Yamunotri - I

A bit of background info, before i go ahead with our Yamunotri trek. The route we followed was Haridwar -> Dehradun -> Mussoorie -> Barkot -> SyanaChatti -> RanaChatti -> Hanuman Chatti -> JankiChatti -> Yamunotri.

From Barkot, the road is divided into 2 routes. One goes to Yamunotri and the Second road leads to Gangotri. So one needs to travel back till Barkot incase he/she wants to visit Gangotri or the Gangotri Glacier (which generally is the case). Gangotri Glacier is melting and hence the local government is taking proper actions for pilgrims / trekkers by allowing only limited number of visitors everyday.

Yamunotri is the western most of all the 4 Shrines. It is the source of river Yamuna, the twin sister of "Yama, the lord of death". According to an Indian mythology, one who bathes in river Yamuna, will be spared of tortous death. Yamunotri is located at an altitude of 3921 meters and one needs to trek from JankiChatti, the road ahead.

We took night halt @ SyanaChatti, which gets quite cold in night. The accomodation was quite cheap. We found an acceptable place (if not very decent) @ 200 Rs. per day. Generally it turns out to be costlier (upto 600 or 800 Rs) in June-July.

I needed to charge the battries for my camera to take more pics. I initiated the charging, mean while i started flipping through the Canon Manual to learn more about photography. This was my first trip after i bought myself a new camera(Canon S5IS). Thanks Pavan, for helping me find a decent camera.

Pilgrims can take night halt @ either Syana Chatti or Rana Chatti. Rana Chatti is some 3/4 kms from Syana Chatti.

I'll take a pause now, to explain how the tours work in this area. No body is allowed to travel @ night in Garhwal. The route is through the mountains and its quite risky to go ahead in the night. Barriers are set up at entries and exits. Entry and Exit after 8 pm is strictly restricted. However, pilgrims who have already left from one barrier before 8 pm are not denied Entry @ the next barrier.

Dehradun & Mussoorie Part II

Mussoorie was the next tourist spot to visit. Since it was on the way, it was worth exploring. Mussoorie is well known for attracting tourists. We sticked to our Unix philosophy "Keep it Simple & Stupid" (KISS) ;-) {Excuse me for that technical jargon, i know this is not a technical section}

We visited only one place - KEMPTY FALL, in Mussoorie, since we wanted to quickly move ahead. Mussoorie is known as "Pahadon ki Raani" (The Queen of Hill stations). It is 35 kms from Dehradun. As soon as we reached Kempty fall, the first thing we did was "had lunch". All of us were quite hungry. Yeah, its not easy to travel when fasting. You need to have enough adrenaline which can keep you up and going.

After having food, we went to see the fall. One can either reach Kempty fall via a cable car or take a pedestrain route, which may need a lot of energy.

We took the cable car. We reached the destination @ around, 2 pm. I really enjoyed being there. I wish, we could have spent some more time here, splashing the water. We took some snaps and enjoyed the moment, to carry on with our journey. We left Kempty fall @ 3:30 pm.

Our next destination was "Syanachatti". Next to come is Yamunotri :)

Dehradun & Mussoorie Part I

Day 3 - August 18, 2008

Today we started our journey from Haridwar to the first of the 4 shrines - Yamunotri. Dehradun and Mussoorie are 2 famous tourists spots that are on the way to Yamunotri Dham. Dehradun is the first one followed by Mussoorie. As far as transportation is concerned, there are 3 major modes of transportion.

1. Hire a personal cab.
2. If you join a tour, transportation is included. Generally the tour operators use mini bus, which may not be very comfortable as the yatra is not short. If you are looking for a budget journey, this may help.
3. Take Public transport. Garhwal Mandal Parivahan Nigam runs buses at regular interval of time. This turns out to be a boon for people who need to manage their yatra in a very limited budget.

We decided to hire a personal cab (Mahindra - Scorpio), which turned out to be a wise option later on. The yatra requires a stronger vehicle, as the condition of the road is "really bad". We confirmed the cab for 15,000 Rs. This included the 9 day tour to 4 dham plus other tourist spots like Dehradun, Nainital, Mussoorie, The Valley of Flowers, Hemkund Saheb etc. (We were not lucky enough to complete the yatra the way it was decided, none the less it was an ELATING experience for us).

The way cabs are hired is quite different in this part of the country. The charge for the cab is not on a per kilometer basis, instead its on per day basis. (and is quite high compared to ) Reason, the tracks are not normal, its all through the mountains . If due to rock sliding or any other natural calamity, your Yatra gets delayed, a per day charge is levied upon the traveller. However the vice versa is not true, If the yatra is completed before time, no compensation is paid to the traveller. Can't help, that's how it works.

