Tuesday 21 June 2011

India Golden Triangle 21-25 Jun 2011 (Pt 4)






Continued from: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2011/07/hp-bhapa-pass-trek-16-2062011-part-3.html

For our post-trek activities, we spent a day in Shimla before heading towards New Delhi. From Shimla, we took the 100 years old toy train (included in the Unesco World Heritage List) to Kalka. The train journey took 4 hours to complete 96km track through 103 tunnels. From here, we hitched a short train ride to Chandrigarh before switching to a sleeper train to New Delhi. A tourist van picked us up near New Delhi train station for our tour of India’s Golden triangle starting with Agra, then Jaipur before returning to New Delhi.

Sites visited included Agra Fort, Taj Mahal, Amber Fort, Jantar Mantar (collection of observatory instruments), Jama Majid, Mahatma Gandhi’s resting place, Government buildings, India Gate, Lotus Temple and Indian Bazaar.

Overall, it was a memorable YonGo trip in the pleasant company of:

1. Jamie Soon
2. Christina Goh
3. Sau Chein
4. Zhi Ling
5. C C Tam
6. Connie Tan
7. Y K Tan
8. Vincent Fong
9. S F Chan
10. Larry Loh
11. S K Hah
12. C K Chang
13. Frances Wong
14. Wai Fun
15. Wye Yim (Malaysia Guide)
16. Mohinder Singh (India Guide)

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/9873.

Thursday 16 June 2011

HP: Bhapa Pass Trek 16-20 Jun 2011 (Pt 3)






Continued from: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2011/07/hp-rohtang-pass-to-tabo-12-1562011-part2.html

Day 9 marked the start of our Bhapa Pass Trek. After a quick tour of the ancient Tabo Monastery of mud buildings, we headed towards Mudh at 11 a.m. It was certainly a long 3 ½ hours drive through the Spiti Valley flanked by imposing barren mountains. There were hardly any vehicles in sight except for our 4 vehicles churning out voluminous dust as they speeded along the river bank. We had a long tea break at Mudh while waiting for our horse caravan to arrive from our last campsite (on Day 7) to carry our luggage for the trek. With daylight running short, our group left Mudh at 4.15 p.m. and did a short trek to a nearby campsite across a river to wait for the horse caravan.

We started our trek at 8 a.m. the next morning (Day 10) towards Bara Bolander, the base camp for the Bhapa Pass. It was a relatively easy trek taking 8 hours from an elevation of 3800m to 4100m asl through an arid treeless region with no living creatures except us. Of course, we delighted by sights of wild flowers starting to bloom. The most challenging event of that day was a wide river crossing. The crew member took turn to guide each of us to wade bare footed through the fast rising and flowing freezing water. Cables were anchored at both sides of the river banks as a double precaution. The event left the crew members with red legs as although scalded by hot water. At Bara Bolander, we set camp as close as permitted by the snowline. That night, we were told that the number for the following morning was 234 = Wake up at 2 a.m., Breakfast at 3 a.m. and Start trek at 4 a.m.

As punctual as the sun, we were trekking up the scree-covered slope at 4 a.m. (Day 11) using our head lamps. Less than 1 hour into the trek, we had to halt for 10 minutes for the guide to clear a path through a glaciated slope. A false step would send one sliding down the steep slope. Thereafter, the trek was slow owing to the thin air and compounded by the thick ground snow covering the trail path. We were advised to follow our guide’s footsteps closely as not to fall into any deep crevices. Much energy and effort were spent thrusting our boots at a side angle into the snow as we trekked along for added grip on the ground snow and to balance ourselves up the snow covered slope. The weather was acceptable fine with little wind and a bit of snowing near the peak. The horsemen did a fantastic job of probing and in carving out a safe trail up the freshly covered snow slope to Bhapa pass for us. We did see from afar in trepidation how several horses tumbled down the snowy slope and the horsemen re-packing strewn cargoes on the horses’ back. Our guide spewed a sense of relief when he saw the horses making pass a ridge to Bhapa Pass. The reason being, if the horses were unable to cross over to Bhapa Pass, we would have to make a U-turn home.

There was a sense of happiness and achievement by the guide and his crew members when the last member made to the Bhapa Pass. It was then close to 12 noon. Apparently, we were the first group to make it to the Bhapa Pass from Bara Bolander side that season. Prior to the trek, our guide shared with us that his company had instructed their most skillful head horseman as our vanguard for this expedition given the reported heavy snowfall. The head horseman also gave us added confidence when he pledged that he would bring everyone across to Fauti (from Bara Bolander) by stationing horses to ferry us up and down, if need be.

From Bhapa Pass, there were more snow areas to transverse downhill. At one place, we decided to descend by sliding instead of trekking. The last 30 minutes to Fauti campsite involved a dangerous steep descent down a narrow mountain path strewn with scree.

