Crater Lake at Mt. Pinatubo

I learned about Mt. Pinatubo soon after coming to the Philippines; however I couldn’t figure out how to get there easily. Mt. Pinatubo is one of the many active volcanoes in the Philippines that last erupted in a climatic eruption on June 15th 1991. The resulting eruption was the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th Century and resulted in the ejection of 10 cubic Km of magma. The eruption resulted in the formation of an enormous crater that soon filled with rain water forming a large crater lake. The lake has brilliant blue waters and is one of the tourist attractions of the region.
After much hunting online, we narrowed down on a travel group called Tripinas that did public group tours of Pinatubo. Most of the other groups did private tours which were quite unaffordable as it was just me and a colleague of mine on the trip. We paid the initial advance and got our instructions for the trip.
The trip began at about 02:00 AM early Saturday morning when we assembled at the McDonalds close to the Quezon Avenue MRT station. Here the balance amount was settled and we were allocated our vehicle for the trip. As planned we left at about 03:00 AM for the base camp. The journey took about 3 odd hours and by 6:00 in the morning we were at the base camp.

From the base camp, the only way to get to the trek start point is via 4X4 jeeps. These jeeps are run by the locals and take you to the trek start point. However, since the number of jeeps is limited, one needs to be early (like us) in order to get a vehicle. The tour organizers had planned this quite well and soon we were allocated a vehicle.

4X4 Ride to Pinatubo

The next one odd hour was one back breaking ride racing through lahar canyons through streams and valleys as the most desolate landscape (that I have seen) raced by. There was a raw beauty to the landscape in its single earth tone colours. At many times during the ride we had to hang on for dear life in the jeep hoping that the ride would end soon. Finally we reached the jump off point for the trek.
From here the trek was a long 7-8 km hike to the crater. The route weaved through a canyon of sorts crossing a stream several times. My new “trekking” sandals from Sandugo (a local brand) turned out to be quite handy and I enjoyed the sensation of water passing through the sandals as I crossed the stream.
The trek as such was quite simple, as the route was flat for about 80% of the way and involved minimal climbing. The last 20% or so involved a slight climb through some dense forest to reach the crater lake.
After reaching the lake, we hired a boat to take us to the other shore. Here it is possible to take a quick dip in the lake. While we had not packed swimming costumes (and the water was quite deep for non-swimmers or novice swimmers) we nevertheless did step into the water. The water was actually lukewarm due to several small boiling springs that fed the lake.
We then headed back to the other shore to have our packed lunch. After lunch we began the descent back. The way back was quite tiring as the sun was out overhead and the route had little or no shade. We finally made it back to the base camp, after another harrowing ride. The waiting vans then took us back to Manila getting us back well within the planned time frame.
Overall it was a good trek to go and see a natural wonder. What made it even better was that the organizers had planned the whole thing with clockwork precision. If you are looking to do a trip here I’d definitely recommend Tripinas.

Since Arnab or Great Bong (as he is more popularly known) usually writes humor and satire, a horror novel written by him seemed like a huge deviation from the usual fare. Besides this the general plot of the book – “Experts/ Team sent in to a remote expedition to find out what went/ is going wrong” is pretty much my favorite kind of plot. Variations of the plot have given us such superb pieces like Jurassic Park, Sphere, Deep Storm and movies like Alien. So with somewhat tempered expectations I started reading the book.

The book follows a group of experts that are assembled in a highly secret mining facility under the Thar desert. The mine has uncovered an ancient structure with some disturbing carvings, deep underground. The experts are called in to make sense of this and the many maladies afflicting the miners. As usual things go wrong shortly after and that’s when the fun starts.

The book is fairly well written and the pace picks up after the initial slow start. It builds quite nicely on the claustrophobia of being trapped several kilometers under the surface of the earth. While there are number of gory scenes in the book, regular horror fans might find them a bit pedestrian. In addition to this while there are a number of innovative twists and turns in the book, most of them seem a bit derivative (Either that or I’ve seen / read way too much in that genre). Fans of other horror series like Saw, Hostel etc may be left with a sense of deja vu. In spite of these (imagined ??) shortcomings though, the author manages to keep the plot fairly taut and interesting.

While personally I was a tad disappointed (mainly cause it had a “been there done that” kind of feel to it), I would think its an excellent stab at the horror genre. If nothing else, its a welcome relief from the legions of “Chetan Bhagat” clones that have popped up all over. Definitely worth a try.

