Dhanaulti and Mussorie (9th -11th July 2011)

The view that made the 2 days worth it

 Its been a long time since I have been planning a trip with Rajat and something or the other used to come between us going out. Finally everyone agreed to go on the 9^th after attending Sumit’s marriage and the plan was set. Romit had to pull out at the last minute due to fever and the trip was almost cancelled cause of my throat infection, but it was now or never for me, so I said the plan stands the way it is.

We all met at Sumit’s wedding, reaching at 8:30 for me and Aman was not a good idea, where Nipun was the last to reach at 11:15 PM. It was a fun night but the question now was that we have to leave at 4 and its 12 already, do we sleep or not. Reached home around 1 and the great news was that there was no electricity and the invertor was almost bout to die when I reached home, I packed somehow and all the confusions as to if I should sleep were all gone, there was no way I could. Got up at 4 and found out that the driver was late and it was by 6 that everyone was picked up (already 2 hours late).

So finally Me, Aman, Rajat, Nipun and Shyam were the ones to start, Rajat and Aman had already been to Dhanaulti and they had talked us into going, well I was game for any place so dhanulati it was. As its said that Journey is more important than the destination, we had a lot of fun, there are a lot of new roads and by passes, so before we knew it, it was all traffic less makkhan roads till Roorkee, my earlier experience going to Rishikesh had been quite bad and this was quite a welcome change. We had breakfast at moolchand near Muzzafarnagar, it was on the design of Cheetal the most famous place on this road J.

We kept moving through the traffic in Dehradun and decided not to stop in Mussorie as well, the plan was to reach Dhanaulti, the views after dehradun had started getting better and better. The clouds covered the roads and the views and it was getting colder by the minute. I was thinking whether I was prepared for this cold or not, but it was too late to think bout that. We stopped at the entrance of Dhanaulti, where a policeman stopped the taxi and we decide to enjoy the view while the driver sorts it out. I had trekking on my mind and I was rearing to go. There seemed to be a trail among the woods and it was quite tempting, but as the matter was sorted I had to wait a lil longer.

We went a little further to look for a hotel which seemed to be a priced possession, a nice 3 star hotel was costing us Rs. 3500 per room and we decided to take the cheapest option at Rs. 2000 for the 5 of us. It was decided to have a quick lunch and go on a trek for some time to inhale the exotic views. First time in my life I had been to a place where I was standing among the clouds. I have travelled a lot but this was the first time for me among the clouds.

There was an Eco park to begin with, we entered the park and the first thing we see is a ladder made up of bungee cords and hanging, as soon as I tried to go up it was shaking like hell and the third step was just too much for any of us to climb, the first time in my life I could understand how difficult it would be to climb up a ladder hanging from a helicopter, we gave up and moved on to a trail. The park was filled with manmade trails but I prefer to take a natural one. And I made others follow me :P …there were clouds all around and nothing much was visible but sometimes some parts would clear and the views were too gud. Now the only problem was that we couldn’t njoi the views. So I decided to move on to the trails.

Between Aman had said that the last time he was on a trek here, he had encountered a snake and that had scared the rest. I am too influenced by NGC and am fully confident that the snake is not gonna attack until it feels threatened and I get excited on the idea of being face to face with snakes. Anyways I was looking for the difficult and longer treks and I wasn’t getting much, but still it was njoiable. And we were having a lot of fun among ourselves. We found a lone gate at one of the places and everyone wanted to get a click there. Climbing up Rajat was the first one to slip and it was amusing, Nippu and shyam followed the feat and it was the laughing session of the day. Finally everyone made it up and we had some nice shots with the villain Rajat wanting to kill everyone with the swiss knife :P .

Scenery at the end of the trail-- mesmerizing

We followed the trail and it was leading us outside the park it was almost 6 and we decided to call it a day, suddenly Rajat remembered that there is an adjacent trail which comes out at a beautiful view, no one was willing but then WTH all joined in, the trail seemed to go on and on and now we weren’t really sure whether Rajat was really telling the truth, but then not the time to give up and we kept moving. The trail actually ended in a mesmerizing view and it all seemed worth it J. The photography session started and took a while. I wanted to take a mental picture of the view and decide to sit by the side and remember it as it is. Wow it looked amazing.

Myself and Aman got bored with the picture taking and decide to move on and Rajat joined as, and as soon as we moved there were  clouds all around and Nippu and Shyam had to join us as well. Rajat met some of his old Haryanwi friends drinking and dancing by the side of the road, who wanted Rajat to join in but Rajat didn’t do I single step. That wud have broken their heart :P …

We decided to have some maggi and then get back to the hotel, the wind had really picked up as we were sitting on the roof of a open restaurant, and it had worsened a bit of my throat. We reached the hotel and straightaway got to work, ordered some boiled eggs and egg bhurji, we had already got other ingredients like scotch and vodka :D .. the night turned out to be amazing we had a lot of fun talking about what guys usually talk bout. After 2 rounds Nipun gave me a lot of healthy advice on marriage and then got more interested in the phone than us. We had a bit of argument on what to do tomorrow but the only think I could think of was trekking J.

I couldn’t sleep much and the first time I woke up was at 5 and it was raining outside. Then I woke up at 6 and then I couldn’t sleep anymore, it was still raining. By 7 I woke up everyone else as well and the rain gods didn’t wanna stop. The laziness and the rains continued, which was intervened by Rajat saying the weather might be better in Surkanda devi and we ought to move out and give it a try.

