Hills

आग़ाज़ लद्दाख का ………….. – भाग1

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Rs. 2000/day के हिसाब से तेय हो गया, जिसमे की डीजल का खर्चा अलग से हमे ही देना था। अंदाजे से 10 दिन का 20000 + 15000(डीजल) = 35000 का खर्चा होने का अनुमान लगाया गया। इसके अलावा अतिरिक्त 5000/- हर एक आदमी को रखना था अपने दस दिन के खाने-पीने, रुकना, इत्यादि। सब कुछ जोड़ दिया गया और 70000/- का अनुमानित बजट तैयार हो गया।

इसको सात हिस्सों में बाँट दिया जाये तो प्रतेक आदमी का योगदान मात्र 10000/- आ रहा था जो की लद्दाख जाने के हिसाब से ठीक ही था। सब ये जान कर खुश थे। गाड़ी को फाइनल करने के बाद लद्दाख जाने का सफ़र 9-सितम्बर से 18-सितम्बर का तय हो गया था। हमारे साउथ इंडियन बंधुओं ने झट-पट दिल्ली तक की एयर टिकट बुक करा ली थी। सेंट्रल वाले भाई लोग भी दिल्ली तक आने के लिए रेलवे की टिकट बुक करने मे जुट गए थे। बाकी बचे हम तीनों को तो नोएडा से ही जाना था तो बस 9-सितम्बर के इंतज़ार मे लग गए थे। बहुत ही मुश्किल से बीत रहा था एक-एक दिन। सब लोग शांत थे ऐसा लग रहा था जैसे किसी आने वाले तूफ़ान का इंतज़ार कर रहे हों। और ऐसा ही हुआ जाने से एक सप्ताह पहले तीन लोगों ने आलतू-फालतू बहाने लगा कर मना कर दिया। अब सात नहीं केवल चार लोग जाने वाले थे। फिर भी हम खुश थे की अब तो और आराम से जाएंगे। एक बात समझ मे आ गई थी की दूर के ट्रिप मे ज्यादा लोगों की भसड नहीं पालनी चाहिये। वैसे ये बात तो पहले से ही मालूम थी पर और लोगों से पूछना भी जरूरी था अन्यथा बाद मे ये सुनने को मिलता की “लद्दाख से हो आये, एक बार हमें भी पूछ लिया होता”। एसा अक्सर हुआ है मेरे साथ। एक बात थी की अब बजट 10000/- से बढ़ कर 17500/- प्रतेक वक्ति हो गया था। लेकिन किसी को इस बात से कोई फरक नहीं पड़ा, बस जाने की धुन सवार थी। ट्रिप मे जाने वाले चार लोग थे मैं(अनूप), राहुल, हरी और मनोज। माफ़ कीजियेगा दरअसल पांच थे एक ड्राईवर अंकल भी थे। परिचय के लिए एक फोटो लगा रहा हूँ। इसमें राहुल नहीं है क्यूंकि फोटो उसी ने ली है।

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Sarchhu to Leh, Pangong Lake, and Back via Kashmir

Sarchhu to Leh, Pangong Lake, and Back via Kashmir

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First town where some civilization could be seen was Upshi which is basically a check post where we did not stop. Next stop at about 30 km was Karu which basically a military establishment just before Leh. We stopped a Karu for a late lunch and some tea and then soon proceeded to Leh which took about 1-1.5 hours. On the way to Leh one can see gorgeous mountain views with Indus flowing along the road.

Next, day we went to places around Leh such as Patthar Singh Sahab Gurudwara (पत्थर सिंह साहिब गुरुद्वारा), so called Magnetic Hill, Confluence of Janskar and Indus rivers, a Kali temple and a Buddhist temple, and one of the oldest monastery near Leh. The landscape near Leh is also dry, barren but mesmerizingly beautiful. Buddhist temple have special wheels called Maney ( माने) carrying the holy mantra “Om Many Padme hum” or “ओम माणी पद्मे हूं”  which the devotees rotate.

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Lammasingi, Andhra’s Kashmir

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Lammasingi (लम्मसिंगी) or Lambasingi (लम्बसिंगी) as the tribals call it, is a tiny hamlet nestling on a ridge at an altitude of 2600 above sea level in the Eastern Ghats, a little over a 100 kilometres to the west of Vizag. It was an unknown, remote tribal settlement till a discovery was made which stripped the place of its anonymity and earned it the sobriquet of “Andhra Kashmir”. A few years ago, weathermen found that it was the coldest place in Andhra, with night temperatures occasionally dipping to sub-zero levels. This news was broadcast by TV channels and overnight, it became a popular tourist.

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Road to Leh Part 2 : Manali-Keylong-Sarchu

Road to Leh Part 2 : Manali-Keylong-Sarchu

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The entry to Sarchu was amazing. After crossing the curvy path of mountains and snow, one suddenly comes across a vast plain between the high mountains but with little snow cover. There are gorges on one side where a thin stream of Yunam river flows. These gorges have very strange formations which look like pointed erections, possibly caused by wind erosion. The place is bone dry with cracks appearing in the soil with little precipitation even in severe winter when temperatures plummet below -30 degC. However, the place is very windy with wind velocities possibly approaching 40-50 Km/hr making the temperatures feel subzero despite actual temperature being about 5-10 degC. Here, no one lives permanently except a few Army settlements. Reception of cell phone is nonexistent and one really need to live like nomads. We found a camping site where we stayed in the camps. These camps serve you food and bedding and some of them also provide toilets which is indeed a luxury at this place (exposing your bum to morning frost is no fun :) ).

