Monday, June 2, 2008

Bangalore to Gangotri - May 2008. :-)

Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath- are together called CharDham. I had heard the names of these places individually since many years, but got to know them together as CharDham only before a couple of years. Credit goes to Dept of Tourism of Uttarakhand/Uttaranchal which has been extensively trying to boost tourism in Uttaranchal. An online search for CharDham will easily give all details of religious significance of CharDham Yatra for Hindus.

CharDham are trapped amidst the majestic Himalayan ranges. So even if one is not a religious person, one can go to CharDham just to enjoy the bliss of seeing the beautiful Himalayan ranges. And if one is religious and also an ardent nature lover--surely--nothing can be better than visiting CharDham!!!!!

During the first week of may, my husband Gautham got his leave confirmed. So we immediately booked flight tickets between Delhi-Bangalore and train tickets between Delhi-Haridwar. This was the only booking we did before hand. We did not do any other booking of accomodation nor travel. We decided to travel flexibly without any 'time' related compulsion of reaching a hotel or catching a bus on some pre-decided time. We once thought of booking a private travels from Haridwar which offers package tours including accommodation, but eventually dropped it, because the thought of traveling flexibly as and where we wish sounded more appealing.

After gathering some information online, we made a rough sketch of our travel. We had 10 days in hand for travel. And visiting CharDham in 10 days would require us to really speed up and hurry throughout the 10 days. So we decided to drop Yamunotri and only do Gangotri and Kedarnath, (and then if time permits, also Badrinath) so that we can enjoy and maybe spend more time where ever we wish to. So we cut down our travel to Do-dham or Teen-dham.

We purchased two trekking backpacks. This was our only luggage. We carried minimal luggage and stuffed everything in just these two bags. We did not want any other suitcase or bag as we did not know how much/where we would need to walk during the tour.

During the planning phase of our tour, travel blogs written by earlier visitors to CharDham had helped us a lot to make a mental sketch of travel. Even though there were not many blogs, the available blogs proved to be really useful. In order to help the future travelers, I add a drop to the pool, by writing our travel itenary below.

Day 0:: May 20th-Tuesday :: Bangalore-Delhi-Haridwar

Our flight from Bangalore to Delhi was scheduled at 5.00 pm. We left our house at Jayanagar at 3.30 and took and auto to airport. (Luckily it was still HAL airport at IndiraNagar:-) On reaching airport, checked- in our bags. Gautham's bag weighed 12 kgs and mine 9 kgs. Our Indigo flight was on-time. After a journey from 5-8 pm,we reached IndiraGandhi airport at Delhi. We had to catch our train to Haridwar at 11.15 pm. So after collecting our bags, we immediately took a pre-paid taxi to Hazrat-Nizamuddin Railway station. Reached railway station at 9 pm. We had all the time on earth. So decided to relax and have dinner. The railway dept has constructed a huge food court just outside the station. And what surprised me was , there was even a live music band on first floor to entertain us. After a nice dinner we entered railway station. After about an hours wait, our train arrived on time at 11.15. TC told train reaches Haridwar at 3.15. We went to sleep soon as we only had 4 hrs in train.

