ISTANBUL !!!!

There are few years where i have travelled my best.... This is been one of those years where i had loads of work.. loads of travel.... loads of fun and everywhere !!!!

Istanbul... Have always been on my cards... But never thought would get a chance to see this place this quickly...  All thanks to our clients and thanks to Bala boss... i got an amazing opportunity to be there and see it by myself.. :) :)

Was all thrilled as usual... Had to hold up the excitement till last two days, since were waiting for the VISA to come by... And YES!!!! Got it .... All excited.... There was a wedding in the family so my sister had come to visit as well..  Previous night well spent with her and morning Masala dosa started my day with. Had to rush to office and then home and had to pack. One thing about all the travelling i am doing, "I have become very efficient in packing".. I can proudly say that now. So as usual i came home packed and ate and took a nap, got ready and started to airport. Had to travel to Mumbai for connecting flight to Istanbul.  Was all set for no sleep night.... Travelled to Mumbai and then was the biggest pain, we had change from one terminal to another and then we had to really wait in ONE BIG queue to check-ins. Since it was a group booking no web-check ins.. So did go through the whole 2 hours for check-in...  After 7 hrs flight we landed in Istanbul... All excited got off the flight to see the temp as 6 degrees.. Quickly wore my jacket and got hotel transfers. I got to know an interesting fact from my nephew the day i told him i am flying to Istanbul. Only city in the world which is in both continents(Europe and Asia). Beautiful city filled with loads of tunnels in them.. Few tunnels are couple of kilo meters long. Was a wonderful experience to travel in them.. Reached the hotel and all i did was to CRASH....

After a big long nap of 2 hours, i was ready to explore. We stayed at Conrad hotel and we had to travel to Hilton for the event. Took a taxi, and reached the venue.. There were rehearsals for next day event and back at the hotel... Next morning was event morning and after 2 was the excursion, cruise and grand palace dinner in line..

Excursion started with a palace view. Place called Beyeler Beye Palace.  Beylerbeyi meaning "Lord of Lords"...One of the oldest palaces of Istanbul.. Beautiful architecture and such colourful upholstery to matching beautiful furnitures. This palace is right next to Bosporus-Strait of Istanbul. Soo beautiful and serene..... After that we were taken to a cruise of 2 hours on Bosporus and such wooow experience it was.. We were welcomed by a Cay(chai- Black turkish tea).. Love of teetotaller like me... Had couple of sandwiches and yeah the view i saw from the cruise was unbelievable. I would not have believed if i hadn't witnessed myself. Such a WOOOOOOOOOW views, sea gulls flying, Orange skies.. Sunset looked amazing.. Beautiful torquiest coloured sea... surrounded by such beautiful buildings, ports, colourful lights of the city and wow the Bosphorus bridge. It'a bridge built on lines of SFO Golden Gate... Similar looking as well.. Such a WOW experience.,Only drawback was cold wind.. Never mind that didn't make me go down from the Deck.. Wore coat, gloves, caps and i managed to survive on the deck. The view was so beathe taking i didn't budge and inch but stayed whole of 2 hours and enjoyed everybit of it..

Beautifully lit buildings, almost all shades of lights on it.. View was unexplainable. I can only try to explain. few of the palaces were light with shade of Orange CT lights, few were lit in Red, Few lit in Purple.. The whole bay area was sooo LIT.... I would cherish the experience..

Now the ending of the cruise had another excitement waiting to unfold... We were invited to Chirange Palace.. One of the biggest palaces of Istanbul converted to a hotel.. Such an Extravagant dinner... No exaggeration it was extravagant... We had lots of performances right from Ballet, violinist, a band... Such a luxurious experience. Worth cherishing.... 

Day 2 was all about exploration... We had time till 7 in the evening. Next event was at 7 PM.. I didn't want to miss this event, since its all about my favourite singer "Sonu Nigam Live".... 

Such an wow moment it was to listen to Sonu Nigam sing... So magical.. One of the best experiences i had in my life was this event !!!!

Great Lakes of Kashmir

Kashmir... Heaven on earth... Soo many years have been wondering is it really that beautiful??  Guess it was time to find out. It had been almost two years i went on a trek.. Going on trek with your friends is a delight on it's own. Finally the decision was made to go on KGL. Jayashree, Anala,Megha , Lidiya and me. The tickets got booked couple of months before and managed to get a slot as well btw July 20th to 29th 2019.

All of us started working out and preparing ourselves for upcoming trek. Since the difficulty level mentioned was "moderate to difficult", we did start preparing ourselves well.

As the days neared the excitement got more and more but were trying to keeping it low because of all the luck we carry ;). THE DAY arrived when we had to pack our bags and leave. As usual my packing of bags happen on only rocket principle :D.

Managed to pack bags,charge camera batteries,power banks. All set... We started the previous night since we had to catch the plane at 5 AM. we landed in airport by 12.30. We had soo much time, we managed to catch of couple of seats near the boarding gate and crashed for couple of hours. Our flight was on time and we sat on plane, YES that's the time to celebrate  :D :D...

Landed in Srinagar around 9 AM and we were trying to figure out way to reach Tourist Centre. We took a cab to that place. Tourist centre is a well decorated place. They have people to help all the tourist with place to wait(waiting area, restrooms), sim card and also help with this. That's very helpful place i feel. We went around in search of food. We did manage to walk around 2 kms in search. Managed to get good bfast. Ate too much to food and took loads of photos and head back.

Around 3 PM we started towards Sonmarg, our first base camp. Drove through such good scenic beauty, only pain was to see how difficult life must be for people and soldiers. There were so many soldiers all the way who were guarding everyone.  Life's not easy there i know. 

