Coorg : A Land of Surprises (Part II)

                                                      Part I 

A meet with the Eternal: The golden temple

After a short lunch we headed towards the famous Tibetan Golden Temple. Our driver told us that this area was inhabited by the refugee Tibetans. They are quite hard working and have built the entire infrastructure there by themselves. Near the temple there were hostels for the monks (most of them were young). There are four temples there, two of them very big, built in Tibetan style.  On the central temple there is an arc on the top with golden roofing. I could not understand the religious significance of anything there but the place itself gave the feel of divinity. There was a strict silence inspite of a big crowd there. Only the sound of the drums and the hymns sung by the priests were in the air. As it was a prayer time, entry was not allowed inside. We went inside one of the temples where prayers were not being organised. As I entered the gate, I found in front of me three magnificent statues (idols). The centre one was of Lord Buddha-60 feet in height made of copper plated with gold. The very first look of the Buddha gave me a kind of shock. I felt if I was losing all my energy into that statue or I was gaining something. Whatever it was I don’t know but I was standing dumb and staring continuously at the centre statue with an expressionless face. Since my childhood I have visited so many temples but I have never found such a peace anywhere. I wanted to stay there and just stare at that statue. I fear if I visit that place few more times I might change my religion.

Nature’s Dhama: Nisarga Dhama

Nisarga Dhama is a protected forest area on the banks of Kaveri, with the river surrounding it from all sides. We crossed the hanging bridge leading in there. From the bridge one can see the fish in the clear waters. All kinds of trees (bamboo, sandalwood, teak) and shrubs are there. There was a deer park also. The deer were standing right near the protection cage waiting for the tourists to feed them. After walking for some time we went down near the river. The river was flowing in between the rocks with trees hanging in the water from both sides. It gave a feel of the mangrove forests. The place is full of greenery and natural beauty. We went a bit deep in the forest when I received a call from our driver asking us to come back. While returning back to Madikeri , driver asked me-“Are you married”. I said “No”. He continued “Then do come on a honeymoon trip here when you get married, I would love to give a ride again”. Interesting driver… Nice marketing skills J

A window to paradise: The Raja Seat

It was around 6 in the evening when we reached the park. Madikeri had just witnessed heavy rainfall for about an hour. It was cold and winds were blowing. I was dumbstruck on seeing the picturesque view of the valley and the hills from that place. After few moments I uttered few words- “What the fuck!!”, seriously that was a scene of paradise. The clouds were still floating with the winds, covering the hills, making them invisible at times. One can see the mist rising from the plants, forests and other places in the valley. In front of our eyes was an unending sea of greenery. The clouds were passing from the place where we were standing, with mist touching our faces. Wow standing in the clouds… an amazing experience. Thanks to the special timing of the rain.

Just outside the park there was a toy train. We took a little ride in it. While returning back to bus stand another interesting thing happened. I tried to initiate a conversation in Hindi with a group of kids to get directions. They were poorly dressed, with dirty clothes. After I finished my sentence, one of them replied-“Can you speak in English please” . Oh that was unexpected (on seeing them it felt as if they even don’t go to school). For the first time in all these months here someone has asked me to speak in English. I asked them again (in English) and they replied fluently. I was impressed… Completely. All the way back I was smiling because of those boys. Wish them a great future ahead.

That’s it.. my memorable trip to Coorg.

Coorg : A Land of Surprises (Part I)

It was 5.30 AM and the sudden brakes of the bus opened my eyes. I looked out through the window- Whoa I was in a different world altogether!!  The sky painted with city lights has changed into an arena covered with floating clouds, clouds disappearing the hills ready to wet the red soil. The tall buildings have been converted into the Nariyal trees alongside the road and the streak of stores and shops has been converted into the never ending coffee plantations, and the climber plants of pepper and clove. Coorg it was..!!! Truly called as the Scotland of India..or Kashmir of South.. or the Misty Hills.

Getting off at the bus stand we enquired about the tour packages available with the agencies. But finally we hired a cab on our own. That went to be relatively inexpensive.The travel agencies literally loot you. The driver was an awesome cheerful man, having a strong command on Hindi. We headed directly towards the Abbey falls.

