2016-07-09

Prologue:

Somewhere around 1st week of April, Shreya and I decided that we would go on a big trek/trip to celebrate one year of our career. We looked out for options online with many organizers, and we found that Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI) is the one which is pocket friendly, and yet giving an amazing experience. We started a search on their website and the only one among the shortlisted ones for which the seats were available was "Valley of Flowers National Expedition" during August, for 10 Days. We didn't know about any place that was mentioned in the itinerary, but we decided we will book for this trek anyway. We planned when to book the flight tickets and what other places to visit nearby. After all this research, we asked our other friends to join us and only Shreya's friend Akshata was ready to come along with us. We prepared the detailed plan and during the first week of May, we finally booked the trek for 13th - 22nd of August, and also our flight and train tickets accordingly. Once this was all decided and set, we now started to Google the places we were going, since we had no idea of any of those places! And as we collected the pictures and information about all these places, we were ogling over them and we were so excited, and it only grew day by day. We were going to 'Himalayan Trekking' and our anxiety almost went out of control. Four months of anxious waiting and Two months of countdown of days came to an end when the day finally arrived- August 12th!

So here it starts..

12th August: (Reach and roam around Delhi, and leave for Haridwar tonight)

We had to take the flight to Delhi which was scheduled at 8:10 AM. We left for the airport at 4:55 and the excitement of flying for the first time for all the 3 of us was so high, that we had decided that we will take the window seat on rounds, one after the other! So Shreya was on the first hour and thus enjoyed the take off, next was Akshata and then me who could witness the landing. After an hour of take off, the captain announced that we were at an altitude of 11,000 meters, the temperature was 40 degrees below freezing point and that the speed of the plane was 900 km/hour. We all looked at each other in that 'This is unbelievable' expression. We landed in Delhi at 10:50, and we collected our luggage and left to find the metro station. We were heading to Aksharadhaam, and we reached there at 1:30 PM, had our lunch and went on exploring the huge and beautiful structures of this place. But we didn’t have that excitement of visiting a new place, since we realized that that huge piece of land served no purpose, and in spite of the calmness of the place, there was no peace of mind. We could not even get that “devotion” feeling since it looked all commercialized. We regretted for coming there since we changed 3 metros and spent a lot of time, while we could have visited some other place. We left at 3:45 PM with a broken heart, heading to Chandini Chowk. Took metro again which was very much crowded this time, and we were very tired, and at Rajiv Chowk metro we went to Cafe Coffee Day (which was also crowded) and had coffee since they wouldn’t let us to sit without ordering anything. (The real reason to visit CCD was to sit in AC for a while). We took a metro again which was even more crowded and I also had to hit an idiot for daring to put his hand on me! We reached Chandini Chowk and we just kept walking on the street, heading to Red Fort. The street was bustling with local people, and it was filled with shops on either sides, and there were too many cycle rickshaws than any other vehicle on the road. We also savored street food like Golgappa, kulfi, aloo chat and soda which was very tasty. We walked to the end of street, where we could see Red Fort, and since we were not let to go inside because of Independence day preparation, we walked back the same path again. Near the metro station, we stopped for Mausambi juice, and left for our journey to Sarai Rohilla Railway station, from where we had to board a train to Haridwar. This station was creepy as hell as it was very secluded, and we finally boarded the train at 8:30 and rushed to the wash basin to freshen up (we had sweat like crazy, and we looked like beggars, if not for the bag on our back!) We had dinner and slept, and the train departed at 9:10 PM.

