My Journey to the Himalayas!

A few weeks ago, I embarked on a life changing experience any pre-med would be jealous of because they can’t use it on their own personal statement. I trekked the Himalayas and I returned with eternal spiritual wisdom. I may have taken a backpack to India, but I returned carrying something much more profound: the answer to the meaning of li-

Ok. It wasn’t quite like that. At all.

Maggi under a makeshift roadside hut to escape the torrential rain. Riding on horseback (ponyback?) for 6 hours with agonizing groin cramps. Getting your feet impaled by the rocks of the Ganges. Burning to death in the heat of the sun whilst being surrounded by snowy mountains. Eight hour roadtrips across poor road infrastructure with a accelerator-happy driver that were enough to make even a seasoned pilot puke his guts out.

But… It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Despite all the bad and somewhat unbearable, I got to see the most picturesque mountains (the type you see as Mac backgrounds), monkeys and beautiful temples so old and strangely located that the trips were worth it. I even got to ride in a helicopter and fuel my obsession for roti and paneer basically every single day. I think the moment that sold it for me was seeing a huge eagle effortlessly soaring over the Himalayan valleys – true David Attenborough type deal!

I’m not really sure what the message of this was supposed to be. I kinda just wanted to journal what it was like before I start to forget it. I guess one take away could be that any trip abroad will probably have its downsides, but if they don’t themselves remind you of all the funny moments when your family started shouting in broken Hindi, at least they will make the good moments and views seem all the more worthwhile 🙂

It was essentially a trip to see loads of temples in Uttarakhand (a state in North India). I’m not sure if I’ve come back any spiritually wiser and I’m not sure I’d ever do it again, but I’m glad I did. I see why you only need to do some pilgrimages once in your lifetime now.

I still can’t speak Hindi, but I can order you garam pani if you’d like.