The View from Mullyangiri

I’ve been wanting to do the Mullyangiri – Bababudangiri trek since I heard about this scenic route. I had initially planned to do this in mid-late November with some friends. However, as best laid plans go, this one kind of unravelled as the date drew near. However, when I learned that Bangalore Ascenders would be also attempting the trail (with the added incentive of trekking all the way to Kemmangundi), I quickly signed up for the trek. The weekend before the trek was spent in getting the necessary supplies (food, sleeping mats etc.) as I didn’t want to leave anything to the last minute.

Day 0 – Leaving Bangalore

We had planned to leave on Friday night and reach Chikmaglur by early morning on Saturday. By Wednesday we had all received details on the pick-up points. As planned I reached my pickup spot at Domlur at about 10:15 in the night. I met up with one of the participants, Omendra there. We spent quite some time waiting there as the Tempo Traveler was delayed. At long last, the much awaited TT arrived and we got in. We started moving to the next pick up point near Majestic and picked up the tents along the way. Finally the rest of the team boarded at Majestic and we started on what would prove to be an adventure of epic proportions.

Day 1- Of Tall Mountains, Dark Caves, abandoned towers and scary winds

We awoke on Friday to find ourselves at Chikmagalur. After freshening up at the bus stand, we then went on to have a sumptuous breakfast and pack some Pulav for lunch. After Breakfast we boarded the TT and went on to the start of the trail. Since the TT could go to the camping site, we just needed to take some snacks and water along. Once again the lightweight daypack that I bought turned out to be quite handy. Pretty soon we had all picked up our day packs and were ready. The TT left for the camp site and we were ready to start the trek.

Starting the Trek

First we had a quick round of introductions. There were 13 of us in all: Ranjan, Muthukumar, Kiran, me, Tanoy, Karan, Nagarjuna, Praveen, Ganesh, Deepak, Omendra, Bharath and Girish. I had previously trekked with Girish and Muthu on the Kudremukh trek and with Karan on the leech ridden Kumara Parvatha trek. Also Deepak was a colleague of mine from work. The rest of the people were new faces to me and overall it was a pretty diverse group.
After introductions we began climbing up the trail. That’s when someone realized that for some reason Muthu’s daypack as well as the main backpack were out on the road. Eventually, Girish agreed to pick up the main bag and carry it along.
Our first destination was Mullyangiri. Mullyangiri which is 1930m tall is the highest peak in Karnatka. The trail that we took up was one with a slightly steep ascent, where we needed to climb up for about 2 hours to reach the top. The journey up was quick and we didn’t take too many breaks on the way up. Along the way up we were treated to beautiful views of the valley below and the surrounding hills. We also spotted some raptors (falcons) and were treated to their aerial acrobatics as they hovered in mid-air before diving down to snare their prey.
After about 2 hours we were almost at the top. Just as we were reaching the top, Deepak had a minor stumble. While he was alright, we definitely didn’t waste time pulling his leg about the minor “earthquake” that we had just witnessed.
Just before the Mullyangiri peak, there is small cave structure and a bunch of us ventured into the caves to explore. The cave exploration party returned with interesting tales to tell of the almost 1km long cave, including those of spotting bats in the caves.

In another 10 minutes or so we reached the top of the peak. At the top of the peak there is a small temple. We spent some time exploring the temple and seeing the views from the temple. After we were done with our exploration we began our onwards to journey towards Galikere which was to be our camping spot.

The trail

This trail was more of a ridge walk that involved climbing and descending a few hills. We initially lost the trail a bit, but some quick back tracking had us back on the path in no time. The next few hours were spent walking along a beautiful trail that weaved over some jaw-dropping landscapes.

Climbing up the Hill

Resting on the Trail

After some time we began descending towards a road that we needed to cross. Just before the road we found a film unit shooting some scenes from a movie. We spent some time at the shoot, with Girish taking pictures of the lead actress – “Neetu”
We then started on the trail again. Before ascending, we stopped at an abandoned house to have our lunch. The pulav tasted delicious after our long hike to this spot. Nagarjuna had also bought along some chappatis and pickle that he shared. After we had filled our stomachs we started back on the trail. The trail once again began ascending and after a somewhat precarious climb we finally reached the final ridge that we needed to climb onto.
At the top of this mountain was an abandoned BSNL tower, which was one of the landmarks on our trail. After resting here for some time we finished the remaining of the trail and reached Manikyadhara Falls which marked the end of the day’s trekking.
All of us were famished by then and we attacked one of the local food stalls. In no time plates upon plates of bread-omelette and parathas were devoured followed by some tea and coffee. By this time our TT had also come and after finishing our snack (and soon to be dinner) we began our journey to our camp site.
We had decided to camp at Galikere which was about 7km from Manikyadhara Falls. We reached there just as the sun was beginning to set. After somehow reversing the TT on the narrow precarious road we started unloading the camping gear to set up camp.

