Longest Day of Trekking

So last night I came into the Pink House to talk to Javid about my coming back to Delhi, while there was a group of other guests in the lounge with him. Javid looks at me and goes, "So I think you should go with these 3 tomorrow on a trek up to Triund. You say that you are a lucky girl, and I think this is your luck of the day; to go on a trek to this big deal Triund."

Triund is a mountain here in the Himalayas that holds a very small village before the Himalayan snow line begins. It is a 4-hour hike up to this town. I said, "Alright, Javid, I'll go because you said it's a good idea." I was tired and sore from yoga, and I knew none of these people going, but why not... I was not planning on doing anything spectacular that day, anyways.

At 7am I woke up and had breakfast on the roof with these guests. We talked groggily about the trek, and what we were bringing. I didn't really understand the word "trek", so I was planning on only bringing a back with water, camera, and maybe a snack.

Let me introduce you to the players of the trek, aside from me. Hasina is an Indo-British 36 year-old teacher who just got to India for 5 months to visit some family while vacationing all over the place. Eva is a Slovakian in her mid-late 20s who is in the middle of finishing her massage therapy in Ireland. Tal is a 28 year-old Israeli guy who has been a modern dancer, but is currently traveling around.

Now that we have the introductions out of the way, I can get in more depth about the very difficult day we had. We began the hike around 9am at the base of the mountain, giggling and talking about how we had no idea what we were expecting from the hike. And then the terrain revealed itself to us...a steep climb of jagged boulders and rocks on a narrow path without much designation of direction. It was also raining for about half of the way up, so our rocks (and even the soil terrain that happened occassionally) became slippery and more precarious. Climbing up the mountain felt like a crapshoot at times. It was a bad time to be afraid of heights, which I admittedly am.

My backpack was not helping my case; I was carrying a few full water bottles with some canned jam and peanut butter so we could picnic on the top. I also had a stowaway coconut. Though I am glad I got the extra workout and calorie expulsion...

So it took us 5 hours to climb and heave and pant and crawl and sweat and whimper up to Triund. Luckily, there were little rest stops on the way up, every 2 kilometers or so. We would usually sit down and rest for a few minutes, and snack on some moong dal or other bagged treats while we sat and discussed our awe towards the mountain men and goat herders that clearly lived at these tea shops halfway up the mountains. They walked up and down the steep inclines like it was nothing, and some would even run around, passing us on our trek up. Were they THAT used to the thin air up there?

We got up to the top of Triund right around the time I felt I was going to cry and/or pass out. Our clothing was dripping with dew and sweat, and our bodies were crying for a break. The grass up at the top of the mountain was ultragreen, and almost mossy. Really beautifully laid out in front of us was the little village of Triund. Population 7, always. Nestled in this village was a 3-room guesthouse for trekkers who would brave a 2-day trek up to the snow line on the Himalayas. The quietness was shocking. And it was definitely cooler up there. I went to the tea shop on the hill for a cold drink, and they simply pulled a drink off of the shelf, explaining to me that the high altitude had naturally fridged the drinks. Amazing.

Too bad it the top fo the mountain was hidden in a thick soupy fog. We were unable to see any of the view down, which was actually the reason we hiked up in the first place. Apparently you can see most of Himachel Pradesh there. And you're also supposed to be able to see the snow line on the Himalayan side of the moutnain. I'm sure it's great, but we didn't see any of it.

So we ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches for an hour or so, and then started our trek down. The trek down only took 4 hours this time. We were so sore from the hike up that it made the hike down (what with gravity and all) a bit difficult, and the rocks going down growled viciously at me and my healing ankle. It also poured on us on the way down, so we had to take a 45-minute break at a tea shop, where we watched the pouring rain as we sipped some ginger tea and watched the mountain men play cards.

At the bottom of the hill, we eagerly yet sluggishly made our way to a restaurant and ate quite a lot of Tibetan food. Was it good food, I regret to say no, but it filled us. We grabbed some brownies and brought them back to Pink House to hang out tiredly with Javid in the lounge for the rest of the night. The rest of the night, I must add, was maybe 2 hours more; we were all so tired that we didn't make much of a party and went to bed early.