It all began with a desire; we wanted to see “snow” in our home country before we travel any further and come across snow in foreign lands.
In the context of higher altitude regions, Jithin spoke of a fish called Pearl Danio Sp. A small fish from Myanmar found only at an altitude of over 1000 m (3400 ft). We decided to name the Itenary: Pearl Danio Sp.
6th Jan 2010: I took my flight from Madras at 7:40AM. There were speculations of fog and flight cancellations flying around me. I prayed asking God to bless my flight route with clear blue skies and warm weather. The skies were warm and blue; and my flight landed in Delhi at 10:30AM. I called John and Jithin only to find out that their train was running late, the train tracks blurry by fog.
We three had decided to meet at New Delhi station. I went up to the help desk of the airport and asked for the nearest metro station, the lady there said it wasn't functioning due to some maintenance work. I asked her for possible ways to reach the New Delhi railway station and she said I could take a taxi. I rented a taxi and took the ride. I reached the station in about 40 minutes and the train had still not arrived. I found out the platform number. in which the train was expected to roll-in and I lowered my bag on a bench in that platform and began waiting for Jithin and John. I did call John in-between a couple of times to check how far the train had come.
The train finally arrived and we gathered in the platform. We adjusted our bags straps for comfort and started walking out to explore the city. I was feeling warm all through the morning while Jithin and John were dressed in layers to warm up their bodies after the cold train ride.
We bought the metro station access cards; we loaded it with a certain sum and the card was valid for a year. It was my first experience of the Delhi Metro. We took the metro from New Delhi station and arrived at Karol Bagh market.
Karol Bagh market had changed over the years. It was originally a crowded market place created by mostly the small local vendors. Now the larger corporations had taken advantage of the setting and had setup their outlets selling more commercial goods. We strolled down the market road, I had my first chicken momo here it was good. We then walked down a little further. I remember over hearing a lady shouting at her Punjabi male employees threatening to send them back to Punjab, which was funny. Jithin bought his jacket from a store in the market, he got a good deal.
We later crossed a busy street and once again took the metro to Central Secretariat. From there we took the local bus to Delhi Haat. The conductor of the bus was a bit unfair. It was a rickety ride. We over shot our bus stop and had to ride back to Delhi Haat.
Delhi Haat had a nice and relaxing air to it. We strolled down its shops looking at crafts on display from the various states of India. We stopped to have our next round of momo in the Arunachal Pradesh food shop. We had fried and steamed mutton momos there. I had my first fruit beer there, it was good. Later I remembered that the taste of fruit beer was close to the taste of the good old Gold Spot. I also remember going to the Bengal stall to taste the Roshogollas.
Delhi was getting colder and foggier by the evening. We pulled out our woolen caps and gloves. We settled for dinner at the Hyderabad Food stall. We had some rotis and biryani. Washed our hands in cold water and warmed our hands near the Chula that made our rotis. John’s IDC classmate Vijay joined us during dinner. It was nice meeting him and listening to what he was working on and the different kind of government babus he used to meet. He also spoke about how nobody wanted to call Delhi their own and used Delhi as a dump yard. After dinner and our short but interesting conversation we got into Vijay’s warm car and he gave us a ride upto CP. From there we took the metro to Old Delhi station to catch our next train.
The Dauladhar Express from Old Delhi to Pathankot was another long ride. Fog delayed the train considerably. I remember seeing the big Army cantonment area and Air Force planes flying as we were approaching Pathankot.
7th Jan 2010: We finally reached Pathankot during lunch time. We quickly bought the ticket for the Kangra Toy Train that would take us from Pathankot to Kangra. We now had a couple of hours time to stroll around the market near Pathankot station and have lunch. We saw many shops selling what might have been army surplus material. Also what caught our attention was the sleeping bags mostly used ones that were being sold. Bags made of goose feathers, bags made of other artificial material, all sorts were available for sale. We then had our lunch in one of the road side eateries, the rotis, rajama, panner and sweet boondis were amazing and made with mustard oil. We also had a big glass of lassi.
After lunch in Pathankot we walked back to the station and took the Kangra Toy Train to Kangra Mandir Station. This was a ride in a train that began running in 1919 and still ran on narrow gauge tracks. I remember the glee on John’s face when he was able to rock the entire carriage with just a press of his feet on the entrance of the carriage; we knew it was going to be a fun ride.
