The one with the Zanskar.

So there we were, three ladies on a trip to Leh-Ladakh…little concerned about whether Mom’s health would permit her to travel through the landscapes of this rightfully place. But I guess when she insisted on clicking a picture at the “World’s Highest Motor-able Road”, I realised "all izz well". And thus we were done with our Leh-Ladakh journey. The only thing left was our Kargil visit and Srinagar transfer via Sonmarg (thanks to the curfew) and we had one day in hand, you know for shopping, etc. But one dear friend of Bhai’s had suggested not to miss the Rafting experience when you are in Leh. So we checked with the hotel and they did arrange an operator who is basically someway related to the Hotel owner. Nevertheless we (of-course not my mom) two sisters had also managed the company of two other girls in our first time rafting experience and sooner than we realised, we were off on our journey towards the start point.

Fast forward through the events of changing out of nowhere on the middle of the mountains into bodysuits and fighting for the best head gear with the captain himself we set our foot on the rafting boat and the rafting boat in turn set its foot on the chilly waters. The best whirlpool was right at the beginning and we managed our way through it somehow but the captain decided that one of us was faking with the oars and decided to change our positions (remember those times in school when the talkative boy was made to sit with the girls!) Few more whirlpools later we were pros (or so we thought) and the view. It was as if God was handcrafting the landscapes with a cold coffee in hand (I do love cold coffees).

Now that very friend of Bhai’s had also mentioned about taking a dip in the water whenever you get an opportunity. So when we were done with the whirlpools and the Captain asked who’s up for a dip we made sure we are the first ones to raise our hands and whoosh, there was one huge hoo-man in the water (btw, did I mention my sister lost approximately 8KGs, thanks to yoga, yes NAMASTE!). Following the footsteps of my sister, of-course I was the next one to jump and the chilly waters of the Zanskar river, the landscape all added to my adrenaline rush as I was mentally crossing out one of the To-Do list’s of mine. Should I embarrass my sister a wee bit more and mention the event of our Captain almost falling off the boat when he tried to pick my sister up or may be not, nothing of that sort happened guys! All the events mentioned here are just a work of creativity and nothing else. Then soon enough we were done with the rafting and let’s not go into details about the later on wait of close to 1 hour for our operator to arrive and pick us up and the huge Fight. Nevertheless, all throughout our Leh trip it was (just the way our captain said),

Girl Power,

24 Hour! \m/

The one with Madhuri.

When my sister decided on the next family vacation’s location, I agreed on one go as we have not set out foot in Arunachal before... and as our journey date came closer I tried to google a bit about the locations our tour agency was taking us to..and there it was mentioned Madhuri lake..and you are correct, it is named after Madhuri Dixit after the movie "Koyla" was shot in here. The previously called Tsungestwar lake was formed as a result of earthquake activity and you see dead trees in between of a lake (which trust me is a pretty uncommon and at the same time, a very beautiful sight)

So there we were 42 people, who reached Tawang at 2 A.M. (following a chain of events starting from landslide, witnessing dynamite bursting, then eventually running out of petrol and then pursuing fellow "Kakimas" to lend us some, then losing our way and what not), trying to wake up the hotel authorities to provide us with rooms. And guess what we being the Bengalis that we are, no matter how tired we are, when it comes to selecting hotel rooms and comparing it with the fellow travellers, we can fight with the tour managers in the middle of the night for the same. So the next day we go for local side seeing and the following day we start our journey for the Madhuri Lake.

I must say, please be prepared for the painfully funny bumpy ride of about 27kms. 

A glimpse of the same :v

Nevertheless you will be amazed with the view of what i assume red moss/flowers covering most of the mountains and then the other lakes like PT. Tso, heart shaped lake, Bumla pass (if you are lucky enough with the road condition) and finally you will reach your destination. 

The Madhuri lake has a beautiful mountain in the backdrop that makes the view even more beautiful and the bumpy rides worthy. 

And guess what, they have a small canteen in there where the only options are maggi, "puri-sabji", tea and coffee but trust me on this even two plates of maggi at such a location is a beautiful experience. 

There was something about this place, the prayer flags, the dead trees, the wooden structure on the lake (primarily the selfie arena), the Madhuri point, the forever changing weather, all these things adds a mysterious notion to the place and I bet that you go back into your car with freshly restored energy for the bumpy ride back to Tawang.

