I wake up quite early and potter about. No bath today. I sit in the front lawn and watch other trekkers leave early. The Israeli chicks are nowhere in sight – must have steamed off ahead. I have some quiet time with the nastrutiums. We decide to leave early and have breakfast enroute. We’re mostly…
Morning has broken… and with it comes our wake up call with a menu in hand. I shoo him away: “g’morning… 5 mins please…”. Yesterday was a long day – elapsed time about 10 hours, hiking time about 8 hours. But Miss.M feels good, somewhat to her surprise – no aches and pains. The thought…
For a change, I wake up early this morning. Having checked that Nitya is still breathing, I try to be as noiseless as possible, without too much success. It’s quite light outside. I push the curtains aside, and see the snow mountains. There’s a pale half-moon above the mountain. I realise this is the highest…
Nitya again wakes up bright and early and orders masala chai in the room for us. We order a “simple breakfast”: toast, butter/jam, fried eggs or omelette, and chai. We aren’t in any hurry to start off, we laze over breakfast and eventually rouse ourselves to hit the trail. It’s a steep climb out of…
Nits has woken up real early (the woman seems indefatigable!), taken a walk around the beautiful garden, has had her morning masala chai… and is urging me to wake up and do the same. Bloody Ms. Program Manager, keeps me focused on getting ready, walking around the garden, and getting packed before breakfast. Today the…
We have a bus to catch at 7 am, and somehow we do catch it, after a sketchy sort of breakfast. We continue to chat for a bit, and finally fall asleep in the bus. The drive from Kathmandu to Pokhara must have been scenic – but I miss most of the scenery. It’s a…
The trip starts off on a high note, with free upgrades to business class. I can see each of us disconnecting from “real life”… finishing the last cell phone call, sending the last message, worrying the last worry about the lives we are suspending for 2 weeks. I am traveling Delhi – Kathmandu with two…
Annapurna Partial Circuit, 5th – 18th May 2007 Trekking in the Himalayas has always had a special allure to me. Having done a 6 day camping and trekking trip in the Himachal Himalayas opposite the Kailash Manimahesh range, I got restless this year for more Himalayas… happily for me, Manisha, whom I first met in…
9th Oct 2005 Trek to Rajgad in Oct, wild flowers at their best in this part of the world. With John, Abe, Rohit, Ashok, and master Ak who rode on my back on the way up and on Ashok’s back on the way down. I don’t remember much about this trek except for the photos…
7th Feb 2005 The stopover hike When Aravind & his family, amma, appa visited us in Pune, we went on a short holiday to Bhimashankar. As we were driving back to Pune, Rohit spotted the sign – Shivneri, just off the route. Birthplace of Shivaji. We looked at each other, and that was that: we…