The first tourist spot on our way was Dehradun. Since we didn't want to waste too much of time @ these tourist spots, we visited only one place in Dehradun. Dehradun is 65 kms from Haridwar. The place we visited in Dehradun is known as "Sahastra Dhara" (Sahastra = 1000 & Stream of water = Dhara). Since the stream of water falling from the mountatin is divided into thousands of water streamlets, its known as Sahastra Dhara.

Next to come is Mussoorie.

Haridwar

This time when i visited India, my plan was to visit all the 4 holy shrines located in Uttarakhand - Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. Me, mom and dad were all quite excited about this journey. This journey (Yatra), is considered to be sacred. To me it was quite important, hence we planned it in the holy month of "Shravaan". The first destination of our journey was Haridwar.

Day 1 - August 16, 2008

We boarded Haridwar Express from Kalupur Railway station in Ahmedabad, my home town. Haridwar Express is the only direct train (as of writing) from Ahmedabad to Haridwar. Yeah i know it takes more time, but that was not an issue, since we wanted it to be that way.

We were quite excited and were waiting since long for this journey. Finally the D-Day arrived. Our's was a second A/c coach, which was quite comfortable. The train was quite slow. Had i been supposed to plan it according to my wish, i would have taken a direct flight from Ahmedabad airport to Dehradun's Jolly Grant airport. This way i could have saved on time. But any ways, we settled down with Haridwar Express.

We started @ 9 am in the morning (not sure of exact time). It was a different experience. I am a nature lover, but never really had a chance to explore it. This was a great opporrtunity for me. There are multiple reasons for it, but never mind. The route followed by the train was via Rajasthan. It was fun on the way. I talked a lot with my parents. Some of the things we discussed were really stupid, but at times being stupid is a fun in itself. To me it made sense. We had lunch along with the home cooked food that my mom took together.

Day 2 - August 17, 2008

We reached haridwar next day morning @ 11:30 AM. The next step for us was to fetch an accomodation. We were not quite organised (which we should have been), but somehow i felt that it was one of the things that fetched fun for us.

We went to Gujarati bhawan in haridwar to inquire if any unit is vacant. Fortunately we found one unit vacant. Gujarati bhawan is located in centre of haridwar. Everything is easily accessible from Gujarati bhawan.


We had a short afternoon nap. Then we travelled to Shanti Kunj, which is a Gayatri Mandir (Temple). The trust is managing the temple well. Thanks to Acharya Shri Ram Sharma.

After darshan at Shanti kunj, we moved back towards the bank of river Ganga (known as Har Ki Paudi) and had a bath at Gangaji. Shanti kunj is located in the outskirts of Haridwar and Har ki Paudi comes on the way.

We attended the evening aarti (prayer). The atmosphere was quite devotional. Before the aarti was about to begin, it started drizzling. The fact that we bought a plastic sheet (Panni) from a local lady, helped us at that time. It costed us 5 Rs. for that sheet, however as soon as it started pouring, the same same sheet costed 3 times the original price. After a while the atmosphere was back to normal. We were seated in a row.

Tip: If you want to enjoy the darshan of evening aarti of Gangaji, reach atleast before one hour of the aarti, otherwise its quite difficult to find a comfortable space to sit. The aarti might still be visible, however the charm of watching the same from a suitable angle is different.

I sat down and recorded the video for the aarti and took some snaps. After that we went and had dinner at our favourite place in Haridwar - "Porbandar vala". This restaurant is opposite to Gujarati Bhawan. First time we visited haridwar (i guess before 4 years), we had tough time with food. We didn't really appreciate the food available in local restaurants. Finally we found something which was decent enough for us to be full. We went to a restaurant "Porbandar vala Gujarati bhojanalay" (not sure whether the name is exactly the same). Since then, evertime i visit Haridwar, i have food at this place. The food is prepared by a Gujarati family which has established itself in haridwar since a long time and prepares authentic gujarati food.

Some restaurants in Haridwar claim to provide gujarati food, but are not really gujarati. The trap can be easily identified by dining out once @ these places. After having the dinner, we called it a day.

Next to come is Dehradun.

Creation of Blog

After a long time i finally decided to write some thing about myself. Hence this blog. Today i am starting with this journey. Lets see how far this blog goes. The sole purpose of this blog is to record the details of my activities and maintaining them online. Hence it can serve as a collection of memories to me and for others, it should give more details on myself :).