Mornie alantië, memento mori

Traditional Punjabi Musicians performing during Baisakhi Mela, 2013 in D...

noreply@blogger.com (Jaidev Jamwal) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:33:00 +0000

Traditional Punjabi Musicians performing during Baisakhi Mela, 2013 in Delhi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eULS9RC0vXo&feature=youtu.be&t=1m25s&ytsession=k_gjfwVVNZ1xEi4M5L0kVU96zKkRuDirjkxAM-c05NcfwG__ObjQwhfgLa6kaiO4IQtmH37oe46OPIFD2vGWKarsmEzLLDcEOYaELsjwq31P8Em8JBKmmQX10BPAProNtnbGfo8J3y02yrHOaF6rOO5CvFkTTMH6dQicyD2mgdQhDnaFG-5_c2oSmnwKiVZe94bSP5qLTUQxyksgbe4de811L2uEoKcYc64rG4x90uNLuw0q1vhbL8lZm4xwSpMC9ZjitSwSl9yNGARIZiE30G4PX4Y-s-XxE1Yyrmzr6zAfLpZ0giXRfyaTlSQWCgf_JLfjBmW-jN7hnHlfUqRkKOXaBgONQYAU90iYzaqupWPqb6XRRHIjngQZfjE1HyiqQUuC1msfmDNU59zSMFAUzVtLspP6CxBxsG0wlJqZMVW-PlYHIKbJ9ER6l0LT3qHM2wDI0uHxBsUw7N6tSngRrVc1Jk0W4-pM8XCyIEYC4DVDuieBNvIPWdY39Ybxq--v4qJCt1b1XQVQCqwGKyY0Eb2NfV4Cf5cmnKq3ZTqoiJXblpuwVfXBTg9A9935Etj4QnwLz346HAWI5D9cb-Z7OHw-2FKBh_FtNI8jpe59zCj8VBkqS5yVyL7cYEptEPs7NlytUH6UiKxkQbSjw7RUiUcPAtU1Hkrud3kLiWlJl9vCVz1X5qtk3_-u796Y6CCj

What Pakistan Thinks About INDIA ?

noreply@blogger.com (Jaidev Jamwal) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:55:00 +0000

Indian Light Combat Aircraft LCA Tejas. Calendar 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Jaidev Jamwal) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:12:00 +0000

Indian Light Combat Aircraft LCA Tejas. Calendar 2013

How countries with Islam as state religion are performing

noreply@blogger.com (Jaidev Jamwal) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:11:00 +0000

How countries with Islam as state religion are performing

Indian Light Combat Aircraft, LCA Tejas. Winter Trials at Leh 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Jaidev Jamwal) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:11:00 +0000

Indian Light Combat Aircraft, LCA Tejas. Winter Trials at Leh 2012

Trek to Chandrataal

noreply@blogger.com (Jaidev Jamwal) — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 06:35:00 +0000

Trek to Chandrataal

At just a few minutes past 3:30 am, I woke up and started getting ready. Water in shower was very cold at that time. Felt strange wishing for hot water in middle of August. After getting ready, I checked out of the hotel and reached the taxi stand. Tenzin, the driver secured my bag on roof of his Tata Sumo by a rope along with luggage of other passengers and started driving by 4:15. Apart from me, there were 3 Israeli tourists and 4 locals. A local 3 day long festival was just starting that day in Kaza and some of the locals were going there to attend it. I took a seat in back and sat down hoping to doze a little.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400"] View near Rohtang pass[/caption]

But that hope proved to be futile. For 30-40 minutes or so, road was well paved but after that it got bad, helped in no less deal by the recent rains. It was full of rubble and stones due to big and small landslides and the ride was not exactly smooth. I even started to get a little motion-sickness but it wasn't too bad. After 5:30 am, sun started to come up and one could enjoy the sights. The scenery was beautiful beyond words. We were traveling on mountains and could see dense clouds covering the valley below. Going by the view, we could've been flying in an airplane. By that time, road had been completely replaced by a dirt track with mud up to 10-15 cm deep, sometimes even more. Just a few km before Rohtang pass, we got stuck in a jam, but fortunately it didn't last long.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] This is road[/caption]

We stopped in a place called Gramphu for rest and breakfast. There one more passenger joined us. He was Tibetan guy working for WWF in Chandratal (Chandertaal)area. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about local flora and fauna, so it was nice chatting up with him. By this time, I noticed that there were no trees around us, except some small 1-2 meters high shrub like things. Those too were a long way off to have a close look. While coming back a few days later, a local co-passenger told me that the tree is called Chaturbhuj and according to legend, Valmiki wrote Ramayana on bark of this tree. The fact that WWF guy (let's call him Si) had no idea about that, made me realise that there is no substitute for local knowledge and wisdom.

