elaborate details of my trip to milam glacier

Almoraboy

hi all,

well, i guess i finally got myself to writing this down. had been putting it off, courtesy my extremely lazy attitude. well, i had been planning ofr a nice long trek since quite some time. however, after leaving infosys in june 2004, there were barely 4-5 days before i had to report at iim k. so i spent that time at home, since i had not been able to go home for 15 months. then i guess i could have gone in the 2 term breaks but i was not so confident about going alone. i then decided to go to pindari in march 2005, but my summers put an end to it. then i planned in june but my parents did not allow me to :-)). finally, i decided to go in the term break in september 2005, come what may.
i shortlisted the options and came down to milam or pindari. milam was selected at the last moment due to it being a more adventurous route. the 4th term exams really killed me. 5 night-outs in succession. somehow, the group studies in my room till 6 am cleared us all. finally, after the exams were over and assignments done with, i rushed to catch the calicut blore night bus. next morning, reached blore at 6 am, rushed to the airport. caught the flight. then in delhi, shopped for batteries, glucose, etc. reached the old delhi railway station and caught the train from there in the night.

Day - 1

the entire next morning was a trip down memory lane. i guess i was last in kathgodam n 1995. so it was 10 years after which i was coming back. the india books shop, nirmala school, the "nehar" (canal), the gola barrage, even the taxi drivers asking u to come with them .... i took a taxi and when that guy could not get enough ppl, he decided to go back to haldwani. finally, he managed to find enough ppl and we were off on our way to almora. yipee.
we went along the gola river, and then turned right since we were going via bhimtal. there was the old hmt factory at ranibag, the gola nadi was in full flow, the clouds were sweeping over and i seemed to be back in heaven.after crossing the bridge the road turned upwards steeply, towards bhimtal. the ppl in the taxi gave excellent company. lots of chatting went on. even they were pretty surprised to know that i was from these parts and had studied in nirmal and sem as a kid. they had thought i was a tourist from kerala who could speak excellent hindi . in fact, the driver also stayed near nani's old house at damua dhoonga nad he had seen it also. i have always found pahari ppl more friendly than the jerks who inhabit the planes - of course some of them r nice but kumaonis take the cake when it comes to being nice, polite n good. and if u think i am being partial, then yes, i am 100% partial towards the paharis . pretty soon, the massive bhimtal lake came into view, with the tiny island in its centre. we did not stop much over there. saw the newly constructed house of some chap above the lake, where they had shot that zinta and hrithik roshan movie, and that alien (copy of ET). well, that movie was also nostalgic since hrithik was a student of good old sem in that movie. i was pleasantly surprised to see that in that movie they showed gals inside the sem campus (read: zinta) to cheer the volleyball matches. there was not a single gal around when we used to play .
