5 Reasons You Should Visit the Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand

The Valley of Flowers, located in Uttrakhand and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, came into my life much before I visited it. As a child, I had often dreamt of living a childhood out of Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, and waking up in the Alps everyday with fresh milk and cheese from the poultry in the backyard. The name, Valley of Flowers, elicited the same feeling.

Years later, I made a trip to that surreal paradise, and am ready to zoom out of my psychedelic bubble and give you the hard facts, the impact of which will be cushioned with alpine flowers and meadows! Choose the Valley of Flowers as your summer destination, if:

Off-beat turns you on

Conquering the Himalayas!

If you are a lover of unique experiences and are vary of the hills because come summer, popular hill stations have more people than trees, then Valley of Flowers is the place to be. The experience of getting to the valley is mildly strenuous and the sight of the valley guarantees a major adrenalin rush. The accommodation on the way is mostly basic and this too keeps the noisy tourists at bay.

You are yet to see the Himalayas in all their glory

A view of snow-capped glaciers from the valley.

For travellers in the north, the Himalayas are only an overnight journey away. But people like me, who live in the south or the west are closer to the Nilgiris or the Western Ghats. I have nothing against the hilly landscapes in the rest of the country. But believe me, these are mere slopes compared to the grandeur of the Himalayas. The Valley of Flowers borders China and Nepal, is situated 3352 to 3658 meters above sea level, and sits pretty between the ranges of the Zanskar and the Greater Himalayas. As a result, the breath-taking, gentle beauty of almost 300 species of exotic flowers overlook the mighty and rugged Zanskar in the north and the Greater Himalyas in the south. A beautiful grassland experience with a mountainous view.

You live for stories

Locals using kinetic energy to cook corn!

If you are a person who loves to come back from trips with stories to tell and reminisce for years, then this trip is a fool proof plan to amass the quirkiest stories. The local bus at Badrinath is called Bhook hartal (Hunger Strike), named after the villagers who went on a hunger strike in protest of poor transport in the region. The authorities introduced this bus but there was a catch – the bus has no definite time of arrival. We met a corn maker who used kinetic energy to roast the corn instead of coal. And a village auto driver who chased us down because we were sick of waiting from him, and decided to flag down an oncoming local bus. So the locals were running after us, we wobbling and running with our backpacks behind the bus, and bus conductor egging us to run faster!

You want to witness pristine beauty

First glimpse of the valley.

As you enter the valley from Ghangagria you encounter a V-shaped intersection of two peaks drenched in mist and cloud. As you get closer to the valley, you encounter pebbles, boulders, cobbled paths, small streams, rickety bridges and lush greenery all round. As you get used to the diverse surroundings, you’ll meet an open skyline bordered with mountains, glaciers and wide grasslands laden with flowers. For as far as you can look, you will see the valley spread, and intersect tiny glaciers and meadows peppered with different colours. It is this element of surprise, grandeur and gentleness that will make fall you in love with everything and everyone around you.

You are a budget traveller

Ready to trudge up the mountain.

If you are a budget traveller who relishes calculating money saved at the end of the trip and pushing your limits of adventure, then the Valley of Flowers will conspire to let you live the tough life. We covered the total distance of 523 kms from Delhi to the Valley of Flowers through the cheapest modes of transport and accommodations.

How to reach the Valley of Flowers from Delhi, on a budget:

Delhi – Haridwar: Overnight train journey from Dehradun Jan Shatabdi so that we could save on stay and not waste a day. You can also book bus tickets online from Delhi to Haridwar.
Haridwar – Rishikesh : We took a shared auto to Rishikesh from where we needed to catch a bus to Joshimath
Rishikesh – Joshimath : We took a rickety old village bus filled with locals and backpacking Israelis. This 11 hour journey was back breaking and through bad roads and sharp bends with the Ganges on one side and the mountains on the other.
Joshimath – We stopped at Joshimath for the night at a GMVL guest house after hunting for the cheapest accommodation.
Joshimath – Govindghat : After a good night’s sleep, we took a jeep to Govindghat, located at the confluence of the Alaknanda and Lakshman Ganga rivers. This is a straight trek to the Valley of Flowers; yes, we are just getting started!
Govindghat – Ghangaria : A 13 km trek through sleepy mountain villages with the Pushpawati river for company. This stretch is mostly uphill and you can get ready for your feet to groan for the next 7 hours of the trek.
Ghangaria: Welcome, rest your heels at very limited staying options here. We got a deal of Rs. 100 per night for a room with three beds.
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Is the Valley of Flowers on your summer wishlist?

This was a guest post written by Mansi on Travel Yaari 

 

New Delhi: Revisiting The Elephant Graveyard

Mansi’s brother showing me the ropes on his Royal Enfield

When I was a kid, I used to watch The Lion King every week, without fail. It became so much of an obsession that I realized one day that I had learned the dialogues by heart and could repeat them word for word. (For instance, the opening line of the movie is, “Life’s not fair, isn’t it?” said by Scar, as he catches a little mouse for dinner.)

The movie had so much of an impact on me that I began associating things I saw in it to things I saw in real life. After a 9-month ordeal in New Delhi in 2009-10, I associated the city with the Elephant Graveyard in The Lion King – a dreaded place where no one went, and a place of evil where no one was ever happy. My time in New Delhi was the worst 9 months of my life. I haven’t been more miserable ever. So, once I returned back to normalcy and battled depressions and won, I vowed never to go back there again. Ever. But fate, it seemed, had a few ironies up its sleeve.

Mansi hails from Gurgaon, Haryana – an integral part of the Delhi-NCR, and when she insisted that I accompany her to Delhi, I was very hesitant. She convinced me that she was going to make me see the place through her happy goggles, and was very confident that I’d like the trip. Well, given that I am in love with her and have decided to spend the rest of my life traveling with her, I decided to face my fear and visit the Elephant Graveyard with her. And I was so glad I did, because she not only made me see Delhi in a whole new light, she even made me admit that I had fun on the trip.

We spent half our time in Gurgaon, meeting her old friends and revisiting her old haunts. A lovely breakfast at Sakley’s in Galleria set the tone for a lovely weekend. We went visiting the famous Delhi Haat, where we spent a very satisfying evening eating street food from all around the country and window shopping for colorful, over-priced junk. A highlight of the trip was the visit to the world-renowned flea market at Sarojini Nagar, where Mansi found a treasure trove of Desigual clothes and we spent all of our trip’s budgets shopping for clothes, shoes and other things.

We stayed at Mansi’s parents’ house in Gurgaon and I immediately made her mom, dad and elder brother fall hopelessly in love with me through my charm and my south Indian cooking skills. The sambhar I cooked for lunch, I am told, was finger-licking good.

The trip also coincided with the birthday of one of Mansi’s closest friends – Joanna. We dropped in on her birthday party, surprised the living daylights out of her and spent a very nice evening catching up and socializing with her old friends. I really did have a wonderful trip, and I never thought I’d say this, but Delhi isn’t so bad. True, I kept spotting rapists everywhere, but I guess that’s the charm of living in a nation’s capital. Whatever that means.

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