Thankfully, all completed the snow trek safety except for a few small incidents falling into deep snow and sliding down the slippery snowy slope. It was about 4 p.m. when everyone reached Fauti campsite. By then, the horsemen had proactively set up our tents to rest and the kitchen crew subsequently served us hot noodle soup to rejuvenate our energy at our respective tents. The celebration of the successful Bhapa Pass crossing had to be deferred as everyone was dead tired that night.

We were given the privilege of starting late, at 10.30 a.m., the following morning (Day 12) to Mulling, our next destination. The trek to Mulling (3200m asl) was a pleasant 6 hours stroll over green meadows punctuated with blooming wild flowers and it involved several simple river and flat glacier crossings. That evening we held a campfire complete with roasted lamb, mango juice cocktail and barley liquour as well as singing and dancing to celebrate our successful Bhapa Pass crossing.

From Mulling, we began our descent early at 8.00 a.m. to Kafnu (2500m asl) to catch our transport to Simla. The 5 hours trek through lush alpine forest and down the steep Bhapa river bank was equally pleasant. The mountainous road journey to Simla took about 9 hours. It was past 11 p.m. when we reached our hotel in Simla.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/9871.

Next: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2011/07/india-golden-triangle-21-2562011-part-4.html


Sunday 12 June 2011

HP: Rohtang Pass to Tabo 12-15 Jun 2011 (Pt 2)






Continued from: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2011/06/hp-new-delhi-to-manali-8-to-1162011part1.html

On Day 5, after an early morning and quick celebration of a member’s birthday, we departed from Manali at 7 a.m. towards the famous excursion point called Rohtang Pass (4000m asl) which is open during the summer months as the rest of the year is covered with snow. The distance from Manali to Rohtang Pass was 51 km but the journey took exceptionally long owing to heavy traffic jam starting from Marhi (34 km from Manali) onwards. We hit the Rohtang Pass at about 12.45 p.m. The road journey through tight road as well as rough and steep terrain can be described as exhilarating with precipitous cliffs, huge glaciers, deep ravines and picturesque mountain views.

Our proposed lunch stop at Gramphoo had to be deferred because the dhaba was closed. We finally had to settle for a simple dhall lunch at 3.30 p.m. at a tented Dhaba at Chhatru. It was past 4 p.m. before we continued with our journey. About an hour later, we were told that the road was impassable to vehicles due to glaciers and we were requested to disembark from our vehicles and walk to our campsite. The vehicles had to return to Manali and arrangement would be made for vehicles to be sent from the opposite direction from Kaza town.

The following day, we trekked 15 km from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. under the blazing sun to our second campsite located after Batal to wait for vehicle support from Kaza Town. Along the way, we were taught how to trek over several glacier stretches that were covering the road. Our luggage and camp equipment from our first campsite were transported by horses and mules. Our proposed plan to trek to Chandratal Lake also had to be cancelled owing to the downtime.

After a good night rest, we ‘lepak’ away our time in the morning while waiting for vehicle support from Kaza. Meanwhile, we were told that our horsemen and the mules had left early that morning for Mudh, the starting destination for the Bhapa Pass. Needless to say, we were extremely glad to see vehicles arriving at our second campsite at 1 p.m. to fetch us to Kunzum Pass (4500m asl) and thereafter to Kaza and Tabo. Stopovers included Ki Monastery, Kibber Village (located at 4200m asl is the second highest inhabitable village in the world), 1000 years old La-Lun Monastery with hanging Buddha statues as well as Dhankar Monastery.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/9869.


Next: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2011/07/hp-bhapa-pass-trek-16-2062011-part-3.html

Wednesday 8 June 2011

HP: New Delhi to Manali 8-11 Jun 2011 (Pt 1)









On 8 June 16 of us flew AirAsia into New Delhi to start our Himachal Pradesh (HP) Adventure organised by YonGo. After a wonderful late supper meal at Sandoz and spending a night at New Delhi Sunstar Residency Hotel, we trooped to New Delhi Railway station the next day to catch the morning train to Chandrigarh. The train journey was absolutely comfortable with meals being served on board. The 266km train ride took about 4 hrs. On arrival at Chandrigarh train station, we were packed into four 4x4 Innova vehicles to begin the next phase of our journey to Manali. The road journey of 273km took about 9 hours with several stopovers along the way. It was close to supper time when we reached Manali for dinner. Fortunately, we had a quick lunch at Singh's Chicken Resturant (ala Nandos) before hitting the road.

On the first day in Manali, we strolled up to the 500 years old Hidimba Devi Temple which is sitting atop a small hill and to Old Manali Town to visit Manu Temple. From there, we took a short-cut hike through Manali Nature Park (filled with tall Cedrus trees) to Manali Town. The pleasant walk took about 3 hours. That evening, we had a wonderful meal of the famous Manali Trout fish.

The following day, we proceeded to Solang Valley for the intrepid fellows to try out paragliding. We also did a 3 hours leisure trek from Solang Valley through two villages to Manali (13 km away) experiencing the rich village lifestyle and culture.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/9867.

Next: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2011/07/hp-rohtang-pass-to-tabo-12-1562011-part2.html