travelogue - part 3
here is the third and final episode from where i left in the previous post:
the next morning we were woken up by the guides. the reason was that for a change there were clouds (rarely seen at those heights) and the first rays of the sun coming out of the mountains and passing through the clouds were presenting a beautiful view. we undid our tents for the last time, packed up our bags and started the back-trek soon after the breakfast. our small group was walking real fast and by 10 (2.5 hrs of walk), we estimated that we would reach Bartal in another hour. at that very point, something mischievous got into the head of deepankar. he gave us the idea of taking a shortcut via walking along the river bed. we were in real adventurous mood. so 7 of us decided to leave the road and get down to where the river was flowing and walk along with it for some distance and then climb back to the main road. what followed had been described as "near-death experience" by one of our group member and requires a separate detailed account. all i can say is that in the next 2 hrs we covered barely 1.5-2 km and when finally we reached the place where our bus was waiting, we found that our guides were real angry with us for not following the road. the whole experience reminded me of "never take shortcuts in life". anyways so we had some cold drinks at a shop, boarded our bus and left for manali.
the rest of the bus ride was normal except that we were worried whether we would be able to cross the rohtang pass before it gets dark. the reason being that it gets all misty there and it is not possible to drive in dark. if it so happened, we would have to camp at rohtang itself and we were in no mood to put up the tents again. luckily for us, we crossed the rohtang in time and so reached our hotel at manali around 9 pm. after sleeping in tents and sleeping bags for so many days, the sight of proper bed with matress and quilts was heart-warming and we all crashed into bed immediately after having our dinner. next day after the breakfast, we decided to check out some local places. so we decided first to visit the "hot water spring" and from there to visit the "hidimba temple". the spring was a letdown, i was expecting something like a real spring coming out of the surface and throwing water in the air. unlike my imagination, there was this small rectangular pond which was getting the water from some source. first we decided to leave without taking a dip but on second thoughts the idea didn't sound appealing. so we landed into the water and then only realized why it is called "hot water" spring. it was so damn hot that it was impossible to stand under the flowing water for more than 5 seconds at a go. from there we took an auto and reached the Hidimba temple. for the mythologically-unaware, she was the wife of gada-dhaari Bheem (second of the Pandava brothers). there was also a temple, actually a small altar under a tree, of great Ghatotgacha (son of Bheem and Hidimba). within the compounds of the temple itself, there were local people offering the visitors to take a picture with rabbits and yaks (yes, there were two of them). on our way back, we came to hear about some monastries so we visited them too. i went to a monastry for the first time in my life and it felt really good. the entire atmosphere there is very quiet and soothing to the mind. we returned back to our hotel in time to watch the Italian grand prix which was won by my favorite team Mclaren.
the next morning we finally said goodbye to manali and left for chandigarh at 10:30. the journey was again very normal, actually it would be more appropriate to say that after our "real adventure", things like bus falling in the valley etc etc have lost all its significane and looked like very trivial means of meeting god. we reached chandigarh at around 10 in the night, had our dinner at a restaurant which was real bad. we reached the station in good time to catch the kalka mail but this time we got divided into 2 groups with our compartments being at almost the opposite ends of the train. the train journey went peaceful, there was no bomb-scare this time and we finally reached the joka-land next morning in time to attend the morning lecture, only to realize that i had no lecture on wednesday.
this is the end of my story. looking forward for more such trips in future. thanks for bearing with my bad and boring english.
the next morning we were woken up by the guides. the reason was that for a change there were clouds (rarely seen at those heights) and the first rays of the sun coming out of the mountains and passing through the clouds were presenting a beautiful view. we undid our tents for the last time, packed up our bags and started the back-trek soon after the breakfast. our small group was walking real fast and by 10 (2.5 hrs of walk), we estimated that we would reach Bartal in another hour. at that very point, something mischievous got into the head of deepankar. he gave us the idea of taking a shortcut via walking along the river bed. we were in real adventurous mood. so 7 of us decided to leave the road and get down to where the river was flowing and walk along with it for some distance and then climb back to the main road. what followed had been described as "near-death experience" by one of our group member and requires a separate detailed account. all i can say is that in the next 2 hrs we covered barely 1.5-2 km and when finally we reached the place where our bus was waiting, we found that our guides were real angry with us for not following the road. the whole experience reminded me of "never take shortcuts in life". anyways so we had some cold drinks at a shop, boarded our bus and left for manali.
the rest of the bus ride was normal except that we were worried whether we would be able to cross the rohtang pass before it gets dark. the reason being that it gets all misty there and it is not possible to drive in dark. if it so happened, we would have to camp at rohtang itself and we were in no mood to put up the tents again. luckily for us, we crossed the rohtang in time and so reached our hotel at manali around 9 pm. after sleeping in tents and sleeping bags for so many days, the sight of proper bed with matress and quilts was heart-warming and we all crashed into bed immediately after having our dinner. next day after the breakfast, we decided to check out some local places. so we decided first to visit the "hot water spring" and from there to visit the "hidimba temple". the spring was a letdown, i was expecting something like a real spring coming out of the surface and throwing water in the air. unlike my imagination, there was this small rectangular pond which was getting the water from some source. first we decided to leave without taking a dip but on second thoughts the idea didn't sound appealing. so we landed into the water and then only realized why it is called "hot water" spring. it was so damn hot that it was impossible to stand under the flowing water for more than 5 seconds at a go. from there we took an auto and reached the Hidimba temple. for the mythologically-unaware, she was the wife of gada-dhaari Bheem (second of the Pandava brothers). there was also a temple, actually a small altar under a tree, of great Ghatotgacha (son of Bheem and Hidimba). within the compounds of the temple itself, there were local people offering the visitors to take a picture with rabbits and yaks (yes, there were two of them). on our way back, we came to hear about some monastries so we visited them too. i went to a monastry for the first time in my life and it felt really good. the entire atmosphere there is very quiet and soothing to the mind. we returned back to our hotel in time to watch the Italian grand prix which was won by my favorite team Mclaren.
the next morning we finally said goodbye to manali and left for chandigarh at 10:30. the journey was again very normal, actually it would be more appropriate to say that after our "real adventure", things like bus falling in the valley etc etc have lost all its significane and looked like very trivial means of meeting god. we reached chandigarh at around 10 in the night, had our dinner at a restaurant which was real bad. we reached the station in good time to catch the kalka mail but this time we got divided into 2 groups with our compartments being at almost the opposite ends of the train. the train journey went peaceful, there was no bomb-scare this time and we finally reached the joka-land next morning in time to attend the morning lecture, only to realize that i had no lecture on wednesday.
this is the end of my story. looking forward for more such trips in future. thanks for bearing with my bad and boring english.
posted by himanshu agrawal | 1:03 PM
1 Comments:
oh ok. I actually searched for tiklup on the web, and came across that old blog of yours.
Go bears!
Post a Comment
<< Home