The Golden Temple - Amritsar

Greetings from Dharmasala - the home of the Tibetan govt in exile and also home to his holiness the Dalai Lama. Visited the latter's residence today but he wasn't in...Did see the main temple and got to witness the monks debating in the main courtyard. Very animated and entertaining. Dharmasala is also home to hundreds of backpackers and there is every imaginable western convienience. Even went to a authentic french cafe and had a scrummy omelet...

Have been here for two days now and is quite a nice change to be in the cool mountains again after the hot plains. Had yet another never-ending train ride to Amritsar from Rishikesh - but it was so worth it! More on Dharamasla in the next post.

Amritsar is home to the stunning Sikh Golden Temple. The temple is surrounded by a huge lake
full of giant goldfish and a marble walkway goes around the lake. So anyway it looks pretty damn impressive. Like Varanasi, the people watching is superb as literally truckloads of pilgrims flock here to visit this important Sikh site. Observation: In India people ride in trucks instead of cows! Back to the temple...It is also where Sikh extremists, who were wanting a separate Sikhist state occupied the temple in the 80s. Indria Ghandi, the prime minister at the time sent in the tanks and considerable damage was done to the temple. Not surprisingly she was later assassinated by her Sikh body guards a few months later. Hmm u'd think she would have fired these body guards after she ordered the tanks to be sent in, given the history of gallant fighting by the Sikhs.

Anyway, not only is there an amazing temple to visit, but u can also stay at the Golden Palace. Well, actually its not exactly a palace - is a dormitory but was air cond! Indians also stay here in the courtyards and in cheap accom. I ended up staying there for 4 days...

As well as free accom there is free food served in this massive eating hall that feeds 30,000 people a day with approx 600 at one time...Eating here was an incredible experience and it operates 24hrs a day run by a team of vollies!





Amritsar is also located a hour away from the Pakistan border. Every evening there is this border closing ceremony that can be descibed like a indian cricket game! Thousands of punters turn up to watch the biggest, best looking and most colourfully dressed guards march up, chests out, to the border, shake hands with their Pakistan collegaues then lower the flags before slamming shut the gate. A true spectacle with all the Indian singing and dancing!

I definitely got my fix of the 'real' India..Oh and on a not so great footnote - i got my camera stolen in from my room in Dharmasala. Wasn't so attached to the camera but had heaps of pics on the card...Arrrgghh! Luckily friend Natalie whom i travelled with from Amritsar had some pics i could grab...

Leaving Rishikesh

Well, in finally did it..manged to leave this place. Am on a overnight train tonight to Armistar which is near the Pakistan border and home of the Golden Temple. Have 9 days left so figure i should get back into the 'real India'..



Today went for a look into the ashram where the beetles stayed in the 60s. I had to sneak from a whole in the fence as the place is abandoned and locked up. It dozens of these amazing looking egg-shapped fully self-contained meditation domes. Very bizaare and errie place...

Anyway hiking adventure posts below and have also added some more pics from the Tapovan trip.

The big trek...(part 1)

Back in HQ Rishikesh after a epic 9 day trek in the Indian Himalayas with friend Liran. It was sensational - mountain passes, alphine forests,remote villages it was all there! We actually combined two treks, the Kuali pass and part of Rup Kund. Ok so those names won't mean a lot to most....
So as I'm a right brained guy here is a day by day detail of the trip...

Day 0 - Rishkesh to Joshimath..
Up at 4am to catch a 5:30am bus...Slight problem when i got to the bus station - realised i left my camera at a internet cafe the previous night when the power had gone off...Bugger...so back to the internet cafe and of course its closed...Anyway waited around and eventually got the camera and then was back at the bus stand by 7:30 only to find there were no more buses for the day! Strange as there is usually a heaps of buses a day to most destinations.. So after some impromptu travel planning managed to figure out a way to get to our dest by serveral buses and share jeeps. Guess the good thing is we got to stretch our legs a lot changing transport modes! Oh and yes the dodgy stomach thing was back after a 6 week absense..great! Anyway after many stops we finally got to Joshimath with no accidents on my part.


LP (lonley planet) describes Joshimath as a 'ugly administrative centre'. Hmm we found it to be a really interesting place in the mountains with a great deli with a huge array of imported stuff including good old muesli bars from Aust.. Point taken - do the opposite of LP and go as won't be any backpackers there..*I take a sip of chai - prompty bought to me while i type... so love this country*..ok so the only 'ugly' thing about Josh was the really bad music from the nearby temple blasting us from out beds at 5am in the morning (that was after the 4am chai wake up call - nice gesture but just a little early.. Anyway thought i'd give my tum a chance to redeem itself so spent the next day resting and checking out the town.



