My Ladakh Trip
Mountains. Icy. Jagged. Blue. Friends in half hour. Laughs. Daimox. Old Hindi songs. Remixed. And translated into English. Snow. Dairy Milk. Lonely Planet. Strawberry lip balm. Peace. Sand dunes. Heat&Cold. Fields. Lakes. Mountains. The river. Happiness. Ladakh.
The principal players apart from me are:
Couple 1: Ateeq & Somita
Couple 2: Alifia & Murtuza
Nikhil
Robin
Disclaimer: I am much better when writing about people than places. So this isn't going to be a very passionate account of Ladakh.
11 June 2008
9 am:
Jetlite flight from Bombay to Srinagar.
I'm with Couple 1. Rather I just realise they are a couple.
Also am told that the other two jokers are also a couple, making me the only odd one out. Ugh!
3.30pm
Srinagar.
Srinagar makes me feel like a bollywood heroine of the 70s. Old hindi songs play everywhere on the streets and in the various taxis we travel in. Flowers line the streets.
4.30pm
We reach the hotel. I meet Couple 2. Take an instant dislike to both. I'm sure they don't love me either.
6.30pm
A walk down Dal Lake while the sun dissolves into the horizon.
A little boy fishing in the lake while a lone shikhara wala rows away in the distance.
Roasted Bhutta and namkeen chai.
A chat with an ex-terrorist.
Peace.
P.S. Srinagars most happening hangouts are its pavements. People fish, laze around, meet for chai, share a kashmiri naan, meet old friends - all on the pavements. And yes, unlike Bombay, they are very clean. We spent most of our time there.
7pm
Hazratbal shrine. On the banks of the lake.
Lawns that stretch forever.
An attractive yet stern looking lady guard at the entrance of the mosque, fully covered except for her sharp eyes. She roughs me up because I walked in while the men folk were filing out of the shrine.
8pm
Stock up on film rolls and batteries.
I had heard Kashmiris don't consider themselves as Indians. Its true. Ironically Srinagar is where i heard the most number of patriotic Indian songs. When I asked my driver why he played these songs when he did not consider himself Indian, he said: We play them for the Indian tourists.
Indian tourists or angrez is what you will be described as in Kashmir and Ladakh.
They aren't pro Pakistan or at least its not apparent. They believe Kashmir is a separate country altogether.
Dinner.
Sleep in Srinagar.
12 June 2008
7am
Leave for Pahalgam.
Aaj phir jeene ki tammana hai... playing in the background.
The 70s are back.
The journey is beautiful. Chinar trees line the streets as far as you can see. Stopovers for Qahva (Kashmiri tea made with spices and dry fruits) are completely out of a Iranian film. And Qahva! Who ever invented the recipe be blessed a thousandfold.
11am
Pahalgam.
A quaint little place with the river flowing by.
A peaceful deer park with all kind of flowers to walk around.
Sitting on a rock with the river at your feet.
You can buy saffron and dry fruits here. Everything else is way too expensive and can be bought from the Leh market in any case.
Warning: Don't try the so called white water rafting here. Its a flimsy 2km and the rapids are non existent. Why anyone would call it rafting I have no clue other than the fact that you are sitting in a raft.
Midnight.
Srinagar
Wazawan. Too much fat and salt. Only for die hard meat lovers.
Finally start getting along with the other couple.
Sleep in Srinagar.
13 June 2008
7am
Leave Srinagar.
3pm
Reach Kargil
Kargil would have been a nice place if it wasn't for its people. The place has a taxi union problem. People follow you around trying to figure out where you have come from and where you want to go. Eve teasing galore. In Bombay language: sidey place!
The children are sweet though. Wide eyed, shy and innocent. Faces stained by orange ice candy. But then, children all over Ladakh look innocent. And beautiful. Naughty and child-like. Quite different from the bratty Bombay kids.
5pm
Sankoo.
Lunch on boiled eggs, rice and mixed vegetable. Delicious!
Stay in the PWD guesthouse in Sankoo. 100 bucks per room per night.
