Everything has a start, so do this love story of devil and travel started November 2008. Although this devil in the form of myself had traveled mostly all popular tourist places here in North India by then but never had a chance to do it on his own. Down, out, alone and almost surrendered to the most difficult phase of his life, devil suddenly thought of pursuing his passion of driving to start again @ life, take it a step further and explore if nature has the magic that can save him and turn into the person he was.

Himalayas always had a history of being associated to peace and calmness, so devil decided to have a treatment called “Nirvana @ Himalayas”. He went to find the answer to the questions which haunts him every moment, top of the list being “Me or Devil??” The answer still remains elusive (conclusive to devil :)) but devil is getting closer to the same. By breaking the shackles of all so organized and planned trips, devil decided to head for the unknown adventures on his own wheels and find answers which have eluded him so long. No matter what the answers to the questions are but DEVIL will always be within me as a good teacher in this life.

This blog is dedicated to Traveling (experiences, learning, thoughts, tips, guides, maps, suggestions, photography etc). You all are most welcome to join in and share your comments, experiences, thoughts, suggestions etc or any stuff related to traveling.

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When we reached zirakpur funny thing happened...there was a direction sign which had fallen off and we idiots thought it to be correct and followed it…it said for KALKA take left from here…After being in doubt and seeing only signs of patiala for more than 15 KMs we finally asked someone. Not to our surprise he confirmed we took the wrong turn, so we trackback and finally entered the right part of the Himachal through Kalka. We took some food with us when we left from, stopped near timber trail and had our lunch at around 13:00 Hrs I think. After around 1.5 – 2 hrs we reached a diversion point towards Chail after Solan and leaving NH-22 we headed right. As you can see the road was like extremely smooth but narrows at some turns and places. It was a smooth ride till Chail.

Unfortunately since it was first ever unplanned sought of trip focus was more on reaching the destination than clicking the snaps. Moreover we had more pictures of ourselves, polluting by our faces, the natural beauty which this part of the world has to offer :-). But, since it’s first totally exempted I believe. We reached Chail at 16:30 PM and headed straight to see Cricket Ground

Since we had to leave to Ckeck-in the hotel and foremost find it first ;)…we had a tea at Canteen of the School in front of the Ground…it was great and guy was very helpful in providing the inputs on taking the hotel as well. We rushed back to the town and got the room at RS 350 only. It was right behind the market in first row but I forgot the name. we went on one road going up from the market and decided to click some picture.

On the way back, we went to the Gurudwara over there and had our prayers and came back to hotel for a sound sleep. The atmosphere there at Chail was extremely peaceful, calm and serene and it was to my delight…liked that place. I feel it’s a great place to visit if you need to rest with peace. :-)

We had a couple of snapshots but my old age camera spoiled it all, it never switched on back in the entire trip. So, we had to manage with our phone cameras only. Then we started for Kufri, the scenic beauty en-route was extremely mesmerizing and couldn’t be explained in words if you are visiting those hills for the first time…

It was 9:00 AM we reached Kufri, there was an extremely cold breeze blowing over there. So, first things first, we had a hot TEA with Parle-G. Surprisingly, we were among the first tourists to enter that place on the day. As soon as we did so, there were people like eagles haunting us to take a ride on a small brother of horse. We kept neglecting but they were persistent and kept warning us that we won’t be able to reach the sightseeing place and that it’s very steep. But, this was what we both looking forward to. We reached the place for which they even had a ticket :confused: :shock:. Frankly, Kufri disappointed me very much as I thought of it something else. I think it was the pre-assumptions and hyped keyword :-)… I think it could have been better if there had been some snow…Nevertheless, we did click some photographs over there

Then we have to head back to get our tummies filled with breakfast. But, I found a way between the barbwires and we went on the other side to see what’s there in. I found it much beautiful than the previous side. Just have a look yourself…

We went down had a complete breakfast and started for Shimla and decided to have lunch before leaving to Delhi from there… It was 12:30 PM, we reached Shimla. It was too crowded for a hill station I felt and extremely close for a rookie like me to park among such packed stuff of cars. We took the tickets for the lift and went straight up. Here are some of the pictures of the place.

Finally we had South Indian lunch at some South Indian café, it was not so good. We roam around there for 2 hours, did some shopping of crafts and started back around 15.30 for Delhi. Just before entering Kalka we bought ourselves some cartons of Juices to try at home. They were fine in taste and resumed back the journey. Clearing through Kalka was a bit pain as there was a big JAM till Pinjore. We continued the journey till home and decided not to stop for dinner and let our tummies get filled by all the coke, wafers, kurkure we had with us. :-).. Finally it was around 00.30 that we reached home had dinner at my friend’s place went to my home at 01.30 at night. To be the first trip it felt really nice to drive such a long distance starting from Chail to Delhi via Kufri. We had a lot of sightseeing en-route only but most importantly it marked the beginning of my travel on my own wheels. This is where my search of NIRVANA begun…:D

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When fun kisses Desire,

Desire kisses Adventure,

Adventure kisses Fatigue,

Fatigue kisses Pain,

Pain kisses Fear,

Fear kisses probable Death,

Death kisses Survival,

You witness The Charismatic Chandertaal :D

Hmm..so finally the wait is over have the pics and will get on with the travelogue now… also I will be adding the list of things to avoid at the end of the travelogue and how to learn from our experience to avoid what all happened to us…clever people are those who learn from other’s mistake..so calling all clever one’s to learn from ours :D…

Day 1 – June 03, 2009 | Delhi to Manali

It was 3.30 AM in the morning and we, five in number, in a santro, with high spirits started for the hunt to satisfy the prolonged desire to see Chandrataal and our FIRST ever TREK. The trip meter is down and set to zero and with tank full of fuel we left @Gurgaon from my cousin’s place. I knew it would be a long drive for sure 14-16 hr is what we expected for us to reach manali and get some rest. First stop was supposed o be Karnal the “Zilmil Restaurant “, since it was too early so they were serving only Paranthas viz. mix, pyaaz, paneer with lots of white butter spread over it, delicious, isn’t it?…and glass full of TEA.... ahh! I love it “A Glass full of Tea”…. It’s just bcz me being highly addicted to TEA….hmm…so after getting our tummies full of those PARANTHAS we went ahead….