Sunset at Galikere

Galikere is actually a small heart-ish shaped lake on top of a hill with some flat area near the lake where one can set up camp. Apparently Gali-kere means “Windy-Lake” in Kannada, and we soon found out how apt this description was.
We had a few T-2 tents and a T-3 tents which would be enough to house all of us for the night. We quickly set up the tents. Since it was very calm, Girish was of the opinion that we wouldn’t need to weigh down the tents. So we just weighed down the larger tent and moved to the campfire spot where Bharath had gathered some twigs and branches to set up a small campfire.
By now it was becoming dark and quite cold. Already the night sky was lit up with thousands of stars and one could clearly see the Milky Way. Of late I have been obsessed with shooting the night sky, and I thought I’d take this opportunity. I set up my tripod and began taking some test shots. After a little tinkering, I managed to get one halfway-decent shot. Pretty sure that I had nailed the technical aspects of the shot, I packed away the tripod thinking I’d finish shooting after dinner and joined the rest of the people round the campfire.
A lively session of introductions was on, and we had a wonderful time pulling each other’s legs in a nice session of bonhomie and camaraderie around the camp fire. After the fire had died down, we started preparing soup on the small stove that we had bought along. One of the guys got some water from the lake and we started boiling it. I had decided I’d have a pack of ready to eat cup noodles for dinner and was waiting with for the water to boil.
The water was taking too long to boil so we thought of putting it over the embers of the fire and adding some more fuel to it. We moved the utensil to the campfire. After a little while the water had boiled and I added some to my noodle cup. That’s when all hell broke loose.
Suddenly the wind picked up and started blowing like crazy. So we huddled round the fire to keep it burning. That’s when someone noticed that the tents had started to become balloons and fly in the wind. With that started a mad scramble to weigh down the tents and keep them attached to the ground. We first put in all the bags into the tents, and weighed down the tents with rocks. When even that didn’t help, we just got into the tents!!
I had hoped that the wind would stop blowing after some time, but it didn’t. Thanks to the wonderful weather, I had to scrap my plans of shooting the night sky. We spent the rest of the night listening to the wind howling outside the tent, wondering whether the tent will fly away or collapse on us.

Day 2 – The long trek to Kemmangundi

The next day we woke up to the howling wind outside. It still hadn’t stopped blowing. In fact the wind was so fierce that we had difficulty moving around freely. A small mis-step and the wind would blow you away with it. After struggling with the wind, we finally managed to freshen up and wrap up the camp. Taking the tents etc back to the TT we realized to our surprise that it was absolutely calm near the TT !!!
Once again, we just needed to carry some food and water for the remainder of our journey and left most of our luggage in the TT which then made it’s way to Kemmangundi. We then started on the trail to Kemmangundi.
The trail to Kemmangundi from Galikere is about 16-17 km in length and it passes over several small hills before descending from Kemmangundi through a coffee estate and passing by Kallathi Falls. This trail is not frequented that often by trekkers and the trail sometimes vanishes. Thankfully, Girish had the entire trail mapped on his phone. Armed with this info we started on the trail.

Sambhar running on the hills

The trail as usual was extremely scenic, more so with views of the forests in the valley below. As we trekked we came across several groups of Sambhar running on the hills. We also found some porcupine quills and an antler of a deer.
After some time we stopped in a small clearing in the forest and heated some water from a nearby stream to cook our breakfast of cup noodles. Having done with the breakfast, we started again on the trail. By now it was fast approaching mid-day and it seemed that we had not made much progress. Thankfully the sun was not that sharp and the cool mountain air and breeze made trekking very enjoyable.

Hills on the way to Kemmangundi

In our endeavour to finish the trail, we took quite a few shortcuts down some steep hills and thick forests. After much walking we finally spotted some signs of civilization. We passed some houses where we met some folks who told us to quickly finish the trail as this was a reserve forest and we were not supposed to be there. We crossed the houses and began our steep descent to the coffee plantation.
After some time we had reached the bottom of the hill and began the descent into the coffee plantation. We crossed several small streams and waterfalls along the way before finally reaching Kallathi waterfalls and exiting out of the coffee estate.
After having a quick dip at the waterfalls we started back for Bangalore. On the way we had an excellent dinner at a dhabha. We finally reached Bangalore at about 4 the next morning ending a wonderful adventure made memorable by some great company.