The Peaceful Falls: Abbey Falls

In the morning silence one can easily hear the peaceful noise of the falls from the road itself. The way to the falls passes through the jungle with coffee plants all around. The trees there were so dense that even in the full sun, the sunlight will plead to touch the ground. The sweet chirping of birds was a nature’s welcome to us.  The very first look of the falls relieves you from all the tiredness. The white water falling from the rocks, collecting at the base, making a stream and then disappearing in the thick forest. The morning weather added to the beauty of the falls, with dark clouds still hovering up in the sky and the mist giving a soft bath to the leaves as the wind slowly played with the falling water (and my emotions ;) ). We tried to climb up the hill on a trail carved out in between the shrubs. After going a bit up I remembered the fearful warnings written in English and Kannada on the boards, and changed our decision and came back.

The Bliss of Kaveri: Dobare

Next we went to the Raja’s tomb. I have no interest in describing that but the view of surrounding hills was pleasant. We clicked some funny pictures there with the stone elephant and other architecture. We then went to the Dobare’s elephant camp. This elephant thing is seriously nothing but an elephant shit. They take 100 Rs to bathe an elephant,50 Rs to feed dried grass to the elephant ,100 Rs for a 100 metre elephant ride..and people were doing all this. Anyways the nature there is another pie to eyes. 

The Kaveri unshackles itself from a narrow stream and extends with all its effort on both sides to show its affection to the land. The water crawls slowly on the black stones. One needs to cross the river with the boat to reach the elephant camp. But you can do it otherwise by walking on the stones lying on the river (risky but fun). My fellow friend insisted on doing rafting there so we changed our dresses and went with one of the groups. The water being so slow, the rafting felt like boating. After going downstream for 1 km we jumped in the river and swam. Swimming in the cold waters of Kaveri with rain drops falling from above- an experience which you can never forget. The other group with us and our guide everyone was fantastic. Without even knowing each other we played in the water, swam to the other shore, competed and made fun of other groups. While returning back, we would have rowed for less than a hundred metre, when I asked the guide “What is the depth of river here?” He replied-“Right now more than 30 feet” . The very next moment he pushed me into the water. I was shocked to the fullest, after a few seconds when I balanced myself, I found him smiling and saying “swim swim..its fun” . Later three other members joined me. We returned back swimming. I drank the water twice. It was bitter because of the diesel engine boats running on the water(Pollution man pollution L ).

                               Link to the Part II

  

In the lap of Nanda Devi (Part II)

 Part I

Day 5: Start of the trekking-

In the morning next day we went to a temple in Auli and then had our breakfast at GMVN. At around 11 Am we started trekking. We were given rubber shoes to walk on snow and Laxmi got a new yellow coloured trouser. With the shoes, trousers and his party wear shirt he was looking a complete joker. We started trekking in snow and due to the strong reflection of sunlight it was impossible to see anything without sunglasses. On the way our guide told us about various dried out flowers and herbs and the beauty of the valley in summer season. He also narrated an incident where a person lost his eyesight during an expedition when his sunglass got broken and he had to spent 4 days without glasses in snow. We made our camp on a patch of land amidst snow in Gurso Bugyal. The guide used the vacant army camp nearby as the kitchen. We had lunch and took some rest. In the evening we went up the hill on snow to watch sunset. The top gave a wonderful view of the mountains with snow all around. We took many photographs there. I carved out my mother's name on the snow there. After that we slided and rolled down from the top again and again. It was one of the most awesome evenings we spent there. Cold winds started blowing as the sun set and we came back to our tents. We then enjoyed the camp fire with music from my phone, had dinner and slept after a tiring day. Our guide was awesome, we even didn’t have to wash our plates.

Day 6: Holi at 4200 metres-

We woke up at 6am, completed our daily activities and had breakfast. In the breakfast cook by mistake added red chilly sauce instead of tomato sauce in the sandwich making a rare combo. We packed the tents and left around 8am. With heavy bags it was difficult to move, as with more weight the foot sunk deeper in snow. I was in great problems because I was the one who was carrying the entire waste luggage because of the new big trekking bag, which I bought recently. But slowly we kept on moving. As we moved up the view of mountains became good. We took rest after each 20 minutes of climb on a patch of land free from snow. We made zigzag routes following the top. Finally came the steepest of the slope. I wanted to be at the top first so went ahead of the Guide himself and took a wrong direction. The snow was melting on that side and on each step I could sink upto 3 feets in snow. I even slipped four times. Thanks to my hands else I would have gone straight 200 metres below. Finally using all the four hands and legs and crawling like an animal I reached near the guide who was moving up some 25 feet left of me. After 4 hours of continuous trekking we reached the top. We observed a rare phenomenon there- a circular rainbow around the sun. We took some refreshments at the top. From the top I got to view one of the best natural sceneries covering the peaks of Nanda Devi,Trishul range,Kamet, the nearby villages Auli,Tapovan and Dhak.We met some guys from the other IITK group there. After around half an hour of sightseeing and Sravan's Photography we started descending down.

