The 29th was my last day in Rishikesh and I spent most of it in and around the hotel. There were some quite interesting people there. About 3 I walked down to the Ganges and along it to the Swarg Ashram area and again watched the ganga aarti ceremony on the riverside at sunset. The maharishi was absent and the ceremony considerably shorter. It clouded up a bit that afternoon -- the first clouds I had seen in Rishikesh.
The next morning at 7 I left with a hired car and driver for the Char Dham Yatra. "Char" means 'Four," "Dham," I've read, means something like "Holy Abode," and "Yatra" means "Pilgramage." The four holy abodes (Yamunotri, Gangroti, Kedernath and Badrinath) are near the sources of the holy Yamuna and Ganges Rivers. You can get to them by public transportation, but it is a bit difficult and the pilgramage season was about to end with the coming of winter, so I opted for a faster and more comfortable means of transport. It was quite expensive: 15,500 rupees (about $340) for 9 days. I had hoped to find someone else wanting to do the trip to reduce the cost, but decided to go ahead on my own when I couldn't. My travel expenses in India have been quite low -- averaging about $25/day -- and that is in part due to jeep rentals in Ladakh. Quite often I spend only $15 or $20 a day. The biggest expense is usually hotels, though they are usually less than $10 a night, and often only $6 or so. Food is very cheap, with good, filling meals for $2-3, or even less. Bus fares are also cheap, averaging about 1 rupee a kilometer, which works out to a dollar for every 25-30 miles (and many days, especially in the Himalayas, it is hard to go more than 100 miles in a day).
We had a small sedan made by Tata and from Rishikesh drove through Dehra Dun again and up to Mussoorie again, and then down to the Yamuna River, reaching it at about 2400 feet elevation. We followed the canyon of the Yamuna, with lots of tourist buses along the narrow road, which was often rough because of landslides during the just-ended rainy season. We reached Barkot at about 4200 feet at 2 pm and the road was terrible for a few miles after that, but got much better further up. Deodar (cedar) trees began to appear all over the rocky canyon and the scenery was magnificent. We reached the little town of Rana Chatti at 3:30 and I got a hotel room and looked around. I walked out of town a bit and then back and up to the town temple. The kids there were very friendly. Women were threshing wheat with thin poles. Just before nightfall the clouds cleared from Banderpunch (sometimes also spelled Banderpoonch -- sounds like it was named by Lewis Carroll), the 6300 meter (so almost 21,000 feet) peak up the canyon. It turned orange, then red, then purple as the sun set. Rana Chatti was cold at night, at about 6500 feet.
I had potato paranthas the next morning for breakfast (the night before I had seen sacks of potatoes being off loaded from donkeys and onto trucks, and a whole room full of loose potatoes) and about 8 my driver drove me up to Hanuman Chatti, 5 miles up the road. From there you have to take taxis or walk, and I decided to walk the 8 kilometers (5 miles) to Janki Chatti, the end of the road, in part because of the exorbitant taxi fares and in part to prepare for a longer hike I wanted to do at the second Char Dham site. The walk along the road, rising about 1500 feet, took about 2 hours and was quite pleasant in the early morning cool. I walked through the village of Janki Chatti and about 10:30 began the steep hike up to Yamunotri, 5 kilometers (3 miles) up a rocky gorge, with the Yamuna below. It is a beautiful area, but the way up is along a cement path with many stairs and with a red and white rail all the way. There were lots of pilgrims, several hundred I would say, but no other foreigners. Many were on ponies and a few were being carried by four men in sedan chairs! The ponies, and especially the pony boys constantly importuning me to hire a pony, were a nuisance. It's about a 2000 foot climb, and I arrived a little before 1 pm. The temple is fairly simple and not very old. The river's source is much further up the mountain, at a glacier, but it takes mountaineering experience to reach it. A hot water spring is near the temple, and men were bathing in pools of the hot water. Also nearby, pilgrims were cooking little packets of rice, later used as offerrings, in the bubbling hot springs. Some pilgrims were down at the rocky stream bed pouring the very cold water over themselves. There were at least a couple of hundred people there, many from Gujurat, and some orange-clad priests. A small band of langur monkeys watched from just up the stream. Yamuna is the twin sister of Yama, the god of death, and in recompense for a favor she did him, he granted that anyone who bathes in her river will not suffer a painful or untimely death, or so I've read. I did put my hands in the water, so at least they will be spared.
