Himalaya Trek

SarPass
When we moved to India more than 2 and a half years ago I had a goal of seeing two of India's wonders: the Taj Mahal and the Himalayas. Eric and I made it to Agra and the Taj on our anniversary last year and when Eric was called back to the US for work I thought that my hopes to see the Himalayas were dashed. However, my colleagues knew of my hopes and three of us managed to make arrangements to trek through the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh beginning on May 31. I began the trip with a flight from Bangalore to Chennai where I met up with my friend Aditya. The next morning we caught a train from Chennai and a mere 28 hours later we were in Delhi. We then met up with Neha, another friend, and caught the overnight bus that would take us to Bunthar, Himachal. This bus ride was pretty interesting as we were in a big fancy Volvo bus which was FLYING up the twisty turny mountain road. We then got out at Bunthar and had to catch a local bus to our base camp at Kasol. And then I found out how very nice and calm the Volvo bus ride really was. The local bus was a rickety bus that had to be as old as mes with brakes that sounded oven older than that. The bus hurtled up the mountain, making blind turns on a road that was in places only one lane and the bus was so close to the edge of the road that I was certain that we were going to tumble down the side of the mountain into the river in the valley below. I thought I was going to barf. This feeling of terror and disorientation was compounded by the fact that the buss was packed (people were also riding on top of the bus since it was so full) and the radio was blaring spastic Hindi music. By some miracle we did not die and in fact made it base camp without any hurling on my part. I am going to skip any description of base camp where we spent the next 2 days because it sucked and I choose not to dwell on the negative. The actual trek is a little hard to describe, it was hard work but the scenery was breathtaking and wanting to know what lay ahead propelled you forward even if you were exhausted. Lots of people got sick, either from the water (we were drinking from Himalayan streams) or more likely from exhaustion. We were sleeping 13 women in one smelly dirty tent but I was so tired that I usually had no trouble sleeping (except you would every once in a while wake up to find that you were sliding out of the tent). I guess what I am trying to convey is that it was miserable but wonderful. It was certainly one of the most challenging things that I have ever done, both mentally and physically. I think that I will let some pics tell the story that I could never do justice to.
Base camp in Kasol
Chilling on the banks of the Parvati River near base camp
The start of the trek.
The waterfall where we had our last bath for around 7 days.
Wow, what a view.
Neha and I on the way to SarPass (yes, Neha is in there somewhere).
What up.
Me killing it at cricket. That's right, cricket.
Amazing.
My shoes were toast after the second day, thank god the shoelace that I used to hold the sole on held.