The Hills in Kudremukh National Park

In 2007 on my way to Kemmangundi, I happened to glance upon an oddly shaped peak. The peak resembled a horse’s face from afar and thats what it was called – Kudremukha (literally meaning “horse-face”). Sometime this year, I learned that it was possible to trek up to this peak passing through the wildlife sanctuary that the peak was situated in. So I added this peak to my list of treks to do this year and patiently waited for one of the many trekking groups to announce a trip to this peak.

Soon enough, Bangalore Ascenders announced a trek to this peak. After some confusion (and help from Girish) I finally managed to register for the trek. The meeting point this time round was Majestic, and roughly 12-13 of us gathered at the meeting spot on time. As per the plan we left Bangalore on Friday night and traveled to Kudremukh over the night.

The night journey was bit tiresome, thanks mainly to the bad roads and I barely managed to sleep even a bit after 04:00 AM.

At about 07:00 in the morning we reached a small coffee shop by the road. The plan was to spend some time at the shop, freshen up, have some coffee and then move on. However, the shop was yet to open for the day. Some locals told us that there was a small river nearby and so we went off in search of the river after a quick round of introductions. Finding the river seemed to be a bit of a task and we backtracked a number of times until we found the right trail. After a quick short walk we arrived at the river. We spent some time clicking photographs at the river and then went on to freshen up by the river.

The River

Hanumana Gundi Waterfalls

After this we then proceeded on to a small eatery for a quick breakfast. Post breakfast we started on a short tour of sorts of the Kudremukh region. First up was quick trip to the Hanumana Gundi Waterfalls. On the way we stopped to have a quick look at a now defunct dam. The view of the empty dam was quite surreal.
After a short drive we reached the waterfall. To reach the falls we had to walk downhill for about 1 km or so. The falls were formed by natural rock formations and had water falling down a height of about 100 odd feet. After clicking a few photographs of the fall, most of our group went into the water. Having recently had a severe cold, I decided against going into the inviting waters.
After having a great time at the falls, we hiked back up to our transport and moved on to the next spot in our list. Next up was a visit to Gangamoola, which is said to be the origin of three rivers viz. Tunga, Bhadra and Netravathi. Getting to the point of origin involved a short trek into the jungle. After trekking for a very short while we quickly reached some stairs which many of us had seen in photographs of the trail. However after this point we kind of lost the trail. And then we noticed the dreaded leeches !!!
We quickly back tracked and found the right trail which actually lead to a cave like structure which is the origin point. After seeing this cave, we then proceeded on to meet our host and guide for the trek.
We had booked a homestay at Mullodi village for the trek, and this would serve as our base camp for the trip. We met our host and then transferred on to jeeps and moved on to the homestay. After about 6km of driving on a rough dirt track and passing through some picturesque countryside we reached the homestay.
We quickly unloaded our bags and then sat for some late lunch. Lunch was a simple affair of steamed rice, rasam and sambhar (though the sambhar was a tad watery for my tastes, nevertheless quite good). After lunch, and the mandatory weeding out of leeches, we went to a small waterfall nearby and spent the evening there.
Later in the evening, we came back to the homestay and talk moved on the leech menace that we would face the next day. Each member of our group had their own unique brand of “anti-leech” medicine, with Dettol soaked shoes and socks being the most popular. Soon dinner was served and I feasted on the most delicious chicken curry and neer dosa that I have eaten in some time. After dinner we sat down and watched some TV for a bit. As the evening drew on and changed to night, the temperature dropped and I began to worry how my new fangled sleeping bag would hold up.
We soon decided to call it a day as we had to wake up quite early the next day to be able to start trekking at about 6:00 am. In spite of my apprehensions, the sleeping bag was quite warm and I actually had a fairly good night’s rest.
The next morning we woke up early and were all set to leave by about 6:00 am. I had carried a smaller day pack into which I put some fruits, energy bars, a rain jacket etc. along with water in a 2L water bag. It seemed perfect for use on the trek except that I had missed out one tiny detail, which would come to haunt me a bit later.
As planned we set out about 6:15 am on the trail which started near the homestay. The trail initially climbed a bit before going downhill. In fact the trail pretty much followed this up-down pattern till we reached the foot of Kudremukh. The trail would go up a grassy hill and then move downhill into some forest and then cross a stream before going up-hill again. The terrain was quite varied and we passed through some clumps of bamboo, grasslands, shola forests, dense jungle and grassy slopes.
About half an hour in to the trek, I was a tad thirsty and tried to take a sip from new fangled water pouch. But alas I had neglected to figure out how to work the bite valve on the device before starting on the trek. Net Result – All I got was a few sips of water before I finally figured out how to use the damn thing (with some help from my fellow trekkers). Thanks to this little thing, I was slightly dehydrated and losing energy.
We stopped for some breakfast, and I ate some sweet lime that I had carried along with some energy bars. After breakfast, we soldiered on the remaining trail. The remaining trail moved up and down some small hills before finally ascending to a small waterfall. From here the trail began to zig-zag up the mountainside before finally reaching the top. From thereon the trail was kind of a ridge walk before the final steep ascent.
I kept moving steadily upwards, stopping here and there to catch my breath and weed out the crawling leeches. I distinctly felt some leeches in my shoes, but for the sake on convenience I figured I’d only address that problem once I made it to the top. By about 10:00 am we were within sight of the final ridge walk. Quite a number of our group had already made it to the top by then and we lumbered on to catch up with them.
Finally we reached the summit and threw down our bags and removed our shoes to enjoy prancing on the green grass of the summit. At 1894 m (6214 ft), Kudremukh was definitely one the tallest peaks that I have climbed up to date. On a clear day, it is said that you can see all the way to the coast from here. Sadly, due to the heavy cloud cover we could not get a good view from the top. Occasionally the clouds would part to show us tantalizing glimpse of the landscapes spread ahead of us.