Rajat and Me trying some off road trails

View From Surkanda Devi Temple

We were all set to go by 11 (we had planned to go by 9 and everyone had woken up as well, and plans never work out on time). We reached Surkanda devi which was like 10Km from the place we stayed and it was drizzling there as well, we decided to climb with umbrellas, WTH since we had come so far we had to see the temple which was hiding in the clouds. The climb was bad, really bad the inclination would be 40 degrees plus and walking was tough. Myself and rajat tried to be more adventurous and took some treks off the main trail which actually gave us some real lovely views. On reaching the top we found that the temple was under renovation and a small temple has been created next to it. Lately I have started liking going to temples, not because I have become more holy but because most temples test human endurance and they are made at places which are difficult to reach, letting everyone know there is no easy way to find anything, and if you want something you need to work hard for it, and I love the working hard part of it.

The views from up there were amazing, I wished I had my camera but then there were 3 more J. The funniest thing is that the clouds cover the landscape and then they would vanish for a second making everything visible and so beautiful and then cover it up again. It was like clouds playing hide and seek and I loved the time spent there. Time to move on J.

The view from Surkanda Devi, Notice the vehicles, thats the place we started the trek

Jakal : Great find

We reached down and decided to have lunch and then think whether we want to do the Tapovan trek or not.  On the way back the driver suddenly stopped the car and we saw a pair of Jakals on the road .. wow … first time I had seen a carnivore in the wild and believe me I get more scared then being afraid ( maybe cause I was in the car, and I didn’t need to be scared). The lunch at Dhanaulti was exact opposite to the one we had a day before, the food was horrible.

We asked people about tapovan and no one in dhanaulti seem to know and we moved out, Aman had done the trek before and remembered the location a little, in the middle of the road somewhere theres a trek going uphill to Tapovan and we had found it. So we decided that we try it for half an hour and if we don’t reach anywhere we head back. Aman has said he had seen a snake on this trek last time and I was hoping to spot one as well, rajat wanted the exact opposite, Nipun and shyam decided to skip it.

Glimpse from Tapovan

The trek was quite pleasant and we were cruising along and as soon as I said that, the climb became difficult but not for long we were at the top in about half an hour and there was a grassland uptop the view was amazing, as we approached further the views kept getting better, we could see the snow capped peaks from here, which seemed to be on a lower altitude but then they were so far I wont believe myself on that :P.

Snow Covered peaks visible from Tapovan

The views had kept getting better on the day and I was really happy that we decided to come to Tapovan and for that matter even to Dhanaulti. It was paradise, I have been to a lot of places now and when I say that people should go and visit this place, I mean it J. Aman described the place as getting his INNER PEACE. For me it was a wow experience. Since we had a deadline and I am really crazy bout them, I forced the rest to climb down and reach the car so that we can move on otherwise the rest might feel bad. Sometimes I feel I could just stop thinking and njoi the moment, anhow I got everyone down L

We moved on to Mussorie, after a lot of discussion the next stop was Kempty fall, I had seen it on the way to Sankri in my December trek and wasn’t really interested. The trolley was an excitement for few but I had done enough of em so not interested. When we reached down the trolley ticket was valid for another 10 minutes and we had to come back by then. We went along and as soon as I saw the waterfall the desire to take a shower beneath it strengthened, but since we didn’t have time and my cough was bad everyone convinced me not to, and we came back up.

We found a hotel which was quite nice for Rs. 1800 for 2 rooms. We freshened up and took a walk at the mall road, which seemed a bit too small. We had dinner at a south Indian place and somehow I got a switch off ( mood swings are not specifically for women). It took me a while to recover but with vodka going in I was back to my crazy self again, enjoying another night of endless laughters. After that we went for a walk to the mall road again and off to bed J.

Next morning I got up late and so did everyone else except Aman who woke us up. And we moved out at 9, the “PLAN” was to go at 7. I guess no one really did want to leave. The way back from a terrific trip is really cruel, suddenly the sun is all bright and you think that everyone is playing games with you, making you realize that you cant always have fun and you have to return to the traffic and the pollution. Well at least I was out there for 2 days, with the people I like and I njoied every minute of it. 

Pattaya, Skydiving (Thailand)

Skydiving is something which has been on my mind ever since I started doing adventurous stuff, and I wished to do this sooner or later. I have been regularly asking my friends who have done skydiving, about where they did it and how it felt. One of my friend Varun Sehgal had told me that he did it in Pattaya, and when Bhargava said he wants to spend some time in Thailand and he wanted me to join him, the first thing I asked him was do you want to do skydiving and I knew he was interested in it, and since mid January I started planning for something which was not going to be somewhere in the future.

After a lot of discussion and planning, our plans didn’t match and the program turned out to be such that I could only visit Pattaya for the weekend, but then I had decided to go there and I didn’t care about the time. When I asked ppl about things to do in pattaya, the first reaction was “it’s a sin city” “beware” “check out the ladyboy shows there”, but of course these were added attractions isnt it. We found out that there is a skydiving and bungy jumping package and we decide to go for it.

Bhargava reached thailand 2 days early and I was to meet him at the thai airport and we had decided to take a bus to Pattaya from there. The bus is available at gate 7 and 8 and charges 124 baht which is quite cheap. The journey is only about 2 hours and the bus was quite comfortable. Meanwhile, India had beat Pakistan in the cricket world cup semifinal and india had reached the finals of the world cup.. yippppeeeeeee.

We reached Pattaya at around 8 and the sole aim was to find the accommodation arranged by the thaiskysdventures. We had to hire two motorbikes from the bus stop and with some effort we reached there. It was an ok accommodation for 900 baht a night. We found a regular skydiver at the reception who was from Singapore and had was going to take 10 dives tomorrow. He also guided as to how to reach the beach and we had dinner together, reaching the beach was a bit a struggle from there so we decided to shift to a hotel near the beach next day, for now we needed to get some sleep as the adrenaline was really starting to flow.

