And So I Went!

Quite a few people asked me how I figured this place out. I do know that my reference point was the trip that Prashant, Subhadip, and others made a few years ago, but I cannot seem to recall when I decided that I want to do it. The idea of doing the trek had not even crossed my mind when I first read their respective blog posts. But I did think about it recently enough and planned it for the Good Friday weekend. 

After the regular back and forth over emails, it was finally a mixed group of seven people ready to rough it out to Chopta, Tungnath, and potentially Chandrashila top in Uttarakhand. The Chandrashila stretch would have been a factor of things like strength/capacity remaining, weather conditions, time, et cetera. 

The Gang - Sumit, Nidhi, Samridhi, Maria, Arya, Varun

We left in a train from Delhi on Thursday night and reached Haridwar at 4:00 am. The car that we had booked from there to Chopta did not work out for us because the driver turned up drunk. His boss tried to convince us that 'woh shudh ho ke chala hai' but that obviously didn't work. My super sense of smell won! So we tried figuring some other options and finally managed a car from Rishikesh. The journey from Haridwar to Rishikesh was covered in an auto. There was a chill in the morning air and somehow that was enough to figure that Chopta was going to be colder than what we all imagined. 

We were right. It kept getting colder as we ascended, and was freezing in Chopta. In fact, it started raining even before we checked in at the sole lodge (Hotel Neelkanth) over there. But the view also got more and more scenic as we moved higher up. Chopta was covered in pink flowers and fresh snow. The air was clean, cold and thin. And we all knew that we were at the perfect place for the weekend.

The first time that I saw these flowers

First views

 

I have rarely challenged myself physically. I got a rush when I saw the snow-covered peaks and thought that I'd be very proud of myself if I manage to climb successfully. But the first challenge was to manage the temperature. There was no electricity. Our so-called hotel obviously had no facilities. We were told we could get hot water but even that wasn't available. The caretaker tried to get a bonfire going but the wood was too wet. I layered myself up, had a lot of soup at the dhaba across the street, and took Varun's blanket as well, but none of that seemed to help. At night, I even thought that I may never go to Ladakh if it was as cold or more. But finally I managed some sleep and got up at 5:00 am for the trek.

Base camp

The sun appeared for a short while in the evening

Nobody could get enough of these flowers

6 am moon

We didn't leave before 8:30 am. Time was wasted in a lot of slow prep and some more slow prep. I was already at 60 per cent lung capacity and my nose was leaking. The first ten steps were hard. I knew I had to walk slow, concentrate on the breathing, and just focus on not giving up. The leg held up rather well. We had a clear track to walk on for only the first 300 metres or so. After that the snow cover kept getting heavier. We trudged along. Varun helped me climb quite a bit. I saw some other group of guys give up midway. That gave me a strangely good feeling about myself. And the strategy of not letting the mind think that the body is tired always works. Yes, I have selective control over my mind. After all, I had myself to beat at the challenge. With many a stops and a terrible cramp in a toe, it took 3.5 hours to reach Tungnath. I, technically, stopped a few steps before the temple. The highest of all the Kedars. I had little energy left and I was concerned about making it back to Chopta. A part of me was extremely disappointed when I admitted to myself that I would not be able to do the Chandrashila stretch. That is what I was aiming for. I even unrealistically believed that if I did not have to come down the same day, I could have managed to go all the way. But that was just me imagining things. And so I stopped. Others reiterated that it was still an accomplishment. I believed them. Finally nobody could go up because heavy clouds started approaching us. It was too late to begin climbing Chandrashila. One should leave at 5:30 am for that.

Poser!

The only meadow

Goofy was scared of me :)

Maria got cold feet (not) :P

During one of the many stops to catch a breath

It was tiring, but I was happy :)

This first-timer was the underdog. Climbed quietly and steadily!

When they took a short cut and went from last position to first position

I sat holding my cramped toe, and she got a stranger to click her picture from my camera

You see, we all had an agenda. :P

When he didn't pose

When I admitted I was losing energy

All of us. Varun clicked

The view from where I stopped

The descend was far harder on the back. It killed me. And the snow was slippery enough to get the pulse racing at every half a step that I tended to lose control of at that incline. 