The rooms have a double bed, a balcony, a conference area and a bathroom. Hot water is arranged for by the chowkidaar in the morning. The guesthouse faces the mountains and a stream. Its luxury at its best!
14 June 2008
12 noon
Leave Sankoo for Rangdum.
5pm
Reach the picture perfect village of Rangdum. Don't know if I can call it a village. Rangdum surrounded by ice capped mountains on all sides, is a cluster of about 15 houses and a lake. Yaks graze lazily, men have cold water baths and children help their mothers to carry water. It is peace personified.
Speak to a few localites - two women along with their children. They sweetly invite me home.
Its strange how the first conception of Bombay for people outside is Bollywood. As soon as I tell them I am from Bombay the first comment is: Bombay?! Aap filmstar honge phir!
8pm.
Freeze point. I wear my thermals. Over that go my t shirt and jeans. Then 2 sweaters. A monkey cap. Gloves. And then (with great difficulty) crawl into my sleeping bag. And then I feel thirsty! Uff! Squeeze myself out of that bag, drink the ice cold water and back again. Ladakh does not have lights post 11. Here too the lights have gone and there is a sole candle burning in my room. Its nice to be alone sometimes.
15 June 2008
Drang Drung glacier. Majestic and Overpowering. And breathtakingly beautiful. But as our driver says: not even one third of what it used to be. Global warming here we come.
Play with lambs on the way. Very friendly and adorable animals. They even lick Ateeqs face so you can imagine. Mary must have been lucky though might get a bit irritating if it followed you everywhere you went.
The idyllic village of Abran. Chai, rotis and lots of villagers who made us feel like exotic animals in a zoo.
10pm
And we still can't find a guesthouse to stay in. The Parachik guesthouse was closed because not expecting any tourists at this time, the chowkidaar had gone home. Drive on.
11pm
Tangol. No chowkidaar here either. But driver knows where he stays. So driver and Ateeq go to find him.
Midnight
Chowkidaar found. And off to bed. Somita has had a fight with Ateeq so she preferes to play games on her mobile sitting outside in the cold rather than get some sleep. Ateeq meanwhile is blissfully snoring on his bed. Kya couple hai!
16 June 2008
8am
Wake up. First sight: school kids peeping at you from the window. After you have recovered from that, second sight: some more school kids peeping from the door. Oh, two of them are inside the room as well.
They tell us that they have bunked school because they wanted to meet the 'Indian tourists'.
Anyways, the chowkidaar a sweet 16 year old guy has brought his mother to make chai and omlettes for us. His mother had the sweetest smile ever. Ok I'm repeating the word sweet too often.
Somita has been on a hunger strike since her fight with Ateeq, so no omlettes for her.
Leave for Lamayuru with a half hour halt at Kargil to buy film rolls and make STD calls.
8pm
Reach Lamayuru
Too dark to see much. At dinner, Alifia, Murtuza and me discuss and hotly debate Somita's stand on the issue. Actually we have no idea what the issue is. Nor does Ateeq.
17 June 2008
9am
Lama yuru.
Looks like someone just dug this village out of layers and layers of time. Like the Mohenjo Daro - Harappa civilizations.
Lamayuru monastory.
So peaceful, I almost feel like getting back to religion.
11 am
Leave for Leh
3pm
Reach Leh and book into a hotel.
Hit the market.
Quaint little place. Interesting shops. Though you need to bargain like mad. Wisdom passed through the ages: When you bargain here, slash into half the quoted prices. And if they don't agree, act very hurt and pretend to walk away. They usually fall for it.
18 June 2008
Hemis. Thiksey. Shey Palace (except that there is no palace)
Couple 2 will leave for Delhi tommorow. We speak to our travel guy. He says he has arranged for 2 more people to join us - a Maharashtrian family. I immediately picture a middle aged couple talking incessantly in Marathi all the way to Pangong lake and back. Ugh!
19 June 2008
7am
Meet the Maharashtrian family. Two guys. Since I have been so 'coupleised' I immediately think of the two as a gay couple. Later i learn, that is not the case. After some exchange of who-why-where (Robin Singhvi and Nikhil Gurjar, best friends, engineering students, one moving to the US in a month's time the other to Cochin, last trip together before that) and some more exchange of Polo, Dairy Milk and Daimox, I decide that I quite like them.
