North India Trekking Trip 北印度行山之旅 (23 Aug - 11 Sep 2002)

[chin]

My first trip to India. And what a trip it was. India is a land of contrast, land of colors, land of history and past glory. Also a land of "People Mountain People Sea" in Cantonese expression.
 
One month after returning to Hong Kong, my  memory is still vivid. Entrusted by my group members to produce a DVD for the trip, I had the opportunities (and obligations) to review the videos and photos repeatedly and in detail. In the process I got to reflect more on what I saw and experienced.

The purpose of this web site is to share some of the photos and stories. To record what I saw in a roughly chronological order.

We started the trip from Hong Kong on 21 Aug 2002, started trekking 24 Aug to 2 Sep. Then 6 of us stayed until 10 Sep 2000 to visit Agra & Jaipur. Back to Hong Kong on 911

[chin]

Arriving Dehli at about 11:30pm on 21 Aug 2002, we quickly got on the chartered bus for the 18-hour ride to Manali.
 
(22 Aug 2002, 28mm, F2.8 A-mode)

[chin]

On the way to Manali, we stopped in a couple of roadside rest stops so the driver could rest, and we got to "relief". We saw quite many old cars like this in India.

(21 Aug 2002, 35mm, 1 second S-mode)

[chin]

Urvij Acharya in Nalagarh Palace. 
Acharya was our guide and host for the trekking, boss of the Ultimate Expeditions in Manali, father of two boys of 11 and 9 years old. Acharya has been in this business professionally for 10 years. His method to get us acclimatized worked well.

From him I learned that there are Aryan descendants, like himself, in India. Told us stories from Mahabharata which he thinks actually happened.

(22 Aug 2002, 85mm, F1.4 A-mode)

[chin]

In the morning of 22 Aug, we had breakfast in the heritage hotel Nalagarh Palace. Besides being the first meal in India, the palace also gave us the first taste of the Indian past glory.

(22 Aug 2002, 28mm, F2.8 A-mode)

[chin]

Road scene in Manali. At the background is the black-on-yellow sign of BRO. Foreground is an army truck.
Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is the government agency mandated to build and maintain roads, airfields in the border area, mainly to facilitate military movements such as the army truck here. More information about BRO here.

In and around Manali, we saw lots of BRO black-on-yellow anti-drink-driving signs. They must have gotten the slogans in a competition or something, almost each sign has different slogan and some of them are out right silly. In fact I think some slogans are too long to read and distractive to drivers.

(23 Aug 2002, 28mm, F2.8 A-mode)

[chin]

Street scene in Manali.

(23 Aug 2002, 28mm, 1/2 Second S-mode)

[chin]

Acharya directing packing before the trekking.

(24 Aug 2002, 70mm, F2.8 A-mode)

[chin]

Harsh (pronounced as hut-sh) is one of two instructors trekking with us.

To qualify to be an instructors, the candidate needs to take courses and score A in each of Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Mountaineering. Then move on to take Method of Instruction course to qualify as an instructor. These courses were offered at the mountaineering institute in Manali.

The institute was setup in 196x to train professional instructors and guides. How visionary the founders were, mountaineering and related sports are now a major contributor to the local economy.

There are about 100 active qualified instructors in the Manali area, we were told. They earn US$10-$20 per day on trek.

(24 Aug 2002, 70mm, F2.8 A-mode)

[chin]

Apple is a major produce in the Manali area. Packing tents like this can be seen everywhere along the roads.
This morning we are starting the trekking, and was packing our stuff at the roadside next to this tent. Acharya's gear sitting on the right.

(24 Aug 2002, 28mm, F2.8 A-mode)