Enroute to Sonmarg, stopped for nice Khawa chai and pakodas.. Reached Sonmarg around 6 PM. We were camping near the bridge which is an entry point to Sonmarg. There was a nice stream next to our camp. Next to our camp was one wonderful camp. School kids had come on excursion to Srinagar. They were so much fun to watch. They all were so happy camping, whole while i thought wish i could have camped when we were of that age. They all were singing dancing for long time.. Was nice to see so many happy kids. First thing which i realised was it doesn't get dark till 8.30 PM.... That's like crazy long days. But if you look at it it's good this way, we can enjoy our camping experience.

Shitkadi(Shekdur- 11,200 ft)
Next day morning the timing was 7,8,9.  7 AM is the tea, 8 AM is the breakfast and 9 AM is when we move. We got all dressed up and started walking towards shitkadi. We were supposed to camp in Shitkadi that night. First was a jeep trail where we were walking. slowly got deviated to grassland with pine trees. Beautiful view of snow capped mountain range one side and green grasslands on the other. Slowly the terrain changed to trail in the forest. It was nice forest walk, lots of ascent and some descent on the way. I was always one of the last ones to finish the climb. We kept on walking the forest range for a long time may be couple of hours. Later we broke for lunch. I was already tired of walking :D. I apparently realised another 3 hours of walk is left. We walked up in grasslands for another 3 hours to reach Shitkadi. We camped in Shitkadi that night, was so tired ate my dinner and crashed. What i love about camping is we are always next to a stream :) :).

Nichnai (12,000 ft)
Next day morning timing was 5,6,7. We had to get up early and start walking quickly to stay in Nichnai that night. We would get to see the first lake that evening Vishansar lake. There wasn't much climb that day. More of descent and lots of walk on grasslands. while crossing a stream i did fall.. That started thee count as 1 :D.  All i was worried as soon as i fell was my camera, i managed to keep my hands up in air to keep it dry.... We had cross few snow patches. I was walking without a hiking pole :D. It wasn't very easy. On our way there were soo many flowers seen. Small flowers which are yellow, purple and red. Real small ones but soo beautiful.We walked up for around 15 kms and about 8 hours to reach the Nichnai pass where our tents were pitched in.  We had hot soup with popcorn and then we were supposed to walk up to see Vishansar lake. The first lake of our trek. We walked up around 45 mins to reach beautiful Vishansar lake. It was lovely teal blue in colour. Heard that the colour of the lake changes with sunlight. It was so beautiful. We took lots of pics with the lakes and head back to campsite. We were so happy to see the lakes.

Gadsar (13750 ft)
The timing for today was 4,5,6. We knew its going to be the longest day. Gadsar pass the most difficult day of the whole trek. The summit is 13750 ft. I was mentally prepared had to walk a long looong way today. Loads of steep climb, also steep downhill, loads of snow patches and also tough terrain. The most difficult thing while trekking.We climbed real steep hills and walked for a long time. Most challenging part while trekking is when suddenly all the horses and mules come and we have to make way for them :D . According to me that's the fastest climb from our end since we need to make way for him. On our way there were soo many flowers seen. Small flowers which are yellow, red,pink,white. Oh amazingly nice ones. While climbing we could see the twin lakes together so serene and so beautiful. But to capture the complete view trust me must have taken pic every 500 mtrs i climbed :D. Kept on clicking soo many, finally got a glimpse captured in my camera. Felt accomplished. While walking up kept on hoping that would be the last climb. Nah.. That was just a small turn and peak was hidden till there. Yeah we climbed up peak over peak. Was tough steep climb. Got tired a lot of times and then yeah took enough breathes and started climb again. Yippie reached the peak and felt like I achieved a great mission. Yes indeed was worth it. We clicked so many pics with soo many poses.. :D Was lovely feeling. Now comes the downhill. First challenge was the snow patch. Jaychee was a big support to climb down. I was holding onto her and walking down the snow patch. I had apparently fallen off 5 times already in snow, the 6th one was pulling jaychee along. Both of us laughed at it and started walking down. It was fun downhill climb. Lots of snow patches, so many falls and i stopped keeping count of it ;) . Then came the place where we stopped for lunch.. Wow we were dying to eat. :D Now that we stopped for lunch, Megha became "My Love". She asked someone for "MYSORE PAK". Imagine eating Mysore Pak when you are dying to eat food of your choice. I kept on giving so many kisses to Megha the whole day. She got MYSORE PAK. Can you imagine eating favourite sweet at that altitude. Just my day was made. We had a walk through a lot of grasslands. Walked through lots of sheep herds. Was a really a very long day and walked like crazy. Finally reached the camp by 6 PM types. We all met up in lunch tent, played Antakshari, enjoyed dinner and crashed.
 
Satsar(12,000 ft)
The timing was 5.30,6.30,7.30 for that day. It wasn't much of a walk but the idea was to reach the camp by Lunch. We started our walk, there were lots of uphills and downhills but more challenging was having to pass through boulders. Boulders i liked crossing them. Found it much easier to jump the boulders than climbing up the hill. Boulders crossing is easy but it has one big issue is it will hurt your knees. I had some strain on my knees by end of day that day. We walked for around 7 hrs and reached the camp. After reaching the camp we had lunch and had sometime off and we had to go see Satsar lake. 1 hour of walk,boulders jumping and uphill we reached Satsar. Satsar lake was so beautiful and ofcourse we were damn lucky with timing saw beautiful teal blue coloured lake. We clicked and clicked and walked back. We were being prepared for next day which had atleast 3 hours on boulders. We came back had our dinner and crashed.