11am
Pangong Lake
Blue. Green. Blue-Green. A dash of purple. The mountains. And noisy tourists. If it wasnt for the latter I would have been happy.
Maggie. Bread butter. And chai.
Nikhil's stone fixation. He threw stones into the lake, at sign boards and at other stones. Basically, everywhere. He also taught me the various nuances of playing goti. (Since I have never had the opportunity to play gotis ever in my life, I was labelled a waste)
Regret: That we didnt row / drive over to the Indian border of the lake.
5pm
Leh market. Bought rum and a few other essentials in preparation for the next days trip to Khardung La and Nubra.
9pm
Dinner at the Tibetan joint with Nik and Robin. The best ginger-lemon-honey tea I've ever had.
20 June 2008
7am
Leave for Khardungla and Nubra
?
Khardungla - The highest motorable road in the world.
Its snowing. And breathtaking. Have some much needed chai with the army guys. Nikhil and me climb up a 5 minute path to see a temple and end up in a field of snow. Climbing down the 5 minute path was a pain though. Ice had formed on the path and ice unlike snow is slippery. Anyways we managed.
Panamik.
Hot springs. Ya sure there is a stream of hot water. And you can use it to cook maggie and boil eggs. And there are bathrooms where you can use the water for a bath. But please do not visualise anything more than that like me and Robin did. I had visualised a quiet place with a water fall coming out of the ground like an inverted shower. Robin had visualised a pond of hot water one could float around in. Alas.
Deskitt.
I decide to stay with Robin and Nikhil. In their room I mean. Dump luggage and go out for a walk. Talk about I don't remember what. In the night, they wake me up to tell them stories because they aren't getting any sleep. Do I sound like a grandmom or what? Anyways, after I've spoken some nonsense they let me sleep.
21 June 2008
Morning.
Camel rides on the Bactarian (double humped) camels. Great fun. My camel took a fancy to Robin's jeans and kept rubbing his nose on them. Very cute. Though not for Robin.
Then we went to the Deskitt monastory. Inside, all the monks were sitting along with the baby monks. Two of the latter category were responsible for offering tea and water to the senior monks.
We sat inside and took pictures though it didnt seem like a very nice thing to do. But the board outside said Flash not allowed. So photography as such wasn't banned.
When I came out, I felt a sense of peace I hadnt felt in a long while. Strange how I don't believe in a God, am anti - religion, but still find a few holy places the most peace giving. Though I would like to emphasise on the word 'few' here.
To get back to Leh we had to cross Khardung La again. We had started drinking rum mixed with coke. It had started snowing and by the time we reached Khardung La it was snowing quite hard. Oh and the snow! The snow! It was so so beautiful! The army guy there said it was minus 10 degrees. Nikhil's nose leak froze on the way down. Ateeq ran his lighter flame on my hand and I didn't feel a thing. I held hot tea in my hands. Yet. Nothing. It was brilliant.
Robin had started getting a bit high on the rum and on the way back to Leh was behaving rather cute. (Disclaimer: I don't usually use the words sweet and cute, but can't seem to help it this time. He showed us one of his dance moves among other things.
By evening we were back to Leh. I dumped my bags again at Robin and Nikhil's hotel room (I had disowned Ateeq and Somita by then) and we went out for ginger-lemon-honey tea.
22 June 2008
Had to leave for Manali at 2am so did not get much sleep. And poor Robin and Nikhil had to wake up at 1.30am to leave me to the bus stand. Felt very guilty. I mean I hardly knew them for 3 days and was already making them wake up at 2am for me. Though of course it didnt seem like 3 days. I was definitely more comfortable with them than with people Ive known for years.
Anyways I slept through the journey from Leh to Manali like I was drugged. Don't remember much except once when i woke up. It was dark and the bus was surrounded by the icy mountain peaks, lit by moonlight. Surreal.
Evening.
Reach Manali.
