Tirthan,Trout and Trekking - Part 3

Read part 1 and part 2...

I am usually an early riser. Even on weekends, I cannot sleep after 8:00, though I am all awake at 7:00. An when I am on a vacation to a place where getting up early is a reward in itself, I try not to miss the morning glory and soaking up every bit of the freshness it has to offer you. I had a very comfortable and cozy place on the bed, and I woke up really fresh next morning. I quickly switched the geyser ON and went out on the terrace, it was amazing to feel crisp cool breeze against my cheeks, so far from the cacophony of busy cities and with the only sound of beautiful Tirthan river flowing by our side.

Yogesh was also up by then, so we quickly got ready and came out for our breakfast. Ganu was busy cleaning the terrace and asked what we would like to have. We both wanted to have something routine, which meant aloo-paratha :)

We asked Aman if he had arranged for a taxi to take us to Jalori Pass, we wanted to leave as early as possible. He told us that it had already arrived and was just waiting for us to be ready. From the very bottom of the valley to the peak of a mountain, it seemed a very exciting journey. We filled a bottle of water, took an umbrella (just in case) and started for Jalori. Deepu, Aman's younger brother, accompanied us for the trek till Serolsar Lake. While we were crossing Banjar, my phone showed a little sign of life and I immediately made a few calls to family and friends. The road from Banjar till Jalori, as Lalit the driver told us, is one of the deadliest roads in India, which we felt it was indeed. 

Throughout the way till Jalori, we kept getting surprised by the beauty of the valley, steep slopes, the villages and their step-farms and the Jibhi Nallah. At some places along the Jibhi stream, the local people have setup Gharat (water-mills) which is an ancient method to utilize the force of flowing water stream for grinding grains.

Some village houses on the way

Jalori Pass and beyond -from a distance

I really did not expect any snow on the way or even on the top. But we did get a couple of frozen streams, which kind of excited me as I hadn't seen that much snow ever, though it was an old deposit and had got dirty in time. 

We reached Jalori and parked the car. Jalori is a mountain pass to cross to the other side for Rampur and then Shimla. There are buses plying between this side and that, they stop at the pass too. There are a few tea shops, a sweet shop and a temple at the pass. Standing at the parking area, facing towards the Jibhi valley, one can see as far as Mani-Mahesh on a clear day. 

From here, stick to the road to cross to the other side, take the left trail to trek till Serolsar lake (5 kms from Jalori pass) or take the right trail to trek till Raghupur Fort (3 kms from Jalori pass).

Road to Jalori pass

Yogesh posing at Jalori

Temple at Jalori Pass

The view from Jalori - Raghupur Fort's ridge is visible from here

The road winding its way down to the other side

Thach at Jalori pass

On the Serolsar Lake trail

And that's me...

You could get a wonderful, more than 180 degrees view of the verdant green mountains from here.The Raghupur Fort ridge looked intimidating to me even though we hadn't even started our trek to the lake and weren't tired at all. We did not take our water bottle with us thinking that it was anyway cold and I had read on some blog that it was a short trek of about 45 minutes. But this turned out to be a big mistake. Firstly, because it wasn't a 45 minutes trek for people like us. Secondly, cool weather does not really lessen your body's need for water and you need to keep yourself properly hydrated.

Deepu asked us to carry on and said he'd join us in a while. So we started. Initially for quite a distance, it was a pleasant walk with almost zero slope, through dense fragrant forests. We could not see or otherwise sense anybody else's presence on the trail and the quiet was creepy in a way, but really exciting. We carried further on, stopping to wait for Deepu time and again hoping that he joined us before we lost our way. I had read that there is a sort of 'Y' point on the trail - one way goes to the lake and other to a village down the hill (for the reader's reference, the left trail from here goes to the lake).

Some camping site on the way to Serolsar Lake 

The trail was more or less smooth till the 'Y' point. We waited there for Deepu and spotted a couple of local womenfolk doing their usual chore of gathering the firewood for cooking. We called out for them and asked how far the lake was. "Twenty minutes to half-an-hour" came the reply. It was already more than 30 minutes that we had walked till then, so the math sounded almost correct. Deepu had also arrived by now, much to my relief. The trail started getting a little rocky from here on. I had already done Triund twice before, and I found this trek almost like Triund's.