With the friendly couple we met on the way back

The sisters! :D

It started raining (with hail) while we were still on our way back but this time I didn't feel a thing. Had finally warmed up. :)

So, I don't know if I completed the challenge (selective judgment), but I certainly feel good. It was the bravest thing I ever did. We were on the edge the whole time. The experience was so unreal that I cannot believe I was actually there three days ago. I don't even know if I can do it again. 

All of us, by the dhaba that saved our lives

We wished to do the Deorital hike too, but the fact that we couldn't get train tickets to get back to Delhi meant way too long a drive the next day. So we chose to come down some distance on Saturday itself and managed to get till Rudraprayag by the evening. The hotel here felt like a palace after the previous day's experience. The balcony had a good view too.

From the balcony

While someone else was puking :P

Next morning we left early so that we could at least make use of having Rishikesh on the way. Five of us went rafting. I have done it before, but I was still a little scared. Apparently the Ganges was kind to us, but all I know is that I managed this one smoothly too. :D

The kids!

The drive back to Delhi was an expected nightmare. Reached home only by 11 pm. The skin was burnt, the head was spinning, muscles were aching, but the sense of having done 13000 feet was overwhelming. Still is. 

Last year, Keylong at 11000 feet was hard enough to walk around in. Did not imagine even then that I could do it. 

And I came back with my own picture of the place!

Can I reach the Valley of Flowers? I have more hope today than I did till a week ago.

Source: Google 

Possibly

I am planning to go for a trek soon. It is a conversation I initiated with friends. It is on a route which is supposed to be easy to moderate for trekking. And it is at a time when I'd rather be out than be in Delhi. 

I toss between planning next steps and chickening out every moment. I have never been on a serious trek before. I am as unfit as I can be today. I have a bad leg and a bad back. It is the asthma season and these days I don't take a step without my inhaler (20 years this year, btw!). And of course, I have no stamina. 

But I know if I don't go now I will never go. I need to do it because I don't like believing that there is something I cannot do, especially in a space that I like. If I be realistic, I know the leg and the back won't get any better. It's been years and medicine doesn't seem to have progressed much. I was titled the no-frill girl once and I like the idea of being that. For me, being able to trek has to be a subset of that. And well, there is a place on my must-visit destinations and the only way to get there is by doing a difficult two-day-long trek. So I guess this one can serve to be a good preparatory step. 

Last year, Ranjan offered me to go along with him to Roopkund and Alekhya invited me to Kashmir. Those were some heavy-duty solid treks. I made excuses and sighed over photographs later. The next few days should hopefully change future outlook and opportunities. Keeping fingers crossed. 

13000 feet, here I come!

Source: Google

Achhi Baat Hai

A road trip in Rajasthan, in winters, had been on my mind ever since I started travelling independently. It took a while, but I was pleasantly surprised by how easily this trip worked out. I didn't see any reason in letting earned leaves lapse, and so I decided to take off in the first week of December. Shantanu warned me that Rajasthan is not the safest place around. As a result, I had to seek company and defer my solo trip idea for a little bit longer. I asked a few people, and Vidha agreed. I did not bother asking anyone after that - 'two girls' is no longer scary/adventurous. 

   

I did not have too much time to plan this one, but reading about the Desert Triangle got me excited. We only spent some time figuring the budget and affordable places to stay in each city. And then while running some random searches I landed upon this picture. Excitement levels rose a couple of notches. I even made it my wallpaper on the office laptop. :D  

Source: Google

The plan was to take a train to Bikaner, take the road to Jaisalmer and Jodhpur and then take the train back to Delhi. But we did not get tickets from Jodhpur, so we decided to go to Jaipur instead and then take the train from there. 

With all handovers done, we were ready to set out on the morning of 5th December. 

My research did tell us though that all forts and palaces have rather annoying timings. They open at 10 am and shut by 4:30 or 5:00 pm. It is such a waste of time! I remember being upset about it in Jaipur last summer. 

So, on day 1, we were to reach Bikaner by 3:15 pm. That meant running to the hotel and just about managing to get entry into one such place. We chose Junagarh Fort and got in there by 4:00 pm. The Fort was nice, but I have certainly seen better places by now. 

