crowd plentiful, tho vaishnav was a more convenient pilgrimage.. by then surrounded by a religious setup of friends we'd been there already thrice and decided that was enuff...
with a lot of days to go by, with college on strike , and we the non participatory ones, decided to go to amarnath. Some post on the logs yesterday.. got me started on this thing.. Previously the Amarnath shrine would close around August mid.. 3-4 days after independence. Chadi?? were they the group that used to walk all the way from... foothilss.. There's the final group that's supposed to complete the trip after which the shrine shuts down. I dun't remember where they exactly start their walk from(Palampur maybe). Anyway the story goes like this.. people used to come here to become eternal(amar)..

Jammu Tawi is one of the safest and easiest routes to get there..read today they've extended it for 40 days. I believe earlier on it was open for about 3 months.. till the snow melts ..There's are 2 routes.. Balkal something and the one via Chandanwadi which is a longer route and advisable one. Balkal***(check out the name. I'm not sure) takes 2 days.. Chandanwadi is around 5 days considering you're just about an average trekker like me.

They kind of get you through the medical inspection.. got polaroid photos taken for 60 bucks.. exhorbitant price huh.. 4 of them.. u need dose photos for the medical checkup.. They do practically nothing much. You're through.. Why enough langdas walk the walk. There was this one without legs who travelled on the wood, used a pair of wooden handles to move his way forward. cause it's all gravel below and I wondered how he managed the walk, cause we would reach the places and I would identify him .. the next day.. along with us.

Lot of bhojanalays.. and rest vihars.. to stay around. service is very good. The buses start from Jammu Tawi to chandanwadi. A bit of bribe gets you a seat. (Like this Tirumala affair.. Dad I mom and brother had been standing in the queue for 4 hours.. and we were approached by this agent.. who asked us 600 per head for a fast darshan of god. So we decided to pray to god from outside in the queue and we headed back. MOmz got this varicose veins problem so it's impossible for her to stand that long and Dad wasn't willin to pay the bribe for darshan .). . Anyway I am a bit crooked so I paid. we got a seat..cause otherwise that meant spending a whole day at Tawi.
Morning 5 the buses start there were 13 tourist buses set out form Pehalgam . And BSF was ahead of the first bus and the last bus. Protection. and ya sanyasis get a seperate bus and they get to ride for free. The route is kaccha and dangerous. There were moments when we crossed the hills that we felt bus would teeter and fall down into the gorges. I wish they'd alteast lay some proper roads. Passed through some pretty villages on the way. Assume most were Kashmiris. Pretty gals. but covered . Even the small gals covered their head. They stared at the buses as though we were riders from some lost world.

Pehalgam we reached by evenig 8. There's a checkpost, due to the queue takes and hour to get through. Every state runs its own langar. It's pretty good. kaju , kishmish, everything, inculding haldiram for free. Everything is free. Stay , food, frooti's.. The only thing I paid for during the entire trip was to Tawi, tawi to Pehalgam and Pehalgam to chandanwadi. Pehlgam.. (aka Bhelgam SHiva's BUll) is the resting and starting point of the yatra.

Chandanwadi was good. There was the mountain on one side and then the other side , flowed a brook with stones. Many ppl took the stone brook pathway.. It was quite , gentle serene, and fun. We reach Pissu top(Horns of hte bull dun't relaly remember) and we headed over to Sheshnag .. that was our destination for the night. Reached around evening 8 . Wasn't used to hard exercising and it gets a bit tough initially till you're accustomed to ti. And wow sweets, delicacies, food distributed for free agains the onset of a fierce gale.. Last year it so happend that in Mount Ganeshs. (one of the stops) lotsa people had died due to an avalanche.. So weather forecast recommended.. Though.. when we reached Sheshang.. the gale was so fierce. it looked to me that it would blow away all the tents perched on the groudn to the lake. The lake itself is a beauty, crystal clear, adn true to myth.. set amidst mountains, in a valley, the sky blue.... deep down is appealing. I'm on top of the mountains, on the left site, looking down into the lake.There were some tents pitched near the bottom of the mountains near the lake. The akar of Sheshnag(Vishnu's serpent) isn't really visible until the night, when you see this hooded snake..amidst the moon and the clouds.. Boy it looks really like a snake.. And arnd 12 in the night .. ppl started callign people outside for a mani(gem on the serpent's head).. They said it would appear.. at 12 in the midnight.. Rumour is that the snake resides at the bottom of the lake.. and comes out at the night.. and you coudl see its mani shining. I didn't get up to go out.. felt unsafe.. It's supposed to come out when the Chadi group passes by. They also say you can look at your own reflection if you get down to the lake. It's that crystal clear..

yeah lots of snow. Snow that hadn't melted.. the snow pathway's are pretty short cut. You don't have to take the long route via the brooks. So i took shortcuts til this horse.. (there are many who go by horse chargeabt 2k bucks.. and expeect for the hard paths the horses carry you through). went down into the water below. The snow cracked .. and the ice is only upto a certain level, what with it being summer and august.. it melts.. the shiv ling melts that's why they shut it down..
Most of the pakis.. are the luggage carriers.. and they're fleetfooted. like elves. You're struggling to walk here and they walk on so easily against the steep, so fast. *envy*. Mount Ganesha was next.. And morning you start after the sun rises.. It's supposed to increase the oxygen supply which you can';t otherwise sense in the dhund.

