This was in the summer of 2005 . We had a long vacation due and were wondering where to go. We had been to the backwaters of kerala, we had been to the majestic, serene Himalayas of Darjeeling and Sikkim. We had a choice to go to Gujarat and Rajasthan. I love Gujarat , because I have been brought up there. But the best time to go to Gujarat is during September for the Navratri. Also Gujarat and Rajasthan would be hot now.
My friend, Shruti, had always been telling me about the great trip she had had to Gangotri , Yamunotri along with the religious group she had been associated with sometime during our college days. I would be fascinated by those adventures and also the beautiful pictures of the Himalayas that she had taken with the most basic camera that she had.
After some debate we decided to go to Gangotri.
We had started our journey towards Kashi by taking the bus from Delhi. At the delhi bustand when we asked for the location for the bus to Kashi - the localite asks us 'Haddi le jaa rahe ho kya ?' .. ( Are you taking Bones )
Handling his question and boarding the Kashi bus , we reached Kashi in the evening . To take another cab to Hrishikesh.
We halted over at a dingy hotel at Hrishikesh and saw the Ram Jhula and the Lakshman Jhula. We did not find Hrishikesh too exciting. Either we did not see the right places or the place is not really as exciting as it is talked about.
Next day morning we left for Uttarkashi from where we would reach Gangotri. The journey from Hrishikesh to uttarkashi was beautiful and along the banks of river Ganga. We had started early in the morning from Hrishikesh and reached Uttarkashi around 4 pm. Just before Uttarkashi is a small village called Harshil . The cab driver informed us that this would be last place where you could get any non vegetarian food. After this place - all the places up north are purely vegetarian.
True to what the driver said - the night at Uttarkashi , we had good tasty vegetarian food. The best part of food here is that is that, it is prepared with lot of love. Because the food is very tasty. And you get very good
phulkas :) with garam garam tasty sabzis.
From there we took the next cab to Gangotri . With great difficulty we got a hotel to stay . But that was compensated by the hot phulkas and the tasty sabzi at the restaurant. Now Gangotri is a purely religious place. So the look around it is also like the scenes you have around temples. Meaning, you will find a lot of shops selling religious items and idols and trinklets. We slept in the ice cold weather in Gangotri to begin our
final trek towards Gomukh.
Now the trek from Gangotri to Gomukh is a 16 km walk that you can choose to do walking or on a Horse. We chose to walk. This is a wonderful walk , coz you will be walking on the Himalayan ranges . Imagine a long stretch of mountains on two sides with the river Ganga flowing in middle . You will be walking on one of the stretch of the montains. As you walk you will see wild sheep on few of the hills and small tribulets of Ganga on the hills. One needs to be very careful while walking here , coz at lot of places you will have landslides happening. A guide along with you , is always a big help .
There are two major camps on these 16 km trek - One is called Cheervasa and another is called Bhojwasa. We stopped at Cheervasa and had a cup of tea. And trekked further to Bhojwasa where we stayed over for the night at a ashram there.
Now the stay here was the best part of the journey. The first thing to note is that , after Gangotri, your cell phones have stopped working. You are completely tired. And the temperature at Bhojwasa will be anywhere upto -5 degree centrigrade. And you are totally cut off from any civilization . And suddenly you wonder , if it has been worth coming here . Coz if anything happens to you here, no one back home will even hear about it :) .
Once we were given our room and heavy blankets to put on ourselves, we just squeezed into the blanket and wanted to quickly go off to sleep to avoid the cold. And around 9 pm , we hear knocks on the door saying the food is ready. Oh God ! who wanted to go out in this cold ! But we are hungry, so we come out of the blankets and go towards the dining hall. We sit to eat food and we chance to look at the sky.
I actually have my hairs standing on its edge as I am writing this - I see the most breathtaking sight I have ever seen. ON the dark black sky , I see white mountains - just hanging there in the air against the dark sky. ! God its a sight I will never ever forget in my life. The ice on the himalayas were reflected by the moonlight . ! It was too too cold to go back to the room and get my camera - but this is how the sight looked like..
( This pic is taken from the internet and due credit goes to the photographer )
The next day we went to Gomukh , saw the glacier and came back . But the sight that we saw the night earlier, was something that I cannot ever forget for my life.
What are your ' once in a lifetime sights'. Share it with us . !
================================================
Post Script : This post is mostly about the picture that I described in the last 2-3 paras. Thats why , I havent put up any other pictures of this journey.
Read more...
( Mamata Banerjee bans Marx in textbooks .
( Mamata Banerjee arrests a professor for circulating a mail with cartoon on her. 
( Mamata Banerjee arrests a professor for circulating a mail with cartoon on her. 
( Rajasthan police invents a plot to keep Rushdie away from the Jaipur literary fest. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2820796.ece )
( Rajasthan police invents a plot to keep Rushdie away from the Jaipur literary fest. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2820796.ece )
( After days of dilly dallying Mamata Banerjee decides to support Pranab Mukherjee for the presidential post. 
( Anna Hazare and Ramdev Baba on their movement against corruption. 
