Continued from the previous post.
Joshimath and Auli are places are in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, India. Joshimath is a small one-road-only town, unharmed by mall culture and modernization. All the shops ranging from cloth stores (sarees, dress materials, etc) to sweater shops to dhabas/sweet stall to groceries are there on either side of this narrow road. Taxi (read MUV) is the most common profession of the locals there, music shop being the next in line.
Joshimath and Auli are places are in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, India. Joshimath is a small one-road-only town, unharmed by mall culture and modernization. All the shops ranging from cloth stores (sarees, dress materials, etc) to sweater shops to dhabas/sweet stall to groceries are there on either side of this narrow road. Taxi (read MUV) is the most common profession of the locals there, music shop being the next in line.
Joshimath is the base point for treks such as Auli, Hemkund and Nanda Devi. We covered only Auli and Tapovan. (If you need other details it is better to (re)search the net using Google like we did).
There is one Punjab National Bank, and 2 ATMs (Punjab National Bank and State bank of India) of which SBI ATM is out of order. Some locals told us that it has been in that state for a few months now. Cash is NOT always available in the one that works. You would need to go by 10:00 AM or by 5:30 PM. We, at least, did not get cash out of it during other times of the day. Better option is to withdraw cash from Dehradun or Delhi. How much, would depend on where you want to go from Joshimath and how many times. Read on to know more.
Auli is 15 kms vertically up from Joshimath. All the ski championships that are organized in India are conducted in Auli, sometime during Jan – March. We came to know of this only after we went there. This year though, the championships were canceled due to inadequate snowfall.
It was +2 degrees in Joshimath on the first 2 days. The third day was 0 degrees or less. If you are going during the winter you would need to pile up on your warm clothing – Thermals, sweaters, jackets, gloves, socks – The more the better.
Joshimath is mainly a military area. The Ibex Brigade of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) have set up their base there. It seems there wasn’t a proper road to Auli until recently because the military did not give permission for building roads. Army vehicles and soldiers are a common sight. The army vehicles have metal chains around the tyres making it easy to drive in the snow. The Ibex Brigade has even initiated a ‘Clean n Green Joshimath/Auli’ campaign along with the locals there.
There is no flat land in Joshimath and around it. The houses can rarely be called that – they are like little cubes kept on the floor. All the buildings are housed on different levels of the mountain giving an impression of placing colored cubes in a staircase. One can barely stand straight inside the houses. All the houses were one-roomed with only a door to pass. I could not help but wonder what they did for their nature calls because the entire town was clean (except for a dumping ground kind of area where plastic wrappers and such were thrown – obviously by tourists) and smelled fresh. I do not have a proper image of these houses but the one below will give you an idea.
We saw a few children on the way to their school which was on top of the mountain behind our hotel. We did not follow them to their school.
Some of the houses had dogs – all were like Pomeranian – furry n small, even the street dogs. You can also see the rope way to Auli in the background.
I noticed that the male population in Joshimath outnumbered the female population. One can realize when you see that there are only 2 beauty parlors and a dozen or more barber shops, although the barber shops printed it was for ‘Jents and Ladies’ (yes, Jents).
There are a couple of medical shops and only one doctor’s clinic. I was kinda disturbed thinking what the women did when their babies were due, or somebody had a stroke or an accident. This one clinic does not have proper space for one person, let alone have all the facilities. The nearest proper city is Dehradun which is 300 kms away. I wish something is done about this and soon.
There is no proper hotel in Joshimath – all dhabas and sweet stalls which fry and heap hot samosas. Saw the freshest of vegetables stocked in vegetable stalls. Everyone uses red carrots there (what is here called Delhi carrots) and the orange carrots are not found anywhere. The townspeople of Joshimath are all vegetarians and eggitarians. Only one shop served chicken kababs. So if you are a hard core non-veggie, your options are limited.
Roasted peanuts are sold in baskets or gaadis – Rs.10 a share. The main beverage consumed is Tea. Coffee is rare and costlier than tea.
It gets dark by 5:00 PM and so if at all you make any full day plans make sure you start early n wrap it up by then. Just after sundown small fire is lit here and there in the town with 4 – 5 men standing around them to warm themselves. A cow also was seen standing next to a fire 
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