[Sandra & More] Leh-Manali-Delhi

[Sandra Cloostermans & Lluís Moré]

Sandra:

We have been without Internet for several days, since due to a fire in the head office, the whole region was without connection...

21st to 28th June
Lluís was really glad to leave Srinagar, because he was sick and tired of the Dal Lake Boulevard, that we had to pass every time we left our hotel to go somewhere. And yes, he is right, it is a nuisance to be considered a wallet-on-legs instead of a human being, and to have loads of persistent Indians trying to get you on their Shikara (boat) or in their shop (come inside, just look, no buy). On the other hand, I was already getting used to repeating over and over again “no thank you” with a big smile, and Srinagar had started to grow on me a little bit. I knew my way around, knew the good restaurants, the friendly hotel guy (who said that he was going to miss us), the bar next door for the morning chai, etc.

Anyway, time to move on, and I was also looking forward to the trip from Srinagar to Leh, that was described in the Lonely Planet as wonderful, and that is what it indeed turned out to be. OK, there was the bumping road, which left us with a soar bum and made me have to change positions the whole time, there was the hyperactive Indian guy in the back, who would never stop talking, there was the vertigo when looking down into the precipice at half a meter distance of the wheels of our 50-year old super-de-luxe tourist bus. But the overwhelming views made richly up for all of these minor inconveniences.We watched the changes from green vegetation with rice fields to a desert-type landscape with high, impressive rock mountains. It is a shame that pictures never reflect the immensity of a landscape, but just look at this one, multiply it by 100 and you’re almost there…

After the first day of the trip, we stopped in Kargil to spend the night. Lluís and I had already decided to go straight to one of the Lonely Planet guesthouses, that was supposed to have hot water showers. However, somehow, the adorable Austrian sisters, Barbara and Michaela, talked us into following them, because a guy had told them that none of the hotels in Kargil had hot water showers. This same guy ended up taking us to his guesthouse, offering us a room for 200RP. Well, a room that turned out to be a dirty dump hole, with a varied collection of insects and a terribly stinking shared bathroom.

But even after seeing the room, we had not learned our lesson - and here I can only offer as an excuse that we were really tired after a whole day in the bus. The guy led us to his restaurant for dinner, promising us a special price for being customers. We ended up paying twice as much as we would for such a dinner anywhere else. Well, I guess that being ripped off once in a while is inevitable when you are travelling around. You can’t always be alert…

The next day, after 4 hours of sleep and 10-11 hours of hobbling along impressive mountains and valleys, we arrived in Leh. There we found a very CCC guesthouse (cosy, clean & cheap), with a darling of a landlady, who welcomed us with a cup of tea and she would put tea at our door every morning.

In Leh, we spent a few nice and relaxing days. We enjoyed the international atmosphere: German pastries for breakfast (Ja, Hannelore, we hebben ontbeten op het terrasje van de Dolphin bakery. Best gezellig en een sympathieke bediening, maar wij hielden meer van de rustige tuin van de Penguin bakery, van dezelfde eigenaars, maar met meer gevarieerde gerechten), Tibetan momos for lunch, fresh fruit juices or lassis in the afternoon and Indian cuisine for dinner.

In the evening, we sometimes met up with the Austrian girls and their Australian friends, Sam & Sarah, to go for a beer in Leh Chen, which is thé bar for foreigners, since they serve the widest variety of alcoholic drinks. We also met Cecile, a 54-year old chatterbox, who looks like a 40-year old fashion model. She lives in Myanmar, a country that we had already dropped because of lack of time, but she convinced us that if any country is worth visiting, than it’s Myanmar. Well, we keep changing our plans along the way, according to the stories & findings of the people we meet…

Our stay in Leh coincided with the Hemis festival (25-26th June), which celebrates the birthday of Padmasambhava, who introduced Buddhism in Tibet. In Leh (in the region of Ladakh), there are many Tibetan refugees, and we saw lots of Tibetan faces, food, jewellery and gompas (Buddhist temples).