I must mention here that I saw the sun rise and set almost every day through the entire week. And it goes without saying that it kept the holiday happiness at the highest level. 

Sunrise in Delhi

At Junagarh Fort

Atop the Fort

Bikaner, in general, was a rather dirty city. One of the dirtiest I have ever been to. Over the next few days I actually concluded that Rajasthan is the dirtiest of all the states I have been to in the country. 

The other place I had read about in Bikaner was Lalgarh Palace. We enquired about it at Junagarh and figured that entry there closes by 5:00 pm. One hour was enough to see Junagarh, so we decided to cover Lalgarh the same day. We were anyway scheduled to leave the city next afternoon. But when we reached Lalgarh, we discovered that the entire property is now a hotel, with just a museum open to tourists. It was a big, big put-off! The structure was nice, but we were so irritated that we didn't bother going into the museum. And we were quite hungry too. So we decided to check out the palace (yes, hotel!) in the garb of visiting their coffee shop. 

That coffee shop was terrible with limited menu options. Both our tea and coffee were bad. I can't recall why, but we had ordered nachos. What we got were (deep fried) matthi nachos and having that dish on our table was one of the funniest moments of this trip. Of course, our expectations were high because we were upset about it being an elitist hotel where an elitist wedding was scheduled to happen. 

  

It was one of those days when countless weddings were happening in the country, including in Bikaner. We walked past a few hotels and banquets and took an auto back to our hotel. 

When we got back, we had a chat at the reception and figured that there is no other place we can really visit the next day. Neither of us had any interest in going to Mata Karni Devi Temple, the one filled with rats. And it didn't make sense to go to Gajner either because the arrangement there is apparently the same as at Lalgarh. So we changed our plan of leaving the next afternoon to taking the 5:30 am bus to Jaisalmer. 

While the weather was manageable throughout, this morning bus journey was the coldest of my life! I was freeeezing! And that's why I waited more eagerly for the sun to rise. 

The crack of dawn and then sunrise over arid land was perfectly beautiful. Vidha slept through it. Silly!

The bus was rather slow because it stopped at every village on the way. We reached Jaisalmer only by noon. We quickly checked in and went straight for lunch. Breakfast was an apple and a carrot each that we had picked from Pokran. Thereafter we set out with a little map of the place to check off all the places to see. 

Our hotel

Jaisalmer is the smallest of all these cities that we visited. It is also the dirtiest and most touristy of them all. The city is filled with over-friendly young lads. But since it was small enough, we walked to most of the places, starting with the main bazaar. 

From there we took an auto to Vyas Chhatri and Bada Bagh which are in the super-clean cantonment area. Windmills, on one hand, were very fascinating to observe from such proximity. On the other hand, they completely killed the sunset view from the cenotaphs. Once the sun decided to go a little easy, the city did have the much talked about golden hue. The breeze also got cooler. We were finally feeling comfortable and at peace.   

Vyas Chhatris

Ms. Shukla

At an attempt to get the self timer in place

Bada Bagh
This one is prettier than Vyas Chhatris

The plan was to visit the Gadisar Lake the next morning at sunrise. But we kept chatting till late at night and I was a bit under the weather, so we woke up only at 10 am. We had a few hours before we were to leave for the desert that day, and we used those to check out the main fort which houses more than 4000 people. Originally, the entire city of Jaisalmer was inside the premises of the fort. 

The armoury and weapons were too cool!

US!

Life inside the fort

The golden city

In Jaisalmer, we couldn't help notice the very evidently skewed sex ratio. We just didn't see any women! It seemed very odd, but it was true. And even Bikaner for that matter was only men. Seeing women on the streets was exception, not the rule.  

I remembered this restaurant being reviewed on Highway on My Plate.
The man who runs it is a rather interesting and eccentric man.

The Jaisalmer Fort

And then began the smooooth drive towards the desert. The landscape, the view, the colours and characters kept reminding me of Aamir Khan's Sarfarosh. The desert, the cattle, the white turbans, the muslim men with kohl and pathani suits, and of course, the structures were reeling a movie in my mind. 