Glimpes of the landscape

Finally after some group photographs on top, we began climbing down. The trip down would have been a lot faster, but we had to tread carefully as the moss covered trail turned out to be treacherous. By about 2:00 pm all of us had returned to homestay. Most of the group went to the waterfalls for a quick dip, while some of us elected to stay on at the homestay and freshen up there. A quick look at my feet showed that I had suffered only about three small leech bites and the damage was nothing like that on the Kumara Parvatha Trek. Seems my idea of tucking my cargoes in my socks and spraying the shoes and socks with Moov kind of payed off.
After a quick lunch, we packed up and took the Jeep transport back to our Tempo Traveler. From there we moved on to a Temple in Kalasa for dinner and then took the Tempo Traveler back to Bangalore. We finally reached Bangalore in the wee hours of the morning ending a glorious and awesome trekking adventure to Kudremukh.

Singapore Twitter Map

Some interesting features immediately come to light here. For instance the two huge vacant holes on the plot correspond to the two large national parks in Singapore. Concentration of tweets in other places also brings to light roads and other transportation conduits.

I also did some analysis around tweets by hour and day of week and kind of reverse geo-coded popular locations to figure out where people were tweeting from on weekends. The result of that exercise gave this interesting tag cloud

Popular Places on the weekend

I’ve put all this together in one gorgeous infographic which you can see here.
PS: Many Thanks to good pal Jayaram for helping me put the map together in R

1. My current bag needs to be retired. It’s no longer rigid and does not distribute load properly, which leads to the straps painfully digging into my shoulders (in spite of the padding). Might still use it, but just to carry a smaller day pack and a change of clothes.
2. Hydration packs help. Definitely will reduce the need to stop just to take a sip of water, once I get one
3. I also need a new camera bag, preferably one with an all weather cover (like the splendid Lowepro AW series). My current shoulder bag is brilliant for sight-seeing trips etc. but tends to put me off balance while trekking (not to mention the constant swinging of the bag). Also given that I generally take along just the 18-55mm lens while trekking, for now I think taking along a top loading “V-style” bag would do the trick. Should get one.
4. A trekking pole will definitely help. Need to get one to take the pressure off the knees while climbing down steep sections.
5. While trekking down in the dark, realised the utility of a head lamp. A head lamp definitely helps keep the hands free while climbing down.
6. A leech bite ain’t the worse thing, it’s the aftermath that is. The bite keeps oozing blood for hours thanks to anti-coagulant in the leech saliva. Messes up clothes, socks and everything. Need to figure out someway to counteract this.
7. And the bite itches like crazy while healing. Calamine lotion helps.
8. “Moov” spray (heat rub spray) is surprisingly effective in getting rid of climbing leeches. Must be the eucalyptus oil and other herbs in it, or the propellant used in the spray. Spraying shoes with “Moov” before trekking into leech infested areas (and re-spraying frequently) seems to deter leeches from climbing onto the shoes.
9. Need to figure out an effective way to pull out an attached leech. Read a lot of contradicting advice on the net, so still not sure if popping the leech’s sucker is a good idea or just using salt/ “Moov”.
10. Need to find me a pair of Anti-Leech Socks. (If anyone knows where I can find one in Bangalore, please let me know)
11. It’s possible to wash away blood stains almost completely with just a detergent soak and a hand wash.
12. Action Trekkers are by far the most brilliant (and need I say cheapest) trekking shoes I’ve used to date. Excellent grip on all surfaces and not too heavy and relatively leech proof to boot as well (hardly any leeches got into my shoes).