13th August: (Visit Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar, and report at Rishikesh Base Camp)

We reached Haridwar at 5.45 AM, and we freshened up and left to Har ki Pauri (This is where the Ganga river leaves the mountains and enters the plains. This place is very famous for Ganga Aarti, which is being performed everyday, during sunrise and sunset, for past 200 years. The place where the aarti is performed is called Brahmakund, one of the four places where the Amrit had fallen while Garuda was carrying it, during Samudra Manthana). We knew we wouldn't be able to make it for the Aarti, and we went there to just see the river. It was a magnificent sight to see the huge Ganga flowing with such force which seemed to carry everything possible along with her. We were also mesmerized with the imagination of so much water that flows for 365 days, and even more awestruck wondering the quantity of Ice in the great Himalayas that melts into this relatively small stream of water! We spent some time seeing the activities going on on the banks and we were a little disgusted to see how dirty the river was because of the activities of hundreds of people. Both my buddies who had planned to take a dip, were now happy by just sprinkling a few drops on their head.

We then entered the market area in search of a hotel to have breakfast, and none of them were open yet. We then came across a small shop which was selling hot Kachori and Lassi. We had Kachori, and that was the best Kachori that we had had in our life! It was very tasty, and the Lassi was flavored with Sandalwood -sounds weird, but that tasted too good. It was 8 AM, and we took an Auto on sharing basis, heading to Rishikesh.

Day 1: (Report at the Base Camp Rishikesh by 4:30 PM)

Our reporting base camp was Sindhi Dharmashala, very near to Triveni Ghat, and reached there at 9 AM. We completed all the registration formalities and went to our room, where the first thing we did was taking shower. We were supposed to go visit Ram Jhula and Lashman Jhula, but the humid weather in Rishikesh made us feel lazy, and we had our lunch at 12:30, and hugged our beds for 2 hours. We then went to Triveni Ghat, and took a view of a much peacefully flowing Ganga, and came back to the camp at 4:30 PM. There was no signs of the orientation happening any time soon, which was suppose to start at 5 PM. We had Golgappa there, and we were called for tea in the base camp, and the orientation started at 6:40. We were named as ‘V-20’ group. They chose our group leader, who was Gupta ji and we were told about the complete detailed itinerary and the significance of the places that we would be visiting. We then went for our dinner, and we had to repack our bags since we had things that we didn’t had to carry, and we left it in the base camp. We once again took bath before sleep since the idea of taking bath at 4 in the morning didn’t a seem good option.

August 14th, Day 2: (Rishikesh to Joshimath full day journey by bus)

Today we had to travel 250 km, for around 10 hours, to a place called Joshimath. We were suppose to stay there for a day, so that our body will get used to high altitude. We woke up at 3:30 AM and had tea, got ready and left at 5 AM, and we were taken to the bio-metric office, to get ourselves registered as pilgrims to Char Dham and Hemkund. And then our long journey started at 5:30 AM, and the way to Joshimath is along the river Alakananda and so you could see the river on one side always, and we were going up and down the mountains. We first came across Dev Prayag, where Bhageerathi and Alakananda meets. Our breakfast (Tiger biscuit, Frooti, Britannia Cake) was distributed in the bus, and we stopped at a roadside hotel at 8:20 AM for coffee. Bread jam and Bread butter were distributed, and then we started again by 8:40 AM, and the group finally started to make some noise! We were 21 in our group in the bus, and we started Antyakshari, and then Dum Charrads, and then started with Mafia game, which was fun and I got to know most of my travel mates through this game since we had a lot of interaction. We were 8 girls, Me, Shreya, Akshata, Swati from Bangalore; Soumitha from Kolkata; Bandhan, Jyotsna and Snehal from Mumbai. And 13 guys were Aravind, Kiran, Suchith from Bangalore; Shantanu (Brother of Snehal), Ahmed, Gupta Ji from Mumbai; Aditya from Jabalpur; Harshil and Kushal from Gujarat; Anup from Kolkata; Rohit (the doctor), Valerian and Ajmer Singh.

We stopped for lunch around 1:10 near a bridge and the view was beautiful, and we could also get down to the stream of the fresh Himalayan water. We had lunch and started again at 1:45. We reached Joshimath at 2:50 PM, and we went to our rooms and freshened up and went for tea at 4.

