KWEST Switzerland: Rockin Interlaken

It's been almost two months since I started my MBA at Kellogg School at Management and it has been an amazing roller-coaster ride with only upward trajectory. The journey started with an amazing KWEST trip to Switzerland and it was so much fun that I felt that it can't be put into words until two my KWEST friends did it and did it nicely, though not completely! Hence I decided to repost their article here. Thanks Nick and Jeremy for writing this great write up.

KWEST Switzerland:  Rockin Interlaken- Jeremy Fiser & Nick Rowland

In August, a group of 24 Kwestees invaded Switzerland, ironic given the country’s famed neutrality.  Armed with five stellar leaders and nineteen perfect strangers, KWEST Switzerland (“K Swiss”) arrived with one objective: To Rock Interlaken.  Upon arrival, we wasted no time and embarked upon a vertical march up the Harder Klum, an unbeknownst test of the endurance required for the week.  That night, K Swiss congregated in the lobby of the finest hostel in Interlaken and created “Big Booty” (ask any K Swiss member how the game goes), a raucous drinking game that on more than one occasion landed K Swiss on the bad side of the hostel’s overly attentive Russian bouncers.  K Swiss kept the “Baton tradition” alive, and potentially took it to new levels (spoiler alert – if while drinking you see any K Swiss member with a baton, run).  Casually hungover, K Swiss went canyoning the next morning through the valleys of Interlaken and met the now cult favorite guide Simon, the overly enthusiastic outdoor guide (You will hear impersonations of Simon from K Swiss members: “GUYS…WHAT WE’RE GOING TO DO NOW IS JUMP OFF THE LEDGE….”).  While canyoning the glacial runoff, K Swiss invented what is now known as the “Neutral Dance” (see Hearne or Glicken for a demonstration). After our first (10 minute) break, K Swiss then zipped through the tree tops of Interlaken, tackling a ropes course that took Kwestees fifty feet in the air with nothing but a carabineer and “social proof” from preventing a fateful slip (note: dynamite usage of a MORS 430 term).  That night, the K Swiss crew was hosted at the finest restaurant in Interlaken, at least the finest that we could afford (thanks all-time high CHF/USD exchange rate) to nourish ourselves for the task the next day:  glacier hiking and ice climbing.  Upon being informed by our guide (a Nordic pirate with a mullet and fantastic ‘stache) that little kids can do this, K Swiss’ confidence was at an all-time high… until we were lowered 50 feet into a crevice of the glacier and asked to climb out with only shoe spikes and an ice axe. While looking over the glaciers out upon the beautiful mountains of Switzerland, a few thoughts crept into our minds:  1) We are all in terrible shape; 2) Hangovers and ice climbing mix poorly; 3) I don’t think Evanston looks like this; and finally 4) Who are these people?  Thankfully, the Big Reveal was only a day away. But, before that, there was a murder!  K Swiss held an 80’s murder mystery party, laden with mixed messages and mixed drinks, all encouraged to help solve the mystery of “whodunit”.  After a free day, which created various levels of nervousness for the leaders, K Swiss found out who all these people were.  Shockingly, most of the group used to be consultants (no one saw that coming).  Also, beyond the belief of most Kwestees, apparently our leader Brooke “Ternes” is “married” to Ameed Mallick, or so we’re told.   The next day, KSwiss bid adieu to Interlaken and neutrally moved to Zurich (having no collective opinion on the matter).  While in Zurich, K Swiss swam in Lake Zurich, lounged in the parks, ate at the finest bier halls, and congregated in the city’s famed “casual drinking squares”.   

On what was to be the last night, we aggressively partied at Zurich’s #1 (potentially only) disco roller rink club all decked out in white (thankfully before Labor Day).  With bottle service and roller skates, DJ Matt Kawadlar treated the crew to his famed free style rap.  With these tunes in the background, we were all taught the “Barry Sherman,” a South African dance craze bound to sweep through The Keg any day. Despite best efforts, we returned to our hostel safely expecting to fly home the next morning, but we all had yet to meet Hurricane Irene.  While most international travelers were distraught by the havoc and delays, K Swiss was happy to spend one more day in glorious Switzerland, if nothing else to sleep off the hangover and reflect on our victory knowing that we’d just been on the best KWEST trip (a fittingly neutral perspective).  

