Ashish, Author at Ghumakkar - Inspiring travel experiences.

Sarchhu to Leh, Pangong Lake, and Back via Kashmir

By Ashish

First town where some civilization could be seen was Upshi which is basically a check post where we did not stop. Next stop at about 30 km was Karu which basically a military establishment just before Leh. We stopped a Karu for a late lunch and some tea and then soon proceeded to Leh which took about 1-1.5 hours. On the way to Leh one can see gorgeous mountain views with Indus flowing along the road.

Next, day we went to places around Leh such as Patthar Singh Sahab Gurudwara (पत्थर सिंह साहिब गुरुद्वारा), so called Magnetic Hill, Confluence of Janskar and Indus rivers, a Kali temple and a Buddhist temple, and one of the oldest monastery near Leh. The landscape near Leh is also dry, barren but mesmerizingly beautiful. Buddhist temple have special wheels called Maney ( माने) carrying the holy mantra “Om Many Padme hum” or “ओम माणी पद्मे हूं” which the devotees rotate.

Road to Leh Part 2 : Manali-Keylong-Sarchu

By Ashish

The entry to Sarchu was amazing. After crossing the curvy path of mountains and snow, one suddenly comes across a vast plain between the high mountains but with little snow cover. There are gorges on one side where a thin stream of Yunam river flows. These gorges have very strange formations which look like pointed erections, possibly caused by wind erosion. The place is bone dry with cracks appearing in the soil with little precipitation even in severe winter when temperatures plummet below -30 degC. However, the place is very windy with wind velocities possibly approaching 40-50 Km/hr making the temperatures feel subzero despite actual temperature being about 5-10 degC. Here, no one lives permanently except a few Army settlements. Reception of cell phone is nonexistent and one really need to live like nomads. We found a camping site where we stayed in the camps. These camps serve you food and bedding and some of them also provide toilets which is indeed a luxury at this place (exposing your bum to morning frost is no fun :) ).

Road to Leh – Kanpur to Manali (Part 1)

By Ashish

Next day, our plan was to reach Manali, another 450-500 km or so drive, but there were two routes: either via Chandigarh-Mandi-Manali or via Panota sahib-Nahan-Dharampur(Solan)-Sabhathu-Arki-Barmana-Mandi-Manali. These two routes meet near Surendernagar, but the first leg is what makes difference. We thought we wont travel through the plains and avoid the rush so we decided to go via Nahan. We started at about 9.30 which was a bit late, but nevertheless.. I don’t know whether it was a mistake: the road was bad for quite a bit but traffic wasn’t much with sparsely populated places and the scenes were gorgeous. Soon after Panota Sahib, the beauty of mountains started and we started working, busy with the our cameras or busy looking at the nature. Worst was to be the person driving the vehicle in this situation, for whom it was an excitement as it was his first real mountain driving experience and he did very well, 100/100. We reached Dharampur after driving for about 4-5 hours at about 2.30 pm and after covering about 175 km. Dharampur is a junction for people going towards Solan or Shimla from plains or Chandigarh/Delhi, so we faced a bit of crowd there. Had our lunch and then proceeded towards Sabathu and Arki. The roads in this stretch were basically state or district roads, traffic wasn’t much but roads weren’t good either. We couldn’t drive fast enough, and by the time we reached Darlaghat, to join NH-88, it was quite late, about 6 pm and we hadn’t traveled enough, almost 70km in about 3 hours. We realized that it would be tough to make it to Manali on the same day in good time. We then switched over and I started to drive, my first real experience of driving on mountains. However, the road towards Manali was good as except at some places, so not much of an issue. We could not much of scenery as it was getting dark, except the visible forest fire at certain places on the high hills.

Canberra (Australia) Trip

By Ashish

Next day was horrible, muggy and cold, suddenly temperature went down below 20C (below 5C at night). So no outdoors and we went to Australian Parliament and to Australia War Memorial which were nice places to visit and are free for public. It is great to see the history of parliament in Australia, how well it was recorded and shown to the public. On the contrary in India, it is so hard to enter the parliament and then how poorly the history is shown, goes on the show what our politicians are. You can see the chronicles of Australian politics, telling one about the constitution in the beginning and how it evolved to include the Aborigines later on. It is fascinating to see that government did apologize to the aborigines. I don’t think in India we have ever apologized to the outcast people of our society.

