The travelogue - trip to the himalayas

Day 4: 4 in the evening - On the banks of Ganges at Rishikesh

As I sat there on the wooden bench staring at the water dripping down from my shirt, i could only think of one word - Surreal. Here we were at the fag end of our journey that was supposed to be secular by all means, that was supposed to have been planned to a "t" and that should have had us having warm chai back home by now. All what we had instead were soggy shorts and T shirt dripping holy ganges, no footwear, no mobile phones and no transport and stuck in a roadside chai tapri waiting for our vehicle with the hope that our driver had some sense left in him. "we" here's me, Ashok and Pratik holding a cup of steaming hot chai and a fag each procured from the money borrowed from Nikhilesh out on the lookout for our driver.

Surreal - i think is the right word for the times.

But believe me that was not how it was planned.

Day 0: The day prior to the "trip"

Bags were packed, provisions taken, advance paid and everything in order. After some deliberation on where in the hills we could head to for the weekend, it was decided to opt for Auli. Auli - that wonderfully snow clad resort set just outside Joshimath and within 2 days drive from Delhi. My memories of the previous trip to Badrinath still strong meant that the place got the necessary veto. It was going to be the 5 of us in a Chevrolet Tavera. This later got whittled down to 4 ( we should have seen the sign) but we persisted with the Tavera. This was going to be a pleasure trip and we were going to go about it comfortably. And so we were ready to go.