Gangbal(13250 ft)
Another tough day was lined up to cross Zaj Pass. We had again a quick start today 4.30,5.30,6.30. We had to start early since this was another tough day ahead. We had to again cross boulders for 3 hours. Started crossing the boulders and uphill climb. Boulders were difficult. We had a practise session previous day and mentally we were prepared for the climb being difficult. After couple of hours of climb we reached the summit which was a snow capped mountain. People were sliding down instead of climbing down the snow. Looked lot of fun, but could have been dangerous, so didn't risk it.  Jaychee my guardian for crossing the snow patch was ready :) :). Started the downclimb. It was pretty steep downhill and we started walking quickly as they were fearing it might rain. We were damn lucky till that day we never faced any rain. After downhill walk of around hour, it started to rain. It was pretty bad rain and the downhill was slippery because of mud and small stones. After walking some distance slowly the mud filled in shoes and started getting slippery. It started getting more and more difficult with time. After an hour  "I FELL :(" . I fell sooo damn bad, my back was hit on the edge of flat rock. I was in tears, i just cleared myself and got up and it started hurting so bad. Thanks to our trek guide tareek bhai. He helped me walk for atleast 4 kms. He literally held me and made me walk. After some distance came near jaychee. It was cold and back being hurting so bad, i started crying like a baby. I cried till i felt better. Thanks to Jaychee and Tareek bhai, i reached the base camp. They both held me and made me walk till the camp. As soon as i came back ate my lunch and cleaned up myself and took lots of rest that day. That night was soo bad. I had taken pain killer, but it didn't work. Middle of night all i could do is to sit and cry and i was dreading next downhill to reach naranag.

RestDay:
That day was declared a rest day. It was raining the whole day and everyone had to wait for whole day to go and see Gangbal lake. I chose not to go and see the lake, because i was worried about last day's naranag walk. Whole day we had lots of fun in lunch tent, played loads of dumbcharades and had awesome fun. Inspite of all the pain i managed to enjoy the day's fun. Towards evening when everyone left to see Gangbal lake, i was just walking around slowly in the camp. I was morally very down and pain was too much. Apparently met a couple who were from the next batch, they gave me some medicine and showed me some stretches and ofcourse good pep talk. Guess that was soo needed for me to morally boost me.  I felt soo very nice and good about meeting them. I felt recharged. The medicine they gave me helped with the muscle spasm and i felt a lot better the next day. Next day meant i am lots of downhill. That night we were given our certificates and we all shared our views about the trek.

Naranag
Another dreadful day since it had rained the whole night. It was drizzling when we started to walk. That morning that couple came up to me and cheered me up again and sent me.. I believe in Karma. Felt all the pep talks i have given in my life is come back to me. Much needed boost i got. All set to walk. We had cross few boulders and ascent before the descent starts. We started walking. All thanks to both my darling Anala and Jaychee. They walked hand in hand with me the whole day. Though I had pain, it wasn't as bad it was before. I did walk well. The downhill started and the EVIL RAIN started again. The downhill was all slippery, muddy and rocky. It was quiet difficult to walk down and reach the base camp. The stretch would have been wonderful and descent would have been very scenic if it hadn't rained. It was mostly through the forest. Did slip lots of times but thanks to my buddies and Tareekh bhai i managed to come down. Once i reached i couldn't believe it was over. 
"YES I DID IT". Later we had our lunch in Naranag and started towards Srinagar. Reached Srinagar and stayed in a boat house. It's a different experience and the boat ride next morning was beautiful. Clicked lots of pics as well. It was indeed an excellent experience. "EXPERIENCE FOR LIFETIME"
Lidiya is just awesome inspite of being first trek she made it. Jaychee and Anala darling were as awesome as always. Megha ma rocks, since she was always on the lead and was all energetic, but brownie points for getting me Mysore pak.

Proud to say everyone in the group made it. 18 women in group of 23 people, lots of first timers as well. WOMEN POWER. 
Had wonderful experience, little hurt on the back.

Valley of flowers !!! One hell of a trip... :) :D

Valley of flowers.... Awww... Have been trying to make it to this trip since two years.. Finally made it this year.. Last time when booked for this trek, Badrinath had floods and completely drowned places.. That trip moved to BHRIGU Lake... First time to Himalayas.... Beauty i had seen then will never be able to explained in words... Words wouldn't do justice..

29th Morning 7.55 AM was my flight to Delhi. Though i booked everything at last moment. Previous night Blore had real bad rains..Couldn't sleep out of excitement.... Morning took a cab at 5.15 AM... Passed through all flooded roads.. Managed to reach there by 6.30 AM... Checked in and was waiting for rest 6 to join. I knew 4 people already, two more were new to me. Jaychee,abhishek,avinash,chetana have known for long time.. But Siddharth and Savitha were two new people. As always before meeting new people had few notions built..By the end of trip the whole notion changed soo much... Turned out to be we are all one kind of people.. :):) 'THE GALATE GANG"... Everyone managed to reach there by 7.30 AM .. We all boarded the flight ....

