Kalga 24th - 6th August

Up early and with Ifat we took a 4h bus ride to Kasol, it was a good ride and we didn't sit at the back!! Once at Kasol the connecting bus to Barashani was a convient 15min wait - excellent.

Barashani was dismal, we arrived in the rain and the noisey dam project chuffing out black smoke gave us second thoughts to our destination - Kalga a 45min walk UP, foolishly we still had our big bags, neigh mind its all character building (well thats what I've been told!). We arrived on our knees, needless to say a very sweet chai and a hot bucket was in demand. The rooms here are great and the views fantastic (even if we where pestered by bed bugs - again mummy liner essential).

We are now in the Parvati Valley, famous in the 90's for the mysterious disappearances of dozens of travellers - apparently the raging Parvati River is is the best way to cover a crime, no lone trekking! Kalga is a beautiful terraced hamlet on the edge of old pine forest. While here we played cards, read, walked around the area, taking trips to Pulga, Tosh (neighbouring villages) and Khiraganga.

The latter place is 2900m, has hot springs and is a beautiful 4H walk up from Kalga, again the rain found us yet, it was refreshing.

We decided to stop for chai were the heavens opened and we sat and waited for it to stop.... for 2h we sat....and waited.... it stopped and we arrived just before dark giving us time to fit in a quick and well deserved dip...oooohhhh. Unfortunatly we saw nothing but cloud for 2days - the views are supposed to be stunning from here.

In fact it rained so much while we were there the restaurant place had to dig a channel throug the place were a river ad started to flow (I kid ye not).

Manali 13th - 23rd July

We arranged a jeep with 6 other people from the Rainbow Guest House to drive to Manali. Left at 19:30 in a small taxi for the first 2 hours of the trip, its a 485 km journey! We rendouved with our jeep on a deserted road at the start of the mountains and the end of the good road. We all felt as if we had been had and were going to be robbed and shot in the middle of nowhere!! We arranged ourselves in the jeep all seven of us and started the 18 hour drive.
At 02:00 we stopped at the borber as it was closed until 05:00 and tried to settle down to some sleep - at this point we felt cheated as there was no mention of this wait in the jeep. The roads were that bad that we were all thrown around in the jeep all the way. David and Shoam could not sleep so went into on of the tent camp hotels (on the drivers behalf to shush the stick they where giving him!) for a couple of hours good kip and to leave some more room in the jeep for the others. 15:00 we were off again bumping our way to Manali and arrived battered, miserable and knackered.
Now, the journey was a misery but, we had great moral support in each other and the views were not spoilt by our moods.

It was fantastic green and boulder scenery with wild weather creating a awesome atmosphere and there were a few truck carcasses in the valley below that struck fear into every corner we blindly wheeled round. Its the second highest road in the world and reaches 5328m and the road is scared by glacial streams. After the Rohtang pass (3978m) the road starts to drop into Himachal Pradesh, incidentally the name of this pass literally means 'piles of dead bodies', comforting.
At 18:30 we arrived had a another arguement with the grouchy driver and booked into the dirtist G.H. but, G.H. with most character in Vashesht 20 min up a mnt. Mummy liners essential.

Vashisht is made of traditional timber houses and narrow muddy lanes off the main road where you can also find apple orchards, waterfalls, wildlife, mnts and has good views of Manali and the river Bees. It also has sulphur springs that I chose not to frequent as the ladies area could distinctly be viewed from the road if an 'innocent' head was popped over the wall, David didnt fancy it either cos of the smell. For two nights we stayed here then went to join the oters in Old Manali which is just as beautiful, old wooden houses with heavey stone roofs are decorated with herbs, chillis and tabacco to dry.

Manali is in the Kullu valley and in winter is a premire ski resort. The nights were a good time to sit and let the winged wildlife land on you (you have no choice!) and enjoy the spectacle of the hunted and the hunters (geckos and frogs). Here we found an excellent Korean restaurant with food out of this world, a good secret shown to us by Racksaw (sorry sp.) or neighbour.

Poor David is suffering at the hands (or proboscis) of those tat bite at night and comes up in little puss filled balls onsite of attack. The fresh trout here is mouth watering! Manali for us was good excercise. We had a few local walks and a bit of shopping therapy. We found the most seriously gorgeous cookies in the world at Dylans - warm, guey and creamy chocolate chunks, they even more enjoyed after the hour it took to freshly bake them - every time worth the wait.

Everyhouse has a cow (or two!)

