The trip started as usual, plan was made for going to Amayangri a day before we left. Me along with Nick (Red tshirt guy) hadn’t planned much, it was just that we are leaving for somewhere. We had not decided where to start from or where to end, we just let fate decide it all. We had a map for the Amayangri trek and decided to start from somewhere a little ahead from chisapani . Left early morning to Jorpati where we hoped to get a bus to somewhere. We took a packed bus ride at 7.30 a.m. from Jorpati, Kathmandu to Kaule Bajar, Sindhupalchowk. There was interaction with multiple people, nick is a jolly good guy who interacts with people really nicely and makes an instant connection with all the people he meets. Even in the bus we interacted with kids, their moms and many other. We were shit scared at one point because there was this woman that sat face to face with us and was getting nauseated. There was also this girl who said that she wants to be a model. We really hope we’ll see her in some films later.

Reached Kaule bajar and had some tea, got scammed :’). We left there and started off our trek as directed by a guy who was drunk at 9.30 a.m. We’re grateful for his suggestions, he gave us the right directions. We headed uphills through the trails from Kaule Bajar to Thankunna Bhanjyang.  We went a little a little farther and entered a house for some local herbs. There were three generation of people in that house- Grandmothers, mothers and children. We’ve noticed in most of our trips that there are not a lot of men in the rural areas of Nepal. This must be mainly because of Foreign Employment or men mostly getting drunk since the morning like the direction giving guy on Kaule Bajar. The women in the house got more frank as we talked to them, exchanged some stories. They smoke their Stuff in Dried Leaves of (Katus). They offered us some, it was a first experience smoking in the dried leaves. The smoke was so smooth and distinctive even without mixing any mixtures. We thanked them and said we’d see them again. I don’t usually do it but I told the people during this entire trip that I’d see them again. We went along the way towards the direction the grandson of the house showed us.

We walked for about 10 minutes, and my running sandals (khadau) made it difficult for me to walk. As I was changing to my shoes, an old guy came and conversed with us. He invited us to his house and offered us some mohi. We talked to him and he was a really good guy. He told us that he was a happy guy, his children were well settled. He even has a house in Kathmandu, but prefers staying in the village for the air, water, buffalo milk and the community. We noticed that people in the typical Village areas were more humble than the city people or people from touristy areas. We talked for a while with other people that came to the house and thought that we will not travel even 5 km in the whole day if we continued our way, making a stop for 30 mins at every house we found. Even the people there started telling us that we should take the bus to Thankunna Bhanjyang. We thought it would be a better option too so we said our goodbye’s in the house and went to the road where we had to take our bus. We waited for about 10 minutes and got on the bus. Travelling in the busses are not the best experiences with the bad and dusty roads, packed bus and hot like an oven. Red Tshirt Guy decided to get off before we reached Thankunna Bhanjyang (he thought we had already reached). We got off on the road that leads to chisapani. We followed the way the bus went towards Thankunna Bhanjyang for about 30 mins.

We reached Thankunna bhanjyang, got a couple of drinks and continued our way up towards chipling. We had decided by now that we would be staying the night at kutumsang. We went about 10 minutes up the hill and then we found another house. It might not be something surprising if I said we stopped there as well. The old woman there asked us to sit for a while and have some water. She then offered us Local Alcohol of two types. One made with rice another with corn. I hesitated to drink it but then she said that the farmers drink the corn alcohol as an energy drink during the cultivation time. So I took some gulps, and felt many things other than the corn alcohol go inside me. There came another old woman and chatted with us for a while. She sold some herbs to people who go to Gosaikunda trek, but she said that nobody had bought it this year. We being herb connoisseur decided to try it. We tried some of it there and could figure out instantly it’d take us somewhere we hadn’t even thought about. I believe it was so potent because no people had tasted it before, it was a virgin herb. We thanked the ladies there and headed up to Kutumsang, which we had no idea how long it was going to take. We walked till dark to get to Kutumsang. We reached the hotel there and stayed in Gosaikunda hotel. I don’t know if it was fate because we had passed so many hotels to get to there. It was a nice sleep and the food was good. When walking on the trails, I think the optimum price to spend per day is Rs.1000, we agreed to the hotel owner who was a Sherpa dd. We found out that there is a bus that leaves from Jorpati buspark at 8.20 that takes us straight to Kutumsang. That could be a good option if we don’t want to walk much and want to take the trail we took.

We got up late the next day, our mind was settling for the destination we want to go to. We had followed the Gosaikunda trail from Thankunna bhanjyang, stayed in Gosaikunda hotel the first day, saw Gosaikunda trail markings all throughout the way. Our mind was pulled towards Gosaikunda. Although the red tshirt guy had been there before, we decided to go there anyways. The destination for the second day was Thadepati. After leaving the hotel in the morning at about 10a.m. we began our climb. A little ahead we were stopped by the Army for entry. We told our names and then our heart stopped when the army guy said he wants to take a look in our bags. Our bags had herbs which we picked on the way. I showed my bag at first as my bag was clean. By Then the red tshirt guy hid the herbs which was a big package under the bags. The Army guy went to his bag and couldn’t find anything either. He showed me later where he had put the package, I picked it up when the army guy turned back. I bid my adieu to the army guy and went ahead where we took the entry ticket to the Lamtang National Park.                        