Adventure started ..... It was raining quite bad when we reached Delhi. Pilot was trying to land and he almost landed and took off again... The noise we heard and the jerk we got was soo scary.. Pilot announced that they had issues landing due to bad weather.. After another hour flying around finally managed to land safely.. Only thing left was to kiss the land as we landed.. :D

Carried all our bags and rushed outside airport, caught metro to reach Chandni Chowk. Heart of delhi... One thing came into my mind at that time i listened to place where we are staying was "PARATEWAALI GALI"....
Went and checked into a hotel ,got freshened up. Next plan was to eat parathas and go to Aksharadham. It was drizzling whole while ever since we landed in Delhi.. Started walking towards paratewaali gaali with drooling faces :D :D... Parathas there are sooo delicious and yummm... Only eating there can explain it.. We dont know how many parathas we ate.. Aloo, alooo pyaaz,gobi,matar,malai,cashew, name it ... we ate it... :):) We lost count of it.. All we know we gave a solid bill of a thousand and odd. :D :D Started towards Akshardham. Got off metro station and we thought will take auto so that we reach there faster n we can come back..  Couldn't believe the way we got cheated.. Auto guy took two U-Turns under the flyovers and dropped us to a place which was next to metro station. One incident we all intend to forget. But was too much to forget. Akshardham is indeed a visual treat.. Such serene place, wonderful sculptures and amazing landscape.. We walked back to metro and head back hotel. Had our dinner from Hotel, took a rickshaw and head towards Kashmere Gate. Thats where we were supposed to board our bus to Haridwar.
Whole way we saw lot of trucks with huge speakers playing loud music, filled with guys wearing orange shirts and shorts with Shiva image on shirts. Those guys wore ghunghroo(anklets) on one of the ankles too.
Adventure 2 began.. We were 8 kms from Haridwar, but took us around 2 hrs to reach there.. The festival of KAVADI was happening in Haridwar. The ritual is that people carry ganga from haridwar to thier respective village temple in order to to do abhisheka for lord shiva.. Major ritual is that they have to carry Ganga barefoot.. Can't be transported by any other way but guys carrying it.. So people kind of do a relay and take Ganga home...People come across from different states.... Crazy rush of people around. We were supposed to reach there by 6 in morning.. We reached there late and we had to walk up and down quiet some distance bcoz of mad rush everywhere and driver couldn't pick us from where we were... Finally reached there running around to railway station by 8.30 AM.. On our way we still had to pick four people.. We all started in a tempo traveller. Picked Sumit in Haridwar. Sumit is a freelance photographer.. Official trek photographer. Very sweet and a calm guy. Inspite of all of us making soo much of noise, he stayed calm and relaxed. We picked Reenu,Bhavna and Nirmala from Rishikesh. Reenu and Bhavana are duo who enjoys a lot and always cheerful ..:) Nirmala is quite and ofcourse with loads of enthusiasm... Drove for around 8 hours to reach Govindghat.. What we saw on our way was soooo serene... So beautiful.. Himalayas are huge range of mountains.. Though western ghats are amazing, what we saw was 10 times more bigger and more beautiful and more amazing a view. We didnt get tired of clicking. We passed through Nandaprayag,Rudraprayag,Devapryag.. Saw many rivers merging to make GANGA... All of us kept on clicking, ckicking.. Clicked mountains, valleys, river and even Rainbows.. :):):) Beauty at its best.... As usual my legs were swollen like batata vadaa.. So much of journey.. all i needed was to crash before the trek starts..We stayed at a place called Hotel Ganga.. we all reached, got freshened up and all set for next steps....

We all were asked to be gathered for introduction and briefing. Haristh Patel, our trek lead for the trek... Veerupaaji and Krishna are other guides who helped us throughout... We were explained the logic of  6 7 8  where its three different times we get our tea,snacks and food... Another thing which was new for me is to carry our own box and spoons.. Its actually a nice thing, we can eat stuff and clean our vessels ourselves and reuse it. Another thing about IndiaHikes is they preach eating in smaller portions. In that way we don't waste food and enjoy whatever we eat. :)
All 22 of us met each other, everyone gave intro about one self and we got to know some stuff about each other.. Was surprised to see Viji aunty, nirmala and Shankar uncle being part of it.. They have so much of energy and had soo much determination and will to see the world irrespective of their age. Got to know they have seen Manas Sarovar too( thats like one of the dream destination for me). Met couple of people who are first timers and few experienced trekkers.. Got to know so many people one shot.. And its always awesome to meet like minded people who love nature and love being part of adventure...


6 7 8... We were all set with our energy levels high and with the cameras charged completely :D :D... Govindghat to Ghangharia is 16kms of trek.. Up the hill for 16 kms was already looking big. We started trekking on a road, clicking already.. and we were told we have lots of dhabas on the way. We had our lunches packed already... We started walking and soo much to it.. we walked and walked.. After walking for 6 kms we got to stop at a dhaba and we ate finished our boxes, ordered extra stuff and ate.. :) :)  we saw lots of people taking Ghoda's to reach Ghagharia. Its a choice we make, either walk up or we get to take Godha's... We were probably always walking at the end of trail.. little slow.. little clicking. and loads of talking and eating.. :):)

Must have walked around 10 kms.. An old sardarji was walking down.. I was struggling to climb up n crying how much more distance.. Inspite of being so old, we was slow but he was walking down.. He inspired me soo much.. Just felt soo small at that point. I asked him if i can take a picture with him. He said "Aajoa beta.. kyun nahi..". Such a warm person he was.. Got a click with him and got inspired and started walking again.. whole path was so serene and green... Just can't get enough of mountains and the purity of air.. everything seemed soo heavenly...

We walked the whole day.. we reached the basecamp at around 6 PM.... We all were alloted rooms.. Me,Jaychee,Chetana,Savitha and Nitika shared a room... Were all hungry and ate like crazy... We had briefing from Harishth about next day. He said valley of flowers climb is around 10 kms.. 5 Kms one way.. and told us to lower our expectations about flowers seen....
We went on exploring local food.. Ate such Yummmmmmm Jaamooon.. Drooled over it and was sooo nice and yummm... Ate our share of Jamoons.. It rained so badly the whole night.. We were praying that rain stops and get us good view of flowers...

