Pin Parvati Trek
Day Zero- Part one - Sept. 02, 2006 - It was all hanky panky, event the sky in Delhi. It was pouring like it had decided to make us ponder on our trekking plans. And it did it successfully as plans to change the trek from earlier thought Garhwal mountain trek of Gangotri-Tapovan etc., were mounting as rain continuously poured outside the window of our bus towards Dehradun from Delhi. We did reach Dehradun but already Lonely Pla
net guide of Trekking in Indian-Nepal Himalayas had helped us find a new trek in so called dry region of Spiti, the trek would be Pin-Parvati Pass trek. The trek passes over from the Kullu reg
ion to Spiti Region and its ending near Kaza give it my hands up, with a chance to be in Kaza.
As soon as we dropped out of the bus near railway station, we went ahead in search of Arora Hotel, which was never to be and it turned out to be Ahuja Hotel, thanks to Harsh's confusion we had a round about in this region with our rucksacks on, which were still not offloaded. At Ahuja's we had plenty of food as lunch and we soon went in a hotel room to offload some stuff from each rucksack, more a rearrangement of stuffs and offloading of some stuff from our own body and if possible a bath, which would be elusive here onwards. By this time we had enquired that bus to Shimla departs at 0030 hours. We had our dinner at Ahuja's, Dal Makhani and Roti being the main attraction with my demand of curd being fulfilled as well.
We reached Bus Stand which is outside the city and then waited for the bus and catching up with reading on the trek from two books, who would guide us throughout the trek, photos would helps us when we would try to lose our way. Books were -
1. Lonely Planet guide on Treking in Indian-Nepal Himalaya
2. Treks in Indian Himalayas - Harish Kapadia
The weighing machine near the bus counter had a nice day as all five of us took our weight individually and our rucksacks had their weight taken as well with a result being that my bag was weighing much more than anyone was thinking. It was around 19kgs with vikrant's and adi's bags hitting the 21kg mark.
I simply do not know how the bus ride was and neither does anyone else has any idea about the same, because we all had hell of a sleep throughout, maybe Ahuja's dal makhani did some trick. For me personally, it would be top three sleeps for next 12-13 days.
Day Zero-Part Two - Sept. 03, 2006 - After reaching Shimla in morning, our first target was to sit on a commode as soon as possible. Every stomach had a nice turnout at Ahuja and it was showing now.
We quickly checked into a Hotel after trying initially to search for a hotel ourselves and then quickly turning towards what few pimps were suggesting to. We were soon off towards Manikaran in a Sumo.
Just before one reaches town of Mandi, there is a long tunnel on the banks of Beas, which we were told is the longest tunnel of India after it took over from the Jawahar Tunnel of J&K. At Mandi due to landslide on the by-pass road, we had to muddle through traffic jam inside the city roads, which delayed us a little bit. Apparently landslide would stop the bus through which we were returning on night of 13th Sept.
We had gathered almost everything but were lacking in Kerosene and we searched for it throughout our way but we had to fight for it the next day at last.
As we were crossing place called Kasol, we thought that it is some happening place and we decided to drop in the same village for that night instead of Manikaran, which was 4kms from Kasol, But very soon we found out it was a fishy place and it resulted in many debates in days ahead. This place is notoriously famous or infamous for its charas dealings in open. And the place is more like some mini Israel town in India. We found that most of the signboards outside shops were in Hebrew including menu in restaurants. Every person seemed talking to God after being on hallucinating plane and smelling of charas. This place somehow didn't give me a good picture of people or rather tourists from Israel. They seemed to be rude to me, even to the local people at shops. This didn't go well with me. I'm not looking forward for some direct interaction with some people from Israel to modify my opinion.
But a good thing in the same town was that we found a general merchant shop which was selling all foreign made chocolates, drinks, tanned food items etc. We got hold of few snickers and few other things, which acted as our dinner supplements as well as next day's breakfast, as we were highly disappointed at dinner served at some roof restaurant, where the serving people seemed least interested in serving food to us. This behaviour was not new as we had had a glimpse of similar treatment at Ladakh, almost a year back.
The room which we picked was similar or may be more fishy, it was more fishy as it almost had fishes, with a small section of carpet drenched in seeped water. Me and Vikrant took out our sleeping bags while other three shared blankets on a bed. This night would be part of top three sleeps. I slept in one position and was most reluctant to get up in morning, even though Vikrant and Adi would leave early morning to bring Kerosene.
Day One - Sept. 04, 2006 - (Kasol - Pulga- Rudranag)
Me and Harsh got up only when Mitesh issued a warning that Adi and Vikrant were reaching in next 30 minutes, while he maintained that he had tried to wake us up many times before, but i had doubts on that. Anyway we were soon out of the shady hotel of that shady place. But we just moved out of the hotel and onto the street. I'm not sure of others but at least i was watching every creature with piercing eyes and i could find everyone shady, including almost all kids and women included. The place had such an air, I have never sensed or felt smoke of ganja or marijuana or related weeds, but somehow the air was filthy.
Anyway we waited for the guide to come from Jari alongwith a porter. Now we were not really keen on having a guide. I was not sure how tough it was or what exactly the turf is like, but reading the Lonely Planet guide, I was of the opinion that we don't need a guide. But later we would realize without a guide (or in our case guidance ) it was tough.
He arrived as usual late after repeated calls by Adi Seth and jsut before Adi was reaching his boiling point, which we had seen in our last year trip to Ladakh. Now the guide or tourist agent or trekking agent was trying to convince us that trek was not easy and specially during this time with crevasses. And the porter was from Nepal and looked like a bonded labor in claws of that guide. The guide took a hefty money from us and by the look of it we could realize that the porter was not going to get a good share off it. The guide wished us good luck and with warning that beware and don't risk and do return back if you are not able to find way ahead.
Meanwhile I found an interesting news item in one of the local papers that said that there had been Gangotri glacier had a big crack and deluge and engulfed two lives there. We were saved. Was it an omen. Ladakh trip also started with omens and this one was starting with one too.
We went ahead and got on a sumo to leave us near Pulga just after Barshaini. There is a dam being built at Pulga and there was kind of crowd. But we were left at wrong place as we could start the trek from Barshaini as there had been an alternate way built through a bridge on Parvati river rushing and gushing into tunnels of the dam.
As we walked towards Kheer Ganga, the first camp as per Lonely Planet guide, we came to know that there was an auspicious day and some local festival and fare being organized and it was last day. As we were getting used to climbing or walking, people stared at us as we were relatively very late in evening. We kept on asking how much time it would take to reach Kheer Ganga and we got different responses. Soon we came to know that we might not be able to reach Kheer Ganga in evening and might have to camp somewhere in between.
An interesting incident was that an elderly middle aged woman was coming back from fare and she had this to say seeing us, specially my dilapidated state - "Jab itni hi dikkat ho rahi hai to kyun itna vazan utha rakha hai", if you are so much trouble and pain then why are carrying these big rucksacks. I was having trouble at the start, with my own rucksack being exchanged with Harsh's as mine was cutting into my shoulders, even though it must be getting into Harsh also but he was carrying it somehow. I had lost one initial bought in the trek.
As I walked ahead of Mitesh and Vikrant, i was on my own with Adi, Harsh and the porter being much ahead. And as i crossed a small nullah through some rocks and reached slightly up, I saw some rucksacks and then a tent being surrected. And then under a concentrated noisy waterfall, I saw Harsh chatting up with one of the members of the group ahead and I took deep breath that we were going to camp at this place. Place was called RudraNag due to the shape of waterfall like an angry fanged snake. This was told to be the most holiest place (i could not guess definition of the holiest).
There was a group of 2 israeli women and they were going on same trek. They looked well equipped with a guide and 3 or 4 porters. Our main issue was that we were carrying lot of weight and I instantly remembered Onida's advertisement for owner's pride and neighbor's envy. But at present i was too glad to camp.
It got colder as soon sun was out behind nearby hills and we started to take out our tents. We got our tents out in the porch of a wooden hut which must have been used as a dharamshala. Our orange and green tents were out and then next task was to ignite the stove and this would soon become our daily ritual later. We, rather it was always Vikrant- the stoveman - somehow managed to light our two stoves.
At Rudranag, there is a small dhabha in place run by local villager, and we ordered for our dinner to be cooked, so we saved our first fight of cooking. And thankfully we did so as the food was amazing, simple rice and dal and tea later on, but it was superb. Just as food took its time, a group of rowdy villagers made a frantic fight for no reason explained, it was drunkards millee and it gave a disturbing start but somehow effected were Israeli group as they ventured inside the tent and never came out, or maybe it was their trekking style, I would never know. Then came a group of kids, who stripped naked and dived under the small pond created under the waterfall. Not sure what there show as for because they came in and went out and did not seem like taking shower. But it was simply amazing imagining standing in that super cold water. Soon we went for dinner and Mitesh's feasting was continuing inspite of his cold getting more severe every day but he was holding on nicely. After the dinner we took tea and suddenly found Mitesh inside the kitchen right in front of fire place even though I had teary eyes because of smoke but Mitesh had trouble and he was feeling terribly cold and not feeling well for sure.
Sleeping arrangement started that day with Vikrant, Harsh and Bahadur in green tent and Mitesh, Adi and myself in the orange tent, and the same would continue till our last tent settlement. I slept decently though the noise of the waterfall was waking me up regularly and then i felt like some water droplets have entered the tent in the night and i got a little scared thinking about days ahead in cold. Same kind of noises of water falling or flowing would accompany us to almost all the camps.
Day Two - Sept. 05, 2006 - (Rudranag - Kheer ganga - Bhojtund)
We woke up to find that sun was out on top of hills and outside it was a little colder with wind hitting us. I was soon ready for the first thunder and frantically searching for right place to relieve myself. I could not wait longer and Adi was giving me company nearby and we could not go much away from the hut and put it on the nature to care of the matter.