Leh 18th June - 12th July

Took a bus from Srinagar to Leh and set off at 08:00. The bus was full of locals except for us and an Austrian called Robert who we started chatting to. It stopped every 2 hours for comfort stop and we soon left the army camps ans guns behind us. The bus climbed into the mountains and the road became worse, we had back seats (again) and are now pros at sleeping while seeming to be listening to Metalica. There were 3 passport checkpoints on the way whch were a little inconvienient. Arrived at Kargil at 18:00 hours for the night stop and were told to get off the bus. Found a room which we shared with Robert and Ross from Somerset for 50R per night - worse room we have stayed in yet! So we tucked up in our mummy liners.
Up at 04:30 for the bus and just made it in time to stow our bags on the roof and we were off. The scenery changed every hour as we went up into the snowline round hare pin bends and sheer drops, we really wished we could have taken photos but all we would of have captured is blurred vision! The mountains where red, purple and yellow contrasting with the icey blue rivers that we meandered with. Arrived in Leh at 18:00 and shared a taxi with Robert to Rainbow Guest House which was fantastic - double room en-suite for 150Rs.

Leh is in Ladakh, far eastern India. It is an high altiude dessert bordered by both the Himalaya and the Karakoram Ranges (the latter we saw in China at Kashgar). This place gets only 4" of rain per year! Yet this year, speculating global warming, about 1mth after our departure, along with other parts of Northern parts of India they suffered from catatrophic flooding from freak rainfall. The established architechure is very Tibetan and the old town is a maze of mud brick dwelling, in contrast the irrigated farmland provides a distinct difference in land use - its sooo green!
The time in Leh was just what we were looking for - somewhere to be totally lazy. It was aso a good place to stay whilst the World Cup was on. Had many lazy mornings and afterneens with late nights after football games due to the time difference. Tracy visited the taylors to have 2 Indian outfits made and My treat was to have a shave at the barbers every 4-5 days. The weather was perfect with hot,sunny clear days and cool nights. We visited the stupas, gompas and wandered all over the area.
The Hemis festival ran for two days and we took the tent. Hemis is a tiny hamlet based around a large Tibetan temple. We found a farmhouse and asked to camp. On the way to Hemis we were able to see the massive and impressive gompa at Tikse.

We arrived the day before so looked at all the preporations and walked up to the next monastry 2k away - but it was 2k up a steep mountain but was well worth it and we did not see another sole and where warmly welcomed by the monks and pilgrims.

Had a lovely, simple daal in the kitchen of the farmhouse and then retired.

Woken the next day by traffic noise, looking along the valley we saw a procession of motor bikes,vans,busses,jeeps,lorries etc all converging on this tiny place - tourist festival fever in air con jeeps and pligrims crammed in pick-ups. We watched the festival start - wounderful costumes worn by the monks, dancing and dijointed music made with bells,drums,horns and stringed instruments.

The sun was blaring down on us and the monastry was packed so we left at midday. Made our way back to Leh for Roberts leaving party.
While in Leh we ate good ladakh and tibetan fair and was able to refill our water bottles to avoid adding to the plastic waste.

Surviving 15 Days Trekking in Kashmir

We broke our one week on the houseboat by booking a 15 day trek up in the mountains of Kashmir. We bartered hard (well David did I don't have the patients for it - I must learn!) to get the price we wanted, the acting involved in this was dramatic to say the least, it was as if we where starving his family for not paying 80Rs thousand but 30 for the 15 days - honestly!

We are taking our tent and one big bag, the rest of our stuff will be stored for our return. We couldn't really make out if we where supposed to be in the mountains as our journey out of Srinagar envolved the driver paying bribes for passage. At arriva of our starting village of Naranark (?sp), we spent the night there to aclimatise to the altitude. We never really knew our height 'cos no one we where with knew - not even our guide! Our map says about 3500 - 4500, latter Ramadam (houseboat dude) told us we had been upto 4500m.

With three ponies, two pony men and one guide we where off, The first day was murder, it was up, up, up and more up. My head was dizzy and I was close to tears, David was really supportive and kept me going through the pain barrier. We broke through the forest and hit the snowline, we spent our first night on a huge grassy plain, today we really had to dig deep for energy. Camped the wrong way on the hill (trial and error) we kept rolling at night but that was the only inconvience as we slept like babies from our efforts.

What ever I tell you about the time we spent in the mountains just can't do the place justice, neither will the photos but we walked and climbed in meadows, boulder and snow fields, waded in freezing rivers, fished in pristine lakes, viewed glaciers, flowers, birds and hung out with the pony men an shepards from the area.
The first few days we felt the effects of altitude in our breathing when walking and climbing but we soon got used to it. We both went through the pain barrier on various walks feeling that we just wanted to give up and go home. I think we are both the better for gritting our teeth and carring on.
In the 15 days we had one day of rain and the rest of the time we were trecking in T shirts. Living conditions were basic - a wash in a freezing mountain streem in the morning and toilet facilities were behind a rock remembering to take some water to wash with afterwards. All our water had to be gathered from streams or rivers then boiled before drinking. The only light at night was from our tourches or if we were able to have a camp fire.