Taking a break at Kumara Parvatha

After the last quick day trek, I felt it was time to try something a bit longer. Luckily for me, Bangalore Mountaineering Club (BMC) was organizing a trek to Kumara Parvatha. Since this was a two day trek, the plan was to leave on Friday night. As usual, I joined up at my Domlur pick up point. This time round there were around 25 odd people on the trek. We started pretty much on time, for which I was glad, because it started pouring soon after. Thanks to the rains, two of our fellow adventurers who were to come from Mysore, had a mini-trek of their own before we picked them up. Finally at about midnight we left Bangalore.

But before I get into the rest of the story, here is a bit about the mountain. Kumara Parvatha is a mountain that is about 13-15 Km away from the town of Subramanya, which is about 230 km from Bangalore. Subramanya is situated at the foothills of western ghats in Dakshin Kannad district, famous for the Kukke Subramanya temple. Kumara Parvatha is considered (arguably, and I’ll come to that a bit later) by many to be one of the more strenuous treks in Karnataka. The mountain stands at about a height of 1732m and is one of the tallest peaks in the region. The mountain is situated in the Pushpagiri wildlife sanctuary and to trek there one needs to take permission from the forest department.

Jungle Trail

Now back to the rest of the tale. We reached the town at about 6:00 in the morning on Saturday as planned. The organizers had arranged for some rooms at the town, which we used to get rid of the fatigue of the long bus journey. After the initial briefing, we made our way to the main town and had a quick breakfast at one of restaurants there. After breakfast we began trekking at about 8:00 am.
The trekking route to Kumara Parvatha could be called a two stage route. The first stage goes from the village to a mid-way point called Bhattara Mane, where hungry trekkers can find a meal and some shelter. The second stage route goes over several hills to finally reach Kumara Parvatha. The first stage is approximately 6km long, and the first one odd km is merely a walk to the outskirts of the town. This trail starts at the temple and goes behind it. After reaching the outskirts of the town, the trail goes steadily uphill (40-45 degree gradient) for about 4 km, until it finally reaches some grasslands where the trail continues for about 1 km till Bhattara Mane.
Having started at about 30 minutes later than we had planned, we covered the first 1 km in record time. After which the steep climb through the jungle began. The trail was quite beautiful, passing through dense jungle, snaking steadily upwards. A lot of people spent some time to admire the beauty of the trail. However, while doing so they didn’t notice the friendly jungle hop-ons – Leeches!!
Since it hadn’t rained in about a week here, the organizers were sure we would not encounter many leeches. And to a very large extent they were correct. A few leeches did bite people (including moi) but it was nothing as yet that would justify leech infested jungles that I’d been expecting. I managed to clamber through the jungle and reach the grasslands with only one semi-bite from a leech.
Once we were out of the jungle and into the sunlight we could finally admire the view (without worrying about leeches). And boy was it magnificent!!
We could see hills and mountains for miles around. Considering that we were only halfway up, the promise of the view from the top of Kumara Parvatha, was enough to re-energize my legs and propel me on to Bhattara Mane. (Tired legs because I hadn’t bargained on lugging around a sleeping bag as well, don’t think anyone of us had)
At Bhattara Mane, we took a much needed break and took stock of the havoc that the leeches had wrecked on our legs. After washing our legs etc, we had a quick lunch. The lunch was a simple meal of sambhar and rice along with buttermilk. Post lunch we began the second phase of our trek. Most of us left our bags at house and trekked with just a bottle of water or small backpack. I left some of the stuff I had carried back and the sleeping bag, since I needed a bag to hold the water so that I’d be free to take pictures. However, as I learned later on, this wasn’t such an great idea. (Of course, the others learned as well that leaving everything behind wasn’t all that great either)
The second phase of the trek goes up the hill behind Bhattara Mane and down through the forest check post. Before the check post there are some observation platforms where one can view the arduous climb ahead through cloud covered mountains (and silently mutter: what have I gotten myself into?)
After registering at the forest check post we began the trek upwards. The path snaked up several hills through beautiful landscapes. It was however (contrary to other blog posts) not a gentle climb, and thanks to my backpack (rued almost all the way for having carried it until the end) I found it difficult to keep up. We had begun at about 1:30-2:00 in the afternoon and idea was to summit by 4:30 and then make our way back. After much slow progress, I finally made it to the halfway point called the Mantapa. The Mantapa is a stone structure of sorts, kind of like a stone hut without any walls. It was 3:00 then. Considering that this was the halfway point, me and my fellow “tail-enders” figured that we’d reach up by 4:00 or sooner since there was a peak looming just ahead of us.
However, we soon realized that we were mistaken, sorely mistaken. As soon as we had climbed the peak before us, another one loomed before us. This climbing from one “false” peak to the next, through the quickly gathering clouds, continued till we had scaled what seemed to be the last peak. But since we didn’t see anyone from our group there, we figured we still had some ways to go. A path from this peak went downwards through some dense forest. Since this was the only way forward, we decided to take it.
Enchanted by the dense forest and the light filtering through the branches and playing with the clouds, I stopped to click some quick photographs. And that turned out to be my undoing.
Having not encountered anymore leeches, we were quite complacent. So complacent that we forgot that leeches like dark moist places aka dense forest floors. The forest floor was teeming with leeches !!!
We didn’t notice them until they had clambered on and sunk their jaws into what I hope was a fine “meals-on-wheels” experience for them. After which pandemonium followed. We raced through the forest, walking as fast as the terrain would let us. And just then when things couldn’t get any worse, it started raining.
Thankfully, since we were in the “clouds” I don’t think we got the worst of it. However, it did make rocks quite slippery. We soon reached an uphill climb through some rocks. The rock section soon ended, giving way to the final rock stretch that one needed to climb to summit Kumara Parvatha.
There we found a bunch of our fellow adventurers waiting, some weeding out the numerous leeches, others unsure of how to climb up the slippery stretch. Having seen that the final climb up had just become quite risky, the organizers (who had already reached the top before the rains along with a few other people) sent word to begin climbing down. And so, we did an about turn and began climbing down.
Naturally we had wade through the sea of leeches masquerading as a forest floor and that’s when the leech casualties increased (some people even got bit on the ears). However, we quickly managed to get out of the jungle and after stopping to get rid of leeches we began the downwards trek.
The trek down was equally fascinating and beautiful, however given that the light was quickly fading (and none of us wanted to be caught with the leeches in the dark) we began climbing down quickly. During the climb down, blood oozing out from my numerous leech bites, liberally coated my pants. In spite of having just a handful of bites, my light colored cargoes probably had the most gruesome display of blood in the group.

