THE GIRL WHO TRAVELS

It all began on the first day of my summer vacations, when my brother decided our family summer vacation destination. This time the place we were going to had a very dangerous route. In fact the route was one of the world's most dangerous route. The place we were going to was in Himachael Pradesh called Spiti valley. And I am overwhelmed with my indelible memories as I write this article. We started our journey with smiles because we would get so much closer as a family because this trip was a covered by a car, that too our car which is a Ford Eco sport. Spiti valley is a long way from Delhi so we intended to stop for the night somewhere and that place was called Chitkul it is India's last village as it is very close to the indo-china border, the population of that village is not more than 300 people we stayed there in a guest house as not many hotels were around and just nearby our guest house was the Baspa river. We even trekked to the glacier from which the river was born. One morning I went by the riverside with a novel in my hand and sat there. There a soft sound of the river babbling through the stones making its way towards the ocean. After staying there for two days we moved forward, for there were more beautiful sights to be seen, the ones that had never be seen by anyone else. We went to Kunzum pass which is India's highest motor able mountain pass. And it was very difficult to breathe there as it was a very high point about 15.054ft. It was fully covered with glittering snow, it was a magnificent view. We have also visited the world's highest cafeteria earlier. We went to Kaza which has the world's highest petrol pump. There is also a very famous monastery (gompa) called Kee Monastery it is a religious training center for Lamas. There is a lot of corruption there as even the word secularism does not exist ,they do not allow anyone to profess or propagate their belief. The mountains in Kaza and Spiti valley were sooo enchanting and so beautiful that I can't describe it in writing. The mountains were like a pillow covers of sand hiding the roughness of the rocky mountains, truly amazing. Being so close to nature reminded me gods attribute of a creator and I imagine how uniquely he has made this environment. We also went to Chandara taal, on the way to Chaandar taal we saw tributaries combing with the river and going towards the ocean it even proclaimed it's coming with loud gushing noises. We had a lot of difficulty as there was no road and there were water falls ON the road we had to go out of the car and into the cold water the water reached our knees. It was frigid cold as it came straight from the glacier. There were about 16 to 17 such glaciers on our way. We knew that the road was bad but the road was so so bad that even the road might speak up, I am so bad, so bad that you can't even imagine. The road was very narrow and bumpy making it difficult, but even when we reached our destination we still had a 3 kilometer walk. We decided to head back because my grandmother could not walk further. On our way back to Delhi we stopped at Chota Dara we stayed at an army rescue camp where the Dogra regiment was staying. They had some expedition on the snowcapped mountains. It was awesome getting to know how the soldiers were living in tents there and how they had been having boiled eggs alone, for days to keep themselves warm. This "voyage" is something that I won't ever forget. This was also one of my longest journeys, you know I travel a lot, after all I am the girl who travels.