Incradible !ndia... Really...
Dear TomHa,
I am back, finally, from an arduous journey into the west. Yes, I, like Tripitaka (Tang San Zang's english name I think...) and his fellow disciples, had ventured into India with a team of fine men. However, unlike him, who had an agenda to save the world from devastation, I went to India to climb a mountain called Hanuman Tibba, which will turn out to be an experience that I will never ever forget.
We went by Air Sahara, an Indian Airline company which had its stewardess in Sarees or Saris, however you'll like to spell it. The services were not bad, at least you won't get stewards who tell you things like "A lot of people die there" as what one of the Air New Zealand Stewards remarked when we told him that we were going to Mt Cook the other time. The food was not bad, and as there were very few people on the plane at that time, we splitted ourselves into occupying whole rows of seats, which means that you can literally lie down on three seats and sleep. very cool.
Incredible rating: 3 Dahls
Unlike in NZ where the cold that greeted us freaked us out, the sheer heat that accompanied the dust and wind freaked me out totally as I stepped out of the airport that is rather deserted on that Sunday afternoon. The heat was terrible. When I sat down, the heat that was trapped by my cotton cargo Giordano pants would then give my legs a 'sauna-tic' experience. Had lunch, which would turn out to be the kind of things that we would have for a lot of days to come. Nan, chapartis, dahl (lentils.. the team got so sick of it that one remarked that the sight of it would make him puke... funnily, I kinda enjoyed it... freaky...) and others. These are our staple for the rest of the time in India.
Incredible rating: 5 Dahls (full marks)
Toured around, saw the Gate of India, din think it was any impressive.. just a memorial structure that resembled the I forgot-what-name-thing in France, and surely, that is the only stretch of road which would make you feel that India is on its development track. You'll have old woman/man bringing their kids around to up the 'sad and poor' factor to beg you for money... I am super heartless towards beggars, I do not know why. Somehow, I just believe that you will always have to work for your money. No way am I going to give money for free. If you can walk and is healthy, you bloody go and find something to do. If you are crippled and disabled...ermm ok this one still can...
Well.. here is a picture of the Gate of India...