Yogesh following me

This was what Yogesh was clicking from up there

I still cannot figure out if it was due to my reduced stamina or because I was thirsty and we had no water, I had started finding the trek more difficult than Triund's though it was not really so. I had to take a break every five minutes to catch my breath. The monotony of the endless forest was getting broken by many meadows - small and big, thatch as they call it.

A small thatch on the way

Seemed like a royal entry for The Flintstones

The largest thatch just before the lake

This hut here was home for a local hermit for quite some time. Now nobody knows what became of him.

These clearings kept me boosted and, though I was exhausted beyond imagination for reasons unfathomable, I kept on walking behind Deepu who walked like a mountain goat. After a couple of minutes' walk more, we spotted another smaller clearing beyond which was the trail to the lake. The trail was completely covered by fallen leaves, and the earth beneath had formed a mud slush with water coming out of snow deposits nearby. And the steep slope made it all the more scary to walk on, but I just had to follow Deepu instead of doing all the where-to-step-next analysis.

Snow deposit right before the downward trail to the lake 

Deepu guiding us on the trail

This was when we had our first look of the beautiful Serolsar Lake. The uncomfortable and eerie silence of the woods and an even more secluded and mysterious looking lake in the middle of it, I couldn't have imagined it to be any better. I feel it is better not to try explaining how it felt by listing "classy" GRE words and diluting it, so I'll let the pictures do all that...

First look of the lake

The lake is nearly circular in shape, with a tiled walkway circumscribing it.

There is a temple - Buddhi Nagin, at the lake. It was closed when we were there, so there was nobody around apart from three of us.

Buddhi Nagin temple at the lake

Its a small lake, surrounded with trees. It is believed, as per a folktale, that no matter how many trees surround the lake and how littered is the area with fallen leaves during fall, one wouldn't find a single leaf floating on the lake water. This task of keeping the lake litter free is managed by a couple of birds (sparrows, as far as I remember...Aman told me this story) and they do it diligently since ages. Though, we could find leaves floating on the water. But I won't call that litter, it only added to the beauty of this pristine, natural lake. 

 We walked around the lake till we were stopped by the still melting deposits of snow, took a stroll above the lake to a point which overlooks the Jibhi valley and spotted a Monal bird, but could not click any pictures.

View of the Jibhi Valley

It had started getting darker because of clouds slowly covering the area. Deepu suggested that we quickly started our trek back to the pass because the weather was pretty unpredictable and it could start raining. Though I wanted to trek further to check out the valley and thatch on the other side, we decided to head back to the pass. The return was more exhausting and took a toll on my stamina. I had to stop every 5 minutes to catch some breath. Once back to the pass, we stopped at a local tea-shop and I asked the shop owner if they had anything to eat. It was about 3 pm and they still had some Rajma-Rice left, what else could I ask for! 

Sitting on a bench in that small shop with 4-5 people and a kettle of tea boiling on an old mud-stove with an even older iron-chimney on it, I was feeling so relaxed and cozy, I could have slept right then and there.

We quickly had to finish and rush back to the hotel because the ceremony Aman invited us to was about to start in about an hour. I felt a strong urge to take a nap right after getting back in the car and I think I did take a short one. On the way from Banjar to our home-stay, we spotted the ceremonial procession - the Paalki, of Rishi Shringi and a lot of people for that village and others too. I wasn't just in the condition to stay awake and all I wanted was to be back to my room, take a pill of paracetamol so I don't get fatigued and sleep it off, so we skipped the ceremony, hoping Aman would understand.

When I woke up at about 6 pm, after a good 1 hour nap, I felt surprisingly fresh and not at all tired (I guess it was just the air). I could now walk up to Serolsar Lake again, and happily. But given my hyperbole, I even refused to accompany Gannu (the cook, the cleaner and the general caretaker) to the Trout Farm when he asked if we wanted to come with him to the farm. Yogesh had asked Gannu that morning if he could try catching some trout that day for dinner, but he couldnot catch any. So he had to buy a kilo of the fish (which is considered a delicacy, with a single bone and no-smell) from the government farm. He fried some trout for Yogesh and got me some hot and crispy pakoras (fritters).

Now, there is nothing much to do in such places. But if you have a young, lively and lovely mountain river flowing right beside you, you don't really feel the need for anything else. 