Skydive @13k feet

We got up at 6 and the taxi was to leave the venue at 7, we reached the centre and could already see around 20 regular skydivers ready to take the plunge. We got ourselves registered and we were to jump in half an hour, we started looking around, got a few things to eat, and saw other skydivers going in the plane and their parachutes landing. As we put on the safety harness I was getting a bit nervous. Soon it was our turn, as we boarded the plane there were 7 people in it, when it took off, it can be considered the worst next 10 minutes. I was more than scared and a bit nervous.

We reached the top and my instructor asked me to put my legs outside the plane, it wasn’t that difficult and before I could think of something else he asked me to bend my head backwards and jumped. Oh boy … weightlessness is a wicked thing … its so much fun … and since it didn’t end so soon I had time to relish it. The free fall lasted almost a minute. Oh it was wonderful my earlier free falls had not lasted long and I hadn’t really njoied it, but this was incredible, but somehow I expected more (maybe I will get it if I dive alone). The free fall lasted for a minute and then there was time for the parachute to open. The experience on the parachute and how the instructor maneuvered it was also wonderful he went around in circles at a fast pace and mine and baggis parchutes even did a high five in the air. Landing on the ground was wonderful as well. Overall it was a real good experience and as soon as we returned, Baggi and I looked at each other and we both wanted to do the course and become a licensed skydivers. We were given certificates of the dive which was something to cherish for a lifetime.

It was just 8:30 and we had the full day to ourselves, evening was dedicated to the final of the world cup if we can find a place to watch it. We reached the hotel back around 10, collected our stuff and reached the beach area to find a new hotel. Holiday Inn was too expensive and Baggi suggested IBIS as reasonable and we went for it. Time to head to the beach and have a look around at pattaya, the adrenaline was still in full flow. The beach was pretty much no beach and felt like chaupati to me, I was in no mood to njoi the water and I relaxed by the side sipping on a beer. Bhargava couldn’t resist the temptation of a swim and he went in anyway.

Honda Shadow

Our next decision was the best of the day. We decided to rent a bike, so we went about investigating about a 100cc bike and it turned out that we could actually rent a Honda CBR or a Yamaha R1 for 1000 baht per day, which was actually really cheap. Finally we decided to rent a Honda Shadow for 700 baht for 24 hours. As soon as I sat on the bike I could feel the power, the adrenaline of the skydive was going away and the kick of a 750 cc cruiser, and it was so so smooth. I just loved it.

So all we wanted to do now was to ride as much as we could and after lunch we also add to keep an eye open to find a place to watch the match. This was the biggest match in a long time and we didn’t want to miss it. We roamed around 1 hour in pattaya covering all of the beach road but couldn’t find a place to watch the match so we almost gave up and continued to njoi the ride. We were riding on the beach road and suddenly I saw a place possibly showing cricket, I instantly asked baggi to stop the bike and went back to check and to our delight it was showing cricket

We parked the bike and started watching, the srilankans were going great and it wasn’t really good to watch and we needed a break so we went back to the hotel and relaxed for sometime and returned to the place before the Indian batting started. Turned out that the restaurant will not allow us to sit inside or serve us Beers as the whole restaurant was booked the Jockey company had an Indian get together at the restaurant and we had to be art of the team to get anything from there. We weren’t going to budge from there, so we came out and sat, it was a bit annoying that we couldn’t have beers but then all I was interested was in the match, my happiness was shortlived at the fall of Tendulkar and Sehwag and Indian chances were not looking bright, but as the game progressed it was india who held their nerve and won the match. It was overjoying and the room exploded with happiness, there were around 100 indians in the restaurant all hugging each other, and everyone was so happy.

I realized one thing that day, cricket is the best thing to unite india, no matter how much the politicians make an agenda out of religion, caste and everything, I saw all of india united and everyone njoing the moment and it was pattaya, I cant imagine how the atmosphere would be in india. The strrets would be lit up better than diwali. Now I couldn’t make out what was the most fun thing that I did that day – Skydiving, the coolest bike ride or india winning the world cup. This can easily count as the best day of my life. Now was the time to celebrate and we headed out for drinks, continued drinking all night long and reached the hotel at 6.

Morning had to be early as the bungy jumping time was at 10 and the guy had to pick us up at 9:30, we finished breakfast and the guy was already there and we headed out for the next mission. Bhargava went first here and his jump really looked scary. It was my turn and I was a bit nervous but not as much. As I reached the top, and went till the end of the rope and looked down, I got shit scared, what I felt would be normal fear of height or the alcohol kicking in again, and my hands and legs froze, believe me they froze, after standing at the edge for one minute I let go, it was a hell of a experience and the pull up of the string felt like the world coming to an end. it was an amazing experience nonetheless. i wish i can do it again sometime.

Baggi and me at Sanctury of truth

I came down feeling defeated, I haven’t felt this bad in a long long time and it was killing me. I never thot I could back out from anything and now I had , the rest of the day went with a really bad mood. Even riding the bike couldn’t cheer me up. The next target was to see the “Sanctuary of Truth”, it is a temple made of only wood, the joints and everything is made of wood, and its worth a watch, but I was in no mood to njoi the beauty and it was written all over my face.

Night life @pattaya

From there we wanted to head to the ripleys museum, but decide to give it the skip since we had already spend around 900$ each and both of us were running short of cash. In the evening we went out to have a look at the Tiffany’s show and skipped it for the price as well. We had a long walk on the empty beech which was looking much lovelier in the night. Today was the day to see Pattayas night life and bhargava with his camera took some nice clicks of the glittering lights, it was a nice night I had come to terms with reality and was in a better mood now.

Time to head home, we got up early and had breakfast, checked out of the hotel and then went to the bus station, at the bus station bhargava decided to go to the city directly instead of coming to the airport as it will inturn waste him another 2 hours, so we bid goodbye to each other having excellent 3 days in each others company. I reached Cambodia in the afternoon with the best memories of my life.

