift & they would get down some where on the way. But later I realized that they are part of our group & they all had a role to play & loads to carry :)





It wasn't this bad, uploaded the picture as i find it extremely beautiful

• First step on ice- The idea of walking on sheet of ice, with flowing water beneath it, was very adventurous & we were all very excited, but the first step brought us back to reality. During EBC (Everest base camp) there was snow, but ice was not much. During Island peak summit ice was well formed, but here the ice was not that well formed. It was strong enough to hold people, but it would crack & make all kind of funny noise. The idea of falling in water, when the temperature is max -20 degrees, is pretty scary. It took us a decent part of first day to gain confidence & walk properly. Also it was not child's play can be proved by the fact that all of us fell on the way at least once, Kevon was the eventual winner among all the scorers, including our guide. And on plenty of occasion the ice would crack & one would be knee/ankle deep in it, which would be scary.





Sample fare served on the way

• Food- Nothing could have prepared us for the food that was to be served during the journey. We had simple fare in leh, where we had spent 3 days, and by simple logic we were expecting food during the trek to be equal or worse than that. But we were positively surprised when we started having 4-5 course feast on Chadar. We would stop at pre-decided points, where the guys would put up tents. Post this the kitchen team would get inside the kitchen tent & cook for hours. The end result would be a drink, followed by a starter, followed by soup, followed by main course, followed by dessert. Even though we felt sad for the kitchen team, but that feeling never occurred during meals. Not just dinner, even breakfast would be pretty elaborate, with bread, preserves of various type, options of drinks (hot chocolate, tea, coffee, etc), with omelet  porridge, nuts, etc. They would keep tweaking things to keep us interested in food, and we took it as a challenge & ate much more than we normally would. By the end of the trek neither me nor brao lost any weight, even though we had enough exercise  it just goes on to show the quality & quantity of food that we enjoyed.

Cow & goat staying together

• Animals- Throughout the journey we found plenty of animals, sheep, cow, donkey, dog, horse, etc. They were all with extra layer of fur, as required in the circumstances, adding to their cuteness. And they all looked as if they were having a great time. And they would all share enclosure, making it look as if they were a big happy family.

• Night fright- The second most horrible night of my life, worst being the night when i was being carried down by porters during EBC, whilst descending. Third day into the trek, for the first time we had put up a tent completely in the open, as there was no mountain or hill under which we could have put our tent. That day we had spotted loads of leopard pug marks, it was the major point of discussion during the trek. None of us were sleeping properly, as the temperature was extremely low, even in multiple sleeping bags. That night i woke up hearing loud snorting noise & then all of a sudden the tent started shaking badly. There wasn't any lights outside so using my headlamp i tried to see if any shadows were visible outside, but it was nothing. Brao soon joined me & we were speculating for a good two hours. Meanwhile shaking & snorting continued as it was. We were scared & had just two options. First was to be get ourselves out of the sleeping bags (we were shaking more than usual than) open the tent & check what was there outside, and the second option was to call for help. So we started shouting, but with the noise outside & the distance in tents ensured that no one could hear us, meanwhile the noises & shaking of tent were gaining intensity. After a while it stopped completely & then we could hear someone getting out of the tent, it was kevon. We asked him to check if there was something outside our tent. He confirmed that there was nothing, so taking his word at face-value we decided to crash. Thankfully no one could hear our cry for help & Kevon was too sleepy when he came outside to attend nature's call, hence no one had fun at our expense next day. But we knew what an ass we made out of ourselves & in future there was never even a moments hesitation to get out of the tent. I for one would never forget this & my appreciation for movies dealing with fear of unknown would increase. Of course i would not count the recent series of RGV's movies in that category or for that matter any category :)  

• Link Road, 'From government with love'- While travelling on ice for days & struggling on multiple occasion, finally it was time to climb up & reach a village called 'lingshed'. We were all excited but it was a difficult part & the ice was getting thinner. The idea was to reach fast & come down fast to avoid death (which is the only alternative if ice cracks and one falls inside). Our guide told us that government has made a road to the village called link road which would be about 2 hours post we start the trek. It was a couple of difficult hours, where for the first time we used rubber boots, but nothing could have prepared us for the madness called "Link Road". And here you didn't need Leonidas to kick you down the hill, one can manage that without any help. It was a path where one man can stand with just one feet on the ground, and it was made around a hill. Like any ghat road, this path also circled the hill multiple times & then takes the traveler to the top, major difference being the width of the path. It was scary to say the least, but we started & gained confidence as we progressed. But with height the fear increased & to add to that was avalanches resulting in ice sheets being formed in the middle of the road. According to the flow of water sheet of ice would always be downward sloping, making it even more risky. Even the guide was slipping while crossing it. Everyone else managed with little help from our guide, but i was scared to death. With trembling legs & shaking hands i somehow managed to cross it, but post that the legs continued in that state of being. I am thankful that no one clicked any picture or shot a video, else it would have been really embarrassing  But eventually i did conquer my fear. On the way back I was the first person, ahead of our guide too, to cross link road :)

