Valley of Flowers - Photographs

I will continue posting the rest of my experience of Valley of Flowers. But before that just have look at this...
































Please click here to view other photos.

Valley of Flowers – Tour Bookings

We went to Garwal Mandal Vikas Nigam for Hotel bookings and Car Hire. After reading the information on the various blogs, websites we arrived at the conclusion that this trip is not to going to be easy. So we decided that we should open our pockets as much as it can buy us decent accommodation and a better car with dependable driver. The roads in this area are very dangerous. We explained all our concerns to the GMVN official and told him to book 2 best available rooms in every Guest House as per the plan. We told him that we require Toyota Innova AC for the raod travel from Haridwar to Haridwar. The officer was little bit surprised at the request of AC car. Bina was firm on the AC car even if she knew that the weather would be quite cold. Her reason was that on these roads the goods transport tempos and other truck traffic is very heavy. If one such tempo is ahead of your car, the diesel fumes can make you feel puky, more than the spiraling road can.

Valley of Flowers – The Survey

Finally we decided to go for the Valley of Flowers in August 2008. Then my internet searches started. I came across so many articles describing the trek to Ghangria, the Hemkund Sahib and also the Valley of Flowers. I came across one particular travelogue written by a young lady giving a detailed account of her Valley of Flowers experience. Click here to go to that travelogue. This was written especially for people on the shoestring budget. The difficult part of the trip – the 14km Trek was described in detail. I thank the Author of this travelogue for the elaborate account, because due to this we were able to plan quite a few things in advance. This travelogue drew a very happy picture in front of out eyes. But I came across another blog written by Abhishek Dwiwedi, which did not draw a very rosy picture as the author experienced very bad weather when he reached the valley. This travelogue prepared us for disappointments.

Valley of Flowers – Unsuccessful Plans

When I heard that even Bina, my colleague, is interested in visiting Valley of Flowers, we started planning for the trip in year 2006. But suddenly Bina joined a group of tourist along with her sister’s family and few other relatives to go to Kashmir. She visited Kashmir in May 2006. And by the strange coincidence even I decided to go to Kashmir in September 2006. So we both had to abandon the plan for Valley of Flowers that year. But we promised ourselves that we would definitely go one day to The Valley of Flowers.

Valley of Flowers – The Urge

It was always there, since 1996. In June 1996, my cousin Swapna, with her mother and my Atya (anty) went for the tour organized by Garwal Mandal Vikas Nigam. This tour was a very low budget, basic tour. It included Char Dham Yatra with Valley of Flowers and Auli. After coming from this tour, I remember Swapna was all exited. That time we both were comparatively young and that’s how we latched on to the idea of Skiing Holiday in Auli rather than going for a trek to valley of flowers. Our wish was fulfilled in March 1998, when we could go to Auli for Skiing Training Program. It was one of my best holidays, so far. But we must have given few sleepless nights to our family members as we both girls went alone on that trip.

Even if our Auli trip was a smash hit, Swapna kept on insisting that I should visit Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib, at the first chance. And the urge was kept burning inside me.