Smooth and Clean…

We opted for Delhi-Kalka-Kiratpur-Bilaspur-Mandi-Manali route…so when we were about to reach Kalka we just poked someone for the the way to go…and he said take this left turn for kiratpur and we thought this is extremely lucky, the left turn had no signs and it was like a gully [small road only]..maybe there could be some other road as well or I thought me must have missed the board…anyways journey gets under way…the route was beautiful although confusing a bit with lack of sign boards and plenty of two ways, adding to the confusion …also the entire route till bilaspur was pretty much in OK condition but at few places it was very bumpy and the road was also small..and I thought the little santro was dying with all much weight..it was HOT…..but the beauty of the route was just amazing…driving on the circumference of Shivalik ranges seemed to be a joy in that heat as well…the enthusiasm was very high..And why it would’nt be, it was, after all, the first unorganized and unseen adventure…

The monster dragon reptile…it was way bigger than her sisters found in our city… 

Enjoy the beauty in the pic itself...

Beauty was more or less the same everywhere till bilaspur and we hit the all wanted shade in the mountains..the nature became more and more interesting as we kept driving into the hills far away from the home land….we met the Beas river which was all dried up near the lower hills but kept on getting violent more and more as we move up… I feel the water was not yet release from the DAM where photography is prohibited ;( … here are few more pics of the way being followed….

The water is so calm here….

I wish I owned that place…also wonder how someone built it…. :confused:

Ahh... that’s beautiful isn’t it? A hanging bridge above a VIOLENT RIVER…..

Now what’s this? We all know it’s WINDMILL… we always get these…

Next stop was at Mandi – “Rotis” the restaurant, we had lunch there and it was nice apart from the rest room which was just one and always having the sign not vacant…but we cared about food...it was worth a stop..even the scenes from the balcony were great…and more over it was just on the highway itself..so didn’t have to face the hassles of the city…. Now to my cousins surprise we hit the so long tunnel of AUT….yes it was very long and all of them seemed to be very excited seeing such big one for first time….the dampness which creates the coldness in that stretch is simply great…but nevertheless all of us enjoyed till the very end… it is worth a visit..here is a pic when we shoots out of the TUNNEL…

Now as we entered the highlands the nature started to show its nature by making us feel its cold and pleasant mist in the air created by the violent BEAS River flowing aside the road…. I bet it’s 100$ drive in an amusement park, if ever they offer this service… ;)..just try to feel what we felt in these pics…

Now we can see Kullu….it just looks great…

As we passed the kullu I think I missed the by-pass..so we entered the kullu…and there was a red light and I was about to cross it as I thought it’s just for the people crossing the street the cop instructed me to stay back and stop..so I did and then aside us someone instructed to get back as it’s a one way and you will create a JAM, it was a very ugly surprise as again either there was no sign board or we again missed it…backing up at hills is always a concern for me and when people are so f****** idiots that no one is ready to give the space when it even existed…all want to be Schumacher at the very moment and steal that ever slightest bit of inch from you…to add to the problem all my 4 passengers were somewhat like Nawabs with none bothering to get down and stop people from fitting their a***** in between so that they can avoid JAM….when I saw no respite I said to myself enough of this let’s move to front and wait for the consequences….nothing much happened when traffic came from the other side but devil was all around that place for us..as it got green signal and we tried to move I hit very slightly a mud-guard of a three wheeler and he stepped out and I tell you, he created a scene out of nothing…he was not even ready to move aside and didn’t let us move as well…we asked him so much that at least get aside and let other people pass by..But he was like “koi nhn, lagne de jaam” (no problems let the jam be there, I don’t care..)..He kept saying tell me what to do..After seeing that shit enough and being asked to pay 350 Rs for the damage..I just lost a bit...The anger was reaching heights and was about to erupt...but I was like let’s not create fuss and avoid it…none of the two cops bothered to entertain the situation…when finally I had to pull that thinnest piece of mud-guard shit from my hand and bend it to make it look as it was earlier…see it was just my hand which fixed and I am not Arnold ;(…. Then we put a 100 RS note in his hand asked him to shut up and move aside…i don’t have words to write here for that idiot…it was nothing but a mere bent which one shot of hammer would have fixed…any ways forgetting the scene we move ahead and on the way we saw some cool firangis near kullu airport..eye’s treat.. Then nature started to get into the evening shift and we enjoyed the views of sun and shade on the high hill leadin to manali…

Simply awesome…..

Oops we got the moon as well…

The sun is setting and we are almost there at manali…

We reached manali @18.30 PM….it’s was so much crowded and there was no place to park the car…and the on-way nature of the road created all so much problems for me…but we managed to reach the person AVINASH gave reference of…thanks to him for that….we arranged the trip to chandrataal there we booking of transport, guide and food for 2 nights and three days..he asked us to stay at old manali and to be honest I dint have any clue of that place even visiting manali once before…somehow I managed to take the car to most diffiquilt part of the journey at the top in old manali…and I swear it was the most diffiquilt drive I ever had with so much jams…centimeters of space only to get thru and all the locales shouting and behaving as they are god seeing the number plate of delhi….vo kehte hain na jiski laathi usi ki bhains….it was same for every locale there….but nevertheless it’s part of india…now the fever is getting to world as well especially Australia….somehow managed to park our car in a plot near cottage…. Anyways old manali was very calm and clean and firangan chicks were like treat for the eyes….i never saw such beautiful faces in among them….simply great…the cuisines had everything if you are a foreign cuisine fan…so we got a chance as well to wash our hands with something different prior to disappearing into the non habituated part of the north… we had some dinner and went to get some sleep in the cottage as it was decided that we have to leave at 4 AM. Btw we also got sometime to get some last photos of the day….the night shots…although they aren’t that good but OK to be remembered of…

Moon at its glory..among the clouds…

A far away snow cladded peak….