Brao got moves

• Party @ lingshed- It was a home stay at lingshed, bed, good food, heater with a chimney in the room, great family who were hosting us, a nice little climb to a Gompa, etc & we started thinking nothing could cheer us further. It was as good as it can get, but just then we were proved wrong. Last night before we were to start back, as there were news of ice getting thinner & weaker, we decided we would have a round of Chang (Rice beer). One thing led to another, the entire contingent started singing & dancing. Then the host family came in with some empty boxes to be used as drums & some additional supply of Chang. After a while some localites came & asked us to join entire village at a bigger house were there would be better arrangements, more space & most importantly more Chang. Everyone was extremely enthusiastic about it, even though it was almost mid night. We went there & realized that the plans were bigger than we imagined. They had arranged for tabla. sitar, harmonium, etc there & loads of villagers were coming. Set up was taking more time then we expected, our guide wanted us to get some sleep as the next day we were to cover for 2 days worth of journey to get past dangerous sheet of ice. So we thanked everyone there & came back to our room. But the experience was awesome & energized us immensely. We covered the 2 days worth of journey in good time & almost reached there with porters & kitchen staff, who would usually be the first ones to reach.

Family which hosted us at lingshed



• 

  

  One of the porter's checking out Kevon's camera

  Bao & Fire- Literal translation of word Bao in ladakhi is a cave. It was one place we all would love to hang out during late evenings & early nights, as the porters would make their food their. No it wasn't the food which would draw us to their bao, but it was the fire on which they would make their food. We would sit their, have random conversation, share jokes with them, ask them about their experiences in chadar, talk about other treks that we had done before & the time would fly. Ladakhi people are extremely nice & cordial as hosts, they would offer us food, alcohol, etc when we would be in their 'place'. Every day all the porters of various group would try & reach the next destination as early as possible to grab the best bao. They would keep the fire on as late as possible to have a decent sleep, as they do not carry sleeping bags with them. So we would share their fire till as late as possible, then run towards our tents so as to retain the heat till we get inside our sleeping bag. They would again light the fire with the left over wood in the morning at their bao, which would be our hang out zone in the morning before we start walking. On the last day all four of us went to cut & bring the firewood for everyone, we were advised to get only the wood which is dry. Also they respect plants, hence they would not cut a tree which is green.



• 29 & Conversations- 29 is fast becoming a preferred game for trekker from across the world. Here again everyone was smitten by the game & we would play the game as & when we can. But the best part would be the random discussions we would have on movies, culture, lifestyles, languages, accent, dying languages and last but not the least how we all hated our mundane jobs.
• Most wanted Iraqi playing cards- Anyone who has seen the movie 'Green zone' would remember the set of playing cards which every soldier would carry, helping them to identify the who's who in Iraq, involved with SH's government. I had found it extremely interesting & was impressed by the idea. It was simple yet extremely effective, in the movie soldiers were even using the exact denomination of the card as the nick name for the person who was assigned that denomination. So SH was ace of spades, so on and so forth. I saw a real pack while on this trek, as a fellow trekker's friend was serving in US army, and I must add that playing with it was an experience.

• Australians & Cricket- Last time I met Australians while on a trek was during Island peak summit, when we took them apart during World cup 2011. It was awesome fun, while I made fun of everyone from Britishers to Srilankan, but they were not half as fun as the Australians. Aussies take pride in their cricket & they would be in pain when the topic was initiated. Well this time there were two brothers who were almost trekking with us, they had a separate group though but we kept on bumping into each other. And India was having one of the worst tours of Australia at that point of time. Both me & brao tried our level best to avoid the topic, but they successfully kept bringing it up. After reaching Lingshed, they called up & found out that India had lost another test. It became even more difficult post that, but such is life. 

• Craziness- There were many moments on the trek which I can put under this head & finish this blog. Like a freshly severed leg of a horse seen on the way, or a dead fox shrunk to unimaginable size, one running waterfall among hundred of frozen waterfalls and god knows what not. But the craziest of them all were people mad enough to take a dip in the water while at Chadar. After reaching the camping site, 3 guys, an Australian, an american & a Czech, decided to take a dip. They ran for about an hour to generate heat & then jumped into water. It lasted for not more than 10 seconds but post those 10 seconds they were all in serious trouble.I have never seen anyone in so much pain as was evident from their yelling, running & abusing. And all the Indians there, Me, brao & some of the support team members came down with them to watch it, decided to safely stay away from water. The Australian guy kept running & falling, not in any particular order, to generate heat in the body. It was the most hilarious moment for me during the trek.