We had a chill walk on the second day, so we didn’t push too much. We took breaks throughout the way. While climbing up we could see Rhododendron Trees in shades between red and white. The main objective of my trip this time was to see rhododendron trees in their bloom. That place (below magingoth) really quenched my thirst. We picked some flowers along the trail to eat the flower. The rhododendron flower is usually a little sour. But some of the flowers we ate even had taste of sweetness there. We reached a good plainlands in a place called magingoth. The (Dubo) there was so wonderful that we opened up our shoes instantly. We walked on the grass for a while. There were a few hotels in Magingoth. We had our tea and a plate of chowmein there. The hotel owner even said that he’d take us on a red panda sightseeing. Red pandas are found in that area due to a lot of small bamboos. It was a red panda territory. The road there was nice, not too much uphill. But due to the bad air because of wildfires or some climate thingy we had not seen a single mountain. We saw some Wild Chicken and many other birds on the way. We ended the second day at an old man’s hotel. His hotel was at the first and we couldn’t decline his requests. The old guy was a Buddhist guy who had been to Tibet a lot of times during his age. He also said that he made the walk to gosaikunda from thadepati in 6 hours. He had this hotel there for 40+ years. The hotel first started in a cave with leaves as carpet/matress to sleep on. He had come a long way and had a good hotel now. The guy chanted Om Mani Padme Hum really often throughout our interaction. It was really cold and windy even in April, we stayed there in the hope for good sleep and good food as we had a long walk the next day.

We started off early at about 7.30 the next day. We had to go Thadepati(3600m)-Ghopte-Phedi-Surya Pass(4700m)- Gosaikunda(4320m) . We thought if we reached to thadepati by 12, we could make it by daylight to Gosaikunda. We started our walk through the bamboo forest. We thought we have to go upwards but no, we were going deep into the hills. We found a watercrossing from a waterfall, we drank from the biggest cup- straight from the ground. After walking about 1 hour downhill from there we then started our uphill climb after another waterfall before ghopte. That was the point from where there was full uphill. We climbed up to Ghopte, and then stayed there for a while where we found a map and started studying it. We walked till 12.30 p.m. then we reached Phedi . We ate thukpa in Phedi. After coming out we saw there was a little snowfall. We had no thoughts of stopping due to snow. We went up towards surya pass. After reaching High Camp, there was good amount of snow. We saw 3 people coming down the way. One was being carried down. We inquired and found out that the guy had got altitude sickness up in Gosaikunda and he was being carried down by a porter. The guy had been working up in a hotel in Gosaikunda for 8 months but got altitude sickness. It’s crazy how Altitude sickness works in our body differently every time. We walked through the snow. There was a #haitkada moment when we drank water from a small stream up there in the mountains. We had not seen The Himalayas until then, but suddenly we found ourselves in middle of one. It was a tough climb in the snow, both of us did not have any gloves with us. We had bamboo sticks which we picked on the way. We had to have one hand outside to hold our sticks. Our hands and feet were freezing cold. We could not see even 10 metre ahead of us. We just let Shiva show us whatever he wanted to. The first time we saw sun after Phedi was just as we reached the Surya Pass. It was a sort of miracle too because Surya translates to Sun, and we could see a little sunlight from the Surya Pass. We shouted, howled, screamed, praised Shiva. We could see Surya Kunda from Surya Pass for a short time before it started snowing again. We went a little off trail to find some other lakes in the area. All of the lakes we saw were frozen. We went back on trail and could see Ganesh Kunda was frozen as well. We could not stop ourselves from going there. I was a little susceptive of thin ice but the red tshirt guy went right in, I followed his path. It was a first experience walking on top of a lake. It was a literal ice lake. We stayed there for a while and went towards Gosaikunda.

