In Rishikesh a.k.a. Yoga Town I met some awesome travelers – a girl from NY, a pair of friends from Denmark and a guy from Iceland. On a spur of the moment we decided to go 12 hours north to the Himalayas near the Nepalese border to go trekking in an area called the Valley of Flowers. We got a bus at the crack of dawn -- the bus ride was hellish – hairpin turns on roads that clung to the side of the mountains; oncoming traffic rushing towards us with scientifically no room for two lanes and no guardrails. The seats were so packed together that your knees were wedged into the seat in front of you. It was probably the worst bus ride of my life. BUT the views and scenery were amazing. We wound over deep valleys with the Ganges river and other rivers below, passed by terraced rice paddies and farm lands and by temples with gorgeous Hindi god statues.When we arrived at the gateway town for the trekking we learned that there was a religous pilgrimage here, too! This time the Sikhs. They have a temple at the top of one of the Himalayan peaks and it is only accessible in July and August b/c the route is snowed in all other months. So we were joined on our “secluded, remote” hike by thousands of Sikh pilgrims walking the 13 miles up to their temple. Here are some new friends I met on the trail :)
After going an intense 8 miles and climbing about 3,000 feet in elevation we stopped and got a room for the night, then the next day we hiked to the Valley of Flowers – a beautiful area (and actually remote - no people! Very, very hard to find in India so far) filled with 80 types of wildflowers, at least 25 waterfalls and big ancient glaciers. It was spectacular. They weather lasted for a few hours and then poured on us as we hiked out ;)
My peeps!