We visited Naranarg, Dronco, Gangabal Lake, Pakistan border, Magandorp, Satsa (seven lakes), Gansall and back to Naranarg. When we returned we were invited to the Pony Mans house and met his family and they cooked us a meal. The next day we headed back to the houseboat for a relax for 2 days.

Kashmir 28th - 18th June

Srinagar does not seem real: a busy town full of soliders, check points, bunkers, razor wire and then you have the lake: clear waters, lilly pads and lotus flowers, peace and tranquility, eagles and other birds everywhere, people welcoming us to Kashmir. We arrived at our houseboat and it's like a T.V. set from a 50's British soap, Hilda Ogden would be proud - no set of ducks on the wall tho - a disappointment yet, the ceiling was carved cedar an very intracate. On the boat we where waited on hand and foot (felt a little uncomforable at first about this), we lazed away drinking the Kashmiri's pride and joy - saffron tea which was very tasty.

We sat with the other two guests and exchanged stories of how we arrived on this boat, all three the same. Scam No.3: an america lady appears in the office in Delhi just after our arrival, she tells us she uses this office to make all her travel arrangements and today (at 6am for us!) she has come to book a train ticket. She leaves the office not booking the train ticket after telling us the glorious times she has experienced in Kashmir - bait and trapped. All three of us amazing!

We did very little on the boat but eat and drink and read and sleep. Meals became predictable but enjoyable, omelete with toast and jam, potato or cauliflower or cheese curry one night we had chicken. We supplimented our diet with fish David caught from the lake, they where small but yummy - apart from when they encouraged us to eat the heads too, ok if they where very small and crispy fish but the bigger ones eyeballs weren't dry and crispy but squishy and tasted of lake water - eewww!

We left this house boat full relaxed, resisting all family members of the owner who popped round to see if we wanted and photos, postcards, gems, jewelery and shawls, on a bus to Leh. Bound for freedom after feeling like prisoners in paradise on the boat.

The 26H Bus Journey to Kashmir

With our bags at our feet we made our selfs home on the bus that would take us to Kashmir in 26H. There was plenty of room on the bus and we had great big push back seats, the bus stopped regulary allowing us to stretch, feed and water as ness. It has been a great opportunity to catch up on our sleep that we have missed. During the stops we were looked after by a group of Kashmiri lads on their way home, these guys where most welcoming we shared meals with them and they taught us some Kashmiri too, yet, they did have a knack of talking about god all the time - David and I are definatly not the people to talk about god with, we get bored very quickly. The mood in the bus was warm and was excitable by the time we crossed the border into Kashmir (marked by a long tunnel), on exit everyone cheered and welcomed us to Kashmir - lovely! They talk of paradise and heaven on earth when they talk about Kashmir.
The diet change from Chinese to India was severe, but we had no ill effects and excitment began to grow within us over the new foods we had to try, the new people we'd meet and the environment we'd experience. The prodominant religion here is Muslim and it's very visually evident.
As soon as we crossed the border soliders started to appear and the road ascended and descended. At Srinagar a man boarded the bus with a card that read 'Mr David', in a 4x4 we where taken to Dal Lake ghats for a Shukera (flat bottomed gondala) cruise to our boat house 'Holy Night'.

India!! 27th May 2006

Arriving in Delhi, the airport was simple and had some comfy chairs that we snoozed on while waiting for the airport bus to town to start. At 5.30am we where on our way to the hostel we had been recommended to us by Jo, a short walk from where the bus dropped us.
Scam No.1: A bogus 'doorman' advises us they where full. We where aware of this scam but battered from a long journey and the physical fact that the man was very large in a very small doorway, relunctantly we aloud oursleves to be sheparded around Delhi to a 'travel agency'. Scam No.2: The man can't tell us any useful info on how we get out of Delhi, the only way seems to buy a tour from him! We look on the bright side we could do with a relaxing holiday after hectic China and book something that is within our budget - a week in Kashmir on a house boat. There was a bus leaving from the bus station (that he doesn't know about - funny eh?) that morning, we spent 5h in Delhi and off we where to Srinager. While we waited in the office for departure he offered us a free(?) tour of Delhi, the sites where impressive some big red buildings, temples, arches and long roads. It was good to have this tour by car as it allowed us to get our first glimpses of the country that would be hosting us for at least the next 6mths.