We all then left at 4:30 PM to visit Nrusimha temple. ( It has an idol of a much peaceful form of Lord Narsimha, who is said to have settled here on the prayers of Prahlad, and which is considered to be established by Shankaracharya. As per local belief, the right hand of this idol has become thin, and it is melting day by day. On the day when it breaks, the mountains Jay-Vijay (which are situated on a way to Badrinath) shall join and become one and Lord Badrinath of the present Badrinath temple will disappear and re-appear as a black stone at a place called Bhavishya Badri, which is situated at a distance of 10 km from Joshimath. When Badrinath temple remain closed during winter every year, one idol of Lord Badri is brought to Narsimha temple and worshiped for six months). It was a small yet beautiful temple, and we returned to hotel at 5:45 PM to have soup, and left again at 6:40 to Shankaracharya math(This is one of the four maths established by Shankaracharya: Jyotirmath in North, Govardhan Math at Puri in East, Dwaraka peetha at Dwaraka in West, and the main math is Shaarada peetha at Shringeri at South) There we had a small talk with the Swamiji, who told us the significance of the Joshimath. It was dark and we couldn't make it to the nearby gufa, and we came back to hotel, and had dinner 8. We also had fire-camp at 8:45, and since it was a night before Independence day, we chose it as a theme and sang a few patriotic songs. We left to our rooms at 9:30, and we were invited by guys to play Uno. We went to their room, and we 3, and 3 guys (Kiran, Suchith and Aravind) along with Shantanu and Aditya played Uno till 10:50 PM, and then went to sleep.

August 15th, Day 3: (Acclimatization, and visit to Auli and Tapovan)

Today, we had to go for a morning walk of some 4 km, so that we can get ready for the long treks that was suppose to start the next day. We woke up at 5:20 AM, and freshened up, and gathered downstairs for celebrating Independence day at 6:15 AM. Our CL had a small flag, and we sang National Anthem. 3 guys also had a small flag, and that was let to fly using a small stick on the terrace, behind our rooms. We then left at 6:45 AM for the walk, and on the way, almost all the schools in Joshimath had the Independence Day rally on the roads, and we could see hundreds of students, marching with banners, shouting slogans, and the line almost never ended! We then stopped at a spot on the roadside and did some exercises thought by Gupta Ji and then again started the walk back to the hotel. We had our breakfast and left to Auli at 9 AM. It was very cold since the fog had completely covered the place.

Auli is around 30 minutes from Joshimath, and on the way, we could see so many Apple trees (Though we didn't pluck any apples from them) and we also sat on the top of the bus (which was a dream for me and Shreya). We reached Auli at 9:30 and we 6 went on exploring the beauty of Auli. (Auli is a famous Skiing destination, and it has an artificial lake, which is the world's highest man made lake) We had to climb the stairs and take the rope-way of about 2 km in length, to go high up. From there, the view was very beautiful, and we could see very tall mountains- only when the clouds cleared and we could only make out that it was a mountain, and we weren't able to see the peaks. We were wondering how tall they all must be!! We saw the artificial lake, and from here we returned back to the base of Auli (The restaurant) at 12:10, and we had our lunch, and lassi post lunch.

We left Auli at 12:50, and reached Tapovan at 1:15 PM. This journey again was made on the top of the bus. We came to a hot water spring, and the water was literally boiling! Shreya said that the clay we get near the spring was a natural form of Multaani Mitti, and so we collected it in a cover for future usage. And then we left again to a temple, which had public bathrooms to take bath and there also we had a hot water spring, but the water was moderately hot, enough and refreshing for a hair wash. We took bath, and left Tapovan at 4 PM. The journey was on the top of bus again since we had to dry our hair and towels! On the way, we came across a house which had an apple tree. We all requested the owner to give us some apples, and he gave 3 Apples after pleading him, and it was very tasty. We reached our hotel at 4:45, and had tea.

