Hamta Pass Base camp trek - Chika

Recently, we visited Manali-one of the most beautiful places in the state of Himachal Pradesh, INDIA.

We Stayed in 'Casual Monks Wooden house and Cafe' in Manali which was booked by my friend Anita, and it turned out to be the best stay so far with wonderful views of Pir Panjal range (in the lower Himalayan Region) and great hospitality. One must try hot chocolate here. It was the best.

We went for a one-day trek to Hamta Pass- Chika. 

Hamta Pass is a corridor in the Himalayas, between the Chandra Valley in Lahaul and the Kullu valley of Himachal Pradesh, India. The pass is named after Hamta Village, below Sethan village. 

Lower Himalayan shepherds use the pass in summer for its high-altitude grasslands in the summer, when the desert of Lahaul is barren.

The pass includes vertical rock walls, waterfalls, hanging glaciers, pinewoods, rhododendron forests, open meadows, and small lakes.

 

                                                Akshaj and Mohisha plucking strawberries.

        

                                                

                            We had a wonderful time enjoying and exploring nature.

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” – Ashley Smith

EVEREST DAY 29.MAY 2023

Mount Everest Day commemorates the remarkable achievement of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay and recognises the significance of their expedition in the realms of mountaineering and exploration.

29 May of every year is celebrated as International Everest Day.

My sincere thanks to Mr. Dornath Aryal, Ambassador of Nepal to the Sultanate of Oman for inviting Master Akshaj Udaiwal in the celebration of Everest Day and we parents are glad for being part of this celebration.

The Ambassador also honoured offering the Letter of Appreciation to Mast. Akshaj Udaiwal, student at Indian school, Al Gubrah, for successfully reaching the base camp of Mount Everest in 2022 at the age of 6 years and 11 months.

                                     

Thank you Nadhira Al Harthy, the first Arab woman to summit Mount Everest and K2 mountains and  Ms. Fatiyah Al Zadjali , trekked to 5 basecamps of major Himalayas of Nepal for sharing your mountaineering experiences.

Thank you, Mr. Haitham Mohammed Rafi, for your kind words and appreciating Akshaj. You thrilled us with your mesmerizing singing.  

Thank you to the entire team of Nepal Embassy for this wonderful evening.🙏

#nepal #NepalEmbassy #OmanObserver #muscat #omannepal #everestday #Everest #muscatdaily #arabianstories

Why do people stack stones /pebbles?

 While I was going through the pictures in my mobile phone, I was struck by this one picture and wondered why people stack rocks?

 

 This stunning location is famously known as Pebbles beach is nuzzled at a few kilometres away from the Bimmah sink hole, Muscat and it offers beautiful, picturesque views of serene sea with plethora of colorful stones at the shores.

We visited this place with our friends in the month of December. By seeing those smooth pebbles, children started stacking them, few fell down and few stood yet they didn’t give up until they made it to a certain height where they felt like, this is it and satisfied. It was fun watching them.

 

One thing, I know that this activity improves one's concentration and patience. And I was happy watching children enjoying doing this.

But, when this question of why we stack stones popped up in my mind, I browsed in internet for reasons and to my surprise or being unknown to the facts of it, I was fascinated to learn these new things about stacking.

 - People who go for hiking stack rocks and guide the other hikers towards the right path. However, misplaced stacks may lead to off trail as sometimes hikers might do this stacking for fun or to release stress/ strain.

 -   A pile of stones can be used to represent how things grow and expand i.e change over time in a variety of ways.

 - There is one spiritual meaning of stacking rocks: As the rocks stand on top of one another, it can give us a message of unity-” Unity is strength”.

Another interesting finding is, In India, there are places like Ladakh, Uttarakhand where we can find this stack of stones. It is believed that this practice of stacking stones is a way to worship or gesture to ask for a wish or good fortune for the person stacking them.

Whatever the reason may be, I love to stack stones and have fun with my friends.

                                                    What about you?

 

 

 

 

The Creative Powers of Thought

 

Thought creates the world. Thought brings things into existence. Thoughts can develop desires and excite the passions. Opposite thoughts of those desires and passions will counteract the idea of satisfying those desires. So, when a person understands this, they will create an opposite thought to help destroy desires and passions. Think of a person as a good friend of yours and that thought will create itself as a reality. Think of that person as your foe, then also the mind perfects that thought into an actuality. Neutralize the hostile forces or antagonistic currents with positive thought. A person who knows the workings of the mind, and controls it by practice, is happy. ~ From the book Thought Power by Swami Sivananda

SAAL Steps/ DEVIL STEPS

Saal Mountain, also known as Jabal Khoneh is a mountain in the village of Saal located in the outskirts of Muscat.

And this is famously known as Sa'al steps or the Devils steps. As the name says, yes, it is the most challenging trek ever experienced so far in and around Muscat in Oman.

Here is the google link to reach there -  

https://goo.gl/maps/oNvfqc9jjF6m9aR4A

We started our trek at 5 AM in the morning. And it took us around one and half hour to two hours to reach the summit. 

Total distance walked is 1.8 km and elevation gain are 355 metres. One needs good physical stamina to complete this trek as 95% of the trek is climbing stairs. 

                                        My Team-Happy feet Oman!

Beautiful sunrise, mesmerizing mountains and picturesque natural terrains everything was captured by our eyes in our memories. What a great start of the day!

We had wonderful memories and many lessons learned in the process - reaching the summit as a team, LOL's, pain, not leaving any of the teammate behind and at the end enjoying the taste of successful reach to summit.

                                            Happy hiking!

This famous quote of Edmund Hillary reminds us to overcome our inner fears before conquering the world.

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves”.

RAINBOW OF HOPE

 A beautiful poem written by Nigel on the occasion of International Women's Day!

