My First Trek - Munsyari to Milam

This is the longest blog that i've written till now. If you have time please read through. You can also view photos only.

Detail about my first trek.. Was so excited about trekking and that too in mighty Himalaya's! During childhood when i first read about Himalaya's in books and stories that my grand father told. Was so fascinated just imagining about them and wondering how they might look like! Then came the discovery channel which showed me how they really look like. Mighty and Majestic. Since then i wanted to look at them from up close, take in all the beauty and spend time there. Now the time finally came for me to visit them. Teamed with my friend Kirity planned and procured all the necessary items. Another friend Aditya provided us with the basic and necessary details and precautions for the trek. He's been to the same trek four years back so we got a basic idea of what the trek is going to be like. Was so excited that im finally going to Himalaya's!
Our trek plan is 

Hyderabad ---[Train]---> Hazarat Nizamuddin ---[Bus]---> Haldwani (Uttarakhand) ---[Bus]----> Munsyari -----[Trek]----> Milam. 

As per the detail that we have from Aditya the trek is as simple as walking besides the river Gori and taking breaks at the tea-houses along the path. Also the trek that we are going to take is known as "Tea-house trek" as those are habitable "houses" which sell "Tea" along the path for stay and food. This is how they will look like.

Day 1

As soon as we got down at Hazarat Nizamuddin we went to Anand vihar in Delhi for boarding the bus. Believe me the bus stand is the worst that i've seen till now! We got on to a bus till Haldwani. The idea is to get down at Haldwani, halt for the night and take a bus to Munsyari the next day. The journey from Delhi to Haldwani is just normal and bumpy as the path was going through normal high ways and villages. At rudrapur city we crossed into Uttarakhand. At around 21:30 we got down at Haldwani. We went to the bus stand to get the timetable of buses leaving for Munsyari. To our surprise there is only one and only one bus to Munsyari per day. And that bus comes at night 00:00 hours and leaves by 03:00 in the monring and reaches munsyari by evening the same day. That was unexpected. It will take us 2 days to go to Musyari if we miss the bus today. So we prepared to take the bus the same day and spend some time in the bus stand. But as our luck stands out the bus will never be free for us to find a seat and it will be difficult with out the seat as all the route till Munsyari is Ghat road. That is close to 290KM of ghat road! We thought better of it and started looking for a taxi. We got into a News Paper distributing taxi which will leave us at pithorgadh by morning from where we need to get into another taxi to reach munsyari by 11:00 next day. We had a quick dinner before starting and got into the taxi which started roughly after 23:30 fully loaded with the news paper. Believe me i've never seen and experienced a drive like that. I was up all night watching his driving. He never used his brakes and was drifting on the ghat road bends. Hell! I was completely tired by morning. Bad news is, we only completed half the journey. By the time we got down at Pithoragadh we noticed that couple of cab drivers who were there are the same people whom we say the night before in Haldwani. The bitter truth of us getting cheated dawned on us slowly. If we have heard the other guys we might have already been on our way to Munsyari by now. Any way lesson learn't "don't trust any cab driver" in Uttarakhand. So we went and hopped onto another taxi to Munsyari. On our way we were greeted with snow/hails rain (each size of tiny ball bearings). The cab driver promptly stopped the vehicle till the rain is gone. Finally we arrived in Munsyari by 12:00.

Munsyari height from sea level is 2200 m and is located on the slope of a mountain. A small village with people mostly comprised of running hotels/porters/guides. We rented a room with geyser (Rs. 400/-) on twin sharing basis. The hotel owner is a good guy who gave us lot of information even without asking. We need to acclimatise in munsyari. So we have today and tomorrow for us. We need to get a Pass from Indo Tibet Border Police Force (ITBPF) for the trek to Milam glacier.

We went around and settled outside a hotel for Tea each Rs 5/-. The quantity is a little too high for us. But we had all of it. The taste is a little bit different and it seems that a bit of pepper was added to it. For that day we slept well as we were deprived of sleep due to continuous journey we had.