While I was there it began to snow (Yamunotri is at about 10,300 feet), little soft balls of almost floating snow. And since the canyon heads down to the southwest and the sun was setting, the sun's rays were still streaming in from the southwest. It was quite a sight, though I didn't see a snowbow, if there is such a thing. I had a quick lunch of dhal and chapattis and headed down sometime after 2. It continued to snow lightly, but it wasn't a bother. Further down it turned to rain and then mostly stopped. I got down to Janki Chatti in about an hour an a half and from there some Gujuratis gave me a ride down to Hanuman Chatti, where my driver was waiting. We left about 4 and drove down to Barkot through the beautiful deodar forest through off and on rain, sometimes very heavy, and even a little snow, arriving after dark, a little past 6.
There were good views of Banderpunch the next morning from Barkot. We left about 8, rising 3000 feet to about 7500 feet through the deodar-clad hills between the Yamuna and Ganges basins. The morning light streaming rhrough the trees was particularly beautiful. After a good breakfast stop, we reached the Ganges at about 10:30 and headed up the narrow valley. This road, too, had some bad patches because of landfalls caused by the heavy monsoon this year. I've read that this state (Uttarakhand) had over 200 monsoon fatalities in September. We reached the town of Uttarkashi about noon and then proceeded up the narrowing canyon of the Ganges. Actually, this stretch of the Ganges is called the Bhagarithi. When the Bhagarithi meets the Alaknandi downstream it becomes the Ganges. (Actually, it's called the Ganga, and the Indus is called the Sindh.) The narrow canyon up from Uttarkashi was another spectacular deodar-covered stretch of scenery. We reached Gangotri, at about 10,000 feet, a little after 4 and I got a hotel right next to the roaring river. It surprised me how wide and strong it still was so close to its source. The Gangotri temple is just up from the river. I watched a 5:30 ganga aarti ceremony on the riverbank, with only a priest and about 5 attendees. At 6, just after dark, there was a ceremony at the temple itself with a priest, plates of fire and bells ringing, cymbals clashing and drums beating. Quite a lot of noise, but ony about 20 spectators, which surprised me, compared to the hundreds at Yamunotri. It was quite cold in the courtyard of the temple (and in my hotel room where it was 45 degrees when I went to bed at 9). Before it got dark I could see up the canyon pyramidal, snow-covered Shivling, at 6500 meters (so about 21,500 feet), changing colors before the sun's rays left it.
It was 41 degrees in my room the next morning at 6. I didn't get up and out until 7:30 and it was still very cold. I looked around a bit but not much was going on. It warmed up considerably once the sun's rays hit, about 8:30 or 9, I think. There are steep mountains all around Gangotri. I had breakfast and got my permit to hike to Gaumukh, the glacier that is the source of the Ganges, and set off a little before 10 up the narrow canyon of the Ganges. It was a beautiful and relatively easy hike to Bhojbasa, 14 kilometers (a little less than 9 miles) away and about 2500 feet higher than Gangotri. There were rugged mountains all around and groves of deodars and other evergreens. The snow covered mountains of Shivling and Bhagarithi (6300 meters or about 22,500 feet) loomed ahead. The path was quite narrow in places, cut into the cliffside. It was absolutely cloudless and warm in the sun, though the sun was just above the rugged peaks on the south side of the gorge all day. About 3:15 the sun disappeared behind the mountains for good and it became conderably colder. Fortunately, I arrived at Bhojbasa, behind a rocky morrain and thus protected from the wind, 15 minutes later. There were only about 10 other people, almost all foreigners, staying there, most in a derelict little hostel. I walked down to the river and looked around a bit. It was cold and a little windy. We all had a communal dinner of dhal, rice, chapattis and vegetables on the cement floor of an open-sided structure at about 6:30 and then went to bed about 7. I slept in a cold ittle room on the floor, but on a thick coverlet with two other thick coverlets on top of me, so I was comfortable and warm enough.