Kedar Kantha : Kedar Kantha Summit

Lovely Morning

Still not much sleep and the first one to get up around 6. The sunrise happened around 6:30 and the sky again filled with various colours. The sunrise was matching the sunset second by second and I was relishing each moment.

I got ready and could see the summit within reach. I was also happy because we were not going to carry any stuff with us and no extra backpack which would make the walk much easier. Today was the day of a tough snow climb and we were asked to walk closely in the group and all of us followed RajMohan.  Breakfast today was Maggie and its always welcome. We did the warm up exercises and were ready to start by around 8 AM.

Look at the tiny dots, thats us ascending

It would have been 15 minutes into the walk and the summit seems much closer, this adds on to the enthusiasm, and we carry on, the approach was to go from the other side which would be more sunny and would have less ice/snow. The ascent was a bit tougher now and we were moving staright up on narrow paths. Things were starting to get tough and I was getting a bit scared, and then we hit the scariest patch, we have to cross from the side where the fall would be atleast 3-4K feet down andas soon as I looked at it, it got on to me, I was scared. Ashu bhai helped me get through that patch, and I was going to stick by him for the rest of the climb.

There were other similar paths and if it wasn’t for Praveen and Ashu Bhai, it would have been really difficult for me. I cant really say what exactly it was, scared of the height, the fall, the narrow path, but believe me the fall was so great that I could hardly see where it ends and the path was as inclined as it always was.

My misery was not to get over soon, and next was an inclined patch of snow almost 70 degrees and we got on all fours to keep climbing up. Adi (6feet 4) was behind me and ashu bhai was behind him, as Adi was trying to climb up he straightened his leg and whaaaammm, straight on the face of Ashu bhai, Ashu bhai blanked out for a moment but thankfully did not loose his grip and fall. Thankfully nothing major had happened.

Praveen Standing on the Summit

By this time I am more worried on how am I going to come down on this steep slope as looking down was the more difficult part, and it had really got me worried. But then we kept moving and reached the summit. Being on the summit was a great feeling J, a bit of relief for me, and it was really beautiful. We relaxed and njoied the view for some time, everyone clicked pictures. Visited the temple up top and njoied the view some more.

It was time to descend down and as we started it wasn’t seeming as difficult as I thought it would be and within 10-15 minutes the fear had gone away and I was descending comfortably. We were going through a different route and the route was really beautiful, snow patches and meadows and the peaks coming in between the misty layers looked amazing, it was not like the regular cloud cover, it was like thin layers of mist like waves covering the mountains.

Cant Walk, time to slide 

We approached some snowy patches now and I was comfortable getting down, there came a patch with extreme slope and Raj mohan told us to slide down, that’s the fun that was needed. I slid down th first path and Mehta was behind me, Mehta overshot the mark and was almost at the edge of the slope. It gave him the shivers and I continued on the slide down, we had a fun filled 5 minutes sliding down the snow and everyone quite njoied it. We stopped for a minute to remove the snow from our clothes and shoes. I really wanted to do that again, it really was great fun.

We continued to descend down slowly and now we didn’t require to take breathers keep walking slowly and you will reach. By afternoon we had reached the base camp and everyone was overjoyed. All of us had made it to the summit and was back safely. Lunch was served and everyone had it. We collected our stuff together and had a few group photographs. I bid adieu to Kedar Kantha.

We start descending again after lunch, its just afternoon and we need to reach somewhere around 9000 feet before nightfall which might happen as early as 5 and it was time to push the paddle and speed on. The initial part of the descent (now with the back pack) was ok, and we keep moving on without much stoppages. After half an hour my body was giving up and I started to slow down a bit.

Soon most of the trekkers had overtaken us and it was me ashu bhai and Praveen. At one point I could see two trails and couldnot not see any one on any of the trails, I started descending on one of the trails and asked ashu bhai to look at the other and unluckily I was on the wrong one and retreated to move on in the right direction.

Mayukh posing at the stream

We could hear a stream of river and thought there was a waterfall near by, immediately I thot of Gladston (my collegue, loves taking bath in a waterfall) and was excited to see it. As we turned we found out that it was a stream of river. As we approached the first thing I see is Imran slipping and falling hard, luckily he was not injured and just made everyone else aware to take a bit of precaution. As we came across the stream was frozen from above and the water was flowing from beneath, it was a lovely site to watch. Above all that it was fresh water, unbelievably fresh water. We had been drinking smoked water (the ice was cut or collected in pans and was heated in the fire made from burning wood, so it made the water taste like smoke and we named it smoked water) for the past three days and fresh water tasted tooooooo gud.

There were steep snow patches and with the back pack it was a bit difficult to walk across them, but then that’s what I was there for, to test my limits (between its not testing my limits, its just telling me that I sit on my ass too much and I need to start working out). We stopped at the same place where we had rested while going up and seen the summit for the first time. I was tired by now and the my knees, calf muscles and especially my toes were hurting bad. Arjun said it’s a decent of another 40 minutes and we should be there.

We now started descending along an empty river bed, which might be filled with water in summers and for long we kept following it. Every time I saw a meadow I thought it’s the place we camp today and no RajMohan asked us to descend some more. My toes were hurting real bad and I was loosing all energy. I was starting to slip backwards and now people were going out of sight.

I don’t know what took over me, and I decided to take on the challenge and I started to quicken my pace and seriously started to walk like a mad man, now I did not care about slipping or sliding and I just kept walking as fast as I could and believe me I overtook a lot of people, and reached near RajMohan. And we finally made a stop, oh I couldn’t walk anymore, Aditya was mad at RajMohan as to why we need to go so fast, and except for 4-5 of us no one was in near sight, we waited for 10-15 minutes and still there was no sign of anyone and I didn’t even want to move from there.