I found the place so soulful that even after dark, I went to the river, sat on a rock and kept sitting there, sometimes thinking something, sometimes not thinking anything at all, singing my favorite songs, noticing my breaths. More than an hour passed and Yogesh suddenly realized my absence in the room, so he came out looking for me in the terrace. I could see him from where I was, but he could not,because I was sitting in total darkness. It was funny watching him looking for me here and there, he almost encircled our room in his search and I was laughing by now. I called out for him. He heard my voice and looked in my direction, but his expressions told me that he still could not spot me, it really cracked me up. Finally, he came to where I was standing.

"Dude, what are you doing here in the dark?", he asked.

"Nothing, just standing and listening to the sound of the river", I replied, still smiling at him.

"Are you not scared?"

"Scared of what? Nobody is here, I'm alone", I said.

"Exactly! Does the roaring river in this total darkness not scare you?"

I laughed. I remembered how darkness used to scare the hell out of me when I was little. I did not even go to any room in our house unless the lights are switched on. This used to be my thing, and others' point to make fun of me. But the times have changed now. Now, there are times when I love to be out on the roads late at night, sit idle in my room with darkness embracing me, and nothing scares me.

"No, I'm not scared as long as I know I'm not going to fall in the river", I replied.

We started talking for what Yogesh must have felt like ages. Correction - I talked and he mostly listened to me talking endlessly and without focusing on a single point for more than 2 minutes. I felt supremely high without having had even a drop of alcohol or a drag, and now Yogesh was highly amused of my capability of blabbering.

I talked about music, Ragas (I remember talking about Rag Des), Urdu poetry, Ghalib and some of his ghazals, random jokes and I don't remember what else. And now it was time for dinner and then sleep.

A laborious day, a relaxing afternoon and an exciting, charged up evening slowly faded away in a calm and cozy night. We had no plans for the next day, our last day in the valley. So we thought of just relaxing there and taking a short walk till Gushaini for breakfast. We had already asked Aman for a ride to Aut in the evening for our bus to Delhi. 

Continued in the next and final part here...

Tirthan,Trout and Trekking - Part 2

Read Part 1 here...

Before Tirthan Valley, we had a plan to do 'Parashar Lake' in Mandi. But I could not find many places of my interest in and around Mandi except for the lake (maybe because I did not spend much time googling). So, when the bus took a short halt at Mandi bus stop, I felt a little excited to spot some buses with 'Parashar Lake' written on them. I don't really know the terrain near the lake, but it should be great to have buses plying to there. I sat back relaxed to know that I could get in one of those buses till the lake whenever I planned, instead of trekking all the way up.

After crossing Pandoh Dam reservoir (on river Beas) and Larji (another hydroelectric project) after Mandi, I had started to feel a little uncomfortable and motion sick. I never got nauseated in the mountains except for once or twice, and the fact that we did not have vomit bags in our seats made me feel a tad bit more pukish. So I went up to the front of the bus and sat beside the attendant and driver, talking to them. We had to get off-board after a tunnel at Aut, from where we had to take another bus (or taxi, which we had silently decided on, after all the sickness) to Banjar (बंजार ). The attendant insisted upon us taking a bus to Banjar, instead of hiring a taxi, for us to save some bucks. He, and the driver, even calculated and told us that there would be a bus ready in Aut around the same time we reached there, and we could catch that. I thought, okay no point arguing...tell them 'we'll take the bus' and look for a taxi there. And what we found as soon as the bus was out of the tunnel was a local bus to Banjar, ready to pull-off, which would even go to Gushaini after a short rest in Banjar. The attendant waved at the bus driver, shouted and asked him to take us aboard...and there we were in the bus, sitting comfortably with our backpacks on our laps. Not bad actually (we did save a lot of money). It was a Saturday, so not a holiday for schools. Along the way to Banjar lie a number of small villages with no proper schools for the children to attend. These kids go to schools or college in Banjar. So in no time, the bus was full of kids, as young as 4-5 years, and apparently some teachers as well.

Throughout the journey, I talked to a gentleman sitting by my side about the places we should not miss visiting. We actually had not planned on where to go first - Gushaini or Shojha, a small village en-route Jalori Pass. After getting off the bus, we did a quick stand-up meeting (of course) and decided to hire a taxi till Gushaini. We spotted a taxi and asked the driver to take us to a decent homestay (which are many in number, alongside the river), as we did not have any prior bookings. He asked for Rs300/- till Gushaini, which seemed OK for a distance of about 8 kms and for the time and situation we were in, tired after about 12 hrs of Volvo and more than an hour of local bus. On the way, Roshan (the driver) checked a couple of homestays, but they seemed full, and we had to move on to a homestay owned by a friend of Roshan. Trishla Home Stay is a real beauty, right on the river, actually protruding into it a bit, and brightly colored in red. Aman, the owner's son, Roshan's friend and the one who takes care of everything was not there but Roshan talked to him over the phone and got us a room booked at a fair price.