Day 1: Delhi. Early enough in the morning

All going as planned. Vehicle arrived. Vehicle got stocked. Good byes conveyed. The last member picked up........ We were on our way. By the way the last member - Pratik had just finished his night shift at the office and was boarding the vehicle to go to the deepest Himalayas. How cool was that? As the vehicle made its way out of Delhi in the early morning haze, we guys settled into what was going to be a long day of driving ahead. The band of 4 who finally did make it through were probably be as ordinary a bunch of guys you would get in any Tavera headed for the hills. Right at back seat fiddling with the tapes to be played on the deck and stuff to be consumed was Nikhilesh - the operations guy. The guy on the floor who executed this whole plan, organised the logistics and the team members. Having done all that it was probably his time to rest enjoy the view. In the seat ahead of him - Ashok - the quiet guy with a look that belied a time bomb ticking in his head. A very busy man at other times, it was his utmost desperation to be away from the grind of the work that pulled him in. A single minded dedication to enjoying the most of this trip and a dislike for conventionality was to prove an asset later. Sitting next to him was Pratik - the cool guy, the provider of eassential items and the muse of the trip. Never one to miss the opportunity to do something outrageous but very funny. More of him later. Then there was me. My only claim to fame in the group being the fact that i had seen the route before and could quote names. As one might imagine, the novelty quickly faded away.
So here we were on our way to the mighty Himalayas. The trip was to take 4 days starting on Thursday morning Nov 02 and finishing on Sunday evening Nov 6. We were to pass Haridwar, Rishikesh and the sundry prayags and attempt to reach as far as possible on the first day. A night's halt at one of the towns and then the travel the second day to Joshimath and then to Auli. ETA to Auli - around mid afternoon. ETD from Auli - around mid afternoon the next morning and retrace the path down. If lucky enough we were to stop at Hardwar in the evening and witness Ganga puja. That was " THE PLAN".
And according to the plan went the first day. Delhi to Hardwar is a pretty ordinary journey on the plains passing town after town of overcrowded roads, rash traffic and dodging cattle. Breakfast at Muzaffarnagar before heading to Hardwar and Rishikesh. Its after Rishikesh that the road starts to climb, traffic to reduce and scenery starts to enliven. First hour after Rishikesh got the necessary ooh and aahs which gradually normalised as time went on. A secondary chai stop at KAudiyala some 40 odd kms after Rishikesh saw us at the GMVN guest house with its log huts. A very nice place to stay if one takes away the fact that it can get very lonely in the night. The place is bult literally on the banks of the Ganges gurgling around a bend on it its way into Rishikesh. Tarrif is a bit stiff and the facilities elementary but this place has a feel of the campsite and thats its novelty. Additionally the staff there can organise rafting trips from Shivpuri 10kms downstream and so populate the day with adventure activities. All said an done a great getaway and activity spot for people from Delhi.
The move from there took us through the mandatory prayags against the flow of the river. As common sense would suggest, if one's moving to the mouth of a river one can travel along the river and against the flow. The fact that the river cuts a comfortable valley and necessitates the setting up of towns on its backs adds to the convineience. The thing that is unique to this place is the manner in which it spawn pilgimage spots at each of the critical grographical pinch points. So one has the prayags which essentailly are the confluence areas where two streams converge. Hard to decide which came first practicality of siting or religious importance.Prateek found all this very intriguing and a lot of creative energy had to be enpended with in explaining the nitty gritties of river valley geographies. I am sure he still had some left . So it was Devprayag, Rudraprayag KArnaprayaga and Nandprayag for us.
Lunchtime found us at Srinagar. Throughout the trip, i was engrossed in trying to ascertain our possible place of stay for the night and probably "plan" for it. After some mulling,we decided to have our lunch in Srinagar. A fateful decision which cost us about an hour of travel time that day. No sooner had we finished the lunch and moved along traffic was stopped for roadworks being undertaken by BRO. BRO, here has a presence next only to God it would seem. Every curve a vehicle takes, every safety barrier one kisses on these precarious roads one comes across this ubiqutous entity the Border Roads Organisation, the creater, preserver and to a some extent the destroyer of roads in this region. Roads being the lifeline of the region invariably lends far greater importance to this body. And they do a good job of it considering the fact that many of these bear the brunt of heavy army vehicles day in and day out. Some of these roads are far better than the civilian roads in Delhi.It was this same BRO that was repaving the road outside Srinagar holding us up for for an hour. not that we could complain - that was it - wait and watch.
Finally we got to move passing through Rudraprayag - fork leading to the KEdarnath route along another tributary and hence an important town. The road to Kedarnath follows another tributary finally stopping at a base camp after which its a long walk upto the shrine. How do i know about all this? Books and pictures though soon enough i would reinforce this with first hand experience.
Evening saw us finally making it Karnaprayag, an important point on the route to Joshimath (primarily i guess because of its distance from Delhi). It was around 6 in the evening that day and very dark and this was going to be it for us for the day (veichles are not allowed to travel in the hills in the night after 8 even if it means that the inhabitants sleep in the car in the middle of nowhere). The one fact growing on us through the day was that this was the "offseason". Everything here is different now. Food Items are costlier and rarer, roads are unclogged, towns less noisy and more importantly - hotels are empty and amazingly cheap. One can expect a 70% discount at these times. My previous experiene last year at KArnaprayag was one of almost being kidnapped into a hotel but this time was vastly different. After some searching, we ended up at the GMVN guesthouse. The rooms were large airy and very sarkari - nice. and it was here that we met up with the another of the key turning points of our trip. It so happened that as we were checking about our intended destination down here at Karnaprayag, we were told that there would be no snow in Auli. No snow, no fun. But.....Badrinath was still open. Its higher and probably has some snow to play with. And regardless of that it is an enchanting pilgrimage site in its own right and way way better than just any other tourist spot. And anyway we were in here for the journey and 40 kms more means 40kms more pleasure. So this was the situation. I jumped on the deal, but our driver dint.
Before I go ahead, there's somehting about the uniqueness of Badrinath being open at this time of the year that needs to be explained (especially considering the surreality we were about to experience). You see, in normal circumstances, Badrinath closes around Diwali time with everybody and the God's idol moving down to Joshimath were they wait the winter away. The only people left are the jawans and Gods to take care of them. This was the information we had with us when we left Delhi and this had determined our decision to move to Auli. Now that the status of this information had changed, so did our decision. But our driver still needed convincing the nitty gritties of which were taken care of expertly by Nikhilesh the next day.
The night in Karnaprayag was nice and stony. And we had the power cut induced darkness to make things even better. The cold of the night was kept at bay by some friendly rum procured from the bazaar and some loud noise. (It is surprising that even in these pilgrim towns, theone thing you can get is the booze - i guess the practicality of life governs that aspect).The one thing that got left behind was our dinner and that because our guest house doors got locked. So for everybody out there, make a noting of the collapsible gate timings of your friendly GMVN guest house. anyway a hungry, stoned and woozy end to a long first day. The tone of the trip was set.