Trekking back

About halfway down, some distance from the Mantapa, the light finally gave way and it was finally on to torches. That’s when a number of people realized that they didn’t have torches (having left all the bags behind). Then on it was slow going for them, with as many as ten people trailing behind one torch.
I was quite ahead and couldn’t see anyone either behind me or ahead of me – just torches flickering in the dark. Walking in the pitch black night, with just a torch to guide you on a hilly path down was a unique surreal experience.
Pretty soon I was down and after some fumbling in the dark finally made it down to Bhattara Mane. After that it was rest and gruesome task of pulling out leeches by torchlight. As the evening changed to night, the rest of our troupe trickled in. While we were waiting for the food to be served, to my horror I noticed a number of leeches in the main room where we were to sleep. We quickly got rid of them and after the electricity came, made sure that there weren’t any in the room. After a quick dinner of Sambhar and Rice (yes, again), I rolled out my sleeping bag and hit the sack (literally).
Next morning, we woke at about 6:00 in the morning and set off for Subramanya by 8:00. The climb down was un-eventful and pretty soon by 11:00 most of us were back in the vehicles. We left soon after for Bangalore, reaching back by about 08:00 in the evening.
While I’ve heard from several online blogs and other trekking groups that the Kumara Parvatha trek is an arduous one, I’d say it’s not. As long as you pack sensibly and ensure that you haven’t over-packed (like I did) climbing up all the way to the top should be a cinch for anyone in decent shape. All in all, and excellent experience (in spite of not making it 100% to the top) and would love to do this trail again if time and leeches permit.