RajMohan told us that the camp was very near and asked us to move ahead, and the camp was in breathing distance and as I reached I crashed on the ground. It was a great relief to reach and rest. And as the camp fire was on everyone gathered along. Others started coming in and we found  out that one of the groups had lost its way and took time to find their way back.

Another important development was that LA had got cuts in his legs and he was unable to walk. As everyone was trying to give him support and encouragement, Imran said that if you are unable to wlak then they will bring the stretcher and u ll be carried along, and after hearing this who would want to move J. So it took a lot of effort from others and a lot of will power and strength on the part of LA that he slowly and steadily made back to the camp. It was a job well done.

It was around 7 and everyone gathered around the fire and Aditya wanted RajMohan to tell some ghost stories, and RajMohan tried his best. Aditya actually bet everyone to go in the jungle for half an hour in the dark and he wont be afraid, but then we weren’t so lucky that he would go J.

Antaksri Time :)

And the only thing to do was to play Antakshri, we got divided into 2 groups and started off, it was fun, our team had mainly myself, Sandhya, samyuktha, ashu bhai, Kuldeep and believe me the other team was headed entirely by sirlaxmi. My song knowledge goes backs 15-20 years and she was singing songs of 50’s, none of the people had heard 70% of the songs she was singing, but then she would keep singing, one after the other. Believe me you cant win against her, ever. In between the session dinner was served and todays dinner was egg curry and rajma ..yuuuuuuuuummmmmmmyyyy. loved the food the preparation and the quality of food that we had was just amazing, I loved each diet I had there.

The fire was going out and Arjun asked us to retreat in our tents. We decided to keep on playing and invited everyone to our tent, well then it was 8 people in one tent playing antaksri in freezing temperatures. It was a great experience. If it wasn’t for our protective Arjun who asked us to disperse we wouldn’t have stopped playing and yes Sri would have never run out of songs. Well then it was time to doze off with a day extremely well spent J .

Kedar Kantha : Juda ka Talab to KK Base Camp 27th Dec 2010

Since I had some sleep in the afternoon I couldn’t sleep at night and hearing snores all over the place wasn’t helping. The sleeping bag was also small and maneuvering inside it was fairly difficult, so another sleepless night for me. Got up around 6 again and got ready by 7. The breakfast was ready and we had bread butter and bread jam which was gud as well.

I had more energy now and took some pics of the frozen talab which looked fabulous in the sunlight. After the breakfast we got along with the loosening up exercises and then everyone went around the camp looking for plastics and other stuff so that we don’t pollute the place. It was wonderful thing to do and I felt happy to help. I couldn’t have carried all of my stuff and I removed my slippers and one sweater and handed it to Arjun to be carried by the porters. I knew I wasn’t gonna use em and I didn’t want them for the rest of the trip.

It was a big relief and I was all set to make a move. 10 minutes into the hike, I was starting to feel the weight of the bag again, but what to do cant complain now J . Around half an hour later we reached a beautiful spot where we could see the snow covered mountains, it was a lovely site, we stopped and savored the view, clicked some pics and back on the trail.

Soon afterwards we were lost in the pine forest and its beauty, keep relishing the views and keep on moving. The atmosphere was great but the water was running out, almost all the bottles were empty in around one and half hours, and water was a priced commodity now. We reached a meadow for some welcome rest and Arjun showed us the KedarKantha peak, it looked beautiful, and the site was gud enuf to pump up energy in our bodies to start moving on.

Slowly and steadily we moved on and reached the KK Basecamp by afternoon. It was a nice sunshine but the temperatures were touching -3, everyone got there and started resting, it was a nice sunshine to njoi and the view was terrific. Ankur wasn’t feeling too well and he had a quick nap. We chatted for a while and it was time for lunch. To my surprise the lunch had Rajma (slurp ..) its always good to eat rajma and at an altitude of 11K feet with absolutely tired bodies, it was bliss, relished every byte I ate and was completely satisfied.

After the lunch Arjun collected us for a quick briefing and the point was “How to walk or climb on ice/ snow?” The instructions were clear, avoid ice at all times, it will be very slippery. Dig in with your front part while climbing up, body weight forward and dig with your heels and body weight backwards while coming down. And we were given a task to try what we learnt by climbing up, on a small part it wasn’t tough to climb up but coming down seemed like a problem, but all our fears were gone when we were asked to simply run and not think while coming down. Believe me it was fun J.

It was around 4:30 and the sun was setting down, and to my surprise we were served onion and potato pakodas with lemon tea, it was just the day for awesome food that I couldn’t resist. I desperately wanted to add on to my sunset collection of pics, but more important was to njoi the view. The beauty of the sunset is that every few minutes the colour of the landscape changes from yellow to orange to pink and I really wish I could capture exactly what our eyes could see, it would have been great. Everyone was clicking pics in every direction and it itself formed a great view.

By now Ashu bhai wasn’t feeling too well and he felt he had fever, we got him into the tent and he tried to sleep for a while. We gathered around a campfire to keep ourselves warm. When I returned to the camp Ashu bhais condition was deteriorating and I was feeling responsible in getting him into this. He asked what needs to be done and Arjun suggested him to have a Crocin and he had it and back to sleep.     

We got into the tent as well but me and Kuldeep started talking about our life and Ashu bhai also started feeling better, I was glad to see that, soon he joined us and we chatted for a long time. It was a nice bonding session and everyone went to sleep.

Kedar Kantha : Sankri -- Juda Ka Talab 26th Dec 2010

We had slept early and were supposed to be tired but I couldn’t sleep all that well and at 4 when Ankur asked for the time almost everyone answered implying no one had slept. We got up at 6 and started getting ready as there were 7 ppl with a single bathroom it was going to take time, but we were all ready by 7:30 and went down for breakfast. The breakfast was yummy gobhi paranthas and we hogged em.

