My first Trek to the Himalayas and my cousin's first ever trek. Pindari Glacier is in the state of Uttranchal in India. Its supposedly the most accessible glacier. Take ma word, if the guy who writes dictionary travels to this place he will change the meaning of accessible. Lol.Jokes apart, it was not just good it was gooddddddddddd!! Also i never thought my NCC skills will be put for good test! Especially just two of us(me and My cousin bro). For the first time i was the more experienced guy and the Himalayas was a whole new place for me. This being ma first blog, am gonna just write ma experience and give some tips to the ppl who wanna get there in the end.
So, I working in Mumbai(Bombay) as a software guy decided to bring change to ma life (Obama got idea of change from me ;) ). It was 1.5 years since ma last outing and quite some time since ma last trek. But the kinda guy i am, am into low budget traveling, hate markets, would give anything to be in the cradle of nature when am on holiday. Most importantly i ddn't want mobile network and internet! lol.
The trip started on october 8, 2008 from mumbai at evening 2 o'clock and the first thing that happened, well i forgot my jacket at home, cam back on the great India three wheeler (auto rickshaw) picked the jacket and as soon as we reached the Bandra terminus for sampark kranti express and were on a sprint as train was to leave in next 10 mins i was surrounded by cops. Well, i hadn't shaved for 2 weeks, had a bandanna on ma head and backpack. My cousin caught up with me and cops started their flurry of questions. They asked for name and my cousin luckily said his full name (rare in India). Well the surname "IYER" saved us. South Indians, and a community rarely associated with violence and were off the hook. We got the train. It's a 1 day journey to Delhi and me a low cost traveler took the second class (around400 bucks from Mumbai to Delhi), as some foreign travelers say " taking in the feel of real India ", lol.
Well, we got more than we asked for. First we met a guy, Raghav, working with an insurance company of about our age who was kinda averse to belief of god. An elder group of men in the coupe opposite to us (we had booked side seats for some privacy) and an orthodox christian family in the coupe right behind us. First evening just passed off with my cousin and me chatting, the real show started next day morning. I wanted to get a use and throw shaving set and take of ma little beard. Delhi is a crazy place when it comes to security. After all its national capital and day 2 was Dusseara festival. But we had a surprise visitor, the orthodox christian guy from the next coupe. He started lecturing on god, bible and christian values. I was in mood for some fun and started debating him with the little knowledge i have acquired over years by reading, hindu religious texts, bible, Quran and few other texts plus the great Wiki and some websites.
He was debating that Christianity is the best religion and all and that salvation can happen only via Jesus Christ. I was debating him, why i should convert to Christianity when my religion allows me to accept christ as lord while i stay a Hindu. Suddenly, to add masala to all this the insurance guy jumped down from the top berth and poured out his atheist views. My cousin started chipping in with a few points and thus began a saga of 4 hours of debate. I wanted the middle path (accept Christ(and my gods) and hold my religion.), the pastor that Christ is the only solution and the insurance guy... there is no frekn God. The debate moved on to everything from security to incest. hahahaha!
At last one of the elder guys came in and gave a good mouthing to the ex Indian Home Minister Sivraj Patil(for security lapses in India) and we all had a hearty laugh and thus ended the debate. But this is one reason i love India. The variety of people you come across and the insights are so great, some times it corrects you and sometimes it helps you strengthen ur thoughts.
Then, the insurer friend dropped a bomb on us.His girlfriend was a kumaoni. Damn! I wanted to kick his ass. Why? Nanda Devi, Pindari and other nearby mountains and valleys fall under the kumaon region. The ethnic people are kumaonis and lemme just put this categorically. The chics are beautiful. Not hot or sexy or smtng that the city girls are. They are beautiful. Anyway, we started scratching him and he started pouring his love story. Damn! I would love a kumaoni girlfriend. heehaw!
In the meanwhile, i got a use and throw shaving blade. We reached Delhi by that day afternoon at Nizammuddin station and as we were exiting the station there was this security cordon. I straight went to the officer and asked him where to find a rickshaw for Old Delhi railway station. We were supposed to take a train to kathgodam from there. Going straight to the cops i thought removed the little bit of suspicion they would have had on me i thought(though i was clean).
Anyway, a small tip for ppl traveling to Delhi. Beware of the ricksaw and taxi guys. They overcharge (mostly would say meter aint working)... Also women be careful. Delhi is not just the national capital but also the crime against women capital of India. Statistics may be able to prove my claim , i am not sure. But its always better to take precaution. Also if you are to take a taxi or rickshaw from a major point there are these prepaid service run by govt. Take them.
Then at Old Delhi railway station, we got on to the Delhi-Kathgodam express train. Kathgodam is the last rail head for Nainital, Almora, Bageshwar, Nanda Devi, Kausani, Munsiyari or any place in that direction. There was a Sindhi family, typically fat not just fat but ultra fat. They wanted to exchange seat and we were more that happy to give ours. Then we committed a big mistake. We got down at a place called Moradabad. In my internet search i had found that Moradabad was the big town on the way to Nainital or any place in that direction. Well that was our lucky day and one of the roads had been closed down for the dussera procession and the other entry to the city was closed because of a broken bridge.
Coming from Mumbai, with a very fast life it was quite frustrating. Then we had to run(we took a cycle rickshaw) from one bus stand to another to find a bus. I wanted to take the route via kaladungi to Nainital and from there to Bageshwar. There we waited for almost three hours, that day because of the broken bridge no bus was entering into the town.
So if u wanna know what happend then. you gotta come back for my next entry. Seya
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