Timeline

Chronology of events for my group's visit to India from mid-Sept to mid-Oct in 2006.

RATING for POSTS
*** Awesome, Not to be missed. My favourite 5 posts.
** Very Good
* Pretty Good

DELHI TO THE BASE OF TREK + ACCLIMATIZATION (10 Days)
** From Delhi to Manali (9 Photos)
Journey from Delhi where the group landed in India to Manali, our base in the Himalayas @ an altitude of 2000 meters. (Journey of 550 km that took 17 hours in a luxury bus)
** Manali to Lahaul + Crazy hike (8 Photos)
After acclimatization in Manali for three nights, it was time to raise the bar, so we reach Lahaul at 3000 meters.
** High Altitude Jeep Safari: Day 1 (13 Photos)
Lahaul to Pang: We leave the beautiful Pattan valley in Lahaul to continue with our safari to Leh.
** High Altitude Jeep Safari: Day 2 (10 Photos)
Pang to Leh: Finally we reach Leh @3500 meters, 375 km from Manali. We crossed a total of 5 passes on our way from Manali to Leh, 2 of them were higher than 5000 meters
*** Traditional House in Spituk & Ladakh Festival (13 Photos)
We stay in 100 year old traditional house of our host family + we also witness the cultural activities of the last day of the Ladakh festival.
*** Drive from Leh to Padum (22 Photos)
Bumpiest and dustiest stretch of the entire journey from Delhi to Padum/Raru, the base of our trek in the Zanskar.


TREKKING IN ZANSKAR (10 Days)
** TREK: Padam to Phugtal (11 photos)
After ten days acclimatization and Jeep Safari through one of the most enchanting areas of the Himalayas, we finally we start trekking towards Phugtal Monastery.
*** Phugtal Monastery (9 Photos)
Phugtal Monastery: The highlight of our trek.
** Phugtal to Darcha (26 Photos)
It took us another 5 days to complete our trek from Phugtal to Darcha. The highest point of the trek was Shingola (5094 mt)


BACK TO MANALI (5 Days)
*** A visit to Orphanage (7 Photos)
Orphanage in Koshla, India (near Manali)
** Paragliding in Manali (8 Photos)
The Paragliding started at an altitude of 2500 meters and ended at 1600 meters approx.
** Kullu Dushehra (7 Photos)
Dushehra is a Hindu festival that signifies the victory of good over evil.
* Farewell Manali (6 Photos)
Last few days we spent at Manali while recuperating from our tiring trek in the Zanskar.


LAST WEEK (7 Days)
** Dharamsala (10 Photos)
Dharmsala: The residence of his holiness Dalai Lama.
*** Delhi-Agra (9 Photos)
Visiting Delhi and Taj Mahal in Agra.

Favorite Moment of the trek ... one of the

I have been asked few times about which was my favourite moment of of the trek?
Well here is my answer: It will be hard to pick just one moment, but I can say that one of my good moment on the trek was when all the group members climbed and crossed successfully, the highest pass of the trek i.e. Shingola at an altitude of 5094 meters.

I felt proud of the endurance (Physical as well as the Mental) of everybody in the group. I also felt honoured to have such an excellent people in my group. Thanks from the core of my heart to everybody in the group for giving me an opportunity of organizing something like this. Real warm hugs from India.

All the group members atop Shingola

BTW don't forget to check my other blog "Notes from India" where I have uploaded some more photos. And hey remember that you can click on the photos to view them in larger size.

Leaving for a trek soon

I am still at Manali .... waiting for the weather to clear up. It has been snowing at the higher reaches of the Himalayas lately. Once the weather clears up, I intend to trek to Brighu Lake-Hamta Pass-Kunzum La-Chandra Tal Lake .... From there I will continue with my travels to the Spiti Valley.
Greetings from India .....

PHOTOS !!!!!!!

Julley everyone !!!!!!
I have posted some photos on my other blog "Notes from India".
I will try to keep on adding more photos in the coming days.
Bye for now
Namaste ....

