Step Into My Shoes..

(Disclaimer: It's a long ass article) October 27th, 2018 4:00 am - excitement The morning was dark and freezing. And the six companions had decided, "we have seen the same mountains from much closer for far too long already" so there was just the two of us. I left my room with much apprehension and I was actually holding my breath when I made my way to the stairs. I took the first step down, only to find out - hey it isn't so hard after all. So with a pep on my steps, I made it downstairs and out the hotel. The time was 4:25 am. We had a torch with us but my friend is an owl - he doesn't need anything but the moon to light his way. We were told the Poon Hill tower was an hour long uphill climb and sunrise was forecasted (by me) to be at around 6:15, so it still doesn't make sense why we woke up so damn early. But turned out, there were people who must've gotten earlier than us since we passed so many of them on our way up. The trail is well o...

October 26th, 2018 We woke up for the last morning at Dobato. Breakfast was normal - roti, tarkari, boiled egg, tea. Honestly speaking, we were getting bored of it by then. I tried changing my breakfast to a western one, but the hotel dai said breads were hard to get by and we should've informed them earlier. Too bad we were busy resting our exhausted bodies. After viewing the morning sun hit the Himalayas from so close for one last time, we started off towards our next destination - Ghorepani.  We had to descend from 3426 m to 2874 m, but descending in the mountains doesn't necessarily mean just going down. It is an adventure full of walking downhill, climbing and sometimes treading on a straight path. Sometimes when we would get tired of all the walking, we would just look at Ghorepani, which we could see from most of the path we were walking on, we would always joke, if only there was this bridge between here and there (Ghorepani). I mean how ...

October 25th, 2018 After a disorderly night, at exactly 6 am I woke up, partly because of the cold, partly because of the excitement of waking up so near the mountains and partly because I had to pee. I tried to see the mountains from the window of my room but the whole glass was frosted so I was compelled to go out in the cold. And since my phone wasn't working in terms of network and the Internet, I couldn't tell what the temperature was. The day seemed clear enough in the morning. Only a few of us managed to get up to witness the golden morning light that slowly seeped into the mountains so beautifully spread out in front of us. But I'm glad I could be alone to breathe the crisp mountain air by myself. My friends started stirring out of their sleep (just as uncomfortable) slowly and we decided to walk about 20 minutes to a view point called Muldai View Point that was located right behind our hotel (Hotel Dobato View Point). We left our bags at the hote...

For the umpteenth time in my life, I have cheated death, again. Okay, may be I am being a little too dramatic. I am an adventurous person but I don't go and seek to partake in risky activities like jumping off a cliff, climbing a steep mountain, walking into the unknown in a failing daylight when it's snowing - but in retrospect, I have done all that in the past week. Let me elaborate. A week ago, I left Kathmandu with four people with the intention to trek to Khopra Ridge and come back with some good instagrammable pictures. I did come back with many great pictures but also I am glad to have come back with greater stories to tell. Normally, when I travel, I am on the driving seat. I decide where we go, when we go, how we go and every such things. I like being in control and knowing what's coming. Many a times, plans have succeeded and I have come back content. This time, however, I had been designated the passenger seat from where I couldn't even see where we...