Brasil: Beaches, Beer and Beauties (to say nothing of the Beasts!)

Among the string of interesting travels I have taken over the last year which include Turkey, Italy, Spain, Greece, Qatar and Brazil, Brazil was definitely the most stand out experience. I didn't even realize when the 17 days of planned trip got over. The negative comments regarding the security conditions, though not entirely untrue, made sure that we planned everything well. The only thing that created some problem for us was the language barrier as very few Brazilians can understand English. I found communicating here to be a bigger problem than Beijing or Shanghai.

After 21 hours of long flight from Delhi, the first leg of journey started from Rio De Janeiro, a place most known for Carnival parties and fabulous beaches full of bikini clad gorgeous women. The very first day my mobile and debit card were stolen during a street party but that wasn't enough to ruin my carnival spirit. The fervent partying spirit continued and I spent next 5 days partying on the street with a zillion strong party hungry crowd or lying on one of the most popular beaches on the planet i.e. Copacabana (and Ipanema) . The carnival parade, with its amazing colors and grand scale, was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. As always met a wide variety of interesting people coming from diverse backgrounds including one Pakistani named Hasan who immediately became a good friend again raising the same question I have always had i.e. why can't India and Pakistan be good friends if their citizens can be whenever they meet in a third country!

Manaus, the capital of Amazonas (Amazon forest) was our next destination. A city so far from Rio that it took us almost 6 hours of flying time to reach there but every minute we spent there was worth it. The jungle tour was already arranged and the moment we arrived, our guide took us to a floating jungle lodge, which was 2 hours boat ride from Manaus upstream of River Niger-the name which sounded startlingly racist to me as the river's water was black in colour due to minerals deposited at the bottom! We spent next 3 days in the quite of dense Amazon forest swimming in the river, piranha fishing, alligator spotting and most importantly rejuvenating after a five day long party in Rio. Our guide, Max, was an interesting Swiss fellow who quit his Physics university studies in favor of settling in Amazon forest, where he was married to a Brazilian girl. Throughout the trip, his passion for nature was evident. Here also met a couple of interesting Indians and Srilankan Americans. Lot of mosquito repellents we were carrying definitely helped but things were not as scary as we normally read about Amazon. The last day we saw meeting of rivers, the spot where black water of River Niger meets with the white water coming from River Solomon creating two parallel contrasting streams flowing adjacent to each other for quite sometime before they lose their individuality.

The next destination of our journey was Salvador, the capital of Bahia state. This was the place where Portuguese started and did most of the African slave trade in Brazil which gave rise to unique blend of Afro-Brazilian culture. The old city center and Afro-Brazilian museum were quite nice attractions for a stay for 3 days but the safety concerns (also echoed by fellow travelers) kept us away from the roads and bars during the night.

As our outbound flight was from Sao Paulo, we decided to spend last two days there. Being the biggest Metro city in the southern hemisphere, Sao Paulo was just like any big city with very little to do or culture to experience apart from the Sao Paulo Museum of Arts, which had a nice collection of artwork ranging from Van Gough, Degas to Picasso and other contemporary artists . The last day we had nothing much to do and spent most of the time playing 29 and visiting a Zoo!

Overall I really liked the experience and given such startling beauty of women there, definitely wouldn't mind visiting that place again :)

Of Qatar, Turkey and much more.......

Here comes my post after a long time. It was my new year resolution to write more often but you know, new year resolutions are made to be broken. Past few months have been extremely busy while doing nothing and as always, there is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do. Over the last one year, I moved to another assignment in Qatar, which is turning out to be a great learning experience. While the monotonous camp life left me craving for some normal human life in a normal human urban agglomeration, the shift rotation of six weeks on and two weeks off gave me the much needed time to travel around.

