#8 The Most Amazing Travel Experiences are Not the Most Comfortable Ones

It was at 3,800 meters out in the open where not another sign of life could be seen that we were camping at for the night. Our companions, our guide and helper, who made our adventure possible for us were running around while we were sitting cosy in the sunlight. Even, the blades of grass in the distance were all covered in snow. We had reached at the top of Sunderdhunga at 12:30 in the afternoon while the sun was still shining. But, a few hours later, the fog and mist came down. It was in this mist that we spent the rest of the day…watching the sunset? No way! The mist wouldn’t budge and fog wouldn’t lift. But as soon as the sun set, the mist cleared and we sat down on a stone wall, put together by the past trekkers for a small kitchen area, watching the moon rise and shine. We were all huddled around the fire where our evening khichri was boiling. We knew that tomorrow morning, when the sun would rise from behind the mountains that would light up the 6000+ meter peaks that were surrounding us, it would be spectacular and all this hardship would make sense.

After dinner when the fire outside was doused, we all snuggled up inside the tent. Even though, it was warm inside, we could still not get our feet to be warm enough. Vikram and I covered ourselves with all the warm clothes we had brought. All our thermals, mufflers, gloves were stuffed at the bottom of our sleeping bag but we still woke up from time to time with cold feet.

When even to snuggle, be inside the tent  and sleeping was challenge, the nature called. To attend the call of the nature in this ass freezing cold was a task I wasn’t up to. It took quite a long conversation to figure out if it was truly necessary to go out and pee, how will it affect us if we didn’t go and if we decide to go what layers we need to wear. We finally decided that leaving the tent is absolutely unavoidable and we will need to wear all the layers then first put our feet out, wear the shoes and then step out of the tent also that hopping around in the sleeping bag is not really a feasible idea.

After ten minutes of prep work and disappointment at the loss of heat from the cosy sleeping bag, we stepped out to a sky full of stars and magic, the silhouettes of giant peaks and the silence that sang peace. This was the magic we had decided to chuck the desk for and we were grateful that we were blessed with it.

That night we slept only in winks and blinks. In the morning, when we woke up, the magic of the starlit quietude of night had let to of the day. We were ready for the 17 kms trek back to the nearest village rather than stop midway. We were not going to spend another night here on the top even though the time and our rations allowed us. But, for many nights after that night I dreamed of that night, when the two of us were the only people standing under the canopy of stars and the moonlit sky and there was not another soul in sight.

What we thought at that moment was the most uncomfortable experience of our life, turned out to be the most memorable experience of our life.

The 400 shivers were worth the 4ooo stars we saw that night.

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