We left at 5:30 PM to visit the caves and then we sat at the footsteps of the Shankara Math, chit chatting. A small bird (Himalayan Oriental White eye bird) landed right in front of us, and it looked very low and dull, and we fed it with water, and after sometime, we thought of leaving it inside the math since there were too many dogs on the street. Just before Kiran could keep it on the ground, it flew away, and we felt so happy for the bird. We came back to hotel since it was getting dark, and then we went for soup, and spent some time chatting, and then we were called for dinner at 7:45. We then had a campfire, and we sung a few songs of different languages. We then left to our rooms at 9 PM, and we went to the guys room since it was Uno time! We played till 11 PM and we came back to our room to sleep.

August 16th, Day 4: (Joshimath to Govind Ghat by bus, and to Ghangharia, 13 km trek)

We were up by 4.45 AM, and we packed up to leave for Govind Ghat. We had our breakfast and left Joshimath at 6:50. Govind Ghat is 25 km journey, and due to a land slide, we were stopped 3 km prior to our destination, which had to be made by walk, and thus increasing our total trek journey to 16 km!

It was 8:10 AM when we started the walk, and the 3 km was just plain road, and we finished this easily. We reached Govind Ghat, and then the path to Ghangharia was a hilly pathway, and most of it was uphill! 13 km on this path, with our backpacks on! The path is on the mountain, and there were quiet many stalls on the way which were selling the refreshments. We 6 kept talking and teasing each other about various things, which kept us from feeling tired and exhausted to some extent. Akshata was very tired, and Suchith carried her bag for a while. We also bought packets of glucose and biscuits as energy sources. We stopped around 11 AM for a round of lime juice and then for lunch at 1:15 PM.

The path from Govind Ghat to Ghangharia: It's a tiresome trek of 13 km for the very first day, yet the view is so beautiful that its worth all the pain of that long journey, and your heart would say you to go on to see more and more of it. At times, the path is well built and cemented; and then you see only the stones placed casually, to make a way, which is cemented mostly by the Mule's dung; and then sometimes it's a muddy path, with thick forests around you; and then you have to cross the river and the bridge is sometimes built well with bricks and metal, and sometimes its just a piece of wood. You go along the river for some part of the distance, and on the other side of the river, you will have to lift your head high up to witness the tall, lush green mountains, and the entire view is just awesome.We took another small break for tea at 4:45 PM to celebrate the fact that we had almost reached. We then left to make the last 2 km trek and finally reached Ghangharia at 6 PM. 10 hour trek of about 16 km was finally made, and we couldn't believe we made it. We had never thought our body was so strong! We went to our rooms, and got hot water from the hotel and took bath and it was very relaxing.

Ghangharia is at an altitude of 3000 mt/10000 feet. It’s a small town, and it is surrounded by think dense forest and mountains. And naturally, it was very cold there. We got into all our warm clothes and yet we were shivering. Me and Shreya wore the same kind of cap, jacket, pants, gloves and we looked like sisters! We wanted a few pics and Kiran and Aravind tried to ruin it all (it was the day’s revenge, since I had tried to screw up some of their pics by going in between the lens and the poser). We then went to watch the slide show of Valley of Flowers, and we also bought a book- as a symbol of memory. We then went to a local hotel and had hot Jalebi which was good, and Aloo chat which was not good, and then came back to the hotel for dinner. We were very tired for anything now, so we went to sleep.

August 17th, Day 5: (Ghangharia to Valley of flowers and back, 4 + 4 km trek)

We had to leave for the valley at 6 AM. The reason to leave that early is that you cannot stay beyond 2 PM in the valley, since the weather gets worse and usually it starts raining by noon. So we woke up at 4:45, had our breakfast and left for the valley at 6:30 AM. It's a 4 km trek route to Valley. (Bhyundar Valley of flowers is one among the UNESCO Heritage sites, and about 520 species of flowers are recognized here. It stretches over 8 km in length and 2 km wide) The path to the valley was very narrow, wide enough for only one person to walk, and the path sneaked through dense forests, carving the upward way on the mountains. The view was thus very beautiful, and it was very cold too. We came across 3 to 4 streams of water, which looked very fresh and we had to cross these streams. At some spots, the path is so dangerous that if you slip and fall, you would meet the bottom of the valley and you would not be seen again.