soon, bhowali came n the taxi stopped there. i got some snacks and we were along our way, along the kosi river. all the old places, like garam pani, kainchi, etc came one by one. we stopped in kainchi for some breakfast at a dhabha, n i took some pics. then again we were on our way. lots of hisalu bushes on the way, but not the season for hisalus right now. the pine forests near almora r just tooo good. and with the wind rustling through them, it makes such a pleasant sound. soon, we were dropped off in almora. there were lots of shops selling the good old baal mithai and singhodee. too bad we don't get this stuff in kerala. i then went around lookign for the cantt, and had to walk back a pretty nice distance. then climb all the way up, with my rucksack. somehow, i found the mess, kept my laptop n other stuff over there and then was again on my way. found a taxi to bageshwar from the taxi stop and off we went. the area around binsar was even better than heaven. stopped the taxi for a few snaps. hill after hil, forest after forest, stream after stream .. and the taxi went on. we stopped at a charming little dhabha for some snacks. since i did not have any lunch, i hogged like a greedy pig over there. we had chai and chana. there were some very beautiful small birds in that place. soon, we continued our journey and reached bageshwar (bg). bg lies in a valley and the road goes down for quite soem distace before reaching bg. the pine forests give way to open fields at the base of the valley. there r many houses along the banks of the river and i was tempted to go andf have a dip. there r actually 2 rivers, the gomti and the saryu, which merge together to form one river. for more descriptive views, check out my pics or use google earth. the taxi dropped me at the tourist rest centre (trc) of kmvn, which lies pretty much at the beginning of the town. i checkd in at a dorm where the cost was rs. 70/- per night. there r many beds and 2 toilets n 2 bathrooms with the dorm. there r also some cabinets/almirahs to keep ur stuff in. it was off season so i had the entire dorm to myself. the trc also has a television, a dinig hall, a reception, some cute fat dogs, etc, etc. i decided to check out the town. first i went to the old temples near the river (bagad = river bank). talked to a few sadhus, then the curator. he gave me lots of gyaan regarding the 1000+ year statues over there. man, the architecture was real solid. then i decided to cross the river and climb the hill on the other side of the river. met a small boy with 2 cute puppies. i took his 2 snaps. if i go there someday, i will hand it to him. the puppies were called named and y and babli. there were 2 more naughty kids on the bridge who requested me to take their pics. i obliged. then i took some batteries from a shop and started the upward climb. it can get pretty exhausting if u r not used to climbing up regularly. i guess i could have done it in half the time when i used to stay in nainital. up. up, up ...so i went. there were a few hawks/eagles circling around the mountain top ... reminded me that i am going "where eagles dare" . the temple was a small charming one, commanding a wonderful view of the town of bageshwar. there was a priest and his 2 kids - a small boy and a small gal. they gave me some water n prasad as i was really knocked out after travelling up all the way. chatted with them for some time and then decided that it was tme to come down as it was getting late.
the journey back was pretty easy as i was climbing down. i checked out the bus stand and then headed back to the trc. they cooked up some really wonderful stuff for dinner. roti + aloo tamatar kee rasedar sabjee + lauki. i had 7 rotis .. gosh. was really hungry after all that walking. discussed the next day's plans with the kmvn staff. one of the persons over there had just come back from milam. so he tried to outline a plan for me. they told me to catch the morning bus for munsiyari. 2 more persons had coem to stay in the dorm by then. i went off to sleep since i had to get up early the next morning. a far cry form kozhikode where i was sleeping after 5 am evrry morning in the past week due to my end term exams.