Day 2

Next day woke up at 7:00 to view the Panch Chulhe. It means "Five Cooking Stoves" in english. Why the funny name? coz when the air is clear and during the sunset, all the five peaks will be shining in brilliant orange! The locals say that those are Gods own stoves cooking their supper!. I liked that explanation. Bad news is that i can only imagine as they are all shrouded with clouds! I managed to get only one picture. 
There are only two places to visit in Munsyari. A museum and Nanda Devi Temple. First we went ahead to take the trek pass from ITBPF.
Needed documentation includes Three copies each of Photo Identity Proof, and a hand written letter to ITBPF stating that i will not be doing any harm to the environment and i'm solely responsible for whatever happens to me. The office will sign and gives back a copy to you. You need to take good care of this as you need to show this to other ITBPF check posts along the trek route.

Post that we decided to walk to Nanda devi temple. This temple is located on one of the smaller peaks overlooking huge valley and with a backdrop of some snow capped mountains along with panch chulhe. On the nearest mountains we can find habitats doing irrigation on the hill sides.

Returned back to town had some lunch and headed for Museum.Instead of walking on the road we followed a cross route snaking through houses. The museum is just two rooms big. We have to take a ticket Rs.10/- for a private tour of the museum. Munsyari facts, the talcum powder that we use is from a rock! and that rock can be found in these mountains. Also the flint stone that is used to make fire is also from here. We took two sleeping mats and sleeping bags from local shop. Mat @ Rs 10/- and Sleeping Bag @ Rs. 40/- per day. Towards the night we both readied our rucksacks and decided to take a quick walk around to get a feel of how the weight might be. We did that and realized that we are carrying way too much weight. Returned back and emptied all the stuff which is either redundant or not so needed. Even then the bags are heavy. I couldn't sleep as my excitement is building up. Tried hard and slept.

Day 3

Next morning we woke up and had the same tea and chapatis for breakfast, settled the owners account and went to Mudcot taxi stop. By around 7:30 AM. But we were already late, all the sharing taxis left. There are lot of taxis in the stand and everyone is ready to come as a full taxi for Rs. 2000/- and no less. We said we will wait and waited for 3 whole hours for the next taxi to arrive and fill. Meanwhile while waiting we met upendra school going kid, who said that he would guide us till. Lilam our next trek stop.  We got down at dhaapa by 11. Once getting out of the taxi, we realized that it's the end of road. We looked at upendra and he is pointing towards the valley with a broad grin. The same valley in the right side photo! It might seem small, due to the awkward angle of the photo. Believe me, you can find a 12 seater jeep in the photo in the top left quadrant. 

                                                                Once we came down the steep incline and started our trek. By lunch time around 12:30 we reached lilam border and already took 4 breaks. We took a wrong turn and went into ITBPF directly. After updating the officer there we continued finding a tea house for lunch. We were sweating profusely. Though the sun is not hot, due to the intense physical activity with the weight. We dropped (already!) our bags and laid flat on the crude bedding. Post lunch we took rest for 1 hour. Then started again, and reached our first night halt (Left side photo). 

The tea house is placed strategically opposite a valley which is just awesome! You get to head the continuous roar of the Gori river below. Its just beautiful to look at! Towards the dawn temperature also fell down slowly along with the light. 

The tea house is equipped with cutting edge Solar LED lamps. Even they provide you with a mobile charger if sun is there. We had a good lunch with Dal, chapathis and chawal (rice) and dozed off.

This trek is nothing like i imagined. Full of ascents and descents and the temperature is good 25 C. Not at all cool. Lot of sweating and breaks. But the air is magical. With just a break of 5 minutes you will be energized and ready to go. The air and water are so pure that you can drink the water directly from the stream. Even the tea houses source of water is a stream which will be flowing down from the snow cap high above. They simply plug a water tube into the stream high above and it will provide the water 24x7.

Day 4

Next day, woke up early, had our breakfast and set out again. As the day progressed, our speed decreased with more breaks. At one point we came across a huge ice block which covered the valley floor. And the river is flowing right underneath it. That's me in the photo. As we are already drenched in sweat, felt a little chill while walking on the ice. All the path is full of steep ascents and descents. The ascents is more. We got used to the terrain now and reached a tea house by 10:00 in the noon, couldn't make out the name. Had a maggie there and continued. We continued and reached Bugdiyar by 13:30! Now that's fast!. We signed in at the ITBPF and went to a tea house for lunch. We met a group there. Who arranged a guide, cook and porters for their trek. Had a chat for sometime and continued our trek to Nahar Devi 3Km from there. Reached nahar devi by 17:00. Again spent time by sitting on the edge of the hill with view of high rise mountains and valleys with continuous dull roar of Gori river.