Special mention to the army cafe that is present there at approximately 14000ft and serves hot coffee and maggi that somehow tastes far more delicious compared to the one that I otherwise get at Gate 2, Unitech (read office "para"), hard to understand what adds to the taste, the view, the weather, the courteous army people or just the fact that I am on leave and no mobile testing for the time being ! :D

Remember to try out the Butter Tea that they serve in Tawang. Just like KRK, you can like it, you can hate it but you cannot ignore it! For me, i liked it (not KRK, god No, the butter tea)!

Also as much as I hate to travel with a tour company, and other than my mom, there is no other reason for us to do this, but I must admit out of all such trips you do come back with new friends added to your friend-list and with a promise to meet some of them at a reunion may be, and on some times when you sit at your office desk doing the boring job that you are paid for, you do miss some of these people too (and of-course the memories) :)


To the Force Traveller without a carrier (inside joke) :D

The Half Frozen One...

Gorudongmar Lake: Gurudongmar Lake, is one of the highest lakes in the world and highest lakes in India , located at an altitude of 17,800 ft (5,430 m) in the Indian state of Sikkim.
-Yes correct, that's straight from wikipedia.
So I have been to Sikkim twice earlier and never heard about this one... It was only recently that people started suggesting this one and it got added to my "bucket list". So when at Hatari (an almost famous south Kolkata-n restaurant) the girl gang (meet PA1, PA2, AB, SD and AG) was celebrating my birthday, no actually let's put it this way, I was throwing a birthday treat (almost willingly :P), and somebody suddenly said in the midst of our main course, let's do a trip, I immediately came up with one of the google images for Gurudongmar Lake, and everyone seemed to agree. So there were 5 girls agreeing (yes, big deal it is!) on the location for our first Girl Vacation!

Now followed by months of planning, short-listing the packages provided and let's not forget the several meet-ups to discuss the multiple issues revolving primarily around application and rejection of leaves, we finally were waiting and Sealdah station, and waiting for our very own Darjeeling Mail to arrive. Now, I have a policy, whenever I think something to be too good to be true, I actually wait for the day when all of us are present at the boarding point, to be that this is actually happening (do refer to all the Goa plans' memes and you will understand my point). So it was actually happening for US!

Skipping the episode where we reached Gangtok and bought 5 litres multiplied by 10 crates of mineral water, yes, because we are fussy Bengali girls! And were made fun of at multiple occasions in all sorts of languages regionally possible..but guess what, we never ran out of water for the entire trip, so that's the point :D, and now fast-forwarding to us reaching Lachen, and realising that it's going to be a cold night! Nevertheless, I had my pseudo mommy (PA1) with me who carries her electric kettle everywhere so that she can instantly prepare maggi/soup to keep her baby (me) and herself warm, oh, and by the way, that's my sister! So there we were having soup and then out for a walk to try local beer/momo (Don't judge, food and vacation drives us primarily) And what do we do when we go too far to get momo and beer? Simple: we call our driver and ask him to pick us up, because again we are Bengali girls!

So next morning we are ready with our 5 layers of clothing including thermal and a coat of vaseline for the exposed areas, we start our journey to Gurudongmar. The roads don't really welcome us and it is a bumpy ride till we reach the last 5 KMS where the landscape is very similar to Ladakh and boom, out of nowhere there is this half frozen view and we cant believe that there we are!

Now multiple selfies, failed polaroid shots, me and one other friend decide that we are going down to touch the water. Let's just say we are the 'paka' ones of the lot and we go down the stairs and touch the freezing water and take multiple photos (coz, we are what?)of the prayer stones. Now after ascending the stair and almost feeling my heart in my mouth (take it slow, while attempting this one) just when we took a sit, AG came running to inform AB is almost dead... Nothing much to worry as that's typical AB, she gets sick in everything but we were at such high altitude that we did not want to take any risk, and so we started our journey back to Lachen with 4 girls and an almost dead-body whom we had put under the seat belt and who found comfort on the driver's shoulder!

The next day we moved to Lachung and then back to Gangtok to continue with the rest of the trip.

Now, while writing this, and while deciding on the next location for our Girl vacation number 2, do we realise what we (four girls and one almost dead-body) had achieved that morning! And we proudly flaunt that on our next FB/Whatsapp DeePees :v