Day 3
I did not sleep well last night. Since the ceiling fan was
not working I had a customized table fan installed (read, hanging precariously
from 2 nails bored into the wooden window frame). Since it could only point in
a particular direction and my bed was kind of far away, it offered very little
relief for me. When I went to sleep, it was still hot and so was tossing and
turning for a while. After that I must have dozed off only to wake up feeling
cold. So I got up, switched off the fan and tried to sleep again. There was no
blanket and so I was still feeling cold. However I was too lazy to take out my
sleeping bag which was intentionally packed at the bottom of the backpack
(since I thought I won't need it for the night). After a lot of tossing around
I finally took my towel as a blanket and slept fitfully. Also a guest house is
not designed to mask noise from other rooms. So anytime someone woke up to go
to the loo, the whole corridor would know about it. The alarm went off at 6:15
am to wake me out of my misery. After breakfast (of omlette, coffee and fried
potatoes) and some packing, was off at 7:45 am. After a 10 mins walk, we
reached a bus depot to take us to Syange. It is about 3 hrs. ride. We were the
last people to board the bus and so didn't have the choice of seats. They threw
our backpacks on the top of the bus and tied it there. There were about 10
people on top of the bus sitting on or near many backpacks. Once I entered, I
searched around for an empty seat. The floor of the bus was stacked with the
bottom layer of rice bags (about 20 kg rice per bag). After that 1st layer, in
some places, there was an additional layer of some other provisions. On top of
that, there were many daypacks and other small bags. So one had to step on the
seat handles to go anywhere in the bus. Also it was a small bus with about 23
people capacity. Already there were 27 people in the bus (with some sitting on the
steps, on daypacks, etc.). As I was searching for a suitable place to park my
behind, I was pointed to the last row (luxury row with seats right above the
rear wheels). Apparently it was a 5 seater and there were only 4 people sitting
there. There wasn't a semblance of free space between them. As I acrobatically
went to the last row I could see the look of dismay in their eyes. They were 4
guys from Israel (I would meet them on and off during the trek). They had to make space for me and I of course,
got the worst seat - squished between a guy in the middle who didn't have a
seat in front of him (hence had legroom) and a guy at the window. There was
barely enough space to park our rears and as soon as I sat down, both my knees
were forcefully pressing against the seat in front of me. So I had to sit with
my hands pressing the seat in front of me so that my knees won't scrap the
rough backside of the seat fabric. I lamented the fact that I had chosen to
wear shorts that day. If I and the person next to me turned to face each other
then we would end up in a lip lock. This was in a stationary bus. While I was
adjusting to my discomfort, my guide and porter were standing/sitting on a rod
near the entrance. They seemed a lot more comfortable than me. After a couple
of mins, the bus started. The land on which the bus was moving cannot be called
road by any stretch of imagination. It is a hiking trail that is wide enough
for bus to pass most of the time. Some places, it goes even wider to let
vehicles from other side pass side by side. This hiking trail is not flat and
smooth and soft. Most of the time it has many fist sized stones protruding from
different places. In the places where there are no stones, there is soft sand
that is now either slush or pothole filled with water (courtesy rain). As an
end result, the bus was continuously rattling and swaying from side to side. Sometimes,
when it would hit some pot holes, it would sway about 20 degrees multiple
times. Since there was nothing better to do, I was watching out of the window.
I am glad I don't have vertigo. Most of the time, there was barely a foot from
the bus tires to the end of the trail. When the bus swayed, we would get a nice
close-up view of the gorge below. At places the gorge was about 100 ft. deep
and when we climbed it would easily go to about 1000+ ft. deep. I noticed that
sitting on the steps near the bus door were a mother and her 2-3 year old son.
The mom was feeding a banana to the kid and the kid was silently eating it
while the bus was doing its best to simulate a roller coaster. I was imagining
if Nishanth was in the bus. I am sure that he would not have sat quietly in one
place and eaten a banana. He would of course have wanted to go to the other
side without help. In the process he would have fallen down multiple times, got
marble sized bumps on his head, would have cried a lot but still found a way to
get to the other side. Then he would want to repeat the process. While these
thoughts were occupying my mind the 1st few mins of the ride, the driver
decided to turn on the audio system. For the first few mins, he was fiddling
with a knob and seemed like he was trying to find a radio station. This knob
was above his head. So he had to look up when he was tuning it. This meant he
was frequently not looking in front while driving. Maybe sensing this and
fearing for the safety of the bus, the woman in front of me started praying.
She raised her hands to make a namaskar and started muttering something (seemed
more like crying). I initially thought that she had lost it. During the course
of the journey i changed my opinion to wise old woman and finally to our
guardian angel. For the first few mins all we could hear was static. Then
gradually we could make out some strains of flute. The moment the driver heard
flute sounds, he would start fine tuning and get full fledge static in return.