After the breakfast Arjun gathered all of us and asjed us to do some loosening exercises, the exercises were gud for the body and I cud do all except the jumping jacks, which are supposed to be easy, but then I have been sleeping a long long time for the last 2 months. Then he divided us into 3 ropes, 3 groups of 6 persons each and we were to stay together.

I was part of the third rope Me, Aditya, shuvadeep, Kuldeep, Madhu and Ajay. Once we started our rope started very slowly and Shuvadeep’s taking pictures of everything on the way wasn’t helping. After 10 minutes of walk the bagpack started to take its toll, mine was actually excessively heavy and the burden had started to become a lot, But then it was just the starting. Another half an hour and I had forgotten all about the rope the more I tried to be with them, the more I felt that I was just standing carrying weight and it wont help my cause, so I started walking in the midst of other ropes and soon there were no ropes J ..

My strategy slowly developed into walking as close to the leader as possible and stop for small breaks when the bagpack could not be carried anymore. The funniest thing that happened was I used to move with full effort go up and always always found Ajay sitting in front of me relaxing, I used to cross him and after 10 mins he would be sitting, resting in front of me. Well then its gud to see just the funny side of it.

Laxmi and Aditya were the chirpiest of the lot and kept entertaining everyone. Some of the ppl really needed a boost. After two hours the bag had become a liability and I thot my habit of overpacking will break my back this time, but this was not the time to brood but to move on. We were walking almost the whole day in the pine forest and the new patch as Arjun told us was surrounded by Maple trees, the Maple  leaves were spread all over the place. There was a stream of water flowing from where we refilled our bottles, the water was really gud to drink but it was really cold. It was a steady climb with regular stoppages and we finally reached Juda ka talab by 2. The first thing I did was to put the back pack down and rest, my back was really hurting and so were my calf and thigh muscles.

I had no energy left in me, the tents were being set up and we had chai and snacks, which gave me some energy to have a look around. The glimpse of Juda ka Talab didn’t impress me much, but when I went near it and saw it was completely frozen I was amazed. The temperature of the place at 3PM was -2 degrees. People were having fun crossing the frozen lake and going to the middle, but I was too tired and wanted my sleeping bag to straighten my back, we had lunch and soon I got into the sleeping bag. The back was really hurting and it was gud that I got in.

Ashu bhai, Kuldeep and myself were in the same tenet and both of them had lied down as well. We got up around 7 deciding it was enough to lie down and were presented with dinner straight away. I had a terrible headache and wasn’t feeling like having anything right now, and when I told about the headache to Arjun and also that I took a Combiflame to cure it, he got furious and wanted everyone to consult him before taking any medication, he asked me to drink a lot of water and take a Disprin. I knew disprin would cure me and felt ok after half an hour.

The important thing about water was that the ice was being taken from the talab and melted in the camp fire and that was the only source. Other than not being clear the problem with the water was the smell of smoke, it actually was Smoked Water, unusual taste but that was what was available, and no one complained.

Since I was feeling well now, we kept chattering, by the time we arrived actually everyone had dinner and went to sleep and we (myself, Ashu Bahi, Kuldeep, Amit, Ankur and Atul) were the only ones around. Atul and Ankur were also in problem of sorts and they needed some warmth besides the fire.

The sky was studded with stars and it we could actually see the milky way, I really wished we could captured as and what our eyes can see, and I tried with the max shutter speed of 15 secs and couldn’t gather much. We kept looking at the stars for more than an hour and decided to go to sleep by 10.

Kedar Kantha : Winter trek from 6900 – 12500 Feet

I have been home for a long time and really wanted to go out, and when Atul and Ankur presented me with the idea of a winter trek, it was another chance for me to check my limits. And as I was looking for more company, I got Ashu bhai into it as well. I knew I had to prepare for the trek, specially to survive the cold and walking in the snow.  With a lot of thought, effort and the checklist a got a lot of stuff and thot I was quite ready for the trek. Ashu bhai was very busy with the office and did not have much , he packed whatever he thought should be packed and our bags had the max weight L …

24^th Night – Delhi Dehradun

Me and Ashu bhai left for CP to catch the bus and the first setback was the Chivas could not be carried in the Metro and we had to take the Auto, though the auto is really not a gud option but then we didn’t have much of an option J (no compromise there). We reached CP and Ashu bhai decided on some last minute shopping, we came back and found Imran who was also going for the trek, Ankur and Atul and also arrived. As we were boarding the bus we found out that there were two more ppl in the same bus, Amit and Kuldeep, so now it was 7 of us and we got off from Delhi.

But the excitement of the night had just started and out of nowhere I got a call from Shuvadeep that hes at the ISBT and does our bus have space for another person. I asked the conductor and it was decided to pick him from ISBT. I was still surprised why did he call me of all ppl, but then it was ok. We stopped by at ISBT for like 2 hours and it was almost 11 and we were still in Delhi. Eight of us in the same bus and got acquainted pretty well. The chemistry between Ashu Bhai and Deep had taken off and it kept everyone amused. Deep was now known as LAPD (no specific reason other than he was just back from LA).

I was tired and excited as well and by 12 we were still in Ghaziabad, I was worried of getting late but then 8 of us were in the same bus, so everyone had to wait for us in dehradun. It was pretty uneventful after that and we were woken up by the commotion at 5 in Haridwar. So it was 5 and we were still in Haridwar, we needed to be in Ddn by 6, which was neva gonna happen. But the commotion was that the bus wasn’t going anywhere., and ppl were getting into heated arguments which eventually made the bus move. By 6:30 we had finally reached Dehradun.