Maribetta

It’s been about six months since I last hit the trekking trail and I thought it was high time I got started again. Bangalore Mountaineering Club (BMC) was organizing a trek to a little known hill called Maribetta near Kanakpura, and I thought I’d join in. So last minute plans were made, bags dusted, camera charged and off I went at the crack of dawn.
I met up with the rest of my little group at the usual spot at Domlur. For a change we made fairly good progress and actually reached the start of the trail a good hour before time. There we hired a few locals to guide us to the top, made pals with the mandatory dog and set off to climb Maribetta.
My first thought on seeing the hill was – That’s not all that tall, shouldn’t take too long to climb. Little did I know how wrong I’d be.
We soon hit the trail that went over a small hill. It was all good until we crossed it and it was only after that did we realize why the organizer’s had asked people to wear full sleeves shirts. The rest of the trail weaved through forest, with thorny bushes on either side!!
The trail that we took, went kind of round the main hill and up a smaller one. From there the idea was to take the connecting ridge all the way to the top.
In spite of the thorns, we made good progress and were almost all the way to the top pretty soon. But that was almost because we soon hit a pretty steep section of rock. From then on for the next hundred odd meters it was climbing up on all fours to reach the top of the section. After that bit the going was easy and we soon reached the top of the hill.

View from the top

The view from the top of the hill was breathtaking, with clear views for miles around the hill.
We had a quick lunch and spent some time admiring the view from the top. While we had aimed at staying for a few hours at the summit, the sharp afternoon sun and lack of shelter forced us to begin the trip back much earlier than planned. Since we wanted to climb down the hill as soon as possible, our guides decided to take us down another route.
Initially the route seemed fine and went through some forest patches, but pretty soon it became quite steep. At one point we were actually climbing down a steep (60 degree ?) rock face, literally sliding down !!! The journey down took it’s toll on us – torn bags, scuffed/torn pants were the order of the day. Oh and somewhere along the way, we all ran out of water.
We eventually made it down and rushed to our transport and made a beeline for the nearest place where we could get some water. Our thirst satiated, we made our way back to Bangalore reaching back in the late evening. Overall, it was quite a decent trek and a great way to get back to trekking.

Of course, investing in a  good mutual fund through a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is a no-brainer and I believe the corner stone of every portfolio (especially if you do not have the time to micro-manage your portfolio) should start there. However, I also believe it’s possible to augment returns from mutual funds through investing in stocks directly or through derivatives.

Which brings me back to the fundamental question – is there a fairly “sound” system for getting into the stock market and exiting profitably? From the little I know about the field, most academic research has been done in the “value investing” school of thought i.e. investing in stocks that are trading at less than their intrinsic values.

So I decided to investigate this further by building a “paper” portfolio of value stocks. I chose Benjamin Graham’s Net Current Asset Value (NCAV) per share as the criterion to filter stocks.  The NCAV per share is calculated as per the formula below:

What the NCAV per share effectively indicates, is a “realistic” cash value that may be available to the shareholder once all liabilities have been met.  Graham recommends buying stock that trades at approximately 67% or less of the NCAV per share. A study by the State University of New York has shown that investors could have earned an average return of 29.4% over a 20 year period, by picking stocks by this method and holding them for a year.
Once the filter criterion was decided on, I needed a universe of stocks to choose from. For the universe of stocks to choose from, I restricted myself to the stocks that compose the BSE SMALL CAP index (which also served as my benchmark). I then ran a series of scripts that I wrote in Ruby to pull the data needed to calculate NCAV from Yahoo Finance. Once I had all the data in a spreadsheet, I calculated the NCAV for all the stocks.
While Graham recommends only picking up stocks that trade at values significantly below their NCAV, I chose to go with stocks that were trading at prices that were at the NCAV or below it. Using this filter, I got a portfolio of about 17 stocks. The next step in my opinion should have been either of the following:

• Use the Markowitz optimum portfolio theory and allocate a fixed amount of capital among the stocks chosen so as to minimize portfolio risk OR
• Do further fundamental analysis (which most investment “gurus” recommend) and pick only those that are “fundamentally” strong

However, since I was pressed for time – I took the easy way out.

I just created a “paper” portfolio containing 100 shares of each stock. Slightly “unscientific” I know, but bear with me.
So with this small little NCAV portfolio – I began tracking the performance of the portfolio. And the results have been interesting, to say the least.

NCAV Portfolio Performance

The portfolio has significantly outperformed the benchmark over the last month. The returns from the benchmark BSE SMALL CAP index have been about -2.14% while the portfolio has returned about +9.09%.
While I agree that the time period is probably a bit short for significant analysis, I think the results warrant further investigation. Over the next few months, I will actively monitor my little test portfolio and update this blog. Lets see how it goes.

Google+ seems to have made a “splash” with the initial crazy insane response. However, thanks to Google’s measured response to sending out new invites, this seems to be slowing dying out. Both search and news volume trends for Google+ seem to be heading downwards. It seems to me that Google still hasn’t learned lessons from the Wave debacle – strike while the iron’s hot. Though whether this will sink the fledgling social network or not is something that time will tell…