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Published: September 23rd 2006
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Valley of Flowers
Excellent hiking indeed. Well my time in the peaceful land of Rishikesh came to a swift close when Jordan and I decided to finally visit the Himalayas up close and personal. Our bus left Rishikesh at something like 4:30AM and our Rickshaw driver waited anxiously through the night in his little auto rickshaw for our agreed 3:30am wake up time.
The bus ride was awful. The road wound its way through countless valleys and mountains with locals systematically vomiting out the windows and leg room at an all time low. I can safely say that I hated the bus ride more than Randy hates Tia Carerra (which is a lot).
After the horrifying bus ride concluded from Rishikesh we found ourselves situated on a beautiful river in the heart of some splendid mountains in the town of Govindghat. Basically a rest over spot for pilgrims, the town offered the amenities one needs to make the first stage of any hike: porters, hotels and restaurants. After a big meal and somewhat sound sleep, we hired a porter and made first steps up the illustrious Himalayan Mountains.
The day before, on our bus we befriended a local Sikh (well from Punjab) who managed
Sikh Pride!
Our main man Ashish inbetween the two crazy westerners. Ashish is actually a big guy in India, strangely enough he asked what our secrets were? After astounding him with the news I'm actually underweight and that likely there are steroids in most of the protein we eat back home, I think he concluded he just really wants to visit Canada. to fill us in on all the details of our expedition (ha had made it once before) and was patient with our complete ineptitude learning the village names en route. So that morning, at 8am sharp, Ashish guided us up the sturdy footpath in his bar feet with no drinking water and few rests where 5 some-odd hours later we arrived in the stunning valley where the town of Ghangharia is located at a modest 3,048m in elevation. We found a $3 room that Jord and I split and immediately shocked our bodies with the concept of a cold bucket shower in our newfound cold climate. Moments later huddled in our sweaters and toques (Jord had to make a rushed purchase for the later) we saw our surefooted porter arrive outside our hotel. You simply have to respect this guy, at the age I estimated to be about 40 years old and at the most 50kg; he carried our two bags (estimated weight: 30-35kg) in a straw basket with rope handles, the entire way step-by step for about $7 USD, and only arrived a mere 1 hour after Jord and I. After giving the porter a handsome baksheesh we explored
Protecting
We're not sure if we're protecting the mountains from Nepal, Pakistan or even China, but we're doing something, and we're doing it damn well. the mule and porter filled town to find countless treasures going on behind the scenes like mule beatings and porter gambling rings of a suspect variety. Jordan said it best when he proclaimed: “Well, I suppose this is the definition of a one street town.” Then, after another big dinner (we’re good at those) we hit the sack early (and quite exhausted) before rising at 5am to the banter of countless impatient Sikh’s preparing for the trip up to the Hemkund temple.
Just to have a brief outline, the Hemkund temple is a coveted Sikh religious spot up above the town of Ghangharia at over 4300 m Sikh’s young and old, from worldwide, visit it to bathe in the glacier fed lake at the top. The steady flow of pilgrims facilitates a really good infrastructure for tourists who want to hike the area, which is more famously visited by non-Sikh foreigners because of the ‘Valley of Flowers’ world heritage site. Ashish however managed to convince Jord and I to join him on his trek to the temple and thus we put the valley of flowers off for a day and joined him on the trek where we found his
People Movers
Yep, people ride up in these things. The highly skilled sherpas are flawless in their execution of steps to keep the top portion seemingly afloat on thin air. barefooted pace quite nice at such a high elevation. Although this wasn’t the highest elevation I’ve experienced (it was Peru at 4900m) it WAS the highest elevation I’ve ever hiked to with my own two feet. While Jord fueled his way to the top with his sulfur burps, I trotted along and before we knew it we reached our destination amid the flutter of mules, porters and Sikhs. While we enjoyed the Sikh’s going crazy in the freezing water, we managed all sorts of photos and met countless Sikh’s from the Vancouver area. It was both shocking and hilarious to talk to Sikh’s that had never heard of Vancouver itself but only Surrey, then meeting people from Surrey itself. One Sikh representing the temple on Marine Drive was anxious to talk and it quickly dawned on us just how many Sikh’s there must be in Vancouver (or more appropriately -Surrey).
The Sikh pilgrims were consistently kind, generous and sociable throughout the entire area and we were overwhelmed with the candy gifts we received en route (both up and down). The next day however (after the temple trek) found us in a downpour of rain, where the executive decision was
Mister 4,329m
Well the old Lush stilts carried my gangly corpse up quite the mountain and you can see me here at the decorated gate entering the Hemkund Temple. made to delay our trek to the Valley of Flowers (which conveniently was closed because of a landslide anyways) and we did what we do best: sit in bed. While sporadic outbursts caused by events in our books (or the Nintendo) do occasionally occur, it seemed especially odd to all the Sikh’s gathered outside our open windowed hotel room and enjoyed the show of “two weird western guys in bed all day.” We don’t think we scared too many away, but it was interesting to fit in with all the other tourists, who were mainly all from elsewhere in India. Since the valley of flowers is far less spectacular at this time of year (best time we hear is mid-August) there weren’t even many trekkers about even though we did meet a few.
The next day we did venture into the valley, where the glorious yet flowerless valley of flowers exists in all its prestige. While the fall colours weren’t that excitable, we did catch glimpses of rising Himalayan peaks towering over us at 6,590m and generally overwhelming us with their commanding height. The whole trip was top notch, and after another awful bus ride back to Rishikesh (where
Gruel Master
He cooks a mean slop but don't ever think of challenging his authority. Jord almost OD’d on ice cream) yesterday, we paid another visit to the laundry lady and began nursing our hangovers from the Israeli New Years party last night. Happy 5766 everyone! The evening was infinitely enjoyable where we enjoyed the company of Amir, Netta and Zach from Tel Aviv, where later, Zach furiously demanded to know what term would be used to describe the current decade and we all subsequently shrugged in confusion and accepted that it was according to them, the 60’s anyways -so who cares?
From here we will attempt (or at least plan) some kind of voyage into Nepal, but we’re not 100% positive on that. Either way, as usual, we will keep everyone posted on our whereabouts.
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Miss Sia.
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Very interested..........Man
Keep it up!!!!!!!!!!! You give out something clear and good......... easy to take a picture...keep on mind ............like i there with you ........ seeing all this things.. Good and great pictures ........ Please take Care of your self. Be good there!!!!!!!!!!1