So gaya ye jahan…and it was dark everywhere…and we also slept…

Next will the Day-2, which had more fun and more pics and some many first time experiences so guyz keep watching…

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Day 2 – June 04, 2009 | Manali to Battal

Well this was the day when we were supposed to reach chattru or chota dhara and then expected to trek till battal…we woke up at 3 AM got ourselves ready by 4 AM only to hear the ringing tones of the person in contact…. meanwhile we got the chance to have some non-desi Breakfastat one of the food shops in old manali…. My frend ordered some unusual cakes and omelet with some unusual bread and again it was served with glass full of TEA :)… we enjoyed the breakfast and got some time to click some flowers…. Wondered I had someone to gift these beautiful colors called life…

Calming a girl, you require remedy like this… 100% tested….

Nevertheless, may be one day wish would be fulfilled again ;)… AIM for the heights…

Tour operator got late in the night due to work and finally around 5 AM he picked the phone and by 6.30 AM he reached the cottage with all things packed up and we left from there….i knew the JAM at Rohtaang would be waiting to kiss us…on the way to Rohtaang there are lots of beautiful sceneries to capture and we did just that as we knew on the way back it won’t be possible due to our rotten physical conditions :grin:…. Starting from the base on “MANALI VALLEY”

Wish I can get to TOP and be a “superman” LOL… :D

Getting higher and higher…

When the Water turns into White...

First stop was planned to be Mirhi, to get bottle of rum for the heat in such freezing temperature….although we had my choice called vodka, but all insisted to get the RUM as well

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Mirhi-Chattru

This was the stretch which would take us into the first time place after crossing Mirhi, none of us visited any place beyond that and even the height or altitude as well. We reached mirhi at around 8.30 AM and believe me wind was blowing with such force as if to take you away with it and it was extremely cold as well. At one of the Dhaba we had Tea, Maggi and bought some chocolates for the rest of the days. Then it was the main purpose of getting the bottle of RUM, which we got from one liquor shop over there. Meanwhile we again got some chance to click some photographs

Road to Home @ Heaven

For me reading so much about the famous Rohtaang Jam the anxiety level was getting higher as we wanted to cross it as soon as possible. And it did stick us. There was a big JAM as we approached the Rohtaang La.

Long Line getting even longer downhill….

Finally after struggling for an hour we reached the near the Rohtaang La point and you can see so many cars parked over there right in between the road. It is nothing but invitation to trouble only. To my surprise, as initially I thought JAM would be because of so many people trying to pass the Rohtaang and enter the other part of the side but uff…it’s because of parking system. Anyone who don’t find the place to park, leaves his car where he is and get out and go for enjoyment, doesn’t even bothering to give side at least to passerby vehicles, seeing this was disgusting. There were so many trucks coming at that time and each one had to give pass after putting the entire traffic on hold :(. Most importantly, ever sung Rohataang didn’t live up to the expectations we had for it, maybe it’s because of mine austere nature or it’s the wrong time of the year we visited all praised brand of Travel Destinations. It was as if am visitng trade fair, but I feel this where people get to find snow so it becomes like that.

Rohtaang La

Anyways, we finally crossed the complete stretch of Rohtaang La and it took us around 3 hours in doing so. The road on the other side was in a little bad shape.

But, yes the other side of the Rohtaang was ever beautiful. Now, I can feel why it was praised so much. Morale is not to visit in holidays ;) we kept running as we were now way behind the schedule because of JAM and leaving manali late, so didn’t click any pics till our next stop. We entered the road towards Chattru by taking the right turn at Gramphu and as soon as we entered the road disappeared. It was complete kacchi sadak. Now, I was praising that I took the right decision of not getting the Santro here. Waters were gushing on the road from the hills as if to take your car with it into the more violent Chandra River. The river is the most violent I have ever scene; it was way more violent than the Beas. Iwould have taken four lives with me if I would have attempted this road on my car. For the entire stretch I only saw pebbles and stones on the path which was drivable and that even the Sumo was also having such trouble negotiating it, but it was running and I can see easily now “SKILLS DOES MATTER HERE” :D. It was not an easy piece of cake which we would have had in our santro. I have the pics on the way back. So we reached Chattru and wanted to have our tummies filled at the dhaba over there.

There were few people camped there as well and all of them were on the way back from battal. We asked the dhaba wala about the Chandrataal and there was the first warning :D. He laughed and mocked that no one has visited there till now, there is a lot of snow. You guys won’t be able to make it. Try the kunzum, it’s open since yesterday and whosoever is coming from there, are happy to say its great fun right now. So, one good news is that we didn’t have to trek today, so we can tank up the energy for the motive of trip but bad news was no one made it till now, so how come we amateurs can :) Anyways, we had some lunch with the Rajma he served and rice. We had our puris packed from home, so we checked them and were in good condition so tried to get them over with rajma. Then, we clicked some photos around the place.

Trekking route from Hamta pass, as told by our guide

Most common face in hills…

The Great Chattru Bridge ;) over Chandra River

Beauty getting Better and Better…

One of the best so far…

It was around 1.30 M and we left for Battal in search of so much snow that none made it to chandrataal.

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Chattru – Bada Dhara

As we moved from Chattru towards Bada Dhara the panaromic views were at the heights of breath taking views. The next set of pictures doesn’t have words for their descriptions they were simply superbly great thing to witness. I don’t know the names of the peaks in question but I never so much of snow before in my life. Don’t think the pictures does justice to the nature but certainly helps store image of something close to it.