__________________
Trek blog over here

Almoraboy

Day 2

one of the staff memebers woke me up the next day at 6:30 am. wow!!! 6:30 am. i never knew what the clock looked liek at 6:30 am :-). had lots of dinner yesterday night, so going to the loo is not a problem. u shld look after ur stomach on road trips, otherwise u might be caught witout a loo in times when u need one. i got ready, took a cold water bath ... mazaa aa gaya. it was soooo refreshing. paid by bill, a grand total of 123 bucks for 1 day stay and meals. there is a small hotel near the bus stand, called ananpurna hotel. he makes really wonderful and jumbo sized paranthas. biger paranthas than any other paranthas i have seeen in noida, delhi, varanasi, kanpur, lucknow, bangalore, chennai, kozhikode or any other place in india. 1 is enough for a normal person. i had 2. the bus came a little after 9:00 am. most of it emptied out. i took the last seat. the cost is around 120 bucks from bageshwar to to munsiyari.
soon, the driver nad conductor got in and we were on our way. there was a small adventure right at the beginning of the trip. there was a truck which had broken down on the road. and it was covering only a small portion of the road. so we had to steer around it very very very carefully, otherwise the bus might fall out on the other side of the hill. it took a total of 15 mins. as i was sitting next to the window, i could feel the vibrations as the bus scraped across the truck. finally, the driver got us safely on the other side. there r many pine forests after bageshwar. and soem beautiful yellow green fields. theroad climbs up steadily and the air gets cooler. slowly, more and more ppl get in at every vilage and finally the bus was very crowded. on the way, we couldspot the himalayan peaks from soem vantage points. the driver stopped at a place with some beautiful forests around so that everyone could pee and i could take some pics of the mountains. he told me that we would reach munsiyari by evening, not before, since it is a hilly path. by lunch we reached thal. it is situated at the bottom of the valley, so it is pretty hot. i was almost sweating in a t shirt. all the buses stop there. u can get many jeeps also for other nearby places. the food was pretty decent, but the loos needed some improvement.
finally, we were on our way from thal. the road follows a stream and now the mountains start looking really tall and imposing. there was a small village with a school. the kids were playing outside in the field. there was a really huge rock in the mountain face overlooking them. it almost seemed as if the rock was keeping a watch on them. there were some really cool sights, but since the bus was moving, the pics did not come out so great. it was a bit difficult to photograph them from the moving bus. there was a small village called quetee on the way. mr. soban ram from the herbal deptt. got in at that place. later on, we were to becoem good friends. i was asking some ppl for some info and he turned around and simply asked if u wanna gotrekking till milam? sure dude, i replied! and then slowly, our conversation built on and on. his uncle, who works at the trc in munsiyari, was also with him. we tried to fix up a time table for the tek. and then the bus gained altitude. up up and away, we went, going higher and higher and even higher. the scenery was just out of a fairy tale, and it was growing colder also. finally, we reached a place called birthi waterfalls. really pretty high. the driver accepted my request to stop so that i can take a few pics of that place, and i did take. i also took a pic of the driver and a few fellow travellers in front of the waterfall. one ofthe guys had got a bottle of home made mattha, and he offered it to me. i was abit hesitant but after having a sip (which was very tasty), i almost snatched the whole bottle from him.
the road climbs straight up and the nenters the johar valley from a pass where there is a temple called kalamuni. a single sage runs this temple. there was a wonderful view of one of the panchchuli peaks from this place. he gave us some good prasad and we were finally on the final stage of the jouney.
after crossing hte pass, the buss descends to the other side of the hill where u will find munsiyari, located below the ridge. soban ram got off before the bus stand at his friend's house. i got off with the trc guy near the trc. as soon as i came to the trc, i found that those chaps were sittign there, waiting for me, including ganga ram ,the guide. the bageshwar guys had already phoned the mand told them of my arrival. i talkd with ganaga ram and fixed hs rate as 200 bucks per day. we also fixed our return in 6 or 7 days. but ganaga had to be paid for 10 days as the normal trekking time is 10 days and these ppl charge 10 days fees minimum. we discussed the equipment and ganaga adviced that i should buy a blanket from the market. so i just put my rucksack in the dorm and headed for the mkt. there were soem cute kids playing outside and i took their pics and gave them some candies. there were some beautifully designed blankets in the small mkt below, which were prett ywarm too. munsiyari is the last major town, after which there r all villages on the route to milam. we took a long path back to the guest house, with ganga showing me some important landmarks. we met mr. soban ram, just roaming around. he also fixed up to meet us tomorrow morning at around 7:30 am at the trc.