I used this opportunity to travel to Turkey, which was a tremendous experience. Having lived in an Islamic state like Qatar, I was amazed to find the liberal attitude in Turkey. A perfect blend of modernity with traditional values. I traveled to Istanbul, Fathiye, Cappadoccia and Antalaya. The cultural heritage in Istanbul was impressive whereas the natural beauty of Fathiye was breathtaking. One remarkable thing I noticed was that the average beauty of Turkish women is highest amongst the countries I have visited so far.

Later in the year, I had a two week long eurotrip. Going back to Europe after so long was real nice and I enjoyed every bit of it. I traveled to Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Venice and Athens in that order. While Barcelona was really a beautiful city, Madrid had its own charm. Watching the works of likes of Picasso and Rafael during the day and the happening nightlife is all what a person can ask for during a holiday.

Similar was the case with Rome, which had so much to see that 3 days were just not enough. Managed to attend the Sunday mass at Vatican, where I saw and heard Pope during is weekly appearance. The museum at Vatican was amazing with real ancient antiquities belonging to several civilizations. Venice is definitely not an ideal city for two single guys and clubbed with a rainy weather, the whole two days definitely could have been spent better. Though quite beautiful and culturally rich, Athens didn't impress me much. The place was real nice but just after my visit to Rome, it just didn't look that much special anymore. The Acropolis and other millennium old monuments were ofcourse the highlight of the trip.

Through out the two weeks of exploring some very fascinating cities, the most interesting aspect was the people I met. Met a very charming and real smart business journalist girl from Sao Paulo, Brazil and almost fell in love with her. Hey Juiliana, by any chance you reading this? :) Another interesting character I met was a peculiar middle aged man from California, USA who was bag-packing across Europe. Have never met a more interesting character then him, particularly of that age. This trip was real fun and now I eagerly await for my impending trip to Brazil. Rio Carnival, here I come ......

Into the Wild Again : Trek to Brahmagiri

Having done small treks quite a number of times in past few days, I was looking for some "real" trek from quite some time. Last "real" trek I did was "Kudremukh", with the memory of all the horrible leeches and slippery terrain and what not. So when Arun asked me if I wanted to join for a trek to Chembra peak, I immediately agreed but was skeptical that it could be a bit too easy (another one day trek). After some discussions we arrived on a consensus for Brahmagiri (located near Coorg). Brahmagiri had been on our radar for quite sometime but somehow it didn't materialize so far. As always happens for any of our trek, some people joined in at last moment and some ditched, effectively leaving a group of six people just like last time. Out of these six three of us (Arun, Nidhan and I) were also part of the group that went to Kudremukh while three new persons (Shruti, Tejal and Ravindra) joined us. As expected Nidhan's fascination for the name Ravi made him really happy when Ravindra joined.

After all the preparation was done (which was not so difficult this time given our prior experience), we started from KSRTC Mysore Satellite Bus stand for Gonikoppal. We reached there at 4:30 am in the morning and had to wait for half an hour to take the bus for Virajpet, where we had booked the guest house. We relaxed there for couple of hours and had some heavy breakfast. At around 9:00 am Arun, Nidhan, Ravi and I (Gajendra) left for forest officer's office to seek permission for trekking whereas Shruti and Tejal stayed at Guest house. We were ready with the permissions and a guide by 10:30 am. So we started our journey for Irupu falls (the first stop for us). We stayed there only for 15-20 mins and then started our exciting journey for the peak.

The initial plan was to reach the mid point by 1:00 pm, have lunch and then reach the guest house near Nirmala peak by evening 4:00 pm and then visit Nirmala peak. We planned to go to Brahmagiri peak next day morning. The reason for this relaxed planning was that Arun told us that climbing Brahmagiri peak is very difficult (with elevation of 75 deg in last half km) and only 5 out 25 people from STI could make it to the peak, when they visited couple of months back. But this wasn't to be the case.

