Return of/to Chamba

October 7th,2011

Early morning and I am staring from the balcony at the same landslide view. Hadsar is one such place in the trip, where I wished I had an extended stay. It was time to bid goodbye to Hadsar now. Shared jeeps to Bharmour were in action as early 7 AM the previous day, but there were no signs of the Boleros till 7:30. I shamelessly asked the Sundarnagar family for a lift till Bharmourin their Chevy Spark, but they refused citing their aching legs needed space. Fair Enough. That day no Bolero guy was in a mood to start before 9. The first vehicle refused to take me. I was WTF! It was meant for the school kids, which every Bolero guy does on a rotational basis as a service to the village.

The next Bolero arrived in 10mins and I had to share the front seat with a drunken old man. It was 30 mins of pain till Bharmour. There are two main places of interest in Bharmour, The Bharni Mata temple and Chowrasi. Former required a trek of two hours one-way, on hearing this I immediately looked up in the sky and nearby mountains and a not-so-loud Jai Mata Di !from my heart. Next up was Chowrasi, a complex of 84 temples, 5 mins walk from bus stop. The only temple dedicated to DharmRaaj Ji is in this complex. There are two schools in the complex; students of the school were busy doing their Mass and prayers. The echo of the prayers created a strange but calm effect.

Of the 84 temples only 15-20 are big temples. Rest are small, some as small as 1*1 foot. I was just roaming there for an hour. It felt nice, the ambience was great, and the mountains were a perfect background in the scene. Lakhna Devi temple was the only one where I entered, because it was the only protected monument in the complex. Had a quick brunch and boarded a bus to Chamba. Window seat again. YAY!!!


Reached Chamba and got a dorm bed at Hotel Champak for Rs.165. Chamba had put me off few days back, but now a laid back hill town of my liking. The reason for the crowd was the famous Ram Lila on Dusherra. Around 2 lakh people had gathered for the occasion from all over HP. I finally had a much deserved bath, one after 3 days. Now it was time to take a stroll around Chamba. There is nothing much Chamba has to offer other than few temples, a park and over priced markets. I went back to the dorm after paying a visit SwamiNarayan Temple. Omar Abdullah was on TV defending himself in the Yusuf Murder Case. Then Barkha showed no signs of stopping and I had enough of it.

I went out in search of dinner. After enquiring with around 4 guys, Gupta Vaishno Dhaba was the unanimous choice for good vegetarian food. I ordered aalo mutter and 3 rotis and was eturned with a bill of Rs.29. Food was simple, not-extraordinary, delicious and filling. On the way back I had brought some Jalebis and Samosa, which should have been avoided as most of were awful and went straight to the bin. I had to spend a night alone in this 500sq. ft. dorm. It was noisy initially as the reception was just outside; then followed a peaceful night.

Route to Kugti Pass


The vistas make mornings special.


The Landslide view from my room


Entering Chourasi- Bharmour


Biggest Temple structure in the complex.


Poor Ponies


One of two schools inside Chourasi





The huge Deodar tree . Couldn't manage the entire thing in a single frame




An Enormous Deodar



The vistas surrounding Bharmour


Khadamukh


Raavi Valley


Raavi snake


Chamba


View from the Raavi view cafe - Chamba


Dorm at Hotel Champak(Chamba)

Trek to Danshoo Jharna and back (around 12 kms)

October 6th,2011


“Tourism mei itne paisa hai toh Kheti kyun karte ho”
“Khana toh khet hi khilati hai, tourism toh sirf paisa deti hai”


Day 4 started at 6:30 as Sundarnagar family began their trek. Negraj arrived on time and my laziness meant that we would start only at 8 from Hadsar. Bought some biscuits and begun the trek. It’s an easy trek till Danshoo but on gains altitude quickly. By noon we reached the Danshoo and I was ready to give up and begin the return trek. But Negraj insisted that we visit the Waterfall nearby as it was awesome and not worth missing after coming this far. I still didn’t budge.

“Bhaisahab Camera de do, kuch tasveerein keech aata hoon “
“Rehene do yaar wapas chalte hai”
“Tasveerien dekh li toh aap zaroor chaloge “

Next moment I as up and walking towards the Jharna. Neither I nor the pics can describe the magical feel of the place.