survived my first trek

Hey everybody, Nat here... well i'm alive and doing well. I've survived my very first trek... in the Himalayas!! It has been a very exciting past 22 days in India. We left Manali about 3 weeks ago and headed to Leh (capital of Ladakh). It took us four days to cover 475 km. The roads are winding and on the mountain ranges (scary to look down). We had a luxurious ride compared to India standards(hired our own taxi driver and had our own car. We had to pass Rotang pass 4000metres (let's just say altitude sickness hit me, feeling dizzy and as if someone was crushing my brain).
We stayed in Lahaul for two days, with Sarju's friends, beautiful huge house way up in the mountains! We did a aclimatization hike....way up to 35oo metres. Eventhough, you are so tired from hiking, you see the local villagers who are carrying up to 100 pounds of hay for their cows. The rural people work so hard, harvesting for the winter... peas, potatoes, and other crops including grass for the cows to live off of for the winter. They work from sunrise to sunset even into the darkness.
We headed to Leh, where we stayed in a small village (Spituk)in an old traditional Ladakh home. No running water(taking a shower with a bucket of cold water, you learn how to conserve water).
We managed to catch the last day of the Ladakh festival. The costumes are amazing and there was singing and dancing. The Ladakh people are very different culturally and in their looks from other parts of India. They are a mixture of Mongolian, Tibetan and Chinese and their food and way of life is different and they are mostly Buddhist religion. Got to meet a Monk in a monestary in Spituk. This was interesting as I found out the first born male is usually sent to a Monestary at around 9 years old. I even got to witness monks saying their mantras in a temple. Talk about a neat experience, drinking chai (tea) with them.

Then after two days in Leh we headed for Kargil (mostly Islamic community. We had the longest ride of our lifes, the roads are so long and bumpy (max 20 km an hour).
It took us two days (driving 10-12 hours) each day to get to our trekking start Padum.
Unfortunately, many of us suffered from car sickness, and took turns on different days!

As for the trek, well what an experience!! I quickly realized I would not be able to carry my 20 kg bag... myself and Julie (only other female) decided to hire a 'horseman" he took our bags and we were able to buy more food and put them on the horses.
What can I say, it was a definite challenge walking between 8-20km a day at high altitudes on a trail that is 2 feet wide and often on the edge of a cliff.
One thing I learned was not to look up to far, or else you get discouraged. I was definitely the slowest inthe group, but I took my time and enjoyed the scenery. We mostly stayed in villages, very remote communities...completely cut off from the rest of the world. The local food is sampa(grounded up barley), they make flat breads with this, and you mix it with tea to make is type of porridge mix...also tasted butter tea, tea, milk, salt and butter) weird combo, but definitely glad to have it after a long day.
We ended up also camping (surrounded by yaks, very curious about my tent) and finally made it to the Shing-go-la pass (5ooo metres). I sort of cheated and got a ride the last 500 metres with horse man, who I guess felt bad for me (having blisters on both feet and lagging behind the rest of the group).
The Himalayan mountains are amazing, I felt a sense of being so tiny and insignificant... a very humbling experience.... at sometimes I was in awe of the mountains and the people who live there so simply and remotely. The children I met have so very little, mixed matches shoes with holes, dirty hair and faces and no toys..just rocks and dirt. It makes you really appreciate the luxurious that we have back home (hot water- freely running, heat in our houses, grocery stores where you can buy everything and not do any manual labour).

They say you come to India and return a different person. I have seen so much in such few days and am totally greatful for all that I have. Good friends, health, happiness and many luxurious, way more than many of the people I met on my trek!

Take care and I'll keep you posted on my adventures.

My Phone number

Once again my phone number in India is 9418344687
This number is local in the state of Himachal but you will need to dial 0 in front of this number in case you plan to call me from outside the state of himachal.

In case you plan to call me from outside India ... the country code of India is 91 ... so my phone number will be +919418344687

Currency, Diamox, Documents and Sun

Four issues that I would like to answer right now

Currency: You an bring CAD which are accepted as well as the the US currency. Don't bring in Rupees as you will not get a good exchange rate of CAD/INDRS in Canada .... you will be just complicating things for yourself.

Diamox (Medication for HAS) ... is easily available in Indian Pharamacies especially in the Himalayas.... Even I was carrying this magic drug on my last trek although I never really used it.

Copies of important Documents: there are two good options ...... you guys can scan the important documents and store a copy of them in your email inboxes ... that ways they will always be accessible .... or you can always keep a photocopy of your documents at some of my friend's house in india (why go thru the trouble of hiding them in your shoe or something.

Sun: I got pretty nasty sun burns from UVR on my last trek as I did not wear any sun screen cream. To tell the truth .. i knew I was gonna get them but I wanted them anyways as sun burns are considered like beautiful ornaments on a trekker ... lols.
Anyways i am not too happy now as it kind of pains when the skin comes off.
here is what you will need to protect yourself from the sun.
Sunglasses that inhibit UVR ..... highly recommended as I would not like to go blind.
Sunscreen cream with SPF 15+
Some wide brimmed hat.

There is too much of UVR at high altititudes where we will be spending lots of time .... so please please take it seriously .... sunglasses will also protect you against temporary snow blindness .... so do get sunglasses that inhibit UVR

NSP

OK. I'm not all that sober right now. In fact... I'm VERY not sober. I'm actually out of my mind. But I'm writing this anyway.

OK. So I'm really excited about India! And that's about all I can say to everyone I've been meeting and talking to.

I'm looking forward to chillin with you peeps in the mountains and the North of India, yo!! ;)

Damn!...