25^th Dec (Dehradun – Sankri)

The night in the bus was really tyring, and by 6 laxmi had started calling everyone asking there whereabouts as she was incharge of the team till we reach Sankri. Sri, Nikhil and Mayuk were the first ones I met in Dehradun. We had tea there and boarded the bus. While waiting for us the Noida – Andhra gang had gone out to freshen up and they finally got back by 8. Time to move on to Sankri.

By now everyone knows about LA and everyone is being entertained by Ashu bhai and LA as well. Imran gets the second name as “Sleeping Beauty” as he kept sleeping throughout the journey and Praveen who was happy in a Tshirt, track pant and chappals, is named “Superman”.

We soon stopped for breakfast at Kempty Falls after crossing Mussorie. Didn’t want to eat much but ended up hogging since it had been a long time since I had anything.  I called up home telling em that there might be no signal by the evening and it would not be possible to talk to me.

Some of the guys had not realized about the signal and hadn’t called home, well it was a big mistake as there was no way to contact home after we reach Sankri. The rest of the day went on in sharing pleasantries and sleeping. We stopped for lunch at 3:30 in purola and the major concern was to reach Sankri which by now means not possible before 7 and it wasn’t a gud feeling as it was gonna be dark. But then everyone doesn’t think alike and it was 4:30 by the time we left Purola.

We reached Sankri at 7:30 and it was quite dark, but then the bus ride and finally ended and i was in the bus for almost 22 hours which was not gud signs for my back, but then things were gud. We had tea and pakodas and then moved on to our respective rooms. Everyone collected for dinner and we got an acquaintance session with Arjun and Sandhya and met up with RajMohan and Gazzi bhai. We had a nice dinner and were to doze of early as everyone was quite tired.

Preah Vihear, Koh Ker and Northern Borders (Cambodia)

The plan is to visit Preah Vihear temple, its arguably the most disputed temple in Cambodia, surrounded by Thailand and has been the site for a fight between the two country for decades and t go to Koh Ker another temple comlplex similar to Angkor Wat. I am excited as ever, more because everyone is recommending us not to go there and we definitely are going J.

Day1 – 7^th Oct 2010

Got up at 7 and started the journey with Gladston and Yoga. Both of them are regular travelers and love doing anything and everything. Its really fun being with both of them. They carry a slightly different personality, but both of them impress me equally.

I slept as soon as I entered the car and woke up around 10, the journey to Preah Vihear was going to be long and I was ready for it (sleeping that is). Our first and only destination for today is the river of 1000 Lingas and we reach the destination around 2.

Tired by the journey we had lunch and found that the entry is 20$, and it closes by 3. We ended up bribing the guard and entering in 10$. The river was 1.5 Km away and we had a walk cum hike to reach there. The hikes now refresh me a little and finally I was getting something exciting to do. To top it we ended up at a waterfall and we jumped straight in, the bath was just what was required after a walk in the sun. the river and ruins were not grand but it was beautiful indeed.

On the way back we saw a small snake being taken prey by the colony of ants and then after we changed we found a small snake in the bush, it was my first experience to spot a sanke in the wild (couldn’t identify the specie). We moved out from there and reached Preah Vihear district at night.

The drivers wife insisted to order local food and we agreed. When the dinner arrived she explained to us that she had ordered Deer and Wild Boar, this seemed exciting but I knew that I might be sleeping hungry as I might not like it and wont be able to gulp it. The first dish was deer and was as usual cooked with a lot of ‘Tulsi’ and I really don’t like it, so the first experiment had failed. The second dish arrived and the meat was tender and amazing I loved it and we ordered one more of the same dish. It was roasted deer and it tasted amazing. Another dish of wild boar arrived and it was similar to pork but I was more interested in the deer. We went to the hotel and slept nicely.

Day2 -- 8^th Oct 2010

Got up early morning and went for a little walk, saw a stream of river and people catching fish in a unique way, and to my surprise also also saw the fish jumping upstream almost like salmons do, it is something I have always wanted to witness, and it was wonderful to see.

Our next stop was the Preah Vihear temple and we were stopped about 10 Km before that and told that only Moto’s or 4 wheel drives can go there, so we hired a 4 wheel drive for 25$ and start the climb, the climb was really really steep and the Camry would definitely had given up. Soon we were on the top and near the temple.

The first noticeable thing about the place was the difference in the international and the unilateral map shown, which reminded me of the unpleasant history of the place. We move forward and found a lot of army with M80’s (the guns are huge) aimed towards Thailand, but the atmosphere was not tense and we took photographs with the gun J. As we entered the doorsteps we found that the way was going down towards Thailand and we wanted to see how near we can reach Thailand but first we had a temple to explore.

The temple was a typical Angkor architecture and it wasn’t intriguing me much, so we just kept visiting from one ruin to the other reaching the end after around 2 hours of facing the sun. Yoga was looking around when an army guy asked us to join for lunch, we sat there for some time and I start feeling a bit awkward so wanted to go, so Yoga asked us to carry on and we wanted to converse as he always does. So we moved on, reached back to the stairs leading down towards the border and of course we went down for sure.

After reaching down the first thing to find was to see where the border is and how does it look like, I hoped there was no action but was excited nonetheless. We reached a few soldiers with rocket launchers and M80’s, and they pointed that a few feet ahead was the border, there was no fence nothing at all that would separate Cambodia to Thailand. We went a little further and a guard helped us to look at the thai side using the binoculars, this was fun looking at the other side using binoculars.

The soldier took us to a guided tour around the place showing us the trenches laid all over and then he took us around the little village showing us the dispensary, fish farm etc. Then we bring us to another part of the border and we see a bench and 3 men sitting there, to our surprise 2 were thai soldiers and the desk was separating the Cambodia Thai border, and the atmosphere was very pleasant between them. We wished that yoga was there with us as he was missing out on all the fun.

