Excellent blog. Very detailed and accurate briefing.
Re verification and updates from my recent June 29 2018 trip.
Keep in mind almost everybody out there is trying to rip you off. I say this because theyll look at your circumstances and then then try to reneg on their deal.
had read the blogs and asked around so hired a porter (small desi horse with guy) for luggage for 2500 per day (started at 4500 and these guys kept insisting on the rates. i said ill go back no problem and chill else where as am aware 2500 is the going rate so they agreed). They kept insisting to add a guide and said the porter will be flash and leave your slow asses behind and you'll be lost. so take a guide for 2500 per day.
This useless extortion kept on for 15 minutes so we said fine said goodbyes to them and said you want to stop with the guide thing which is of no use when we have a porter or do you wanna keep at it cuz there is no way we are paying so much. Finally they said this is all we have to earn. I said fine but give a usefull service in return and not a useless free loader.
Anywayz moving on so the guide requirement was dropped and requested the porter if your not happy with the deal or there are some add ons clarify it now if not lets shake hands and move. so we moved.
A guy with a horse started following us (group of 4 in our 40s). By looking at us he had a good bet that at least one of them will break. hehe. and he was right .
Actually its a 4-5 hr trip to mullah ki basti. and its all inclined. the first 2 hrs are the toughest as you have to ascend two hills. so one of us broke on the first hill and the trailer horseman swooped in as a saviour.
I immediately jumped in and said asked what he'll charge per day. 4500 says he. i told him take the same as the porter horse 2500 but looking at my fallen comrades plight he said 4000. i went in for group discussion and told everyone i absolutely dislike getting extortioned like this. If we get extorted it'll ruin the trip for me so either we quit and turn back or this guy agrees to 2500 per day .
The local with the horse knew i was serious so he said ok 2500.
near mullah ki basti when he (the local with horse carrying my fallen comrade) saw that everyone was getting tired and were taking more rest stops he tried to renegotiate to 4000 again.
I was like oh for Gods sake is their no end to this extortion anyways got a little heated but in the end it amicably resolved to the same rate.
By the way a person cannot continuously sit on a horse if hes not used to it. so if you do hire a horse for riding i would advise hire one and take turns riding it.
In our case only one rode it off and on they rest were there to hike so we hiked.
Before mullah ki basti theres a tent city. We were pretty tired and not in the mood to setup our tent so we asked them the rate and he said 2500 for the tent. we pointed to our luggage and said we have a tent just too tired if thats the rate we'll go and setup our tent. he immediately said 1000.
But I being the group organiser then intervened and said guys lets proceed to mullah ki basti and setup tent. (i by this time was fearing all the hiden costs that might come with the 1000 rate)
On entering mullah ki basti after 4.5 hrs hike from besal we setp our tent (it was for 4-5 ppl) we were four. After setting our tent we asked a tent guy how much for the tent, he looked at our tent and said 700. So now you see where this is going with the rates. it depends how miserable a condition you are in or not in and you'll pay accorrdingly.
We had brought our own stove, freshmate (ready to eat) and tea and reasy to eat parathas.
Anyways the group voted for fresh parathas so we got fresh parathas for 60 Rs for one paratha.
Our porter and horse guy (the one who added on later) now entered our tent and started getting comfy and asked matter of factly so wheres our sleeping bags and our food.
We really had a couple of characters on our hand. I asked them were we responsible for their tentage and sleeping bags and i started laughing i was so tired that didnt have the strength to be annoyed.
They said oh ok we'll manage but our food is your responsibility. At this point the mullah ki basti restaurant guy enetered our tent. One group memeber requested the restaurant guy to entertain our porters and we'll pay.
Of course when i got the bill at our departure from that place I wasnt suprised to see breakfast porters (2 guys) 4 eggs 5 parathas 4 tea and thats breakfast guys other meals likewise. Each egg 100 each parath 50 each tea 100 so anywayz i sighed and said why not after all you do get very hungry at such high altitudes.
the story continues....signing off for now