Only functional waterfall



One of the numerous frozen waterfalls

Creation of a frozen man...

I had gone for 'Chadar trek' a few days back & was multitasking big time with my phone. I clicked pictures, made videos with narration, took notes & lastly, wrote a poem as well. In my defense, for the childish attempt at poetry, it was extremely cold & I had very little to do. Sleep was not something you could bank on, as its a precious commodity in the terrains of frozen river. Needless to say, all the notes & the only poem was written during late night only. Notes would be shared in a separate post.

So here goes the unadulterated version of a title less poem.


You would have many a fall here and there,
not to forget all the nightmare.
We saw dead body and severed limbs too,
had to manage without a proper loo.
Faced cold which keeps you in shivering mode,
and please don't get me started on 'link road'.
Ice cracking beneath your feet would scare you shit-less,
feet inside the ice, you are in a mess.
But visuals were a sheer delight,
everywhere you look you would find a wonderful sight.
Ice, water, snow & mountains were perfect,
canyons gave great lighting effect.
Our typical day had zero mails & zero phone call,
'hearts' & '29' made our evenings small.
Amazing food & bonfire made me feel as if I belong,
so at the time of departure, I just said "So long".

Randomness- Island peak summit (2011)

Three of us went for a summit of Island peak in April, 2011. There were quite a few things which stood apart from journey & the people who we met on the way. This post is dedicated to those things/incidents/thoughts etc. Even after completing the summit & coming back to our daily routines, these incidents are still vivid in my memory.

Masala Tea- I am a big tea lover & given an option would always stick to it instead of any other beverage. While trying the same on multiple occasions in the mountains, I saw the concept of 'masala tea' being taken to a different level. Generally it means tea with combo of masala like cardamom, cloves, saffron, etc. But in Nepal it differs according to altitude plus whims & fancies of people who make it. At Thyangboche it was milk tea with black pepper, which he actually added in front of me for more effect. Even before i could say what the heck are you doing he did what he wanted to do hand over the cup to me with a winning smile on his face. Guess he added a new item on him menu that day, improvisation some would call it. At Dingboche, it was a concoction of milk tea and garlic soup, yes you read it right. Had never tasted anything as weird as that in my life. But the people there were so accommodating & nice, that before leaving not only did i finish it but also gave compliment for the same. If you are into weird combination's, you must give this a shot. At most of the places they would just bring the regular tea, when asked for 'masala tea'. The variation would be sometimes it would be with milk & sometimes it wouldn't.

But at some place u do get awesome masala tea, and it would be injustice if I do not mention about them here. Everest bakery in Namche bazaar would be a place where you can get a good 'Masala Tea' but the best of the lot would be lodge above helipad in namche bazaar where we went for acclimatisation. Do not remember the name, but I had the best Masala tea of the trip here. Also it was the only place I know of which if requested, would prepare & serve 'Masala Coffee'. For uninitiated masala coffee is something which Jap is extremely fond of. Look at his face just as they accepted his order, never seen him happier.


Bridges- There are umpteen number of bridges which would come en-route, as you would approach your destination. Primary reason being you would keep going up & coming down as you would have to shift from one town to another. And most of the towns are separated by water bodies. At times its frustrating to go up reach a town, again come down cross a bridge & start walking up again. Now on all those occasions of crossing a bridge, which is nothing short of a joy ride as it moves up, down & sideways, I felt like spending more time on the bridge. Not only it's fun to balance without support but also the views are always awesome. You can look down at the water flowing at incredible speed with greenery all around.

Or you can look at all the beautiful mountains which are visible, mostly through mist.
Random thoughts occupies the mind while looking at water flowing below. Like what would happen if someone falls down, what would combination of rocks & fast flowing water do to his/her body. Or how easy it would be to reach the destination if we go by water, more so as our guide was supposedly one of the best rafter before he started trekking. It was always good just to stand there in midst of nice breeze & great views and just relax.


Snooker- Never thought my first game of snooker would be played at 4000 mts. At quite a few towns there were snooker/pool tables on the way. Jap & daniel did play at Dingboche cafe, but i had to wait till Pangboche to play my first snooker game.

