RaveBurbleBlog

Sarahan, the “Gateway to Kinnaur”, is an exquisite place. It had been described to us by somebody as ’something like being in fairyland’. Well, I’m not quite sure about fairyland, but it is as beautiful a place as anywhere I’ve ever been, and we enjoyed our brief stay there immensely.

With one or two exceptions: [read on]

Leaving Chitkul was a very hard thing to do. We’d fallen in love with this village and didn’t want to leave it. Where else had we wondered what the crowd of people around the pole was on the side of the gorge and discovered it was the village telephone being used? Where else have I played on a one-man cable car over a broiling river or stacked river rocks beside grazing donkeys? In no other village have I drunk ice-distilled Angori with a toffee in it to kill the tequila taste (personal dislike of mine, tequila - and no, I’m not telling you that story.), or eaten salty, hacked-off bits of mutton specially brought to the village and cooked for us by an important local. Nor have I sat sipping on ‘Nature-Simulated Apple Juice’ looking at the sun going down over the higher peaks of the Himalayas. It’s a pretty hard act to follow. [read on]

Raj, owner of our guesthouse in Chitkul, is a very interesting guy to talk to. He is very high caste, is the local postmaster and also secretary of the temple committee. In fact, you might as well come right out ... [Continue reading this entry]