Almoraboy

Day - 3

the next day, i got up slightly late as usual. i went out to find that the sun was about to rise from behind the panch chulis. it was a spectacular sight. there was a layer fo fog below the hills, and the sun was coming out from behind them .. fundoo. after clicking some snaps, it was time to get ready, have some breakfast and leave. ganga arrived on time to meet me, and so did mr. soban ram. i finished gulping down some paranthas and then we were off on our way. we had to take a jeep from munsiyari to selakot. however the road was broken by boulders at a place. so we got of fand took another jeep on the pothjer side of the road. of course, u have to cross that broken part, running at full speed otherwise boulders may suddenly come down n hit u. we go some 8 or 9 kms down from munsiyari to a small place called selakot (or something like that). the road turns in the opposite direction and goes down towards the goriganga river. we also go down towards the river, but our direction is opposite to the flow of the river.
ok, now the fun begins. the trek starts. there is a board with the map of the route. u can get some candies from the shop. there r some nice fat bhotia doggies around the shop. the start of the trek is easy, as it goes down, down and more down. it keeps going down for 2 or 3 kilometres. there is a mixture of forests and fields along the way. i met a team of trekkers resting on the way. they had coem trekking all the way from joshimath. almost a trans-kumaon trek. wow!! ganga ram and soban ram wlakhed slightly ahead, as i was stopping for photographs at every possible spot. u almost come level withthe river and then start walkign along the river bank. be careful,as the path can be very narrow at places. lots of greenery on this part of the trek with some lovely wild flowers growing all over the place. there r many places along the way where u can stop and have a cup of tea (chiha, as it is called in pahari .. just be a bit heavy with the accent). the road seems narrow, but is a lot of fun to walk on. at many places, the road is carved out from the rocks the hillside. so, there r rocks below u, rocks on ur left hand side, rocks above u, and a sharp fall on your right. it's not scary, it's fun - u should just enjoy the walk. as for the small animals, u will find lots n lots of rats without tails. small, round, fat rats. but since i had a very amateurish camera, i could not take their pics from a distance. also, there will be lots n lots of blue/purple coloured lizards. the whole place is teeming with them. as for flowers - dude this is the place to be in, if u like flowers. hope all the gals r reading this carefully :-). we stopped for tea at a very very small dhabha. i noticed two other ppl having tea, with their 3 porters. they were mr. martolia and his doctor cousin. we just had a small intro and then i went on my way. however, later on, we were to trek together for most of the journey and give wonderful company to each other.
the first major stop is lilam. many trekkers who r here for a leisure trip stop here on the 1st day itself. we reached there by 11 am. so we just decided to have a cup of tea and then be on our way. i must mention that the path before lilam climbs up quite significantly. before lilam, the path is at the bottom of the valley, along the gori ganga river. now lilam is smack in between the top ridge of the hill and the river. so u have to climb around 40% of the hill. phew, it is pretty tiring. soban ram knows many ppl in lilam. he had kept his sleping back, raincoat, etc in lilam only. then we had tea at the local dhabha. and if anyone is wondering why they don't have chimmeneys over there, then it is coz they will break due ot the heavy snowfall in winters. we have chimmneys in places of moderate snowfall like nainital. but places like kalamuni received more than 9 ft of snow in 2004-05, so no use making chimmneys. i met a guy from pwd who was posted in lilam. he started telling me about the difficulties of constructing the path in these places. we chatted a bit more and then he told me that he had also studied in nainital. cool dude, so did i. his school was in mallital, mine was in tallital. we also talked about the inter school football matches held in the flats during august and other memories about nainital. till then, mr. martolia and his brother also reached lilam. we had a more thorough introduction over there. they belonged to the village of martoli. mr. martolia had stayed in this place when he was akid, till the mid 1960s. johar valley was more populated in those days. now he works in national fertilisers, noida. he is in charge of the marketing and HR department over there - 2 subjects which i could never understand. his cuz is a doctor and also works on the kailash mansarovar yatra that apsses through this region every year. we had some kakdi with spicy red salt put inside it. pretty tasty and refreshing. soon, we were on our way. me, ganga and soban, followed by the martolias and their porters. there is an itbp checkpost at lilam, where u have to register yourself. so i told those chaps that dude, i belong to almora and am currently studying in kozhikode. most of they did not know about kozhikode, but one of the guys suddenly jumped at the mention ok k. he said he ahd also studied in kozhikode university and belonged to thrissur!!! "vanakkam chetta" was what i said immediately after that. well, that got a smile to his face and then the itbp ppl allowed me to pass.