Feeling of cold water left hands jammed and I felt like need to get the gloves out but thankfully sun was out soon on us to make us feel right. We quickly packed our tents and outtng everything in were ready with rucksacks. We drank tea with biscuits and soon packed were on our way towards Kheer Ganga. The way is just continuing towards direction of sun along the path going near the dhabh huts and then crossing the bridge over to other side and true left of the river. The climb now was arduous for sure. A local lady was climbing ahead of us carrying bottles of cold drinks and other goods for dhabha on way to Kheer Ganga. Adi took the lead and climbed ahead as I struggled on way towards first break near a dhabha and had some water and biscuits. I knew it was the worst idea for at least myself to start walking or climbing without having a decent breakfast. It simply pegs me down not just for some time but the whole day.
We started onwards and were soon on our way and reached Kheer Ganga. There is dhabha right at the corner, reached after a decent climb and then way on the right leads towards the hot spring and way on the left goes towards the trek. We put down our rucksacks down and quickly asked for some food to pe prepared. It was to be egg maggi and it was not a good choice as I would later find out. It takes a long time for things to get cooked in mountains. And as we waited, there was beautiful kid, daughter of the people taking care of that dhabha and she was cutie and surely like the kids who put the advertisements colours.
Me and Bahadur stayed back as rest went to take bath in hot springs. I enjoyed the sun and pondered over something. One usual question comes in when ever i put myself to some physical condition that Why am I doing it? and most of the time, no sorry, everytime I'm unable to find an answer. I was here for nothing, may be just to test myself or maybe just to be with friends and definitely I had no reason for so called environmental reasons. And i was feeling not too great or bad but ok. I guess to enjoy something you need to have your interest in same and I had no such strong feeling and I was unable to find out what else could have been I be doing to be happy or rather simply enjoying, could not find any answer so I was happy here.
All hot bathers came and then we packed up to be on our way. Just before that there was an israeli group of 3 gorgeous looking females and everyone had eyes on them and it was like take as much as you can in your memory as we were not going to see any good faces for rest of the days.
We were soon on our way along the path besides the dhabha and then quickly taking a short climb. Soon rain gods took their turn and it started to pour. Thankfully we had our ponchos. (We made our song - POncho pahuncho kahan pe poncho, bas yahan pahoncho) but ironically we could not find an end to our turmoil on this day. It poured continuously and though it did not effect us in terms of our walking speed or spirits. But trouble came in with lots and lots of mud. Real trouble was taking steps clear off the mud but its simply was everywhere now and stuck everywhere. If that wasn't enough then real trouble came while there was a little height to climb on. We slipped, lost steps, and were on all fours many times. Many times it was help of thin straw, though some times it was nothing but all in mind, but it worked. Harsh had taken the lead in this struggling time but Bhojtund camp was no where in sight. Me, Adi, Mitesh and Vikrant were almost together and we thought that sight of smoke signalled the camp but it was place of gadariyas with their buffalo passing grazing through rains.
Soon we wee to find that these buffaloes had created problem for us in terms of digging out all sand in that mud and on the way up for us. Bhojtunda was some hours away, and its very tough to judge the timing and distance told by local people here. As most of the time it was awry with mentioning that Bhojtunda was an hour or so away but it never came for 2 hours. We were tired and exhausted. It was irritating and Adi had moved ahead and I was walking alone with Mitesh and Vikrant behind me. It was all about moving feet ahead and simply doing that and nothing else. Just a few minutes away from the camo, Harsh came back to look out for us and he came back to me after checkin up with Vikrant and Mitesh that they were ok. I might have been in bad shape as I gave my rucksack to Harsh and somehow I was irritated and Harsh was not better and I took myself towards the hut and then it was terrible cold there as sun was down already and colder wind breezed inside and heavy sweating did not help any bit.
I had not taken off my poncho because I was feeling cold and wanted to change thoroughly after taking tea, Harsh was irritated and asked me to remove it, and I unloaded some of my irritation on him. And I sat alone for sometime as every one else moved to set up tents. I changed and felt better in new clothes.
There is decent amount of plane green area at Bhojtund and a Dhabha hut and few other huts used for accommodation are highlight here. Dhabha here is very costly and compared to any restaurant of big city in terms of cost.
A group of people including some sadhus and foreigners were busy singing shivji tunes as they smoked. By this time it was pretty sure that this area was deep into doping.
A lone Korean was also going ahead in same trek. We had met him at Rudranag and he had already camped by the time we reached Bhojtund.
Everyone came and then we took our bag baggages towards our tents. We had already finished a big packet of biscuits and I was liking the salty biscuits. I felt really drained out and it was good feeling to put lots of water and salty items in.
As soon as we reached tent, I felt strong urgence in my bowel movement and took the paper and ran between a natural position between two boulders. It was quick, liquid and drained me out quickly. I had my reservations developing as I squatted and pondered in moon light with wind trying to pierce through. Once done I was feeling decent and had a decent dinner at Dhabha. So far we had not cooked. And now there was no looking back as we could not think of going down the same path from that muddy way. It was common feeling to move ahead.
During dinner we noticed that on the true right of the rivulet down below, there were 5 decent high peaks over huge rock faces, which were mentioned as Pandavon ki Doli. It was mentioned that Pandavas climbed the stairs of heaven from this place. Now coming to know this, Harsh and me were happy that we had seen the whole the heaven reaching places of Pandavas and last year during our mountaineering course we had seen Draupdi ka Danda (place from where Draupdi reached Heaven). Rock faces looked amazing with shine of moonlight, but cool wind was keeping us in check and we quickly retired to our tents and went to sleep.
It was tough time for sleeping as I kept on waking up somehow.
Day Three - Sept. 06, 2006 - (Bhojtund - Thakur Kuan)
We woke up quite late and by the time we came out of tent sun was hitting us quite hard and it was decent hot. The Korean had already brought down the tents and packed up, same was situation of Israeli group and we soon knew that we were not going to catch them any more. (We were half wrong there).
Slowly and not comfortably steadily, we relieved and prepared ourselves for walk ahead. We were exhausted and long wait for breakfast did not do any good. Though our breakfast table gave us splendid view of Pandu Shila rocks with 2 waterfalls coming down onto the Parvati river some 100+ ft below us but sound was rocking. In front of us, people did yoga and one session of dope and then they all went in their way to get ready and departed as we had our paranthas with tea. Sun was putting more UV rays as we started from the way through the hut cafe and striaght slightly down on the same true left of the river. Mitesh and myself went ahead as Adi caught up with us at the new bridge. Now the Lonely planet guide mentions a pulley bridge but this was plain wooden bridge to go across the other side that is the on to true right of the river. We got little confused but could not find any alternate way so we crossed the bridge. Just right after crossing the bridge, there is a slight steep climb and then easy walk all through.
This was the easiest day we had and would remain the easiest of the days in the remaining trek. It can be judged simply from the fact that we overshoot the place from where we had to come down a little bit on Thakur Kuan area and had to back track a little. Way down is the way down towards river, as soon as you see some abandoned steel huts, and also some boulders through which sight of a pulley bridge is present. One needs to cross the river through this pulley bridge to get on the other side, which is the true left of the river.
We scrambled our way in the pulley with Harsh crossing first and then everyone else with Vikrant had his hand cut from different place, as in confusion he put his hands on the pulley railing and pulley almost ran over his finger. It must have ben terrible pain for him. We had savlon with us and then some antiseptic cream with bandage. Mitesh was our doc and pharma all built together, with already medicines were out at Bhojtund itself with everyone taking crocin except me. Surprise surprise I did not take any medicine so far. Even Bahadur was not feeling good and we were very pensive over this fact, because if he had to go back then we would be in slight trouble. Anyway everyone was hanging on just fine if not well.
Just after crossing the river, there is little plane on a slight height from the river and we found a plane area just before a little makeshift hut, which is being used by the shepherds.
We quickly put out our tents as we could see clouds following us and it was getting colder now. We found a decent big stone which acted as support for our stove. It was our first venture of cooking in the trek and Vikrant was quickly at it. And it would become our ritual with tents being put up and Vikrant working on stove with 2 or sometimes 3 mats to act as wind stoppers. We went for masala rice, with readymade masala being brought by Vikrant. The smell of basmati rice brought in new guests. 2 wild dogs came in with one having a steel stopper around its neck for safety with other wild animals. We soon came to know that these dogs were to look after the herd of goats and sheep. We did not find rice much nice to our taste and actually we had miscalculated and rice was more than we could gulp and dogs did some part of cleaning the left over. We were definitely not prepared for cooking. But more now we were losing our appetite, a typical state of mountain sickness. Bahadur had severe headache and had developed cold and rest also took crocene as well, and again I was not the one to take medicine, stomach was holding fine. Mitesh's cold was getting a little worse now and there was cough as well, he would sleep on the one side and use the tent door regularly to take out the nasal stuff and the toilet paper was his best friend now. I could very well remember my last week at mountaineering course where i did the same.
The evening was cold but night was a little better with clouds covering everything. We could see a pass in some distance and we were adamant that that was the on we were to cross but we were mistaken a little bit. But that pass offered a great view in full moon night with moon coming out amidst spared clouds. It was kodak moment that moon provided us.
There was a unique rock face on the true right of the river and it gave us middle finger sign in between with clouds revealing just the top single rock which was long and rest base seemed like a closed fist. It looked perfect as we were in such a state.
On right, we were starting to get view of Kullu Eiger, guess is that its named after Eiger as it resembles the Eiger face. It looked a huge face and we would be enjoying it more closely in coming time.
Some shepherds reached out to us and chatted with us. They gave us some idea about what lay ahead of us and mentioned distances and timings but we could hardly believe it now because of our experience so far, as we always lingered more than their figures. They were quite fascinated with out ponchos and requested us that if we came back, if we could hand over those to them as they needed it regularly while flocking their animal herds.
Day Four - Sept. 07, 2006 - (Thakur Kuan - Udi Thach)
We had went sleeping wishing for a clear morning and we did got that. So far we were getting up only by heat of the sun hitting our tents. We all knew one day Sun would not be waking us up, but at least for now we enjoyed the sun. We had our breakfast and I took sun screen out for first time but I'll know soon that it would not help much.
This day was not for the weak hearted ones. This was the beginning of hard days. We started from green patches on the true left of the river and soon found us among rocky paths which turned to gravel pathways and then sandy single step ways.