Incredible rating: 2 Dahls
Took an overnight coach to Manali. Freaking 16h ride. What the... But I slept through it anyway. Also, luckily, it is an overnight coach, time passes quickly and before you know it, morning comes and you open your eyes to great scenery outside the window. Some of the sights along the route to Manali resembled Namche bazaar. Kinda made up for not going Nepal.
Incredible rating: 4 Dahls
We went into a village at night in Manali as there is a festival going on and during this period, everyone is a guest and you can just enter anyone house and they will greet you with great hospitality. We went into a guide's house and binge on their food and drink, thus a free dinner that night. Haha, added quite a bit of rice... Very happy. A full man is a happy man has been my mantra for the whole of the trip and I made sure of that all the time. Haha
Incredible rating: 3.5 Dahls (Free food and festival and an in-depth understanding of Manali people only to be disheartened by the rain and traffic jam on the bridge)
Woke up next morning to the start of the expedition. So excited. Went to Irvinder's house and after some logistical nightmare, trek-in begins and wow! India is really a beautiful country that boasts scenery that you'll normally see in National Geographic Adventures. Really. The pine trees that line up the way, the valleys, the rocky hills and the snow-capped mountains. Woohoo! First day of track did not have us hitting snow. The speed was rather fast though. Our guides were mad which we would find out in the many days to come. Although nothing too difficult, I still huffed and puffed all the way up and down to campsite number 1. Guess I was still acclimatising. The porters were way fast, as they had already pitched the dining tent and set up the campsite properly by the time we reached. What a relief to reach campsite! It was a happy feeling for a weary first time mountaineer. Food was good. Ram-ji is a very good cook. The chicken was just out of this world. I had like 4 plates of rice. Super greedy and hungry. And so... my life for the next ermm... eighteen days would be the same in nature. Wake up, grab ice axe to do big business, brush teeth, have breakfast, break camp, move out, move a lot more, keep moving some more, stop to have a bit of lunch, continue moving, until camp site is reached. In a way, it is super monotonous but yet, I had never find it boring or whatsoever. It is funny, as all I had been doing is to put one step in front of the other all the time. Cannot put words to describe it. It is monotonous, yet so interesting. In any case, we hit snow on the second day at Ranni Sui. Started camping on snow after Phulan Got. It is difficult and more importanly, troublesome to pen down the happenings of all the trek, and hence, I shan't bore you with the details although to get to Phulan Got, we had to descend a slope that is really mad. We had to bash through thich rhododendrons and then a slope so steep that every step I descend makes me rather scared. But i plunged all the way down anyway. However, the porters had it tough. It was not a porter friendly slope. Called mum via the satellite phone on Mother's Day. She sounded extremely worried and I felt extremely unfilial. Sometimes I just feel bad to make the whole village so worried about me, which they will worry more as we are forbidden from using the phone henceforth as Mother's Day is just a special exception to our emergency phone. Walk and walk and walk and walk and walk. Hit Camp III. The penultimate camp for the summit push.
Incredible rating: 5 Dahls
Suffer and suffer. Pay good money to suffer. Sometimes, as the wind howls and the sky hails, you just wonder if it is Mother Nature's way of saying "Fuck off". 20th is summit day and from CampIII, Hanuman Tibba certainly does not look easy and it gets pretty worrying. You'll just imagine yourself to be going to war. Very sucky feeling. That in the end, you have to go to the frontlines to risk your life for an objective, albeit voluntary in my case, leaving your loved ones at home worried sick. Yeah. Woke up at 12 am, had tea, 3 bowls of Maggi Mee, pack up and left at around 0130. The pace was really fast and I could barely keep up with the pace. The speed was blistering and the temperature was sub zero. I thought I could not make it. Howver,it just turned out that I was warming up. As I caught my breath and started to walk more properly, I got to be so fast that I got fucked by Mohan. Fingers were numbed throughout and I doubt that I could feel my toes at that moment. It was that cold. Kept twitching my nose and ears to make sure that they are there. Walk and walk and walk. Side stepping with crampons is a very painful experience. My ankles, that were sprained god knows how many times hurt quite badly, but, it is more dangerous to go down at that point, and they do not hurt on flat ground, so I just hecked it and climbed. Everything was still within my physical limit until I could see the summit. I do not know what happened, but I became damn shacked out, spent. I slowed down considerably and Dannies overtook me. Then came a 70 degrees slope with soft snow. At 5800++, this is no joke. We begun to crawl on all fours, anchor ice axe, front point, anchor ice axe, front point and on and on again, like this as Weisheng took a picture of me from below. Guess I was resting off the anchored ice axe. I think I rested every 10 steps and pant and pant and pant. It is super tiring to climb up this way, although it is the safest. All that was going through my mind was that I cannot summit. It is impossible, I am at my limit. This is usually the scenario that god would appear and give you a divine helping hand as what we normally see in the movies and TV shows. But no leh, I don't have. In the end, Mohan was my inspiration as he was the front person after Dannies had fell off the slope, failing to self-arrest properly. Luckily, there is some area beneath the slope that was quite flat that stopped his fall. Discussed about not seeing god with Jiarong over MSN the other day and I remarked that I am going to remain un-pious towards my religion and she said that it IS because I am not pious that resulted in me not having divine help up there. Quite true... And then huffed and puffed along the fixed line and reached the summit. The pain, the suffering and the recollection of how I got there in the first place confounded into rivulets of teardrops. I wonder when was the last time I cried. Above me was nothing but clear, blue sky. The view was fantastic. But I did not bring my camera! Too tired to carry it... SLRs on the mountains is such a chore. Wonder how E-Fung did it with his on Everest.
So here is me attempting to front dagger my way up...

And here is Hanuman Tibba:

The climb down on the next episode....