I got up the next morning a little after 6. It was 30-something in my room. After a meager breakfast of weak tea and miniscule portion of porridge (maybe five teaspoons), we set off for the glacier. I left soon after 7 and it took me about an hour an a half to cover the 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) to the glacier in the cold and in the face of the biting wind. The thermometer hanging from my neck registered 30 degrees. The sun hit about 8, which warmed things up, but it was right in my eyes. The glacier was fantastic, with big chunks of ice that had broken off laying along the river. The edges of the river, too were thickly frozen. We walked right up to the face of the glacier, or rather right up to the stream rushing out of and running just before it. I was surprised at how much water was coming out of it. Quite a bit must flow below the glacier. The glacier itself is quite long and thick and we could see only a small part of it. "Gamukh" means "cow's mouth" and the water here is considered to be particularly holy. Brij, a 74 year old man in our group who was born in India but has lived in the UK for the past 52 years, collected a bottle of it for his family and friends.
I spent an hour or so at the glacier and then began the 18 kilometer (11 mile) hike down. I took it easy and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, but I was hungry, after that miserable breakfast. I did have 6 or so candy bars to sustain me. I came across a herd (or flock?) of about 50 mountain goats of some sort, perhaps ibex. They were a bit wary, but not too concerned about me. Later, I came across another group of three of them. I didn't get back to Gangotri until about 4:30 as I met Brij on the way down and walked with him the last few miles. Once back in Gangotri, though, I did have two spaghetti dinners, about an hour apart, plus several candy bars. I again watched the 6 pm temple ceremony in the cold and spent another cold night in that hotel next to the rushing river.
I got up the next morning about 6:30 and was ready to leave at 7, but the driver delayed until almost 9, which was frustrating. I had invited Brij along as he wanted to make it to the next stop before it closed for the winter. (Yamunotri, Gangotri and Kedernath were scheduled to close in sequence the 5th, 6th and 7th of November, while Badrinath was scheduled to close the 17th.) We traveled down the Ganges canyon to Uttarkashi, and there left the Ganges and took backroads through beautiful mountainous country, reaching the town of Ghansyali about 6. This was the night before Diwali, described to me as a sort of Hindu Christmas, with lights, sweets and gift giving. It commemorates the return of Rama to be crowned King of Ayodhya at the end of the Ramayama. Electric lights were strung up all over town, sweets were on sale everywhere and firecrackers and even some fireworks were being set off. Ghansyali was relatively low and warm, about 3000-4000 feet I think, so I was able to take a bucket bath and wash away the dust and sweat of the Gamukh hike.
I'd been having troubles with the driver and the next morning he refused to take Brij unless Brij paid him. I said I had hired the car and could take whom I wanted. He and Brij argued and he actually hit Brij, who hit him back. The hotel manager and I stepped in and separated them and I decided to dismiss the driver. I had paid him 9000 rupees (a little under $200) and refused to pay him more. I was glad to get rid of him. Brij and I took an uncomfortable share jeep over the mountains to Tiwali, a trip of 3 1/2 hours. There we waited three hours for a bus to Gaurikund, the trail head for Kedernath. The problem was that it was Diwali and lots of people were traveling to spend it with family. Finally, one came along and it was packed. We decided not to take it but to go down the river (the Mandakini, another Ganges tributary) about 5 miles toRudraprayag, where the Mandakini joins the Alaknandi coming down from Badrinath, for the night and catch a bus from there to Gaurikund the next morning. Rudraprayang was full of lights and sweets and firecrackers for Diwali and it was fun to be there. There were also candles lit in the shops, the old-fashioned way of celebrating Diwali, before electric lights. People were very friendly and there were some pretty good fireworks at night. The trouble was there were firecrackers going off until midnight, so no chance of a good sleep until then.
I decided to skip Kedernath, as it entailed a four hour bus trip and then a 14 kilometer hike, rising 1600 meters (over 5000 feet) on the same day, necessary because it was closing the next day. Brij wanted to do it and took an 8 am bus. I left about 9:30, heading for Badrinath, which I reached a little before 5. I took a bus up the Alaknanda River, another Ganges tributary, to Karanprayag, another to Chamoli, and then share jeeps to Joshimath and then Badrinath. Unfortunately, I had poor seats on the share jeeps, so I missed a lot of the spectacular scenery. At Badrinath I got a dirty hotel overlooking the river and the temple and then looked around. It is a spectacular setting, with steep, jagged mountains all around, including Neelkanth, another pyrimidal, snow-covered one at 6500 meters (21,500 feet). Badrinath is at about 10,300 feet and was cold. I took my shoes off and went into the courtyard of the temple. There were lots of pilgrims. Some recognized me from Yamunotri and I remembered them, from Surat in Gujurat. A ceremony began at 6 inside the temple and I watched part of it. There were bells ringing, cymbals clanging and drums and chanting. Plates of fire were brought out among the worshippers. I was cold in my stockinged feet on the stone floors and I was happy to leave and put on my shoes. There were also quite a few beggars and sadhus lined up on the bridge across the river leading to the temple and on the approach to the bridge. They are quite strange-looking, to say the least. One of the sadhus had told me that President Obama had arrived in India with three airplanes and 1500 soldiers. I slept warmly under heavy covers. It was slightly warmer in Badrinath than in Gangotri, despite it being a little higher.