We reached the meeting point at 9:15 AM, and from here, the valley starts. We walked ahead, to witness the beauty of the valley. You can never imagine that such kind of vegetation exists amidst those huge and tall mountains. The valley was washed out due to the floods that happened in the previous 2 years. We were said that we could see some 35-40 species of flowers, but we could make it only half way through, and saw some 15-20 types of flowers. It is said that the valley is completely covered with thick blanket of snow during October-March and then in April, plants starts growing and it will be in full bloom during July-September. It’s so amazing that this cycle repeats every year, and you could see thousands and thousands of flowers that are nurtured by nature itself! We had walked for almost 2 km, and we were heading to the Margerett Legge's grave, but it was our bad luck that it started raining and it got colder, and we were advised to take a return journey. It was only 11:45 AM and we had no choice but to return, and we could see the grave from where we stood, it was still about a km of walk. We returned to the meeting Point at around 12:30 PM and stopped for lunch.

We left again at 1 PM, trekking back the 4 km, and we reached the base around 2 PM, and we stopped for hot tea, since we were almost drenched in rain. We came back to the hotel at 2:45 and we were feeling very cold and we slept in our cozy beds. We woke up at 5, and the weather was even cold, and worse than the previous day. We were waiting for the hot soup and we were chatting till they called for it at 6 PM. We couldn't tolerate the coldness and we went for a nearby shop to buy thermals, and after wearing them we felt much better. We then went for dinner at 7:45, and then it was Uno time, 8:45 to 10:15 PM. We then went to sleep.

August 18th, Day 6: (Ghangharia to Hemkund Sahib and back, 6+6 km trek)

Of all places that we visited, this was my favorite! Not just me, almost everyone had the same opinion. Hemkund!! To say, the trek to Hemkund was the most difficult one, and this was the highest altitude place over the course of the trek (4600 mt/15200 ft). Yet, both the journey, and the destination were simply the best.

Today we left at 6:30 AM, and we knew that the path to Hemkund was 6 km- a complete stiff climb. There were many people (Sikhs mostly) who were making their journey along with us, since it was a holy place. As we moved, it got colder, since the altitude was increasing. The second half of the journey went mostly on asking ‘Aur kitni door hai’ to the people who were coming down. Kiran, Akshata and Aravind came together, and me and Shreya were ahead of them. The last 1 km was too much horrible, since we were at an high altitude, and it was very much cold too. We reached at different times, and the moment I saw the gurudwar, I felt so relieved and was glad that I finally made it.

I went and sat inside the Gurudwara listening to the Bhajans, waiting for the rest of them to arrive. It felt so good sitting there, with a thick blanket on. The Bhajan went on till 1 PM, and we had hot tea and Kichidi that was served in the Gurudwara and we went to the lakshman temple next to it, and then we went on the small hill that was next to the gurudwar to see the beautiful view.

There was so much fog that we couldn't see anything, and then in a matter of minutes, the view becomes so clear, that the reflection of the mountain, Gurudwar and the temple in the water is breathtaking. We spent some time waiting for this clear view and we got to see it twice. We also saw the Blue Poppy and Brahmakamala flower, too many of them, and we were supposed to leave back, since it was getting colder by minute. We started the down trek at 2:30 PM, and the down trek was slow, since getting down was causing a lot of pressure on our knees. We reached the base at 6:30 PM, and we stopped for tea, and reached hotel at 7 PM. We then had dinner at 7:30, and we were called for campfire, since it was our last day in Ghangharia. There were some local people there, and we got to listen the Garhwal songs and Bhajans (Bhaang piyoge, jhumla gaoge.. Jai bhole, bum bhole..) and we all sang and danced for it. We also sang a few songs of different languages, and danced for a while for some Hindi songs and we had a great time. We then went to sleep at 10:30 PM.