Rains stopped luckily.. Slowly clouds were clearing up... Morning 6 7 8 done.... All set we were ready for the valley of flowers... Started our walk.. Whole path is so serene.. We had to cross two bridges in the beginning. we started clicking already and walking so slow.. Harshith came rushing and pushed us to come there soon so that we can cross the security area... We had register our self there and start our walk.. As soon as we started our walks we started seeing flowers.. The most common one was Dog flower.. We saw lots of them.. Then we saw Bell flowers, the purple ones... . Saw yellow bunched flowers.... Below have mentioned couple of names ... Thanks to Sid for giving me couple of names :) Thanks for the research m stealing it buddy... We crossed two bridges that day.. water gushing ... 

• Himalayan Rose
•  Jacquemont's Ligularia - belongs to the sunflower family. (Ligularia jacquemontiana) 
• Fading Himalayan Aster - belongs to sunflower family, found in the Himalayas, from Kashmir to SW China and Myanmar and blossoms between July and September. (Aster albescens) 
• Himalayan Fleabane - sunflower family. (Erigeron multiradiatus) 
• Leafy Meadow-Rue - butturcup family. 
• Horned Lousewort
•  Common Alp Lily
• The forget-me-not buds. 
• Rose Carpet Knotweed. Early autumn flowering weeds that beautifully and happily cover rocks and ground quickly.
• Milk Parsley. 
• Meadow Geranium.
• Himalayan knotweed: These flowers are beautiful, but are persistent weeds. From the knotweed family (Persicaria wallichii) 
• Himalayan Thorowax. 

Met so many new people on our way from different camps.. There were a set of 28 people from Shimoga.. Most of the middle aged.. Seeing their spirits so high was soo nice to see it... Was so nice to hear so many people speaking kannada too.. On our way we saw a tree with a burrow in it.. And i saw Mr.Sid fit into it.. He is such a fun person.. and can attempt anything weird at any point of time.. :) We all tried our luck fitting into the burrow and clicked and clicked... We reached valley of flowers... Such a treat to eye.. cant explain how beautiful the whole place was... Flowers and flowers everywhere... Woooooooooow ... is the only word.. We stopped to have our food on big rock.. Ate and started out climb down... One thing i saw whole of the track was we saw lots of "PITTU' .. Men carrying other people in a basket on their back... It was their bread and butter.. Was wondering what does people have to do to fill their stomach.. 

While we were climbing we crossed a bridge and we saw Alaknanda.. While climbing down we saw same river with more water gushing.. Water had strange attraction towards it.. It was as though it was calling me to it... It was so ferocious and same time was such a beauty..

We came back by 3..  Went to check with the jamoons today also. Sadly cudnt get that guy .. Returned disappointed.. Though we ate some place else.. we roamed around and came back...  relaxed and played some bluff game.... as usual Avinash the silent killer kept on winning... Savitha denied to join the game,,. Sid and Sumit were equally bad at this game..

Shahana is another sweetheart I met.. Somehow i could connect to her instantly.. She is all so warm a person.. loved her hugs.. :) :) 6 7 8.. we ate nicely and crashed.. We were dreaded already about next day. Everyone said Hemkund Sahib is very very diffcult to do.. Very steep.. and lots of heights to catch on.... Did sleep with all those thoughts on mind...

Morning we started early .. Since we had to reach the Gurudwara by 1.. It seems the Gurudwara closes by 2 in afternoon. Since the oxygen levels come down people prefer coming back by then.. Got to hear that taking camphor along with us would help us with mountain sickeness.... Started climbing, initially itself we have found the stretch quiet steep.. Started walking slowly.. But we wanted to make it... This was quiet a lot of climb.. We walked up , we kept our pace going.. Scene is awesome too.. such a place... can't ever get enough of green and mountains.. soo beuatiful... This is the only place we could see Blue poppy and Brahma Kamala... Mountains flowers.. clouds.. aww only seeing it can do justice.. can never explain the beauty i saw.... Woow is the only word...

• Brahma kamal.. the much revered flower of the Himalayas. It lives at the upper limit of high mountains, at 3000-4600m. The flowerheads are actually purple, but are enclosed in layers of greenish-yellow, papery, boat-shaped bracts. Offered to hill temples like Badrinath..

 After climbing some 3 kms we started hearing music and prayers from gurudwara.. We thought we reached like soo many times... After we walked for around 5 hrr.. we saw the gurudwara and it was like as though seeing heaven :) :) ... Went there and saw "God" and ate lungar... OMG the most delicious dal kichdi i have ever eaten in my life... YUMMMMM.... after that we went to see the lake.. At that cold climate guys did take a DIP too.. OMG.. i just removed my shoes and sprinkled some water on my head.. Thats all i could afford .. :) We climbed down much slower than previuos day.. We tookd around 3 and half hours to reach back... came back. ate.. We went in search of Jamoon... Clicked.. ate soo many jamoons.. and found a nice place to get pakodas also.. ate like crazy and came back.. No one wanted to eat.. But Sid fed us all.. :) :) Bcoz of being fed, we all ate soo much.. I ate stomach full.. Someone fed me after such a long time.. Love u lots Sid for that.. :) :) Being the youngest of the lot, treated us like kids.. :) Everyone had become like one big family already.. and they branded us the 7 noisy ones... :D :D ate and crashed..... Next day we had our plans to start early n reach govinghat by 11 so that we can rush to rishikesh. We had booked a cab from there.. So we started earlier than everyone else and started walking down. Walking down was much easier bcoz of all the walks we did previous days.. 

Morning we were all set at 6.. We started walking down .. Walking down was really easy.. It didnt take a lot of effort.. On our way back.. we saw another place like heaven... Morning sunrise.. and place was out of the world.. Did click loads of pictures.. in front of nature we all felt soo small.. I mean nature is soo beautiful...so green.. and soooo powerful... It can do anything to us..same place could be seen very beautiful... At the same time.. just a flood can make it washed out . Nature is the most powerful thing.... Shubha an enterpreneur and free spirited person.. She joined us walking down that day.. So nice to meet so many new people. But never felt anyone is new.. It was such a nice feeling... Such an adventure..