Trishla Home Stay - View from inside the river

View from outside our room

View from outside our room

Our room - with river flowing right below the balcony 

Beautiful Tirthan Valley

Amazingly fragrant roses - prevalent in the area

That was 25th of April, 2015. A day of two shocks. First was a personal shock to me, Vodafone had no service in the entire area, so my phone was just going to play camera for the next three days. I called my family right after I realized this and gave them Yogesh's number which operated on Airtel (which works good there) and which they could call in case of any emergency. The second one was an entirely different kind of shock - Nepal had got devastated by the worst earthquake it had seen in the last 80 years. The shocks were felt almost everywhere in India (as far as in Kerala), in Pakistan and south east China. A lot of mountaineers at Everest Base Camp got trapped in avalanche initiated by the tremors. Read more about Nepal Earthquake on Wikipedia.

Anyway, we did not feel anything as we were walking all the time, and got to know about the earthquake when Yogesh got a call from somebody who was asking for his well being. Later the next day, when my phone got some breath in Banjar, I received a number of WhatsApp messages, SMSs and missed call alerts from my friends wondering if I was OK. We however, oblivious to the great tragedy, were enjoying the place, the musical river, the green valley and the fresh air. I assured all my near ones of my safety. 

There was a bridge, very typical of brides on the mountain rivers, right behind our homestay. After freshening up and having breakfast, which Gannu prepared for us, we walked towards the bridge. It took us a while, and a local's help, to identify the slope down the road towards the bridge.

It was a strong bridge, not shaking too much, and provided a beautiful view of the valley from the middle of the river. We crossed to the other side to play jump-over-the-rocks on the other side, and Yogesh was wishfully planning to cross the river all by himself to go back to the homestay. I had to act all preachy and guardian-like for him to drop the idea, it was not really safe without the ropes and some experts, given the strong flow. Adding to it, the whole area was full of garden lizards which totally scared me off. We came back to our room for lunch and a nap afterwards. The rooms were cozy, with clean sheets and blankets. The interior was all made of wood, which gave it a bit of ethnic look of village houses. It had started raining and getting colder. I preferred staying curled inside my blanket and enjoy the view and sound of the river flowing right outside while still not letting my body warmth fade away. 

When it stopped raining, and it was late in the evening by then, we went outside and sat by the river. Two things I like the most about mountain rivers - they don't usually intimidate you by their depths and the rocks around offer a number of spots to sit and look at the beauty of the place from a whole new angle.

The rest of the day was relaxed, cool and well spent, just sitting idle in the balcony, talking to Aman about Jalori Pass and Serolsar Lake. He told us some folktales about Rishi Shringi who is widely worshiped in the entire region. He also told us a story about Serolsar Lake. We had plans to go to Jalori the next day, trek till the lake and, if time and body permitted, trek till Raghupur Fort which is in the totally opposite direction. Aman promised to get us a taxi in the morning that would take us to Jalori and back. There was a ceremony devoted to Rishi Shringi the next evening at Aman's home, a sort of home-coming of the deity, for which hundreds of people from nearby villages were invited. Aman wanted us to attend that ceremony and have dinner at his place if we liked. There was nothing more to do after dark, which always is the case with such remote and not-so-commercialized places, so we called it a day and slept. A sound sleep it was.

Jalori and Serolsar Lake trek in the next part...

Tirthan, Trout and Trekking - Part 1

My friends say I'm well traveled. I wonder why they would say that, because I'm usually the laughter stock and never-to-be-taken-seriously among my friends. But then they elaborate - "You are well traveled", they say, "but on Google Earth and Wikipedia", which follows the laughter and mocking (PS - they love me, I know). There, they did it again!

Actually, they are not completely wrong. Honestly speaking, I have visited way more places virtually than I have been to really. There was a time when I worked for an IT giant in Noida and, even though was being billed for a project, did not have any work to do.This continued for a while and instead of utilizing my free time in enriching myself with new tools and technologies that would help me grow in my career, I Googled and Wiki-ed. I searched mostly about places, India and outside, from a traveler's perspective. In India, my focus area, for a good span of time, remained Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. 