After about 10 mins of this we started to hear music and a song. It was a
Nepali song and seemed like a cross between Nepali folk and devotional song. If
you can, imagine the song "kaise jeeyunga main, agar tu na bani, meri
sahibaan" from the movie Sahibaan and add a devotional tune to it. Anyway,
after a couple of verses of this Nepali song, the audio system started spurting
out a Hindi song. It went like this - some dhinchak beats followed by Ringa
ringa roses roses, pocket full of poses poses, husha husha we all fall down
.... Then something in Hindi which ended in a sentence to the effect of meri
jawani dekhkar everyone falls down. Obviously this had female lyrics and I am
fairly certain it sounded like a Bollywood song (I am very curious to find the
lyrics and movie name). As soon as the Hindi song started, the old woman in
front of me went into her frantic prayer like actions. I took it to mean that
she did not like the change of song. The audio system had a mind of its own and
after every couple of sentences; it would flip back and forth between the
Nepali song and this Hindi song. Every time the Hindi song came up, the old
woman would do her frantic praying motions. I was very puzzled by this behavior
and came up with this explanation - she was our guardian angel and was trying
to collect good karma to last us till the end of this bus journey. The Nepali
song, being part devotional, increased our good karma. I cannot imagine a song
that starts with ringa ringa roses roses to have any good karma. So I couldn’t
really blame her for praying for a different song. Now it all seemed to make
sense. In the meanwhile, the ringa ringa song became a hit with the Israelis
(as well as me) and we would cheer when the song came up. It did have a very
catchy tune. After about 15 mins of this song dance, we got to hear other songs
as well. There were a bunch of similar sounding Nepali songs interspersed with
3 Bollywood songs (the other 2 were well known songs), 1 English pop song, 1
English rock song and 1 English rap. Since the driver could go from one song to
another I believe it was a CD that he was playing. It sure had a weird
collection of song. After 1 hour of this journey, there was a checkpoint and
the Israelis had to get out for a few mins. I got a chance to spread my legs so
that the knees were not pressing into anything. It was pure bliss. However I
had peeled off some skin on my left knee. When the Israelis came back I
continued to have my legs spread and so the remaining journey was less painful.
After a few more mins the 1st English song came on. Coincidently (or maybe not)
our guardian angel started banging on the bus roof to catch the drivers
attention. This was not an easy feat since the music was blaring at full volume
and the speaker was conveniently located above the last row. So she started
shouting. Finally the driver took notice and stopped the bus. With a look of
disgust - either due to being stopped about 15 mts away from her intended
location or due to too much bad karma coming from the English song or due to
some other less sinister reason - she got down from the bus. I quickly jumped
to her seat. The woman next to her had also vacated her seat and so I had 2
seats to myself. I travelled Iike that for 10 mins and then my guide came and
sat beside me. Soon enough people were getting down and new people were coming in.
I now had a window seat and could get some good breeze whenever I could keep it
open. It was a sliding window that was shared by me and the person in my front
seat. For some reason this person wanted to peek out of the window all the
time. And what a peek it was! His top part of the body - armpits and up- was
outside the window. This resulted in him getting a big open window and me
getting just the glass part. Since it was hot inside, I finally patted him on
his head. When he came in and turned to look back, I pushed the window, pointed
to it and gave him my best smile. That seemed to work for a few mins and every
now and then I would find my window shut and this monkey hanging out. I would
then give the glass a not so gentle nudge and he would get the point for the
next few mins.
When another vehicle confronted our bus, our bus would 1st
stop, assess the situation and then reverse for anytime from 10 sec to a full
min. We would then come to the part of the trail that IMHO had enough space for
our bus and a jeep. However when the vehicles would pass each other side by
side I got a feeling that there was an additional space for a motorcycle a
well!!
Once, the bus came to a stop since there was a big muddy
puddle about 10 mts in length. A motorcycle was stuck in the mud and could not
move. The bus driver stopped, got out and with some other helpers waded in the
ankle deep mud and literally lifted the motorcycle out of the muck. They then
washed their legs in the same water and got back into the bus - business as
usual. Needless to say, progress was very slow but there were enough things to
keep the mind occupied. Also the scenery outside was getting better. Got my
first glimpse of snow clad mountains behind the big valley that we were
traversing. There we some waterfalls along the way and the river was always to
our right and below. There were green field terraces on the mountain slopes and
lots of green trees. The bus then had another major stop where they emptied all
the rice and other provisions at a general store along the way. It was an
extended break and we all got to go out to stretch our legs. The locals ate junk
food in plastic wrappers and threw the plastic on the road. They then drank
water or coke and threw the empty plastic bottles on the road. I am very
disappointed with the trash and filth in such a beautiful place. The tourists
seem to have the awareness and I haven't seen a tourist litter anywhere as yet.
