Chpt 2. The Planning

Timeline: Last week of July [a day after the Bangalore blasts]

It almost started on a lark, amidst the aromas of oolong tea and steamed momos, at my favourite café in Bangalore, InfiniTea. There we were, the three of us, old friends from college - Vash [visiting from Bombay], Vidya and I – sharing the latest in our lives, quips and anecdotes when quite accidentally, the topic of the Valley strayed into our conversation.

Ever since a friend of mine had shared her experiences of the area, it was on my list of must-travel-places in India. We discovered that we all wanted to go there and why not? The long Independence weekend was coming up in a fortnight, each of us wanted a break, the Valley would be at its best this time of the year and a holiday with just us girls was a great way to celebrate the ten years since our graduation in 1998. Unlike the umpteen vacation plans we’d hatched in the last decade, all of them unsuccessful, this time we decided to solemnly go through with it. The three of us sitting at the same table removed the hassle of clashing schedules that usually tends to be the biggest deterrent to such plans. Dates were tentatively decided on.

The next 3 days saw a hectic flurry of mails, a result of the detailed recce on the net that followed our InfiniTea meeting. Dates were fixed and a sketchy itinerary was drawn up with timelines, night stopovers and the mode of travel for each day. Most of it was just in the form of information, hotel bookings could be done later once we got to particular locations. We’d figure as we went along. In true Himalayan trekker style. We had all the info and only the train/ flight bookings needed to be done. We were truly well on our way.

That’s when our usual ill-luck or disaster struck. Or almost struck. Vash and I knew that while this was the “season” for the Valley flowers to be in full bloom, it was invariably accompanied by rain. It was akin to the cost of seeing this magical land at its best. Postpone the trip any later and it would only get colder, with not many flowers in bloom – the season was end-July to mid-August. Vidya, it seemed, was unaware of this, until a friend of hers, who was a regular visitor to the area, mentioned it to her with the advice of visiting the area in September. Travel in September wasn’t feasible for me and moreover, I wanted to visit the Valley in its peak season. Vidya didn’t want to travel in August, an impasse reached, the trip was off. And just after all that planning, when it seemed like a distinct possibility. The disappointment was doubled.

The next two days saw Vash and I, each trying to convince Vidya to reconsider her decision. From sharing rain splattered pictures of folks who had visited the area in the last fortnight to sharing blogs where everyone spoke of the rain as a normal phenomenon, we tried to highlight that it was the best time to visit, the rain really wasn’t such a big deal and just went with the terrain. Since it wouldn’t be continuously raining, our views of the mountains and valleys wouldn’t be compromised or covered all the time in mist. With no change in her decision, the trip was shelved officially.

A day later, Vidya called, she’d changed her mind. We were going! We were back in business. The plan further fine tuned. Travel Tickets booked. Stay for 3 nights at the GMVN [Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam] guesthouse, Joshimath was booked. Blocking for a day at the luxury tent in Ghangria was done [Blocking and not booking, since we were unsure whether we wanted to spend Rs 4800/day as opposed to the going rate of Rs 300/ day that non-luxury hotels charged – well, maybe one day of comfort after all those days of budget stay and strenuous trekking!].

Like St. Augustine said, "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page” – one of the quotes that are frequently aired on the Discovery Travel & Living channel – we were ready to unravel another page soon.

Sources for recce: http://www.flowersofindia.net/vof-trek/index.html, http://www.garhwaltourism.com/valley/