It was about the year 2009, I was watching a TV show called 'Highway On My Plate' on NDTV Good Times. In that episode, the hosts Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma visited a beautiful, quiet hamlet Gushaini (गुशैणी ) in district Kullu. This village, among a lot others, is located in a river valley called Tirthan, based on the river's name. This is the only river valley in Kullu, I was told, that has not yet got a hydroelectric power project on it's river (much thanks to the local people protesting against this idea), so it still maintains the natural flow and beauty of the river. The local ecosystem is as it always has been for centuries. This river is home for Trout fish,very popular in the area and among all non-vegetarians who plan a trip here. I started reading more and more about the place, the other points of interest around the area, looking at the pictures as posted on web by the people who have visited there. The more I learned about the place, the stronger my desire to visit there got. But this desire was not going to get fulfilled for another 6 years.

The year 2015, I have grown much older (mature...much mature, did I say older?) and have visited McLeodganj 4 times till now, trekked twice till Triund and once camped there overnight. I just did not want to go there again this time. I, now, had made up my mind to do Tirthan Valley, Gushaini, Jalori Pass and Serolsar Lake over the last weekend of April. A friend of mine, an ex-colleague and 'ex-bus mate' - Yogesh was also joining. A Pahadi himself, he still claimed that this was going to be his first experience in trekking.

So, finally I got the tickets booked from HRTC website. Our bus Himsuta, a volvo which plies between Delhi ISBT and Manali, was scheduled for departure on Friday, 24th April at 9:03 PM. I planned to reach ISBT at 7:00 PM so we could eat at McDonalds well before we start. I did not want to eat at the restaurant the bus stops at, somewhere near Karnal, mostly because we got our seats at the back of the bus and I was apprehensive of getting motion-sick during the travel. Anyways, we were at the platform by 8:30 PM and had to wait for half-an-hour for our bus to come. I have always admired HRTC for its service and time-keeping. This was my 9th time and it did not disappoint me. The bus was on time, we did not have to put our luggage inside the cabin in bus's gut. I insisted on traveling light and carrying only one backpack containing only 3 T-shirts, a jacket, an extra pair of jeans and a pair of shoes (plus other regular small items like toiletries). The seats were comfortable, with a support for legs as well, but did not have blankets. The A/C did not really maintain a comfortable temperature throughout, so catching a decent sleep was out of question. We talked for quite some time, and when the bus halted at a roadside dhaba complex, we bought some chips and cakes, just in case we felt hungry in the middle of the night.

Somewhere near Jarol, before Mandi

I was still trying to figure out an ideal and comfortable position I thought I could relax in, Kiratpur happened. I could not properly see because it was all dark except for our bus's headlights, but it felt like they were in a process of making the road motorable by mending all the ditches, which was all it had. It almost recreated an apocalyptic chaos in the bus, or maybe just for the back-seaters. And it was not for a small stretch of the highway. I was anyway not able to sleep, and now this roller-coaster. So after sometime, my body yielded to the need for sleep and we woke up when the bus halted at a hotel somewhere near Jarol, after Harabagh and about 35 kms before Mandi. The journey from here was quite likable, with lush green mountains presenting their morning haze to you at every turn, the cool breeze that blows out even the last spec of urban smoke off you to leave you very fresh, and little scenes of daily lives of local mountain people.




The first day in Himachal - in the next part here...

Aajkal

This poem...I can't remember exactly when I wrote it, but it was when I was about to leave Bangalore and come to Delhi for good!

हर रात की तन्हाई से
होती हैं बातें आजकल !
बातें बहुत सारी हैं, पर
छोटी हैं रातें आजकल !

मयख़ाने की जानिब कभी
होता नहीं जाना मगर ,
तिश्नगी अश्क़ों से दिल की
हैं बुझाते आजकल !

क्या कोई तक़लीफ़ पहुँचायेगा
अब दूजा हमें ,
राह चलते ख़ुद ही ठोकर
हम हैं खाते आजकल !

क्या बताने से किसी को
दर्द कम होगा कहीं ?
ये ग़म ए दिल ख़ुद ही को
हम हैं सुनाते आजकल !

Cut loose...it's a cobweb

I know, I know it's a cobweb...so complicated and beyond comprehension that I cannot see where it started from and where it is going to end. I don't have even the faintest idea of how it is being spun.