It was published in Oman Observer daily. 

#omanobserver #womensday #hope #faith #inspiration #motivation

https://www.omanobserver.om/article/1133757/features/books/poem-rainbow-of-hope

In the night all alone locked inside a room in fear

She tried to sleep but, she couldn’t
When she heard the rain pelting down on the window, her heart went pitter patter in distraught.

The window pane slid open in blowy wind.
Far across the meadows, she could listen to
the birds chirping
Wondering why the birds were awake at this time ,she heard the scary howling winds.

She trembled.. just then a deep voice from within said, i carry your heart don’t you worry and sleep peacefully.

Hours passed by, and the rain settled down
Hearing the chirping of birds and seeing at the window , She rose from her bed and saw the clear sky
She enjoyed the gush of fresh air on her body
Sun seemed to have occupied the silver sky in a tilted golden bowl.

Everything seems to be alright with the world
No trace of rain, no trace of pain
Previous night experience taught her it’s ok to be scared in life for few things but overcoming that fear makes you strong which brings a rainbow of hope to start anew

She bid adieu to her haunting bad memories, and decided to move on….

                                                                                                         written by 

                                                                                        Nigel George Raphael

Sky Diving in Dubai

I believe having a bucket list is part of making memories and here  I am !

In the process of enjoying the journey  .....

First of all let me tell you how I got this crazy idea  of jumping from the helicopter???

All because of Will smith. After watching his video of skydiving, a  big thought bubble popped up poking me to do skydive.

I told this idea to my husband. He said ‘No’. 

‘I will definitely do now .’ I said. ha ha..

I made all preparations for this.. Pandemic hit all my plan’s doomed. He was damn   happy.

Two years passed.. still Will Smith words ringing in my ears, ‘To conquer fear you must do  skydive’. 

Finally decided to do.

I booked to and fro tickets to Dubai. Hotel booked. Skydive fee paid. Everything done and am super excited to do this.

Just then, a tragedy hit on 12th October morning, I got severe chest pain and was admitted to hospital early in the morning. It’s the third time..nothing much serious bcoz I knew the procedure. Gas got trapped in the chest. They will put drips and will be fine… same happened. 

After three hours , I was fine and got discharged. 

I was fighting with myself whether I will be able to do it or not. If this again comes how will I manage and all sort of worries….

Called up my friend in gym.He simply said , come to gym will workout.

What??

I thought, you will say take rest, think twice before heading blah blah…

I know about you. Just come here at 10 AM 

I just got home it’s 8 AM. Let me eat something then will come.

I went to gym and he made me do strength exercises,felt so good and relaxed sweating out and my confidence level improved. 

He said, ‘ If you can come to gym after the hospital trip, that itself is the first step of winning’.

Travel safe tomorrow , sky dive confidently and come back like a tigress. 

I gained my strength back and packed my bags and set to go …

I booked a hotel in Dubai Marina, but after reaching I came to know that it’s an apartment in one of the towers in marina but not a hotel as It’s not mentioned clearly in the booking website. So, my adventure started from here..

Thanks to Dubai government as soon as I landed, they gave a free dubai sim at the airport which helped me a lot. 

Using google map, I walked around 2 km in Dubai Marina asking few strangers the route to  the tower, one such is a security guard of a huge society. He explained the way and I asked his name. He said ‘Imran Khan from Pakistan’. 

I was like .. and I said, I am glad I meet you ‘Imran Khan from Pakistan ‘  if not original duplicate hi sahi…  then we laughed out loud.. 

I thanked him for the help and moved on…

Then met another guy Nelson from Kerala,India  who was on scooter in-front of this tower. He  guided me in to this tall  tower and spoke at the reception for me and found out that my apartment is  on 42nd floor..he was like never want to leave that scooter.. he came in the lift with the scooter and by mistake the iron part of it hit my right ankle..ouch...

He was so sorry for that.. I said , don’t you worry, once I finish my sky dive, will send the Doctor bill for payment

Hmm..

With this limping leg , I entered the flat. A lady  welcomed me and asked what had happened? Before I explain anything she said, your ankle was swollen let me give you the ice pack. While She rushed to refrigerator , Nelson bid good bye and left.

I observed that the flat is  very pleasant , beautiful paintings on the walls and the view from balcony was awesome. While I was on the couch and observing,  she brought the ice pack and I kept on my ankle for sometime which gave much relief.

She introduced me to her cutie little nine months old baby sleeping on the baby cradle..she is so adorable…

Then she explained about her that she is from Morocco and all… showed the room,it was good. I took rest for an hour and went out to explore the surrounding area.. I observed that Dubai Marina has lot of Men Saloons but not found one beauty parlor for girls near the tower .. People were walking jogging  cycling  children playing and many more activities created a healthy environment and this gave positive vibes to my soul.

I had a bowl of salad for dinner and hit the bed.

Next day 14th Oct 2022 early morning 5 AM , I woke up , got ready and had one banana and took a taxi to sky dive Centre which is 5 min from the tower. 

Gates opened and I am so exited and nervous .. don't know how I was gonna do..

Crew asked us to go to canteen then from there they directed us to the training center , given some ten to 15 min video training .. then came down , met instructor Sebastian. He gave a five min training - knees to bent and head to rest on his shoulders looking up while jumping from the helicopter..

This is it???

Yes.. he said louder. 

Red

Yellow

Green…

Jump 

From the helicopter at 13,000 feet above the ground… oh my god.. can’t explain in words.It’s amazing 

Wonderful experience… felt like am on top of the world.. 

One who is fit in all respects should try this once in their lifetime . It’s just like any other adventurous sport where you  push your limits and experience the  bliss … 

 

Finally , ticked off  Skydive from my bucket list

#skydivedubai 

# dubaimarina