Yamunotri Shrine

The voyage to Yamunotri Shrine was more of a journey than any of imaged. The trip began with the now familiar ride to Mussourie and then got more intense as we crossed the Himalayas. The bus shook constantly and several people lost their breakfasts. The power of “Vomi-stop” had not been widely available when the trip began. Luckily we stopped to visit the Kemant falls and take a few breaths of fresh air on solid ground. The break was brief and we quickly found ourselves traveling onwards towards Yamunotri. Another break occurred on the coast of the Yamuna River. Some village children joined us as some people swam in the fast moving, cold waters and the others rested on the banks. Lunch was served Raj style. There was an enormous spread of tasty vegetarian options that we shared with the villagers after we ate.

The last part of the trip found us on one way dirt roads that appeared to lead nowhere. After hours more on the bus, our bus encroached on an endless traffic jam of buses. We could not go any further on the bus and had to jump on a few SUVs to reach Jankichatti. Those drivers were ridiculous and driving very fast on the edge of the roads. We all feared for our lives. After 30 minutes or less ride on the jeeps, we made it to our destination. The town was full of local trekkers, pilgrims, and other randomness associated with pilgrimage sites. We wandered around the street leading to the pilgrimage trail, until we were totally freezing and huddled up in our cold hotel room to wait for dinner. The next morning we got up at 4 am to start the hike. The trail to the temple was about 5 kilometers long, and made up of a series of steep switchbacks up the side of a mountain, passing these beautiful valleys and peaks with tall waterfalls and the sacred Yamuna river flowing below. We made it to the top finally, where you could see the Yamuna coming out of a glacier on the opposite mountain. There was a small temple across the river, where we had to take off our shoes outside on the freezing cold, wet stairs. It was better once we got in the temple though, where there were hot spring baths for both men and women. On the women’s side, we went to the side of the tank and washed our faces with the hot water that the woman there kept handing us nonstop. Then we went up into the temple where some little boys boiled our rice offering in a hot spring while we did the puja ritual with the priest (and thank goodness Shama was there to translate!). The ritual was really beautiful, and we felt better about the ride back since the water was supposed to spare us “a tortuous death” and the string around our wrist would protect us. We walked around the shrine on the side of the temple and then went back outside to put our rice offering in the river (otherwise we would have to eat it, yikes..). We stopped for delicious chai and hot samosas on the way back, then had a quick breakfast before hitting the road. We got to stop at the same beautiful river spot on the way back as well – the cook staff was really amazing and so good to us, making us awesome Chinese food, literally on the side of the road! We got to watch a beautiful sunset over the Himalayas on the rest of the drive, which distracted us from just how close we were to the edge of the cliff. After a bunch of bickering about what to do for dinner, Becky became the group hero and took on ordering pizza for everybody to eat at the hotel and pass out. It was an exhausting trip, but a once in a lifetime opportunity. We were even more grateful for everyone’s prayers when we heard the awful news the next day that seven pilgrims died when their car rolled off the same road.