Kota Bagh - Himalayian Jungle

From Kashmir we decided to travel South and East to be under the Himalayas rather then on top of them!
We drove from Srinagar to Jamu in a 4x4 Taxi, the driver said it should take around 8 hours but we had heavy traffic most of the way so it ended up being 14 hours, fortunately we had given ourselves plenty of time before our train was scheduled.  On the platform of the train we met Rohit and his family who were travelling on the same train as us, Rohit is living in New Zealand but from India originally. He made sure we were settled on the train and talked with us for some time.

The train was a 3rd class AC which meant three beds upper, middle and top on two sides of a cabin so 6 of us... really it was quite good and we all slept well, waking up the following morning feeling good and able to enjoy the rest of the journey.

We arrived on Hariwar train station and the place looked like a mess!! Fortunately we were soon in a prearranged taxi and on the way to Kota Bagh and the jungle.

We had seen monkeys on the road the day before but this was the first time that Lili had seen them properly and pretty close, we arrived at the driveway and climbed down the path through the banana trees.  We were greeted at the bottom by Arun our host and a few other volunteers.  Quickly we were aware at how beautiful the place was and how alive it was! Plenty of birds like bee eaters and others that I had never seen before.

The first night was spent having a drink with everyone which was quite fun and entertaining, largely due to Arun who is a rich old drunk crazy Indian guy, at least that's how he described himself... he was quite fun but really changed after a few beers and a bit of rum!!

The next morning I went for a walk by the river and quickly bumped into many spider webs... I remembered the scene from Lord of the rings when Frodo had problems with a big spider!! The spider here though seemed quite friendly towards humans or at least they ran away when I put my hand near them, which was comforting.

The first week we shared the house with Jimmie and Sara, Jimmie and myself both liked taking nature photos so were happy to go off on early morning walks looking for good subjects to snap! Sara is Spanish so it was nice to hear that language again after a few months..  We painted the house of Arun and cleaned his garden of weeds and in the afternoons went for walks.

The second week I met some of the local villagers and got talking to them.  JP Pants and family will remain close in our hearts as true Indian family who wanted nothing from us other than our friendship and maybe a diamond ring when his daughter gets married! But Mr Pants you are a true gentleman and scholar and a good friend and yes I will write to you!!  Easier if you join the world of the internet though!

Kota bagh village was about a 1 hour walk from the house, just as we entered the village there was a school which had lots of monkeys roaming around the grounds, we went in out of curiosity and of course the kids wanted to talk to us and take pictures etc... it was all very cool and the boys were good to chat with and have fun with.

On the final days before leaving the rice became ready to harvest, so the girls joined the other women in the fields cutting the rice and having a good banter with them as well.

After 11 nights in the jungle countless spiders of all sizes, three scorpions, hundreds of butterflies and birds and some new friends it was time for us to leave and head for Rajasthan!

Srinagar

Srinagar has been described as Venice of the East and Heaven on Earth.  It is the capital city of Kashmir.  A valley hotly disputed between kashmiries India Pakistan and China.

It is dominated by its lakes and mountain backdrops. We were furtunate to enjoy the experience of staying on one of the 1200 house boats that are home to many people on Lake Dal. Like in Venice the local transport are small boats with a single rower, here the boats are named Shikaras.

Oar boats Dal Lake

Lili and Sandrine on Shikara Dal Lake

Dal Lake is full of boats and people, but no noise, as all the boats are hand powered not a motor boat in sight.  The only sounds to be heard are the sounds of the many birds, with flocks of Black Hawks circling above and occasionally swooping down to catch fish from the lake to three different kinds of Kingfisher and herons.

Kingfisher on Dal Lake

Heron on Dal Lake

On our second day in Srinigar we had the great of pleasure of holding Lilis second birthday..  We invited the only people we knew in town and our friends Saqib, Melanie, Jeane and Rihan went and bought a chocolate birthday cake some pic nic stuff and headed to the botanical gardens.. The weather was great, the place beautiful and we had a party in the park with the kids running freely and all adults enjoying it too..