now we were pretty much above the river and the slope was really steep. the guys at lilam had told us that the road had been washed of fat a place and u will have to cross by ropes. ok, i was ready for the adventure. :-). pretty soon, we arrived at that place. there were many pwd ppl taking a rest over there. they washed their helmets with the water from a nearby stream and then had their lunch in the helmets itself. rice + daal. the road took a sharp turn and just across the corner was the tough part. the waterfall had washed up the small path. so now we had to walk till where the road went. then climb down about 9 to 10 feet where the width of the waterfall/stream is less. the pwd ppl had put a rope and strategically placed some rocks so that u can hold the rope n step on the rocks n cross the stream. whoooopie!!! it was great. see ,its not very tough or dangerous, just follow ur guide, literally. that is all. then the fun started. the martolias came up behind us as all 3 of us had crossed. mr. martolia egged his cuz to cross before coz he was a bit fat and not at all used to this trekking. poor chap, he was definitely looking tired and out of place. and then, as he was crossing, mr. martolia took out his video camera and started shooting :-):-). anywyas, we all were pretty relieved when he crossed on to the other side. finally, he was across and we were all on our way again. pretty soon, we reached a place called rupsiyana bagad. it means (roop + syana + bagad) = (features + beautiful + riverside). literally, it means a beautiful riverside place. there is a small dhabha/hotel over here. meals are for 25-30 bucs, depending on how much u eat. normally, u can get paranthas, rice, ommellette and daal (lentils). there r some wooden beds over there. i just took off my shoes n socks and lied down. aaahh, the relief. and u enjoy ur food even more after a hard trek. it tastes yummy++ (apologies to bjarne strostroup). i gobbled it up, washed my hands n mouth, peed behind the bushes and then we all were on our way again.
after rupsiyana bagad, the valley narrows down. gori ganga is flowing real fast n furious. wow, the sound of the water is amazing. it almost feels as if the foam will jump and and reach ur face. the path now gets pretty forested. again, there is some climbing to do, punctuated by small breaks under some tree, on a rock withsome bananas for snacks. pretty soon u come to a big dhaba called rail-gadi (coz its pretty long, so it resembles a train). this place can be seen from some distance away through a clearing in the forests. it is below one of the biggest rock faces u will ever see. the rock face is absolutely vertical, and to some extent, almost overhangs over the whole dhabha. so the grass on top of the rock face keeps dripping with water for a long time after it rains. so it keeps dripping tap-tap-tap after in front of the dhabha door. there is also a small clearing full of long lush green grass in front of the dhabha. beautiful place to sit. then there is the gori river just flowing past u (blasting past u is a more apt word), and the river bank is full of white pebbes and rocks. u can have channa over here for Rs. 5/- per katori, a sa quick snack. many ppl stay here for the night. it was around 3 pm or so, and we decided to go ahead. there were some more minor stops on the way. the doctor was getting really tired. the flowers were really very very beautiful now. the doc and mr. martolia decided to stop about one km before bagudiyaar. the doc was too tired and could not walk further. so they decided to stay there and leave early in the morning and catch up with us at bagudiyaar. after some more trekking, we reached bagudiyaar. the place is a plain ground surrounded by near vertical mountains. there was a landslide some years ago, killing many ppl. so there is now a memorial for them over here. first, u have to register urself at an itbp border post. the itbp guard was telling me about some scientist who had coem here 3 months ago and did not return. maybe he had got lost or returned via some other route. there is a small pwd house (single room with attached loo) and a dhabha. we went ot the dhabha as it a cheaper option. the dhabha wallah has the two cutest daughters u will ever see. one is pretty inquisitive, while the other is a bit shy. he has 2 or 3 rooms inside (reminder: these rooms r also made of bamboo sticks). and it had started to rain heavily. so he gave us another adjoining cemented room with beds n blankets. we kept our stuff over there. it was time for dinner pretty soon. it was mainly rice, daal and sabjee. there were some other shephards who were also staying in the dhabha for the night. and there were two or three local lads who were heading up to the villages from munsiyari for the nanda devi festival. they were also having some home made beer with them, which they consume becoz of the cold weather. they were in high spirits n became very friendly n talkative pretty soon. we had our dinner n went off to sleep. i hanged my vest n t-shirt i was wearing throughout the day outside to dry, since they had become slighly moise in the drizzling and due to the sweat. it is important to stay as dry as possible while trekking in cold climes. it rained, thundered and showered in the night and i coughed n coughed. lesson: always carry a cough syrup on a trek.