At one small tapri we suddenly went off road and I noticed a man with three camels approaching us. Ismail, our escort along with Johnny, Maggu and Victoria was ready to take us for a fun ride into infinity. Getting on to the camels was funny and awkward. Thankfully, I wasn't alone in this embarrassment. And thankfully, it was just the two of us. 

Upon reaching the dunes

Ismail sang folk songs through the two hour journey. One of the songs turned out to be the one from which the famour 'kajra re' was adapted. 

His English accent was impressive too. He had picked up the language over the past 10 years from tourists he takes on safaris in the desert. 

I was extremely apprehensive about this adventure. If anything were to go wrong, the two of us would never have been found again. We didn't know where we were. Ismail's eyes and smile, to me, were extremely scary. I could totally imagine him switching into a monstrous being any moment. 

But Vidha was convinced that we were safe. We also had a few groups of international tourists somewhere around. And well, our booking was based on recommendations by Tripadvisor. So I guess I was just being paranoid. 

All six of us :)

My best picture from the trip :D

The sunset on my right

Dinner

Ismail cooked a basic yet delicious meal for us in absolute darkness. We were done with dinner by about 7:30 pm. 

Thereafter, we were given our mattresses and blankets to sleep. There were no tents there. And our corner only had Vidha, me, one Polish dude, Andreas, Ismail, and Andreas' escort. We could not see anybody else. And well, it was anyway so dark that we couldn't move a step without a flashlight. 

Once in bed, I was absolutely mesmerised by the blanket of stars in the sky which was so stunning that no words can do justice to the sight. I spotted so many shooting stars! The experience was completely out of the world. 

But I was curious about the moon. I knew it was not a new moon night, but I could just not locate it. Clearly, there was something about science that I was not getting. 

I had hoped to click some pictures of the night sky. But turned out my camera is not advanced enough to capture star trails. Guidance from Prashant and his friend, Munish didn't help. Oh, I forgot to mention that Airtel had full network the whole time. It was quite incredible. 

After a while I gave up on trying to click the stars and decided to just gaze at them with the naked eye. 

It was a little cold but not as much as I expected. I don't know when I dozed off, but the slight discomfort of sleeping on an uneven surface woke me up a couple of times during the night. At about 1:45 am, I got up and happened to see the crimson moon shining bright at the horizon. That moment! *sigh* It was BEAUTIFUL.

We were told that our journey back to Jaisalmer would begin early enough. That ensured I was up at dawn and got to see the sun rise one more time.  

The windmills at dawn

Breakfast with the Polish man

Sunrise on my left

All set to head back

The 360 degree view was exhilarating!

After the rides with Maggu

By the time we reached back, our thighs and backs were killing us. It was a lot of exercise, particularly when the camels were running. 

Thankfully, we had booked a cab to go to Jodhpur. We were in no position to take the bus after that. 

Before heading out, we went to the Gadisar Lake. The sun was too bright, but I didn't want to miss it. A few scenes from Sarfarosh were actually shot here!

The place was quiet and least intrusive

Having talked about it for over a week, Vidha finally bought bhaang for herself

The drive to Jodhpur on NH 15 was smooth till Balesar. Thereafter the roads were quite bad. 

Where Vidha lost her iPod

The bhaang had begun to take over

Jodhpur turned out to be much bigger than either of us anticipated. It is a fully developed city. I would probably have not gone there if I knew it was so big. 

We visited the Mehrangarh Fort, which again was quite commercialised. And we happened to be there on a Sunday which meant a LOT of local crowd. 

From there we went to the hotel, Umaid Bhawan Palace. The last maharaja still lives there. And the Taj Group of Hotels owns the rest. 

Yes, we only saw the museum

We did see vintage cars on display too. So hot! So royal! I wished I wasn't a maharani only in my head.

The evening was spent in old Jodhpur. We actually went there after reading some reviews of a restaurant, Panorama View. While the restaurant was worth every penny spent there, the rest of the area was great too! We had omelette sandwiches near the Ghanta Ghar - from a small shop that features on Lonely Planet. One of the co-owners could speak in fluent Korean. These people are so inspiring!

The Ghanta Ghar at Old Jodhpur - the clock was working! 