Day 1 'The Leg killer' Joshimath to Tapovan - then Kuari Pass.
So finally we were on our way after a quick windy jeep ride to Tapovan (different one from last trek). Tapovan was a dusty and hot place with not a lot happening. After some last minute chocolate supplies we were on our way up and up and up...roughly a climb of almost 2000ms to the Kuari pass which is something like 4300m depending on which map you read. We passed through our first of many traditional and friendly Gwalaee villages. Not much has changed in these villages and the people still tend to their cows, buffaloos and crops as they have done for hundreds of years. Most of the houses were traditional mud brickwith thatched roofs made from straw. However, in later villages the houses were more modern and some had basic government subsidised solar lighting systems.

After about 7 hours of hiking we arrived at out campsite - a lush meadow just below the pass with a bubbling mountain stream and views of the Nandi Devi range of moutains. Stunning.







Day 2 'Where is that bloody pass' Dakani,
On the way up to this pass that just appeared to be over the next rise but never was, we meet a great group of Indians from the Gujrat Himalya Adventure club who were here on a 'family' trip! Having said that of course they had the full entourage of porters, ponies and cooks unlike us who were porter, cook and guide in 2 ...It turned out they were camped only a couple of hundred meteres from us. Really enjoyed hanging out with these guys and after 100 or so photos we bid them farewell and continuned on our merry way. We had lunch just below the pass with the 16 year old entreaprenur potato wholesaler Ashesh who also comes from a sheep herding hertiage. Really bright kid who spoke excellent english and had a great geopraphical knowledge.. Oh and by the way lunch that day was hot chocolate and tuna and cheese sangas..yum!

We camped just below the pass in once again a nice meadow with moutain views. Later that night it rained and slept like a baby with the sound of the rain on the tent..

Day 3 'Happy Birthday Liran' - Downhill run to Jinghi
Liran spent his 32nd birthday in the mountains - magic. We started the day with a Jelly birthday cake complete with Kit kats and candles. After breakky it was a down hill run to a very impressive waterfall where we had a 'quick' (read: freezing) swim before acending to more meadows and pine forests and then descending to a shepards camp near the village of Jenghi. It had been getting gloomier all day and the second after we setup the tent it started raining. Perfect timing...this happened more than once..think the mighty lord Shiva was on our side.

Had some cute little visitors later that afternoon and they even danced as sang for us as we sat in the tent sheltering from the rain. That evening we had dinner brought to us (for a small fee) by some a crew that were building a lodge nearby. It was great to have fresh chapatis, rice and a soybean curry! We even found a little cave under a couple of rocks neary by and were able to have dinner out of Liran's cosy but dry tent. I also made Liran a Snickers and jelly treat for his bday...

Day 4 to Jingi - 'The Enchanted forest'
A crisp and misty morning. Stomach still dodgy..Had a great meditation in the 'cave' nearby. Then after breaky, some more downhill followed by a walk through some stunning mist shrouded forests. Meet a few friendly cows along the way. Was great to meet country cows that ate grass as opposed to al the urban bovines that eat everything but grass. Some great valley views enroute too. Passed a couple of big groups going the over way including 12 germans and 3 swedish. Unfortunately this was not the Swedish Women's beachvolley ball team that Liran and been assuring me were in the moutains waiting for us. Boys will be boys i guess...

Moving right along we arrived at the super photogenic village of Jingi at lunch time and after ordering a great lunch of rice with dal and a spinach like plant that tasted incredible and grows in the mountains, it rained. The afternoon's hiking was promptly cancelled which was a wise descision as it really pissed down that night.



