The one other major “trip” that we took after the Japan trip was to do the Chardham yatra via Helicopter.
My father had requested that I go visit over and over again, in the days that he could still talk. So right after the one year annual ceremony, my mom suggested I go do this Yatra with San. Her reasoning was “I don’t know when you will come visit next. So go when you are here!”. We had spent the first week of the trip doing the ceremonies for 5 days, then immediately visited Gunaseelam (family deity) temple for a day. Then we were free to visit other temples. So right away we spent the next six days in the CharDham Yatra.
We had requested my FIL to do the booking as he is local and could directly talk to the. tour operators. He was already wary as there was a lot of fraudulent bookings for this yatra. He had transferred a little over 2k USD per person for this five day trip not to mention the travel from Chennai to Dehradun and Dehradhun to Mumbai.
We were committed. The decision was to have our in-laws join as well. We begged them to join. They had read the reviews and knew it was not going to be easy to do this at their age, but they agreed and we were glad they did. They might have regretted the decision. At least they didn’t show it. Something tells me that this will be the last trip we go with them which involves high altitude, extended walking, poor accommodations without proper restrooms. Now that I have gone through my first UTI and kidney infection, totally understand what I put my FIL through for those five days. Hopefully he forgives me in this lifetime.
A few things to note before I dive into writing details about this Yatra.
I was already in a bad mood. My fathers passing only hit me while we were busy cleaning up the apartment. Till then it was lurking in the background. Dropping off mom’s thirumangalyam at Gunaseelam temple was the last nail. So I was grumpy and mentally exhausted.
My wife and in-laws were fully aware of the situation. They were extremely supportive throughout this trip. Every now and then, they just let me be to stare at the snow covered mountains.
When people tell you that given we go by Helicopter from place to place and get to see the actual deities, as though it is a walk in the park, it is NOT! This is not for older people or people with health issues. If you get altitude sickness, think twice or thrice before you go.. Better, avoid it.
The Heli tours seat 6. If possible get a full group so your helicopter is in your control at least as far as the passenger manifest is concerned. This way there are no issues with late or missing passengers costing you a day on a hectic trip. Local travellers who can afford to take such risks don’t care about their co-passengers.
Do not Plan this for 5 days even though that is the travel plan. Have at least 3 extra days to save yourself a lot of mental agony. Helipads close due to bad visibility, bad weather, local fires etc. totally unpredictable weather in these parts of the himalayas. Once you are up there, a road trip return is also not possible as roads close due to landslides. There are also unpredictable delays due to politicians and other folks who block roads.
go on a dieting spree before this trip. The helicopters can only take so much weight. They assume 75kg per passenger and a 5kg bag per person. You will be weighed before every trip.
Having said all that, we did take all morning and afternoon to fly from Chennai to Dehradun via Lucknow. Once we reached Dehradun airport, we had a car waiting for us to take us to our hotel. It was a 90 minute drive through the mountains. On the way there were many roadside stalls for good and chai. We stopped to have noodles and Chai.
Every 500m there is a “pahaho-wali maggi” store. Never diss Maggi noodles. It is the food of sherpas! San let me have all the Maggi I wanted on this trip. That is one thing that put a smile on my face!
We were met by the tour coordinator who gave us a bag and said anything we need for the next 4 days goes in that bag and cannot exceed 5kgs. Also he asked for our weight including what we were going to wear (jackets etc). He asked us to leave our luggage in the hotel cloak room and leave only with the 5kg bag the next morning. So we packed emergency medicines, chargers, minimal clothes and before you knew it was done! I kept 1 kg as reserve in my bag in case we bought some souveniers. It was a good move.
We had a nice dinner and breakfast at the hotel in Dehradun and were picked up by the tour company. It was a short drive to the Sahasradhara helipad in Dehradun. We got boarding passes after being weighed in. After a short wait, we flew to Yamunothri. It was a 40 minute ride and was pleasant. This is my first helicopter ride if memory serves me right. So it was better than my expectations.
Once at Yamunothri, they see your badges and folks come take you to the hotel. It was a simple room. We were asked to rest. There were enough rooms for the group and a separate shed for having food. The village was very peaceful with a few hotels and a small temple. The views were amazing! There were 15 people in our group. 60 guys were going to come and carry us 4 /person in a Doli (it is a bucket seat that is held up by two wooden sticks on either side) up 7+ kilometers with an elevation gain of 3000 feet.
We waited patiently for 3 hours! Apparently the election commisisoner had decided to do the Chardham coinciding with our schedule. That was not good news. They had blocked the path for an hour. So the morning group was stuck. Doli men could not reach. Finally they showed up and were ready to go on their second trip! These are all kids and young men 17-30 who came from Nepal during the visiting season to make money. Strawberry pickers from Mexico came to mind.
After just a few yards on the Doli, I was not for it. We hike a lot. So I got off the Doli and told the guys it was okay. They were getting paid anyways. So one of them can guide me and the other three can carry the doli and walk along. If I could not walk, then I agreed to get back. I hiked the entire way up. San also saw what I did and decided to walk it. My in-laws found it difficult to breathe and after a point their doli’s were all stopped thanks to the politician and everyone was asked to walk. They could not and made the wise decision to turn back to the hotel. San was stuck a good mile behind me. Lucikly the Doli guys had cell signal at places and they sent word. I waited and finally she joined me. They had parked the doli’s 4.5 km from the bottom. We both ran up the rest of the way through doli’s horses, people who would not move..
When I was almost a Km to the top, a horse hit my ankle with full force, removed my shoes and skin came off my ankle. Told the guys it was too late to turn back. Just put my socks back on and kept going. We reached the Yamunothri shrine at 7 PM. It was already getting dark. A priest met us, took us to a line and shoved us in there. His instructions “keep your hands up and go with the crowd. You will be in front in a few minutes. See the deity. THey will push you out. I will wait for you where they push you out”. It was like a birthing experience. At 7:08 we were ejected out. We had seen the shrine for maybe 25 seconds tops.
As part of my promise to my dad, I did no a prayer at this place. That took another 10 minutes with the priest. Then it was time to go down. We went down almost 4 km by walk. By then the doli guys joined us. It was getting crazy with Doli’s, horses and people pushing. So they told us walking was not good for us or them. Doli’s have right of way! so we both got on that and they literally ran down the last 3 km. WIth full bladders we had to endure a bumpy ride to the base. Then we had to walk back up to the hotel. That was a climb in itself. We were so happy to see the restroom. They still had dinner left for us. So we ate what we could. We were also glad to see my in-laws in good spirits. They were happy they decided to return back. In spite of leaving earlier, they were also caught in the politician traffic and had made it back only 90 minutes before we did.
Here are some picturess..
and a video..
We crashed right away. The next morning we were going to leave for the helipad bright and early.