What I was doing a month ago...

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Ok so it's been nearly a month! Total blog fail, as the kids say these days. I have been writing my little journal as I go along, typed up on my snazzy new phone, thinking it would be easy enough to find somewhere with Wifi to upload it all. Wrong! Now I'm finally at the hospital and definitely Wifi-less for the duration, so I'm just going to have to type it all out again. Ah well.

So picking up where I left off, I couldn't decide where to go after Rishikesh. Because I wasn't even sure I was going on this trip until 24 hours before my flight (long story), I hadn't really managed to plan or research anything at all. I quite fancied Leh in Ladakh but couldn't afford to fly and the road was intermittently closed, plus it would have taken me the best part of three days to get there anyway, so sod it.

I knew I definitely wanted to go up to the mountains (because of the SWEATING, which I believe I have already described in detail) and the nearest ones were those above Rishikesh in Uttarakhand. I'd heard good things about trekking and climbing and stuff in this area, it's supposed to be really awesome but less touristy than other notable mountainy places such as Manali (a town the Lonely Planet describes as a 'backpacker's playground', a pharse which fills me with suspicion). So I went to Joshimath, about a 10 hour bus ride from Rishikesh. The Lonely Planet (tome of LIES) confidently states that Joshimath receives a 'steady stream of adventure travelers all year round'. This is of course bullshit. There was NO ONE else there apart from me. My hostel was empty, there was not one other foreigner in the entire town. Yes I know, low season, recession and all, but still, really? No one? The place did contain a fair few adventure tourism outfits flogging exciting looking trips, but there were no groups to join with and I don't have the money or really the inclination to do such things all by myself. On my way back down I did meet one girl who'd just done an amazing sounding week long trek into the mountains ON HER OWN with just an (essentially non English speaking) local guide for company. Hmmm. Impressively adventurous, but a bit hardcore for me, I think. Left alone for that long I would surely go mental. I'm totally comfortable traveling solo but really, there is a limit to how much of myself I am willing to put up with. So basically yes, there was no one there, and this is what I get for being snobby about avoiding touristy places.

But never mind! I wasn't too upset because even if I couldn't go on an organised trekky camping trip, there are still loads of pilgrim type routes in the area leading to mountain top temples / holy rivers and such things, which are supposed to be easy enough to do without a guide. Also there is Valley of the Flowers, which is a world heritage site and allegedly the prettiest Himalayan valley (according to the British mountaineer who 'discovered it', and the Uttarakhand tourism board...)

So I got up at 5am to get the bus to Govindghat, then its 14km up a rocky mountain trail to reach Ghangaria, the starting point for two of the popular treks in the area, Hem Kund (a Sikh pilgrimage site) and the aforementioned Valley of the Flowers. Even though it was early (bloody 730am when I arrived) I could already see the colourful line of pilgrims snaking up the side of the mountain, so I set off after them without stopping for breakfast, trusting the lonely planet that there would be food stalls on the way (this happened to be true). At first I thought I was the only foreigner again, then I realised that though I may have been the only white kid, there were actually loads of Brits on the pilgrimage. Even met an old Sikh doctor who used to work in the ED at Jimmys (one of the hospitals where I've worked back in home in Leeds)! Small world. So it was a lot of fun. Being up in the mountains feels really good, and everything is gorgeous. Appeared in about 100 peoples holiday snaps, naturally. One of these encounters spawned the immortal line 'would you like to hold my dagger?'. Uhm.

The pilgrims on the way down were giving out sweets to those on the way up, which I thought was a nice touch. As well as sweeties they were also dispensing sprinkles of suspicious white powder from large packets, which mystified me for a while. The first time I held out my hand and got given some of that stuff I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. Snort it? Mix it with water to form some kind of paste? It turned out to be glucose powder, and everyone else just seemed to be sort of eating it, so I copied them. It's disgusting. But for fear of offending people I continued to accept it and ended up consuming huge quantities of the stuff.

It was about 14km up, with a change in elevation of just over 1000 meters. Only the last 2km were really steep and pretty tough going. You could tell because the pilgrim singing and banter gave way to panting and wheezing. The Lonely Planet (textbook of deceit) told me this would take at least 7 hours, which is why I started so early, but it actually only took 5 even with many, many breaks for photo shoots and chai, so I was in bloody Ghangaria by midday. When I got there I had a little wander around the countryside then found a hotel and was quickly adopted by a group of Sikh ladies from Birmingham who were delightfully scandalised that I was all by myself and insisted that I come eat with them. Then I fell asleep, further ruining my already inappropriate sleeping patterns.

On the way up I'd made friends with a software engineer from Delhi, the only other non-pilgrim I'd met who was also on his way to Valley of the Flowers. I instantly liked him because he spoke good English and had a really awesome camera, so we decided to meet up the next morning and walk to the valley together...

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Photos

I am not tanned. That is dirt.
This is the state of me, post bus journey.

Comments

[mum]

Harsh. It's taken me since the Great Wall of China to work out how to do this. Glad you feel better. XX

[Jenniferious]

You completely commented on the wrong entry but nice try, Mum. You're definitely improving!