A trip to the HIMALAYAS

Written by and Credit to : Khusbu Goyal.

So.. I do not know whether to call it a psyche or a shock or just an obssession with the most beautiful thing my eyes has ever seen!

To the endless outline of the mountains of the Himalayan region..

Our journey started from Delhi midnight by car.  I was at the back seat snoring away ignorant of the future.  When I woke up, I could barely see anything but the downpour of heavy rain amidst the tall trees.  After sometime, it stopped raining and I was surprised to see so much beauty.  It was like magic.

We reached Kasol, a hill-station in Himachal Pradesh. And got into our tents and had a hot water bath.  The wind so clean and fresh.  I could feel it on my face, nature being so gentle all over me.  My mind felt like a bird flying in the sky, so free. I had never knew what being free was until I was beside the Parvati River.

We felt a little scared for once as there were no humans anywhere to be seen which is very unusual in a city life.  It was just the hills, the tall pine trees on both sides of the road and the Parvati River.  We strolled on the road of Kasol by the banks of Parvati and reached Manikaran Sabib.  I personally love Gurudwaras because of the peace it gives me.  And this particular gurudwara is on the banks of Parvati.  I could still stand on the bridge to Manikaran and just stare view which was just amazing!

We strolled back and forth Manikaran Road, sitting down once a while and clicking photographs! Trust me no photo or article is enough to describe the beautiful Parvati Valley.  They say nature finds its way. And believe me, it did for me.

We were chilling in the cafes of Kasol, so beautiful.  Saw different kind of people, a few Israelis as well.  The food in the cafes was YUMMMM!  Ofcourse, I had coffee in every place possible.  After which we were checking out nearby bakeries and the local market of Kasol which was very colourful and pretty.  Picked up a few brownies from the nearby German Bakery for dessert ?  Heading back to our tent watching the sunset in front of us was again an amazing view.

Excited about the trek next day Tejal and I were chit-chatting in the tent.  While our tent boy got us some hot Home-made food.  We asked them for the bon-fire and sat under the stars with some music and had a great night.  I was a little worried about the 13kms trek to Kheerganga the next morning.  Somehow picked up some positivity and just wanted to TRY!  And went away to a sleep..

Got up to the sun-rays through our tent zipper-window, we quickly got set with our back-packs, had a tea and a healthy breakfast!  Headed to Bharseni, about an hour drive from Kasol was amazing.  Saw the deep hills and the Parvati flowing all the way down.  It was a little sunny, yet chill.  On reaching Bharseni, we were shocked on seeing the hills all around and we need to climb one of them to the Hot Water Spring.  People were descending from the trek and it was unbelievable that we were trekking that hill.  We boldly started off, yet with fear.  The adrenaline rush gave a lot of pressure, Oh God!

We walked towards the hill, and there come the Mountain Man(Upal).. haha.. he was dressed liked like that. Tejal and I were confused ourselves and he asked us the route to Kheerganga.  So, we started off asking help here and there where Hemanth lost hopes and almost wanted to go back.  All his friends waited for him, supported him.  Then I meet the whole group of people with Upal. He was guiding all of us later on though.  We started walking and walking amongst the green towards the Hot Water Springs.  Tejal was so excited for the spring.  It took about 6 hours for us to reach our destination with so many memories we could make on the way.  Listening to songs, taking photographs, slipping on stones as it was raining during our trek.

The last 45 minutes of the trek was crazy for me.  But, thanks to Ajai(my trekking friend).  It was because of all these guys that I could finish the trek – Ajai, Tejal, Nitin, Upal, Hemanth, Aniket, Abhishek. and Om. After the trek, the dip in the hot water spring was just so soothing. All the tiredness went off like in no second.  Nature, I am telling you is insane.  It was almost dark by the time we got out of the spring.  Tejal and I were talking life philosophies in the spring LOL.

We looked up at the sky and it was filled with stars.  That was the most amazing and beautiful thing I could ever see.  It felt like OMG! I cannot explain. Took a deep breath and enjoyed each and everything nature could give me.  It got really cold, so headed inside one of the little cafes Kheerganga has to accomodate people visiting.

All of us were dead hungry and just ordered a lot of food and hogged enjoying the pain in our calf muscles.  We were chit-chatting and had a great time.  Heading back to the tents under the sky full of stars was really so beautiful.  We had a great sleep and woke up the next morning to the sun-rise, had a good breakfast and started back down.

I felt sad because we were leaving such a amazing place where you could see the ice-caps from where Parvati started.  We headed back to Bharseni which took about 4 hours as our tea breaks were long.  The bunch of guys of Bangalore were heading to Manali and we were going to Tosh.  Ajai and I luckily exchanged numbers to share photographs.  And the bond that we built during the trek was so nice.  A pure friendship.

Tejal and I headed to Tosh, a village near Bharseni. It was another place which was mersmerizing to my eyes.  Amazing views and people.  The Sun looked perfect silhouetted along the outline of the hills of the Himalayas.  The people living here are so damn lucky.  We quickly got into our rooms, freshened up and visited few popular cafes in Tosh.  The coffee in Pinki Didi’s cafe was the best.  No Starbucks can beat that.   Had the best dinner of the trip here.  Spending the night in Tosh, we woke up the next Sunday morning and headed back to Kasol.

We re-visited our favourite cafes in Kasol.  Saw solo-travellers with DSLRs, bikes, books! Seeing all this I realized there is so much to life.  It was really depressing to start back to Delhi from Kasol.

Tejal and I were listening to our favourite songs descending down not uttering a word.  Wanting to enjoy every inch of the nature around us!

Stopped for a few tea breaks though.

On the way to Delhi, had dinner on a dhaba and headed to Govind’s home.  Govind, a friend of Tejal who is a traveller and guided us the whole trip.  Without him, this trip wouldnt have been complete.  And not to forget, the world is very small, both of us are from a place called Sadalpur in Rajasthan.  Had to leave to the airport in a few hours back to Chennai and Tejal back to Hyderabad.

Trust me, it was very very sad and I had tears in my eyes coming back home.  I just crashed for 17 hours like a dead body.  And felt like I was still amongst the hills for 2 more days.  Today I feel back to routine life.  Uff.

Lastly, thanks to Tejal.  She was a great company in the whole trip.  A bold girl, indeed and special kudos to Miles To Trek for travel guidance.

So, when life leaves you feeling blue, pack your bags and head out. And boom – all is fine.