Since trekking (the most popular activity around Leh) was too expensive for our budget, and renting an Enfield motorbike too risky since they come without insurance, we decided to organize a 1-day trip to some of the villages in the neighbourhood: Basgo, Likir and Alchi. Once I have found out how to get the photobucket site working properly, I can add a link to a slideshow, but for now I include only a few pictures of our excursion.

28th June to 2nd July
After several days of relax, we were on form for the next bus trip, from Leh to Manali this time. Another 2 days of bumping, especially since we were almost in the back of the bus, but the landscapes were even more impressive than the former trip. This time we had the bad luck to have 6 Israeli guys right behind us, who considered themselves to be alone on the bus and made us listen to the latest Israeli pop-rock, to their chitchatting and their singing. On top of that, Lluis´ Ipod broke down, so we couldn’t even isolate ourselves to enjoy “Falete” or “The Cure” instead. They did have the excellent choice of music with “This monkey’s gone to heaven”, which they played just when we were driving through the clouds:

We spent the night in Sarchu, in a tent, at temperatures of around 5 degrees, but thanks to the thick blankets, we both slept quite well. Dinner & breakfast was very basic and not included in the bus fare (although the man from the agency had told us it was), but it gave us enough energy to cope with another day’s bus trip. We also met a nice French couple on their 4 months honeymoon, Stéphane & Benoit, who happened to be heading for Vashisht as well, a village close to Manali, and we crossed them several times during our stay there.

Our tent-for-two in Sarchu:

Vashisht is a kind of hippie village, very quiet and with the added charm of public baths, fed by “sipring water” (as they pronounce it here). We had a bath twice and the effect was as after a sauna. Wonderful! The rain season has already started in Manali, so we had rain during the night and in the morning, but warm weather in the afternoon, although quite cloudy sometimes. We made two excursions: one to Manali, a small town with little interest, and one to Old Manali, which is an Israeli colony, full of bars, restaurants, shops and guesthouses.

2nd to 4th July
Then we booked a ticket to Delhi on a sleeper bus, which was far more comfortable to sleep than the normal tourist buses. We arrived in Delhi yesterday morning and we were glad to notice that it was a little cooler than when we first arrived here, almost one month ago. There is also quite some rainfall here (exceptional for this time of year, according to the newspapers), but we prefer it a hundred times to the heatwave…

Our original idea was to go to Kathmandu from here and then go to Lhasa. However, a Basque couple we met in Vashisht (the first Spanish people in India!) told us it has become extremely expensive to get a travel permit for Tibet in Nepal, so we have decided to stay in Delhi and lock ourselves up in an Internet café, until we have found out the best way to continue. We’ll keep you informed!!

Lluis:
Després del petit avanç que vaig fer en forma de conte infantil per als mes petits de la familia, ara va pels més grans. En castellà, per que m´entenguin els que no entenen l’anglès i pels cosins de Bélgica que, tret d’en Josep, dominen millor el castellà.

La carretera que lleva a Leh desde Srinagar es una de las experiencias más increibles que puedas tener en la vida: dos días de viaje disfrutando de unos paisajes que son como mínimo “im presionantes”, por decirlo en dos palabras, jejej… Cuatrocientos cincuenta kilometros de carretera serpenteante, la mitad de ella sin asfaltar, colgada de las montañas, con precipicios altísimos, valles profundos y por supuesto, no apta para cardíacos o timoratos. Subimos de los 2400 metros de altura de Srinagar hasta los 3700 de Leh, capital de Ladakh, dentro del estado de Jammu and Kashmeer (J & K). Durante el trayecto pasamos de un paisaje verde y alpino, con glaciares que bajan de los picos más altos a otro rocoso y árido, casi desertico. Siempre subiendo montañas y atravesando valles, siguiendo el curso del rio.