Day 2 : Karnaprayag - Moving deeper into the Himalayas

Day 2 in the morning saw us moving deeper into the Himalayas.Deeper, here does not always mean higher, it just means further north, in a gradual slope up as we trace the path of the river back to the source. Thing about these routes is that they eventually lead to one of the folds in the hills after which it just becomes impossible to drive further. So unlike common thinking, the road does not finally rest at the top. Breakfast at Nandprayag and move further across the other string of pilgrim towns as we inched towards Joshimath. slowly the first views of snow capped peaks started coming into picture and so did the forgotten strings of oohs and aahs only to be forgotten again. As we moved along one couldnt help notice the difference in vegetation on the hills on both sides of valley. We, being on the road always looked at the rocky side of the hills which was so very different from this side of the valleys that were forested and domesticated. We could appreciate the contrast only when we finally got to a stop. The reason, apparently, is human intervention. Wherever roads have gone, settlements have sprung and so has farming which has transformed that side of the hill. And all this was dawning on us as we had stopped to bribe the local constable. Bribe? you say? Ya, there was this small case of us doing a touristy thing in a private vehicle and such stuff. Well the key normally is to tell the guys that its your uncle's car and more importantly to rattle off his name & address when prompted. This ofcourse has to match with the car papers. In any case it was never our problem. Joshimath was reached at around 12pm, on schedule. The programme was to have a small break as the 'gate' would only open around 1. You see Joshimath to Badrinath is the narrow dangerous terrain with allowance only for single file traffic and to ensure this discipline, a gate system has been created and managed by the army. This is almost like an essential time metering system for the locals as everything for them pulsates to the rythm of the opening and closing of the gates. but in the spirit of this trip - no gate system. We were expecting to be stopped and made to fall in line but nothing. So we moved straight through. Another bonus for being in this part of the world in 'off season'. The gates negotitated, we tumbled down into the valley beyond towards Badrinath. The trip further is around 40 kms which in season would take around 2 hrs but we were hoping to beat that. This is the most treacherous part of the trip with the road almost throughout being in constant shadow of perilously overnhanging rock ledges and landslides. The semblance of security here lies in numbers as one hope that there would be people to pick you up in the event of a mishap. The road is as picturesques as it is risky. One has to go through tiny hamlets and other settlements that owe their existence only to temple town. One such important area is Gobindghat, the stop where pilgrim to Hemkunt Sahib and Valley of flowers alight and start their only walk. One can clearly see the walkway as it descends down to the valley floor and then ascends right back up to a great height hugging the face of the hill before taking a bend. We could only watch it longingly. The route gets its traffic in the summer and in the months of August & September when Valley of Flowers unfurls its colours. With a collective sigh we made our move ahead and beyond to Badrinath with a promise to come back to check out this alternative. The route to Badrinath essentially becomes near vertical in the last 6 kms as the hairpin bends take you to the higher valley. It is here that one starts getting his first glance of the snow and the glaciers that feed the many tributaries of the Ganga. It is here that things start getting magical. We were in a trance like state with not one person speaking till finally we reached the gates of Badrinath at around 2 in the afternoon. Badrinath happens to be set in a wide valley cut by Alaknanada as it moves down on its journey from the glacier. The view as one enters the place is quite dramatic as the whole valley unravels itself all of a sudden and this takes some time to sink in. Right at the mouth of the city is the bus stand that recieves the buses (but of course). The rest of the town lies behind this bus depot. The town essentially lies on one side of the Alaknanda while the temple lies on the other the otherside at the foothills of the Nar & Narayan parvat. Right behind them one can see the magnificient peak of the Neelkanth parvat as it stands guard over the valley. The entire town runs on faith - Literally. Everyting there revolves around the yearly flow of pilgrims getting into the area. So Badrinath is essentially one large tourist-pilgrim complex with a large temple attached. The town is littered with Ashrams large and small with all facilities made available to the Bhakt. Interspersed are the many small dhabas that cater to the dietary requirements of the people coming. Occupying the spaces left by these are the small curio shops that sell religious memerobilia as one would find in any other temple town in the plains. As we moved in the town towards the centre one inescapable thing revealed itself. The place was a part ghost town - this being the off season. Its really not very pleasant trudging upto such a place to find hotels and restaurants sporting large padlocks across main doors.To add to that was the biting cold wind that was threating to turn us into human kulfis.But we had to do what had to be done and off we trudged looking for a place to stay. One place then the second, third. It was not that the places did not have rooms to stay. It was just that there was no hot water. Finally we managed a rather quaint looking Irrigation Department Bungalow with quite a view. A quick round of negotiations with the chowkidar and two rooms were booked and taken. A slow and painful lunch in bitter cold conditions and we were off scurrying back to our rooms. It was decided then to head for Mana in the evening and finish off that part of the journey before it gets too dark. Evening saw us at Mana, the village where the National Highway ends - or starts (I guess a special feat for any place to boast of). Anyway, Mana is a small hamlet on the foothills of a set of hills that fold onto themselves. 7 kms further in one direction lies China. The other claim to fame for Mana are the caves where some crucial parts of Mahabharatha happened. There's a Gufa wherein Vedavyas actually meditated and dictated the story to Ganesha who wrote it down in another Gufa some 100 yards away. Then there's the Bhim pul, the bridge that Bhim created by toppling a large rock across Saraswati's streams for his family to cross. Some distance ahead is the small cave where Draupadi, finally giving in to exhaustion broke off from the Pandavas walking towards salvation and died soon after.Its in stories like these that one begins to get to know the romance of the Himalyas. These are imposing geological phenomenon no doubt but what makes these even more interesting is how these then mesh with Hindu mythology to an that it makes it difficult to tell both apart. A cheeky character had done his bit to create a place for himself there by opening what he called "Bharat ki Aaakhiri Chai ki Dukaan". Good place for a foto shoot. Some mandatory foto time and it was getting dark and moist. We decided to call it quits for the day and moved back. And somehow all that walking had made us forget the cold. That was a comfort. Back we came to the Irrigation Bungalow and it was time to hunt for something to keep us warm for the night. Some wheeling and dealing later, we managed to smuggle some rum, had our fill, had food and went off to sleep the night off in our cold, damp beds. End to another long day for us. Outside our windows, the crest of Neelkanth was catching the moonlight looking resplendant and majestic no doubt looking down at us slinking into our razais with indulgent amusement.