Terrible place. Too many Punjabis everywhere. (I know I'm not politically correct and I don't care)
23 June 2008
Leave Manali after lunch.
The bus we are travelling in has the following characters:
An attractive Italian girl whom 3 Indians are trying to flirt with. She seems quite assured though.
A honeymooning couple sitting right behind me - a boring uncle types and a very orgasmistic aunty. They did't speak to each other throughout the journey. All they would do is lean forward on their seats and stare at me. The reason I'm calling her orgasmistic is:
On one of the stops the husband disappeared and the bus couldn't leave because of it. So the conductor yelled at the aunty and she, in a very very orgasmistic voice said: Kaha gaye hai woh? Ab hume kya pata.. (damn this is no fun.. i need to enact this one out) But for those with a vivid imagination, think hema malini combined with Zara Murao (for those who know her.
A large Punjabi family who ate and ate and ate. They ate through the journey and even at night. In fact the father even admonished one of his numerous children who wasn't eating much saying: Arrey! Humne sleeper gaadi isiliye toh book karvayi taaki tum log sab aaram se kha sako!
He would get off at every stop and get more food stuff which the family would devour till the next stop. Anyone not eating would be denounced: So kyun rahe ho? Maine nahi kaha tha khana nahi khaoge toh beemar pad jaaoge. Dekho ab so raha hai...
24 June 2008
Delhi. Bargaining with auto drivers. Raman Kirpal's house. My ex-boss from Indian Express. Pampered to the hilt. Have first proper bath in days. Lots of hot water. A double bed all to myself. Lime juice. Salad. Tea. Orange juice. Lots of food. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
25 June 2008
Go out to the nearest mall with Raman to buy my pending birthday gift :P
Then airport.
8pm
Board Air Deccan flight to Bombay. Only 40 seats are filled. Gujju group who insist on changing their seats every 5 minutes
To Be Continued
The pics can be seen here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25831&l=ec56f&id=501623957
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25520&l=c15ee&id=501623957
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25329&l=1c41b&id=501623957
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25211&l=5ee2a&id=501623957
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25101&l=ae66c&id=501623957
The principal players apart from me are:
Couple 1: Ateeq & Somita
Couple 2: Alifia & Murtuza
Nikhil
Robin
Disclaimer: I am much better when writing about people than places. So this isn't going to be a very passionate account of Ladakh.
11 June 2008
9 am:
Jetlite flight from Bombay to Srinagar.
I'm with Couple 1. Rather I just realise they are a couple.
Also am told that the other two jokers are also a couple, making me the only odd one out. Ugh!
3.30pm
Srinagar.
Srinagar makes me feel like a bollywood heroine of the 70s. Old hindi songs play everywhere on the streets and in the various taxis we travel in. Flowers line the streets.
4.30pm
We reach the hotel. I meet Couple 2. Take an instant dislike to both. I'm sure they don't love me either.
6.30pm
A walk down Dal Lake while the sun dissolves into the horizon.
A little boy fishing in the lake while a lone shikhara wala rows away in the distance.
Roasted Bhutta and namkeen chai.
A chat with an ex-terrorist.
Peace.
P.S. Srinagars most happening hangouts are its pavements. People fish, laze around, meet for chai, share a kashmiri naan, meet old friends - all on the pavements. And yes, unlike Bombay, they are very clean. We spent most of our time there.
7pm
Hazratbal shrine. On the banks of the lake.
Lawns that stretch forever.
An attractive yet stern looking lady guard at the entrance of the mosque, fully covered except for her sharp eyes. She roughs me up because I walked in while the men folk were filing out of the shrine.
8pm
Stock up on film rolls and batteries.
I had heard Kashmiris don't consider themselves as Indians. Its true. Ironically Srinagar is where i heard the most number of patriotic Indian songs. When I asked my driver why he played these songs when he did not consider himself Indian, he said: We play them for the Indian tourists.
Indian tourists or angrez is what you will be described as in Kashmir and Ladakh.
They aren't pro Pakistan or at least its not apparent. They believe Kashmir is a separate country altogether.
Dinner.
Sleep in Srinagar.
12 June 2008
7am
Leave for Pahalgam.