We bid goodbye and moved back through the stairs back to the starting point and found Yoga there, we saw him with a army guy and asked him where he had been and he told us that the army person sent a junior with him to show around d the bunkers and he also visited the Thai border, and came through another route, and we should go there too, and we told him we had already done so as well. We had a plate of noodles there to get some energy back. We visited a nearby pagoda and also another place with thai soldiers, this was astonishing as there were 8 thai soldiers in a place surrounded by Cambodia, and everyone lives in harmony. According to me Cambodia should have asked them to leave or make em evacuate , but all seem to live in harmony J.

We reached back to the car and started our drive back. The driver told us there was a nice waterfall and we would love a dive right now so we agreed, when we reached there it turned out to be a small waterfall filled with people, this was not ideal but we dived in nonetheless, the place was dirty and it was the worse place I had ever been to in Cambodia, but it was surely a local attraction.

We stopped at a place for gas and Yoga started having a beer with the locals and interacting with them. I tried to join in but seriously I cant do it, I cant communicate if I cant convey my point and he does it with ease. Well he got busy with them and since it was getting late, we decide to stay at the same place. The guys asked Yoga to join him for dinner and he agreed. Yoga said it would be fun, and I really wanted to go but I knew I would not be able to converse much and would end up getting bored, so we decided to stay back and Yoga went with the guy.

Rest of us went for dinner and to our surprise we got deer and monitor lizard, I didn’t like the monitor lizard and deer was also not as gud, but I filled my stomach enough. During this time we found that we had an extra day and we could go somewhere else and a lot of plans came to the mind, like the Tri border, battambong etc. In the middle of the dinner Yoga called and he said he was in an army camp and having drinks with the General and a minister had just visited them as well and after the party they are gonna take him to a night jungle trek and tomorrow they will take us to the waterfalls. Since we didn’t have much choice waterfall it was, but as I am I was uneasy as the plan was not fixed.

Day 3 – 9^th Oct 2010

I got up around 6:30 and straight away went to yoga to see his condition and more so know bout the plan. Yoga explained he had had a wild night and we could go to the waterfalls with the army guys. When we went for breakfast the army guy talked to the driver and the driver told us that he wanted to take us to the same waterfall, we were really not interested in the same waterfall and we actually conveyed our point of wanting to visit the triborder, to which the driver and his wife thought of as fools to be wanting to visit that, the tri border was much farther than we got from the map and the road near the end was really bad.

We stopped at a point to know the directions and those guys told us that we cannot take the car there and we needed to take bikes to reach the border and asked 12$ per bike. We decided that amount was a lot and we should give it a try, but soon we found out that we were wrong and the car really cant go, so we called the bike guys and headed to the border. The tri border was inside a jungle trail and reaching their it really didn’t seem like a border, it was monument erected with three sides, one for each country. I found a fighting mantis there, and it was fun to click its photographs as it was always in a fighting mode with the two front legs, it was great to see and I took a lot of its pictures.

Before I forget the Tri border was a great place to reach and an achievement of sorts for me, it being in a jungle is surprising but it was fun. The moto ride across the bit of a jungle was fun as well. From there it was decided we go to the Cambodia – Lao border and try to go to the waterfall there. The road was a bit treacherous and we thought of heading back but the driver was confident of reaching there and we kept moving on. We reached there in the afternoon.

It was a river border so one side was Cambodia and other side was Laos, we rented a boat from there and went to the Lao side, had lunch there and strolled around the area and came back to the shore. It was a fun experience and now I have 8 countries in my list of travel. We started back and after a long drive reached Koh Ker by 7:30.

Koh Ker was a small place and electricity was a privilege, though Yoga insisted on an AC room and we went out searching for one. The place was very dimly lit and we saw some boiled eggs at a place and I wanted to eat em. Soon Gladston also joined us and yoga as usual started communicating with the locals. Gladston opened the top and I could see something black and I got up from my seat straight away and I wasn’t gonna try that. Gladston didn’t seem to like it but he was obligated to eat since he had started it. Yoga came back and took one, he has had it before and he was up for it, actually it was an almost hatched egg and it looked disgusting. I would not try that.

We couldn’t find an AC room and settled in one of the guesthouse present, we freshened up and went for dinner in a near by place, the dinner included deer as well and it was good to eat. The rooms were ok and with the mosquito net it was a comfortable sleep, but Yoga wouldn’t let that happen and he dragged me for a walk outside the hotel, the roads were pitch dark and it was like a jungle there, believe me I was a bit scared as the only thing we had for light was the mobile phone or the flash from my camera. After half an hour I forced both of em to return and we went to sleep peacefully.

Day 4 – 10^th Oct 2010

We got up at around 7 as usual and went for breakfast, had a walk around the place and were ready to visit the temple area, Koh Ker was a huge complex in an area of 9Km * 4Km, but I was least interested in the temples, but the place was very quite not much people, no proper road, seemed like looking at temples in the jungle, we went into few and just looked from the window for others.

In one of the places Gladston wanted to climb up a hanging branch of the tree and challenged others to do it as well, I went ahead in successfully climbing it J .. at least a bit of fun apart from the boring temples. There were also a lot of ant hills present and there was a lot of moisture in the place, I was wishing to see some snakes but could not spot any, we moved on after that back to Phnom Penh.

The driver suggested to visit another temple called Beng Miliea and we agreed as we had enuf time, we reached the temple around 11 and it was in complete ruins, it was a gud site to visit and full of moisture as well, the ruins were covered in moss and the green gave it a great look. I liked it most among the temples that we visited on the trip.

On the way we stopped by the river to have lunch where we can lie down in the hammocks and wait for lunch to arrive it was a refreshing lunch and we continued back to Phnom Penh. It started raining really hard on the rest of the way and we could manage to reach Phnom Penh.