Everybody who I talked to asked me how long I had been in Kashmir and did I like it, my customary response was just a few days and yes it was very nice, they would then tend to say how it was the greatest place on earth and by the way don´t believe what they show you on TV about Kashmir. The feeling I got was that everyone was very patriotic if slightly paranoid. At the time of our visit the news said that 40 militants had crossed the border from Pakistan and were now in India and the Indian army was killing some and still chasing others...  We met two journalists working for Times of India who told us they were in town to cover the story, I expressed my belief that it all seemed rather like a show, the journalist looked straight at me and said yes, it was all a show for politics, there was never any invasion of militants...  Perhaps the Kashmir people were not so paranoid after all.  

Kashmir is Muslim dominated and the morning prayer call was followed by one hour of singing from 5 in the morning till six, which is unusual as prayer is a time of concentration, I asked my friend Saqib about this and he said he believed it was from the time that Kashmir had been mostly Hindu, once the Hindus had reverted back to being Muslim they still continued to want to be noisy as is typical in their religion so that is why there was singing in the morning... whatever the reason it was pretty strange to be woken up to a city singing every morning..

After 9 days in Kashmir it was time to leave, Danial the brother of Saqib had successfully booked us on a train from Jammu to Haldwani, it was to be our first Indian train journey.  Before we left, we took another Sikara ride and also visited a national park which is famed for its black bears and leopards, unfortunately the only ones we saw were in an enclosure for rescued animals, we did however have a close encounter with a Himalayian Viper, which is a deadly snake, our park ranger/guide removed the snake with a stick, clearing it of the road where it had been and placing it safely to the side.  

Room with a view,  black hawks were constantly around us and getting photos was easy

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View of part of Dal Lake from mountain

On the road from Leh to Srinagar

I have been told to use less facts and more emotion in my blog.... so lets see how this goes...!

So having met Mel, Saqib, Ryan and Jane the day before we embarked on a two day adventure through the Himalayas in their car.

An early start and we just about managed to stuff 6 adults and 2 kids luggage and all into one car... Driving in India is always an experience and much of that comes down to who is driving you as much as who is on the road with you... Saqib turned out to be a good driver, fast and likes to overtake as much as possible, but I think we all felt safe.

The landscape was stunning with desert mountains mixed with river valleys of the Indus and scattered villages.along the way.  We stopped for lunch in a village with a camp-site called swastika which does not mean the same for Indians as it does for many other people.

Saqib was keen to get to one stretch of mountain before dark as it was single track dirt road which meant if a truck was coming the other way, you had to reverse with sheer drops into ravines...nice... we were making good time when we came across a small obstruction, the had dug the road up and were placing a metal pipe into the hole, the whole thing took about half an hour... finally we made it to the mountain path and fortunately followed another car and came across no trucks!!

We arrived at our destination after a couple of stops to check our paperwork and pay some road taxes... Kashmir the land of red beards and Islam in the mountains.

The farm where we stayed was based in a rural village where the did trekking up to nearby lakes... we spent the day with them, horse riding and walking before continuing our journey onto Srinagar.

Leh, India, the roof of the world!

Leh is a major city located in the most northern state of India Kashmir and Jamul. This state borders both Pakistan and China and has been subject to many battles both for sovereignty and control.

Leh has a civil population of 70,000 people and an army population of 700,000. Geographically it is important; somebody told me that LEH stood for Life Ends Here.   Leh is situated in the Himalayas it is one of the world’s highest cities located above 3500 meters.  When we arrived at the airport I noticed a sign on the wall which was talking about altitude sickness which was possible for people above 10,000 feet, Leh is about 11,200 feet above sea level.

We got out of the airport and were met by a group of guys who were touting for business, I walked past them but Sandrine got caught in conversation with one and we ended up getting in his minivan type taxi to go to the hostel that I had booked for one night, on the way he introduced himself as Dowji, I thought he was not too dodgy but still the name was quite close. DJ was explaining that we could stay in a guest house of his or one of his cousins for 5-600 rupees a night, our hostel was costing 700 so I was interested.  When we got to our hostel he looked at it and said why did you book here, very far from anything and old and sometimes people here sometimes not… I looked at him then the place and I agreed… I said DJ show me one of your guest houses… five minutes later I was standing in a clean room with double bed and on suite bathroom with a small well-kept garden and views of mountains from the bedroom and bathroom windows, we settled on 600 rupees a night and said thanks to DJ. That’s when my headache started.