To say I suck at it, would be an understatement but thankfully Jap reduced my embarrassment just by being there. Before playing any shot he would check at what angle the ball needs to be hit to be pocketed, more often than not ball would go in all possible real & imaginary angles barring the one which was calculated by our trigonometry expert. While we were playing there was a decent crowd who were there having time of their life at our expense. And i was not ready to leave the game mid way. In the end we were so embarrassed that we asked couple of local stud player to finish the game for us, and within couple of minutes they emptied the board. Though I lost the game, it was one of the memorable moments from the trip :)


Dzopko/Yaks- They would come out of nowhere when you would be least expecting them. You would be trying to cross a bridge, wide enough for one human being to cross, and you will find a Dzopko(a yak-cow crossbreed) or Yak coming from the other side.

Since we are supposed to be smarter than animals & normally we don't have horns, naturally we would have to accept defeat and move back. At all the difficult stretches & all thin paths, you are bound to have encounters with a group of Yaks/dzopkos. But than there are times when you are so tired that you are happy to see them, as they pass while giving you ample time to rest.


29 ROCKS- We were taught lot of card based games on the way, like briskcola, shithead, etc but none of these games could match the charm of 29.

Everyone who got a lesson on this game, got hooked on to it. We taught the game to a number of foreigner tourists, our guide & guide's friend, hence at no point on the trip were we short of 4 people to play the game. Because of twenty-nine, our late afternoon & evenings were always fun.


Supro's treat- On the way back, at Namche bazaar we had a pre-decided treat at the expense of supro. Even though he started paying tax back in UK, we still do not miss on any opportunity to get treats from him and this one was for his b'day which just passed a few days back. After putting up with no appetite, sad food, less options, nausea, etc, this just opened the flood gates and we went for the kill. We ordered black forest pastry, cheese cake, apple pie, cheese sticks & needless to mention I ordered masala tea along with it. We also took coconut cookies for the road. Incidentally the place was the same cafe where me & jap had bought the cake for supro's b'day last time after convincing the chef for a good 15 mins. They were now making b'day cakes at a notice period of 30 mins.

Discussions on India- Most of the people who come to Nepal, either come via India or plan to visit India next. All of them had lots of question to ask & lots of POVs/experiences to share. Many asked about caste, regionalism, religion, places to visit, places of worship, etc. But there was one conversation which is still stuck in my head. We met a danish girl at Dingboche on the way down, and she was coming via India. They were traveling in small groups, and the experiences were nothing to write home about. She was so pissed & so was I after she narrated what all she went through during her visit to North India. It was understandable why she was so annoyed while talking about her experiences in India, as it comprises of harassment, molestation attempts, etc. There were a few more who shared bad experiences in Agra, Delhi, Mumbai, etc. Guess we can learn a lot from our small neighboring country. People in Nepal are just too good, especially in the mountains. Long way to go before we become a great tourist destination, till then we need to continue the 'atithi deo bhava' campaigns.

Amazing 'youngsters'- It was amazing to see young high school pass outs traveling on their own while being on a year long break. And we met quite a few of them, some in their early twenties & some below twenty. Cant remember even crossing state on my own when I was below twenty. As if this was not enough, we also met quite a few sherpa's who were a good 4-5 yrs younger to us & had already summitted Everest multiple times. It was really nice to meet all these youngsters, even though they made me feel slightly old.

Seabuckthorn Juice-

For some reason coming across seabuckthron juice at Pangboche gave us lots of happiness. And jap celebrated this happiness by ordering 3 back-2-back glasses. I was pretty contented with one glass & supro maintained his sulky mood in the 2nd half of the journey as he decided to give it a miss.


Squatting toilets- I don't know what is the reason behind it, but beyond certain altitude the WCs are not to be found. And all that you have is squatting toilets. Squatting anyways is not an easy thing for people who are out of practice, but with sub-zero temperature & 3-4 layers of clothing it becomes a nightmarish task to perform. Invariably people kept on mentioning each other that whole day of trek in difficult terrains is still easier than 5 minutes spend inside the toilet. As quite a few things are changing very fast in Nepal for good, this is one change I want to happen before my next visit.

New & improved Nepal- The place has changed from last time we were around there was connectivity almost everywhere below Dingboche. It helped as Jap had to make lots of calls to 'foreigners' back home & had to receive lots of calls from work. At Chukkung the lights just outside the lodge had motion sensors, at that height last time we didn't even found electricity but this time it was all changed.

Jap had to finish some official work on the way, and throughout he had pretty decent access to internet. He actually spend more than couple of hours working in Namche Bazaar with uninterrupted internet. Connectivity was no longer an issue in new & improved Nepal.