While ascending, I met three Bengali families on their descend trail. Each family didn’t know the other two families until they met in Hadsar before the trek to ManiMahesh. Now they were together completing the trek.

On the return Journey we decided to drop in at the Baba’s ashram at Danshoo. For the first time I was interacting with a sadhu. After spending 8 years in Amarnath-ji, he has now made Mani Mahesh his home for pas 3 yrs. met two more trekkers from Kolkata in the ashram. One of them was an experience trekker Mr. Sachidananda . He has been trekking Himalayas for past 25 years. Their plan was to do ManiMahesh and Kugti-Duggu and some other places before returning home. He mentioned a few things praising the local guides and dissuading from hiring Nepalese and Tibetan guides.

1. Local guides value the place and don’t spoil the place.
2. Locals take more interest in shown around the place and making sure you have seen everything beautiful because you have come from far.

The latter I had already experienced. After 2 hours of bakar session, I and Negraj left the ashram with 5km descend remaining.

“Baba, Agli baar aaoon to milte hai”
“Indira Gandhi nei chowrasi mei yehi kaha tha, kal ka koi nahi jaaney”

Most of the things said by this baba were bouncers to me. I dragged myself to Shanti GH by 5:30 pm. The Kolhapuri Chappals never gave away.

“Bhai, yahan STD kahan hai?”
“Ek hai, lekin who bhi ab bandh hai”
“Yaar, ghar fone karna hai, Mumbai mei”
“Koi nahi, meri fone lelo”

On the way I met this stranger, who offered me his fone leaving me humbled for the kindness Himachalis have shown in the entire trip.

During the entire trek, Raavi River was giving me company. The silence of the hills with the music of Raavi was the USP of Hadsar.

The trek begins

My Guide Negraj

Yours Truly

 

End of Trek

My Stay

Chaotic Chamba- Peace at Hadsar

Day 3 of the trip

HRTC bus for Chamba arrives at the bus stand half filled. Atlast my engineering skills came handy. Whoever said education always comes handy was correct at least in my case. Few pushes and elbows later, I have the window seat. Yay!! All thanks to BEST route 512. Just as my I placed my luggage and stretch my legs, Mr. Conductor ordered everyone to get out of the bus and buy tickets. I was WTF!! Thanks to a lady seated next to me my seat was still reserved, while many others lost theirs.

Cool breeze and a less bumpy ride ensured that I could sleep peacefully for few hours. Woke up at Banikhet. Arriving at Chamba I got a rude shock, it was way too crowded and definitely not my imagination of a hill station. For a moment I felt Lonavla was much less congested. Enquired about the bus to Killar. There is only one HRTC bus from Chamba to Killar starting at 5 am. Then went straight to Tourist office at Bachat Bhavan near Iravati.One Mr. Rajiv there was of great help. He gave some contact details of home stays and advised to do ManiMahesh first and then proceed to Sach. He recommended Tashika travels instead of bus. Later in the conversation, the recommendation was more like an insistence and that’s when I decided no matter what I won’t be taking Tashika travels and HRTC will be my choice.

By noon, I was back at Chamba Bus stand and the bus to Bharmour was as 1PM. There is a Bus every hour from Chamba to Bharmour and vice versa. Bharmour came and Night Mare begun. Every single cabbie was sure that there would be no more shared Bolero to Hadsar that day and were convincing me to take their cab for Rs. 300. Next stop, Raju Guest House near bus stand. Beware of this place, gives only false info and is highly overpriced. He had almost got me convinced that there would be no guides available in Hadsar and I have to book one for here itself for Rs. 750 per day. Then he wanted me to take their cab for Rs. 400. That’s when I realized, what I was being made a Chutiya.  Next stop mountaineering institute in Bharmour. There was just one guy and he had nothing to rent out. While accompanying me to the taxi stand assured me that there will be a Bolero to Hadsar coming soon and guides will be easily available there.

Soon, a shared Bolero arrived and 3 people filled in with me, that guy had one more seat to fill for. I requested him to leave for Hadsar and agreed to pay Rs.20 extra. He agreed and dropped me at Shanti GH at Hadsar. I all this drama, forgot to get a pair of shoes for the trek. Damn!!

