A Rendezvous with the Himalayan Beauties! #Travelfromhome

You know what its true when they say travelling makes you a storyteller. I have read so many travel stories and the way people put them in words is just amazing. So I was planning this trip in 2018, i had an inner voice that no matter what atleast once in my life I have to be on this trek. Didn't happen and suddenly from nowhere i received this itinerary from a travel group in 2019 and I asked one of my friend and we were good to go. Its almost a week trek - Hemkund Sahib-Valley of Flowers-Badrinath-Mana Village. Total Kms covered were almost around 60 ob my trip. Best time to visit is from Mid of July to Mid of August if you are intended to see Valley of Flowers as you would find the most rare and beautiful flowers blossomed.

Here comes the first shocker before a week ago from the trip date, my friend called and she said that somebody had a dream about her thet she was in a bus and that bus fell off from the hill. Right?! My mind just blew off and i was like are you kidding me. I was freaking as then i have to go alone to be honest but then I consoled her and said it's totally her decision and the travel group has taken care of everything. She said Yes to the trip and the day she had to catch a train from punjab to delhi guess what happened? She missed her train by two minutes so shocker number 2. After hours of talking and fighting with the travel group she finally reached to Delhi around 11pm and we were supposed to catch the bus around 10pm from Delhi to Haridwar with other fellow travelers. So i missed my bus too and waited for my friend and the travel group booked us another bus of around 1 am so that we would be reaching Haridwar on time and start our journey from there with everyone. Shocker number 3 Bus didn't appear on time, my brother dropped us at Sarai kale khan around 12pm and waited with us for atleast an hour but no trace of the bus. Continuously calling the travel group we got to know that driver started late from the initial point and will be reaching delhi in an hour or so. My brother left us at Sarai kale khan railway station so that we remain safe as he had to head back to work and trust me the feeling was not good. Railway station is safe but only if you are inside and we went outside after an hour to check on the bus as the travel group said it must have reached and it wasn't there and trust me we didn't feel safe at all. I still get goosebumps to think about that night, we were literally giving up on the trip, we asked a autorickshaw to take us back home and then my friend had an idea to circle around the area as bus driver said he will be there in 5-10mins and just when we were losing hope, boom miracle happened our bus arrived. I am not religious neither an atheist but I do believe there is a God. And this trip was meant to be.

We reached Haridwar and our fellow travelers were waiting for us and finally the trip was happening. So we were staying low initially as we were the famous late comers. Then when we opened up man i heard some of the amazing stories on that trip. The advantage of going with the travel group is that you meet some really good travelers and the experience they share is worth listening. So after the long journey we reached Joshimath in the evening, had dinner and went to sleep because tomorrow was the big trekking day. Woke up early, had breakfast and left for Govindghat where we started our trek which is about 11kms. Man i can't even tell you the weather was in our favor and the views were just breathtaking. I mean nature at its best literally. We had to reach ro Ghangria before its gets dark as the trek to Valley of Flowers starts early in the morning. Valley of Flowers is around 3 km from Ghangaria and then the Valley is 8kms long. You see a beautiful glacier in the end. Trust me worth visiting i loved every part of it. Came back to the hotel, had pakoras and chai because it was raining on and off. Dipped our legs in hot water as its much needed when you are trekking back to back. Meanwhile we were hearing news of landslide with no phone network.

The next day we left for Hemkund Sahib as Overnight stay is not allowed at Hemkund Sahib and it is necessary to leave by 2 PM to make it back to Govindghat by nightfall. We started early but the trek is hard, at every step i was saying Waheguru like other travelers and believe it or not it really helped me in keep going. Every time you hear a traveler saying Waheguru ji ka Khalsa Waheguru ji ki Fateh, your energy automatically goes up. Then me and my other three fellow travelers reach at a point where it was already 1 pm and no matter what we had to reach before the Gurudwara gets closed. We took a shortcut so in trekking what is shortcut usually the stairs - the steep stairs which are not easy to climb. So we climbed some of them and asked a person who was returning back from the Gurudwara that how many stairs must have been left for us and he said around 600 maybe. I looked back and then i looked up and i told myslef there is no going back either die or reach to your destination lady. That was the best decision I made and we reached on time and enjoyed the best khichdi and Chai of Gurudwara Sahib.

Came down pretty tired, all of us gathered outside our rooms. Legs dipped in hot water talking and laughing as tomorrow its gonna be a rest day. Yayy all we had to sit in the bus and drive to Badrinath which means no trekking. But you know what God had different plans for this trip. So there was a landslide on highway and Bus/Cars were not allowed to go. The police said they had opened a way where you can reach to the other side with the help of the rope and then take a taxi from there. We were all together and nobody wanted to go back so we did the same. It was raining heavily, water level was going up as I could hear the siren buzzing. It was raining heavily and we took shelter in a restaurant and after half an hour trying every possible taxi drive to convince and call some agents we decided to eat something. So just when our ordered was ready we find a taxi driver obviously left the yummy food, sat in the taxi and left for Badrinath. Took the blessings of God and continue our journey to Mana village which is the Last Indian village. Here comes the twist it was around 6pm we headed back from Badrinath and there was another landslide in between. The police was not letting us go but somehow the boys convinced them and we reach to the point where remember the way that we took from the help of the rope yeah had to go back by doing the same. It was all dark, no sign of a human and the water level was high. We all made a plan everybody switched on their torch lights of their phones and helped each other in going down one by one. It was fun, scary and risky trust me. And above that i was having Deja Vu while doing all this. We got down, our bus was supposed to pick us from the other side and guess what it wasn't there. We were singing on the road those old bollywood songs and everybody keeping an eye on everyone and meanwhile i was still having Deja Vu. Our bus came and dropped us to the hotel trust me I did everything on this trek. Best thing was everybody was helpful and no drama at all. As they say it feels good to be lost in the right direction, it felt truly amazing.