All comments with '**' have been added while typing it out.
PART I
Tuesday11.30 p.m. 11 hours till departure.
* (ching-ching ka chika ching-chin) - organs
- Dry boxers dry,
All rigged on a chair, under the air
Dry boxers dry
'coz I need to leave, as soon as I can
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Damn boxers need to dry so I can finish packing.
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22/07/2008 - On the train before entering Rajasthan
- Dissing Gandhi is pretty easy today. Its all "anti establish cool". Are there a whole bunch of things he screwed up? YES!! of course there are. What I do however know is that pretty much every country that has won its freedom through violence ( post 1920's) is now facing civil unrest.
- The whole non-violent thing is brilliant - however Gandhi's idea of non-violence is a little too hardcore. His vision of Indians fighting during WW@ was hordes of us walking into enemy fire till they ran out of ammo or were somehow shamed into giving up - HA!
- We gotta give the guy credit for what he did do - he did unite the country pretty much for the first time. Most revolutionary types ended up being too hardcore socialist ( not that Nehru wasn't) for my taste. I am pretty sure that if a Bhagat Singh or a Subhas Bose had succeeded we would have ended up either commie or a dictatorship.
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* We need to keep a man a man not make him a God/ Saint.
- Respect a "lesser" Gandhi.
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"Chronicalize" needs to be a word.
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Most Indians let themselves be walked over more because of their pre-conditionioning than because they are timid.
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LOG - The Train - 10.30p.m.
- The Lord gets his wish of a chick sitting in the next berth.
- Chick and friend very boring. Thankfully leave at Surat. Can scratch now.
- Lunch does not go down very well with Mr. Law. Drinks a lot of water. Takes a dump. Is fine.
- We get the kid a seat. Crazy annoying old people try to chuck him out. Some old people have the conception that being old obligates everyone else into giving them respect solely on the merit of their age.
- Get fined Rs 100 for smoking. RPF guard asked me if I was done smoking (apparantly sarcastically) I thought he was serious and said almost. TC was too bored to fine me. Nut guard was pissed of so 110 bucks down the drain.
- RPF guard is a SAI athlete.
- Old people farting away to glory.
- No water in the rivers
- A half bottle of bootlegged McDowells No.1 costs Rs 350 on the train in Gujrat.
- Am writing the whole end of the log in the dark (** at his point it was pretty difficult to read my handwriting. Apparently writing in the dark is not something I'm gonna get famous for.)
- Ambala Station
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LOG - NEW MANALI - Finally!
- Lost the Holiday Hat in Chandigarh. One of the saddest moments of my life when I realized that I had left it at the train station. The Holiday Hat stood by me for a good 6 years. It was with me during the "incident" in Goa. It was there when 2 of us pretended to be from France and not understand a word of English during a flight from Bbay to Mangalore.... good times. R.I.P Holiday Hat - may your finder be given the accumulated +vibes you contain.
- Got the cabbies to buy me some local - smooth but not very good. Smoked some with him at the dhaba. Weather is now Brilliant!
- "What a Weather" - much used phrase.
- Stayed the night in bloody New Manali coz "hot water was needed" - AAAAARRGHH!
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PANG - NH/21:
Right then, the whole next bunch of words concerning day 3 and 4 is being written in Pang - around 220 kms from Leh. We're in one of those Ladakhi round tents,
- Something that had fried me when the decision to stay in New Manali was made was that I still hadn't met Mary. Now that's plain stupid.
- Handwriting's messed coz its fucking cold. -6 in the tent with the wind taking it down to -14 outside.
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MC
Am reading 'On the Road' by Kerouac on this trip. MC is the sort of person who could walk out of this book. The man is beautifully insane and speaks profoundly sane.
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Yup, so we met MC the next day.
the minute our bags are down,
MC's got Mary around,
& not that it isn't fun when she isn't around,
but it always nice to have her around.
Now as far as I know, none of the guys I'm with know her or her cousins too well.
- The Lord knows her but prefers the company of Jack.
- Sidney Iggy knows only certain facets of her.
- Mr Law does not know her but claims to be totally willing to get to know her (** this did not work out)
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PANG - Sidney just played "Kashmir" in Kashmir - Kickass
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Anyway, after the introduction the rest took off on a hike while I caught up with Mary on the roof. The weird part is the whole time this was happening all I can think of is Modigliani asking "well Pablo, can you make love to a cube?"
- Gary and Shell from Bbay turned up. They seemed to have taken some seriously good photographs - Must get them once back.
- Went bookstore hunting. - For some reason this trip seems to be taking on a very "India history" thingy. Can't understand it. Hmmm.
Night was at MC's cottage sitting in a circle on the balcony. Only Mr Law and I were present as the other two were pretty bushed. Quite an interesting circle. Met Hilda and Paul who had been around these parts for the last 2 months. Typical euro/ hippie types but not very smart. I find it pretty amazing the way so many folks jump at half assed half-true ideas and propagate it as the hard truth.