Aaj phir jeene ki tammana hai... playing in the background.
The 70s are back.
The journey is beautiful. Chinar trees line the streets as far as you can see. Stopovers for Qahva (Kashmiri tea made with spices and dry fruits) are completely out of a Iranian film. And Qahva! Who ever invented the recipe be blessed a thousandfold.
11am
Pahalgam.
A quaint little place with the river flowing by.
A peaceful deer park with all kind of flowers to walk around.
Sitting on a rock with the river at your feet.
You can buy saffron and dry fruits here. Everything else is way too expensive and can be bought from the Leh market in any case.
Warning: Don't try the so called white water rafting here. Its a flimsy 2km and the rapids are non existent. Why anyone would call it rafting I have no clue other than the fact that you are sitting in a raft.
Midnight.
Srinagar
Wazawan. Too much fat and salt. Only for die hard meat lovers.
Finally start getting along with the other couple.
Sleep in Srinagar.
13 June 2008
7am
Leave Srinagar.
3pm
Reach Kargil
Kargil would have been a nice place if it wasn't for its people. The place has a taxi union problem. People follow you around trying to figure out where you have come from and where you want to go. Eve teasing galore. In Bombay language: sidey place!
The children are sweet though. Wide eyed, shy and innocent. Faces stained by orange ice candy. But then, children all over Ladakh look innocent. And beautiful. Naughty and child-like. Quite different from the bratty Bombay kids.
5pm
Sankoo.
Lunch on boiled eggs, rice and mixed vegetable. Delicious!
Stay in the PWD guesthouse in Sankoo. 100 bucks per room per night.
The rooms have a double bed, a balcony, a conference area and a bathroom. Hot water is arranged for by the chowkidaar in the morning. The guesthouse faces the mountains and a stream. Its luxury at its best!
14 June 2008
12 noon
Leave Sankoo for Rangdum.
5pm
Reach the picture perfect village of Rangdum. Don't know if I can call it a village. Rangdum surrounded by ice capped mountains on all sides, is a cluster of about 15 houses and a lake. Yaks graze lazily, men have cold water baths and children help their mothers to carry water. It is peace personified.
Speak to a few localites - two women along with their children. They sweetly invite me home.
Its strange how the first conception of Bombay for people outside is Bollywood. As soon as I tell them I am from Bombay the first comment is: Bombay?! Aap filmstar honge phir!
8pm.
Freeze point. I wear my thermals. Over that go my t shirt and jeans. Then 2 sweaters. A monkey cap. Gloves. And then (with great difficulty) crawl into my sleeping bag. And then I feel thirsty! Uff! Squeeze myself out of that bag, drink the ice cold water and back again. Ladakh does not have lights post 11. Here too the lights have gone and there is a sole candle burning in my room. Its nice to be alone sometimes.
15 June 2008
Drang Drung glacier. Majestic and Overpowering. And breathtakingly beautiful. But as our driver says: not even one third of what it used to be. Global warming here we come.
Play with lambs on the way. Very friendly and adorable animals. They even lick Ateeqs face so you can imagine. Mary must have been lucky though might get a bit irritating if it followed you everywhere you went.
The idyllic village of Abran. Chai, rotis and lots of villagers who made us feel like exotic animals in a zoo.
10pm
And we still can't find a guesthouse to stay in. The Parachik guesthouse was closed because not expecting any tourists at this time, the chowkidaar had gone home. Drive on.
11pm
Tangol. No chowkidaar here either. But driver knows where he stays. So driver and Ateeq go to find him.
Midnight
Chowkidaar found. And off to bed. Somita has had a fight with Ateeq so she preferes to play games on her mobile sitting outside in the cold rather than get some sleep. Ateeq meanwhile is blissfully snoring on his bed. Kya couple hai!
16 June 2008
8am
Wake up. First sight: school kids peeping at you from the window. After you have recovered from that, second sight: some more school kids peeping from the door. Oh, two of them are inside the room as well.
They tell us that they have bunked school because they wanted to meet the 'Indian tourists'.