I was lost in my concentration of taking steps carefully because on my left I could see river flowing rather decently deep, on right was sandy face very close which seemed like slipping any moment and we getting under the landslide. Suddenly I heard Harsh, who was walking ahead of me, putting his head around a sharp turn and making me aware of taking next few steps very carefully. Sand was already sliding and it was too narrow. Somehow I took it all carefully and took that sharp right turn as we waited for Mitesh and Vikrant to come across this turn now.
Ahead I saw was another trouble. Yes, we were close to Pandu Bridge. (Wish I could use indecent hindi word here to describe the predicament and similar sounding to Pandu).
Pandu Bridge is a huge rock, broken at right places to create trouble over a nullah that join the river from true left of river. The flow was heavy (thanks to good sun) and kind of noisy to instill a feeling of crude adventure. Now this rock can be climbed easily but problem comes in climbing it down as its face was slippery and led straight into the nullah and has only a thin supporting edge. Thanks to Ram Bahadur, I passed firstly my bag and then myself with support of his hand and supporting my foot on his shoe and then running over to other side. As soon as I was on the other side I decided there was no way back now, but I would think again very soon.
Everyone cleared this first hurdle and then we came over to next one.
River needs to be crossed at 10 metres from this point through another rock bridge. This boulder is very huge and somehow supports a fast flow of river down below as well. There are stone ladders to climb up and then climb down and I was too unbalanced that people understood it soon and tool off my rucksack. And climbed down.
I was feeling worse that it was too bad to be there and not able to support own self. Anyway it will go on and on.
With these 2-3 close shaves, we were back on our way but we had lost momentum. Dry winds and full sun made our way slower and we soon decided to camp and not able to guess which place was this. Harsh went ahead to check it out that if we were close to Mantalai or some other campsite. But this was Udi Thanch as confirmed by some shepherds, for whom this was last point. Harsh also saw a newly born lamb. Next day we would see some taking the road down hill.
This place is close to river where river flows very slowly and there are some rivulets making lake type of shapes, so we got confused with description of Mantalai.
This place was very windy and wind was getting colder as the day progressed. It got tough to even set up the camp. Somehow we managed to peg our tents. Water was sandy ( we drank it and didn't care that it might cause troubles with intestines) and new trouble was lighting the stoves in this windy condition.
There are lots of campsites at this place but we being we, we choose the windiest.
Vikrant, the cook, set up the kitchen behind a small rock after trying it out at different places. One stove failed completely, other stove was worked for hours. And we were facing scenario of losing stock of match sticks. And being so pensive we counted our matchstick boxes at our disposal from now onwards.
Wind was fast getting speed and it got colder as clouds started following us. It didn't help cooking and it got tougher standing outside. This was rude as our t-shirts were soaked in sweat due to morning hot sun and now it was chilly and cutting through spine.
View of Kullu Eiger was amazing, we were starting to see 2000m rock face of Kullu Eiger and rock (yes real rock) fan Vikrant was ecstatic and all over the moon (despite it being sunny).
Then we got to see a good goat fight. And it was mesmerizing to see the intensity with which those two were fighting and a third one was trying to intervene.
In the evening another scene was a pony trying to show a mare that he had matured enough but mare was not letting him go. We had a hearty laugh at that scene.
We had decent food and we quickly retired to our sleeping bags after having a taste of mouthwash which bit thru tongue. But it was fun.
Day Five - Sept. 08, 2006 - (Udi Thach - Mantalai)
Morning was kind of similar, we made some breakfast and got on our way as slowly as possible. Sky was clear again.
Walk was through meadows and small rocks in between for most of the distance. Then we started to hit 'lakes made through small rivulets' and as we had read its description we were always confused where Mantalai was.
But soon we hit a rock face and it was climb up from here. And walk through these rocks was getting tougher and tougher and then suddenly we came across a sandy patch amidst rock. It was beautiful place with full protection from winds, sun being out and we could see the Parvati river Glacier right in front of this spot with the moraine and glacier making it a very fearful scene. We put down our bags and I even took out my socks and changed t-shirt to relieve myself of sweat. Just then harsh came down from his excursion ahead and up and told us to move as we were supposed to camp ahead and this might not be real Mantalai. More so because there was no water out here. The whole confusion was caused by a painted hand written mark saying 'Welcome to Mantalai' a big boulder.
Now this break caused trouble for me, I got up and went behind everyone slowly and the climb got tougher. We climbed almost 100mtr or so and then it was all walk through rocks.
We actually reached the region behind the moraine and we could see a lake being formed here. Walking ahead we came across Shiv temple and decent size of holy Shivlings or Trishuls spread across an area. Then the way got a little trickier as we had to get behind a rock and the way was of less than a single shoe placing. After that we walked 100-200mtr more and camped.
It was windy and sun was soon behind the mountains. We got on to pegging our tents. It got very cold as the evening descended fully.
We were enjoying our soup before we got on to full food cooking which took time. Mantalai boasts of decent lake and water flows very slowly and it was sandy again but we managed here as well. I was fine except that I was feeling cold and I stayed put inside the tent for most of the evening.
On the east we could see the sharp curved peaks which we used to check out from way down below. It was a different view from here and our initial picture of the pass had to change as we came to know that we were going to make a sharp left from way just ahead while the 'pass', with some snow clad way up in mountains, we had imagined for so long lay straight ahead.
Day Six - Sept. 09, 2006 - (Mantalai - High Camp ?? (o, 1 or .5 not sure))
Evening and night were peaceful, I had a good sleep. I was too engrossed in sleep and was only woken up by Harsh who had another bad night. Harsh was calling out to catch a good scene of moon between two peaks and sun hitting the top of those peaks. But I was too lazy and handed him my camera to catch shots but I was too late to catch the scene myself.
We again started the day at our leisure but choice of not going for breakfast was really bad one, specially for me. I had the bad feeling of weakness after taking few steps.
Myself and Vikrant were walking way behind others and when we caught up with others, we were a nullah apart. It was significant because because the water was damn cold and as soon as i stepped in I felt like my fingers are frozen. Somehow I managed to cross it and then quickly dried up and saw what lay ahead.
We had caught up a large group of bengalis, bangaloreans, delhi wallas all climbing a steep climb ahead. It was way too steep as I could see some coloring hanging for as high as I could lay my hands on.
But it would prove to be more difficult than I could feel. We soon started and came to the foot of the climb and started climbing. Adi and Harsh were leading the way and crossed everyone in the group ahead of us.
But I was struggling. Vikrant was taking it slow with his knee pain troubling him sometimes. Mitesh was accompanying him.
We soon came up to a level where most of the people were taking rest for a while. I was pretty much exhausted and asked for electral. It was first symptom of weakness. I hated the idea of skipping breakfast now. It was worse as I saw another steep climb across the orange yellow rocks which were tumbling as well with some one taking wrong steps. I could see Harsh and Adi had reached top a long while ago, but I was not sure about if that was the point we needed to reach or there had to be another climb, because there were climbs after each top we reached. On the right I could see a huge icy, mud dropping like a waterfall from a distant cliff rock face. That was scary if we had to come across some thing like that. But anyway we started our climb and somehow managed to reach a point, where I could see Harsh and Adi waiting for us, disgusted or pitying us, not sure. But I guess we all were exhausted. Not sure about others but I was hugely exhausted and sat on a small rock amidst this sandy patch, as others went to talk with guides going with the other group. I was not sure if I would be able to take another walk and reach next cam site. But I was relieved to see that irrespective we were making this as our camp site. We didn't know if this was High Camp Zero, one or point five or what site it was. Other group went ahead and camped at next camp site where ever that was behind the rocks some distant away on the way towards the way to the pass and near to ice.
I was doing good after having drank some good amount of water. We all had electral water and I had lots of plain water. I felt really good after some time and was decently active compared to previous days. Soon the clouds which were following us had covered the area and we saw two Himalayan Baaz flying in air as relaxed outside for good amount of time.
Water was same sandy out here with small rivulets flowing close to our tents. We again had Pasta and this was not to the liking of Harsh. For me, I was tasteless as of now and tried to gulp as much as possible.
We decided that we had to wake up early and try to cross the ice field and then the pass right behind the other group or it would be really difficult. So we all retired early and tried to catch sleep.
Day Seven - Sept. 10, 2006 - (High Camp ?? (0, 1 or .5 not sure) - High Camp something)
We woke up early but not as early as we had thought.Me and Harsh did our ablutions acts in moon light. It was cloudy and slightly windy but not too cold. Just as we all were out of our tents, we saw the group ahead roped up and crossing the ice field. Our first thought was we are late and just hoped to trace back their steps. We were noticing their path and hoped to follow that track.
Finally we had our musali breakfast and packed up and were on our way. Harsh had an abnormal bowel call and stayed back as we moved ahead but we were too slow and he caught up with us. We were actually very slow as we somehow found way of getting on to the ice field through moraine and ice covered rock jungle. Once on the ice field right at the footsteps of rocks face, we started tying ourselves up and called it rope up. It was actually a joke with 10meter rope tying up 3 people. The arrangement was made for saving us from any crevasse fall or rather mainly any fall on ice field, but it was more of a psychological move rather than a tactical move. But it worked with minds and we were more confident of stepping onto ice field. Harsh, Mitesh and me were tied in one group and we led with Bahadur, Adi and Vikrant in the second group. In place of ice-axe we had two skiing/trekking sticks and one or two wooden sticks, again more of mental support. We started tracing the foot steps. Somehow there were steps visible in melting ice and thankfully there was no sun so far, otherwise we would have been long gone and lost somewhere.
We moved towards left and then right to cross a ice depth and then we were out in open ice field. It got more slippery as we had moved to solid ice now and bigger worry was we could not see any footsteps now or whenever we saw they were leading us nowhere. Time was 11am by now and snow blindness was starting to take effect. So far I had only followed Mitesh's footsteps mainly because there was no scope of looking elsewhere and more over not to entangle ourselves as distance with rope was hardly a hand's distance. Harsh had trouble and he used Mitesh's goggles for 5 minutes but then Mitesh started struggling and Harsh then used Mitesh's voice as guide. But we were lost.