Day 1:: May 21st- Wednesday :: Haridwar to Uttarkashi

Alarm rings at 3.00. We wake up and wait for our station. Train reached Haridwar station at 3.30. We stepped out and I was shocked to see the sight. Except for the small strip near the train, the entire platform was full off people sleeping within their blankets. Asharam Bapu's camp had terminated previous day and all these folks spent their night at station to catch their trains the next day. A rikshaw wala came to us and asked us where we were going. We told him we need to go to Gangotri and asked him about bus details. He told us from 7.oo am there will be bus every half an hour(We later got to know its false). Since it was just 3.30 we decided to get fresh at a hotel and then catch a bus to Gangotri. ( We had an initial idea of getting fresh at railway station in pay and use bathroom, but seeing the crowd at the station, we changed our minds) . Rikshaw wala told he will arrange for the hotel too and asked us to come along. When we went out we got to know, by rikshaw he meant cycle rikshaw and not auto-rikshaw;-). It was raining well, so I put my raincoat on. Gautham preferred to get wet, instead of opening his raincoat. (Maybe after 5th standard, this was my first experience of getting into rain with raincoat and I was loving it.) After 10 minutes we reached a hotel Aarti. It was full. So he took us to another nearby hotel. After bargaining, we got a room for 450 Rs. (Since its yatra season,rooms are very much in demand and hence over-priced.) We slept from 4 to 6, Woke up, got fresh and walked out to find about bus. Haridwar street is crowded with travel agent offices. We enquired in 3-4 office and all told all their buses to Gangotri are full. So we walked for 10 more minutes and reached government bus stop. Got to know the bus to Gangotri had already left at 5.30 am. (We realized that the best option for us would have been to come to bus stop directly from railway station and then take this bus.) On asking around, we got to know that the next best option for us would be to catch a bus to Uttarkashi at 9.30 am. (A bus to Uttarkashi at 7.30 was already full).We had breakfast and took the 9.30 bus to Uttarkashi. The journey was very scenic through the sub-himalayan ranges. After the long journey,(with only one tea break at 11.00) we reached Uttarkashi bus stop at around 6.00 pm. We first booked ticket for the next day to Gangotri and then searched for hotel. Here again, most of the hotels were full. We finally found a room at hotel Gaumukh. Yet again over-priced room for the quality. Bargained and managed to get at 450 Rs. We dumped our luggage and went to famous Vishwanath temple. After that had a early dinner at Dhaba. The simple roti & dal tasted like heaven as we we were really hungry due to skipped lunch. :-) After this, we slept early at 8.00.

Day 2:: May 22nd-Thursday :: Uttarkashi-Gangotri

We wake up at 4.30 am and pack up things and leave room to get into our 5.30 am scheduled bus to Gangotri. Bus leaves on time and stops at Bhatwadi for breakfast. We re-started after having yummy alu parota at the dhaba :-) From Bhatwadi onwards, the journey to Gangotri gets very scenic. As we get closer to Gangotri, the first glimpse of snow covered himalayan ranges leaves us speachless. When there was nearly 10 kms to Gangotri, our bus moves very slowly due to traffic jam(mainly caused due to senselessly parked vehicles). Finally at 11.30 am, when there was 4 kms left to reach Gangotri, our driver tells us that we will reach faster if we walk. We decided to take his advice and took our bags and started walking. The best part about walking like that was that we could enjoy the sight of beautiful snow capped peaks longer.

Would not mind walking if this is what you get to see, is it not??

We finally reached Gangotri at 12.30 afternoon. We started asking around for rooms . Our plan was to take room for 2 days as we wanted to trek up 18 kms to Gaumukh glacier (The origin of Ganga) the next day. But the hotel folks told us that from this year onwards, government has made a new rule of giving permission to only 150 people per day to visit Gaumukh. And the permission letter is given in Uttarkashi or Dehradun. We were disappointed, as we were very excited about trekking and then seeing the Gaumukh glacier and also we were rightly in Uttarkashi previous day where we could have got our permit. (The reason for govt to introduce this permit, is that people have made the place very dirty, by leaving lots of plastics and other non-eco-friendly residues near the glacier. Also glacier is receding at an alarming rate of some kms every year). So with this, we decided to stay here, only for the night and leave to Kedarnath next day. We got a decent room for Rs 600. We put our luggage there, and had a nice lunch at dhaba and then went to Gangotri temple at 1.30. We were shocked seeing the queue. The queue was in multiple rounds around the temple and we failed to realize where it starts and where it ends. We did not want to spend the precious half-day that we have got at Gangotri standing in queue at temple. So we came out and asked at shoe stand what time the queue will be least. He told us that temple closes at 6.30 and so queue will be over almost by 6.00. Happy with the data, we left the temple and started loafing around here and there to enjoy the beauty of nature.

We asked a local person about the way to Suryakund (a waterfall on beautiful rock). The person told he is a guide and that he will take us to all significant and some 'secret' beautiful places for 150 Rs. We agreed and started walking with him. (My god!!! he was 60 years of age and I had tough time keeping pace with him through the ups and down of the hills). From 2.30 in afternoon to 6.00, we walked with the guide, where ever he took us, and the walk/trek with him was really worth it!!!
He took us to Suryakund (see the picture on left) , power house, pandav gufah, pandav raas leela stone etc etc.He told us stories about various stones, various spots...all were about pandavas. We had no reason to believe his pandava stories, but we encouraged him in whatever he told, because even though we were not interested in stories, we were definitely interested in the beauty of the places where he was taking us. The best part was, all the places that he was taking us were through beautiful forests, very quiet and away from all the hassle-bassle of the area near the temple which is crowded with tourists.