August 19th, Day 7: (Ghangharia to Govind Ghat 13 km trek, and to Badrinath by bus)

We had to go back to Govind Ghat and we had to trek for 13 km. We left Ghangharia at 7:30 AM . The day was bright, and it was a little hot too. We had fruits in between (Apples and Pears) which was very tasty and it was energizing. We reached Govind Ghat at 3:05 PM. We then left at 3:15 PM by bus, to Badrinath.

The road to Badrinath is again very curvy and small, and it goes along River Alakananda. (Badrinath is one among the most holy places and it is the abode of lord Vishnu. The story of this as said by the local priest: Lord Shiva and Parvati had chosen this place for austerity (tapas) and were residing here. At the same time, Lord Vishnu was looking for a suitable place to perform the same, and he also chooses the same place. He thus comes in the form of a baby and lies down in front of the door, and when Parvati sees him, she intends to keep the baby with them, and she feeds the baby and puts him to sleep, and both Shiva and Parvati will go out for some work. By the time they return, Lord Vishnu will have taken his original form and will have started his tapas and Shiva and Parvati didn't want to disturb him. So they leave him there and go and settle in Kedarnath. This is how Badrinath becomes an abode of Vishnu, and Kedarnath is of Lord Shiva's) We reached Badrinath at 4:30 PM, and had lunch and tea. We left for the temple at 5:45, and we went to the hot water kund, took bath and we entered the temple at 7:15 PM.

The best part was that the temple was not as much crowded as we expected it to be, and we got a chance to sit right in front of the god. It felt so good sitting there for almost 20 minutes, looking at the god and listening to the hymns chanted by the priest, and trying to imprint the image of the lord in our minds forever. We decided to wait for the 8 PM aarti, and we were told that after the aarti, they will remove all the decoration and put the god to sleep. And we witnessed it, and after removing all the decorations, it was just the bare stone idol of the god, and then they applied Chandan and Turmeric and put a white cloth on the god, and this was the process of putting him to sleep. Seeing this process made us feel something special, that I cannot put in words. We then left the temple at 8:45 PM, had dinner out at the hotel and we went back to the room at 9:45 PM and slept.

August 20th, Day 8: (Badrinath to Mana by bus, and to Vasudhara falls and back, 5+5 km trek)

Today it was the visit to Vasudhara falls. We had enough time today, so we woke up at 6 AM, and had our breakfast, and left the hostel at 7:10 AM. We reached Mana village at 7:25. The best part was that the temple was not as much crowded as we expected it to be, and we got a chance to sit right in front of the god. It felt so good sitting there for almost 20 minutes, looking at the god and listening to the hymns chanted by the priest, and trying to imprint the image of the lord in our minds forever. We decided to wait for the 8 PM aarti, and we were told that after the aarti, they will remove all the decoration and put the god to sleep. And we witnessed it, and after removing all the decorations, it was just the bare stone idol of the god, and then they applied Chandan and Turmeric and put a white cloth on the god, and this was the process of putting him to sleep. Seeing this process made us feel something special, that I cannot put in words. We then left the temple at 8:45 PM, had dinner out at the hotel and we went back to the room at 9:45 PM and slept.(Mana is the last village of India, and crossing this village for about 25 km ahead is the Indo-China border) From here, we were supposed to trek for 6 km. We started at the entrance of the village, where there was a board which said 'Welcome to India's last village Mana'. We walked for about 500 mts across the village, and we reached the Bheem Pul bridge, and saw the birthplace of River Saraswati.(Bheem Pul means Bhima's Stone. When the pandavas were making their final journey to heavens, it so happened that River Saraswati was too big for Draupadi to cross, and thus Bhima put a huge stone here as a bridge, which facilitated Draupadi to cross the river, and hence the name) We were amazed by the quantity of the river water that came out from the midst of rocks, which seemed too much small for so much water to rush out. Then the actual trek trail started.