At this time we decided we would spend 20minutes to search our way, otherwise return back. This thought was scary as there was no way we were prepared to climb that steep descent and then those two ass breaking bridges. Even the thought was scary so we diverted and focussed back on finding our way out. Books were out, pictures were matched, positions changed, directions targeted and finally
we found footsteps. There were so many that we could not miss those now and headed towards the pass. We stepped up our pace when we were on snow as it was melting very fast and our worry was crevasses lying ahead. It was tough walk now with loaded up with clothes as it was sunny.
We soon saw the pass on our left with flags fluttering, but first we had to climb throw loose stone wreck. And as we reached the pass (Pin Parvati Pass) the bitter cold wind sent the chill through every skin up there and joy was short lived. We rested our backs supported by rucksacks and tried to save ourselves from wind as everyone had taste of chocolate which never tasted so good. I had no courage to fight the wind and click pictures. Vikrant was on click spree and got some great shots.
Now it was way down hill from here onwards and we first to avoid crevasses. Harsh, Mitesh and Bahadur tied up and went ahead as Vikrant, Me and Adi followed suit after a few minutes by roping up. Way was easy to find with footsteps leading us, but just a few steps ahead we met our first friend crevasse
and it was easy to cross but our task was not made easy by lack of rope distance we had amongst ourselves, so we always cared about that. We crossed many crevasses and were soon away from snow and took a break. 
Smiles were back on each faces as we enjoyed and wished everyone on crossing the pass. It was a great thing for everyone I suppose as we were dead tired and bodies cracked and we fought well mentally and came thus far and crossed the ~5000meter pass unguided. We soon ahd change of clothes to lighter ones as it was dry hot sun weather in Spiti valley and it reminded us of Ladakh trip by looking at the ranges.
We were on soon lost again but thanks to Harsh we back tracked and went on the right path down hill, through another rock jungle and crossed a nullah to make us believe that we were on right path. Harsh had a wish to shave and wash his head at some 4000metre place and this seemed right place, but he saved it for later.
We camped at another site which was not clearly mentioned in any of the books but we were some where near to the right camp site specified in book. We were somehow intrigued that how come we could not find any of the members of the group ahead as we didn't think we were so slow but we indeed were slow I guess.
This was very soothing site as we tasted sweet water and there was no more sand now and we enjoyed it thoroughly. I took up cooking charge for some time. I was so thrilled with the water that I must have sipped in many litres that days. We could see snout of a glacier on our left, most probably of the Pin river or a nullah merging into same river.
Somehow we soon went to sleep, hoping to start early next day to catch up with distance ahead.
Day Eight - Sept. 11, 2006 - ( High Camp something - Mudh)
We got back on our schedule of starting after the sun rays had touched us. It wasn't easy here as there were some mountains blocking the sun here. Any how we started and this day turned out to be longest walk. We started at aroung 8am or 9am and finished the day at 5pm, after having walked over 35kms.
We started off entering well into the Spiti valley after crossing the nullah well intot eh morning, with mountains giving us different views. Some times shades of green being turned into shades of maroon and then hard rock faces of sand and brown. With we settling for a decent pace on the true left of the river, we walked and walked, sometimes through barren rocks, at times through one step sandy path way, trying to scare us through its slides occurring once in a while.
We soon reached a site that looked like a camp site with some hut across the river and a wooden bridge and then a huge bridge to cross the river with a good path forming, that was road being built. As we reached camp site we recognised familiar faces from the group that was ahead of us. But we thought it was good to continue if there was any campsite slightly ahead as we had some momentum now. We came to know that it was only Mudh village we can reach. So we started off with hoping to cover the distance in 2-3 hours all along the road.
We filled our water tanks quickly and soon were welcomed by gushing water. This was the most troublesome nullah we encountered.
Harsh was on his motto of crossing the water bodies without getting his shoes wet and also all while stepping on to rocks and stones. He ventured out to find his way as I decided to cross it mid stream and already took off my shoes. But it was only after Bahadur had crossed it that I could muster courage to step in the water and as soon as I stepped in I could feel that I was being blown away by water. And it was Bahadur back to hold me take me to other side. Harsh had encountered it successfully using his long legs commendably to great use. Rest all took my route.
But walk after this one was straight non-stop walk. I stepped up pace, with Adi close to me. But soon blisters hit me and more severely Adi. We were struggling but just kept going. Very few words were shared and I kept on thinking why were not speaking but it was best the silent way as we were just keeping it going. I'm not sure how everyone kept going but I's sometimes counting steps taken, then I would look out for the village in sight or mountain ranges or try to concentrate and hear sound of air or river flowing way down, and then I would lost count and then come back to same things. Finally we sighted the village and it indeed was a reprieve, but short lived as this road's end was no where in sight, every turn had a next turn waiting. We kept putting our sore feet on road, across fields now, as we neared the village. As we slowed down as we were about to enter the village, Harsh joined us and we asked for guest house and soon found one and checked in with a dog giving us company to the room along with its owner. We were so glad to finally have quilts and room with a great view.
But there was more waiting for us in form of Dinner.
What a marvel it was, dal and some vegetable with rice and rotis and we simply could not find it enough that night and kept slurping. A big groups of Israelis was again present here and by this time I was intrigued what were these guys doing in this part of India. Seemed more like an interest in weeds. Whatever it may be, we were more keen in having a sleep now, after we had made sure we were departing by a sumo rather than early morning bus for Kaza. Somehow I didn't have a good sleep and went up early and ventured out with Vikrant to click some pictures.
Village is very small and at corner towards Kaza, the board telling population as 225 souls say it all. It was fun watching a small boy chasing a young bull and yaks strolling in dried fields. Then there was tea and great breakfast in morning, but none could muster courage to take bath in cold so far, that had to wait.
Day Nine - Sept. 12, 2006 - ( Mudh - Kaza - Key Monastery)
We finally moved from Mudh in a Sumo and were soon on our way to Kaza. the whole way seemed like back tracking to Ladakh trip but here we could see some habitants. Pin river gave way to Kaza river and we entered Kaza valley and we were always searching for the place where a very popular hindi movie number was shot. We simply imagined that this or that might be the sand wall against which the hero loaded the actress with so many kisses. But as we felt, we had terrible lips, all dried up and we were very decently sun burnt as well and badly needed to take a bath. We got off at Kaza in main market and Kaza was smaller than expected. We soon found a good place for 2-3 hours stay and taking bath, owner was very helpful as he told us to use the other room's toilet if we needed. We had by this time inquired that Key monastery was worth visiting and bus departed at 5pm. We planned to stay at Key Monastery that night.
Everyone took a hearty bath which never seemed enough and then went on lunch rampage which had already started with attack on kurkure & apples. Lunch was bad experience and we were soon on the bus stand.
During all this we bid good bye to our porter Bahadur, it must have been a new and great experience for him as it was first trek for him.
It was good feeling to be back in civilization. And I was soon back to senses and wanted to know who won the US Open Tennis, did Federer did it or not. I was less surprised by coming to know that Federer had indeed won the title but I was more surprised by fact that 4-5 people in a shop were discussing about Federer, that this guy has made this record and that record. This was unexpected and that too in this corner of India. I was really glad to know this and was soon very positive that we were growing towards having more information. It was heartening fact that people were discussing sports, though we could not find any english paper there.
We were soon back on the bus stand and watched a very small kid enthralling every one with his run and shouts echoing. He was in full enjoyment mood and we were enjoying it and I guess Harsh even got a small video or clicked few pics of the guy.
Soon bus arrived and we were on our way towards Key Monastery, after loading the rucksacks at roof top of the bus. It takes about 20-30 minutes to reach there. Fun was that we were offered fresh peas by some one just boarding somewhere on the way. Thing to notice was how close these people feel together in these hilly regions, where there is so much fight for water and even air. People share small things and share joy in smallest way possible.
We were soon left by bus on the footsteps of the monastery and Harsh had his finger cut for unknown reason while taking out the rucksacks. We met a group of foreigners and Indians coming out from monastery and we told them our about our trek and it so happened that they were from IndiaTravelogue.com and we were inclined towards writing our travelogue for sure and here it cometh.
We entered monastery, it all seemed so peaceful that we felt it was deserted and prayers had just ended. We were told to keep rucksacks in rooms and then join monks for dinner. We soon had a monk giving us company as we had dinner of thukpa, with him letting us know details regarding Budhist education and working of Key Monastery. This was mildest food we had was healthiest for sure. But Mitesh's stomach felt otherwise the next day, rather same night as his bowel started throwing up (rather throwing down thanks to gravity). As soon as i saw those beds, i had a good feeling and I indeed had a great sleep.
Day Ten/Eleven - Sept. 13-14, 2006 - ( Key - Manali - Chandigarh - Delhi)
I had gone to sleep as other were discussing something and I was first to woke up, except Mitesh who had bad bowel movement and was struggling to take care of nose, throat and now stomach. We moved down to take breakfast, which we took in the kitchen of the monastery. We were served with hot salted tea as well as another tea along with what felt like flour. It was tough to gulp that all and i tried my best but I guess only Harsh enjoyed the meal.
Harsh and Vikrant went to visit inside monastery and by the way we missed the prayers as head monks had to visit the local village to pray for a local old man who was sick and prayers were organized for his well being. Mitesh kept lying down in the room and Me and Adi Seth were getting bored by now. So we told Harsh and Vikrant if we can make a move toady itself.
Somehow we made a move and went down to local village. And there Harsh and Vikrant went to Kaza to get Sumo for Kaza or if possible Manali. It was 1pm and we doubted if anyone would be ready to leave for Manali at this hour. But as we killed time sitting along side an old age home at Key village, Mitesh, Me and Adi Seth, were surprised when Harsh and Vikrant came up with vehicle for Manali and we were suddenly so happy. Way towards Manali was spent taking on apples, fruit drink and then anything that came our way. Our famished stomachs were seeking refills and surprise surprise Mitesh had everything going fine now, as if his body was waiting for this ride back home. The way has some amazing sights of peaks of Himalayas, many 6000mt plus and scenery is amazing almost all throughout. We joined Manali- Leh highway at Rohtang pass and we remembered our bike trip last year.