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Bada Dhara To Battal

Hmm…now we were approaching the base of the valley and it was like I am seeing a movie because none of us had ever been into the valley with river flowing by your side and you are surrounded by snow everywhere you point your eyes. Feeling was simply inexplicable. But, down the road after just crossing the bada dhara there was a JAM (although only 8 vehicles were there ;), but road was blocked) and the reason being a Bulldozer was down with some gear problem in the middle of the passerby of snow, while cutting through it. No way it could have moved, and the person who had to fix it need to go back to Losar to get the gear and come back and fix it. So, all firangis decided to move back and somehow in that thin passerby you have to provide space for the vehicles coming from kunzum side. The problem took a step further when firangis standing in forn of the queue with their 4X4 jeep decided to go back to chota dhara rest house. Now how to back? One kancha asked our drive to take the car on the edge but driver was afraid so he said in local “fatt rahi hai sale ki, and made a mockery of him!” but seeing the condition of the tyres I thought it was wise enough to make a safe call. But, somehow they managed to cut down the snow from the edges and got some inches to reverse their monsters. Here are few pictures where we got stuck.

Snow passerby…

The JAM we got stuck into…

Some overwhelming views from the place we got stuck…\

Trying to make their way…

People reversing and heading back…

The last leg….and road was clear backwards….

While the others backed up we didn’t have any choice rather than heading straight to battal by doing a trek which was initially expected to be from Chota dhara so certainly we had saved few kilometers for sure. We took out the luggage, got it packed on our backs and shoot ahead for the Battal. We were stuck there for more than an hour after which we decide to go ahead on foot.

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Blockage to Battal

It was around 4.15 PM now and we left from the blockage. The road ahead was not ought to be easy, but with so much enthusiasm we were equally up to the task. Our driver decided to stay with the car itself and told us that he will reach battal as soon as the road gets open. We marched ahead, unknown to the facts what the nature might have in store for us. All of us saw so much snow for the first time and it was as if we were totally in a new world. Bulldozer down….

All geared up… one missing as he is clicking the photo :D

Walking on the snow for the first time…

Oops it was too much for my cousins…

Difficulty ahead…First walks on the snow slope….

Walking on the river bed….

Missing person found ;) … my turn to click his photo :D…

Me and the lonely valley… Great combo…

On the way we found many more cars stuck across the river bed coming from tabo waiting for someone to arrive and let them know for any chances of way getting up and running. Unfortunately for them we were the devil’s messenger and letting them know about the probability being almost close to zero percent. Finally with our feet chilled like ice walking nearly for more than 2 hours, we reached battal around 6.30 to setup our base camps. Our guide went on to search a flowing stream of water for the supply and started to unfold the tents. This was the yet another first time for us to be in tents, although I went to shiv puri for 3 days but this was special because of the cold. We clicked few snaps from the base camp site and I think they better tell the story…

A TREAT TO WATCH…

Two shades of snow….

Our camp, up and fastened…

Wish I stayed here forever with someone special… ;) The best of the trip so far… the moon, the snow, the tint of orange cloud….

Walking with so many loads was extremely tiring especially when your routine job is to stick you’re and watch a 15’’ or 17’’ color screen. Lack of stamina was written all over each of the 5 faces…. It was evening and cold was getting higher and higher and mercury dipping below close to zero, we needed fire. There was a big group who came across the kunzum that very day had also set-up the camp on the very location as well. They were 16 in number all in search of adventure. Feels very special to meet nerds like you on the way when your parents think you are alone in the madness, but see we have company and we are just rookies into it. One of them seemed to be very professional asked on the fire place where are you headed. We told them “CHANDRATAAL”.

First thing he asked,” what do you do? “ We replied “Engineers”!! :D …. he said only engineers have the keeda of doing something different., so that’s why I understand why you want to die. Suddenly he went emotional and asked us “Don’t even attempt it.” Adding to it said “I am doing trekking for so much time and I was stuck in 4 feet of snow today 4-5 kms in there. Below the feet water was flowing like anything, you can be flown into the violent Chandra River anytime if it breaks or you slip. Adding to the assault snowfall was extremely heavy. I had to dig out myself and at that moment I had my balls in my mouth. And I don’t think you guys must be having any snow gear with you”. We replied very tamely “No”. :( He added if you want adventure go to kaza tomorrow, you will see most exciting and adventurous things ever. This was all said in a very emotional manner and a chill went through our body hearing all the stuff.

Morale was down as we took it with sign of good omen and believed him. One of my cousins backed up that very day and said he will be staying there only. We had few drinks and our guide cooked some pulao over there. I was too tired and was also saying in drunken tone that we also must not go. We will stay here. It was a shock. But, back of my mind I was thinking let other also come tomorrow and we will ask them about their experience. With that I went to sleep and soon my cousins and frend followed. This sums up the day 2 of the journey which was quite long and we did click a lot of photos on the day. It had full of surprises and first time experiences. Today we slept with the curiosity and fear seeing the Chandrataal when no one did this year.

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Day 3 – June 05, 2009 | Battal - Chandrataal – Battal

This was supposed to be the D-Day. We woke up around 8.00 AM and I immediately knew it was late. We had some breakfast and got packed for the first ever trek. While going ahead we went to the 16 people group and asked few guyz over there about their experience of the yesterday and boom they were like, it was awesome. We asked did you see Chandrataal and they said no possibility and asked us that if we are planning to trek there and again this time with low spirit we said “Yes”. They were like, try the kunzum yaar, we had great fun there. Then one of them asked if we have come for Chandrataal only and our reply again was instant “Yes.” He asked us to go ahead and try it out at least, as there’s no problems in coming back from the middle rather not at all attempting it. Then I said enough, we let’z go now. No more feedback, Let’z see what’s in the store over there.