It was narrow, and was not even at all. The path was inclined up all the way and it was a tiresome journey. The path went along the river Alakananda at all times, and from here we could see a few snow covered peaks clearly. We reached the falls at 11:15 AM, and it was simply beautiful.

We had our lunch there and we left back for Mana at 12 PM. We reached the Bheem Pul at 1:15, and stopped to have tea/lassi. We then visited Vyas gufa and Ganesha gufa. (Vyas gufa is where Rishi Vyasa had sat to narrate (telepathy) the Mahabharata to Lord Ganesha, and the place where Lord Ganesha had chosen to settle and write the same is the Ganesha gufa. Both these caves are about 0.5 km apart) We came back to the entry gate and we left Mana by bus at 2:35, and reached the our hostel by 2:45. We had thus successfully completed the trek!!

We had tea as soon as we came, and we all started chit chatting. We had the rest of the day free now, and so we decided to play something, and guys got a tennis ball. We made 2 teams, and we got a water bottle, and the game was to hit the bottle with the ball. We played for almost 2 and a half hours, and at 7 PM, we went for dinner. And later we all spoke for a while and went back to our rooms to pack up to leave on next morning, and we slept at 9:30 PM.

August 21st, Day 9: (Badrinath to Rishikesh 300 km by bus, full day journey)

We woke up at 4:45, and we had our breakfast, and left Badrinath at 6:15 AM. Everyone looked a little tired, and the journey went silent since most of them needed rest and thus slept. We reached Govind Ghat at 7:15 AM, and the road ahead was blocked due to a landslide, and were told that we were supposed to wait for at least 2 hours. We didn’t have anything to do, so we started off with Uno on roadside. We played till 9:45 AM, and then we were simply roaming around until we were given a green signal at 11 AM.

We again stopped for lunch at Pipalkoti at 12:45, and we left at 1:15. The journey was the same route that we traveled the 2nd day. We were again blocked near Dev Prayag due to some problem with a transformer, and we were let to start again by 7:30 PM and we finally reached Rishikesh at 10:30 PM. We were so happy and felt lucky that our trek went as very well as the way it was planned, since the last 2 batches couldn’t see Badrinath and Vasudhara falls! We all had dinner, and we were called by Vijay (YHAI UP State's Secretary) at 11:30 PM for certificate distribution on our successful completion of the trek. We then went back to our rooms, took our extra luggage that we had dropped here initially, and we went to sleep at 12:30 AM.

August 22nd, Day 10: (Check out after Breakfast, and roam around places in Rishikesh/Haridwar and leave to Delhi tonight)

Today we woke up at 6 AM, and had our breakfast. The goodbyes had started the previous night itself, and one by one people started leaving. The group which had become like a family for the last 10 days was now finally breaking apart, with no hope of seeing each other again. The group was just amazing, and we all were sad that everything was over and we had to go back to the mundane life. Truly, it was one hell of a trek with a bunch of wanderlusts and were the most memorable days of our lives.

We now had plans to roam around in Rishikesh and Haridwar, and take an overnight train to Delhi. We-6 packed up our bags and left there in the hostel, convincing Vijay to pick them up in 2 hours, after visiting Ram jhula. We left at 9:15 AM, got an auto and we went to Jhula at 9:40. We visited Rameshwara temple (It is believed that the Shivalinga here was installed by Lord Rama, as a procedure of repentance for having killed Ravana, a Brahman), Geetha Bhavan and Paramarth Niketan Ashram where we saw Kalpavriksha tree (that always comes as a twin), a peepal tree whose trunk had the shape of Ganesha's face, and Ekamukha Rudrakshi. We all got a small can and each of us filled it with Ganga water to take it to our homes. We then went back to our hostels, picked up our luggage's at 12 PM and left for Haridwar by an auto. We stopped in between for lime juice, and we reached Haridwar at 1:15 PM. We left all our luggage's in cloak room, and we bought fruits, apples and bananas (Since we had no time to go for hotel for lunch) and left for Manasadevi temple at 2.