We reached Manali by 8pm and after coming to know that final bus for Chandigarh was departing at 9:30pm, we went to an acquainted restaurant from last time and had decent dinner. Once on the bus, most of the people were asleep but somehow I didn't get good sleep and we came to full senses at Chandigarh and then on way to Delhi on another bus and leaving all cold clothes to rucksacks and bid byes to each other at Delhi ISBT and had some laughing memories of our tremendous trek.
net guide of Trekking in Indian-Nepal Himalayas had helped us find a new trek in so called dry region of Spiti, the trek would be Pin-Parvati Pass trek. The trek passes over from the Kullu reg
ion to Spiti Region and its ending near Kaza give it my hands up, with a chance to be in Kaza.As soon as we dropped out of the bus near railway station, we went ahead in search of Arora Hotel, which was never to be and it turned out to be Ahuja Hotel, thanks to Harsh's confusion we had a round about in this region with our rucksacks on, which were still not offloaded. At Ahuja's we had plenty of food as lunch and we soon went in a hotel room to offload some stuff from each rucksack, more a rearrangement of stuffs and offloading of some stuff from our own body and if possible a bath, which would be elusive here onwards. By this time we had enquired that bus to Shimla departs at 0030 hours. We had our dinner at Ahuja's, Dal Makhani and Roti being the main attraction with my demand of curd being fulfilled as well.
We reached Bus Stand which is outside the city and then waited for the bus and catching up with reading on the trek from two books, who would guide us throughout the trek, photos would helps us when we would try to lose our way. Books were -
1. Lonely Planet guide on Treking in Indian-Nepal Himalaya
2. Treks in Indian Himalayas - Harish Kapadia
The weighing machine near the bus counter had a nice day as all five of us took our weight individually and our rucksacks had their weight taken as well with a result being that my bag was weighing much more than anyone was thinking. It was around 19kgs with vikrant's and adi's bags hitting the 21kg mark.
I simply do not know how the bus ride was and neither does anyone else has any idea about the same, because we all had hell of a sleep throughout, maybe Ahuja's dal makhani did some trick. For me personally, it would be top three sleeps for next 12-13 days.
Day Zero-Part Two - Sept. 03, 2006 - After reaching Shimla in morning, our first target was to sit on a commode as soon as possible. Every stomach had a nice turnout at Ahuja and it was showing now.
We quickly checked into a Hotel after trying initially to search for a hotel ourselves and then quickly turning towards what few pimps were suggesting to. We were soon off towards Manikaran in a Sumo.
Just before one reaches town of Mandi, there is a long tunnel on the banks of Beas, which we were told is the longest tunnel of India after it took over from the Jawahar Tunnel of J&K. At Mandi due to landslide on the by-pass road, we had to muddle through traffic jam inside the city roads, which delayed us a little bit. Apparently landslide would stop the bus through which we were returning on night of 13th Sept.
We had gathered almost everything but were lacking in Kerosene and we searched for it throughout our way but we had to fight for it the next day at last.
As we were crossing place called Kasol, we thought that it is some happening place and we decided to drop in the same village for that night instead of Manikaran, which was 4kms from Kasol, But very soon we found out it was a fishy place and it resulted in many debates in days ahead. This place is notoriously famous or infamous for its charas dealings in open. And the place is more like some mini Israel town in India. We found that most of the signboards outside shops were in Hebrew including menu in restaurants. Every person seemed talking to God after being on hallucinating plane and smelling of charas. This place somehow didn't give me a good picture of people or rather tourists from Israel. They seemed to be rude to me, even to the local people at shops. This didn't go well with me. I'm not looking forward for some direct interaction with some people from Israel to modify my opinion.
But a good thing in the same town was that we found a general merchant shop which was selling all foreign made chocolates, drinks, tanned food items etc. We got hold of few snickers and few other things, which acted as our dinner supplements as well as next day's breakfast, as we were highly disappointed at dinner served at some roof restaurant, where the serving people seemed least interested in serving food to us. This behaviour was not new as we had had a glimpse of similar treatment at Ladakh, almost a year back.
The room which we picked was similar or may be more fishy, it was more fishy as it almost had fishes, with a small section of carpet drenched in seeped water. Me and Vikrant took out our sleeping bags while other three shared blankets on a bed. This night would be part of top three sleeps. I slept in one position and was most reluctant to get up in morning, even though Vikrant and Adi would leave early morning to bring Kerosene.
Day One - Sept. 04, 2006 - (Kasol - Pulga- Rudranag)
Me and Harsh got up only when Mitesh issued a warning that Adi and Vikrant were reaching in next 30 minutes, while he maintained that he had tried to wake us up many times before, but i had doubts on that. Anyway we were soon out of the shady hotel of that shady place. But we just moved out of the hotel and onto the street. I'm not sure of others but at least i was watching every creature with piercing eyes and i could find everyone shady, including almost all kids and women included. The place had such an air, I have never sensed or felt smoke of ganja or marijuana or related weeds, but somehow the air was filthy.
Anyway we waited for the guide to come from Jari alongwith a porter. Now we were not really keen on having a guide. I was not sure how tough it was or what exactly the turf is like, but reading the Lonely Planet guide, I was of the opinion that we don't need a guide. But later we would realize without a guide (or in our case guidance ) it was tough.
He arrived as usual late after repeated calls by Adi Seth and jsut before Adi was reaching his boiling point, which we had seen in our last year trip to Ladakh. Now the guide or tourist agent or trekking agent was trying to convince us that trek was not easy and specially during this time with crevasses. And the porter was from Nepal and looked like a bonded labor in claws of that guide. The guide took a hefty money from us and by the look of it we could realize that the porter was not going to get a good share off it. The guide wished us good luck and with warning that beware and don't risk and do return back if you are not able to find way ahead.
Meanwhile I found an interesting news item in one of the local papers that said that there had been Gangotri glacier had a big crack and deluge and engulfed two lives there. We were saved. Was it an omen. Ladakh trip also started with omens and this one was starting with one too.
We went ahead and got on a sumo to leave us near Pulga just after Barshaini. There is a dam being built at Pulga and there was kind of crowd. But we were left at wrong place as we could start the trek from Barshaini as there had been an alternate way built through a bridge on Parvati river rushing and gushing into tunnels of the dam.
As we walked towards Kheer Ganga, the first camp as per Lonely Planet guide, we came to know that there was an auspicious day and some local festival and fare being organized and it was last day. As we were getting used to climbing or walking, people stared at us as we were relatively very late in evening. We kept on asking how much time it would take to reach Kheer Ganga and we got different responses. Soon we came to know that we might not be able to reach Kheer Ganga in evening and might have to camp somewhere in between.
An interesting incident was that an elderly middle aged woman was coming back from fare and she had this to say seeing us, specially my dilapidated state - "Jab itni hi dikkat ho rahi hai to kyun itna vazan utha rakha hai", if you are so much trouble and pain then why are carrying these big rucksacks. I was having trouble at the start, with my own rucksack being exchanged with Harsh's as mine was cutting into my shoulders, even though it must be getting into Harsh also but he was carrying it somehow. I had lost one initial bought in the trek.
As I walked ahead of Mitesh and Vikrant, i was on my own with Adi, Harsh and the porter being much ahead. And as i crossed a small nullah through some rocks and reached slightly up, I saw some rucksacks and then a tent being surrected. And then under a concentrated noisy waterfall, I saw Harsh chatting up with one of the members of the group ahead and I took deep breath that we were going to camp at this place. Place was called RudraNag due to the shape of waterfall like an angry fanged snake. This was told to be the most holiest place (i could not guess definition of the holiest).
There was a group of 2 israeli women and they were going on same trek. They looked well equipped with a guide and 3 or 4 porters. Our main issue was that we were carrying lot of weight and I instantly remembered Onida's advertisement for owner's pride and neighbor's envy. But at present i was too glad to camp.
It got colder as soon sun was out behind nearby hills and we started to take out our tents. We got our tents out in the porch of a wooden hut which must have been used as a dharamshala. Our orange and green tents were out and then next task was to ignite the stove and this would soon become our daily ritual later. We, rather it was always Vikrant- the stoveman - somehow managed to light our two stoves.
At Rudranag, there is a small dhabha in place run by local villager, and we ordered for our dinner to be cooked, so we saved our first fight of cooking. And thankfully we did so as the food was amazing, simple rice and dal and tea later on, but it was superb. Just as food took its time, a group of rowdy villagers made a frantic fight for no reason explained, it was drunkards millee and it gave a disturbing start but somehow effected were Israeli group as they ventured inside the tent and never came out, or maybe it was their trekking style, I would never know. Then came a group of kids, who stripped naked and dived under the small pond created under the waterfall. Not sure what there show as for because they came in and went out and did not seem like taking shower. But it was simply amazing imagining standing in that super cold water. Soon we went for dinner and Mitesh's feasting was continuing inspite of his cold getting more severe every day but he was holding on nicely. After the dinner we took tea and suddenly found Mitesh inside the kitchen right in front of fire place even though I had teary eyes because of smoke but Mitesh had trouble and he was feeling terribly cold and not feeling well for sure.
Sleeping arrangement started that day with Vikrant, Harsh and Bahadur in green tent and Mitesh, Adi and myself in the orange tent, and the same would continue till our last tent settlement. I slept decently though the noise of the waterfall was waking me up regularly and then i felt like some water droplets have entered the tent in the night and i got a little scared thinking about days ahead in cold. Same kind of noises of water falling or flowing would accompany us to almost all the camps.
Day Two - Sept. 05, 2006 - (Rudranag - Kheer ganga - Bhojtund)
We woke up to find that sun was out on top of hills and outside it was a little colder with wind hitting us. I was soon ready for the first thunder and frantically searching for right place to relieve myself. I could not wait longer and Adi was giving me company nearby and we could not go much away from the hut and put it on the nature to care of the matter.
Feeling of cold water left hands jammed and I felt like need to get the gloves out but thankfully sun was out soon on us to make us feel right. We quickly packed our tents and outtng everything in were ready with rucksacks. We drank tea with biscuits and soon packed were on our way towards Kheer Ganga. The way is just continuing towards direction of sun along the path going near the dhabh huts and then crossing the bridge over to other side and true left of the river. The climb now was arduous for sure. A local lady was climbing ahead of us carrying bottles of cold drinks and other goods for dhabha on way to Kheer Ganga. Adi took the lead and climbed ahead as I struggled on way towards first break near a dhabha and had some water and biscuits. I knew it was the worst idea for at least myself to start walking or climbing without having a decent breakfast. It simply pegs me down not just for some time but the whole day.
