Honeymoon- a trek in the Himalayas!!

In April 2005, we finally got married with the blessings of our parents. The wedding largely followed Gujarati traditions and lasted 5 days and over 1000 guests, with almost 100 of them staying with us for over a week.

Since both of us had managed to get 3 weeks of leave for the wedding from our respective jobs, we decided to have a long honeymoon (after all we had waited long for our marriage). After considering several options, we decided on a 3 day rafting + 4 day trekking trip in the Himalayas. Now most of our friends & our parents thought we are mad to be going on trek for our honeymoon! But we were clear that we were going ahead with it for two reasons –
1. We have always been wanting to go on a trek like this for long. And come on, we had known each other for 5 years, we were way past the regular honeymoon 'getting to know each other' phase.
2. We would never get such long vacations again from our offices without any problem.

So after our gala wedding in Surat (Div's house) and a reception party in Delhi (my house), we headed in a taxi to Mussorie. The 290 km journey from Delhi to Mussorie was pretty uneventful and since we were so tired after all the marriage functions- we chatted a little and then promptly fell asleep. We reached Mussorie late in the evening and then checked into a nice hotel (cant remember the name now!). We decided to spend a day in Mussorie before we headed for our trekking camp.

So, the next day we got up early had a sumptuous breakfast and then walked down the Mall road. I have always wondered why & how every hill station in India has a ‘Mall Road’ and usually these would have shops set up by Tibetans !! We tried to get a ride on the rope way but unfortunately this was shut down. Across the road, we saw these photographers, who click your picture in the traditional Himachali (a northern state) attire. Div hates these things but I pursuaded him to do it for the kick of it. So we wore all the traditional Himachali clothes & jewellery and posed for pic. The photographers took our hotel details and assured us (after taking the money of course) that they would deliver the pics to our hotel by evening. I guess it was our stupid 'honeymoon happiness' that we trusted them. But sadly the pics never came :( Anyways, in the afternoon we got in a tourist bus and went to see Kempty Falls. The bus was full of usual Mussorie crowd- honeymoon couples :) Newly wed brides decked up in brightly coloured, gold/ zari bordered sarees or salwar kameez. And thier newly acquired husbands protectively wrapping thier arms around them.

We reached Kempty Falls and trekked down a little distance to see the waterfalls. The waterfall itself is actually quite pretty but all the commercialisation sorrounding it is actually quite disgusting. There were shops selling food, drinks, swimming trunks, 'conservative' bathing suits for women, curios etc etc. We had to try really hard to get a picture clicked without any of the shops being seen in the background.

Next morning, we hired a taxi and headed towards Camp Lunagad. The Camp Lunagad is at an alevation 3.500 feet from sea level in Western Himalayas. Though the distance is not much the journey took us almost half day as we passed through mountain terrain & not so good roads. But the scenery that we passed was beautiful. We saw the Himalayas in thier full glory and it was just awesome. But we didnt know that the best was still waiting for us.

Camp Lunagad was situated at the edge of River Tons and sorrounded by beautiful mountains on three side. There were a series of tents for trekkers/ rafters like us & the guides and then there was bigger tent which was the kitchen. The scene was absolutely splendid!

We were given a warm welcome by the guides at the camp, we settled down in our simple but comfortable tents and then proceeded to have hearty meal. I was surprised that there was such a wide array of food items at an adventure camp and guess what it was yummy too :)

After lunch we were taken around the camp and told the basic rules like the Natural 'Bio-degradable' toilets- which is basically a big hole in the ground with a western toilet seat on top of it, you use the facility and then there is a shovel to cover your produce with mud. When the hole gets full, the toilet is shifted!!! Then we were told not to wander around in the night and also to carry a torch light with us at all times in the night.

I was completely enthralled by the beautiful Tons river, the water was so clean that you could see the bottom of the river. But the water was ice cold, which i realised only after I dipped my feet in it.