Thanks to the excellent group we had become, the time just flew by. We reached the mid point much before we had planned, ate some stuff and started for the forest ranger's guest house. We reached there at 2:30 p

m much before our own expectations. We relaxed there for sometime and by 3:30 pm we thought we had enough time to go to Brahmagiri peak and return. So instead of going to Nirmala peak, we directly started for Brahmagiri. Since till this point only there is deep forest and abovethis there are grasslands, we were worried a little about sun. I wished that if there were few drops of rain, just enough to cool the weather but yet not make it slippery, it would be great and there it was. It seemed like god had all of a sudden decided to consider very few good deeds we had ever done and reward us for it then and there itself. The moment we started, those wonderful drops full of life and energy were waiting for us.

The weather was so good and atmosphere was so full of pure oxygen making our oxygen deficient lungs so elated that not remembering our trekking anthem "Run Maadi Run" was impossible. So Nidhan and I decided to run a bit and soon left other four far behind. By the time we realized, we had already taken a wrong trail, which led us at the peak of another hill (Brahmagiri was still visible far away) with the descend that was so steep that the moment we looked at it we were sure that we were on the wrong trail. The reason being that if this were the correct path, its unlikely that even 5 out of 25 could make it to the top. Somehow we managed to descend and then ascend again to reach on the right trail leading to the summit of our ultimate destination, the Brahmagiri peak.

We looked at the watch and it was 4:23 pm. Run Maadi feeling was still so prevalent in our minds that Nidhan set a target of 4:45 pm to reach the peak whereas I set the modest target of 5:00pm. Surprisingly, what was thought to be so difficult, we could do in 12 mins and we were on the peak by 4:35 pm itself. After about half an hour, we saw the signs of our guide and other four companions, who also climbed the peak without too much difficulty. Reaching the peak was a feeling which completely overwhelmed us and we just rejuvenated at the thought having achieved what we set out for.

Though we wanted to stay longer, we had to start our return journey at 5:30 pm as it was getting dark. While descending, I was thinking that this trek was pretty easy when compared to Kumara Parvata or Kudremukh. In KP, it was the camping in the night which gave us the thrill whereas it were leeches which made our trek to Kudremukh so memorable but there was no such thing till now in this trek. It was more or less a simple beautiful trek for 12 km upwards which we easily finished running, singing and eating. Here also it seems god was just in mood to grant even smallest of my wishes. As it got a bit dark, our guide pointed out a group of four wild elephant about two hundred metres away. Knowing that elephant has a very strong sense of smell and hearing, we started walking as quietly as possibly. We had passed only a hundred more metres, we saw one more elephant again couple of hundred metres away. It was still okay till I noticed it moving and every one was dumbstruck. Every could feel the adrenaline rushing through there body. Luckily the elephant turned and went away from us. So we were all relieved and I thought that all is well that ends well but that was not all.

We had barely walked another half a km and reached near a stream, when our guide stopped us and told us that he had just now seen a tiger crossing our trail. Probably the cat might have come out to drink water from that stream. He showed us a very fresh tiger pug mark and we could still smell a typical smell (zoo kind) probably meaning that the big cat was still around. The thought of this itself passed shimmers through our spines. All of us seized talking, singing and even would have seized breathing also if it were in our hands. Thankfully our preparation was thorough and we had good enough number of torches and our guide was very experienced, which helped us find our way back to the guest house through the jungle. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we entered the concrete walls of the guest house, safe from any wild animal.

We recovered from our thrills and then decided to cooksomething. We prepared noodlesand scrambled eggs with bread, which tasted excellent after the days hard work. Finally, we decided to have bonfire despite of the fear of wild cat still reigning in our minds. We sang, shared jokes and had some excellent time around the fire. As expected, Nidhan didn't miss any chance to pull Ravi's leg. After an hour or so we all slept only to wake up next day.

In the morning, we made some excellent tea and scrambled egg as breakfast. In the morning also Arun spotted a wild elephant just 10m away from him. We wanted to go to Pakshipatalam to do some bird watching but later decided against it. So we started our journey to base in Virajpet, where we reached by 12:00 pm. Since we still had sometime, we decided to go to Rajiv Gandhi National Park at Nagarhole where we saw some deer, elephants, bison etc. We started our return journey from Gonikoppal. Just like my past experiences, again I was amazed by the hospitality of rural Karnataka. While sitting in the bus, those two days were still flashing before my eyes again and I was feeling a bit sad that this remarkable journey was coming to an end. On my way back, my feelings could probably be best summarized by Lord Byron's following lines:

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more...

