For the oldies ....
I went for a pilgrimage to the most holy Hindu places. Our trip started off at Gangotri, where I visited the pious Ganga Mandir. It is a must visit - it is everything most religious places are NOT - very few piligrims and very clean. Only problem - oxygen. Then we trekked to the place where the Ganga is actually born - Gaumukh or Cow's Mouth. There is a huge block of ice 35 kms long and the good news is - I have brought back 500ml of the most pure mineral water in the world - for everyone to wash your sins away!! Then, we came back to sea-level and went to the more commonly visited, crowded Ganga Mandir at Haridwar. Here, one special thing to watch for is the Aarathi with all piligrims putting Diya into the Ganga, its quite a scene.
For those who are still young at heart ....
Last two weeks I was off to the monstrous Himalayas. We started our trek at Gangotri - first a steep climb to a place called Chirwasa. On route, we saw lush greenery, rocky mountains, and busy streams. We stopped at streams to fill our bottles with the ultimate mineral water. We had to climb many flimsy bridges(mostly just a log of wood) and walk through streams(mostly close to zero temperature). From Chirwasa it was a scenic easier trek to Bhojwasa. Here we experienced snow fall and some falling rocks too. All along the way the Ganges was flowing besides us. At Bhojwasa, we camped in tents. It was a clear evening and the sky was so densely packed with stars that I thought I was in Kiki's room! We slept in our sleeping bags and when we woke up - surprise surprise! Our tent is fully submerged in snow, the mountains are fully covered in snow, Bhojwasa was white-washed. It was simply awesome ... ! From Bhojwasa, we trekked higher up to gaumukh or Cow's Mouth. It was a hard steep trek between rocks and involved lots of climbing. Gaumukh is this huge single block of ice. It almost looked like marble to me. And here we could see the Ganga emerging - pristine in every possible way!! The same day we had to trek back all the way to Gangotri - since it was beginning to snow heavily by afternoon itself.
More, in person!