However the locals litter any and everywhere and whenever we pass a small town,
there is always a lot of filth, plastic garbage littered nearby and a strong
smell of cow/mule/horse dung. I think I really would have preferred a trek
without any human civilization nearby. I would have easily forgone luxuries
like hot/cold shower, toilet facilities, guesthouse bed, etc. to enjoy nature
without the obnoxious side effects of human coexistence.
Finally, we reached our destination, a tiny town just
outside of Synange. We got down in front of a guesthouse at about 11:15 am and
decided to order lunch before heading out for a 2-3 HR trek to Chamye. Here I
found that due to the delays of the previous day, i had lost a day and would
not get to spend an extra day in upper pisang as originally planned. I was a
little bit bummed about it. I had very delicious chicken mo mo for lunch. We
left just after noon. Initially Raj took us on a steep climb instead of the trail
used by vehicles. We had to take two breather stops the 1st 15 mins.
I began to worry whether i could keep a decent pace and whether the hike would
always be this steep. I wasn't particularly enjoying the start of the hike and
what had preceded it. The camera bag was bouncing of my thighs after every step
and bothering me. I hadn’t got into a rhythm; the 2 hiking poles seemed awkward
and not particularly helpful on the steep climb. After that we stuck to the
more gradual trail that is also used by vehicles. A soon as the steep hike
ended, the sun was shrouded by big, gray clouds. The clouds looked ominous and
foretold a heavy downpour. However I was glad of the sudden drop in temperature
and the start of a brisk breeze. It felt as if I had stepped into AC. With
renewed vigor we continued the hike and suddenly the whole world felt
beautiful. It was just me and the mountains, nothing else seemed to matter, the
weather was perfect, nice breeze and the scenery was getting better all the
time. I soon got into a brisk hiking rhythm and was easily able to keep pace
with the guide and porter. We were always parallel to the river and we saw many
waterfalls along the way. They were on the other side of the valley and
presented good photo opportunity.
The issue with carrying a DSLR is that it is
big and awkward to carry while hiking. So every time I had to take a picture, I
had to set aside my hiking poles, open the camera case, take out the camera, click
and then put it back in its bag. The camera bag was on my side and dangling
with every step. If I put it in my backpack then every time I had to take a
photo, I would have to remove my backpack as well. These things are more
peaceful with a travel companion. The pleasant hike continued for some time
before it started to rain. After sometime the rain became little heavier. So we
took a quick break. I put the camera and iPad in a plastic bag, my wallet and
passport pouch in another plastic bag and took out my waterproof shell jacket.
I put it over my backpack as well so that protected my backpack as well as my
back. As soon as we put on our waterproof gear, the rain stopped within a
couple of mins. We then came across a big and lovely waterfall very close to us
on the other side of the river. So I ditched the shell jacket, put it back in
the bag and removed the camera. After a few snaps, we started again.
Within 5
mins, we reached our destination Chamye. It is essentially a place that is
about 50 mts in length and has 4 tea houses on either side of the road. That's
it. I am staying in one of the tea house. It felt as if the trek ended today
just after I had warmed up. Anyway there is always tomorrow. After checking
into my room, which is a 10X8 room with 2 single beds and 2 windows (and
nothing else), I took a shower, washed some clothes and shaved. Surprisingly
there was warm water and I felt heavenly after the shower.
We had reached Chamye
after only 2 hrs. of trek and I felt more confident of my ability to do the
climb within or better than the average time that the guide or websites tell
you. We had reached the guesthouse around 2 pm and after finishing the chores,
it was only 3:45. So I sat outside my room with my iPad and started writing the
daily log. There was now a strong breeze blowing. So I got my t-shirts to dry
outside. But the wind was so strong that they were about to fly off. So I had
to get clips from the tea house owners and then hang them to dry. It felt
really great sitting outside in the lovely breeze with rain likely to fall
anytime. After sometime it started to feel cold. So i put on my thermal pants,
fleece jacket and woolen socks and sat outside again. Soon it started to rain
and I had to remove the t-shirts and put them on a chair in front of me. Again
it felt cold and so I put on another jacket, another pair of woolen socks and
woolen cap. Soon it was pouring heavily and it felt great to sit under shade
enjoying the breeze and rain. The call for dinner came at 6:15 pm. I had
ordered simple stuff - dal, rice, 1 veggie, pickle and papad. I also ordered
garlic soup and it came nice and hot. Felt good to drink it after sitting out
in the cold. The food tasted yummy too since I was ravenous. Got done by 7 pm.
As I was climbing upstairs to go to my room, I saw that the mountain in front
had a fresh snow cover. It was really windy outside. I hoped the trail would be
ok for tomorrow and that it would stay dry during the day. Tonight it's going
to be some more typing finishing the blog, some reading and early night out........
Random Facts
Cost of bottled water in Chamye - Rs 80
No cell phone coverage here.
I am told that we can switch to boiled water + water
purification tablet tomorrow.
Altitude - 1385 mts