As we traveled from Gramphu towards Spiti, greenery became rarer till it was just a few small shrubs and grass in isolated patches upon massive mountains. Chandra river flowed along the road and was fed by numerous big and small waterfalls from adjoining mountains. A lot of these waterfalls flowed on the road which was already damaged. At some places we it felt like we were driving over a stream instead of a road. At this point, vehicles were few and far in between and the only sound was the roar of Chandra river and chirping of a few numerous yet hard to see small birds. Owing to altitude (4000m+) and clean air, the sky was a very beautiful and darker shade of blue. No ugly buildings to spoil the view either. You can never see such sky anywhere else. Although the road was nothing more than a dirt track even on better stretches, I hardly noticed it over the outside scenery.

Around 12, we stopped at Batal at the famous Chandra dhaba run by an old couple and their son. There's another dhaba nearby but it doesn't seem to be as popular. I thought that they had named it after the river Chandra which flows just a few meters away but later came to knew that the lady's name is Chandra. They are a helpful and jolly couple who take good care of their guests as well in every way possible. Theirs is the only place within tens of km which has a phone. How they managed to persuade BSNL to install a satellite phone there is a mystery. Oh, I forgot mentioning that there is no cell-phone coverage after Gramphu. There's no electricity either except generators and solar power in some settlements. Pure bliss :) While I was clicking photos, Si asked me 2-3 times to conserve my camera battery as I wasn't carrying any spare and there was no way of charging it.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Locals call this bird Chinguk (?)[/caption]

I had a plate of daal-chawal, my first meal of day before we left for Kunzum La. I was expecting some kind of exotic local food but was disappointed. Their main clientèle aren't very adventurous with their food. A road has been constructed from Batal to Chandrataal, but the distance is 14km while from Kunzum La, it's a trek of 8.5 km. As I was more interested in trekking, I decided to take the trail from Kunzum La. On the way, a convoy of 9-10 Mahindra Bolero vehicles was stopping the road. Turned out that one of the vehicles had an accident, luckily no one was seriously injured.* They started moving soon after taking the vehicle off road. After noticing Hebrew markings and Israeli flag on some vehicles, I asked the Israeli tourists about it. I was told that this was Desert Queen, a group of adventurous Israeli women which travels around the world exploring deserts. I was impressed.

Si had gotten off in Batal where he had some work and I got off the Sumo in Kunzum La pass. It's a comparatively flat but picturesque road junction. There is a temple dedicated to a female deity Kunzum. Tenzin, as helpful as always introduced me to a a few people waiting there for a ride to Chandrataal via Batal route. One of the guys turned out to be Jamaica. I was familiar with the name through a forum BCMTouring.com and asked if he was the same guy. I had the impression that he was a tour operator in Spiti, but had no expectation of finding him in Chandratal. Turned out that he operated a camping place near Chandrataal. Another surprise. I thought there was only one or two such places there and I had not decided whether to avail of their services yet. Later, I found out that there were four. Heh. Jamaica advised me to take a tablet of Diamox if I was to trek 8.5km to Chandrataal. I hesitated at first, considering that I had no symptom of any sickness except for that small period before Rohtang. I had taken a tablet for motion sickness soon after, just to be safe.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Kunzum La.[/caption]

But I still followed his advice considering his experience. He told me some basic directions about locating his camp which didn't make much sense to me. According to him, the 8.5 km trek would take more than 4 hours. I was incredulous at the 2 km per hour speed. I wasn't there on a slow-walk competition with a snail. That Desert Queen convoy soon caught up with us and the women alighted excited and shouting loudly. So much for the peace and tranquility. I put my rucksack on my back, tightened the straps and left on the trail to Chandataal 1-2 minutes later. After walking for 10-15 minutes, the road was still visible for a long distance with only 2 vehicles in sight for a long time. The sun was shining brightly but a stuff breeze was blowing. After 1 km or so, the rocky mountains had very little vegetation. The area was littered with small and big pieces of slate like rocks all over, most of them red and black. Only if it was a red morning or evening sky, it'd have looked a lot like a Martian landscape.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] On way to Chandrataal[/caption]

