After a lot of thought process and keeping in mind the limited time we had, all of us decided to go on a trip to the Lahaul & Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh.

The people: Anshuman, Shachindra, Rajarshi, Shalini, Saurabh, Anshul, Prashant, Ritesh (Tony)!!!

The machine: Toyota Qualis !

The time factor: August, 14th night - 19th morning.

Day one: We left Delhi at about 8 ish in the evening with our driver saab, nick name being Bobby. After our last years trip to Gangotri/Yamunotri a lot many people had asked us to take them along in our next venture so we did ask a couple of close people and all of them readily agreed to accompany us. The new faces u'd see are of Anshul, being Shachindra's colleague at work, Sethi (Saurabh) happens to be Rajarshi's college-mate, Prashant our new roomate and last but not the least Tony,whoz a school friend of ours. With little time in our hands, i.e. from 14th night till 19th morning we effectively had just 4 days and from little information we could gather of these places we were in doldrums as to whether we cover Lahaul or Spiti or probably both.

Once we arrived in Manali the next morning, we met a friend of Shalini, Yitendra(Yeti) who also happened to be a tourist mafia ... he he he he.. i meant he could basically organise any kind of trip from Manali or should i say from any place in Himachal or .... forget it.... i could'nt exactly figure that out but he did give us an idea of what we had actually planned and what was actually possible. No questions raised on his knowledge about the places to visit. He was in a way a Jack of all trades...and God help you with his never-ending stories......... Ninah - all the best!!

Spiti, had been ruled out because of some major land slides there. So it was very clear that we had Lahaul to conquer and some reasonable time as well. None of us would blame Yeti because he gave us one hell of a guy named NEETO !! All of us would sure give him full marks for making this trip worthwhile.

So after having brunch there, we trugged along the road, should'nt call it a road actually...towards Rohtang Pass. Forgot to mention onething, Happy Independence Day to all, also Neeto gave us the idea of camping all the way. We were lucky enough to get 5 tents all equipped for about 7Ks only courtesy Yeti or else we would have got it for not less than 7000 bucks.He...He.... No hard feelings Yeti, we owe you one.

After doing a lot of photography at Rohtang, we decided to halt at a place called Marhi. A nice suburb, with full marks to the scenic beauty.First night, tenting was a big ga-ga. No one had the slightest clue as to how to erect it. All of us were banking on Neeto and would do small errand as per his instructions.Had dinner at a local dhaba there, not so good food ...okaish.

We arranged for a bonfire and had a gala time till late in the night. All of us slept like dead. Woke up early next morning as all of us had been asked by Neeto to do so.

Day2: We packed our tents, and after freshning up moved towards Baralacha La. From, Marhi via Koksar -Tandi-Keylong-Jispa-Darcha-Patseo reached Baralacha La at about 4 in the evening.

All these places mentioned had something unique about themselves as if God din't want anyone to compare these places. Keylong being said as the capital of the Lahaul & Spiti districts was a beautiful town with very little population and a nice market place.

Baralacha La at an altitude of 4850 mtrs was simply amazing.Not much can be described about that place, once again i would say that you have to see it to believe it. After enjoying some moments there and having a gala lunch at Keylong, we moved ahead and finally after a day long journey decided to camp at Baratpur, (NOT BHARATPUR) which was about 30 Kms before Sarchu.

Baratpur was ......aaahhhhh for all of us. The temprature factor was just one of the elements of disaster. All of us did not have the slightest clue of the altitude factor. At such high altitudes, one actually needs to acclimatize himself/herself with the altitude and needs proper rest for that. Since we all were short of time, and no one had had any problems so far, we thought we were Ok. But no, before night fall it had become so chilling and with no plantation at all, even if you moved out of your tent for a leak, you would take atleast 15 mins to get your breadth back. We did make the mistake of under-estimating to forces of nature. But as said, all's well that ends well, the next morning was not so pleasant and we decided not to go any furthur although we had thought of going till Sarchu.

Day 3:We hardly enjoyed the morning breakfast,and proceeded back the same way. After reaching Darcha, we all felt a bit OK. Had a nice time besides the river Chandra. Also had a heavy meal here and decided what to do next.Neeto gave us the idea of camping at a place called Sissu which was approx. 30 Kms from Koksar.As we were completely dependent on Neeto, no one even cared to discuss whether it would be feasible or not. If he has siad it, just do it ! Well after a brief halt at Keylong, we reached Sissu at 4 p.m. Please listen carefully guys, this place is a must stop over. Where we camped was previously a miltary base. There was the river Chandrabhaga(remember the river Chandra i mentioned earlier, it unites with the Bhaga river to be called Chandrabhaga) close to the tenting area which was amidst trees.Ya ya, i know you should'nt camp between trees, we did it in an open area between them. He...he !Our tents were facing a waterfall, rather a beautiful waterfall, and on both ends were ice covered peaks. This very place made us forget all that we had gone through the previous night. This night definitely was the best amongst the three we had spent in tents. We all woke up till the wee hours, gossiping, listening to music, playing cards,near the bonfire offcourse.Overall, a memorable night for all of us. The penultimate night was THE night. Cheers to that !!!

Day 4: Not much to say, now that we were almost experts in camping, we had packed everything even before Neeto could wink. Ain't i right Neeto ??? We had thought of leaving Manali for Delhi by 6 p.m. in the evening so that we could be there by 6 a.m. as all had to be in office,thus had ample time to try our hands on photography. Pandey being in the lead, with Goluji as the assistant,i was not left with much to do but think of giving them more and more ideas.So that was it... bas nothing more to say but thank all the new joinees for their co-operation and here's wishing that they had a gala time.

We went in search of adventure - we certainly found it here.

.........................the story just begins, to be contd.

PS - All said and done, the gang, i.e. Anshuman(myself), Shachindra (panduzo) and Rajarshi (bangaali) have already decide to be there next June on bikes with tents and will go upto Leh/Ladak for sure, come what may. Stop us if you can......