I consider myself fairly open to any different way of thought as long as there is substance backing it. If someone came to me and said "dude this is how it is." I'm gonna ask why. And if the answer to that 'why' is 'you're too closed to see the "truth" then so be it. Information is ONLY as good as its source. Period.
Yup, so the circle was interesting. I think Mr Law felt a little out of it but he observed fairly well. Did not smoke though.
- Nutella Pancakes Rock!
- Apple juice and Parathas Rock!
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Next Day - Lost count of time - it's over the hills.
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Tata Safari to Leh - Driver : Jimmy/ Ladakhi dude - good fun
Iggy saw a Yak (his first) near Rohtang and ran like 200 mtrs with the camera yelling YAK, YAK, YAK. Damn yaks obviously ran away.
THE HIMALAYAS
Got absolutely nothing to say. The pictures taken are but a fraction of what the mountains do to you.
Baralachlala
All the tents we stopped at for chai had at least one cute Ladakhi girl in there. Jimmy seems to know these girls pretty well and has a major 'hero' aura around them. The tent at Pang where we night-overed (another word) had a girl which made Mr Law want to settle in Ladakh and become Shepard or something ( the whole 'got hit by lightening' thing).
Anyway, the normal thing to do is to stop at Sarchu which is a reasonable 12000 feet (approx) high. However we reached Sarchu pretty quick and decided to push for Pang which is around 15000 feet (approx) high. The issue with this acute mountain sickness. Luckily for us no one fell sick - I didn't out of sheer luck and the others didn't because they practically OD'd on the bloody Diamox pills - I mean who the fuck pops 1 Diamox the previous night in Manali and another 2 the next day?!!
- The blankets in this tent don't seem to be working. Gonna try to sleep now. The silence seeps through your bones and reverberates in your brains.
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LEH TOWN - ASHOKA GUEST HOUSE
At the Ashoka guest house in Leh. Reached around an hour back. No idea what the time or date is. The air is brilliantly clear.
Continuing where I left of:
The bloody temp in Pang fell to sub-zero levels. The original plan had been to get some grub in the Ladakhi tent then go some distance and sleep in our own tent (we'd lugged it all the way from Bombay). This was definitely not happening now - no way we would come out with all our parts intact by sleeping in our tiny tent. CO-OH-OH-OHHLD
- Slept in Ladakhi tent - bad blankets - froze - when you sleep in Ladakh you make a bloody racket since you breathe real deep (less O2 i guess).
Next day,
the road to Leh
can't write about it
I'd be blooming Hemingway
If I could narrate,
the way to Leh. - HA!!
Taken on the road - Click if you have a screen with decent resolution
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LEH
Got to Leh town.
- First Impression: Nothing all that great. Regular hippie tourist sort of hill town, with cafe's on the terraces and stuff. The locals seem cool ( but like I said it is a tourist town and this is an FI) the Tibetans seem to have a chip on their shoulder (No comment).
- Checked in at Ashoka guest house. Seriously pretty landlady. The Lord obviously was all ga-ga.
- Iggy can't use the common loo and so has to use the one in the other room.
- The common loo is a sort of meeting place for all the guests living here.
- Don't plan to do much today. Soak the place up look around town and maybe get a drink.
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WRITING IN THE GUEST HOUSE - AFTER A COUPLE OF DAYS.
I am not going back. I refuse to go back. The air is cleaner out here and I can definitely get an odd job here. The others seem to want to go back pretty quick now. Its not that they are homesick or anything - basically being in an evironment where they are not very comfortable is something that they would rather not do.
I think someone once said a pretty cool line about when travelling to never forget that a place is meant to make its own people comfortable and not the traveller.
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Alright then, contiuing where I left of:
The difference in a town like Leh and say a Manali or a Goan town is that more tourists out here are of the hardcore traveller variety. Meaning that most folks out here are pretty fit and have come to actually trek and bicycle and climb and all that, and thats pretty cool. I'm gonna have to come back here with Dominique.
Couple of cafe's around here are pretty cool. Can't stand the local momo's - blearrgh - although I did eat some meat that was being skewered on an open flame (good).
- Went to Pangong Tso ( before which they tried OD'ing on Diamox again). Frickin awesome journey, Frickin awesome lake, coulda just sat there for a full day. Unfortunately only got a coupla hours.
- Gotta give the lord credit. Considering the fact that he's been smoking and drinking hardcore for like 10 years the guy is in pretty good shape.
- tried to climb the hill behind the lake - bloody hard.
- Ate Dal and rice
- The monastry at Hemis is awesome. There was a book I'd read a while back which claimed that this monastry had documents proving the theory that Christ had come here - Once when he was a teenager and once after his crucification (The book basically suggested that he did not die on the cross). The monastrys are damn peaceful but the smell of Yak butter in the inner Sanctums always puts me off. How the monks travelled and built these structures in the middle of bloody nowhere is beyond me. The part that I find weird is this - not only are these places built on the tip of any hill/ mountain but none of them seem to have been built keeping basic precautions to protect the structures from the weather. For instance - most are not built with sloping roofs (which would make it less wind resistant, Also almost none seem (to my untrained eye) to have been built in the wind-shadow region of the mountain.
