When I was a 12 yo kid, I had made a decision to travel more freqently to remote places. Last time it was in August, we went to Dehradun, Rishikesh and Mussoorie, when 4 of us, Parikshit, Raghav, Shresth and I, were on a 4 day expenditure exploring Uttarakhand. I think that experience needs a seperate blog to be explained, so that would be some other time. But I'd like to start by setting the play scene so that you could connect.

Hostel Room, 11PM

Let's start from the beginning. It was 23rd of April, when Rahul came to my room late around at night. I was already in a discussion with him about the hierarchy of DCRUSTODC. Now most people of our group were visiting Jammu during the same time, so I had to go one way or the other. Later on, Rahul told me that he had been talking to the faculty members of the university, and they had decided to send a group of students to IIT Mandi for a 3 day campus visit. Further, Prof. Suman Sangwan's daughter was also a part of this group and she wanted to extend this campus visit to other places in Himachal Pradesh. So they had finalized to trek their way through Kheergang on the next two days after the campus visit. I was not a very active member of this discussion, but had already made up my mind to not leave this opportunity. I had been told that Kheerganga was a beautiful trek, so how could I deny. I asked Dhruv, and he instantly agreed to join in. Finalized the list that very night and went back home the next day prepping for the journey.

Fast forward 3 days, we picked our rugsacks and gathered near the university complex, where these buses were waiting for us. We got in and started our journey to the first destination, which was a 10 hour drive from the campus.

IIT Mandi campus

We reached Mandi at around 10 AM the next day, and were welcomed by showers of Mandi soon after. As soon as the rooms were allotted in the main guest house, we (me and Dhruv) went out to explore more about this place when we saw the first proper look of IIT Mandi.

We had not slept at night so decided to take a nap after we had a coffee. We woke up at around 4 PM and went out to explore the campus. In the evening, we went out to the hostels and pretending that we were students of IIT itself, so nobody ever enquired us. Had conversation with a few talented students on campus, the environment had a whole different vibe where everyone was serious about achieving something, had deep technical knowledge about the field they were working on, and were very humble. Later, we had dinner at the guest house's dining area and went back to explore more about campus with the group.

A few hours later, we were back in our bed, having a cozy sleep till next day. We woke up at around 7 AM. Had a nice breakfast thereafter.

Incubation center

We went out to explore the laboratories and incubation center of the campus, and were amazed by the beauty of the place. The campus was built on a mountain, and had a beautiful view of the valley and had all sort of facilites. It was like a set of high IQ students were gathered in a remote location and were given all sorts of facilities to research and prosper. The campus was divided into two parts, the north and the south campus. The north campus was the main campus, where the academic buildings, hostels, guest house, etc. were located. We didn't get the opportunity to visit the south campus. That afternoon, we had conversation with people who were working on their startups. Recently, got an internship offer from one of those.

Parashar Lake

While we were having these worthwhile moments of joy, we had decided to live in each of them to the fullest before leaving. That evening, we visited the famous Parashar Lake and had a small trek of about 2KM to the top, where this temple was located alongside with a beautiful lake.

and discovered a few hidden cults of Himachal recognized by the cap they wear.

Had a few photographs and fun moments with the group and got back singing and dancing in the bus, throughout our way back, we had played romantic songs with everyone hymning altogether. Had dinner, got back to our rooms and slept because we had to leave early the next morning.

Kheerganga base camp

The next day was the beginning of this trek we specifically came for. We had to leave early in the morning, so we woke up at around 5 AM, got ready and left the campus at around 6 AM. We had a 3 hour drive to the base camp near Manikaran, where we had to start our trek. We reached the base camp at around 9 AM, and started our trek. The trek was about 12 KM long(one way), and we had to reach the top by 5 PM strictly before dark. We had a guide with us, who was a localite and had been to the top of the mountain a lot of times. Even before we started the trek, we had to cross a dam from where we had this beautiful landscape. I got even more excited about the top.

Trekking our way throughout and having talked to a few people on the way, we had reached the top crossing certain bridges like this one.

Top of the world

After reaching the top, we had nice tea and went top further for experiencing the sauna. Well, not very much of a sauna, it was an open shower where we could bath under warm (I would say burning hot) water coming directly from the geysers on top, but it didn't feel much due to the cold outside. Had our clothes all dirty and our shoes wet after it had been raining during the trek, we spent the night partying and dancing in the cold, obviously after having a fine dinner and joint. We had a bonfire and a DJ playing songs for us. Had one of those 'once in a lifetime' that night, and later slept in the tents surrounded by the Himalayas from all directions.

Next morning, we again went to the top to have a warm shower and got back to get done with the breakfast and start our way back.

We had made unforgettable memories during the time we spent there, singing along the way, exploring more about Himalayas, and having a nice time with the group. The trek lasted for about 4 hours of getting back to the base camp continuously walking downhill in the mediocre sunburning temperature.

During our way back, we ate at the Manikaran Gurudwara, again having a nice hot spring bath, and hopped on to the bus and started our journey back.

Played those soft romantic songs while everyone went sleeping and finally reached the campus the next day, bringing lots of memories and experiences with us.

Finally, after posting all those photos of the time I had spent with people I didn't know much, here's a photo with Parikshit from one of our previous expedition to George Everest.

Before this experience, I had a similar one while sitting on the banks of Ganga river at Rishikesh, 6 months ago when I visited Uttarakhand, I had another one today while sitting on the top of the Himalayan mountains, and I'm sure there are many more to come.

:until next time