After walking for 50-60 minutes , I stopped to rest. That heavy rucksack combined with unstable rocky path wasn't making walking any easier. After mostly flat ground, the path turned rocky and undulating pretty quickly. This kept on repeating every 1-2 km for rest of my trek. Sometimes, the trail was broken up by ridges carved out in the mountains by waterfalls, landslides or glaciers. Climbing up and down those rocky ridges was the hardest and most tiring part. As there was no firm foothold on the loose rocks, people have to be really careful while walking on them. I had a glimpse of a grey water body, shimmering in bright sunlight. It looked so different from Chandrataal and I was confused. I was told that the lake should've been visible by now but it didn't look like anything in the pictures. But after walking further, a portion of dark greenish blue lake came in to view, driving away the confusion. Nestled between mountains, even the partial view looked so beautiful from distance.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] There is a trail if you look closely[/caption]

Till now, only sign of life apart from small shrubs were some small insects and harder to spot sparrow/finch like birds. Around 2:30 pm, I spotted a herd of goat and sheep, guarded by a pair of dogs but with no shepherd in sight. The dogs, one of which was a strange red colour were 100 meters away from me and paid no attention, but the flock was directly in my path. They kept staring till I reached close and then ran away in all directions. Then I noticed Si walking a few meters behind me. Catching up, his first remark was, " Hey, you're walking so slowly !"

I thought, " Right you idiot. Let's exchange my 20+ kg backpack with 2 kg bag of yours, then we'll talk about it." But it was more than likely that he'd have walked faster even then. I asked him about distance left and he checked his GPS device to answer "approximately 2 miles.". I thought it was 2 km and that caused a lot of confusion over the next 2 hours. Within a few minutes, he had left me far behind. By then, I had finished up a half-liter bottle of Frooti and was on my only water bottle. Till now, I had seen only dried out seasonal waterfalls and Chandra river with it's undrinkable water which was a medium shade of grey due to soil erosion. ( No reference to 50 Shades of Grey book, haven't read it). Even that was far away . By now, I could see some camps in foothills of mountains across the dried out nullah, but there was no direct way to reach there. After walking for some more time, I came across a small grassy meadow like place and lay down to rest. I think I dozed off for a while and woke up with a slight headache and nausea. But a drink of water gave some relief. After crossing 2 more dried waterfall/rockslides, I met a Gaddi shepherd near his dera (camp) and asked him if I was on right trail. He said it was just 2 more km away. Now I realised that Si had said 2 miles not km. The shepherd invited me to rest in his camp and have some tea but I didn't feel like doing that so soon. I thanked him for the help and walked on.

He had miscalculated the length by more than half a km , as I found out a while later. But by then, I was very tired and was using a trekking pole a lot. The cheap made in China thing was of shoddy quality but was of good use at least then. That taught me not to underestimate worth of a good trekking pole . Somehow I managed to keep on trail and reached the closest camp. Si, Jamaica and two other people were already seated there sipping tea and invited me to join the party. I immediately dropped my bag, camera, stick etc. to the ground and walked over to them. It was a few minutes past 4. It had taken me more than 4 hours to walk those measly 8.5 km. After resting and a cup of hot masala chai, Jamaica helped me put up my tent. I didn't feel like walking to the Chandrataal Lake just then, so just walked within a few 100 meters of camp site taking in the views. After a hot dinner of daal-chawal, I crawled into my sleeping bag and was asleep by 7:30. It had been a long day.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Campsite at last[/caption]

NEXT: Chandrataal, Samudri Taapoo

*While searching around the net trying to remember the actual name which spelled out like Malika or Malka, I came across a news article according to which one 63 year old woman was killed and 2 other injured in an accident on 26th August. Although they haven't mentioned it, the place seems to be Spiti. Sad.

To Spiti from Manali

noreply@blogger.com (Jaidev Jamwal) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:24:00 +0000

To Spiti from Manali

I had read about Lahaul and Spiti in a book अरे यायावर रहेगा याद (Arey Yayavar Rahega Yaad ) a long time back . Though I don't remember much details now, but visiting the place became a 'thing to do before I die' for me. I love trekking in mountains, but never had the opportunity to do so in way that I like. So when a chance came up to visit the place on a solo trekking trip, I dropped everything else for this .
The place is remote, rugged and not easy to travel compared to most other tourist destinations. So it took some preparation, physical as well as material. One needs good stamina for trekking specially at that altitude of 4000m +. Just lifting weights and beefing up muscles is not the solution. I could write something on this but I'm hardly an expert and this blog is not the place for this topic either. Choosing luggage, tools etc was another area where I had very little experience in. I browsed a lot of websites, asked a lot of silly questions but managed to gather a list which could help me survive the trip. I picked up a 70 litres rucksack, sleeping bag, multi-tool from Delhi and bought propane stove, tent, mat, ready to eat meals, etc from Manali. This was in addition to the other stuff that one carries like clothes, first-aid kit, high energy snacks etc.