We started onwards and were soon on our way and reached Kheer Ganga. There is dhabha right at the corner, reached after a decent climb and then way on the right leads towards the hot spring and way on the left goes towards the trek. We put down our rucksacks down and quickly asked for some food to pe prepared. It was to be egg maggi and it was not a good choice as I would later find out. It takes a long time for things to get cooked in mountains. And as we waited, there was beautiful kid, daughter of the people taking care of that dhabha and she was cutie and surely like the kids who put the advertisements colours.
Me and Bahadur stayed back as rest went to take bath in hot springs. I enjoyed the sun and pondered over something. One usual question comes in when ever i put myself to some physical condition that Why am I doing it? and most of the time, no sorry, everytime I'm unable to find an answer. I was here for nothing, may be just to test myself or maybe just to be with friends and definitely I had no reason for so called environmental reasons. And i was feeling not too great or bad but ok. I guess to enjoy something you need to have your interest in same and I had no such strong feeling and I was unable to find out what else could have been I be doing to be happy or rather simply enjoying, could not find any answer so I was happy here.
All hot bathers came and then we packed up to be on our way. Just before that there was an israeli group of 3 gorgeous looking females and everyone had eyes on them and it was like take as much as you can in your memory as we were not going to see any good faces for rest of the days.
We were soon on our way along the path besides the dhabha and then quickly taking a short climb. Soon rain gods took their turn and it started to pour. Thankfully we had our ponchos. (We made our song - POncho pahuncho kahan pe poncho, bas yahan pahoncho) but ironically we could not find an end to our turmoil on this day. It poured continuously and though it did not effect us in terms of our walking speed or spirits. But trouble came in with lots and lots of mud. Real trouble was taking steps clear off the mud but its simply was everywhere now and stuck everywhere. If that wasn't enough then real trouble came while there was a little height to climb on. We slipped, lost steps, and were on all fours many times. Many times it was help of thin straw, though some times it was nothing but all in mind, but it worked. Harsh had taken the lead in this struggling time but Bhojtund camp was no where in sight. Me, Adi, Mitesh and Vikrant were almost together and we thought that sight of smoke signalled the camp but it was place of gadariyas with their buffalo passing grazing through rains.
Soon we wee to find that these buffaloes had created problem for us in terms of digging out all sand in that mud and on the way up for us. Bhojtunda was some hours away, and its very tough to judge the timing and distance told by local people here. As most of the time it was awry with mentioning that Bhojtunda was an hour or so away but it never came for 2 hours. We were tired and exhausted. It was irritating and Adi had moved ahead and I was walking alone with Mitesh and Vikrant behind me. It was all about moving feet ahead and simply doing that and nothing else. Just a few minutes away from the camo, Harsh came back to look out for us and he came back to me after checkin up with Vikrant and Mitesh that they were ok. I might have been in bad shape as I gave my rucksack to Harsh and somehow I was irritated and Harsh was not better and I took myself towards the hut and then it was terrible cold there as sun was down already and colder wind breezed inside and heavy sweating did not help any bit.I had not taken off my poncho because I was feeling cold and wanted to change thoroughly after taking tea, Harsh was irritated and asked me to remove it, and I unloaded some of my irritation on him. And I sat alone for sometime as every one else moved to set up tents. I changed and felt better in new clothes.
There is decent amount of plane green area at Bhojtund and a Dhabha hut and few other huts used for accommodation are highlight here. Dhabha here is very costly and compared to any restaurant of big city in terms of cost.
A group of people including some sadhus and foreigners were busy singing shivji tunes as they smoked. By this time it was pretty sure that this area was deep into doping.
A lone Korean was also going ahead in same trek. We had met him at Rudranag and he had already camped by the time we reached Bhojtund.
Everyone came and then we took our bag baggages towards our tents. We had already finished a big packet of biscuits and I was liking the salty biscuits. I felt really drained out and it was good feeling to put lots of water and salty items in.
As soon as we reached tent, I felt strong urgence in my bowel movement and took the paper and ran between a natural position between two boulders. It was quick, liquid and drained me out quickly. I had my reservations developing as I squatted and pondered in moon light with wind trying to pierce through. Once done I was feeling decent and had a decent dinner at Dhabha. So far we had not cooked. And now there was no looking back as we could not think of going down the same path from that muddy way. It was common feeling to move ahead.
During dinner we noticed that on the true right of the rivulet down below, there were 5 decent high peaks over huge rock faces, which were mentioned as Pandavon ki Doli. It was mentioned that Pandavas climbed the stairs of heaven from this place. Now coming to know this, Harsh and me were happy that we had seen the whole the heaven reaching places of Pandavas and last year during our mountaineering course we had seen Draupdi ka Danda (place from where Draupdi reached Heaven). Rock faces looked amazing with shine of moonlight, but cool wind was keeping us in check and we quickly retired to our tents and went to sleep.
It was tough time for sleeping as I kept on waking up somehow.
Day Three - Sept. 06, 2006 - (Bhojtund - Thakur Kuan)
We woke up quite late and by the time we came out of tent sun was hitting us quite hard and it was decent hot. The Korean had already brought down the tents and packed up, same was situation of Israeli group and we soon knew that we were not going to catch them any more. (We were half wrong there).
Slowly and not comfortably steadily, we relieved and prepared ourselves for walk ahead. We were exhausted and long wait for breakfast did not do any good. Though our breakfast table gave us splendid view of Pandu Shila rocks with 2 waterfalls coming down onto the Parvati river some 100+ ft below us but sound was rocking. In front of us, people did yoga and one session of dope and then they all went in their way to get ready and departed as we had our paranthas with tea. Sun was putting more UV rays as we started from the way through the hut cafe and striaght slightly down on the same true left of the river. Mitesh and myself went ahead as Adi caught up with us at the new bridge. Now the Lonely planet guide mentions a pulley bridge but this was plain wooden bridge to go across the other side that is the on to true right of the river. We got little confused but could not find any alternate way so we crossed the bridge. Just right after crossing the bridge, there is a slight steep climb and then easy walk all through.
This was the easiest day we had and would remain the easiest of the days in the remaining trek. It can be judged simply from the fact that we overshoot the place from where we had to come down a little bit on Thakur Kuan area and had to back track a little. Way down is the way down towards river, as soon as you see some abandoned steel huts, and also some boulders through which sight of a pulley bridge is present. One needs to cross the river through this pulley bridge to get on the other side, which is the true left of the river.
We scrambled our way in the pulley with Harsh crossing first and then everyone else with Vikrant had his hand cut from different place, as in confusion he put his hands on the pulley railing and pulley almost ran over his finger. It must have ben terrible pain for him. We had savlon with us and then some antiseptic cream with bandage. Mitesh was our doc and pharma all built together, with already medicines were out at Bhojtund itself with everyone taking crocin except me. Surprise surprise I did not take any medicine so far. Even Bahadur was not feeling good and we were very pensive over this fact, because if he had to go back then we would be in slight trouble. Anyway everyone was hanging on just fine if not well.
Just after crossing the river, there is little plane on a slight height from the river and we found a plane area just before a little makeshift hut, which is being used by the shepherds.
We quickly put out our tents as we could see clouds following us and it was getting colder now. We found a decent big stone which acted as support for our stove. It was our first venture of cooking in the trek and Vikrant was quickly at it. And it would become our ritual with tents being put up and Vikrant working on stove with 2 or sometimes 3 mats to act as wind stoppers. We went for masala rice, with readymade masala being brought by Vikrant. The smell of basmati rice brought in new guests. 2 wild dogs came in with one having a steel stopper around its neck for safety with other wild animals. We soon came to know that these dogs were to look after the herd of goats and sheep. We did not find rice much nice to our taste and actually we had miscalculated and rice was more than we could gulp and dogs did some part of cleaning the left over. We were definitely not prepared for cooking. But more now we were losing our appetite, a typical state of mountain sickness. Bahadur had severe headache and had developed cold and rest also took crocene as well, and again I was not the one to take medicine, stomach was holding fine. Mitesh's cold was getting a little worse now and there was cough as well, he would sleep on the one side and use the tent door regularly to take out the nasal stuff and the toilet paper was his best friend now. I could very well remember my last week at mountaineering course where i did the same.
The evening was cold but night was a little better with clouds covering everything. We could see a pass in some distance and we were adamant that that was the on we were to cross but we were mistaken a little bit. But that pass offered a great view in full moon night with moon coming out amidst spared clouds. It was kodak moment that moon provided us.
There was a unique rock face on the true right of the river and it gave us middle finger sign in between with clouds revealing just the top single rock which was long and rest base seemed like a closed fist. It looked perfect as we were in such a state.
On right, we were starting to get view of Kullu Eiger, guess is that its named after Eiger as it resembles the Eiger face. It looked a huge face and we would be enjoying it more closely in coming time.
Some shepherds reached out to us and chatted with us. They gave us some idea about what lay ahead of us and mentioned distances and timings but we could hardly believe it now because of our experience so far, as we always lingered more than their figures. They were quite fascinated with out ponchos and requested us that if we came back, if we could hand over those to them as they needed it regularly while flocking their animal herds.
Day Four - Sept. 07, 2006 - (Thakur Kuan - Udi Thach)
We had went sleeping wishing for a clear morning and we did got that. So far we were getting up only by heat of the sun hitting our tents. We all knew one day Sun would not be waking us up, but at least for now we enjoyed the sun. We had our breakfast and I took sun screen out for first time but I'll know soon that it would not help much.
This day was not for the weak hearted ones. This was the beginning of hard days. We started from green patches on the true left of the river and soon found us among rocky paths which turned to gravel pathways and then sandy single step ways.
I was lost in my concentration of taking steps carefully because on my left I could see river flowing rather decently deep, on right was sandy face very close which seemed like slipping any moment and we getting under the landslide. Suddenly I heard Harsh, who was walking ahead of me, putting his head around a sharp turn and making me aware of taking next few steps very carefully. Sand was already sliding and it was too narrow. Somehow I took it all carefully and took that sharp right turn as we waited for Mitesh and Vikrant to come across this turn now.