 We thought that going down on snow would be easier. It was for sure but more adventurous and risky. We slided on the slope. At some places slope was to steep and if we had made a mistake we would have landed directly into a valley 1000m below. On this side of the mountain the stretch of snow was less as it faced the sun. Then we moved down on the rocky slope, stopped at one place had lunch and started walking again. By the time the other group had come back and we walked with them to their camp. They offered us some tea. We changed our shoes from the rubber ones to our regular sports shoes which were more comfortable. Seeing us doing this our Guide also changed his shoes. Now we were able to move faster. We passed through some villages, saw the terrace farming of wheat. The plants covered the whole hill slope and the greenery looked awesome. After around a total of 16km of trekking on this day we reached the road near Dhak village. A car was waiting for us which took us to Tapovan,a place of hot streams. We went down there for a bath. The water there was 60 to 70 degree c hot and people were easily bathing in it. With lot of courage we also put our heads in the stream of hot water.The bath removed all our tiredness.From there we came back to Joshimath, bid goodbye to our Guide and went to our room.

Day 7: The Ganga Aarti(Haridwar)-

We took a bus to Haridwar from Joshimath at 6 am. The way back is always boring and we passed the long journey sleeping and listening to music. We reached Haridwar at 4Pm,had some food and went to Har Ki Pauri. There was a huge crowd of devotees, with banks full of people bathing in Ganga. The flow of water there is great. We also took a bath in the cold waters and then went to attend the aarti which had just started. The aarti starts daily at around 6.30 pm and a crowd of more than thousand attend it. At first I saw a great discipline in the crowd. The Pandit was reciting some mantras and the people nearest to the Ghat were sitting and the people at the back were standing according to their heights so that everyone can watch the proceedings. But as soon as the main aarti started this discipline vanished all of a sudden and everyone stood up pushing each other and fighting. Pujari asked everyone to take a pledge for not polluting Ganga and all of them repeated the pledge words after him. But as soon as the aarti ended most of them put flowers and burning diyas in the holy river. And not to mention about bathing as we also did that. Sometimes faith overpowers reason and you can't do anything about it. The smoke of the aartis soon filled the air. One interesting thing I noticed about the Aarti was the way people saw it. Earlier during aartis people clapped and sung it along but now I could see people busy in recording videos and clicking pictures. Almost half of the crowd had some camera in their hands. Its really difficult to differentiate between devotees and tourists of modern India. After the aarti we roamed around in the nearby market and then went to the railway station. Fortunately the train was on time and we returned back.

Photographs by- Sravan Photography

In the lap of Nanda Devi (Part I)

 (A trip to Auli,Joshimath,Tapovan,Gorso Bugyal.Kuari Bugyal,Rishikesh,Haridwar with friends)

Day 1: The Unplanned Journey-

  We made our plan of the trip just few days before with one of the friends coming in just one day back. All four of us gave awesome and creative explanations to our families  for not coming to home on Holi vacations with one of us even not informing them about the trip. We couldn’t get a tatkal reservation so decided to travel by bus, which indeed was a bad decision. We left the campus in the evening around 7Pm, reached the bus stop and took a bus to Bareiley. We were expecting to reach Haridwar by 8Am but of course one should not predict about Indian roadways and Railways. Meeting many traffic jams, accident sites and changing bus two times we reached Haridwar at 12.30Pm next day.

Day 2: The Holy Dip (Rishikesh)-

Reaching Haridwar we had lunch and then took a bus to Rishikesh which is about 25kms from Haridwar. Buses are easily available and we reached Rishikesh in one and half hours. We decided to spent rest of the day in Rishikesh as buses to Joshimath are available only in the morning. After resting for sometime in a relatively cheaper room because of offseason benefits we left for Lakshman Jhula. On the road to main Ghat one could find many shops providing services for Adventure sports like rafting, trekking,wild safari, camping, bungy jumping  and many more.I doubt that once a religious place, Rishikesh has now become a place for adventure sports with adventure shops rising in numbers at least 4 to 5 times then the number of temples there. One more peculiar thing was that you can find more people in rafting boats and on the banks of Ganga in Shivpuri then on the Ghats of Rishikesh near temples. Finally we reached Lakshman Jhula, its a hanging bridge on Ganga, vibrating up and down when people move on it. We spent some time jumping on it, clicking photographs and discussing how resonance can bring it down in the Ganges flowing about 30 metres below. 
We reached the Ghat below after sometime with intentions of taking a bath but touching the ice cold water we almost left the thought. After much of provocations two of us jumped in the waters. It was too cold but relieving. Following us two other foreigners also jumped in. One very strange thing about the Ghats in Rishikesh was that we could only see 2 or 3 Indians there, rest of them were all foreigners.  Sometimes it felt as if we were in a British colony. Some were busy in reciting mantras and hare ram hare krishna. There was a group of 50 foreigners near by singing the tone of Shiv Shiv Shiv Shambhu with the help of Guitars and flutes. It was so sweet to ears that we sat with them. There was a girl painting the Ganges ghat in the sunset .In Rishikesh you can find many foreigners getting inclined to Vedic religion, practising Hindu rituals, reciting mantras and bhajans, some even becoming saints. We returned back with a walk of 7kms passing the Ram Jhula and temples.