Our toy train started rolling; I remember we were going to cross some eighteen to twenty stations. We got an amazing panoramic view of the snow capped mountains from the toy train. This was my first view of snow, it was awesome.
We met interesting people on the toy train. One man with a big moustache was irritated because we were taking pictures of the stations and our engine. He said, ‘only you south Indians behave in this manner’, breaking what he thought were ‘rules’. Another old man who worked for the Electricity Board there as a line man was sitting beside me was wearing warm clothes that had some grease on it. The old man very sweetly asked us where we had come from and where we were going. The old man then fondly said that he had a son and a daughter who had passed away. He said, “if my son was alive he would have been of your age”, “my children would have waited for me to get home from work, asking me what I have brought for them”, this he said pointing to a old red bag that he kept on his lap. He then held John and my palm and said “you are like my children”. That moment was precious.
Little later after dark the crowd in the toy train reduced. We then met a retired BSF man who was very friendly and shared his experiences. He spoke of the cold and snow and how we needed to be careful and still have fun. He suggested we spend the night at the Kangra bus stop and take a bus to Dharamsala in the morning. He also explained the route from the Kangra station across a bridge to the Kangra bus stop. We also met a young man wearing a long orange tika. He asked us if we were interested in having weed. He spoke of a station called Joginder Nagar from where he knew a place where many Israelis, Russians and other foreign nationals came for drugs and adultery. We of course politely ignored him keeping our conversation with him to the minimum.
Our station Kangra Mandir came and we got down. We followed the path suggested by the BSF man and walked through the dark roads to the bus depot. On our way we stopped for some amazing dinner at a road side eatery. In the bus depot we realized that the last bus had gone and the next bus would come only after 1 at night. We didn’t want to wait. We hired a taxi and went to Mc Leod Ganj. The taxi ride took us up steep slopes, it was quite a ride.
We searched for a place to stay in Mc Leod Ganj and finally found a nice room maintained by a Tibetan family. Our room in Mc Leod Ganj was located up a slope and we had to walk up the narrow metal stairs and a very short rocky slope to reach it.
8th Jan 2010: We woke up around mid day and went up to the terrace of the building for catching a view of the town, mountains and to soak in the warmth of the sun. It was a nice spot. We then quickly got ready and also unloaded a large portion of our clothes into huge plastic bags to reduce the weight during our trek to Triund. We left the plastic bag loaded with clothes at the reception area of the house we stayed in Mc Leod Ganj.
We got the Mc Leod Ganj city map. We then started our walk through the streets of Mc Leod Ganj towards Upper Dharamkot. On our way we stopped-by a very nice bakery and had some amazing chocolate doughnuts and banana muffins. We also bought a big ring shaped bread made of egg and flour. This ring shaped bread was for our trek, I remember it came packed in a nice paper bag.
We then started our trek from Mc Leod Ganj to Upper Dharamkot; trekking the milder slopes covered with tall pine trees. We took the shortcut that was mentioned in the map. We were famished by the time we reached lower Dharamkot and here we had a good breakfast and some black tea.
After eating well at lower Dharamkot we started trekking to upper Dharamkot. This was my first real trekking experience; Jithin and I were breathless even before reaching upper Dharamkot.
By early evening we reached upper Dharamkot. Here we went up the slope of the Golu temple and sat there taking in the amazing view of the Himalayas. Sitting on those slopes enjoying the pristine stillness surrounding us we saw some fabulous Himalayan birds. We rented a room in Sagar Guest House in upper Dharamkot. The house keeper Vijay was a friendly man who shared his background and experience of the mountains. The night sky was spectacular, I for the first time saw the Milky Way for real, and it was amazing.
9th Jan 2010: Next day morning we had our breakfast enjoying the view around us in upper Dharamkot. And then we started trekking to Triund. This route was a challenge for us and we took many short breaks on our way up to catch our breath and have water. After 4 hours we reached the Triund. Our faces had salt deposits due to exertion. We sat in front of the little shop and had tea and biscuits. We took a room in the Forest Guest Cottage. I was exhausted and had to spend some time in bed before I could regain strength to enjoy the beauty around me. Jithin got some refreshingly salty lime juice that helped me regain my energy.
The view of the Himalayan Mountains below, above and around us was spectacular. We had come up 9325 ft. The shop owner Brijlal and the cottage keeper Baisakhi were very kind and courteous to us. This mountain top had no electricity, no land line phone, no cell phone signals, and to top it all it had no water. All the water had frozen.
