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]

The animal life in Chitkul is quite different from that lower altitudes. There are lots of donkeys, no snakes and I didn't meet one single cow wandering around the village. I was trying to think what was so different about ... [Continue reading this entry]

Another day went by, consisting of lolling, drinking chai and chatting. We had an afternoon rest from this exhausting business in our concrete cell, reading and doing crosswords. A local guy went past our open window (which wasn't actually very ... [Continue reading this entry]

Something we came across here in Chitkul was the occasional "Debta" (sp) stones. There was often a patch nearby where a fire had obviously been going. These stones are 2 or 3 feet high, stand alone and are not to ... [Continue reading this entry]

For me, the first night's sleep in Chitkul was terrible. I think it was from overtiredness, but I went to bed super early, had a crappy sleep then woke up at about 4.30am (again!) and ended up sitting outside on ... [Continue reading this entry]

Finally, we got onto the final bus of our burst up the mountains. This was fun as well. We were tearing along quite nicely, when suddenly the bus driver screams to a halt after a landrover passes us. The guys ... [Continue reading this entry]

We were very lucky to be on a bus with quite good seats. This meaning our knees did not touch the seats in front of us. The ride was very mountainous, which I was to find out as we went ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well, we ended up staying another night in Shimla. Sheer exhaustion dictated that this should be so, not to mention acclimatisation to altitude. The room we had (on the 4th floor, naturally, according to Murphy's law, which is continuously having ... [Continue reading this entry]