Day 3: The dangerous turns-

The next day we woke up at 4 as we had to leave for Joshimath. Private buses are available from Rishikesh till 7 Am and a bus is there from Haridwar at 5.30Am. We took a bus from Rishikesh at 6Am, it was a small bus with not so comfortable seats but we had no other option. The road from Rishikesh to Joshimath is all along the banks of Ganges, providing a wonderful picturesque of mountains and the rivers. Because of the awesome scenery the 250kms distance consuming a time of 10-11 hours doesn’t seem boring at all. On the way there are many towns, some of religious importance like Dev Prayag, Nand Prayag,Rudra Prayag,Karna Prayag and cities like Srinagar and Chamoli. Prayag means confluence of tributaries of Ganga. The road however was a bit damaged and very often one could find boards saying-"आगे रास्ता संकरा है और धंस रहा है | कृपया सावधानीपूर्वक चले ". Many a times I found the tyre of the bus just passed the damaged corner of the road. A small mistake from the driver could have very easily lead to the salvation of the 50 lives onboard in the Holy Alaknanada itself. When we were just 50kms from Joshimath,a suspension of spring of one of the front tyres got broken.Now the driver was driving it at a rate of 15kms/hour and finally we reached Joshimath around 5Pm.
 
On reaching the taxi stand we met some of our seniors who reached there in the morning for vacations. We then talked to some of the people providing services of trekking and camping for a possible trekking activity. All of themrefused considering the heavy snow in the Kuari  pass region saying that it was risky and also Police won't grant permission. However one of them gave the contact details of a guide from Auli and said he may do something for you. Now the most interesting thing- After 2 days, including us 3 groups were doing trekking in Kuari Bugyal region inspite of the fearful warnings from the locals, and the best part-All the three groups were from IIT Kanpur.

Day 4: Lost in the Wild-

As per plans we had to spend next day in Auli which is about 16kms from Joshimath. Instead of taking a taxi we decided to trek through the village and the forest ,with shortcuts distance reduced to about 7 kms. We left for Auli around 7am.While passing the village we had to trek through the stair cases which became a difficult task with heavy load on my back. When the village ended we had two options either take the road to Auli or go in the forest through some more short cut routes. Locals suggested not to go in Jungle because we might get lost, but we did. It was great fun with splendid greenery and birds chirping all around. The fun turned to excitement soon when we saw the snow and then to adventure and then to terror when we realized that we have lost the track and we were just wandering here and there.
 Out of fear we put our cameras in bags and started applying all our brains to get the right directions. We had just 1 packet of biscuit and 200 ml of water left. We decided to reach the top of the snow clad hill as from there we would be able to easily see Auli and then proceed. But the hills are decisive, as we moved up we could see some other hill tops to reach. In the snow it was difficult to climb up so we left the hope and started descending right. Coming down in snow was again risky and we slipped many times. After 3 hours of wandering in forest with no food and water we finally found a one ended road which lead to the main road.

After reaching Auli we took a room, had some food and left for skiing. There is a chair lift available from GMVN hotel to the ski resort. It’s a bit costly but the experience is worth the money invested. The ski resort has an international ski slope of 1.5 kms with all the modern facilities.SAIF winter games were held this year in Auli.We were given some heavy shoes and practised walking with them without support. It took us some time to learn the balancing on snow but it was great fun later. We fell many times in the process. We forgot to bring our gloves and our hands got frozen. I also had a sweet little snow fight with a kid there. From there one can get an awesome view of Nanda devi and other peaks covered in snow. After 3 hours of skiing we were tired and decided to come back. In the evening we contacted the guide, gave him some advance money and fixed our trekking tour.


Part II

Photographs by- Sravan Photography