But I know one thing for sure. I know where the spinnerets are - they are within, I possess them. I possess them all over my being. They are always secreting, establishing a connection with whatever and whoever I come in close proximity to. There is nothing stopping them, however hard I try.

And what's the result? I have got sewn in this fabric of the unknown much like a spider gets stranded in its own web (except that it never does). I never intended to get myself stuck here. In fact, I never thought that this "thing" would ever get such complicated and problematic that I would feel armless and legless.

But it did.

Now, the situation is so delicate that even the slightest turbulence in the surrounding air, that too at the farthest end of this web, makes the universe shaking for me. Shaking as if trying to shed me off, but holding on me so tightly that it would never let me go. I am helpless! All I can do is...keep hoping that I would cut loose one day.

A recluse in Jaisalmer - Day 2 (Kuldhara, Khaba and Sam Sand Dunes)

I left Badal house after a heavy breakfast of paratha, pickle and curd and headed towards the bus stop to catch the 11 o'clock local bus to Jaisalmer. On the way to the bus stop, I caught a glimpse of village life in Khuri. It was a Sunday, but a few children were playing in the school ground, which also had to serve as their playground on the weekends. They waved at me as I passed by them. There are two schools in Khaba, a primary school and a senior secondary school. Kesar Singh told me, on our way back to Badal House from the desert, that the senior secondary school had been built by Jaswant Singh, a BJP leader and former Finance Minister, former Defense Minister and former Minister of External Affairs. He is a native of Khuri village, I was told. He also told me about the scarcity of teachers in these schools, only two teachers in primary school. I was wondering whether the politician deserved a word of praise for his initiatives or to be condemned for his negligence on this.

I boarded the Jaisalmer-bound bus from Khuri at the scheduled time. It took us about 1 hour and a half, and this time I could enjoy the beauty of the landscape which was entirely dotted by windmills. These windmills are one of the latest developments in the area that provided electricity to the villages. Now, after I reached Jaisalmer's Gadisar Chowk, I had to walk to Hotel Jaisal Palace near the Fort. Its a decent, fairly priced hotel very near to the Fort entrance, with clean rooms and bathrooms, very good staff and roof-top restaurant with a view of the Fort. I got a room for Rs600/- only, had a bath and left for a stroll. I was also looking for a taxi that could take me to a tour of Kuldhara, Khaba and Sam. I had a healthy breakfast of fruit salad and banana milk-shake at The Trio (I was told this was the best restaurant in the city) and coming back to the hotel, I booked a taxi (Tata Indica) for Rs1200/- (while a couple of others were asking for anything between Rs1600-Rs1800). Malik, the 22-year old taxi driver, picked me up from Hanuman Circle at 2:00pm and we headed for Kuldhara.

Kuldhara, now a famous tourist spot and a shooting site for a couple of Indian movies, is actually one of those villages that have been deserted for more than 150 years now. These villages belonged to Paliwal Brahmins. I had already come through a couple of stories about these villages on Internet. One anecdote goes like this: the inhabitants of these villages were treated with cruelty and were heavily taxed by the ruler of the area. Moreover, the village chief's daughter who was believed to be very beautiful caught the eye of the ruler. To escape the dishonour, the Paliwals vacated the villages overnight and migrated to some place which is not known yet. Since then, these villages are cursed and deserted. The landscape now serves a beautiful place for photography.

Kudhara ruins

Kudhara ruins

Kuldhara is a place where one would want to be alone, to feel the inherent melancholy of the place, to hear the silent cries of the ruins. It was my bad luck that just before we arrived, a school bus full of kids had reached there for a Sunday picnic...wow!! But I got a couple of pics of the kids as a workaround, nonetheless :)

I also got to know about a couple of Bollywood movies that were shot here - Kachhe Dhaage was one of them. Saif's upcoming movie 'Agent Vinod' has also been shot here recently, as I read on the Internet. Having nothing much to do, nothing much different to click in Kuldhara, we left for Khaba - another deserted village with similar stories. It is actually same as Kuldhara as far as ruins are concerned, but in addition, there is a small Fortress on a hillock overlooking the village. This fortress has been revamped and it now houses a small museum with ancient artifacts from the village ruins on display.

Khaba Fort

We parked the taxi near the fort and I went off to stroll around the ruins and click some pictures.

Khaba Ruins

The fort offers a breathtaking view of the vast expanse of the village and the surrounding areas.

