Switzerland of India - Auli .....

LIFE IS EITHER A DARING ADVENTURE OR NOTHING……

This trip started on 13th Feb 2014, Reached Dubai International Airport on time, checked in on time (Spice Jet) roamed around the duty free shops then to Marhaba Longue. Flights was on time. First time with spice jet , nice flight good leg space, landed at Delhi 5.20 in the morning, the outside temperature is 8 Degree, it was cold, tolerable and thick smoke was visible when people spoke.

 
Our next destination was Haridwar, the train was at 2.40PM, stored our baggage at metro clock room and decided to take a spin around Delhi, as bhayya promised us to take for the best breakfast in Delhi we moved towards  Paharganj, and we got the worst breakfast :( , then we decided to take a battery riksha and go to India Gate. 

India Gate

Delhi Metro

Cold... Cold.. & Cold

Trying to Escape from the Cold Wind

After Clicking few pics we decided to go to the station as it was raining bad, expecting there will be a nice waiting lounge, but again got disappointed,  we have reached the railway station on time ,  as usual Indian railway train didn't come on time ,train delayed by two hours, it was first time we all are travelling together in a train. 6 hours journey was good and fun. Ate  snacks and dossed off , there was a good competition between kakka n zeddy.. and winner is kakka... :) … about the competition let it be a trip secret……

we reached Haridwar by 11.45 PM, our next destination was Auli, Utterkand , We decided to start our journey only early morning due to the road closer @ Rishikesh. After a quick shower i went off to bed and rest were time passing.....

Day 2

after two hours of good sleep, we were ready to push of from our hotel by 3.15AM, our driver, for coming 3 days, was waiting us there.. nice chap... Sanjay... very careful driver. we enjoyed his company thru our the trip.
we reached Rishikesh about 4.15 AM, but the road will be opened only by 4.45AM hence we had to wait in freezing cold. Temperature would be 6 to 7 Degree Celsius.

The road from Rishikesh ran alongside the river Ganges up to Devaprayag, where the Ganga meets the Alakananda river. At Devaprayag the Ganga came with a lot zeal and energy and met  Alakananda. The two river did not seem to have any commonality between them, expect that they both were in the Himalayas. And then destiny seemed to force them to merge and GOD they did so so gracefully amidst a perfect setting.

The road was pathetic, you need to search for the road a midst the potholes. Our driver was good and used to such roads and hence the drive did not get uncomfortable. We stopped for breakfast close to Srinagar (not Kashmir’s Srinagar, this is halfway to Joshimath). The food wasn't that good, or maybe we did not order the right things.

The drive through the mountains is unlike the ghats we had traveled earlier (i.e, ascending the mountain one way, descending the other). Instead we traversed the perimeter of mountain after mountain after mountain. Seven hours of the same thing.

As we started driving upwards we could see the snow in the distant mountains. We knew we would be there soon. The road became more stiff; part of the road was damaged. The journey was not so smooth it was. The Himalayan beauty is more raw in these areas. Lesser people come here, which means lesser commercialization of the place. Occasionally we passed through villages where we spotted few huts and a few shops, some restaurants.  I have the habit of sitting next to the driver everywhere I go. I feel I catch the best of the views by occupying that seat. There were quite a few places where I feel my heart pounding.

Deep down I could see the snake-like road along the walls of the mountains. There is no room for any wrong turn here.The river which was flowing beside us now looked like a silver thread down below, wriggling somewhere. There is no sound from anywhere. We stopped the music in our car. So, it was sound of the engine of the car and the sound of the Himalayas! A dead silence. I fear to think how the place would be when it is dark. And what about the place centuries ago when our forefathers lived in these areas? How did they survive? Even today saints or sadhus come here to meditate. No wonder this is the place where you get so close to Nature and everything else in life seems so fragile, short-lived and meaningless. Is it worth all the fight for existence in life? The fighting and give-and-take that we indulge in our life and relationships do not bring peace. We get peace here. These mountain ranges have stood here like this for centuries, cradling in numerous  brooks and rivers, trees and animals big and small, least of all one of the oldest civilizations of the world! Time has never been able to wipe it out, neither its contribution. And we are so tiny and insignificant in comparison. I am humbled.

We are almost there. Joshimath, as we know last cable car to Auli is @ 4.30PM we managed to reached there by 3.30 and we were surprised to hear that the cable car is not functional due to the maintenance work, when we booked GMVN Auli Resort they didn't inform us about this, we looked around for the option to go to Auli as only 4x4 can only transport us there as there was heavy snow fall prior to our arrival and 4 feet’s snow on the road towards Auli, we decided to spent one night in Joshimath GMVN and we found someone to transfer us tomorrow to Auli. it was chilling cold... our hotel was under renovation and there was no room heater . 
Going through the torture, we went down to have early dinner and surprisingly the food was better than we expected. It was too cold to venture out for a stroll. With no streetlights it was too dark as well and so we decided to go back to our room.
 It was hard getting hard to used to the temperature , What ever we touched we felt like ice , the wall, the door knob, the key, the bed even, it was hard using the wash room- one has to touch water, The bed and blankets all felt like pieces of ice. Once you have slept in one place, be there. That is the only place that will be warm. Outside your perimeter, its all cold as ice  With this knowledge and two thick quilts over us, we crashed.