Hadsar is a lovely little village and I liked it very much. Got a landslide view room at 400 for two nights. Next day bargained hard and brought the tariff down to 350 for two nights with 2 dinners. Booked a local guy Mr. Negraj to be my trek guide@ Rs. 300. I wanted to trek as much as I could till 1PM and then begin the return journey. A family had come from SurendraNagar to visit ManiMahesh. Their plan was to trek to top and return the same day. We had our dinner together, where they advised me to continue to Manali from Killar and not to return to Chamba. 

That was it for the day. Good night

Backpacking to Himachal : Rail Romance

My morale is at an all time low. 

I don’t have much money to take my bike.

Should I put my bike in the train?

No, that would almost cost the same.

Tadaa!! Public Transport, Backpacking!!! That should be cheap.

Indian Railways, HRTC, shared jeeps and Punjab Roadways to face the truth.

The Jugaad

Backpack

I don’t have a backpack and can’t afford one at the moment .I requested a friend of mine and he happily agreed to let me use his, until the day before some Yakshagana’s prohibited him from doing so.

Solution: A laptop bag and another shoulder trolley bag, hoping that it will we will survive the trip.

Camera

Another friend was supposed to give me his DSLR, but didn’t respond until the last moment.

Solution: Time to test the old Samsung P&S which hasn’t been used for last few months .New set of batteries and it seemed to work fine. Ok Something is better than nothing.

Oct 3-4: Rail Romance

After Initial setbacks, I began the journey boarding the Vashi local from Koper Khairane . Only after boarding the CST local from Vashi, I realized how big a fool I am. :| I am for the trip as if I was heading for the market to buy some vegetables. Sach Pass and ManiMahesh on Kolhapuris. Imagine!! That was what I was up to. With not enough time to go back and get the woodlands, I proceeded to Bandra Terminus.

It was a typical Indian Rail journey to Pathankot (Chakki bank), munching on delicacies every halt . Giving me company was the owner of Sunny Chicken in Jammu along with his employee and a friend. The other two co-passengers were least bothered to get down from their before Delhi .Has any one tried food at Sunny Chicken in Jammu. The owner and his employee claimed their was the best and most popular chicken joint in entire Jammu. So much so that people from P’kot travel to Jammu especially for their food. His information regarding the Bus timing proved very useful later.

Indian Railways maintained its tradition of running late. Just four hours this time.  Reached Chakki Bank at 3 Am on Oct 5^th . Directly went to waiting room, recharged the phone and camera batteries. A power nap and a quick bath later left for Pathankot main bus stand. Everyone here was waiting for the first bus to Chamba and looking at the size of the HRTC buses, I was mentally prepared to travel standing.

Thamni Ghats – Once again

Bikes parked outside Centre One, Vashi.

All riders were at Centre One, by 6. Sachin surprised everyone by showing up in his alternate white beast, a White Fortuner instead of his White ZMR.

Hit the roads by quarter past 6 and stopped at Hotel Konkan Palace, Pen for a very early brunch.

Machines Parked outside the Hotel.

Some Hyosung Pics. This bike looks much much better in flesh than in the pics.

Glimpes of what we had.

Viraj left us here and rode back home. While the rest of us proceeded towards Pali.

1st Waterfall Spotting: p

Avinash, Sachin and Ajay went in to take the blessings of Lord Balleleshwar. I was too lazy to remove the shoes hence skipped a temple visit. As they returned we proceeded towards Vile Phata

Didn't bother to stop at Vile Phata. Continued further on the Vile-Thamni Ghats- Amby Valley Route.

The bad roads came to an end as we reached Amby Valley. The roads in this route was absent in my previous trips. The Melroy’s face said it all. He said that this stretch was the toughest of his life. The ride from here to Tiger hill was in fog-rain combo conditions, this is the reason for mumbaikars and punekars creating traffic jams at Tiger hills.

At Tiger Hill the Bhajiyas was what we feasted upon.

From here the ride back home was rather a big pain in the ass. The traffic Jam which begun in Bushi dam continued till Fariyas resort. Sachin and Melroy were stuck in the jam while the rest of us escaped and were waiting for them to show up. Melroy joined us but still no signs of the Fortuner. More than an hour later, big man Sachin showed up with his big machine with frustration evident in his face. He took the expressway route and escaped. Everyone tanked up and started riding towards Datta Snacks for the next stop.

From Datta snacks, Ajay and Vivek missed a trun on the Bypass and landed in Uran, where Ajays bike refused to start. He had to bring his bike next day.