Six Men on a Trek (To speak nothing of the Dog) - Trek to Kudremukh

Finally after a long break of more than one year since we had our
last trek to Kumara Parvata, we decided to go for one more trek. This time we didn’t have three of the members from our group of last time but luckily we got three new people who willingly joined us. So finally we had Arun, Ashok, Nidhan, Rahul, Ravi and myself all set for the trek, though Tajamul also joined us initially but backed out for the reasons I will elaborate later. After so much deliberation on where to go, we pinned down to Kudremukh, a place located in Chickmanglur district. So the preparations started for the trek like arrangement of tents, sleeping bags, travel tickets, medicines, food and other miscellaneous items. As a part of preparation, we also thought of seeking some local’s advice on the challenges we faced, considering it was a rainy season and there was a forecast of moderate to heavy rain with 90 percent certainty on the weekend we were to travel. So the main challenges, as told to us, were leeches, slippery surface, land slides and last but not the least Naxals. So here we were with all the tickets booked (including one for Tajamul) and we were bombarded with all kind of threats facing us but we like stubborn kids decided not to step back, though our friend Tajamul found these threats to be too big to ignore and hence decided to walk out of the plan. So we six people with seven tickets started for Kalasa, our base camp, on Friday night 10:15 pm, only to reach our destination at 8:00 am in the morning. We had a quick breakfast, did all the daily routines as fast as we could just to make sure that we could get the permission from forest officials in Kudremukh early enough but as it always happens with govt. offices, we ended up wasting 2 hrs just waiting for the concerned person to come to office and sign on the required documents. It was already 1:00 pm when we started for badgal, the place from where we were to start our trek. We had our lunch there, an amazing meal including chapattis, curry, rice, sambhar and pickle just for Rs 20 per person. The thing, which touched us most, was the hospitality that you can only find in those small places.


Our journey to our first stop, our guide Satish’s house, could have been done on a Jeep but we decided not to go for it. So we walked up 8 km on the jeep track. By the time we reached, Satish’s house it was already evening 4 o’clock and since we were not allowed to stay inside the national park, so there was no point continuing the journey that day. So we decided to stay there only and continue next day. Just in the vicinity there was a beautiful waterfall, where we took bath despite of the chilling water. Here also what appealed to me most was the hospitality offered by Satish at his house. We were offered fresh white honey they got recently and then some much-needed glass of tea. Evening was a nice experience without electricity, mobile phone and any unwanted noise of motor vehicles etc. We spent most of the time trying to lit a bonfire out of water soaked woods but we failed even after using 200 mL petrol. So we decided not to waste time any further and just enjoyed the dawn in the lap of nature. Anyways Ravi was always there for our entertainment and Paa ji (Nidhan) left no stone unturned to get maximum pleasure out Ravi’s misery of being stuck with people like us. There was a perfect climax of the day with a nice dinner, which included home grown rice and traditional Karnataka sambhar with all the vegetables also grown at home only. Post dinner we shared some jokes, planned for next day and crashed. Most remarkable thing about whole ordeal was that we never missed our cell phones or electricity.