We reached Govindghat at 11.30 AM.. Problem was he had to wait up for the cab driver to come.. Cab driver got delayed and 3 hrs .. We all for freshened up and got ready and waited.. We started around 3 PM.. and around 7.30 driver tried to make us stay some place forecefully.. Finally we managed to push him to drive some more distance and reached around 10 PM to Devaprayag . We stayed back in one hotel there and started our journey back by 5 in morning.. we reached rishikesh by 7.30 AM

Checked into Vedas Tapovan and got freshened up and we went for sight seeing... Man Rishikesh was sooo hot.. We were searching for place where there is some AC or fan :D :D... Saw Lakshman jhoola and we went to the see Neelakant mandir.. We traveled for an hour almost to reach there... Visited temple and came back and we were right on time for Ganga arathi.. We went to Paramarth nikiten,.. There was nice bhajan sung and then ganga arathi started.. It was very beautiful a sight.. Nice to see so many foreign nationals so much interested in seeing Ganga Arathi... Cudnt belive that the city sleeps by 8 PM.. after 8 PM the whole city looks deserted...

On our way back hotel, we ate well and went and just crashed.. Next day plan was again market and shopping.. Whole day we roamed around and bought lots of stuff... :) We had our bus to Delhi at 10 PM.. We reached Delhi by 4 AM.. walked up to metro station and waited for metro gates to open.. Got ourselves to Delhi airport at 6 :) :)

Three cheers to all of us.. We Made it... !!!!!

Siddharth: Loads to say.. Running short of words to expression.. Awesome human being, lovely kid and superb photographer.... :) He did manage to take a dip in Hemkund.. :)

Jayashree: My darling.. :) :) Always an enthu cutlet.. Ready for all adventures always.. loads of energy... and Budding photographer :)

Chetana: Friend i know for i don't know how long.. Usually quiet but lots of determination.. In spite of first trek to Himalayas she made it... and ofcourse good photographer.. :)

Abhishek : Highly determined friend... :D Woud trek even with bruises and sprains.. Would always take dip in holy lake inspite of any temperature of water... Another good photographer along..

Avinash: Usually the quietest of the lot.. One of the most calmest people i know.. But always would try to scare us by saying he is getting angry.. :D :D and he would unleash the dark knight or Captain America in him.. One more good photopgrapher... :)

Savitha: Anothet quietest girl i know of.. Really friendly and would get adjusted anywhere and everywhere.. Loves nature and enjoys it to the core.. :) Photographer again :):)

Reenu and Bhavna: Really cant take their name seperately.. :). Such loving and bubbly ladies in the group.. They would just gel in with anyone .. really easy going duo.. :) Would always be infront leading us for trek :) :) ... Super fun to be with..

Nirmala: Sweet and caring.. I love the will power she carried.. Inspite of being her first trek, she did complete her trek.. So much of determination....

Nitika: First time trekker to Himalayas.. Very sweet girl.. always upto herself.. Inspite of first trek, she managed to climb it all.. Love her spirit of not giving up. :) Official guide for us about Rishikesh

Viji and Shankar :Hatsoff to their spirit... Amazing enthusiasm in life.. I love the way they are taking their life... Soo adventerous.. Woow... I'm simply speechless... They are very sweet and caring.. Was so nice to have them around.. :) :)

Shubha : Lovely lady with sweet smile.. :) I was amazed to know about her way of life after speaking to her.. Shez amazing and cheerful.. :)

Swastika: Kolkatawaali... Sweet girl... Would never give up on any terrain and slow but steady walks to complete trek...

Agomoni and Ruheen: Experienced trekkers.. Always walking in thier own pace.. No complaint set infact.. .. Awesome set.. :)

Shahana: Sweetheart... Bubbly GIRL.. :) :) So sweet to everyone around.. Always helping everyone around and caring for everyone..  Ofcourse would never give up on trek with any health condition.. Proud of her she completed her trek inspite of all odds..

Sumit: Quiet and sweet official photographer of our trek... Very calm a person and always ready to help anyone.. :) :)
And ofcourse he clicked our best pics .. He did manage to take a dip in Hemkund.. :)

Vaibhav: Cheerful guy... Always ready to help people and who would have lots of fun... another one who manage to take a dip in Hemkund.. :)

Shruthi and Vidhi: The sweet and cute sisters..  Very cheerful, inspite of coming trek for first time, would always walk up and pace up.. click too.. :) Sweethearts... :):)

Harshith Patel: Wanderlust Tattoo is the first thing i noticed...He taught me a new word FernWeh(Feeling home sick even when at home) Calm guy.. Awesome Trek lead.. Helped us at everypoint...

Sunderbans........

Most awaited break… Break after 3 years… KOLKATA Calling… Trip started eventful… Me,Madhu and Rukku started to airport… Ofcourse had to start eventful.. Thanks to Rukku, started late, then we had to rush back since she had left the ID proof.. We reached 6.45 PM for a 7 PM flight… Had to literally plead the Indigo people to get on the flight.. But with all her luck, we reached Kolkata… Lights on the city looked beautiful from air… Had carried bag full of warm clothes, fearing cold would be really bad.. But felt like its lesser cold than Bangalore.

Our first outing in Kolkata is to a mall :D… South City Mall looked all decked up for Christmas.. Roamed around Ghariahat and went back home.. Aunty had prepared loads of food… Ate sweets and slept off..