The usual season for rafting & hiking in these areas starts in May, so we were one of the first ones to arrive at the camp. So there were actually more guides than visitors :)

In the evening, we were taken for our first Rafting lessons. We were fitted in wet suits, which we were told would keep us warm if our raft capsized!!! We also got safety gear in terms of helmets etc. Then we loaded the raft on top of a Jeep and went upstream the Tons river. Here we were taught the basic hand movements and how to follow the commands of the leader. We were also told there are 5 classes of rapids. Class 1 being the simplest and class 5 being suicidal. The one we were going on was class 4. With this we set out on our trip. It started very peacefully and I thought this is simple, till we hit our first big rapid. And trust me I thought the raft is going to capsize and I dont know how to swim!! But after 2-3 rapids, I started enjoying the thrill of it. We went downstream 3-4 kms in the river and it was great fun. Apart from the adrenalin rush that rafting gives you, even the view of the mountains from water is stunning. The guides were amazing the way the steered the raft and they were great fun too. And soon I was hatching a plan of quiting my job and becoming a rafting guide :)

The next day morning, Eliane (one of the guides) took us for a short trek to a natural swimming pool. The short trek ended up being 45 minutes but it was completely worth it. The pool was really pretty, though the water was slightly cold. We jumped in for a swim, since I did not know how to swim I wore a life jacket.
After that in the late afternoon, we went for another rafting trip. This time we started a bit more upstream and rafted for couple of hours. It was great fun, its amazing how much of a team effort rafting is and you really need to follow each and every instruction of your guide.

In the night, after dinner we had a campfire. Over some chilled beer, we came to know these amazing people who spent all thier time living in this beautiful place and hiking, rafting, kayaking etc. We also came to know of a rafting expedition that they lead on the Zanskar river in Ladakh- its apparently a 14 day trip, in which the cover the entire Zanskar river. Me & Div made a mental note of it and we have decided that we definitely have to do this one at some point in our life.

The next day early morning we set out for our trek to Kedar Kantha. Now originally, there was supposed to be just one guide & a cook with us. But since most of the guides were free, more of them offered to join us. So here was the composition of our group- two of us (Div & me), three guides- Jai Singh, Eliane & Gappu (guide in training)& our cook.


We were dropped at the nearby Sankri village in a jeep. I was amused to see this open-air school between the mountains.
Here we got into a small restaurant ordered some tea and ate the packed breakfast we had carried with us.And we were soon joined by our mule-man, he had two mules who would carry our rucksacks, tents & other luggage, so that amateur trekkers like us have to carry only a day pack. With this we were all set and we started out trek. Our guides understood that we were very new to hiking, so they started us at a very slow pace. It initially did take us some time to get used to the hike but the view all around is so stunning that it makes all the effort completely worth it.


En-route we stopped at a gujjar (nomads) patch to have tea. Div took an amazing picture of two of thier kids.

Since, it was our first day we kept resting every hour or so and kept ourselves hydrated by drinking enough water. We decided to call it a day at around 4.00 and pitched our tents at a flat surface at around 4500 feet.

















We learnt how to pitch a tent and that one should always pitch tent next to a running water source, so that we dont have to carry water. There was one small red tent, which was for Div & me and then there was a big kitchen tent, where all cooking was done & the guides slept. As the sun was setting, the temperature got colder & colder. We had some hot tea and snacks which kept us warm. The mules were tied close by and fed water & food. While we sat around and chatted, our cook made us yummy soup, followed by two curries, hot chapatis, rice & a sweet dish!! It was so cold that all of us huddled inside the kitchen tent around the stove & ate.
As we sat around a small bonfire warming ourselves, Jai Singh brought out his small stock of Rum. Since we did not have any Coke to go with it, we all had a clean shot each. And trust me it kept us really warm.

We slept early as we wanted to start the next day early morning. Both Div & I were sleeping in a sleeping bag for the first time. Div quickly zipped himself in and was fast asleep in minutes but I tossed and turned for a long time. Infact, at one point I felt extremely claustrophobic and had to open the sides of the tent to breathe. After a while I settled down a little better and slept a little though I did keep waking up throught the night.

The next day morning we woke up early, finished morning business and there it was hot tea. This was my favourite thing- waking up early morning in the midst of beautiful mountains, have hot cups of tea. There was no question of bathing for two reasons- one there was no privacy to do this and two- our only source of water was the stream flowing nearby which had ice-cold water! So we quickly dismantled our tents and packed everything on top of the mule & started the trek for the day. The climb was getting steeper & steeper but this being our second day, we were walking with a much faster pace.

As we got closer, we got the first peek at the Kedar Kantha. And I must admit, I looked at it and thought that we are never ever gonna make it to that hieght!!














As we continue to hike to higher and higher altitude, the temperature was also dropping fast. So we now layered ourselves with thermal wear and caps. And soon I saw some white stones glistening at a distance. When I went closer I realized its SNOW!!! Now you must be wondering why the hell am I so surprised on finding snow in mountains. But pardon me, this is my first ever closer encounter with snow, so I was naturally very excited on finally getting to see it. Also snow is something that is so glamourised in Hindi movies, with actresses in beautiful sarees singing songs and throwing balls of snow :) So I ran and picked up some snow and threw it at everyone !