Day 3 - Badrinath and Back down.

Early day 3 saw us moving down to the temple for the darshan before moving back down. We somehow managed to miss the main aarti in the morning at 9 (not that anyone was too interested) but managed to get a good darshan of what could be viewed of the idol. The devout among us did some personal pujas. The temple per se was setup by Shankaracharya on his visit to this place at the end of the 19th century. What used to be here is anybody's guess but what is clear is that the site fulfills some of the worldly requirements of living in such a cold place. The place boast a wonderfully hot sulphur spring flowing from right under the temple site and into the river. Here too, as the story goes, Shankaracharya dove into the river at the point where the hot water meets the cold water and retrieved the present idol. What is further interesting is the subsidiary temple of Ghantakarna - the local tribal diety acting as the Dwarpaal of the main shrine. Clearly a deft political move at appeasing and including local beliefs. The high point for us in this whole visit was the time we spent on the banks of The Alaknananda just outside the temple. The serenity of the entire setting makes one get to a state i can imagine is called Spiritual. Once again, geology, mythology and spirituality were playing their usual symphony in this magical land. Nobody felt the passage of time but soon it was time to leave. And so we started back with solemn promises to ourselves to be back again. The drive down from Badrinath was unusual to say the least. The roads were abnormally empty and we were gobbling road with a vengeance. my calculations indicated an average speed downhill of around 45 which was unheard of.Not that we were complaining though. Soon we were a Srinagar and making a serious attempt at Rishikesh before 8 in the night. You see vehicles are not allowed on these roads after 8 in the night so that was our curfew time. And it was in this same haste that our smartass driver made his blunder. Right through the day he was driving like a man possesed and a blunder was something waiting to happen. It happened as we took the wrong turn at a fork and were now heading 40km at an angle from Devprayag to Pauri. To compound the issue we realised this only on reaching Pauri. It was 7.30 in the night and there was a serious danger of us being marooned in some village. The ride from Pauri to Devprayag though was one of the most enchanting we ever had despite it being in the dead of the night as we moved along the ridge from one hill to another before finally descending down into Devparayag. Immediately we set outselves to the task of finding a GMVN guest house and once again we were not disappointed with what we got though the experiecne was rather novel. What we got essentially were hostel rooms with common toilets - the kinds with uncanny resembleance to college hostels. Food was served in a "mess" and we smoked pot in a bushes keeping an eye out for the warden. I swear i felt 5 years younger.