Altitude sickness does not affect everyone but is quite common none the less, for me it was a chronic migraine type headache which lasted for nearly 24 hours and kept me in bed for the same time.  In fact everyone is requested to rest for the first 24-36 hours once arriving at altitude.  One of the other guests staying in the house was a French couple they had some pills for altitude sickness, one type from France in a white box and instructions and the other type in a brown bag from a local monk.  I took the brown bag!  I took the brown balls that resembled rabbit droppings and crushed them into hot water and drunk the brew.  The taste was rather earthy but not unpleasant; however 5 minutes later I was running for the toilet and losing my stomach!  Whether or not they had any effect I have no idea but by morning I was feeling better.  Walking at altitude takes a little getting used to as there is less oxygen your body suffers.  Lili also caught a bug and was sick alongside me and then continued for several days after.  Of course we want her to get well but she is so calm when she is ill it is like having a little peace and relaxation that we normally do not get with her…

In Leh the people speak Ladachi and the most common word that you hear means hello, goodbye and thank you, this word is Jullay, what a great word it is!!  We spent the first week getting Lili better and just resting ourselves with short walks into town and early nights.  Leh is a small town mostly supported by tourism, the highlight of the week was the final day of the festival, this involved some speaking from politicians and dancing from locals dressed in traditional clothes… the clothes and dancing were great, the speeches were a little strange…

We had dinner in the house of DJ, with his sister, bother in law and nephew, Lili was looking quite weak and ill, so the boys took her and Sandrine off to the hospital, the doctor confirmed that there were plenty of people at the moment with this bug, gave us some medication and recommended to keep her hydrated with mineral salts and water, Lili refused to take her medication nor would she drink the salty water!! A couple of days later it was my turn to take her to the hospital as she still was suffering and we wanted to see the pediatrician.  I got to the hospital waited in line paid 2 rupees was given a piece of paper then stood outside the appropriate  office with 10-15 other parents, we all gave our slips of paper to a nurse, I waited 10 minutes under the curious scrutiny from all the other mothers and guess whose name they called first…mine… sometimes it helps to be a foreigner in India, I said sorry to the other parents as many were obviously in line before me, but hurried in past them no matter… I hate queuing!!  Doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics but thought she was fine; Lili refused the medicine again…  Next day we took a day trip to Shay and a small village next to it where there was a Buddhist temple the monk gave us some medicine and asked us to return the next day which we did… Lili was almost back to normal, the monk told us not to worry she was fine… and she was… playing with the young boys who were staying at the temple and training as monks.

With Lili feeling better, we also started to enjoy Leh and enjoy the natural beauty of the place; the mountains are very dry and basically desert like. Leh is very remote and suffered from many power cuts which was fine but meant that you needed to carry a torch with you everywhere.

In Leh there was the Santi Stupa overlooking our house which is a Buddhist monument with pictures describing Buddha’s life, it also gave a great view of Leh and over to Leh temple which in its time was the highest building in the world!

 I kept asking the price of getting to Manali and how long it would take. Manali appeared to be the only way to get out of Leh before the potential of snow arrived… 16-18 hours on a minibus on a non-tarmacked road did not seem that much fun, but what were our options?

We went down to breakfast and found that the internet café that served breakfast as well was without power so we decided to venture a bit further into town and came across another place which seemed cute, we went inside sat down but were unhappy of the small of diesel from the generator so went outside and sat at one of the tables there. There were some French people talking to a German lady, they heard Sandrine talking with Lili and Prunelle in French and soon started chatting, the conversation soon went onto what everyone was doing next and how we were getting there.  They it seemed were going to Kashmir in their own car a mere journey of 13 hours on a better road than to Manali… yes!!! They invited us to j

oin them on their journey…. Thank you Saqib and Melanie…

We said goodbyes to our host family that night who we had spent several dinners with and some good time learning about the region religion and languages.  Sandrine had cooked one of the meals she had learnt in Turkey; unfortunately I think she needs a little more practice...