Towards the end of all, when having tea, we told the guide how we were disappointed about not being able to see Gaumukh. He told us he knows about a small glacier at a secret place here and if we wish he would take us there. (This was outside what he had to show us for 150 Rs) We followed him!! Again through ups and downs, we walked with him....this time we passed across lots of small asharams, and also through some sealed ashrams inside which, there are individuals seeking solitude and meditating. Crossing all this, we reached a fresh water source which was originating from a bed of ice. It was a nice experience to see this ice bed, over which we could walk easily. The bed of ice had turned brown due to the dried leaves falling from tress surrounding it.

Our guide standing on the bed of ice. The bed clearly observed near the mouth of water..

After spending some time near the glacier, we thought we would be going back, but our guide had something else to show us, he told he will take us to "Russian Baba".We walked with him. I pondered about the way we blindly trust a stranger at times in life. Because we had already come far away from the city to what looked to me like no mans land, and we were walking further with the guide through the ups and downs of the unknown place. After walking for 5 minutes, suddenly I felt like not trusting him and told the guide I am tired and I want to go back. Guide was smart enough to understand I am telling this due to fear, and told just 5 more minutes of walk and I will meet girls of my age. He told not to feel scared as he has daughters of my age. Gautham told we will walk for 5 more minutes and after that we will walk back, no matter what. So deciding to trust the guide for 5 more minutes, I continued to walk. Soon I was happy that all my fears were wrong. I saw a Foreigner "Baba" and 3 girls who had come to visit him. I was relieved. The cave outside which this baba was sitting was at an amazing location. It was at a good height from which we could see beautiful Ganges flowing with all her power between the mountains. The view from the place was absolutely beautiful.!! (Tried to capture it in camera, but the photo did little justice to what we were seeing )

This Russian Baba speaks very good Hindi. On speaking to him, we got to know that he has been living in this cave since past 6 years. His guru is "Pilot Baba" (on searching internet, got to know that Pilot Baba was a former pilot in airforce, who later took up robes). When I exclaimed to Gautham that how beautiful this place is.....Baba told me "paanch din yahan raho, toh yeh kaatne ko aayega"...meaning , "live here for 5 days, this place will start biting you." This was realization number 1. What baba told was true. Getting momentarily mesmerized by the beauty of nature and thinking "Oh, wish I could live here forever" is one thing. And actually living at this place in solitude,seeing the same Ganges, same rocks, same trees, same hills, for even 5 days is another thing.

Baba asked if we would like to drink tea. My criminal mind immediately warned me. I feared Baba will mix something in tea which will make us unconcious. I immediately said "No, we are already done with tea before we came here". He smiled (I am not sure if he read what I was thinking) and told its "jadibuti" tea and we can have it. He told he has no milk and so its going to be black tea. He placed few more dried stems in fire and kept his tea pot and started making tea. I took out the pack of bread and biscuits that I had with me and gave it to him.

As Gautham continued talking to Baba, I started talking to the girls(all between 25-30 yrs of age)who were present there. Two of them were Russians and knew little English. Another girl was from US, so I started talking to her. I would like to quote a part of our conversation

Me: Whats your name?
She: Heather

[I told her my name, obviously she could not get it!!]

Me: How long its been since you are here?
She: I came here 6 months back, I went to Delhi and then I came here. India is such a beautiful place...there is so much to see. [Turning back and looking at Ganges, she asked me] Isn't this place so beautiful!!

Me:Yes, it is.
She: Can you imagine living in caves?? [with a small laugh]
Me:[with a big laugh] No!! Not so far, maybe after seeing you folks, I must start thinking of it.
She: No, we three dont live here, we stay at rooms available down there. We just walk here to meet Baba.