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A Road Trip to Enchanting Mukteshwar

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With all the theoretical knowledge collected through blogs, we had few recommended names for our stay. We started having a look on hotels. First and the very pleasing one was MT- Mountain Trail. Ambiance/view here was awesome. After discussing about the tariffs we moved on to other hotels. We were more concerned for a captivating view rather than the tariffs. We went ahead to few more lodges along with PWD Guest house. But, we had already lost our hearts to MT. So we called back the manager and asked him to book 2 rooms for us.

We parked our car near the entrance of Mukteshwar temple and started taking a walk towards the main tourist attraction point “Chauli ki jali”. After putting in few efforts in climbing the rocks we finally reached on the top of the cliff. The cliff gave a splendid panoramic view of snow-white Himalayan ranges. Captured the “Orange- setting Sun”, did some archery. As it was getting late and the temperature started dropping with Sun, instead of going for Rock climbing we opted to just give a pose :)

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Valparai Series – Part 3

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Though elephantine in appearance, the Valparai bisons (Indian Gaur) are usually mild creatures who mind their own business. But which fool would proceed further ‘where angels fear to tread’? After taking our fair share of pics, we did an about turn.

Sometimes the wildlife comes out on the main road, much to their detriment. Wildlife killings by overspeeding F1 drivers is unfortunately all too common despite the many caution signs. This huge deer was standing barely 1 foot away at twilight. I realised he was next to me only when some bikers stopped to stare.

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Road to Leh – Kanpur to Manali (Part 1)

Road to Leh – Kanpur to Manali (Part 1)

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Next day, our plan was to reach Manali, another 450-500 km or so drive, but there were two routes: either via Chandigarh-Mandi-Manali or via Panota sahib-Nahan-Dharampur(Solan)-Sabhathu-Arki-Barmana-Mandi-Manali. These two routes meet near Surendernagar, but the first leg is what makes difference. We thought we wont travel through the plains and avoid the rush so we decided to go via Nahan. We started at about 9.30 which was a bit late, but nevertheless.. I don’t know whether it was a mistake: the road was bad for quite a bit but traffic wasn’t much with sparsely populated places and the scenes were gorgeous. Soon after Panota Sahib, the beauty of mountains started and we started working, busy with the our cameras or busy looking at the nature. Worst was to be the person driving the vehicle in this situation, for whom it was an excitement as it  was his first real mountain driving experience and he did very well, 100/100. We reached Dharampur after driving for about 4-5 hours at about 2.30 pm and after covering about 175 km. Dharampur is a junction for people going towards Solan or Shimla from plains or Chandigarh/Delhi, so we faced a bit of crowd there. Had our lunch and then proceeded towards Sabathu and Arki. The roads in this stretch were basically state or district roads, traffic wasn’t much but roads weren’t good either. We couldn’t drive fast enough, and by the time we reached Darlaghat, to join NH-88, it was quite late, about 6 pm and we hadn’t traveled enough, almost 70km in about 3 hours. We realized that it would be tough to make it to Manali on the same day in good time. We then switched over and I started to drive, my first real experience of driving on mountains. However, the road towards Manali was good as except at some places, so not much of an issue. We could not much of scenery as it was getting dark, except the visible forest fire at certain places on the high hills.

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Rewalsar Lake – चोरी-चोरी जब…..

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I had fallen in love with Rewalsar Lake when I saw Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film “KAREEB”. I had travelled on Manali route many times, but no one ever told me about this lake. After seeing Kareed, in 2004 I alongwith Laxman while coming back from
Jwalaji visited this beautiful lake and missed our families then.

Rewalsar lake is initially connected to Lomash Rishi, who had been searching for a place for his tapasya, and who was told by Lord Shiva about Rewalsar, which is abode of gods and various gods reside there as flowers, trees, fishes and water bodies. Rishi Lomash came to Rewalsar and did his penance. There is an ancient temple of Lomash Rishi on the bank of the lake, and perahps the first ever temple here.

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Valparai Series – Part 2

Valparai Series – Part 2

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The estates brought prosperity for the new settlers but ‘development’ also meant massive deforestation of once pristine forests with the attendant depletion of indigenous fauna and flora. In those days
of abundant natural wealth, this was not a matter of concern.

In recent times, the Nature Conservation Foundation – an NGO, has engaged the estates in a successful conservation programme to maintain wildlife corridors and regenerate the forest. Consequently, you never quite know who you might meet in and around those Valparai tea gardens!

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Ride to Rajasthan (Pune to Mount Abu) – Mount Abu Sight seeing

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The Day came to an End at the Mount Abu market … there is something so unique about these markets on Small hill stations … the Pop Corn, the Ice Cream Cone, The Corn … yeah … we loved it. The finally came to a close with everyone shopping, that was also amazing fun … Someone from our group had just changed his facebook status from single to committed … and he had to buy something for his girlfriend … and OH MY GOD … Everyone was giving him suggestions … and it was real fun … Ayush had to buy some gifts for his wife, and me too … after 6 days and 2400 kms, if we reach without a gift .. we will be killed. So we finished our shopping around 9:00 pm and headed back to our hotel … we were all hungry and decided to get some food delivered at our resort … where we had to discuss the plan to go back, which was not same as it was while coming … !!!

We had lots and lots of Dinner … and started the discussion in the Cold Night @ mount Abu … !!! here is where the real fun starts …

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