Early morning greetings…

The way behind…

The way ahead…

Ohh…AWESOME NA!!!

The way way way behind…. :D

Till now we were like huuhhh...there is nothing, just worry about the 14 KM that we need to walk rest all is a bare road only. Everyone was making us feel scared. But, one of the blind curves had a surprise for us. Road was all covered with snow and what more, the slope of the snow was such that it kisses the bank of the river. Surely, it will be a RS 1000 slide in a water / amusement park. That was scary, we were seeing snow for the first in life in this trip and with so many slips every time we walked on the snow yesterday, this surely would be an invitation to devil’s god. Lack of stick or any kind of hold was surely a killer. Our guide said I will mark the route footsteps and you just follow them only. So we said OK, it will be great. To be very frank each one of us was scared, due to the dramatization of the feedbacks as well as difficulties we had yesterday walking on the snow without slip and considering if it was first then what about the rest 12 KMs. Saying prayers we moved.

Brave one helping us out…

This is what it looked like [following picture], although not very clear but I tried to take a picture of what’s there on the back side me, while crossing that slope of snow. Then I stood in the middle and balanced to look down at the river [couldn’t take out the camera this time, as I had to be careful]. Believe me, it was the greatest thing I have ever felt, facing and standing on an unstable slope which can ditch your feet anytime, giving you last and the longest slide of your life. You can easily feel the water gushing beneath your feet as the snow was melting. Danger with difficulty, deadly couple.

See what’s waiting on my back…

Yippeee… I did it, now its turn of my frend and then my cousins.

Helping hand for my frend…the same way I had..

Then there came another two slopes which we did with a little more confidence than first one. But first was the longest among three and second half was quite unstable. But we were glad we did it. This was adventure at its best. Not to forget my great frend almost fell everytime he walked on the slope and one time it was like I had everything in my mouth when he tried to fall onto the guide and away from the slope and trying to win a slide for both of them. Cool guy likes to play with danger. He was perhaps seeing how much our guide has to save us all. LOL , I am just kidding :D :D, fatti thi sabki. My youngest cousin was the best of the lot he did as if he is a pro. :) And the one who was elder he was the most scared and nawab of us. It took both guides to let him cross the slopes, one holding from the front and one from the back. I took a sigh of relief to see him cross safely. We moved ahead towards the chandra taal, and we knew it that this road ahead we will be witnessing more and more of these kind of slopes. Keep watching.

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Day 3 – June 05, 2009 | Battal - Chandrataal – Battal

As we moved ahead there was water gushing out and flowing on the pathway…it looked beautiful. Due to thirst our eyes lit up and we drank water from it. The coolest thing everyone remembered to keep the bottle of VODKA but none bothered to keep a bottle to drink some water ;)… see such boozers and none of us drink too much.

Drink it please…

After having a drink we resumed the trek and 1 KM after, we saw a series of snow slopes distant 100Mts approx. from each other covering next 1.5-2 KMs of road…uff more struggle… this was enough for my Nawab cousin to quit and it was obvious that he can’t be left alone. So, the youngest one [pro ;)] also halted his trek. They said they will wait for us to come back and get them through the previous hiccups. I, my friend, and two guides moved ahead. Meanwhile I learnt the technique to cross the slopes, how to move up the slope and then how to place the feet to come down. “LEARNING OF THE DECADE :D :D :D" It was great to learn the trick and I moved freely on the slopes now, it became a joy. Just I had to bit careful. Deep inside me I was like “You idiot, why dint you do it before”. Now it was my friend who was also taking on the trick slowly and steadily. It helped us move fast and pace to pace our guides. Half way through and we were tired and weary now. But the last hills were the target behind which was the chandrataal. You can see in the following pic the hills just after the one having shade, i.e. last hills which has sun.

Half way through… target was visible now…

This is ROAD!!...Yes this thick was the road ;)…

After enjoying and crossing few more slopes we can see that rest of the pathway was just barren land of stones and few small pieces of snow to be found in hay-way manner. So it seemed to be easy piece of cake what we have just crossed. Deep inside us we had the feeling that of course we will see the Chandrataal now.

Getting Closer to it…

Then we were getting exhausted and exhausted and more exhausted. Think it was too far than it appeared first. Lack of food (although we had food) and water was making signs of its toll on us. FATIGUE was all over us. Then finally we can see the wholly coveted piece of water after rushing more than 700 KMs from home the “CHANDRATAAL”. This was a great source of motivation; suddenly we had energy and spark to become the first. And visit its bank and have lunch over there. Dreams were helping to build the castles in the air. :D

Can you see it?

But, there were some HIDDEN OMENS which we missed while getting carried away. After contemplating the picture I thought how I could have missed it, I think it was desire to see it, seriously dun know why :(. I think it was sheer madness. It was just about 2 KMs now.

TURNING POINT of the trip…

VOILA!!! MY KNEES TOUCHES WATER… water running through this “NALA” [stream] was deep enough to touch our knees in the first half. As soon as the water entered the shoes and lower half of the body went almost drenched into the water, it sent a cold chill through my body. I was stunned into cold with that icy water. After coming out from it was 2.15 P.M.; suddenly things around us started changing rapidly. Now it’s 1.5 KM more and we will reach the destination. But taking one step further looked impossible with walking parts of the body drenched in water. My shoes got filled with water; first we removed the wet socks and emptied the water from the shoes. Emptying water from shoes was of no use as quickly it gets filled from the wet lower part of the body clothes. Oh god what problem now, this was making walking up hill extremely difficult and almost impossible for me at least. My friend did sustain a bit but he was having trouble too. We still tried to reach, again don’t know why. I think it was so close we had reached that I thought all would be a waste, let’s give more hard and with some will power we moved ahead further.