Almoraboy

Day 4

the next morning, we were woken up with bed tea. i went out and it was clearer now. now, since u don't have toilets, u need to go outside in the open. yuckk. so i will not write anything much about it except the following: if u need to go out in bagudiyaar, there r some good places behind the rocks where the landslide has occurred. carry one large roll of toilet paper for the trek. squat on the slope with ur bottoms facing the downward side (valley) and ur face facing the upward side (hill). now u shld brush ur teeth and get ready. one of the smallergals was very inquisitive about us. so i took her snaps, gave her some magazines and some candies and soem glucon-d. if nayone is going on this route next time, u can get some chocoltes for her. we decided ot have our breakfast at another place which is about 2 kms ahead. lots n lots of steps on the way. and in the end u have to climb a lot. now the vegetation starts changing. less trees and more of grass. u r pretty hungry by the time u reach the dhabah. soban ram had started walking faster so that he could go n give the orders. we had paranthas at hte dhabah. as we were having them, mr. martolia and the doc came up. mr. martolia had a nice stock of home made kajus with him, which i gobbled up whenever offered :-). after this dhabha coems a place called nahar devi. there is a small temple over here. we ran into a heard of sheep comig from the opposite side. so we had to stop n let the sheep pass. they r pretty harmless despite their huge horns. now, in wonters the snow freezes over everything. at the bottom of the valey, there is the maximum amount of snow since it is difficult for the sunlight to reach over here. so after nahar devi, there were some patches where there was lots n lots of snow, almost 9 to 10 feet, even more. and it was very very hard n frozen. now, another small adveture looms ahead. see, the snow freezes over the gori river. but at a place, the river has almost cut a tunnel through the snow. now, u can't walk over this patch of snow becaause there is a tunnel below it. if u walk above it, the snow might break becoz of the tunnel below it not providing enough support. so u have to go through the tunnel. stop before entering the tunnel andtake ashort break to gather your energy reserves. say a short prayer. there will be water dripping from the ice at all places, so better cover your head with your jacket. now run through to the other end. if, by miistake, a dripping rod of ice breaks and falls on u, dude, nothing can save u. so just run to the other side without stopping. it is pretty small, but running at this height is a bit tough. we took a break on the other side. this snow tunnel is like a gateway to the interiors of the johar region. now there is a big big big climb after this snow tunnel - one of the biggest on the trip. u climb up, up, up and even more up. and that also on a near vertical rock face. hats off to the ppl who made this road. it was a pretty tiring trip all the way up. but the views were very good. u could see the clouds at the smae level as u on the hill face on the other side of the river. there was a narrow stream of clouds blowing across upriver. so it seemed as if these clouds were following us or giving us comapny on our trek. i took snaps of everyone at the top. then i was told that we have to go down again. aaaahhh...i was a bit disappointed on hearing that, but life is like that. there r both ups n downs n u have to face them (in this case, climb them). now the path goes down, but not as steeply as u came up. there were many shephards and sheep camping in the slopes. pretty soon, we reached the lapang gad (gad = river). it was a fast flowing stream coming from lapang glacier and meeting the gori ganga. there was a wooden bridge to cross it. we took some snaps and rested for a moment. in the meantime, the other kids whom i had met yesterday night at bagudiyar (those who were drinkin) came and caught up with us. they then turned left and started climbing the hill. they were proceeding towards lapang village. most of these villages are scantily populated, but during the nanda devi mela, ppl start making their way up to the villages. there r lots of ceremonies over here at this time of the year. after some more ups and dows, the path goes down and meets the river bank. the vegetation is now mostly grassy and not many trees around. but still the totally grass covered slopes also look very beautiful. it's like god's own garden. then you climb up and reach reilkot. it is here that u can have some lunch. but forst, register yourself at the itbp igloos. then proceed to the small dhabha. there is a small flat space where reilkot is located. and the slopes are totally covered with green grass and do loook so serene, peaceful and relaxing. the gori river flows with great force and cuts through the hills like a hot knife through butter. so there is a sheer drop from the plateau of reilkot to the river below. same on the other side of the hill. you could see many sheep on the opposite hill. i and soban ram decided to lie on the grass outside. it was really wonderful, with a gentle wind blowing in your face and huge mountains towering all over. one of the local dogs got a bit friendly/inquisitive and decided to come and sniff all over us. unfortunately we did not have any biscuits for him at that time. the martolias decided to have their lunch first since they had decided to go all the way to burfu. then it was our turn to hog. finally, it was time to leave and we were on our way again.
there is a steep climb again after reilkot. this one is also pretty big. plus, i guess that at this altitude, it becoems a bit tougher to climb up. after many huffs puffs and pants, i reached the top of another plateau. from now on the path is pretty much flat and level. there is a totally deserted village in the plateau, with its houses in ruins. the villages of tola and sumdu can be seen on the other side of the river. there is a path that climbs right up and u can go to ralam village via that. it was now getting a bit dark and we went on walking. there were many sheep on the way. finally we reached the village of martoli. took a moments rest before entering the village. the hill top is shaped like a very sharp triangle. ganga knew many ppl in the village - after all, he was also a native of this village. we decided to stay in one of the shephard's huts for hte night. there r 2 floors. the ground floor is for the kitchen and keeping the animals. we stayed witht he family in the 1st floor. they were : 2 ladies, one gentleman and one youg guy. he was very friendly and talkative. had just come from a trip to sischen and nubra valley. he was there on a temporary assignment. for dinner, we had the best rotis on earth. they are made from jowar grown in the fields here, and as very thick and tatsy. yummy. u will not find such rotis anywhere else. hence the name of the region is johar valley. after dinner, we paid a visit to one of the *hotels* in the village. there were soem other ppl also staying over there and a small meeting of the villagers was gong on. the next day was nanda devi mela so they were planning everything. pretty soon, we returned to our hut and dozed off. while walking in the village i noticed that everything was so pitch black and silent - big change from the nights in delhi or kozhikode.