Museum in Khaba Fort

There were a couple of kids inside the fort that, apparently, tried to fool the lone tourists around. One of them approached me and said "Hello", I replied in "Hello" and the next thing he said was "10 rupees"...!! I asked him "Why brother?" in Hindi, which surprised him (I don't know why, I don't even look like a foreigner). Then another guy came and asked me if I'd bought the tickets to the fort. There was no ticket, I knew...so I simply ignored him, clicked some pics around while Malik (my taxi-driver) kept himself busy reading about the artifacts, the fort and the village. When we climbed down the Fort, Malik said: "This was better than Kuldhara, I liked it". I felt in him a desire to learn about things, to read...may be he can learn more and become a full-time tour guide for this place, I thought.

We still had a lot of time till sunset, so we drove towards Sam. The sand dunes in Sam are more widely spread, just adjacent to the road and almost at level with the ground, unlike Khuri which is  at some height. We parked the car in the parking and Malik decided to stay in the car only while I indulged myself in the golden delight of the sand. He had already warned me about the local camel-men and safari operators as in how they fool people around. I anyways had no plans to ride a camel (I had done it in Khuri) or a jeep for a safari. I just came to Sam so that I could see how it is different from Khuri. Escaping the hordes of local tourists, ever-convincing camel-men and all those mini tent-cities that have been put up there by myriad of resorts and hotels, I let myself get lost between the dunes.

Sam Sand Dunes

Sam Sand Dunes

Few tents by some resort @Sam

Its very hard to find a sand dune in Sam that is not littered and not marked by footprints. Its also very hard to find a perfect point where you can take a beautiful desert shot from.

I had walked for about 2 kms into the desert, and I could see other groups of sand dunes at a distance where I very much wanted to go. But that was not possible without a jeep or a camel. And staying at Sam just for the sunset had no point, so I walked back to the car parking, pounded the sand out of my shoes and headed back to Jaisalmer.

I liked being alone and experiencing the wilderness till now, but being a city-dweller I now wanted to just relax and chill out at my hotel room and sleep the day's fatigue off. I thanked Malik, bidding him goodbye and slipped into a local sweet shop that he had recommended for Pyaaz Kachori and Jalebi. But again, my luck had me savoring Daal Kachori, Mirchi Vada and Imarti instead. Imarti took a lead, being cooked in "desi-ghee" and very rich in taste. Back at the hotel, I rested for a while, had dinner on the rooftop restaurant of the hotel, watched TV and slept.

For the next day, I had plans to get up late in the morning, visit the city, a few "havelis" and the cenotaphs at "Bada Bagh". My departure was scheduled at 5:15pm, so that was the day when I had to cover the rest of the things.

A recluse in Jaisalmer - Day 1 (Khuri Sand Dunes)

I'm not a recluse per se, but I couldn't find any suitable title other than this...reason - this was a solo trip of mine to Jaisalmer. Being not a backpacker's trip in true sense (as it was planned more than a month in advance), it had a certain degree of freedom of choice. I had a few places in my "To-Visit" list, but I wasn't sure if I could cover all of those in the time I had given myself. So, a bit of planning with a bit of flexibility to allow changes on-the-fly was essential. I had a long weekend (a Monday being an optional holiday in my office), so that had to be it. I booked my departure train tickets for Friday evening and return train tickets for Monday evening.

As a habit, I always acquaint myself to the place before my trip. I was told by the blogs over the web about two deserts - Sam and Khuri. Sam is more popular (being bigger than Khuri), thus more touristy, more crowded and more littered. I wanted to be all alone in a desert, so I opted Khuri. I also came to know about Badal House in Khuri village where I could stay and get my desert safari arranged from. And then there was a bit of information on two deserted villages - Khaba and Kuldhara, which I was dying to visit after reading anecdotes about those and seeing the pictures on the web.

I boarded Delhi-Jaisalmer Express from Old Delhi Railway Station that leaves Delhi at 5:30pm and reaches Jaisalmer at 11:00am next morning, halting at about 36 stations in between. The train is in pretty good condition and you get clean sheets, pillows and blankets in AC 3-tier coach. After reaching Jaisalmer at 11:30am, I called up Badal Singh and he told me to either wait for the local Khuri-bound bus, scheduled to arrive at Gadisar Chowk (a 10-minutes walk from the station) between 1:00pm and 1:30pm, or hire a taxi to Khuri. Bus fare was Rs.20 and taxi would charge somewhere around Rs.500-600, so it was quite clear that I was to wait for the bus. There is no sign-board on the bus to Khuri that says, well, "Khuri"...as these are privately-owned buses, so I had to ask somebody in every single bus. The bus came at 1:30pm, crowded but not fully packed. I boarded the bus while a group of Korean tourists who were also going to Khuri preferred traveling on the roof, so they climbed up. After an hour and a half, I got off the bus at Khuri bus-stop, where Badal Singh was already waiting for me. I don't know how but he recognized me instantly, and so did I because I had seen his photographs on the web.