The terrain was becoming increasingly tough now and we had to walk with extreme care. After a while it started to snow and I just couldnt believe my luck. But I dont think our mules carrying the luggage were too happy about this. We were on a steep incline, when they decided they had enough and they just threw the entire luggage down a mountain slope!!! And of course everything went rolling down at top speed. Our guides were extremely worried, they asked us to wait there and went to fetch the stuff. Finally, everything was found and tied back securely to the mules. But the mules proceeded to do this again, two more times later :)















We stopped en-route and decided to have some packed lunch of tuna sandwiches. I tried taking out my gloves to hold the sandwich but my fingers were frozen and I could not feel anything. Since we were all so cold, we quickly finished our lunch and continued our journey upwards.

Oh! I forgot to mention- right when we started our trek, another group of trekkers were starting there journey. This was a YMCA trek with a large group of about 50 noisy people. Throughout the trek, we were either walking slowly or faster to avoid being anywhere close to these people. We even tried to pitch our tents far away from them, as they had these noisy campfires in the night. And come on, camping in Himalayas- I want to be with just the stars & the mountains and not have to listen to an amateur belting out Bollywood numbers!!

We reached our destination for the day by about 4 pm, we were at 10,000 feet now and the view awesome. Thankfully the sun was out too, so we quickly pitched our tents and spread ourselves out to enjoy some sun-bathing.



We were very close now and we could see the peak. Infact it looked very close to me but tommorow I will figure out how close it actually is :) We enjoyed walking around and taking loads of pictures. We finally had sumptuous dinner and settled for the day. I was able to sleep better today.

As usual, we woke up early. We were usually provided with a bowl of luke warm water to brush our teeth & wash our face but my brain doesnt usually function well in the mornings- so I decided to wash my face with the fresh & natural stream water flowing by. Now, to give you an idea of how cold this water could be- this water comes from the snow melting from the peak of the mountain we were on! The moment I splashed the first round of water on my face, I was wide awake and I could not feel any part of my face or hand for quite some time. It was only after a few cups of hot tea that I came back to my senses.

Today, our task was to go up to the peak and come back down to the camp. So our cook decided to stay back and look after our things (and also be ready with hot food when we were back). The last part of the trek was actually quite scary, the climb was pretty steep at many places & the snow made everything slippery. But we still managed pretty well. And what looked very close to me, took us nearly 2 hours to climb! When we reached the top, I felt it was all worth it. We sorrounded on all four sides by beautiful snow clad mountains.

But this wasnt all- there was a small temple there and a tea shop!!! A tea shop at 12,000 feet, this can happen only in India. Apparently its a seasonal shop, as soon as the trekking season starts the shop is set up. And it seems to be doing some brisk business too. This shop-owner goes up & down everyday with supplies and here we were taking three days to just climb up!
So there we were at the summit of our journey enjoying hot cup of tea and taking in the view of Himalayas. Its actually quite intimidating too when you look around a see these giant himalayas, you suddenly realize what a small piece you are in nature's puzzle.



After a while , we started our climb down to the camp. Now I thought going down has to be easier than the tough climb up right? But hell no, it was worse and quite a few times I thought I am going to tumble & roll all the way down to the camp. In some snow stretches, we tried sliding down. But it doesnt work very well, if you are not wearing thick clothing. I had a wet & numb bum by the end of it :) We actually reached back at our camp in about an hour. After enjoying the steaming hot lunch that was waiting for us, we decided to start back. Though we were suppsosed to stay around for a day and start tomm morning, we decided to prepone it.

Our hike down was pretty easy & uneventful. Infact we were back at Camp Lunagad by sunset. The first thing we did was to take shower, I guess this must have been the first time I had not taken a shower for 3 full days ..yuk!! We rested for the night and in the morning we were dropped at the Dehradun Bus station by a Jeep. From there we took a bus to Delhi.

When we reached back home- to my surprise we had another bunch of relatives, who could not come to the marriage and had come later to meet the bride & groom. And there we were with our sun burnt skin, peeling at places, dirty crumbled clothes, div had not shaven for 10 days, untidy hair etc etc. The look on my relatives faces was priceless .... and so was the satisfaction I was feeling :)