The idea of our trek started in the beginning of August. It was just idle talk about things that we wanted to do but never got round to doing. But somehow idle talk led to tentative planning of a trek route which led to booking of tickets (we could always cancel if we were not going!!!) then came the efforts to build stamina, followed by shopping for woollies, ponchos and sleeping mats. Finally and thankfully on the 14th of September 1997 we found ourselves in the 2925 UP (or down, who cares!!!) Paschim Express to Delhi.

Now the plan was to get to Uttarkashi (from Delhi) as soon as possible. And to achive this we travelled by:
bus (from Delhi to Dehradun)
taxi (from Dehradun to Mussoorie)
minibus filled with goats and chickens (from Mussoorie to Tehri)The majority of this part I spent on the roof of the bus because a goat near me was showing absurd interest in a sensitive area
jeep (from Tehri to Uttarkashi)

"As soon as possible" was about 15 hours.
No matter how uncomfortable the ride, the spectacular scenery more than made up for any discomfort. Especially when one is on the roof. It is a spaced out experience. (But you have to watch out for tree branches)

Uttarkashi is a small pilgrim town in the Garhwal Himalayas and scenario is perfectly suited for a trek.
There are numerous agencies that will hire guides porters and ponies (khachhars in the local lingo) for you as well give you pots and pans, stove, tent etc. etc. for hire.
Then there are the freelance porters (Nepali dudes with lots of strenght and endurance) who will also double as cooks or guides if you take them along.
Uttarkashi is the starting and terminating point for quite a few treks so there are a lot of provision stores from where you can buy your provisions.

We made a deal with an agency called Mount Support who gave us a very good bargain. They gave us one guide cum cook (Joginder Singh) and one porter (Debbie Singh Bahadur). Both of them were very helpful, fun being with and instrumental in making our trek an enjoyable experience.

Our next job was to buy provisions. This is where all three of us royally goofed up, we bought too much, too heavy and too expensive. (I am still having the drinking chocolate we bought -- 5 months after the trek)

The next day we started our trek
Oh!! I forgot to mention that on that evening at 1800 hrs I banged my left foot against a iron pipe and broke my second toe.
Then it was BRUFFEN Zindabad !!!

• Here come the Photos

Our Efforts to build stamina

• Chetan: He started going to the gym to build shoulders to carry the bag
  (or rather bags, because during the trek Mouneet had no energy to carry himself -- let alone his bag)
  
• Rishad: I decided that walking and jogging was my way to fitness so I started jogging and walking. (Unfortunately I did not anticipate the broken toe)
  
• Mouneet: He did both gyming and walking.
  (He should have read "How to win over Mules" because they were his greatest need during the trek.)