Me: Ohh!! Are you three friends or so?? I mean from same college ??.
She: Oh no, we just got to know each other online. They are from Russia. We had similar travelling interests, so we came here together.

Me: Where is your family?
She : They are back in California.
Me: Do they know that you are here?
She : Not exactly, they know that I am alive. [Laughs]. I mail them sometimes telling where I am .They tell me not to give them details as that makes them worried. They are busy with their life, they know I travel and they believe I am safe. Even if I tell them what I experience, they will not know it unless they see ..is it not?? so I too don't give them details.
Me: [just smiled as I just had realization #2 ]

After talking on few more casual topics, I asked

Me: Are you planning to go back??
She: [Giggles] Maybe forward!!!

[I was speachless with realization#3]

It started drizzling, so the girls left, as they wanted to reach back by the time it starts raining. Baba's tea was ready and he offered it to me too. I took it and when I saw Baba and guide drinking the same tea, I too started sipping mine slowly (I know its bad on my part to think evil of them). It tasted good. Baba told he recently made wooden doors for the cave because bears started coming in. I got scared thinking of bears and wanted to reach back hotel before dark and told Gautham its time to leave. When we started off, guide placed some money near baba, and we too did. We bid bye to baba and walked back to hotel. On the way back, I was happy that guide took us all the way till that place. I kept pondering about conversation with Heather. Specially I could not fathom out the depth of the two words "maybe forward"!!!

Since I was thinking all this, and this time since I had no fear about anything, the walk back seemed to be bit shorter. It looked as though we reached hotel in no time. We paid our guide 300 Rs. He gave his contact and address and asked to come to his home next time. It was close to six and we immediately started off to temple. The same temple which was over-crowded in the morning, was now empty. We entered the tempe, had darshan and came out within 5 minutes. We were just in time, because by the time we came out, the doors of the temple was closed. We went to Ganga ghats of temple to see the Ganga Aarthi. We had come with plans of having our holy dip in Ganga. But water was freezing cold, so forget about bath, I could hardly dip my fingers in it.

For sometime, we sat on the steps and observed flow of Ganga and also the way people were having bath in such ice cold water. I wondered how could they do it!! Maybe the answer lies in how strongly religious or I better say ritualistic you are. Maybe these are the people who come all the way to Gangotri just to have their holy dips and visit the temple. So "no matter what", once they are here, they surely do what they have come for.

After seeing the Ganga Aarthi, we left the temple and walked back to our room. We had an early dinner at a dhaba on the way and also went to bus stop and booked our tickets for next morning to Gaurikund (base camp of Kedarnath). We came back and slept early as we were tired due to the long walks we had from afternoon. While on bed, could not stop being intensely happy for the wonderful day we just had. Just wondered how things fell in place, we deciding not to stand in temple queue and instead loafing around, meeting the guide, he taking us to Russian Baba and hence ours meeting Hedar. We from Bangalore, Heather from US, guide a local garhwali, and others Russian and we all meeting at a hill in himalaya and drinking tea!!!

Well, its one of those moments in life which makes me feel that we are all just going with the flow, the flow that is guided by some unseen force, the flow which makes sure things go the way that it is destined to happen. Its one of those moments, which makes me feel that maybe what I think to be illusion is real and what I think is real, is actually an ILLUSION!!!!

[I will continue the travel itenary to Kedarnath and Badrinath in next post. I started off with this post hoping to put my entire tour in single post. So, you may observe that first half of the post is less descriptive. But as I wrote, I realized there is no point in writing, if I supres what I want to write. Hence I turned descriptive in second half :-)]

Note to travellers ::

1>
From this year onwards, government has made a new rule of giving permission to only 150 people per day to visit Gaumukh. And the permission letter is given in Uttarkashi or Dehradun. So if you want to go to Gaumukh, come to Gangotri with permission in hand.

2>Due to the same reason, there is a decrease in people staying at Gangotri. As people just visit temple by noon and leave Gangotri. So there are lots of rooms available, specially on the rearer side, which you can get for reasonable rates (you have to cross Ganga by the walk-bridge to reach there).

1 comment:

abhi agarwal said...

great to see your tour details......it will help sp many of tourists (including me)to go around this way...the way you write is awesome...so intresting and more informative also.....please keep touring and keep writing as well..