A Road to Heaven – Chopta

It was my first tour to Garhwal, although I am a kumaoni but garhwal is always on my bucket list from childhood.

We started our journey from Anand Vihar ISBT around 12’o clock night, that day was Friday. Well, i have the idea that I have to travel like 24 hours continuously as I am from hills but 2 of my friend who is traveling to pahad very first time are unaware of it, but for us traveling is more beautiful than the destination – the traveler’s word.

We reached Haridwar, what a beautiful scenery of sunrise and moreover the calmness of Ganges. Amazing, only the kal-kal of Ganga is there and the chirping of birds, that’s it and nothing noisy, not at all, the silent bank of Ganges. We change a bus for Rishikesh, what a beautiful weather it was, rain and clouds and a mild breeze and the Safar. We reached Rishikesh and then we had been through a lil difficulty dealing with the local cab drivers, as they are not agreeing with the seats(we want window seats as usual), and the second thing was they are charging us a lot for hiring the cab moreover we don’t want a hired cab(although I never hire a cab, I prefer travelling in local bus with localities). We moved towards the bus station, from there we took a local bus to Srinagar.

As we are traveling towards Srinagar, we stuck in a little “Bhasad”, an Alto got hit by our bus, not a major hit but just a small “bang”. They are resolving the nature that side and I were enjoying the nature this side, the small bridge and the underneath small “Gadhera”(small sub-stream) I don’t know what you guys call those sub rivers forming main river stream :).

We started moving again towards Srinagar, we almost got exhausted because it’s been a 12 to 13-hour journey till now from Delhi, still no sleep because I prefer the route more than the destination and indeed it was worthy to avoid sleep that time. Finally, we reached Srinagar around 5pm.

Again from there, we took another bus to Ukimath, the only bazaar of that area. We traveled for 2 to 3 hours nonstop and reached Ukimath. Well, man, the journey from srinagar to ukimath is breathtaking. Talking about the sceneries, not the roads 😀 :D.

Finally, we reached ukimath and relaxed for a bit, we had my the life savior “Chai” and discussed with the local cab driver, as there is no such bus or any public conveyance available to reach Chopta from ukimath. He agreed in Rs 600 or if he gets any “sawari” then we will pay accordingly. We started our final journey to chopta after such a tiring change of buses, we almost changed 5 buses to reach chopta.

But no worries at all because the pain is worth taking for Chopta. I can never forget what I experienced in that small 1-hour traveling from Ukimath to Chopta because I was in tears seeing the nature in its naive form. Yes, i got emotional in such cases :).

Our day started with chai and Maggie, today we have to trek till Tungnath, a very moderate trek with beautiful scenery. It took around 2 to 3 hours to reach Tungnath Temple because we took every single scenery in between the trek.

There I found my Sukoon ghar, it was amazing and I can never forget what I saw there, it changed my life completely and I discovered my love for hills, I got my purpose of living there 😀

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The trek was moderate, hasty & beautiful Fog everywhere. Feels like I was walking among an English Forest, dense, dark green pine trees surrounded by diverse flora & fauna. Listening to the birds chirping, the slow-motion water streams coming from inside the mountains, mesmerising to see how nature works. The chilled water is as pure as an elixir, feels like you are reviving your youth & strength with every drop of that purest water from the hills. I was lucky to visit this beautiful trek-site with my favourite travel companions.

This was a life-changing trek for me

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Tungnath is a site worth of many revisits. The Highest Shiva Temple in the world, built upon only one stone pillar, carved by the ancient artisans of Uttrakhand. God knows who has created the temple, who gave the architecture & layout to the temple, who carried those heavy ass stone pillars up to 1600ft height!! Amazed by the art and sad by its negligence. I hope many of the readers will go there, visit the timeless architecture, sip upon the “Meethi Chai” & “Local Food” from the tea-stalls nearby and sit back, relax, rejuvenate yourself with inner-you.

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I am glad you have reached to the end, Thank You. Now feel free to share it with your friends’ 😀 hurry up, you need to pack your bags too!!

Seriously, thank You Guys