Mangrove forest, had read so much about it right from school… Sunderbans… Started at 9 AM to science city junction.. Rukku,Madhu,Didi and Me were all set to go.. We were all boarded a Qualis.. All thrilled by the description being read about the trip, started the trip.. We went by road for 3 hours to Godhkhali. Around 25 people were seated in 4 vehicles and we reached a place where we were transferred to a boat. Around 30 mins on motored boat and we were taken off on for next bit of ride… Next stretch of 5 kms was asked on cycle rickshaw.. It’s a 3 wheeler with wooden plank seating which can take many people together. Me and Rukku were asked to sit on one of the rickshaw and we had out luggage being carried along.. Was one different experience. He drove taking so much of weight on his vehicle.. :D After 5 kms stretch was done, I wanted to try riding it along… I did as soon as we reached .. Took a pic too… Next and the last stretch was on boat again. This time the boat was more of a smaller and typical boat which is rowed not motored. Reached the Chatimara again.. Place where we had to stay with no electricity… It’s an ecofriendly village where no plastic zone and no electricity also there.. We were given mud huts. Neat huts with an attached bathroom… Everything was nice and earthly.. We got freshen up and went for the lunch. Lunch reminded me of the mustard oil.. Found it very hard to eat that lunch, all my thoughts went on eating bread n jam later part of the day.. Post lunch we went on a village walk. We looked at lots of birds on our walk. Heron, types of Kingfishers like black capped kingfisher, collared kingfisher and so on. Looked at one of the clay oven, a small pond outside the huts… They store water for daily purpose and to breed fish in pond. After that we went on a local boat ride.. Beautiful the view was. Spotted more birds and was time for sunset. Sun sets at 4.30 here… View was soo beautiful. Couldn’t take my eyes off the sunset view. Orange sky, cold the weather was… Wooow it was… Sunset by 4.30 PM… By 5 everywhere it was dark and scary… We came back to our huts and got ready and ofcourse no electricity… We had lantern on and few torches on. Such a different experience. Got ready and there was a Baoul (folk music) music played. Group of 4 men sang so many Bengali Baoul songs. Thought we didn’t understand the meaning of it, beats were head banging ones… Just wanted to dance around for that music. Enjoyed the music, was really nice… After that had dinner. Ate Chapathi with jam and butterJJ. Group had few interesting people. Next day’s plan was to get up 5 AM and whole day on boat. Just the thought was so thrilling. Have never been on boat for one whole day.

Ajay babu(Organizer) gave us a wakeup call. Got hot water from the kitchen and we all took bath and got ready by 6 AM. It was all misty and cold outside. Of course the first ones to get ready. Had a lemon tea and all set to get on the boat. We were boarded to two different boats. We got on ELMAR (which means SEA). Got the required permissions from the forest office, which is just opposite to eco village, and head off into the jungle, for rendezvous with one of the biggest mangroves of the world, rich in flora and fauna… It was all misty.. Couldn’t see anything after 3 feet distance.. Boat ride started and few seconds we did hit on another boat… Though it wasn’t a bad one, it still scared hell out of everyone in the boat… Was so cold two sweaters and a cap and shall and were still trembling.. Was fun though.. Whole day on boat was something I had never done.. Was all thrilled and was looking forward for it.. Got a seat right infront of the boat and settled there…. Was easy to spot and click click. With help of Mr Aasif and his friend we could spot lots of birds(Which I was always unaware of)… Cruising  the small channels and creeks we will try to spot different wildlife.Clicked a crocodile,moniterlizard,loads of birds….. Went through visit 3 watch towers hoping to spot the ROYAL BENGAL TIGER namely Sajnekhali, Sudhanyakhali and Dobanki.. Didn’t find a single one J.Breakfast, lunch and other refreshments were cooked and served on the boat.

Mangroove forests is huge and beautiful.. We were on boat for whole day and for 50 kms almost.. Saw the sunset by 4.30.. captured few clicks and waited for us to reach the shore… We reached shore around 6.30 PM.We start our journey back for Kolkata and reached by 9.30 PM. Even after coming home had the feeling of as though I am sailing.. J Lovely experience it was, cant really explain it in few words… JJ

Mullayanagiri....

Mullayangiri has loads of memories for me from my childhood.. My aunt used to stay in chickamagalur.. Have been there to mullayangiri couple of times when was in school. One of the times i remember very clearly is when i was in my 5th standard or so.. Had been there with my cousins.. I remember trekking from seethalayanagiri to mullayangiri and it was so beautiful an experience along with the view from the top of the hill too... Had been to Mullayangiri two years and ago and was one memorable trip to chickamagalur too.. It had rained and slippery terrain and we trekked.. was just awesome...
Finally the plan was made to go for a team outing to Mullayangiri.. The very word thrilled me.. As planned we all decided on leaving on 27th morning to Mullayangiri.. Calling people, waking people up ;) co ordinating all fianlly gathered at 7 AM and set to leave.. Thanks to the leaders who did manage to pull in people atleast at 7AM....
Nikhil,Vijay,Basava,Chetana and myself were to first few to get on at 5AM on bus and ofcourse the set to wait till everyone came in.. So finally everyone gathered at 7AM.. We were a good headcount of 26 people.. Am sure everyone was equally thrilled as i was.. It was my first team outing with this team... First thing to do as soon as we all hopped on was, Bala shuffled people and said we need to know others and not just friends friends sitting next to each other.. So we started our journey... Started with ragging newly joined ones.. Ofcourse we were a big pulton to be ragged...Hafeez took the lead to rag each and everybody.. :D
Went on with the below list.. :D