Badal house is a very simple, modest setup of a couple of mud-huts with roofs made of straws and hand-woven beds made from used "saree" or ropes. There is a small but very clean toilet-cum-bathroom where I freshened-up. By the time I changed into fresh clothes, my meal was ready...yummilicious "bajre-ki-roti" a.k.a. "baajri", "urad-ki-daal", "kadi", "ker-ka-achaar", rice and curd. I was all set to dig my teeth into "baajri" first, and then savour kadi-chawal, but finishing even one "baajri" was a heavy task that took eternity, and all my desires to relish other things on the table just got washed away. There was an English woman who has been coming to stay at Badal House for more than 20 years now and she has become a part of their family. We chatted for some time while they cleaned-up some green-leafy vegetable for dinner. Badal had already arranged for a camel (Babloo) and the camel-man Kesar Singh waited for me outside.

Khuri Sand Dunes as seen from a distance

I initially planned to stay in the desert for sunset and come back, but then I was told by the English woman that going to the desert and coming back after sunset (not spending the night there out in the open) was not even half the fun. That charged me up and there I was riding the camel, talking with Kesar Singh as we walked towards Khuri Sand Dunes, just about 2 kms from Badal House. There were already a couple of tourists at the dunes preparing to shoot the sunset, so we by-passed them and reached the far end of the desert, from where I could see not a single soul other than Babloo and Kesar Singh.

Form here I could see the beautiful dunes on one side and a vast expanse of barren land with sparse vegetation on the other. This land is a part of Desert National Park. I could spot a couple of brown deer and a fox at a distance.

We camped near a bush (where Kesar Singh has been camping), that was just a bush with no tents around and the bush was only meant to shield us and the fire from the blowing winds. Babloo rested nearby munching on his fodder and Kesar Singh went off to fetch some firewood...we had to stay there for night and cook our food..."this is going to be some fun" - I told myself and carried on with my camera to click some sunset pictures. I strolled around, wherever I wanted, clicked a lot of pictures, stood there in silence gazing at the huge orange-going-red fireball of sun setting behind the horizons. Cool breeze was making it all the more surreal...and it makes a haunting sound while passing through a dense bush, a different sound. I came back and chatted with Kesar Singh as he prepared food for us - Bajre ki Roti, Daal, Rice, Aloo ki Sabzi and chhachh which he brought from his home.

I asked him if he knew some folk-songs and he offered me a folk-tale instead, and a long one on that. I couldn't understand much, apart from the names of the characters and the concluding line that talked about some place where they still had footprints of a camel's three legs engraved on a stone. We then had food in stark darkness (the bonfire light was not just enough, was ever diminishing). Kesar prepared our beddings - simple cotton-filled mattresses and thick razaai (cotton-filled quilts). We slept under the star-studded sky, and it was actually chilling outside, but the razaai did its job pretty well (I actually had two of them :P).

We woke up well before sunrise the next morning. I again set-off for sunrise pics while Kesar Singh prepared tea, without milk and really sweet. After that we headed back to the village, but this time we walked through the desert instead of bypassing it, and it came to be far more mesmerizing than it appeared the day before. I had the actual "desert" feeling only when I was standing amidst the dunes, with other dunes surrounding. Golden sand with no footprints and beautiful ripples appeared to be God's most meticulous art-work that should leave mortals like me dumbfounded.



And then I got my dream-shot:



It was a lovely morning, and my experience of last night made it all the more memorable. I came back to Badal House, freshened-up and had my breakfast of paratha with curd and pickles. I had plans for the day, I had to visit Khaba, Kuldhara and Sam also (if time permitted). I needed a cab for the day and Badal tried calling some of his friends to arrange a cab, but all were pre-occupied in some or the other wedding function. So I was left with a local bus to Jaisalmer as the only option, and from Jaisalmer I could hire a taxi for other visits.