Day 4 - Me, myself and the Ganges

Day 4 came with no promises. this was going to be the last day of the trip. We were to disband at the end of the day, we were moving into the boring plains. With luck we would make by early evening and would be able to catch up with a small drink and some stories for the folks back home. But needless to say - WE WERE WRONG. Breakfast done, bills paid, we headed downwards. On the way down there was a routine stop at KAudiyala with no hopes of catching any rafting (we were late you see). anyway, we got to KAudiyala at around 11 and to our surprise we were admitted to the next batch. A guide was allowed with us to the the lauching station at a place called Shivpuri 10km below and we were on the first rafting trip of our lives. My impression of the arrangements was rather toned down in comparison to what was laid out in front of us at Shivpuri. A large part of the beach is turned into a resort with elaborate tents occupying a large area and clearly marked dining, playing areas taking up the remaining spaces. The place was equipped to handle a groups of upto 100 and pamper them with all facilities. Those facilities, we were told later were for the people who take the multiple day package that included rafting, rappling, hiking and other insteresting activities.Hmmmm. To be noted in the litlle black book. We in the meantime had to get all wrapped up and ready. Every part of our body would be wet by the time we get out so every personal belonging at owner's risk. For special items, a waterproof bag was to be provided. Waterproof bag my ass. I was not going to risk anything. Emptied my pockets of everything, stashed them in the bag and off i went. Nikhilesh being the cautious of the lot had his wallet, camera and even the chappal in. God bless him for that. The ride began with a brief instruction of the correct procedure to paddle. The instructor was a lively Gurkha with an amusing English accent only Gurkha's can have.He gave us the orders and off we went. Immediately the raft was engulfed in what looked like a wall of water crashing down on us. Wave after wave of unrelenting force send holy Ganga into every unholy part of me. By the time we finished the first rapid, it felt as if I was coming out of a train wreck. Our coach then introduced us to the grading system for rapids. Rapids are of 6 types with 6 being of greatest ferocity. Number 7, the coach said would be a waterfall. This stretch would have us going through a number of level 4 rapids. The one that pounded us senseless was around 2.5. no sooner had he finished did the river rise again to hit us back with a fresh wave almost on cue. Despite the fact the one is assured of personal safety in such boats, there are moments when panic takes over and the body thinks of only one thing - Air. The rapids that came slowly became a blur with one replacing the other and just as suddenly, it was all over. We were in an area of placid water. Almost as if nothing had ever happened. We got the instructions, we could jump in if we wanted to. And we promptly did. It dint matter anyway, we were enveloped by Ganga anyway. And off we went. The lifejacket did a good job in keeping us up and we did a good job of entertaining ourselves body rafting in the Ganges. Me & Ganga in an intimate conversation. And like all love stories this had a sad ending with me having to yank myself onto the boat and move to the shores. All good things had to end and this one soon did but not before giving us a glimpse of the famed nude beaches of Rishikesh. Damn, Surreal is the only word i can think of. But all that apart it was time to move to the comfort of dry clothes and possibly a nap on the way back. The sun was setting and with some decent driving we should be home by around 8. But where's that idiot of the driver we had. He seemed to have vanished into thin air leaving us in our drenched state with not even a pair of slippers to boast. The only person decently endowed was Nikhilesh so it was his poor ass that had to move to town in search of our driver. We in the meantime were to stay in the roadside dhaba drying ourselves out and mulling over the possibilities in store for us in case our driver had decided to scoot off with our stuff. Not a pretty thought. Suddenly, a new found empathy for the homeless and the needy arose as we realised the full extent of our plight. Thankfully, after a full hour of waiting, our guys returned and we finally made our way back. Too tired to think of anything but a dry bed. But the next ordeal was just around the corner. no sooner that we left Rishikesh that we realised that we had chosen probably the worst day to be around Haridwar. This was the day of Kartik Maas snan when probably the whole of Hinduism descends on the poor river to take a dip and get rid of its hard earned paaps. What it meant for us was endless jam stretching a 100 miles and forcing an 8 hour journey out of a 3.5 hr route. The dust, crammed conditions and the heat off the vehicles made the air boil. If it was spiritual browny points that these people had come to gain, all the cursing on the way back would surely have erased them all. The tone for the entire trip was set and we staggered on back home in the wee hours of the morning - all bleary eyed and with tattered patience. It had been a horrifying experience but in many ways one to remember. As I finally put myself onto a dry bed just as the birds were rousing themselves from theirs, I could not help but feel amused at the way these 4 days had passed. We guys had set out to do something with more or less rigid plans and ended up with doing something we could not imagine at all. We had travelled on 1200km of the Himalayan terrain, had a darshan of Badrinath in the off season, had a Ganga snan in the Rishikesh rapids and endured the mother of all traffic jams (the kinds that turned National Highway into a one way street). I guess the fact that we allowed for such flexibility was what helped us in this. Our plans had loose milestones that had to be achieved while how the detailing happened was decided on a case by case basis. Well something to learn from all this I guess. Anyway tommorrow is another day and another set of things to get done and contrary to what I was thinking on the way back, I cant get myself to sleep.