Anyways, the chowkidaar a sweet 16 year old guy has brought his mother to make chai and omlettes for us. His mother had the sweetest smile ever. Ok I'm repeating the word sweet too often.
Somita has been on a hunger strike since her fight with Ateeq, so no omlettes for her.
Leave for Lamayuru with a half hour halt at Kargil to buy film rolls and make STD calls.
8pm
Reach Lamayuru
Too dark to see much. At dinner, Alifia, Murtuza and me discuss and hotly debate Somita's stand on the issue. Actually we have no idea what the issue is. Nor does Ateeq.
17 June 2008
9am
Lama yuru.
Looks like someone just dug this village out of layers and layers of time. Like the Mohenjo Daro - Harappa civilizations.
Lamayuru monastory.
So peaceful, I almost feel like getting back to religion.
11 am
Leave for Leh
3pm
Reach Leh and book into a hotel.
Hit the market.
Quaint little place. Interesting shops. Though you need to bargain like mad. Wisdom passed through the ages: When you bargain here, slash into half the quoted prices. And if they don't agree, act very hurt and pretend to walk away. They usually fall for it.
18 June 2008
Hemis. Thiksey. Shey Palace (except that there is no palace)
Couple 2 will leave for Delhi tommorow. We speak to our travel guy. He says he has arranged for 2 more people to join us - a Maharashtrian family. I immediately picture a middle aged couple talking incessantly in Marathi all the way to Pangong lake and back. Ugh!
19 June 2008
7am
Meet the Maharashtrian family. Two guys. Since I have been so 'coupleised' I immediately think of the two as a gay couple. Later i learn, that is not the case. After some exchange of who-why-where (Robin Singhvi and Nikhil Gurjar, best friends, engineering students, one moving to the US in a month's time the other to Cochin, last trip together before that) and some more exchange of Polo, Dairy Milk and Daimox, I decide that I quite like them.
11am
Pangong Lake
Blue. Green. Blue-Green. A dash of purple. The mountains. And noisy tourists. If it wasnt for the latter I would have been happy.
Maggie. Bread butter. And chai.
Nikhil's stone fixation. He threw stones into the lake, at sign boards and at other stones. Basically, everywhere. He also taught me the various nuances of playing goti. (Since I have never had the opportunity to play gotis ever in my life, I was labelled a waste)
Regret: That we didnt row / drive over to the Indian border of the lake.
5pm
Leh market. Bought rum and a few other essentials in preparation for the next days trip to Khardung La and Nubra.
9pm
Dinner at the Tibetan joint with Nik and Robin. The best ginger-lemon-honey tea I've ever had.
20 June 2008
7am
Leave for Khardungla and Nubra
?
Khardungla - The highest motorable road in the world.
Its snowing. And breathtaking. Have some much needed chai with the army guys. Nikhil and me climb up a 5 minute path to see a temple and end up in a field of snow. Climbing down the 5 minute path was a pain though. Ice had formed on the path and ice unlike snow is slippery. Anyways we managed.
Panamik.
Hot springs. Ya sure there is a stream of hot water. And you can use it to cook maggie and boil eggs. And there are bathrooms where you can use the water for a bath. But please do not visualise anything more than that like me and Robin did. I had visualised a quiet place with a water fall coming out of the ground like an inverted shower. Robin had visualised a pond of hot water one could float around in. Alas.
Deskitt.
I decide to stay with Robin and Nikhil. In their room I mean. Dump luggage and go out for a walk. Talk about I don't remember what. In the night, they wake me up to tell them stories because they aren't getting any sleep. Do I sound like a grandmom or what? Anyways, after I've spoken some nonsense they let me sleep.
21 June 2008
Morning.
Camel rides on the Bactarian (double humped) camels. Great fun. My camel took a fancy to Robin's jeans and kept rubbing his nose on them. Very cute. Though not for Robin.
Then we went to the Deskitt monastory. Inside, all the monks were sitting along with the baby monks. Two of the latter category were responsible for offering tea and water to the senior monks.
We sat inside and took pictures though it didnt seem like a very nice thing to do. But the board outside said Flash not allowed. So photography as such wasn't banned.