Bueno, llegada a Leh sobre las 4 pm, compartimos taxi y encontramos una fantástica guesthouse, buena, bonita y barata. Pienso, “guay, cada tarde, siestecita güena, güena”. Pués bien, ni una triste siesta en seis días debido a una francesita petarda con amigos aún más petardos que se dedican a hablar a grito pelado. Si no fuera por que a estas alturas, la nieve ya se ha deshecho en Leh, seguramente ya habriamos perecido sepultados por un alud…

Leh, meca de moteros en ruta por la India, amantes de los trekkings y todo tipo de viajeros en busca de descanso diurno y algo de diversion nocturna. Leh es fantástica si tienes dinero suficiente como para hacer grandes excursiones al Valle de Nubra, al Lago Pangong o tantos otros sitios interesantes. Bien, esta claro que no es ésta nuestra situación, asi que nos contentamos con una visita en transporte público a Hemis, donde se celebra un “fiestorro” de tipo folcklorico-religioso muy apañado y colorido. En el templo los monjes bailan y fuera del templo los paganos del lugar se juegan las rupias en un casino al aire libre “made in india”.

Antes de irnos, nos gastamos la enorme cantidad de 1800 rupias en una visita en jeep a tres pueblos de los alrededores con sus respectivos “Gompas” (templos budistas) y sus respectivos monjes. “To mu gonito, zi zeñor!!!”

En resumen, vale la pena por el camino de ida, por el de vuelta (que luego explico), por los Gompas, por los monjes, por las vistas y paisajes, y no tanto por el ambiente que se vive en Leh, demasiados “guiris” y mucha tonteria en el ambiente para mi gusto. Sandra encantada: tiendas donde mirar (y comprar), sitios donde comer (y beber) y, sobretodo, gente con la que hablar, quedar por la noche y seguir hablando, enfin, ella lo disfruta y yo lo sufro, jejeje

Al final, tenemos que volver a Delhi, de paso para Katmandú y como “zemo mu pobre, mu pobre” y no nos podemos permitir ir en avión, iremos por tierra. Dos dias más de viaje hasta Manali (Himachal Pradesh), donde nos quedamos 3 noches y luego 15 horitas más de viaje hasta Delhi.

Los dos días de Leh a Manali, se pasan bien. La carretera es la segunda más alta del mundo, con una altura máxima de 5328 metros en el pico del Taglang La y otro puerto de 5060 metros (Lachlung La). Pasamos noche a medio camino en un campamento y nos dan una tienda pa nosotros solitos. La cena y desayuno nos sale por solo 350 rupias”each” (todo un atraco a mano armada, en fin…). El paisaje IN-CRE-I-BLE, no encontramos ni una sola casa en 300 kilómetros.

Llegada a Manali y lo primero que vemos es que aquí la Marihuana, aparte de ser mala para la salud, también es una mala hierba que crece por todas partes. Hermosas que están las plantitas, altas y fuertes… Estamos tres dias en Manali, centro turístico para Indios y para los que “hacen el indio” (lease: toda la colonia israelí de viaje post-mili). Suerte que nosotros nos alojamos en Vashist, un pueblecito muy mono y tranquilo en la ladera de la montaña donde tomamos un relajante baño termal a 50 grados centigrados todas las tardes.

De regreso a Delhi, en autobus DELUXE y en sleeper (litera) por solo 650 rupees que no está nada mal, pasamos por el Valle de Kullu. Toda una belleza de paisaje tropical con una vegetación exuberante, cascadas por todas partes y, como no, montañas todavía altísimas.

Llegada a Delhi y … sorpresa!! El calor se soporta bien, mucha humedad pero “chachi piruli”, no perdemos medio kilo a cada paso que damos, jejej tenemos hotel con terraza privada y un baño aceptable para los standarts de Main Bazaar, asi que no nos podemos quejar… Seguiremos informando.

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Publicado por Sandra Cloostermans & Lluís Moré para Sandra & More el 7/04/2007 01:39:00 AM