Coming back to the Panorama View restaurant. It had ambience better than I expected. We had two sounds we could hear there - the santoor and sitar being played in the premises, and the bhajans being sung at some far off mandir in the city. We ordered wine and I drowned myself in the calmness of the moment. 

Mehrangarh Fort at night

The next morning we went to the Kaylana Lake. This one was another surprise. Apparently, tourists don't go there because it's a little away from the main city. But it was clean and rather big. It also serves the city's drinking water capacities. We didn't spend much time there, but our love for water was satiated within those few moments. 

From there we went to the main market to shop a little. Being there was like being in Dilli Haat. There was hardly anything that I had not seen here in Delhi. I just managed to pick one pair of shoes which had a slightly unique design. 

From there we rushed to catch our bus to Jaipur. This bus ride was another six hours on the road. On the way, two main places we crossed were Ajmer and Beawar. Ajmer seemed to be as dirty as the other places I mentioned above. I really wonder why this state has no system of garbage disposal!

But Beawar! The esrtwhile capital of Mewar. It had the colourful women I kept looking for during the past week. It also had the interesting men in sexy turbans and mustaches. Even the carts with heaps of red chillies! I think I am just glad I got to see 'em before leaving Rajasthan. I could obviously not click any pictures of them. 

From Jaipur, we took the double decker train back to Delhi. Not the most comfortable, but it was a nice journey back. One last sunrise, but this one with some clouds in the sky. It had been raining. I stood by the door for a while and soaked in the cold winter morning. 

Few things can make one smile as perfect weather does. Perfect weather actually has many manifestations. To me, even the desert sun brought a lot of happiness. 

We concluded that this trip was a 7 on 10 because the place loses on commercialisation, lack of safety, and lack of basic hygiene and cleanliness. But we did have a great time. We do know we will go back to the desert again. I know I have to visit a few baolis which I didn't get to see during this trip. And well, getting away to a new place is always thrilling! :-)   

__________

For anyone planning to make this trip, here are a few things that might help:

# We stayed at Marudhar Heritage Hotel on Ganga Sheher Road, Bikaner. It comes up as one of the most recommended budget hotels on Tripadvisor. The hotel was okay, and close to the station too, but the street is actually a market for hardware and auto parts. I personally feel one can get a better hotel closer to the larger markets. 

# Shiv Sagar restaurant in the main market of Bikaner is quite nice!

# There are no Volvos/air-conditioned buses plying from Bikaner or Jaisalmer. You will be told of a deluxe bus, but please don't imagine it to be a deluxe one literally. And most certainly don't attempt to travel overnight in a sleeper bus because they are all extremely dirty.

# The Jaipur-Jodhpur route certainly has good buses. The RSRTC ones are most reliable.

# Lalgarh and Gajner Palace, like I mentioned, are only hotels and it's a waste going there unless you plan to stay in the hotel.

# Do prior research about Sam and Khuri, the two main desert areas any travel agent/hotel will take you to. Ideally, don't book any of it before reaching Jaisalmer (unless you're going in peak season, maybe). Every second shop offers camel and desert safaris. And agree upon every detail of things offered in your package before heading out. 

# Don't go to Hotel Mystic Jaisalmer. The location and the food were bad. More importantly, the owner was a creep who is happy to fleece people. Particularly Indians! The rooms were affordable, clean and nicely decorated though.

# Don't eat at Royal Rasoi in the market next to Dhibba Para in Jaisalmer. A meal there was the worst of the entire trip.

# When in Jaisalmer, carry cash! Few places accept cards, and our experience was that ATMs were hardly working.

# Blooming House Home Stay in Jodhpur is managed by a nice family. But it is located away from the main city and all the major attractions. And autos in Jodhpur are a bit on the expensive side. So maybe you can consider some other options near Nai Sarak.  

# People will recommend Hotel Priya for a good meal in Jodhpur. I would say that while the food we had there tasted good, it took a whole day to digest it! Bad, bad oil used for cooking!

# You can book a prepaid auto for INR 440 for a whole day of sight seeing in Jaipur. Available at the railway station. Must surely be available at other places too.

# We stayed at Hotel Kalyan in Jaipur. This one is at a nice location, and not too far from the railway station. The owner's wife loves talking. But otherwise a decent and affordable hotel. 

For more details, drop a comment. :)