Ahead I saw was another trouble. Yes, we were close to Pandu Bridge. (Wish I could use indecent hindi word here to describe the predicament and similar sounding to Pandu).
Pandu Bridge is a huge rock, broken at right places to create trouble over a nullah that join the river from true left of river. The flow was heavy (thanks to good sun) and kind of noisy to instill a feeling of crude adventure. Now this rock can be climbed easily but problem comes in climbing it down as its face was slippery and led straight into the nullah and has only a thin supporting edge. Thanks to Ram Bahadur, I passed firstly my bag and then myself with support of his hand and supporting my foot on his shoe and then running over to other side. As soon as I was on the other side I decided there was no way back now, but I would think again very soon.
Everyone cleared this first hurdle and then we came over to next one.
River needs to be crossed at 10 metres from this point through another rock bridge. This boulder is very huge and somehow supports a fast flow of river down below as well. There are stone ladders to climb up and then climb down and I was too unbalanced that people understood it soon and tool off my rucksack. And climbed down.
I was feeling worse that it was too bad to be there and not able to support own self. Anyway it will go on and on.
With these 2-3 close shaves, we were back on our way but we had lost momentum. Dry winds and full sun made our way slower and we soon decided to camp and not able to guess which place was this. Harsh went ahead to check it out that if we were close to Mantalai or some other campsite. But this was Udi Thanch as confirmed by some shepherds, for whom this was last point. Harsh also saw a newly born lamb. Next day we would see some taking the road down hill.
This place is close to river where river flows very slowly and there are some rivulets making lake type of shapes, so we got confused with description of Mantalai.
This place was very windy and wind was getting colder as the day progressed. It got tough to even set up the camp. Somehow we managed to peg our tents. Water was sandy ( we drank it and didn't care that it might cause troubles with intestines) and new trouble was lighting the stoves in this windy condition.
There are lots of campsites at this place but we being we, we choose the windiest.
Vikrant, the cook, set up the kitchen behind a small rock after trying it out at different places. One stove failed completely, other stove was worked for hours. And we were facing scenario of losing stock of match sticks. And being so pensive we counted our matchstick boxes at our disposal from now onwards.
Wind was fast getting speed and it got colder as clouds started following us. It didn't help cooking and it got tougher standing outside. This was rude as our t-shirts were soaked in sweat due to morning hot sun and now it was chilly and cutting through spine.
View of Kullu Eiger was amazing, we were starting to see 2000m rock face of Kullu Eiger and rock (yes real rock) fan Vikrant was ecstatic and all over the moon (despite it being sunny).
Then we got to see a good goat fight. And it was mesmerizing to see the intensity with which those two were fighting and a third one was trying to intervene.
In the evening another scene was a pony trying to show a mare that he had matured enough but mare was not letting him go. We had a hearty laugh at that scene.
We had decent food and we quickly retired to our sleeping bags after having a taste of mouthwash which bit thru tongue. But it was fun.
Day Five - Sept. 08, 2006 - (Udi Thach - Mantalai)
Morning was kind of similar, we made some breakfast and got on our way as slowly as possible. Sky was clear again.
Walk was through meadows and small rocks in between for most of the distance. Then we started to hit 'lakes made through small rivulets' and as we had read its description we were always confused where Mantalai was.
But soon we hit a rock face and it was climb up from here. And walk through these rocks was getting tougher and tougher and then suddenly we came across a sandy patch amidst rock. It was beautiful place with full protection from winds, sun being out and we could see the Parvati river Glacier right in front of this spot with the moraine and glacier making it a very fearful scene. We put down our bags and I even took out my socks and changed t-shirt to relieve myself of sweat. Just then harsh came down from his excursion ahead and up and told us to move as we were supposed to camp ahead and this might not be real Mantalai. More so because there was no water out here. The whole confusion was caused by a painted hand written mark saying 'Welcome to Mantalai' a big boulder.
Now this break caused trouble for me, I got up and went behind everyone slowly and the climb got tougher. We climbed almost 100mtr or so and then it was all walk through rocks.
We actually reached the region behind the moraine and we could see a lake being formed here. Walking ahead we came across Shiv temple and decent size of holy Shivlings or Trishuls spread across an area. Then the way got a little trickier as we had to get behind a rock and the way was of less than a single shoe placing. After that we walked 100-200mtr more and camped.It was windy and sun was soon behind the mountains. We got on to pegging our tents. It got very cold as the evening descended fully.
We were enjoying our soup before we got on to full food cooking which took time. Mantalai boasts of decent lake and water flows very slowly and it was sandy again but we managed here as well. I was fine except that I was feeling cold and I stayed put inside the tent for most of the evening.
On the east we could see the sharp curved peaks which we used to check out from way down below. It was a different view from here and our initial picture of the pass had to change as we came to know that we were going to make a sharp left from way just ahead while the 'pass', with some snow clad way up in mountains, we had imagined for so long lay straight ahead.
Day Six - Sept. 09, 2006 - (Mantalai - High Camp ?? (o, 1 or .5 not sure))
Evening and night were peaceful, I had a good sleep. I was too engrossed in sleep and was only woken up by Harsh who had another bad night. Harsh was calling out to catch a good scene of moon between two peaks and sun hitting the top of those peaks. But I was too lazy and handed him my camera to catch shots but I was too late to catch the scene myself.
We again started the day at our leisure but choice of not going for breakfast was really bad one, specially for me. I had the bad feeling of weakness after taking few steps.
Myself and Vikrant were walking way behind others and when we caught up with others, we were a nullah apart. It was significant because because the water was damn cold and as soon as i stepped in I felt like my fingers are frozen. Somehow I managed to cross it and then quickly dried up and saw what lay ahead.
We had caught up a large group of bengalis, bangaloreans, delhi wallas all climbing a steep climb ahead. It was way too steep as I could see some coloring hanging for as high as I could lay my hands on.
But it would prove to be more difficult than I could feel. We soon started and came to the foot of the climb and started climbing. Adi and Harsh were leading the way and crossed everyone in the group ahead of us.
But I was struggling. Vikrant was taking it slow with his knee pain troubling him sometimes. Mitesh was accompanying him.
We soon came up to a level where most of the people were taking rest for a while. I was pretty much exhausted and asked for electral. It was first symptom of weakness. I hated the idea of skipping breakfast now. It was worse as I saw another steep climb across the orange yellow rocks which were tumbling as well with some one taking wrong steps. I could see Harsh and Adi had reached top a long while ago, but I was not sure about if that was the point we needed to reach or there had to be another climb, because there were climbs after each top we reached. On the right I could see a huge icy, mud dropping like a waterfall from a distant cliff rock face. That was scary if we had to come across some thing like that. But anyway we started our climb and somehow managed to reach a point, where I could see Harsh and Adi waiting for us, disgusted or pitying us, not sure. But I guess we all were exhausted. Not sure about others but I was hugely exhausted and sat on a small rock amidst this sandy patch, as others went to talk with guides going with the other group. I was not sure if I would be able to take another walk and reach next cam site. But I was relieved to see that irrespective we were making this as our camp site. We didn't know if this was High Camp Zero, one or point five or what site it was. Other group went ahead and camped at next camp site where ever that was behind the rocks some distant away on the way towards the way to the pass and near to ice.
I was doing good after having drank some good amount of water. We all had electral water and I had lots of plain water. I felt really good after some time and was decently active compared to previous days. Soon the clouds which were following us had covered the area and we saw two Himalayan Baaz flying in air as relaxed outside for good amount of time.
Water was same sandy out here with small rivulets flowing close to our tents. We again had Pasta and this was not to the liking of Harsh. For me, I was tasteless as of now and tried to gulp as much as possible.
We decided that we had to wake up early and try to cross the ice field and then the pass right behind the other group or it would be really difficult. So we all retired early and tried to catch sleep.
Day Seven - Sept. 10, 2006 - (High Camp ?? (0, 1 or .5 not sure) - High Camp something)
We woke up early but not as early as we had thought.Me and Harsh did our ablutions acts in moon light. It was cloudy and slightly windy but not too cold. Just as we all were out of our tents, we saw the group ahead roped up and crossing the ice field. Our first thought was we are late and just hoped to trace back their steps. We were noticing their path and hoped to follow that track.
Finally we had our musali breakfast and packed up and were on our way. Harsh had an abnormal bowel call and stayed back as we moved ahead but we were too slow and he caught up with us. We were actually very slow as we somehow found way of getting on to the ice field through moraine and ice covered rock jungle. Once on the ice field right at the footsteps of rocks face, we started tying ourselves up and called it rope up. It was actually a joke with 10meter rope tying up 3 people. The arrangement was made for saving us from any crevasse fall or rather mainly any fall on ice field, but it was more of a psychological move rather than a tactical move. But it worked with minds and we were more confident of stepping onto ice field. Harsh, Mitesh and me were tied in one group and we led with Bahadur, Adi and Vikrant in the second group. In place of ice-axe we had two skiing/trekking sticks and one or two wooden sticks, again more of mental support. We started tracing the foot steps. Somehow there were steps visible in melting ice and thankfully there was no sun so far, otherwise we would have been long gone and lost somewhere.
We moved towards left and then right to cross a ice depth and then we were out in open ice field. It got more slippery as we had moved to solid ice now and bigger worry was we could not see any footsteps now or whenever we saw they were leading us nowhere. Time was 11am by now and snow blindness was starting to take effect. So far I had only followed Mitesh's footsteps mainly because there was no scope of looking elsewhere and more over not to entangle ourselves as distance with rope was hardly a hand's distance. Harsh had trouble and he used Mitesh's goggles for 5 minutes but then Mitesh started struggling and Harsh then used Mitesh's voice as guide. But we were lost.
At this time we decided we would spend 20minutes to search our way, otherwise return back. This thought was scary as there was no way we were prepared to climb that steep descent and then those two ass breaking bridges. Even the thought was scary so we diverted and focussed back on finding our way out. Books were out, pictures were matched, positions changed, directions targeted and finally
we found footsteps. There were so many that we could not miss those now and headed towards the pass. We stepped up our pace when we were on snow as it was melting very fast and our worry was crevasses lying ahead. It was tough walk now with loaded up with clothes as it was sunny.
