Last evening, clouds had obscured the view. This morning, the snow clad silver of Neelkanth peak stands out against a blue sky framed by lower hills towering a full 3 kms above Badrinath. I am standing in front of the Garhwal Mandal’s ‘Dev Lok’ guest house, ready for the trek to Vasudhara falls in the upper Alaknanda Valley.I hire a taxi to drop me at the Bhutia village of Mana, 3 kms from Badrinath and the last village before the Chinese Tibetan border. My driver, a resident of Mana, tells me that earlier villagers here traded with Tibet. That was until the 1962 war after which the army closed the borders and permission is required to travel the roads north of Mana.
As I start walking through Mana, I see few people - it is 7 am, still early in the morning.
