When temperature touched 45+ degrees and above in Delhi and that little voice in my head told me, 'Hills are Calling', I believed it.
Me and a friend decided to travel to the hills for a weekend in June, post-Eid. My student had suggested Chopta/Tungnath trek long back, so we called him for directions and started our travel at 3am on a Friday!
From Greater Noida we took a taxi to Kashmere Gate, ISBT, and from there we took a state bus for Haridwar which dropped us after 5 hours and then we shared a taxi to Rudraprayag, again a five hour journey but more picturesque. There was a jam on the usual route so the driver took us from alternate Rajaji Park/Chilla dam route and we were left wondering, if the road had potholes or potholes were lucky enough to have semblance-of-something-like-a-road!!
Also, we were sharing our ride with a family. Kids/ women and even their Farishtas puked on the way up to the hills. It was 5pm by the time we reached Rudraprayag. We had tea and chatted with a few taxi walas and hired a direct cab for Chopta. One taxi driver even asked, "Jungle me kya dekhna hai" but with the setting sun, rising altitude and chill in the air, Mandakini and Alaknanda rivers flowing on the side of the road, we felt visiting Chopta was a brilliant idea. The temperature dropped, air became cold as we kept going up. We had to take out our shawls/ jackets when we came out of the car.
We reached Chopta at 8.30pm, and hotels in the main market were all booked. As we heard it was the 'yatra season'. We took our taxi a bit further and there was a man who waved at us and took us to his home-stay. He was a retired Army soldier and his daughter lived in Noida and soon we were 'like' his daughters (except for the money part!). They offered us fresh food (dal,roti, sabzi of beans and local bhindi) right out of choolha.
For hot water they charged us Rs.40/- per bucket and asked us to be careful with lights, etc. (electricity scarcity).
The room was new, clean and extremely basic. Thankfully, bathroom was quite big. Mornings are beautiful in the hills and it became cloudy soon. We had hot aloo-parathas and chai for breakfast and got ready to leave for Tungnath.
We heard stories from 'Uncle' (owner!) how the trek is tough and long and 4kms feels like 10+ kms. At the main market, a boy offered us mules and we took the offer for going up. We chatted with the animals and their caretaker as we admired the beautiful scenery around us.
And it was a wise decision to take the animals for going up, in hindsight since we had a long journey ahead of us.
We made casual conversations with people on the way as we walked down on foot and assuring people totally out of breath, "abhi to bohot ooopar jana hai, keep walking".
Tunganath (highest of five Kedar temples at 12000+ft) was so high that anyone could just literally have a direct conversation with God (conditional if God lived in the sky above!) there was just no need/takalluf/taamjhaam for bells, etc. at the temple.
There was a long queue of pilgrims as 'Char- dhaam Yatra' season had started.
We were actually walking in the clouds. The meadows and the majestic view of the hills was worth the hard work of going up and down the trek.
We had mandatory Hill Maggi at one of the dhabas while coming down and found a bus going to Ukhimath. We boarded from Chopta and then got down a little further from where we were told we would get a 'shared cab' for Rudraprayag. There was a windstorm and we kept waiting for sometime till a Chevrolet car stopped and offered us a 'paid' ride. Driver's wife and daughter were sitting in the front seat, we took the offer and in dusty/windy, construction related jams, listening to Pahadi songs reached Rudraprayag after two hours.
At Rudraprayag we had tea and went up and down exploring the main road looking for taxis.
At one sabzi shop, we spotted 'most respectfully displayed Bhindis-ever' and I asked how long it takes them to put each one like that, to which the puzzled boy replied 30-45 minutes each morning!
At the main market Parking we coaxed drivers and haggled till we found a taxi to Shrinagar.
Driver agreed on condition that he would take other passengers and we had to agree to his terms. Another two hour ride and by 7pm we reached Shrinagar town. Rishikesh was still 5 hour plus drive and all the local drivers had already gone in slumber mode so we had to wait for more than an hour till we found a cab going to Rishikesh. On the way we stopped at a dhaba for dinner, our last hilly
Dal fry, dahi-roti before we reached the plains.
By the time we reached Rishikesh at 11 pm, we were too tired and thought of checking in at a hotel for the night. With leg cramps, back hurting it was difficult to even walk. We tried taxi options for Delhi, few promised we were even ready to pay extra but they backed out.
We sat confused in front of the Bus Terminal and asked about bus options and available taxis, as we gulped more cups of tea and cold drinks.
There were women travelers around and we did not feel unsafe at all while sitting on a city road at midnight.
We saw a bus conductor shouting at 2am, it was a bus due for Delhi and we took it. As I cracked a few 'leftover' jokes from the trip to my shocked and tired friend before we both dozed off on the state transport bus. Only to wake up in the morning with crowds, hot weather and people and children shouting at the top of their voices. Bus stopped at a Dhaba for breakfast, we had tea and reached Delhi by 8am. We booked a taxi for Greater Noida, reached home extremely exhausted with memories of good weather hills and walk in the clouds.