I reached Manali on 15th August via a Volvo bus. Now I'm thinking of avoiding these buses operated by private operators as they are generally in poor condition, seats are mismanaged and the staff is rude and stupid. Even that bus ride was late by 2-3 hours and reached Manali by 11:30 am. I had woken around 6 before that when the bus had stopped at a roadside dhaba for breakfast. Don't know the place's name, but it was very green and beautiful. After sometime, one could see apple orchards along the road with almost ripe apples hanging from branches. After that, I was unable to go back to sleep and kept mostly awake till the bus stopped in manali 5 hours later. I didn't feel like roaming around searching for hotels as I wasn't going to stay there for long. So followed a tout to the nearest hotel which didn't turn out to be all that bad. After a quick shower and an early lunch, I stepped out to explore the city.
New Manali is just a crowded and noisy market typical of many Indian cities. So I quickly left the place and walked up to Hidimba Mandir. A lot of tourists there too, but atleast it had a good tree cover. The temple like most other temples in Himachal is made of timber and earth. Her son with Bhim, Ghatokach has a place beneath some trees just a few meters away.

: Hidimba Temple, Manali

From there, I walked down to Old Manali half a km away. One has to cross a bridge on a Beas tributary which seemed flooded to me. But for locals, it was normal water level. After walking through the market, one comes across an old temple dedicated to Manu, who is considered progenitor of human race according to Hindu beliefs. The outer structure of temple is around 20 years old compared to centuries old inner sanctum. A foreign tourist was trying to teach some local kids whistle using a grass blade without much success. Old Manali still maintains the character and charm of an old town in places and thus is a better place for people trying to escape the chaos of cities. Although the shops and eating joints are tailored towards foreigners, it's not as annoying as New Manali. After spending some time there, I wandered around till I found a signboard with directions for Vashisht Kund 3 km away.
One can enjoy hot water bath at any time of year there. The water has a slight smell of Sulphur and the temperature is just right for soaking in for a long bath. A temple alongside is dedicated to ancient Indian sage Vashisht. After the temple, I walked to a roof top restaurant nearby to eat something. The river, mountains and apple orchards offered an amazing view from there. It was getting dark by then, so I walked back to my hotel to sleep.

: Inside Manu Temple, Old Manali

Next day, I was out of hotel by 9:30 and searching for a place to have some breakfast. All Tibetan owned shops were closed due to a protest against Chinese atrocities in Tibet. I Settled for honey porridge and mint tea. As I was awaiting for food to arrive, I noticed a Tibetan procession protesting against Chines atrocities in their homeland Tibet. People were walking quietly in a straight line carrying banners . It was very different from usually noisy, disruptive and chaotic marches which are the norm elsewhere. But I don't think that Tibet can win freedom using non-violent means like these. No oppressor has been thrown out just by non-violent protests. I did sign their petition though when one volunteer requested it later in evening. Alongside Beas river bank, authorities have put aside a wooded area for a park called Van Vihar where people can stroll through enjoying the woods. Even though the area was a bit littered, a relaxed walk was a nice experience.

: View near Vashishth Templ, Manali

After that, I walked around in market searching for camping gear which I hadn't bought till then. Some places rent gear too, but buying it was only slightly more expensive. Bought a few packs of ready to eat meals, chocolates, biscuits, fruits etc which must've added at least 4kgs to my backpack. Arranged for a seat in a shared Tata Sumo taxi which left at ungodly 4:00am in morning. If you leave later, you can't reach Kaza in time. As I was going to Chandrataal Lake, my stop was in Batal or Kunzum La. But the price was same. I paid the driver some advance and asked him to make sure that he calls me at least once in morning and walked back to my hotel to pack. It took some work, but I was finished by 10:00 pm. Everything in a single bag that one can sling over back. Nice. Set an alarm for 3:30am, went to bed but kept watching TV till 12:30.

: Van Vihar near Beas river, Manali

NEXT: Journey from Manali to Chandrataal (Chandertaal) Lake

Pakistan Watch: Siachen - Myths and Facts

noreply@blogger.com (Jaidev Jamwal) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 07:40:00 +0000

Pakistan Watch: Siachen - Myths and Facts: On April 7, 2012, tragedy struck the 6 Northern Light Infantry's (6NLI) battalion headquarters camp at Giyari outpost at the snout of the G...