Next day we had quick breakfast and started for the peak around 8:00 am. It was raining heavily but not enough to dampen our spirits. Here Satish and his wonderful dog Raju went with us as our guide. Raju was our surprise companion throughout the journey. A very intelligent highly trained dog who guided us to the peak and way back even when Satish was far ahead of us. As we walked a bit further, it was all there, thick forest, waterfall and trees laden with fruits like guava and sweet lime. By the time we reached at Lobos’ house, we realized how potent was the threat regarding leaches. We were heavily using salt and Iodex but still it was not much of rescue as with rain the salt was getting washed off and leeches never missed such an opportunity. After traveling for 4 hrs and overcoming the hurdles of slippery surface and leeches we reached at the peak. It was too cold and windy that we decided to walk back after a short break but this journey till peak had already taught us one thing; if you want to avoid leech don’t stop at any place, especially near the waterfalls and area densely covered with woods. I came down from the peak without even taking a single pause and without being bothered by a single leech. I reached at Satish’s house at 3:00 pm and took a bath followed by a cup of tea. We started for the base location i.e. Kalasa and since our return bus was from Horanadu, we also got an opportunity to visit Annapoorneshwari temple, a pilgrimage popular among Karnataka people. When reached Bangalore next day we were too tired to go to office and hence decided to take a day off. Ashok had the after effect of leech bites even 15-20 days after the trek. The best part of whole thing was that we didn't find any Naxalites on our way.

Eurotrip 1

I started my journey on March 03, 2007 for Paris, my intermediate stoppage before my final destination, Amsterdam. After 10 hrs of pleasant flight in AF Business class, I reached in Paris sharp on time. The Paris airport is really big and I must say just by comparing the airports of Bangalore and Paris, you can easily contemplate the difference in life standard of people in these cities. Paris airport is really big and yet so organized. After spending three hrs on Paris airport, I started my voyage for Amsterdam. To my surprise, I found Schipol airport, Amsterdam to be even better than Paris (This just an initial impression, may be not a correct one).

From past two days I am just strolling on the roads of Amsterdam and I am really impressed by the way this city is maintained. After having seen so many posh BMWs, Mercs and several 600+ CC bikes, what surprised me most is that I find so many people riding cycles here which is in sharp contrast with the mentality of Indians, who will definitely find it a shame if they happen to be rich. I think because of this only, the air pollution in Amsterdam is very less and life seems to be much more peaceful and relaxed.Last but not the least, I find so many Indians here supporting the saying that 'Indians will reach to the places where even train hasn't reached'.

Kumara Parvata - A Memorable Trekking Experience

Last Wednesday, Zubin asked me if I am interested to go for hiking to Kumara Parvata (KP), a part of Western Ghats and I was told that this is the most difficult trek in Karnataka with a total to and fro distance of about 36 km. Despite of having no prior trekking experience, I agreed for the trip. Others in the team were Aveek, Arun, Ashok and Ajit (Four As!!!!). Amongst us, only Arun had prior trekking experience but he was also going to KP for the first time. So at the time of starting, we had no information about the trek details, other than the fact that it is known to be the most difficult trek in Karnataka. We found some blogs with details and though they provided us with some useful information, at the same time they also misled us. These blogs had compiled a list of items we should carry along with us but later we found that most of them were not needed at all on the trip and only added to our baggage. Based on these blogs, we decided which items we need to procure before embarking on the trip. Arun had booked the tents and travel tickets; Zubin and Aveek arranged for sleeping bags.

Finally, after two days of extensive preparation, on Friday (12th Jan) evening, we started for Kukke Subramanya (which is about 280 km from Bangalore), the place from where we had to start our trekking. The bus not being in a very good condition, gave us a very good warm up for the arduous journey we were to have later. We reached at Kukke Subramanya at 5:00 am and took 3 hrs of rest before starting our journey towards our first destination i.e. Narayan Bhatt’s house popularly known as Bhatta’s house. Here itself we had committed our first mistake. By the time we started, sun was already out in full, dissuading us not to make any attempt to reduce our distance from him and we like stubborn kids went ahead without paying any heeds to his threats. Initial part of the trek pass through thick wood cover and the slanting morning sunrays percolating through the trees was a superb feast for the eyes and the fresh air gave an extravagant treat to our CO2 rich and oxygen deficient brains. This forest cover lasts for around 4 km and we didn’t have any problems crossing that stretch but before reaching to Bhatta’s place, we needed to pass through grasslands. It was already 12:30 PM till we reached to Bhatta’s place. We had to take several breaks in between and had to consume lots of glucose and water to prevent dehydration. Just before bhatta’s place, you can find one tower standing and besides it you find a board saying “Please don’t tease wild animals” with a picture of tiger drawn on it and I am sure how happy every tired individual, who doesn’t even have a knife to cut grass, is going to feel after seeing this board. The time we reached at Bhatta’s place, it was already half past twelve and we were completely exhausted. We ordered for food and crashed wherever we could find the place. That place was crowded due to lot many people coming for the special pooja on Sakaranti, which was scheduled take place at KP on 14th January. After 45 mins we got food, which included boiled rice and radish sambhar and I can assure you that sambhar-rice never tasted that good to me throughout my life.