राजस्थान यात्रा – बीकानेर से जयपुर और जयपुर –

By Ashish

पहले हिस्से में सूरज पोल से जाने पर मिलता है जलेब चौक जहां सैनिकों के रहने के लिए बैरकें बनी हैं| जीत के जश्न को देखने के राजसी महिलाओं के लिए झरोखे भी बने हैं| इस हिस्से को सवाई जय सिंह के कार्यकाल में बनवाया गया था| जलेब चौक के बाद इस हिस्से का प्रांगण है जिसके एक किनारे पर शिला देवी का मंदिर है| मंदिर का दरवाजा काफी प्रभावशाली है और इस पर तरह तरह की बनावटें हैं| इसके पीछे कहानी यह है कि राजा को सपने में देवी ने दर्शन दिए थे और उसके उनहोंने बंगाल के राजा को युद्ध में हराया था| देवी की मूर्ति को समुद्र से एक पत्थर लाकर उस पर नक्काशी करके यहाँ स्थापित किया गया था, इसीलिए नाम पड़ा शिला देवी| नवरात्री के दिनों में यहाँ बलि की प्रथा भी है| हम मंदिर के अंदर नहीं जा पाए क्योंकि पट बंद थे|

राजस्थान यात्रा: भाग २ (बीकानेर)

By Ashish

खैर हम पहले अपने होटल गए क्योंकि सब लोग ४-५ घंटे की सड़क यात्रा के बाद थक से गए थे और कुछ खाने पीने की ज़रूर दिखाई दे रही थे| होटल एक हवेलीनुमा मकान था, जो कि बाद में हमने देखा कि वहाँ आम बात है| किसी रिटायर्ड सरकारी अफसर का घर था जो कि उसने होटल में बदल दिया था| ये एक अच्छा व्यापार है बीकानेर में जहां यात्रियों, खासकर, विदेशी डालर यूरो वाले, की संख्या ज़्यादा है और लोकल लोगों के लिए ये पैसा कमाने का अच्छा ज़रिया है| होटल बहुत सस्ता तो नहीं था, करीब १५०० रुपये प्रति रात डबल बेड के लिए (घुसलखाने के साथ) लेकिन ठीक-ठाक था, सफाई ठीक थी और ऊपर एक रेस्तारेंट भी था जहां से नजारा काफी अच्छा था| लेकिन जिस बात ने हमारा पहुँचते ही मूड आफ किया वो ये थी कि स्टाफ विदेशी लोगों में ज़्यादा मशगूल थे और भारतीय ग्राहकों को नज़रंदाज़ कर रहे थे| इस बात को लेकर हमारी थोड़ी कहा-सुनी हुई और फिर स्टाफ का रवैया एक दम बदल गया| रात को खाना खा-पीकर हम बिस्तरों में घुस गए क्योंकि अगले दिन कई सारी जगह देखने जाना था|

राजस्थान यात्रा: भाग १

By Ashish

पुष्कर एक छोटा सा कस्बा है जहां राजस्थान में होने की वजह से धूल ज़्यादा है, हरियाली न के बराबर है और आबादी भी ज़्यादा नहीं है| जगह के बारे में किवदंती है कि ब्रह्मा ने राधा कृष्ण की झलक पाने के लियी साठ हजार साल लंबी तपस्या की थी और ये जगह अपनी झील या तालाब के लिए जानी जाती है| यहाँ देखने के लिए कई सारे मंदिर भी हैं जिनमें कि मेरी कुछ खास दिलचस्पी नहीं थी| पुष्कर पहुँचने के बाद होटल तक पहुँचने में थोड़ी मुश्किल हुयी, क्योंकि पहले हमको किसी ने उलटा रास्ता बता दिया और हम पुष्कर के बाहर ही चले गए लेकिन फिर किसी भी तरह से पूछपाछ के होटल तक पहुंचे| होटल तक पहुँचने में शाम हो गयी थी और अंधेरा लगभग होने लगा था| होटल अच्छा था, पीछे एक पहाड़ी थी जिसको देखते ही मुझे तो तुरंत ही इस पर चढ़ने की तमन्ना हो गयी |

रूपकुंड की यात्रा Roopkund Trek – ३

By Ashish

Day 6: Bhaguabasha – Roopkund – Bedini Bugyal (5+17km 6.00 am – 3.00 pm), on foot, Trek level: Moderate to difficult (especially Bhaguabasha to…

रूपकुंड की यात्रा Roopkund Trek – २

By Ashish

Day 4: Wan (वाण) – Bedini Bugyal (बेदिनी बुग्याल) (12 km, 6.00 am – 11.00 am), on foot, Trek Level: Easy to Moderate We…

रूपकुंड की यात्रा Roopkund Trek – १

By Ashish

In June 2008, I went for the Roopkund (रूपकुंड)) trek which is supposed to be a moderate to difficult trek. Roopkund is located at…

Goecha La (Sikkim) Trek

By Ashish

After spending a day in Gangtok, I proceeded to Yuksom, a small town about 150 km away from Gangtok which can be reached via Rwangla or Rangpo. This is the place from where the trek to Dzongri, Goecha La and to the base camp of Mt. Kanchenjunga begins. The way to Yuksom is absolutely gorgeous with marvelous mountain views with green/blue watered Rangit river flowing in the middle of this Himalayn Kingdom. I started of on 27th September for Yuksam via Rumtek and Rwangla. At Rumtek, we gave lift to a couple of people from Rwangla.

Shitidhar Trek in Himanchal Pradesh – Part II

By Ashish

Day 3 On third day, we has to get up early as we had to go to Base Camp for our final ascent to…