Trouble ahaead, getting Darker…

Dark clouds were all over the place by now and haze, fog started to drip in more and more. In a matter of minutes it was totally dark. We reached the base of the last hill struggling through our wet body in extremely cold conditions. It was toughest test I had ever put my body through. Conditions were getting more extreme and more adverse. Now there was no path left, remember the board, 13.5 km drivable I think this where the road ends. Now we had to climb the last part of the hill around 0.5 km to 0.75 kms to visit the banks. [Here, Climb means there was no path]. You can figure out from the picture where the road ends and part we had to climb and then de-climb [don’t know the opposite ;)] to reach the banks.

Defeated by Half-KM :( :( :(

I tried to start but none of the body parts were with me now it took almost 35 min to walk just 1 KM. This difficult it became, I couldn’t take a step further now and cold was haunting us more and more…. We saw the time and it was 2.50 PM and I decided not to go ahead further, so did my friend… :( :( :( It looked almost impossible to find a way and reach the top even with the condition of the body and the weather too. Our guide said you move ahead and cross that first “NALA” [Turning Point] and get something to eat; meanwhile he will reach the top and get some photographs of the Chandertaal. We reached the “NALA” this time a bit faster as we were short of time. It was 3.10 we reached the place, sat down and started eating. Anything I eat gets puked out, more trouble. Thanks god there was water around. Then, to my savior there was one MANGO which I tried to eat and that didn’t come out thankfully. To worsen the situation snowfall started. Sitting there and contemplating the situation we found… Troublesome…. 1) Darkness would fall, walk back 13 KMs in around 2.30 Hrs. [6 Hrs to we took for the same] 2) Cross “Nala” again and get drenched again [CHILLING WAVE, even thinking of it] 3) Wet body, wet shoes, wet clothes, shivering and what more :) 4) Extremely chilling wind…it had the thrust and made walking more difficult 5) Snowfall which started to be slow suddenly increased the tempo, and snow getting into you from all over. It was like 360 degree snowfall. 6) Only mango was in the lunch. 7) Stranded 2 cousins in the middle of now where Now we are talking right. :D. What appeared to be fairy tale adventure, suddenly turned into the NIGHTMARE of lifetime. I asked the bottle of vodka had 2-3 gulps of it and decided to move back to battal. Meanwhile my brave friend was enjoying his food. [Yahan lagi thi, aur sala swaad le raha tha wahan khane ka]. Cold was penetrating the bones to the extreme.

WALK NON STOP OR DIE HERE…AS DAUNTING AS THIS ROCK…

DOWN, DEJECTED, ELUDED, LOST for survival we walk back…..

RACE TO SURVIVAL begins… I decided that we will only stop after finding the cousins. Frankly speaking, I literary had tears in my eyes and I started to recall my past and pray for all the sins I committed :D :D :D . Being optimistic I thought it would just be the punishment for all the sins of the past to start afresh and new with count zero. ;) ;) :) As we were on the way the guide who went to take the pictures caught us, thanks to his tremendous speed even in such odd conditions and bad weather.

Here they are and the climax. Charismatic Chandertaal…

Charismatic Chandertaal…

Charismatic Chandertaal…

Snowfall was getting heavier and heavier, after non-stop walking, rather tumbling here and there, falling on ground, hungry, for so long and using vodka as a medicine to make us walk, we finally reached the place where we left my cousins. There on a huge patch on snow they wrote “HUM GAYE!” [We went back!] Shocking…shocking…a series of emotions and thought ran through my body, mind, soul etc…. oh god what a test!!! Now where the f*** they went….they had to use 4 helping hands in addition to their 2 to cross those snow slopes I the morning when conditions were too much favorable. Punishment was becoming more and more tenacious now. Had sip again and we walked ahead. It was only after half-km both of my cousin’s were there and they saw us and in elation they shouted (aa gaye saale, bach gaye!!!). “MOMENT OF TRUTH” -- YOU IDENTIFY LOVE FOR SOMEONE ONLY WHEN YOU FEEL HE/SHE WILL BE LOST FROM YOUR SIDE” Seeing them was great sigh of relief but still we were not safe at all. It was about to get dark and we had to still cross 3 more slopes and amount of intensify snowfall had increased the snow covering at places, if not; it appeared so due to mental state. “MOMENT OF ESCAPE’ By that time I was unable to walk in a straight line. I think wet skin was getting peeled off in the shoes and I was drunk as well. But there was no alternative with you all wet and that much cold, only way to beat the cold was drink one sip and move for half an hour. Now in such situation when I tried to cross the second last slope, the FOOT SLIPPED and I was LYING DOWN on the snow, ready for the slide into the river and SHORTCUT TO HELL. The thing holding me was my arm which was held firmly by the pro guide, while I was facing a probable death. My eyes had a quick flash back of my past and I thought this is it. May be it was vodka and fatigue, deadly combo again. But, our guide digs his foot into the snow and asked me to cross leg, with some effort and will to survive I did exactly what he asked me to do and steadily and safely he let me cross that slope. “THE LAST SPRINT” We finally crossed the last one as well and REACHED THE SAFER PART. Now we had the confidence that now by any means we should survive but not to forget the wet clothes and wet body and shivering in that cold could easily be a killer. It was about 2.5 kms from there and was all roads, so not much trouble. Also one of the guides had left us way back to get the car as soon as we reach the plains so that we need to walk a bit less. It was about 1.5 kms when we saw our sumo coming up and picked us and dropped near the base camp. 6.30 was exact time we reached the base. What we did in 6 hours I the morning, it took around 3 when we had our lives on the line ;) ;) ;)..see what you can do in extreme…

Snow was still falling…. :D :D

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“THE SURVIVORS”

Pilu, Raju [GUIDES- Two brave ONES]

Shrey [My Cousin]

Durjay n Tashi [Dhabha’s Father and Son]

“SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OF THEM” :D

Reaching the camp was not enough we had to get warm; down the camp side my eldest cousin was waiting for us CRYING ALL OVER THE PLACE. Luckily the dhabha at battal was setup by that day and locales came to his rescue. My cousin had arranged asked the locales to help him out finding 4 crazy piece of a*******. We did get the message from one of the PWD trucks that your cousin has gone mad crying down there and asked us to move fast. He greeted us with some useful day to day helping verbs. (LOL, at least now, but it was not so funny at that time)… Luckily dhabha had the shelter as well as food and the most DESIRED FIRE IN COLD. Locales helped us get warm with GLASS FULL OF RUM, which all of them were having. we remove our clothes and my brother had arranged everything we might need in such urgency. Dry clothes, socks, sleepers, food, and rum, hot water everything I was imagining while fighting for the survival. After getting dried up, they arranged rajaayees and bistar [quiltsand mattresses] to give us warmth and control the shivering bodies. Still couldn’t eat and again puked as soon as I ate something. But, all I wanted was heat and warmth to fight the cold. I took the quilts and went to sleep and at midnight I woke up asked my cousin something to eat. He gave me a chocolate and finally something went in and I opened my eyes only to see I AM ALIVE, STILL. Others were sleeping peacefully and soon after we followed.

This concluded the most “REMARKABLE DAY IN MY LIFE”---“DAY WHEN DEATH CHEATED US”

Next day we did click a lot of pics on the way back and it was the longest i have traveled without much of a break, apart from the JAMs ;)... so keep watching....infact two of the best three pic [IMHO ;)] of the lot from the next day....

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Day 4 – June 06, 2009 | Morning @ Battal

WE ARE STiLL ALIVE :lol: Well it was morning around 7.30AM and everyone is alive, so a NEW BIRTH apart from the fact the cousin who saved our a*****, had caught fever. We had tea at battal dhabha with Tiger Biscuits in the quilt itself and no one was ready to leave that place due to cold we were feeling. It’s so strange having close to 46 degrees here in capital; who would have dreamt that situation would be so odd that temperature would be in negatives… This was the day which was spent mostly in the car itself, traveling and we did click a lot of photos on the very day, because we dint knew it would be the last. Most of us were in state of shock and were feeling as if we had a nightmare. There was nothing to explain in the day apart from the photos which were clicked mostly sitting inside the car, so apologies for some blocks here and there in the pics… so guys enjoy this bouquet of nature, one day being so cruel, next day looked so amazing and beautiful again….

Early morning greetings…

Walking the path alone…

You see!!!! Simply amazing…

Hmm…there are clouds….

Heat; The life savior…

Sweeping your sleep away...

More clouds…something’s fishy...

I want to come and shine…

Bright and sunny…and I am out...

Purity of white…

Packing it up….

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Day 4 – June 06, 2009 | Battal to Manali

It was around 9 AM, we got our selves packed only to see low pressure in one the tyres which we had to change. Witnessing an uncertainty whether can show in such places we wanted to leave in shiny sun as soon as possible and not to forget the evergreen JAM of Rohtaang and our cousin who had caught fever. He was wrapped in blanket for most of the time. I went to dhabha, thanked both father and son with warm heart for their help and support. Meanwhile driver had changed the tyre and we were ready to trackback the path leading us to sweet home. But, as I said don’t trust the weather @ such places. It started to get dark once again and snowfall started. This time around we could enjoy a bit and appreciate the beautiful nature. We got ourselves packed into the car and ready to move ahead.

Sudden Darkness Falls…

Road getting slippery…

Snow and Snow way….

Clearing up…

It was around chattru again things were changing; some sunshine but rainy clouds were still there….but this stretch we took so many photos and many of them are simply amazing and breath taking…just have a look….

Stream of Milk Caught!!!

The Road behind..

Moving aside the valley…

Grazing Season….How beautiful they look..

Go Green!!….Such a peace to eyes…

More sheep’s…Can you see them??

Somewhere back in there...we were struggling yesterday….

Clouds still hanging around…

Nature’s Combo of shades… Blue Sky, Dark Clouds, White Clouds, Greenery, Brown Hills... did I miss something??

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Day 4 – June 06, 2009 | Battal to Manali

We reached Rohtaang around after enjoying the nature throughout the journey and the bumps were adding the ever wanted joy to the ride… :D… a bumpy ride of around 4 hours :)…meanwhile the cousin’s fever was on increasing its tempo and his condition was not looking good. Now we are welcomed by the Jam at Rohtaang, it was a big one again. This gave a chance to step out of the car and get a Crocin out of the bag packed at the top of the car. This would surely help him for next 5-6 hours and may be reaching manali we could find some doctor for him. Also, we got a chance to shoot some photos as well…

Reaching Rohtaang….

Rohtaang La….

Rohtaang La…covered in clouds…

It’s been 2 hours and we are still stuck at JAM…in the middle of so much of crowd…everyone was peeking into the car so as to know why someone is wrapped into the blanket as after all they have come here to beat the scorching heat…. :D…..meanwhile I was busy trying to shoot some wildlife…and luckily I got a few captures correctly of them….

Flying high and alone… @ Rohtaang La…

Flying high and alone and moving away… @ Rohtaang La…

Somehow we were able to crawl the busy strret of rohtaang only to find ourselves in much more deep shit…JAM is too long our expectations…and it was consuming a lot of time….but in this panoramic view you can see how amazing it looks from the top….

Beauty and desperation meets…..

Moving non-stop apart from the JAM, finally we reached manali @ 5.30 PM ….It was raining heavily and ohh boy… I tell you feeling was extremely great to witness such rain in the high hills…he weather was so pleasant…and when the weather is pleasant it was just a bonanza for all those newly married love birds to beat the heat…they were out like anything….

Raining Clouds @ Manali….