Almoraboy

Day 5

next morning u get up and have to lok for a place for theloo again. now that is a bit tough in a place like milam. i recommend to take the route going towards the nanda devi base camp. u can use 2 places...one u can walk some distance to the bushes near the bhopatra forest. or u can also do it behind the rocks/shrubs just where the path to nanda devi base camp starts. but in the second option, be a bit careful, coz there is a river flowing from nanda kot and it isa sharp fall down to the river. well, after the usual morning rituals, i paid a small visit to the temple. u get a good view of the village below and also of the nanda kot peak. however, it was pretty foggy and i had to return disappointed.
for breakfast, we had the same rotis again. then we guys went on. there is a sharp drop from the martoli village. u have to go down to cross the shalang gad that is coming from the nanda kot side. go down 500 feet almost. it is ok while going down, but while coming back, this was going to be really really tough. now we crossed the river and went ahead. we had to still cross the gori river. this was the first time in the trip that we were crossing the gori river. we crossed and came to teh river's true left side. then there was another climb to burfu village. they had put up a welcome (swagatam) banner on occasion of the nanda devi mela. some kids were playing. i just sat down at the first house and asked for tea very loudly. i did not even think that it was a restaurant. actually ganag had gone ahead and so i did not know which house is the village restaurant. still, i was very lucky. there was an ols lady with her 2 daughters staying there. actually, they stay in pithoragarh, but had coem here for the mela. they also had a pomeranian dog with them named pinky. i took some snaps of these ppl and later on, i had mailed them the printouts. then i went out to look for ganga ram. he was sitting in the actual village hotel some way back. over there the clouds cleared for some time and we got a wonderful view of the burfu peak. i also met the same guy here whom i had encountered in bagudiyaar (the one drinkin in the village restaurant). he showed me around the lace. there was a cute little atta chakki over there, next to the burfu gad. we had soem more tasty snacks over there (parantha and channa) and i took some snaps of the kids. soon, we were on our way again. the route ascends gradually to bilju village. on the other side of the gori river is pacchu village. there were many ppl on the other side leading a procession to apcchu village. from this vilage u get a clear view of nanda devi (on a sunny day that is). actually, there is a stream flowing right from nanda devi and it meets the gori ganga right where this village is located. a temple is located over here n many ppl come here on the day of the mela. then u go on and go down again, this time to cross the goenkha gad (this river originates from somewhere near the tibet border). it flows at great speed and cuts through the mighty mountains as if it was amul cheese spread.
now the milam village is located on a big flat plateau. first, u reach the itbp post n register urself there. we decided to stay in the pwd bunglow. 1 room + 1 toilet. finally, a place with a loo :-). we went to check outthe temple in the village. there were some other villagers and an itbp jawan over there. they were decking it up for the ceremonies in the evening. i took some snaps (as usual) and then the priest showed me a pair of brahmakamals he had. wow, i was seeing them in real life for the first time. we had some lunch at jeevan ram's house. he was the village sarpanch. then i just decided to roam around. there were some old bunkers made around the place, probably since it is so close to the border. this village was the home of the legendary travellers - nain singh and mani singh. 133 years ago, these ppl slipped into tibet with the herculean task of drawing the map of tibet. milam was an important trading post with tibet in those days. so these chaps knew tibetan. they dressed up as buddhist monks. now u must have seen these monks carrying little bells in their hands. inside those bells were hidden their survey equipment. now these guys wrote doen a number ofr every hundred or so stpes they took. then they also measured the latitude n longitude of important places by the angle the stars made. they measured the altitude of lhasa by checking the boiling temperature of water, and so on. these feats were never achieved by anyone in history before. in those days milam was a really fundoo village. there used to be withc doctor among the first ppl to come from tibet. he used to see if the village is ok for the tibetans to come, and then only will the rest of the caravan follow. i also found some ancient tibetan inscriptions on soem of the rocks.
now, after lunch i decide to check out the place. went in direction of the glacier, but it was a bit too far off. then i climbed the ridge overlooking the goenkha gad. checked out the old bunkers/sangarhs. from ther i could see the path going towards dung and topi-dung (last posts used by the itbp). after these posts lies tibet. meanwhile, the festivities had started in the temple. since they were about to cut the sheep, so i decide to stay away. there was dancing and revelry, just as we used to witness in the naina devi festial in nainital. i also met a colonel joshi. he also belonged to almora and was stationed at pithoragarh. he was returning from an assignemtn to patrol the borders from munsiyar to milam. so he had gone from munsiyari, to the darma valley and the lassrer yankti valley and had finally come to milam, after visiting every post. it was over by around 6:30 pm and the sun ahd well and truly set. the itbp ppl started singing the national anthem before being dismissed for the day. i decided to wait for dinner at jeevn ram's hut. they were cleaning the goats outside his hut. so i decided to wait inside. finally, since i was feeling a bit tired, i dozed off just liek that. at around 11 pm, ganga ram came and woke me up. the diner was about to begin outside. almost the whole village had assembled there. the menu was rice, poori and mutton. of course, some beer also to guzzle up. there was a scientist over there, who was doing soem work on glacier hydrology. i felt that chap was trying to be a bit too friendly in the evening. and now, since he was drunk, he was now being just too pally. and since i havethis habit of suspecting every second friendly guy to be a gay, i decided to leave quickly. i met colonel joshi in the room next ot me. his junior was also with him. chatted with them for some time. they were saying how they felt in heaven to be back under a concrete roof. till now, in the past one month, when they used to go to sleep, they had to knock the roof of their tent with a stick to shake off the snow. otherwise they might be buried under snow if they slept till morning :-O. after some chit chatting with them, it was time to go off to sleep.

Hippie at Heart

Cool doood, you had some solid fandoo times yaar !

crimsonriver

OMG such a detailed report.. )

Gud goin...

__________________
Look around and chose your own ground
For long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be...