That was tough, I really went breathless on top of MOunt Ganesha.. There were some cyclinders up there for oxygen for the some who fel l short. but the climb was really tough, the toughest part of it. The ironic part it kinda , rekindles the faith in your own religious beliefs, you know imagine mountains exist in the very shape the gods are supposed to look. You actually see the "trunk..." his nose.. the snout.. The akar is like that.. and boy after sheshnag in the night, this was another surprise. I'm an atheist.. so .. i kind of am in disbelief. next was poshpathri..(garlands.. of Shiva..) it was good, had some water, food, and grabbed two packs of frooti to help contain our thirst and moved on to Panchtarni(5 rivers.). Got a glucose packet this time..(gah hated glucose... ) but was useful this time for instant energy.. It was glucon -D if I remember. Panchatarni was again amazing. we crossed 5 rivers inbetween stretches of land. and like japanese gardens.. there were rocks to walk over the rivers.. (one if I remember). I enjoyed the walk a lot, that's why i probably remember. End of Day 2 and we were at panchtarni.. and next day would be our trip to amarnath and back as the travellers along with us, advised up to hike up early and make the trip back.It was independence day Aug 15th. We watched the independence flag hoisted out there, and after the army sang the jana gana mana.... there was a hoot in the crowd..." That guyz watchign us, he's a pakistani.. shooo.... " comment. So there's lot of ice in the pathway and we bought sticks at the beginnning of the jouney. Metal sheets like outa those cans, rolled into cones and attached to sticks with a nail.. so you can dig into the ice with teh stick for support. other thing, restrooms a big problem.. they're open.. and set near the river..

the support sticks, we needed it for amarnath.. it was ice.. cause of the sun.. and it was skidding badly... even the sticks were useless. we started takign roundabout routes.. So it was tedious.. and even more tedious was the hike.. It was steep upway and full of ice nearly.. so we reached the mountain where the shrine is supposed to be.. we were stilla t the base. The crowd provided a lift, I was dead tired, somebody offered raisins to us midway, a scoop.. Boy i loved raisins then... (so many dry fruits around)... so we started, the crowd chanting "Bum bum Bole" and you joining in... we reached the top.. and bah bah.. these are moments when one feels... that it isn't worth it.. They don't let you stop for a logn time.. Once there they ask you to take a look fast and move on.. cause there are many behind in line..When I';ve walked so much, atleast give me some time to savour it, you know look at it.. for a while at least.. The other odd thing was inspite of all the seva, there was not one pujari there.. It was the BSF batalian 31 that was providing the escort service. They pushed you ahead before you even got a good glimpse at the lingam. Gawd hated it when they did that. The lingam was so small, it had kinda melted.. Oh well.. finally we've done it . a sense of accomplisment.. you feel good too..

And I also saw one pigeon... there are supposed to be two... who became immortal because they overheard shiv and parvati before they left to kailash in manasarovar. And also at panchtarni.. they told about these lights..(i forgot the name..bhairavi, dharini.. dunno something like that.. ) . soem people spoke abotu witnessing those lights.. jeesh i can't remembner..
anyway we got our darshan and beside there's this .. brahma kund.. you know holy water, people usually fill and go.. and we headed back then.. anpother 2 days to pehlgam..

they were closing up.. and chadi had left teh previous day before us.. and everyone was leaving. While we treaded back to chandanwadi.. our last stages of the journey from pissu top.. it was such a nice feeling, relaxing really, walkign back slowly.. waiting for the destination to come.. wishing you'd never leave the place and head back into the unknown... UNknown no longer perhaps cause there were lots of ppl around.. So chandanwadi.. to pehlgam.. pehlgam to tawi.. and back.. and ppl were talkign abt going to srinagar and spending 2 days there intially saying it would take the same time and taking the baltal route..was 2 days.. well.. that never materialized.. no regrets.. that we didn't tread the steep route.. though that at many moments seemed like a better alternative.. Get more covered in less time.. Proabably the only chance i would ever get to see Srinagar,, adn I said no to it..