Yes, we had reached the snow line and we experienced snow for the first time in our lives. It was like a dream. Our cottage was made of wood and Baisakhi had spread the mattress and blankets for us on the floor of the cottage. It was a very cold and memorable night. The temperature dipped to -5 degree Celsius. We had steaming warm dinner with Brijlal. He had lit a bonfire for us to keep warm. After dinner we slowly walked back to our cottage in the cold. We took some funny pictures and sang some nice songs in the cottage before we slept.
10th Jan 2010: We woke up on Triund and had our breakfast with Brijlal. He was singing some mountain song to keep his spirit warm and happy. The snow around us looked pristine. Baisakhi was walking around as always full of energy speaking out loudly. He little later went two kilometers down the mountain to fetch water in two old cans from a stream.
Originally we were supposed to trek to Laka Glacier from Triund. Jithin and I decided not to do that trek knowing that were not prepared for it mentally and materially. John decided to go up alone to the ridge that looked over to the Glacier and then push towards the Glacier. Jithin and I decided that we would wait for John to come back before we together begin descending back to Mc Leod Ganj.
John trekked upwards and somewhere along the way missed a turn. The path forward became precarious and John was faced with some life-and-death moments before he sat down contemplating the options and decided to return back to Triund.
Jithin and I walked on the Triund snow taking pictures and waiting for John to return. After waiting for a couple of hours I spotted John and walked at him. He waved back and carefully came back to Triund.
We were then ready to trek back to Mc Leod Ganj to Triund. We packed water and salty lime juice. John gave us a few tips on how to trek down safely without putting too much strain on the knees. We started descending gingerly trekking down the edges of Triund. We reached upper Dharamkot in two hours. We were sweating profusely. We took a break and had many bottles of juice and water. Then we continued trekking down and reached Mc Leod Ganj. On our way back we met a few monks and one of them asked John if we had any trouble from the snow leopards. We replied saying we saw none. The monk said that during winter the snow leopards come below snow line for hunting food.
All through our trek we were conscious of the possibility of encountering bears and snow leopards that are present in the mountains.
Back in Mc Leod Ganj we took the same room from the Tibetan couple and collected our plastic bag of extra clothes. We all bathed and changed into cleaner clothes. We then strolled down the streets of Mc Leod Ganj for dinner. We had dinner at this restaurant that had green windows and was on the first floor of its building. The dinner was good. Jithin loved the chicken and John was very happy to see the steamed bread. After dinner we went to bed.
11th Jan 2010: We went back to the streets of Mc Leod for breakfast. We started with the bakery had some warm muffins. Then we strolled through the streets taking in the sights and sounds of the town. We stopped for some mo mos and then strolled further. Vijay of Sagar Guest House was in town and we bumped into him in the market place briefly exchanging greetings.
We booked our return train tickets for Chakki Bank to Delhi. And then we took the local town bus from Mc Leod to Pathankot. It was a four hours long bus ride through foggy winding roads, it was a precarious ride. From Pathankot to Chakki Bank we took a share auto. We boarded the train from Chakki bank station to New Delhi. It was another cold night in the train.
12th Jan 2010: We reached New Delhi early in the morning. We left our bags in the cloak room and took the metro to old Delhi for some good breakfast. We started with a suji halwa that was warm and good. We strolled through the streets of old Delhi taking in its sights and sounds. Shops were opening for the day, night watchmen were retiring into warm corners of the streets, Children were arguing with their school rickshaw drivers. We had some nice lassi. And then a little further we had some good breakfast at Karim’s.
We then took some pictures in front of old Delhi’s Jama Masjid. And then we took a fun rickshaw ride to the metro station. I got the back seat in the rickshaw and it was good.
We took the metro and went to Jan Path and from there we strolled up to Rashtriya Pathi Bhavan.
We then went to Bikaner House for lunch. We were tired and also needed to use the toilet. We had planned to visit the National Gallery of Modern Art and so we did. As John had mentioned it was a nice place with clean facilities and restful corners. The paintings were beautiful and inspiring to our imagination. After the paintings we went to Jaipur house to see the photo exhibition of Bhutan which was equally inspiring.
After National Gallery of Modern Art we went to Delhi Haat for picking up some gifts for family. There we also had some pork momos and some fruit beer. After Delhi Haat we took an auto to the nearest metro. And from there we then went to New Delhi station to catch our return train that took us back home to Madras.
