My last week in Ktym before my first trip starts. However, now with the change of plans, I'll be coming all the way back from Delhi after my rafting trip, and then heading all the way back to Allahabad for the start of my trip with Beks.
I have around 4 days between my Simon Interview and the rafting trip so am planning to take a short trip on my own. The mountains will be pretty cold at this time of the year but I still love it, and it will probably be my last trip to the Himalayas in a while. (Not that I've been frequenting it or anything). This will be my first trip all alone since my trip to McLeod Ganj between the Analysis I and Analysis II exams in first year of college in 1997 May. (I'm not counting work trips which I've made alone, since its not at all the same thing). Thats almost 10 years ago and I'm so excited.
Strangely, I'm drawn to going to the same place, mainly cause this time I want to take the narrow gauge train from Pathankot to Kangra and Palampur. I loved the Kangra valley on my last trip and took a bus down from McLeod Ganj and walked all the way back up, 18 kms through the valley. It was summer then and absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, digital cameras were not invented then, and though I loved my film SLR, hard copies of photographs (and everything else in fact) are so much more difficult to store and I've lost all the photos probably shifting houses in Bombay. I'm really looking forward to the trip, and I also have a friend in Palampur now, Mr. Shambhu Ram, a shepherd I met at Chandra Taal in Spiti, who said he would show me around. My marathon training for the past week should hopefully help me keep up with him, which I couldn't really do in Spiti. Oh yeah, I could run more than I expected, and managed to do around a tenth of a marathon. This will also give me a chance to do some high altitude training :)
On my last trip, on of the things I observed a day of silence, where I even ordered and packed food the previous day so that I wouldn't have to speak at all. Speech creates disturbances in the mind stuff, Chitta vritti in sanskrit, and control of speech is highly recommended in the Yoga sutras of Patanjali. At the time, I didn't know anything about it, but just wanted to do it, having just heard of the concept and thinking it sounded cool. That was probably my first exercise in self discipline as well, which now has become a major part of things I like to do.
I haven't finalised any travel plans yet, but planning to head somewhere out of Delhi and probably get to Haridwar a day or two before the start of the rafting trip. Should go to Rishikesh as well, since its just 24kms from there and since it obviously influenced the Beatles so much. Anyway, whatever I finally do, I guess from now till March, I'll probably cover at least 12,000 kms or so, around the diameter of the Earth.
I have around 4 days between my Simon Interview and the rafting trip so am planning to take a short trip on my own. The mountains will be pretty cold at this time of the year but I still love it, and it will probably be my last trip to the Himalayas in a while. (Not that I've been frequenting it or anything). This will be my first trip all alone since my trip to McLeod Ganj between the Analysis I and Analysis II exams in first year of college in 1997 May. (I'm not counting work trips which I've made alone, since its not at all the same thing). Thats almost 10 years ago and I'm so excited.
Strangely, I'm drawn to going to the same place, mainly cause this time I want to take the narrow gauge train from Pathankot to Kangra and Palampur. I loved the Kangra valley on my last trip and took a bus down from McLeod Ganj and walked all the way back up, 18 kms through the valley. It was summer then and absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, digital cameras were not invented then, and though I loved my film SLR, hard copies of photographs (and everything else in fact) are so much more difficult to store and I've lost all the photos probably shifting houses in Bombay. I'm really looking forward to the trip, and I also have a friend in Palampur now, Mr. Shambhu Ram, a shepherd I met at Chandra Taal in Spiti, who said he would show me around. My marathon training for the past week should hopefully help me keep up with him, which I couldn't really do in Spiti. Oh yeah, I could run more than I expected, and managed to do around a tenth of a marathon. This will also give me a chance to do some high altitude training :)
On my last trip, on of the things I observed a day of silence, where I even ordered and packed food the previous day so that I wouldn't have to speak at all. Speech creates disturbances in the mind stuff, Chitta vritti in sanskrit, and control of speech is highly recommended in the Yoga sutras of Patanjali. At the time, I didn't know anything about it, but just wanted to do it, having just heard of the concept and thinking it sounded cool. That was probably my first exercise in self discipline as well, which now has become a major part of things I like to do.
I haven't finalised any travel plans yet, but planning to head somewhere out of Delhi and probably get to Haridwar a day or two before the start of the rafting trip. Should go to Rishikesh as well, since its just 24kms from there and since it obviously influenced the Beatles so much. Anyway, whatever I finally do, I guess from now till March, I'll probably cover at least 12,000 kms or so, around the diameter of the Earth.
1 comment:
i would so love to go to these places and wish we could all go. But too many things are not favourable. Maybe sometime in the future I will be able to visit.
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