When I came out, I felt a sense of peace I hadnt felt in a long while. Strange how I don't believe in a God, am anti - religion, but still find a few holy places the most peace giving. Though I would like to emphasise on the word 'few' here.
To get back to Leh we had to cross Khardung La again. We had started drinking rum mixed with coke. It had started snowing and by the time we reached Khardung La it was snowing quite hard. Oh and the snow! The snow! It was so so beautiful! The army guy there said it was minus 10 degrees. Nikhil's nose leak froze on the way down. Ateeq ran his lighter flame on my hand and I didn't feel a thing. I held hot tea in my hands. Yet. Nothing. It was brilliant.
Robin had started getting a bit high on the rum and on the way back to Leh was behaving rather cute. (Disclaimer: I don't usually use the words sweet and cute, but can't seem to help it this time. He showed us one of his dance moves among other things.
By evening we were back to Leh. I dumped my bags again at Robin and Nikhil's hotel room (I had disowned Ateeq and Somita by then) and we went out for ginger-lemon-honey tea.
22 June 2008
Had to leave for Manali at 2am so did not get much sleep. And poor Robin and Nikhil had to wake up at 1.30am to leave me to the bus stand. Felt very guilty. I mean I hardly knew them for 3 days and was already making them wake up at 2am for me. Though of course it didnt seem like 3 days. I was definitely more comfortable with them than with people Ive known for years.
Anyways I slept through the journey from Leh to Manali like I was drugged. Don't remember much except once when i woke up. It was dark and the bus was surrounded by the icy mountain peaks, lit by moonlight. Surreal.
Evening.
Reach Manali.
Terrible place. Too many Punjabis everywhere. (I know I'm not politically correct and I don't care)
23 June 2008
Leave Manali after lunch.
The bus we are travelling in has the following characters:
An attractive Italian girl whom 3 Indians are trying to flirt with. She seems quite assured though.
A honeymooning couple sitting right behind me - a boring uncle types and a very orgasmistic aunty. They did't speak to each other throughout the journey. All they would do is lean forward on their seats and stare at me. The reason I'm calling her orgasmistic is:
On one of the stops the husband disappeared and the bus couldn't leave because of it. So the conductor yelled at the aunty and she, in a very very orgasmistic voice said: Kaha gaye hai woh? Ab hume kya pata.. (damn this is no fun.. i need to enact this one out) But for those with a vivid imagination, think hema malini combined with Zara Murao (for those who know her.
A large Punjabi family who ate and ate and ate. They ate through the journey and even at night. In fact the father even admonished one of his numerous children who wasn't eating much saying: Arrey! Humne sleeper gaadi isiliye toh book karvayi taaki tum log sab aaram se kha sako!
He would get off at every stop and get more food stuff which the family would devour till the next stop. Anyone not eating would be denounced: So kyun rahe ho? Maine nahi kaha tha khana nahi khaoge toh beemar pad jaaoge. Dekho ab so raha hai...
24 June 2008
Delhi. Bargaining with auto drivers. Raman Kirpal's house. My ex-boss from Indian Express. Pampered to the hilt. Have first proper bath in days. Lots of hot water. A double bed all to myself. Lime juice. Salad. Tea. Orange juice. Lots of food. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
25 June 2008
Go out to the nearest mall with Raman to buy my pending birthday gift :P
Then airport.
8pm
Board Air Deccan flight to Bombay. Only 40 seats are filled. Gujju group who insist on changing their seats every 5 minutes
To Be Continued
The pics can be seen here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25831&l=ec56f&id=501623957
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25520&l=c15ee&id=501623957
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25329&l=1c41b&id=501623957
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25211&l=5ee2a&id=501623957
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25101&l=ae66c&id=501623957
posted by another wanderer | Wednesday, June 25, 2008
3 Comments:
one of my friend has very recently visited ladakh... i saw the pics and then i stumbled across your blog entry... just wanted to say that your writing suits the pics... thanks!!!
hey u went to Ladakh and not a single pic?
@Sigrid Rahn: Thank you so much!
@Pappul: :) They are up on my website: www.swatiroy.com
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