Day 3

Good Morning Joshimath..... 

Took us one and a half hour to freshen up and pile on 4 layers of clothing – thermals, sweat shirt, sweater and jacket, followed by two pairs of socks and one pair of gloves and one woolen cap to cover the ears, Gum Boots (This time Dragon Mart Gum Boots helped us a lot ). Breakfast took another half an hour.

All Set for Auli

All are ready for our day 3 adventurous trip to Auli, Our car could not go the last few kilometers of snow-covered slippery road. So we changed our car to 4x4 with snow chain and reached 4KM away from Auli by 11.00AM.

Trekking Started from here... 

Way to Auli

There was couple of feet of snow around. People tried to walk on them. It was very chilly. we had to trek 4KM , thank god we got a porter who can carry our Backpacks if not we will reach may be by sun set, trekking was the tough part, 65 Degree Slops, every 5 Min we needed a short break, we had no water no snacks, i ended up eating snow , it was fun...  some how we managed to reached GMVN Auli Ski Resort ordered hot coffee 

Trekking Break....

Poor Gypsy.... need to wait till snow melts ... another a month may be

Our Hotel out door coffee table and chair

Day 4 - Auli 

Today we decided to try the Ski, as we are @ Asia's biggest Ski resort, we got a Ski Trainer and Equipment for 500Rs per person for a day. 

The first lesson was “Darneka nahi” (do not be frightened) followed by how to strap the ski onto your shoes and what posture to maintain on the ski. So I did about three rounds with the trainers pulling the ski. I had to learn to use the brakes by then (make an ‘A’ shape with the ski). If I wasn’t able to, I should fall on my sides, neither front nor back. It wasn’t easy  to apply the break when you are coming down from slops, after few attempt i was managed to apply the break properly... Phew! Mentally striking off ‘Ski’ from my “To Do” list, it was wonder full experience, remember one things, when you know you will fall down please make sure you fall on the side ways not towards your front (which is really hard) or with your back, you can have serious injury, here is the best example how to fall :P 

we enjoy almost three hours of ski, then decided to go to our hotel and chill our the rest of the day as chair car is not functional due to heavy wind we can not go up to CliffTop to Enjoy the view.  with high expectation about tomorrow we chilled out @ the hotel. 

MEO Ski Team :)

Day 5 : 

Morning Auli....... its good news that the weather is clear and chair car is operating today, but the sad part is that we need to trek about 3 KM down to catch our cab. 

Coming Down.. was easy...

Tired... Waiting for the Driver

we went to cliff top , 4 of us in one chair lift, the view was amazing . there is a small artificial likes which is made for the winter Olympics two years back. we spend almost 2 hours taking photos and decided to head back to the hotel as we know that we need to trek back 3KM and we need to reach the last check point before road closure for the night. 

we managed to get two porter to carry our back pack as it was really heavy. we took almost hour and half to trek down 3 KM due to 4 Feet snow on the road and some parts was very slippery, we didnt take much break as it was downhill. 

we reached our pickup point but our pick up car was not there waiting for the driver almost an hour. finally we reached Joshimath by 2PM and our driver was in hurry. since we have a deadline to cross before 8PM. 

the drive was smooth as usual bhayya was not letting anyone to sleep. poor kaka wanted to sleep badly.  had a quick stop at one of the village for quick lunch, Omlet, Bun and some samoosa's.after 7 PM we don’t know what happened to our driver he was zooming like but very careful  and it was pitch dark, sitting on the front seat at night is not a good place to be , sometime i feel like applying the brakes but sanjay knows what to do and what not to we had full faith in him. and finally we crossed the check point just one minute before the closure, if not we will have to spend a night in some small lodge or guest house and we were sure it wont be comfortable for us. 

finally we recehed rishikesh by 10.30PM, next is looking for the room, we checked couple of hotels near Ganga, but it was really bad , small room n smelly.after checking 3 hotels v got the best hotel (Anadam Resort) just walked in and got good discount from the rack rate and the hotel is really nice, hotel restaurant was closed by then,they were really nice and prepared hot food for us, hot daal curry and rice for the night, as we were really hungry anything was fine with us... zeddy had to go back to home as his dad was not keeping well.. we manged to get a ticket for him next day from Dehradun to Coimbatore. 

after chit chatting about two hours deciding about the plan we slept half past 2........  we were all excited about rishikesh... yes you are guessing right.. we are not there for religious trip.. then what is next??????? bungeee and river rafting...... :) 

it’s a decision making day for me for bungee jumping.. i was in two mood, bhayya was so confident, he was like jessi there is no force or compulsion, if you want to do it with full heart and if you enjoy please do it, i was like i won’t let him do alone...... :) and we dossed off.... next day is rest day for us......