- I clearly have nothing to write about right now am wasting ink. This pen is nice. My name is Bopana.
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Writing in HUNDAR (day2??) - NUBRA VALLEY - In the morning with Lucy still whispering.
I have pretty much found my spot. Its got the snow capped mountains, the river, the green foliage, sand dunes and had a bunch of people maknig their peace in the middle of the desert.
LOG:
- Drove to Hundar from Leh. Killer drive through Khardung-la.
- Tried running around at 18000 feet. Managed a little. Felt quite proud till I saw the group of 30 bicyclists coming up behind us.
- Horrible but extremely funny meal.
- Godfather beer is the stuff that we have been drinking on this trip. Pretty potent shit - I end up making a shandy of it mostly.
A guy passed out on the stuff beside the road.
- The entrance to Nubra Valley is brilliant as usual and then you suddenly notica that the bottom of the Valley is covered in sand dunes
- Reached Hundar - decent place to stay
- Cannot enter the tiny canals that go through the village - waters drinkable and people do not filter it.
- Headed to the desert.
Why is it that a lot of folks who (think they) believe that they don't give a shit about money and the whole money corrupts stuff - spend so much of what isn't theirs?
THE DESERT
Before heading to the desert I met up with Lucy and took Mary along for company. On reaching the edge, the rest waited to see if they could get a ride on one of the Bactrian camels ( which by the way is a seriously cool animal - fuck! two humps man woo ho ho). So I bid adieu and walked into the sands.
- walked walked walked.
- sat and chilled. Lucy is now yelling herself hoarse in my ears. A decision has been made that never again will I meet her in Bombay.
- (now this is weird but totally true) met this guy who looked like a Chinese Marlboro man - cowboy hat, high boots and dressed in black leather and all. Marl Man ( will call him that) was going around with a sack in his hand picking up anything he found interesting ( not much since there was nothing but sand around). Marl Man was basically sick of Chinese communism, had run to the US, found it to be too capitalist and was now in Ladakh following the Buddhist trail. So I sat and chatted with him for a while until I saw the dog. The dog was around 200 metres away and looked pretty interesting and so I left Marl Man and walked. The dog was extremely cool but was covered in these insects which were basically taking shelter in its fur. Dunno if they were also feeding off the dog - didn't seem so.
Another dog I found with the same insects on it. Enlarge it.
- The sun began to set ( I think) and I started back via another route.
- Met a group of hippie types who were already sitting in a circle. - good fun.
- Got back to the town and the place we're staying. The others are pretty wound up for some reason.
Apparently pretty happy
- Still chilling now, everyones asleep and I am on the roof of the house we are in. The first time I have ever actually seen the Milky Way in all its glory.
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THE DOG STAR - DAL LAKE - SRINAGAR ( Day something)
Change in plans. I AM IN BLOODY SRINAGAR!! woo hoo!!
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So basically we were booking our train tickets bac from chandigarh when the lord and Law figured there was no way that they were gonna do the drive from Leh back to Manali. Also, Law wanted to fly back from Delhi/ Chandigarh. So while all this was happening (at the travel agents office), I think Iggy asked what the flight from Sinangar to Bbay costed and things just rolled on from there.
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- Met Fat John an American guy. Fat john is a schoolteacher (and I have always liked talking to teachers - dunno why) and travels once every 2 years. Fairly intelligent guy. Told me about the time he went to Cambodia. Apparantly a guy approached him and asked him if he wanted to fire off a few guns (he had a choice of a few makes) - for $20. The guy also told him that for another $200 he would be given a RPG launcher and allowed to blow up a cow.Hmm. I need to travel to these places man.
- Was walking in the back alleys in Leh and I found the red light district. IN LEH!!.
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- Good drive to Srinagar. Driver was a bit of a pain though.
- Passed through Kargil and Drass - very cool.
- Nathu-la is one awesome pass.
- Saw the bit of land all the Amarnath yatra commotion is about.
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- Am bored of my log, I'm writing for the sake of writing and there are certain facets of myself I would rather not put down on paper. I am definitely judgmental to a level I did not know. On the plus side (or negative I'm still not sure) the going-on's of other people do not seem to bother me too much. The kashmiris (not to be mistaken with Ladakhis) depress me. I like the quiet of the lake at night, alone on a shikara. The stomping of jackboots at night disturbs me. I need to come back to find the soul of this place.
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That's it folks. I had to edit a lot out and since the blog is mine I don't have to give a reason for doing it. For a little more info on what i thought of Srinagar - an older post
Adios.
1 comment:
you are like the energizer bunny.. you keep going and going and going and going....
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