Day 5

Next day we woke up early again and started our trek by 6:00 in the morning. Its seemed very cloudy. I struggled to get a GPS fix. As we continued our trek the clouds started to slowly come down from the sky. Every passing hour the clouds came down even more. After sometime we are amidst clouds! Visibility reduced. I cannot see the mountain on the other side, nor the river and valley. It's all smoke white. We slipped into rain coat so as to not get completely wet. It's just wonderful experience, walking in the clouds!. Can see the water droplets floating in the air, moving rapidly along with the wind. Standing against the wind felt like almost standing a light rain. Because of the rain coat the sweating increased. So decided to continue the rest of trek with out rain coat. Kirity went one more step ahead and removed his shirt as well. One of the Shepard who saw him without the shirt warned him that it is not a good idea and will be catching fever if not covered up properly. By noon we reached roopsi gaadi. We both were very tired and felt like sleeping there only. We took a quick nap for 1 hour, had lunch and continued or trek. By evening we have reached Rilkot. Signed in the ITBPF log book. There we had a very lengthy chat with the ITBPF people. Their TV is not working and also the phone. Its a satellite phone and due to the heavy onset of clouds nothing is working. They gave us some hot tea and we happily enjoyed it. After spending around 1 hour we went to the tea house. Had dinner and slept. 

Day 6

Kirity caught fever as result of not wearing his shirt. We spent the next day in Rilkot waiting for kirity to get well. Glad that we carried our medicines. Good dose of paracetomal helped him cope up quickly. I have spent most of the day sitting in the hotel, watching the people chat with in themselves, lots of sheep and roamed here and there around that place.

Day 7

We have started again early. One of the passer by guide told that if we were able to pass the next mountain, the remaining path is all plain and even there is road for vehicular movement. The idea of a continuous smooth plane brought lot of energy. We quickly packed and set out. The next mountain is hell. The most steep stuff. It took us one complete hour to cross just half of it. But the thought of plane land kept us rolling. Once we crossed the mountain, the landscape is still the same, still ascents and descents! We continued in the hope to find the "plane". By noon we have reached Burfu. Again slept for 1 hour and had lunch. Slowly set out for out next stop Milam! Yes, the last stop. After going some distance the "road" started. I was expecting a tar road! but this is just a path made by the bulldozer by pushing the rubble to one side of the mountain. But this is better than what we went through till now. Our pace increased. But today the path is all wind. The wind is so strong that it is pushing us in all directions. Even saw a water fall which is falling down, instead it is directly diffusing into the air.

We crossed a view point where in we get to see both nanda devi(left) and trishul(right) mountain peaks.We are very far from both of them. But because of their sheer size they seem very near.


Finally be evening we have reached Milam! Went directly to ITBPF. This base is big complete with an helipad and lot of military personnel and buildings. Got a chance to call home using the satellite phone here. We got accommodation in the PWD guest house. We slept under concrete roof after 6 days! On our way to Milam we came across a native people group whose lively hood is to transport goods from Munsyari to Milam. We made a deal with them to carry our Rucksacks next day for us till bugdiyar.

Day 8

We wokeup early and started our trek. We know that the porters can do a running race on the trek path. So we had to start early so as to keep pace with them. Still, they outrun us today. They reached Bugdiyar before us and were waiting with out bags at ITBPF. We renewed our deal with the porters to carry our goods till Dhaapa for a total of 800 bucks. During the entire trek they never even touched our bags once.

Day 9

We started early again and were determined to reach Dhaapa before the porters reached and we succeeded. When we were about to leave for lunch from Rupsi bagair, the porters came for lunch there. We told them that we will meet them at dhaapa and left. We successfully reached dhaapa before them. Today we met with rain. The rain fell hard and completely drenched us. After going to dhaapa our trek continued to next village as no taxi ever came. Finally we were back in munsyari two days before than expected.

What ever i managed to write here is just a glimpse of what i really experienced. That has to stay with me as my experience in my memories. At time really felt that the trek is too hard. But continued on to successfully complete this as this is my first trek.