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Night 4 + Day 5 - June 06 + 07, 2009 | Manali to Delhi

This was not the end of the day for us…although it did end the photo shoot of the trip. Reaching manali was a big relief. We got to office of the person who arranged the entire trip from there on and with whom I left my car. It was the first time I had given keys of my car to some stranger but the instincts told he was an honest man with well established tour and travel business. Deep inside I had this as well in my mind as well :).. He did really well to securely park the car at his place, thanks to him but getting from there was difficult as the tyres were slipping [I think they need a change] and locales drivers are ready to fight anytime you are on their way :snipe:, so I asked my driver to get us to the cottage in old manali, which again was arranged by Jagdish [tour organizer].

Getting to old manali took ages [I think] due to such hectic traffic with so much frustrated people and oh god! when we reached there was no parking. First day where we parked the car was filled with water/ditches and since we had the plan to leave early in the morning, :( I thought we could get stuck into that with no one out to rescue. Moreover I wanted to leave the place and feel a bit closer to home :-). Don’t know what happened and I got too much frustrated that I decided that we will leave from here right then...we will get down to mandi or kullu or even few kilometers of this place and stay overnight but not here anymore. Suddenly love for my car and its tension seeped deep into me and I was like f***** a*******, if I talk in terms of my friend and cousins :lol:… a devil in the making…but they all know me….i am such an “A-TYPE’…… We had a little fight but throwing some helping verbs at me they decided to move finally. Apologies and thanks to all them for the inconvenience caused. I hope they understand :D….. it was 6.30 PM

We called jagdish and told him about the situation and he asked us to have dinner with him at least before leaving. So, we went to his office again and just adjacent to his office there was a place where you can have homemade food cooked for you. Two aunties run it… the entire group was there…we had some tea and then we thanked all of them for their exemplary help and support. They all left and finally we had dinner and thanked jagdish as well and we did left from there on towards Delhi…it was 7.45 PM

With our tummies filled up and four frustrated and angry faces :lol:…DRESSING-DOWN ME BEING THE DEVIL OF THE NIGHT I drove back towards some peaceful place to rest ourselves with entire day almost spend TRAVELING. We move and moved...many peaceful places came by and it was comfortable yet again driving at night… seeing some cooled down faces I kept driving…kullu came by and gone…then it was the turn of the mandi. BTW in between we got an open medical store to get the medicine for my cousin…everyone is happy now :D :D :D ….”i prefer you ask them ;)”…. Since driving in the night was cool [temperature wise] yet it demanded more caution and concentration and due to reflection you find yourself in no man’s land. Mandi came by and I finally stopped the car.

None of them step outside to get the room checked apart from that fever down saint’s soul :D…but there were some sparking words from behind…”ab itna aa gaye hain to chalte hain ghar hi”…. :lol: [since we have come so far, why drive straight to reach home now] …. Words were enough to put the ignition on and shift the gear-up… we moved :mad: Seems everyone was enjoying night cool breeze coming from the window…or each one of us had reached the height of some shock or madnees..it had been more than 15 hours we were traveling + driving on and on…sitting in the car..and we are aiming to do so for the next 10 hour or so I felt… there was a complete “NO” for driving if I get a little slip of eyes even, bcz of sleep and we planned to sleep in the car in that case.

We did some circling as we missed the turn just before the bridge at mandi, thrice, towards Chandigarh….hmm it was confusing….or we made it so ;)…

We reached bilaspur and about to enter the hills en-route shimla-chandigarh, as shown by the board…we had some tea at a dhabha and then started again. It was 3.00 A.M., if I am not wrong…this stretch was very busy with lots of trucks…running all over the highway and it required a lot of concentration to pull it off….as some drive like crazy nuts and are ready to come onto you and run over in the madness of over taking their counter parts….and just as I say I did happen almost to us..one of the trucks was overtaking the other one on the blind curve, coming from opposite side, we did use so much dipper, horn everything to wake him up and fall back…but I am sure guy was very stubborn like us :lol:…since nothing was visible due to its light directly into our eyes..i decided to move towards the end of the mountain and let him pass somehow..And it finally did pass…and everyone was awake now … :) …

we even saw a Volvo stuck with its left rear wheels into the ditch aside the road..the base was touching the road, this deep the hole was…we reached roop nagar I think and from there on road was again with lots of diversion making you concentrate all the time….this reminded me of the haridwar highway troubles…but thankfully this time there was no fog… We reached Chandigarh around 6.00 AM approx, and it was a long nite…finally we changed the driver and my cousin took the steering control as there would be no hills to negotiate ;)…we had breakfast at Neelkanth dhabha before finally reaching delhi around 10 AM [almost 14 hr after we left manali and 25 hours we had left battal.. and by the time I dropped my friend his home, all four brother finally reached home around 11.30 AM. This was the end to the far most the best of the best outing I had in my life…..

i hope there are more to come but better be the safer ones ;) :)… An end to the Remarkable Journey of my life…

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Last words…

Hope you all enjoyed reading the travelogue, about the remarkable journey which means so much to me. Before I post my listing of learning’s of the trip I would like to share these 3, best [IMHO] of the pictures for me at least…as there is a saying…”beauty lies in the eyes which sees it”..so other might find some other picture to be best…

On a special note and request from my friend and cousins I would like to quote the exact words I was murmuring just after when that “MOMENT OF EXCAPE” happened, “Saale, maaut dikh rahi thi mujhe…”[I was able to see death] :D ……

Now here are the best three pictures starting from third…

What a waterfall!!!! [Chattru]

A Perfect Postcard!!! [Rohtaang La]

Did I shoot it!!!! [Rohtaang La] I would never believe it… I have this to be printed in 6X4…feet not inch ;) replacing the GOD OF WAR in my room…

This trip is something I would never forget :D … Thanks all of you for following, appreciating, concerning and blessing and most importantly letting me share with you. God keeps the grace and blessings with all you guyz.