There was lots of noise from the temple at 5 am -- bell ringing and then the playing of recorded music for maybe half an hour. I got up and out about 7 and walked around in the cold. I finally used the down jacket I bought in Manali for Ladakh (but never used there) in Gangotri, Gamukh and Badrinath, and was glad I had it. I walked along the river on each side. Men (and women, but in a closed area) were bathing in the hot springs below the temple. I had breakfast just before the sun hit at 8:30, which considerably warmed things up. I walked around town some more. A few people were on the ghats along the fast-moving river, scooping up the cold water and pouring it over themselves, then running to jump in the cement pools below the temple filled with water from the hot springs.
About 11 I started walking up the river toward the village of Mana, 3 kilometers away. I passed stone houses with slate roofs and reached the riverbank opposite Mana after a leisurely walk. There is a road on the other side of the river. I had expected there to be a bridge across the river, but there was only a metal basket on a cable to get across. As I was approaching I saw three men get into it and pull themselves over the fast-moving river. They saw me and motioned to me how to haul the basket back over to my side of the river and secure the rope with some stones so I could climb into the basket without it slipping away from me. I had to use enough stones to secure the basket as I climbed into it but not so many that I couldn't release the rope once I wanted to cross. I got in safely and they were kind enough to pull me across so I didn't have to do it myself. It was quite an exciting ride above the raging river.
I looked around Mana a bit. The slate roofs there are now mostly repaired with tin or galvanized steel. The people there are a little Tibetan-looking, and indeed Tibet is only a few miles away. The road beyond Mana is closed and there is a military base on the road between Badrinath and Mana. Above Mana is a cave where Ved Vyas is supposed to have composed the Mahabharata, one of the two epic poems of Hinduism (along with the Ramayama). The wall in front of the little cave where he is supposed to have done this has written on it that the temple has been there for 5111 years (and in smaller letters "in 2003"). I believe he is supposed to have dictated it to Ganesh, the elephant-headed son of Shiva, who has his own cave. I continued walking up the spectacular canyon of the Alaknanda a few kilometers beyond Mana, but turned back once the sun was blocked by the steep mountains. On the way back to Badrinath I was able to walk in sunlight most of the way, arriving about 4. I could see that Badrinath was in shadow from about 3:30.
That night I watched the ceremony in the inner sanctum of the temple that started about 6 until a little past 7. I found a seat in the corner on a donation box and nobody seemed to mind that I sat there and watched. The chief priest, a Brahman who always comes from a certain village in Kerala, in southern India, came in preceded by a guy with a golden scepter. The priest wore a blue smock and a blue cap, more or less the style of the old leather football helmets but made of cloth. He was in his thirties, I would guess. I couldn't see what he was doing from my vantage point as he was inside the silver and gold enclosure inside the inner sanctum where the black stone idol of Vishnu is kept, but I did see and hear lots of bell ringing, cymbal clashing and drum beating as he performed his rites. Later, plates of fire were brought out and the worshippers would bless themselves over the fire. The inner sanctum is small and groups were brought in and then directed out. There was almost as much shoving and pushing as there is on Indian buses. The priest left right at 7, but the temple remained open until about 7:30. Lots of worshippers brought in metal plates, about a foot in diameter, with sweets, nuts and flowers on them, which were on sale in shops outside the temple. One of the temple personnel would scoop some of the offerrings off the plates and then return the plate to the worshipper. Around the inner sanctum is the courtyard with a gallery beyond that, where some people were sitting and chanting. A log fire in a fire pit was in one corner. My feet got very cold during the hour or more I was there and I was happy to leave for dinner. During dinner I watched a television at the restaurant with clips of President Obama descending from his plane, delivering a speech, and dancing with his wife and a bunch of children. The commentary was all in Hindi.