Day 5 Jingi to unamed pass? 'I'm only happy when it rains'
Woke up to rain and so good not to be camping..By 11 still raining so we set off on a light rain break..A big ascent up to the next pass in the soaking cold rain. Really got test out my wet weather gear - those rain pants i bought in uttakashi seemed to be wetter on the inside than the outside..My pack is also not as waterproof as i thought but luckily everything didn't get totally waterlogged. Anyway after lots of trudging up paths that had become raging torrents and a 30 second lunch break of dry bikkies we came to the pass. Once again what a great place to camp. Liran was not convinced of the idea as was still raining. Then this really strange thing happened. A couple of hundred meteres past the pass we found a old abandoned village and one of the huts was realtively waterproof so was decided to camp here then wait for it - it stopped raining and the sun came out in the space of 5 mins. I have never seen anything like it before - one minute really pouring, set in rain the next bright sunshine. The roof and the walls of the hut quickly became a washing line with all our soaking wet geat hung out to dry. I got my way in the end as we ended up going back to the pass and camping in yet another great locn with top views. The rain held off to and next day was hot and sunny...

Continued..

The big trek...(part 2)

Day 6 "hello sunshine" Unamed pass to just outside of Ramni.
Spent a top morning at the pass soaking up the rays before descending down to the town of Geri. First part of the descent was great - not too steep, views, lush forests etc. Second part was knee jarring hell - very steep scree (loose rocks) and really hot as we were going down at least 1000 mtrs and stomach still dodgy so not feeling 100%. Anyway finally made it tired and 'over-it' down to the village of Geri. A friendly place with a shop, so we were able to stock up on much needed biscuits, tea and noodles. Also had lunch at the friendly shopkeepers house which went along way to lifiting spirits. After lunch a long dusty and hot hike along a couple of ridges and then after some nav issues, we finally made it to a pretty camping spot near a river.

Unfortunatley for Liran the leeches also enjoyed this campsite and while i had a couple of near 'hits' Liran scored 3 blood suckers. Found out the msg ridden masala stuff in the maggi noodles packets works wonders on leeches. Apart from the blood suckers we had a great warm and dry camp...

Day 7 - Going up! Ramin - Wan
Up early and had a great yoga session and meditation at the local school. Think i freaked out a couple of kids who arrived early only to find some strange foreigner in turtle pose outside their class room! They literally put their bags down for a second then ran.. My left knee was really sore and i could hardly walk on it but it came good after yoga. More acending through stunning forests before the rains hit us again. This time i found my 20 rupee (30cents) poncho makes a great pack cover! We arrived at the pretty village of Cannole where we treated to an amazing homegrown organic lunch of wholemeal chappatis, potato and spinach as well as rice.

We were also reached celebrity status that day and had almost 20 of the town kids and adults come to check us out. Liran did some tackky magic tricks which the kids loved. After lunch it was back on the road and over yet another pass. This one about 2900m...We then camped at yet another great meadow just before the town of Wan. The skies cleared and near full moon was impressive that night.


Day 8 'The Climax' Bendi Bugael 3300ms
We took a short-cut around Wan before passing a gorgeous guest house and then ascending for ages until we came up to the plateu that is Bendi Bugel. Wow what a place. The LP trekking guide claimed this to be 'arguaby one the best himalyan camping spots'. A big claim indeed. Personally Tappovan (see tripping post) was my fav but this place was still damn impressive. Views of some truly great peaks including the mountains surrounding Nandi Devi (Indias highest peak at 7800m).

After a very cool night we woke up to a clear morning and were treated to views that were hidden from us the previous night by the cloud cover. It was truly a breathtaking place and we spent a great morning soaking up the sun and the views before the massive 1700m descent and 500m accent to reach the road and then La Jung, the trail head. This turned out to be a long and tiring day as were walking for over 8 hours. When we eventually arrived at La Jung it was pure bliss to to have a real bed again and a great thali was delivered to our room from the local restauraunt.

Unfortunately our knack for missing buses was still with us as we were told the one bus for the day left at 8am the next morning only to find it had left at 7:30! Seems the local shopkeeper we asked got confused with summer and winter times...Oh well another day of share jeep shuffling and lots of stops in 'interesting' towns.

Spent the night in Karayang, which is meeting place for two major rivers whose names i have forgotton.

Final
It was a truly awesome hike, nothing like which i've ever done before and in some ways was like a personal journey for me as it was very challenging at times and rewarding too. Liran was a excellent and very patient hiking buddy and we walked at a similar fast pace. Though I was the uphill champion and he was the downhill king. Felt really fortunate to be doing this trek. We meet one group of Austrians who had each paid 1000 euro to do almost exactly the same trek. We worked our costs to be about $50 aus each! It was also amusing whenever we passed a tour group and the porters/guides would enviably ask 'what no porters or guide?' to which our standard reply was to point at each other and say 'guide'/'porter'/'cook' - then a look of amazement would come over their faces...