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Published: February 11th 2007
Ships in Nainital
At 2000m high, the "hill station" of Nainital was a perfect place to escape the heat in the plains Tough Start in Uttaranchal
Traveling is not always fun. You experience great moments and there's nothing like the feeling of freedom, but there are obstacles and less entertaining moments on the way. In India, one of the less comfortable places for the spoiled visitor, we had quite a tough start which almost brought us back home earlier than expected...
After leaving Delhi we took a ride to Rishikesh, a popular backpackers town on the banks of the Ganga river. It's a religious place to which thousands of pilgrims arrive to purify themselves in the sacred water. The Beatles visited it in 1967, settling in the ashram of Maharishi Yogi and ever since, the place has become a 'spiritual' center offering anything from yoga classes to cooking courses. The heat was unbelievable - 45C in shadow. It was difficult to hike even the short distance down the river to the cool water. Still, we visited the Pooja, a religious ceremony where flowers are thrown in the river and found it atmospheric. We also saw the Beatles Ashram - the Indians could have made millions by turning it into an official site but instead it stands all deserted. In a way, it's
Auli Trek
A natural pool in the Indian Himalayas, on the first day of the trek part of its magic.
We escaped the heat by going to Nainital, a 'hill station', 10 hours away, 2000m above sea-level. We found a quite town with beautiful lake, good restaurants and wealthy local tourists. Nothing much to do, so we set off to Kasar Devi, a primitive village, loaded with Israelis who live there for months on few rupees a day, smoking pot all day long with spectecular Himilayan mountains at their background. We had plans to trek in the region. We met Amit who arrived from New-Zealand and just organized a group for travelling in Uttaranchal (a northern state bordering Nepal). He was traveling with Tal, his girlfriend, Yael and their Indian friend Raghav, and had plans to explore some less visited places in the state. Nurit and Rotem joined in and we formed a group of 8 with which we planned to travel for 3 weeks. All the guys were very fit and motivated, so we knew it's gonna be challenging.
We left Kasar Devi early morning with a jeep driven by an Indian (driving in India yourself is suicidial). We headed Joshimath, a small town in the Himalayas, from which we planned to embark
The Ganga River in Rishikesh
The huge Ganga river orginates nearby Rishikesh, hence its infamous water are crystal clear at this part. The photo was taken from our guesthouse balcony. on our first trek. The road was terrible and the 10 hours ride seemed to take forever. Night fell an hour before we arrived our destination and the road traversed over cliffs hanging hundreds meters above the valley below, without any defences on the narrow dust-road side. It was a bit scary and we followed every movement of the driver who was driving too fast in our opinion. We kept yelling at him 'shanti shanti baba' and at one point he had enough of us. He parked the car at the side of the road and wouldn't go on. After few harsh words with Raghav in Hindu he carried on. We quickly learned that drivers in India don't like to be told how to do their job. They're real professionals and we could trust them blindfolded (keeping one eye open just in case).
Joshimath was a town mainly visited by Indian pilgrims on way to the religious sites nearby. The locals there didn't speak English, the hotels stinky and the food - dubious. The next day was dedicated to organizing the trek via a local agency. We signed for a full-package deal including porters, food and guide.
With
Hindi Sadhu in Kedarnath
Kedarnath is an important religious site in Uttaranchal drawing thousands of pilgrims every year. This Sadhu (Hindi Monk) has travelled more than thousand km by foot to reach the place. high spirits and perfect weather, we left the next morning. We didn't walk a lot before seeing Nanda Devi, the second highest mountain in India (7,800m), which made us enthusiastic. We released few good 'wows' and felt it's gonna be a good trek. The high altitude, to which we weren't acclimatized yet, showed its signs and we breathed heavily on the way up. We crossed the wood, traversed some hanging cliffs and after 4 hours came to our night stop. The porters pitched the tents and set fire so we sat together for dinner. On the second day we woke up to cloudy weather and the guide told us climbing the pass today will be useless due to the poor visibility. We arrived the second camp at noon time and just lied in the warming sun. We planned to ascent the Kuari pass (4200m) the next day and then descend all the long way to Tapovan, 2000m below. Lily was weak that day complaining on her stomach but she walked in good pace. When we arrived camp she entered the tent and rested the whole afternoon. At night she began vomiting. At high altitude - we slept at 3600m -
Rishikesh
Sitting on the bank of the Ganga this lady plays the atmospheric Dij, an instrument used for religious ceremonies this can be a sign of mountain sickness and I was a bit worried. In the morning she felt much better and easily walked the 4 rough hours downhill. It was quite a trek. We now understood that trekking in India is not easy. The whole group suffered from stomach problems probably due to the porters preparing the food. We loughed it over though the situation was (literally) shitty.
Back in Joshimath we rested for a night and then left towards Gangotri, where we planned to do the second trek. On the way we did some 1-day hikes in the magnificent nature around. We visited Kedarnath, a sacred site, and rode over donkeys backs ('horses' as the locals call them) for 3 painful hours uphill to the temple. Thousands of pilgrims and babas walked around us. It was an amazing experience.
We arrived Uttarkashi, another shithole, nearby Gangotri - the place where the Ganga drains from the Himalaya and is therefore of high importance to Hindu believers. Lily felt terrible. She went every half an hour during the night. We were in a remote place and I grew a bit anxious. If medical assistance was needed we'd have
Rishikesh
Being one of India's most sacred rivers, many Hindis come to purify themselves in its freezing water. While the temperature outside soars to 45 deg, the water originating from the nearby glaciers remain ice-cold. to get to Delhi, but it was a long way there. The group left for the trek and we were left alone. I went down to market to buy some food and by chance met an Isreali guy. We started talking and I told him about our troubles. He said he suffered from the same symptoms and showed me his 'Lonley Planet' book, naming the medicine required. I bought it the local drugstore (no prescripition required) and called the insurance doctor in Delhi. After verifing it was ok, she started taking the antibiotics and improved almost instantly. She was suffering from Ameobic infection, a common illness in India. When she got better we discussed our next moves. We both felt tired and angry at India. Never before have we met so many difficulties in such a short time when traveling abroad. We seriously considered giving it up and return home at once. It could've been great dissapointment to do so after all the arrangements we've done to go out for a long trip, but at this point we didn't want to suffer no more. I feared we might regret it later so we decided to give it few more days
and move to a relaxing guesthouse to rest and recover. After 3 days the group returned from the trek and Lily was now perfectly healthy, though still weak from the medicine. We forgot about going home and set off back to Rishikesh. At that point our 'bad luck' disappeared. We were back on the track!
The Title is taken from The Beatles song "Love You To", a stunning one written by George Harrison that reflects his Indian influence gathered from his visits to the Maharishi Yogi in Rishikesh. It features the breathtaking effects of Tabla and Sitar, central instruments in Indian music. It was recorded in 1966 and included in "Revolver", one of the best albums ever created and one of my favourites. When visiting the Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh this song was the first thing that came into my mind.
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texaswillie
non-member comment
Nice Post
Nice blog and very good photos. Thanks for sharing