I was awakened by the temple noise at 5 again. I got up and about before 7 and again walked around in the cold. I had breakfast about 8:30 and afterward met Brij again. He had made it to Kedernath and had just arrived in Badrinath but was preparing to leave. I left with him and several others in a share jeep about 10. I had a much better seat than on the way up, so could enjoy the spectacular scenery. We got another share jeep in Joshimath and again I had a good seat for the great scenery. In Chamoli we boarded a bus heading downriver. I got off in Karanprayag about 4, but Brij was heading to Haridwar and then Delhi and Goa where he has family. Karanprayag is at the confluence of the Alaknanda and Pindar Rivers, both very fast-moving, with rapids, at their confluence. It is a scenic spot but for the garbage, which is a major blight here in India. I walked down to the rocky and sandy shore of the Alaknanda and saw a ganga aarti at he ghats at the confluence, led by one yellow-clad fellow with a flame on a plate and attended by only 4 men. There was no electricity in town that night except for a hotel with a generator and in the lobby I saw, but did not hear, part of Obama's speech to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's legislature.
At 8 the next morning I left on a bus bound for Kausani, less than 70 miles away but a seven hour trip on a slow and often very crowded bus. It was, however, a very beautiful trip. Karanprayag ia at about 3000 feet and we came up the narrow Pindar River valley and then above it, with views of the snow-covered mountains to the north. About noon we had a half hour lunch stop at Gwaldum at about 6500 feet, then desended and then rose again to Kausani at about 6000 feet. Kausani is on a ridge facing the snow-covered Himalayas to the north and I got a hotel with a spectacular view of them. There is a whole line of snow covered peaks over 6000 meters (20,000 feet) and the view in the clear air was magniificent, especially of Trishul, a three stepped peak rising over 7100 meters (over 23,000 feet). Higher but less impressive as it it further away and partially hidden by intervening peaks is Nanda Devi at over 7800 meters (25,600 feet or so). From the town I walked up to the Anasakti Ashram, where Gandhi spent 12 days in 1929 writing his treatise on the Bhagavid Gita, the most important part of the Mahabharata. There is a museum with some great photos of him, plus excerpts from his autobiography. The view from there is spectacular, too, and at sunset I watched the colors change on the peaks to the north. After dinner I found a couple of newspapers (The Times of India and the Hindustan Times) with coverage of Obama in India, most of it highly favorable.
I got up the next morning soon after 6 to watch the sun light up the peaks to the north. There were several of us at the hotel doing so, all Indians but me. It was chilly, in the low 50's, but a beautiful way to begin the day. The sun first hit the peaks at about 6:30, but didn't reach us until an hour later. I was given a Gujurati breakfast of a delicious dried fruit and ghee mixture and some sort of crispy pieces of bread, all very good, and then took about an hour walk along the ridge line with great views of the peaks to the north through the trees. A troop of maybe 100 macaques (with red faces and red butts) came along the road, several with babies tucked under them. I left Kausani about 11:30 on a share jeep, and after a change arrived in Almora about two hours later. Almora is on a horseshoe shaped ridge at about 5500 feet. At the top of the ridge is a pedestrian bazaar that really is for pedestrians only, no motorcycles or bicycles. It runs for quite a ways and was full of people, shops and activity. Some of the store fronts and buildings have elaborately carved wooden facades. At one of the ridge's high points is a stone temple said to be from the 7th century with some good carvings on it, including some erotic ones. I spent the afternoon walking up and down the bazaar and enjoyed it
The next day (today) I got up about 6 after the local mosque went off at 5:30. Quite an unpleasant surprise as this area is heavily Hindu. In fact this state, Uttarakhand, has been a state only since 2000. It was formerly part of Uttar Pradesh, India's biggest state with well over 100 million people. In 2000 the mountainous portion of Uttar Pradesh, with less than 10 million people, became the state of Uttaranchal, which name was changed to Uttarakhand in 2007. After breakfast I took a share jeep to Kasar Devi on a ridge about 5 miles to the north with great views of the snow-covered peaks to the north. There is a much better view of Nanda Devi from Kasar Devi than from Kausani, but the sky was hazier and cloudier than at Kausani. D. H. Lawrence, Timothy Leary and Cat Stevens are said to have spent time here, on a ridge called Cranks' Ridge, and there are hotels and restaurants along the ridge. I had lunch and then came back to Almora.
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