We started our journey at 2:00 PM and people told us that further journey is even more tiring as it is very steep and almost all of it is through grasslands. After taking adequate permissions etc through the forest department, we proceeded for what was to be the most difficult 6-8 kms of our life. The heat along with the exertion was killing us and we finished all the 12Lts of water, which we were carrying along with us before we reached the next source of water, which is about 3km from Bhatta’s place. Till this time, Aveek was dehydrated and was finding it very difficult to continue. We drank lot of water at that small source and washed our faces with cold water, which rejuvenated our spirits to conquer the peak. Our next destination was Mantop, a site where people Camp frequently if they find it difficult to reach the peak before the dusk. Till the time we reached Mantop, I also developed some sprain in my leg and was finding it very difficult to continue but lots of encouragement by other people kept me going. We decided that we will continue moving up till 5:30 and then will halt at a suitable place where we camp for the night. Till the time we found this suitable place, we had already traveled 2 kms from Mantop and were already at the peak of Shesha Parvata. The worst part about the whole trek is that it is very deceiving. All the time you will be moving up thinking that the highest peak you can see is your final destination, but it is never the case. All this time we were thinking that Shesha Parvata is our destination but when we reached there, we realized that KP is still 2km from this place. It was already evening six till we found a suitable place to halt. The place was very beautiful and we could see whole of Western Ghats from this place. We fixed our tents there and Ashok and Ajit went to collect woods. As the sun disappearing the temperature went down sharply (though not as cold as mentioned in the blogs I read). Initially we had to struggle a lot to lit the fire but finally using my Lohri experience I managed to lit the fire (surprisingly that day was Lohri and it became one of my most memorable Lohri I had so far, with bonfire at a height of 6000ft). Aveek and myself prepared, Maggie we were carrying with us and we really prepared some delicious half cooked Maggie. We sat for an hour around the bonfire, shared jokes and sang some songs and went on to sleep in the tents. Sleeping in the tents was a unique experience and when I got up it was the most pleasant morning one can expect, with fresh air filling our lungs with infinite energy and zeal. Throughout the night we never felt the need to use the blankets we were carrying and I was feeling very angry with the person who suggested this. Arun, Ashok and Ajit decided to go to peak early in the morning but we three decided to stay there on wait for them. We played cards (bluff) there with whole of Western Ghats witnessing our bluffing. When these people came back, we started back for the Kukke Subhramanya. The return journey was much peaceful though it put a lot of strain on our knees. We reached back at Kukke Subhramanya around 5:00 in the evening without much difficulty where special darshan were going on for Sakranti festival. We saw some wonderful Kathak performance by local troupe and then started back for Bangalore.

While crossing the forest on my return journey, Robert Frost’s following famous word kept echoing in my brain again and again:

Woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.





Following are the few tips about the trip:

Carry sufficient water
Keep the baggage weight to the minimum.
Don’t carry anything which is not required.

List of items one must carry:

Tents
Sleeping bags
Warm clothing (one jacket and thermal inner wear is enough, don’t carry blankets)
Normal clothing (One shorts, extra half sleeves t-shirt, extra shocks)
Camera (with extra batteries)
Ipods or music phones (music sounds fantastic in such beautiful locations)
Water (2lts per person)
Food items like Maggie, bread, jam etc.
One small cooking pan and spoon
Torch
Rope
Adhesive Tape
Needle and thread
100mL Petrol
Lighter and matchbox
One Knife
First aid (including antibiotics, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and band-aid etc)