 We reached Gosaikunda sooner than we had planned. Even after having a few breaks we reached Gosaikunda before sunset. The experience I felt in that moment is carved in my soul and will forever be with me. We saw the reflection of the sun on the Gosaikunda Lake. Gosaikunda unlike Suryakunda and the lakes above was not frozen. We sat on a rock with the view of the sunset. In a short moment we could see so many colors on the lake purple, blue, black, orange, red, pink. One moment we could see all of these colors at once on the lake. There was a rock in the middle of the lake which sometimes looked like a person was floating on top of the lake. The moment the sunset reached the rock, it looked like the Shiva in Shankar. The Jyoti Bindu in the Shivalinga. The sunset was surreal. We got up before the sun had set. Gosaikunda is a holy place for all Hindu’s. Many people visit Gosaikunda to take a dip in the lake. The lake as according to a myth was originated when Shiva was thirsty after drinking the poison that came from Churning of The Ocean (samundra-manthan). If the poison was left as it was it’d destroy whole creation. Shiva came to the rescue and drank the poison till his throat. If the poison was in the mouth-all the creation would end, if it went below his throat shiva would cease to exist –which is similar to creation ending. That is the reason Shiva drank the poison only up to his throat. Due to this reason Shiva is also known as Nilkanta which translates to Blue-throat. Shiva wandered here and there in search of water, and when he reached Gosaikunda he struck his trident to the ground and a lake was formed. That lake is known as Gosaikunda. As we moved further below we found the place where shiva had struck the trident. I did not notice the water source and fell down on ice. I got a little cut in my finger but it was bloody. It’s a thing for me to fall down in such places. I fell down at height of 5416m on Thorong-La Pass, on the ice in the dark at the time we were lost in Singla, on the River of Rapti where tigers come for a drink-I got a cut in my feet as soon as I entered the water. We went to the temple that was built there and paid our respect and thanked The Supreme Entity for everything. We went alongside the lake and did a clockwise walk of the lake as it’s a custom in Hinduism to walk clockwise on holy places. We must have impressed the gods as we could see the red reflections in the lake like it was a fantasy. The light came straight to us through the rock in the middle of the lake. No matter how much I try to say it in words, it is unexplainable. We then reached the hotel where we were supposed to spend the night. Gosaikunda is comparatively expensive than the other places. We paid Rs. 1600 for khat and bhat (Bed and Dinner). We just hoped it’d be a little warmer the next day as we had a thought of taking a dip in Gosaikunda.

The next morning I woke up a little early, and as I looked out the window, it was snowing. With a little sadness I went back to sleep. When I woke up again there was no snowfall. Even though it was not snowing, it was really cold with no sight of the sun. We ate a Tibetian bread and went towards Gosaikunda with our swimming pants and a towel. As we reached the lakeside and opened our clothes, although it was a little dim we could see the sun. I did not think about anything after opening my clothes, I went straight into the lake. The Water was freezing cold. I got dis-balanced as I entered because of the slippery rocks in the lake. I did my 3 plunges in the water, I don’t remember much detail about it. My mind went blank. After coming out it was a really heavenly. I heard a Sanskrit Sloka which says – The feeling before wearing your clothes after taking a dip in the holy waters is similar to the one felt in heaven. It was truly heavenly. The mind was full blank, we didn’t even feel cold after coming out. While changing our clothes, few foreigner passerby asked us if it was good, we replied saying that it was cold.

We went back to the hotel and relaxed there basking in the sun while sipping some black tea in there. We paid Rs 4000 total for the breakfast, package and tea at the hotel. This day we had to reach Dhunche, which was also the ending point of our trek. It was all downhill from Gosaikunda to Dhunche. The red tshirt guy had problem in his ligament behind his knees so we moved slowly towards Dhunche. We started at about 10.30 am. We saw many people as we walked down who were coming to Gosaikunda. It was almost Nepali New Years so most people we met wanted to do their first bath of the year in the Gosaikunda Lake. We were happy that we were one day earlier, or else we would not be getting any space in the lodges up in Gosaikunda. We thought due to the steep trails ,the way we took was relatively easier than coming up from Dhunche. We went down through Lauribinayak-Chholangpati-Chandanbari-Deurali-Dhunche. We met a lot of people on the way. One guy that gained my attention was a guy we met before Chandanbari. He was an old guy and was coming up from a roadless hill carrying a sack full of something. I asked him how he was but he could not speak. I just did Namaste and went along the trail. He had been on my mind for some time. Once we reached Chandanbari we stayed there for a while. We asked the woman in one hotel to cook the noodles we had taken with us. She did so and we ate it all. After leaving the hotel a little further I saw the old man again. I exchanged smiles and transferred my energy however I could. We spoke with no words but I explained everything I have written in my travelogue with a few gestures. It was a different feeling, I felt I had connected to him on another level. We then saw a cheese factory and wanted to try out some Yak Cheese from the area. We went in and bought 200gms for Rs320. We ate it and went on our ways. We met a lot of people climbing upto Gosaikunda- some had started the day from Deurali, some had started from Dhunche. If we take a bus early from Kathmandu to dhunche, we could stay the night at Deurali. And then reach upto Gosaikunda the next day. Many people we met did this. People also made a couple stops before reaching Gosaikunda. We also met a few local kids who were going to collect firewood. They invited us to their place for lunch after returning from their chores. We thanked them for their generosity. We found on the trail that many people we met in the trip were really humble. I think that is one the trait that makes a good human. We reached dhunche later than we had planned, it was almost 8 pm. We found a homestay there and decided to spend the night there who quoted Rs600 for Bed and Chicken Dinner. We couldn’t resist the offer and stayed there. We had no idea what we were going to do tomorrow, but we knew we had reached the end of our trek.

­