We soon saw the pass on our left with flags fluttering, but first we had to climb throw loose stone wreck. And as we reached the pass (Pin Parvati Pass) the bitter cold wind sent the chill through every skin up there and joy was short lived. We rested our backs supported by rucksacks and tried to save ourselves from wind as everyone had taste of chocolate which never tasted so good. I had no courage to fight the wind and click pictures. Vikrant was on click spree and got some great shots.
Now it was way down hill from here onwards and we first to avoid crevasses. Harsh, Mitesh and Bahadur tied up and went ahead as Vikrant, Me and Adi followed suit after a few minutes by roping up. Way was easy to find with footsteps leading us, but just a few steps ahead we met our first friend crevasse
and it was easy to cross but our task was not made easy by lack of rope distance we had amongst ourselves, so we always cared about that. We crossed many crevasses and were soon away from snow and took a break. 
Smiles were back on each faces as we enjoyed and wished everyone on crossing the pass. It was a great thing for everyone I suppose as we were dead tired and bodies cracked and we fought well mentally and came thus far and crossed the ~5000meter pass unguided. We soon ahd change of clothes to lighter ones as it was dry hot sun weather in Spiti valley and it reminded us of Ladakh trip by looking at the ranges.We were on soon lost again but thanks to Harsh we back tracked and went on the right path down hill, through another rock jungle and crossed a nullah to make us believe that we were on right path. Harsh had a wish to shave and wash his head at some 4000metre place and this seemed right place, but he saved it for later.
We camped at another site which was not clearly mentioned in any of the books but we were some where near to the right camp site specified in book. We were somehow intrigued that how come we could not find any of the members of the group ahead as we didn't think we were so slow but we indeed were slow I guess.
This was very soothing site as we tasted sweet water and there was no more sand now and we enjoyed it thoroughly. I took up cooking charge for some time. I was so thrilled with the water that I must have sipped in many litres that days. We could see snout of a glacier on our left, most probably of the Pin river or a nullah merging into same river.
Somehow we soon went to sleep, hoping to start early next day to catch up with distance ahead.
Day Eight - Sept. 11, 2006 - ( High Camp something - Mudh)
We got back on our schedule of starting after the sun rays had touched us. It wasn't easy here as there were some mountains blocking the sun here. Any how we started and this day turned out to be longest walk. We started at aroung 8am or 9am and finished the day at 5pm, after having walked over 35kms.
We started off entering well into the Spiti valley after crossing the nullah well intot eh morning, with mountains giving us different views. Some times shades of green being turned into shades of maroon and then hard rock faces of sand and brown. With we settling for a decent pace on the true left of the river, we walked and walked, sometimes through barren rocks, at times through one step sandy path way, trying to scare us through its slides occurring once in a while.
We soon reached a site that looked like a camp site with some hut across the river and a wooden bridge and then a huge bridge to cross the river with a good path forming, that was road being built. As we reached camp site we recognised familiar faces from the group that was ahead of us. But we thought it was good to continue if there was any campsite slightly ahead as we had some momentum now. We came to know that it was only Mudh village we can reach. So we started off with hoping to cover the distance in 2-3 hours all along the road.
We filled our water tanks quickly and soon were welcomed by gushing water. This was the most troublesome nullah we encountered.
Harsh was on his motto of crossing the water bodies without getting his shoes wet and also all while stepping on to rocks and stones. He ventured out to find his way as I decided to cross it mid stream and already took off my shoes. But it was only after Bahadur had crossed it that I could muster courage to step in the water and as soon as I stepped in I could feel that I was being blown away by water. And it was Bahadur back to hold me take me to other side. Harsh had encountered it successfully using his long legs commendably to great use. Rest all took my route.
But walk after this one was straight non-stop walk. I stepped up pace, with Adi close to me. But soon blisters hit me and more severely Adi. We were struggling but just kept going. Very few words were shared and I kept on thinking why were not speaking but it was best the silent way as we were just keeping it going. I'm not sure how everyone kept going but I's sometimes counting steps taken, then I would look out for the village in sight or mountain ranges or try to concentrate and hear sound of air or river flowing way down, and then I would lost count and then come back to same things. Finally we sighted the village and it indeed was a reprieve, but short lived as this road's end was no where in sight, every turn had a next turn waiting. We kept putting our sore feet on road, across fields now, as we neared the village. As we slowed down as we were about to enter the village, Harsh joined us and we asked for guest house and soon found one and checked in with a dog giving us company to the room along with its owner. We were so glad to finally have quilts and room with a great view.But there was more waiting for us in form of Dinner.
What a marvel it was, dal and some vegetable with rice and rotis and we simply could not find it enough that night and kept slurping. A big groups of Israelis was again present here and by this time I was intrigued what were these guys doing in this part of India. Seemed more like an interest in weeds. Whatever it may be, we were more keen in having a sleep now, after we had made sure we were departing by a sumo rather than early morning bus for Kaza. Somehow I didn't have a good sleep and went up early and ventured out with Vikrant to click some pictures.
Village is very small and at corner towards Kaza, the board telling population as 225 souls say it all. It was fun watching a small boy chasing a young bull and yaks strolling in dried fields. Then there was tea and great breakfast in morning, but none could muster courage to take bath in cold so far, that had to wait.Day Nine - Sept. 12, 2006 - ( Mudh - Kaza - Key Monastery)
We finally moved from Mudh in a Sumo and were soon on our way to Kaza. the whole way seemed like back tracking to Ladakh trip but here we could see some habitants. Pin river gave way to Kaza river and we entered Kaza valley and we were always searching for the place where a very popular hindi movie number was shot. We simply imagined that this or that might be the sand wall against which the hero loaded the actress with so many kisses. But as we felt, we had terrible lips, all dried up and we were very decently sun burnt as well and badly needed to take a bath. We got off at Kaza in main market and Kaza was smaller than expected. We soon found a good place for 2-3 hours stay and taking bath, owner was very helpful as he told us to use the other room's toilet if we needed. We had by this time inquired that Key monastery was worth visiting and bus departed at 5pm. We planned to stay at Key Monastery that night.
Everyone took a hearty bath which never seemed enough and then went on lunch rampage which had already started with attack on kurkure & apples. Lunch was bad experience and we were soon on the bus stand.
During all this we bid good bye to our porter Bahadur, it must have been a new and great experience for him as it was first trek for him.
It was good feeling to be back in civilization. And I was soon back to senses and wanted to know who won the US Open Tennis, did Federer did it or not. I was less surprised by coming to know that Federer had indeed won the title but I was more surprised by fact that 4-5 people in a shop were discussing about Federer, that this guy has made this record and that record. This was unexpected and that too in this corner of India. I was really glad to know this and was soon very positive that we were growing towards having more information. It was heartening fact that people were discussing sports, though we could not find any english paper there.
We were soon back on the bus stand and watched a very small kid enthralling every one with his run and shouts echoing. He was in full enjoyment mood and we were enjoying it and I guess Harsh even got a small video or clicked few pics of the guy.
Soon bus arrived and we were on our way towards Key Monastery, after loading the rucksacks at roof top of the bus. It takes about 20-30 minutes to reach there. Fun was that we were offered fresh peas by some one just boarding somewhere on the way. Thing to notice was how close these people feel together in these hilly regions, where there is so much fight for water and even air. People share small things and share joy in smallest way possible.
We were soon left by bus on the footsteps of the monastery and Harsh had his finger cut for unknown reason while taking out the rucksacks. We met a group of foreigners and Indians coming out from monastery and we told them our about our trek and it so happened that they were from IndiaTravelogue.com and we were inclined towards writing our travelogue for sure and here it cometh.
We entered monastery, it all seemed so peaceful that we felt it was deserted and prayers had just ended. We were told to keep rucksacks in rooms and then join monks for dinner. We soon had a monk giving us company as we had dinner of thukpa, with him letting us know details regarding Budhist education and working of Key Monastery. This was mildest food we had was healthiest for sure. But Mitesh's stomach felt otherwise the next day, rather same night as his bowel started throwing up (rather throwing down thanks to gravity). As soon as i saw those beds, i had a good feeling and I indeed had a great sleep.
Day Ten/Eleven - Sept. 13-14, 2006 - ( Key - Manali - Chandigarh - Delhi)
I had gone to sleep as other were discussing something and I was first to woke up, except Mitesh who had bad bowel movement and was struggling to take care of nose, throat and now stomach. We moved down to take breakfast, which we took in the kitchen of the monastery. We were served with hot salted tea as well as another tea along with what felt like flour. It was tough to gulp that all and i tried my best but I guess only Harsh enjoyed the meal.
Harsh and Vikrant went to visit inside monastery and by the way we missed the prayers as head monks had to visit the local village to pray for a local old man who was sick and prayers were organized for his well being. Mitesh kept lying down in the room and Me and Adi Seth were getting bored by now. So we told Harsh and Vikrant if we can make a move toady itself.
Somehow we made a move and went down to local village. And there Harsh and Vikrant went to Kaza to get Sumo for Kaza or if possible Manali. It was 1pm and we doubted if anyone would be ready to leave for Manali at this hour. But as we killed time sitting along side an old age home at Key village, Mitesh, Me and Adi Seth, were surprised when Harsh and Vikrant came up with vehicle for Manali and we were suddenly so happy. Way towards Manali was spent taking on apples, fruit drink and then anything that came our way. Our famished stomachs were seeking refills and surprise surprise Mitesh had everything going fine now, as if his body was waiting for this ride back home. The way has some amazing sights of peaks of Himalayas, many 6000mt plus and scenery is amazing almost all throughout. We joined Manali- Leh highway at Rohtang pass and we remembered our bike trip last year.
We reached Manali by 8pm and after coming to know that final bus for Chandigarh was departing at 9:30pm, we went to an acquainted restaurant from last time and had decent dinner. Once on the bus, most of the people were asleep but somehow I didn't get good sleep and we came to full senses at Chandigarh and then on way to Delhi on another bus and leaving all cold clothes to rucksacks and bid byes to each other at Delhi ISBT and had some laughing memories of our tremendous trek.
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