Last ride : Bhutan, Arunachal, Sikkim.. (Where do I ride next?)
My Travel Journal...
http://the-never-ending-road.blogspot.com

Almoraboy

days 6, 7 n 8 r still to follow. i got tired of typing

Almoraboy

Day 6

woke up in the morning to find the upper half of all the montains covered with snow. after the thunderstaorms last night, it had snowed. we got ready n went to the village dhabha. he gace us some biscuits n some channa. the village pandit was sipping a hookah (with ganja inside it). it was mostly cloudy, so not much chance of seeing the peaks . well, we were soon on our way. the peaks of trisuli were sometimes visible when the clouds parted. however, pretty soon, they would be covered again. after walking about 3 or 4 kilometres from the village, one reaches the glacier. well, i was visiting a glacier for the first time, so here is what it is like: it is a mixture of rocks, sand and ice, unlike anything u would have seen earlier. now, even the ice is covered with so much of sand that it is all grey in colour. the river comes out of a cave of ice. be careful when u walk upto the mouth of the cave since rocks keep falling from here and there. while we were walking towards the cave, there was a huge rumbling, thundering sound. ganag ram told me that it must be an avalance on some nearby peak. ok, so that was it. i took some snaps. then iwas also interested in going right up to the base of hardeval, near the huge ice wall that u can see from a distance. there is also a lake over there called surajkund. if u r a hardy trekker, u can plan a trip till that lake. i wanted to, but ganaga ram said that it was too far and we would need a tent, since going to the lake and coming back in 1 day was a tough task. it was very foggy, so not much was visible. we tried to go up as far as we could. however, milam is the largest glacier in kumaon, and the ice wall could not be reached. finally, at about 1 am, we dicided to turn back. maybe, some other day, i will come with a tent and go as far as surajkund. back in the village, i met soban ram for the last time. had my lunch, said goodbye to him and was on my way. we left milam by around 3 pm. now it was a really tiring trip all the back to martoli. w e reached martoli by 8 pm. travelling in the night wa sa scary experience and next time i won't repeat it. luckily, for us, the moon was out for most of the time. i was dead by the time i reached martoli. this time we stayed in nanda devi hotel run by munna. the top floor was occupied, so we used the ground floor. i just walked in and fell on the wooden bed n slept. thye woke me up for dinner, which i had and slept again .. i was sooo tired.

Vinian

Dear Prashant

I wish to thank you for all the information you had posted on this site and I have also gone through your blog.

The person with whom I was to undertake the trek refused to come along siting personal reasons related to his work. I was left with no option but to look for someone with whom I could visit the place. I couldn't find anyone and so I decided to go all alone. The information posted by you came handy. I contacted the porter and he could make the arrangement for me.

I also thank Jeroen for all the details. I completed the trek within 5 days.I started on 10.06.07 from Munsiyari and was back by 14.06.07. Came back to Delhi by 16th Morning. I was informed by the porter (Ganga's brother-in-law) about your visit to Kala top. Just after marriage !!!. I could relate to you.

Please let me know of other places you have been to in the Himalayas. I peronally have been to Pindari twice, Kafni, Khatling.

Almoraboy

hello,

glad u had a nice time there

it must be pretty rainy out there...best weather for enjoying the greenery, but not the best for enjoying the snow clad peaks..for that u need to go in winters.

yes, i have been to other places in the hilss..in fact, i have spent half my life there...

some pictures and reports of the places i visited are here...

http://almoraboy.blogspot.com/2006/0...himalayas.html (since i started blogging about a year back)

devleenas

Hi ,
I did Milam Glacier this June 2007 . Enjoyed the trek and we had some lovely weather and amazing views .
I am still to upload the trek photos , will take some time for doing it . I met an IndiaMike traveller on the way down . He was doing it all by himself .

devleenas

Hi all ,
I thought I should add the name and contact details of my guide and porters without whom this trek wouldnt have been so smooth .
3 very helpful bunch of people

Our Guide : Laxman
Our Porters : Harish and Inderkumar
Contact No : 09411759750/05961211396

Almoraboy

Laxman is GanGa Ram's wife's brother. their whole family is inot this guide business.
Their names are:
Ganga Ram,
Laxman,
Kushal,
Bhim,
Nath,
Kalyan

They are all from Milam/Martoli villages and stay in Nai Basti area of Munsyari

devleenas

yeah ..
I originally had talks with Ganga Ram but he became bz with another trek so Laxman cam along . None the less he was a great guide and a very enjoyable company .
He sang bengali songs for us !!! and made us taste a dry variety of mutton and hilly wine at Martoli . They were quite good .