1. Mathew

2. Prasad

3. Nani

4. Hema

5. Swati

6. Kamran

Stopped in for nice yummy idly for breakfast somewhere near to Kunigal.. ofcourse clicked too.. :D Though i was too lazy to unviel my cam.. Mahesh and Sriram clicked.. :) After a photoshoot and breakfast break, we started again.. We had a fight over which movie to watch and finally watched Bhag Milka Bhag on our way.. Most of slept through the movie.. :D Ofcourse I was up and running when we crossed Hassan(Ofcourse i had to say to people i am from there). Reached chickamagalur around 11.30 PM.. All of us freshened up and ate our lunch and were all set to go to Mullayangiri... I was super thrilled about the wide angle lens i was carrying(hoping to get great clicks on the top of the hill).. I finally unvieledmy camera and started the click right at the home stay.. Since the homestay had beautiful garden with flowers and flowers and flowers where ever we saw.. How could photographers keep it down.. Click Click Click.... :)

Homestay owner said our bus wouldn't be able to make it in that road, so we rented another small bus and started our journey.... As we started to climb, all we could see is green green and green... Beautiful sights all over.. Stopped at a place to have some clicks ofcourse and started again.. All the RayBan,fast-tracks came out.. :D Click Click Click.. :)

We had to stop our bus on reaching Seethalayanagiri.. We decided to trek from there... So we had to finish around 4 kms of trek and then 400 steps to reach the place... Started the climb.. It was so beautiful a sight.. Slowly steadily all of us started the climbed and managed to reach the steps... Click click was another important rule.. :) Couple of guys carried water bottles and kept people hydrated.. :) Thanks to them..
Reaching steps, few of them started saying will not climb.. this enough kinds..Finally everyone started pushing the other and the last set of steps to climb the peak.. I am so proud to say that "ALL OF US MADE IT TO THE PEAK".

Peak has a small temple at the top of the hill.. On the way to the peak, planted my tripod and finally managed to click the clicks i wanted to.. It was so mesmerizing a sight.. Was lost in the moment.. Just wanted to stay there... Could actually see the shades on few hills,few hills being cloudy and what not... MESMERIZING is the only word i can think of it now..  We clicked so many clicks again.. Took a team picture... :) cheers to all the photographers...:)

As we started to climb down, clouds started to cover the hill... It was soo beautiful a sight.. Clouds covering the whole arena.. woooow it was... Midst of cloud, we were climbing down.. We stopped at one small stream and played in water.. Has so much fun.. I am sure all of us were drenched.. :D Lovely it was... we came back to the homestay by around 7 PM....

We had a nice plan knit for the evening already.. How can a trip complete without a bonfire? We played two games around the bonfire and of course snacks were served.. We played a game of identify who is the personality.. Man that was one game.. :D Was so super fun... Few guys were super cool guessing the personalities too.. :)

Mathew - Meg WItman. He did guess it..  and in like 3 chances...

Ullas- Mahatma Gandhi .. He Didnt guess and accepted a dare of voicing out wild and domestic animals

swati - Rajnikanth Guessed it.. :D

Hema- Amitab Bachchan... She guessed it tooo

sridhar- Charlie Chaplin... He couldn't guess and he did sing a song both forward and backward.. That was amazing

After this game we played the game of killer,Detective and Victim game.. Game where the killer will wink and kill the victims.. Game was more fun because through the bonfire it was so hard to see someone wink ..;)

and the fun part was the detective(Karuna) revealed herself and made the task easy for the killer to kill everyone. Mathew(killer)lived it.. 

Finishing dinner we all crashed... :D Next day morning all the girls got up and were ready by 6... and found out all the guys weren't up yet.,. :( We did have our coffee went on a stroll..

After breakfast we planned out to go to Dabdabee/Sagir Ahmed Falls.. Inside Sagir Ahmed Estate we had to walk down around 2 kms to reach the falls... WOOOOW was an understatement looking at what we saw.. Moment saw the water just splashed on it.. Most of us got in the water and played and played and played.. Couple of them scared of leeches, stayed outside.. But most of us were in water and enjoyed it to the fullest.. This time i didnt wanted to click but to enjoy water.. mahesh and sriram clicked.. Saw a nice rainbow formation in the falls.. was so beautiful.... Was so difficult to get off water and start climbing back to the road..
Once were back everyone got so busy checking leeches.. most of them leech on them except me.. :D :D

Came back to the homestay, got freshened up and started our journey back.. Said bye byee to chickmagalur..


Two days of pure fun.. :) Cheers to everyone.. Here goes the star cast... :)

Sriram: Photographer :D
Seema: Seems- Screamer on the top of the hill... ;)
Aparna: Appu the giggler...
Hafeez: Dancing Doll.. :P
Ullas: Pumpkin.. the Posing organizer
Chetana: Silence is bliss.. :D
Prasad: Telugu songs being sung without giving us the translation
Bala:     Leech Leech Leech.. :D jokes apart . Thanks for a nice trip..
Mou:  Posing queen
Mahesh: Photographer.. Quiet one :)
Swati: Shhh… :)
Hema: Oi…. :D
Prasad: Mucheli.. Smiley boy1… :D
Mathew: Baby. Smiley kind hearted(He claimed it always)… :)
Vijay: Bijapur…. :)
Sharanu: Quiet smiling one... :)
Nani:            Over night star… :)
Kamran: Chocolate boy…Shhh... :)
Edwin: Guru…. :)
Nikhil: Bruce lee…Jolada rotti.. :)
Manish: Smiles and smiles and smiles…
Indrasen: Smiley boy2… :D
Dinesh: Smiling always.. :)
Karuna:  Loves water soo much,.. :) Enjoyed it to the fullest
Sridhar: Very helpful to everyone in arranging everything.. :) organizer

Cheers to all of us... :)