We went by rope-way, and we visited the temple and came to the base at 4:15 PM, and took the rope-way again to Chandidevi temple. We got the darshan at 4:45 PM, and then the guys departed since their train was at 6:15 PM and they had to hurry up (Sad time L). We still had time and we made it in our own pace. We left Mansadevi at 5:15 PM (after a monkey attacked me) and we reached Har ki Pauri at 6. We were finally going to witness the Evening Ganga Aarti. The crowd was big, and the number probably was a 4 digit one. The aarti started at 6:30 PM, and it went on for about 30 minutes. It was such a great view, to see the lights of the aarti getting reflected in water, and people were all chanting ‘Om Jai Gange Maata’ in unison. It gave us a feeling of devotion and respect towards Ganga Ma, and the sight is worth watching. We then left the diya in the river, and we left for Chotiwala to have our dinner. It was 8:15 PM, and we had to leave for the station. We made it by walk, and we reached station by 8:45. We first picked up our luggage's and went to the platform, and our train was at 11.15 PM. We had no choice but wait, and as soon as it arrived at 10:55 PM, we rushed to our seats, and freshened up and crashed on our berths!

August 23rd: (Reach Delhi, and leave for Bengaluru)

We had a good sleep in the train, and we woke up at 7 AM. We freshened up and we got down in Old Delhi station, and we had our breakfast there. We left to visit India gate by metro, and we got down in Central Secretariat metro station, and walked the short distance to Rajpath. It was a beautiful, clean and a huge road surrounded by the green park where people were relaxing and enjoying their Sunday morning. Shreya and Akshata were not willing to walk till Parliament with the bags on, but I went on, without bothering to carry the heavy weight, because I didn’t want to miss this chance. I walked till Parliament, and saw the Rashtrapathi Bhavan too from the closest point possible. From here, I started again towards India Gate which was at the other end of the long road, and in between where Shreya and Akshata was resting, I left my bag and continued my walk to reach India gate. It felt good seeing the Amar Jyoti there, and then I made the final walk in Delhi. The walk on Rajpath felt too good.

We now had to leave for airport and we took the metro at 12 PM, and we reached Aerocity at 1:15 PM. Took the shuttle to the airport terminal and we finally boarded the plane at 2:30 PM and the flight departed at 3:10 PM. Those 2 were tired and no more excited with the flight journey, and so I got the chance to sit next to the window and enjoy the journey, cherishing all the memories of the past 10 days. We reached Bengaluru at 5:45 PM, and we took the bus to reach our home. It was 8 PM when we got back to our respective homes, and we were back to our old world, after the 12 day awesome trip!

Epilogue:

Before the trip, we were so used to our normal life, that we had no idea that it feels so much painful to get back to it after such an amazing time with such wonderful friends! It was very much hard for me to again get back to the reality of the normal life. I still wanted to go back to those places, and wanted to just stay back there until my heart wishes to, which is not possible! "Its not the same person that you see when they return after traveling"- True that... This was my very first traveling and trekking experience. I went along with a bunch of random people from random places, and made them 'friends' and we were as close as a family! I learnt how to see the best in everything and admire it, ignoring all the loopholes and enjoying it to the fullest. I learnt how mighty and strange and unpredictable and incredible the nature can be, and how tiny and helpless a human is in front of it. I learnt how strong a human mind and body can get, when posed to a 'you have to make it no matter what' situation. I learnt to admire the diverse culture, its people, how different their food, clothing, lifestyle is from ours, and yet I saw how beautiful they are. And most importantly, I learnt how to live with very limited things and how to adapt to situations even when they are not favoring you. To end with, I have now been bitten by a Travel bug, and I am happy and excited to stay infected for the rest of my life :)

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