A trip to remember.

This is the story about my journey to Kullu-Manali-Kaza-Chandartaal Lake. Though to many it may not seem so, but for me this journey was equivalent of Nirvana. I hope to have many trips like this one.

Here it goes...


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Before the phrase –“The pursuit of happiness”, had ever passed through my ears, I was always confused about the relationship, which can best describe my desires and the actions I performed to achieve those desires. Only after hearing it, did I realize that all my actions were meant to ‘pursue’ the happiness, and were never, even remotely meant, to ‘get’ it.

But there, at 15,500 ft. above sea level, where I could feel cold snowy winds cutting through my face, where I could see the bluish of sky, as it can ever be, where the sparking white color of snow forces the eyes to blink, where it felt like absolute freedom, where, if only for a brief moment- I found what I had pursued all along.

The time was when I was 18 years old in June 2006, and had just given my Engineering Entrance Exams. After I was over with my exams, I went to my home(from the hostel where I lived), and there, I came to know about my schedule for the next month, which included - a trip to my paternal grandparents’ village, then to my maternal grandparents’ village, then to various aunts’ and uncles’, and finally to Vaishno Devi, which will conclude my holidays. It sounded more like a holiday schedule of Kumkum’s mother-in-law, than that of a young boy’s. Trust me, if I was given an option of going to Guantanamo Bay, I would readily accept that over the former. But thanks to the various trips of my relatives as well, I was able to finish all the visits in 4 days.

After that I came back, and I with 3 other friends of mine started planning a trip. From the initial idea of a trip to Goa, it skied downhill to a one to Kullu-Manali, because of multiple, complicated, ineffable reasons, or, in other words, (ahem ahem!!) out-of-pocket-expenses. Though disappointed, the thought that something is better than nothing, was the only straw to help my drowning adventurous-avatar.

2 days later we all met at Chandigarh ISBT, and then took a night bus to Kullu. After reaching there we went to one of my friend’s home there. It was raining hard that day in Kullu and that almost ruined our plans for the day. We had planned to visit Shiva temple which is at the top of a cliff near Kullu, and takes a full day to go there, which includes a trek to the top, and to come back. By evening it stopped raining, and decided to go to the temple. So we headed there, took the last bus to the starting point of the trek. Earlier in the town we asked a local, about the sleeping arrangements at the temple(it turned out later, that he punk’d us). By the time we reached the top it was pitch dark, and the temple was closed, and nobody was there. NOBODY. Also, all the rooms there were locked. It scared the bones out of all of us. There was no way we could go back without any source of light through a thick forest, and there was no way we could sleep in open, at the top of a cliff where cold winds were coming, from the snowy mountains at the horizon. We sat near the temple wall, and tried to lit up the fire, but in vain. After sometime, we heard something that sent a chill down to our bones- we heard the wolves’ howling, and I don’t know whether it was the echo effect, but the sounds were coming from all the directions. It also lit up the possibility of presence of other predators, like leopards. Also the lit-up bulb at the temple was a worry, as it could attract the predators. After we had made 3 sharp wooden sticks, and accumulated enough stones to fight with the predators, and when about 2 hours had passed away, we saw a human figure coming towards us. Maybe the cold and howling sounds were having an effect on me, because that person appeared like a ‘Big Foot’ or a monkey-man coming towards us. Also he was wearing a monkey cap, so maybe it added to the finest of details. But, fortunately he was the temple priest, who had gone to some village and just came back. But unfortunately, he also told us that we cannot sleep inside the temple, because of purity issues(Yeah! It’s a big issue in these areas of HP, and no amount of cajoling, not even our IDs were able to convince him that we are Hindus, and belonged to the so called upper-class).



To be continued…………

thank you very much @Akshut,, waiting for next (and please post photo also)

You are welcome Anjun. Well the only and most painful part of the journey is that I dont have the photographs. My sis opened the camera with the roll in it, and the whole roll got destroyed.

I'll post some pics for the reference.
This is the place near the temple at the top of the hill... You can see the temple at the top in the end.



This is the view to the side, the sight of Kullu valley.



On the way



And this is the holy temple.