Travelogue With My Guddu - Part 3

After the two crazy days at Chitkul it was time for me to move further up the Himalayas. There was a bus to Reckong Peo at 0600 hours. I was ready with Guddu at 0500 hours at Chitkul bus stand, but to my disappointment, that bus was cancelled for the day. I was looking for other options like shared cabs which I could not find. I decided to hitch hike, I asked few tourists and their reply was a straight no. I was waiting with a hope and a TT came to a halt in front of me. Oh I exclaimed, it was Ojus, Geetha and their Vietnam gang. I was very happy to meet them again. To my luck they were also heading to Reckong Peo, they offered me to join them. But there was no seat, they were sweet enough to adjust.

😎😛

I got in and we started our journey towards Reckong Peo. Me and Geetha shared a seat for some time after which I sat down with my Guddu. Then our Punjab Ka Sher, Gulab Singh Bhaiyya asked me about my journey so far. Gulab Singh Bhaiyya was the TT owner cum driver cum caretaker, that’s how he introduces himself. Such a jolly going person he was, he was very happy to know that I was travelling solo, with so much excitement he listened to my experiences so far. He said that his wife also had this dream of travelling solo but she could never get that courage. I felt very happy about Gulab Singh for all the support he gives to his wife. In the place where wives are treated as mere caretakers, he has supported her in achieving most of her dreams. He says, “I want to inspire my wife, I want to stand by her and see her achieve her dreams”. I told him that he is doing the right thing which most of the men doesn’t. Then our talks drifted, Geetha shared how she met Ojus and how she got inspired by him and took up meditation. Geetha was a Software engineer, after working for 5 years in corporate she decided to quit and go back to her home town. She took up teaching as her profession and mediation as her way of life. There were 10 meditation students from Vietnam, even though they did not understand English much, they were sweet enough to accept me as part of their group. We all had a very good time. It was time for lunch, we stopped at Sangla and explored a bit of the place and started again.

Our Punjab Ka Sher was singing a Punjabi song and I must say he has an amazing voice. I asked him to translate that into English which he tried. We all four ended up in peals of laughter at his bad translation. We drove leaving behind those perfect landscapes. We reached Peo around 1800 hours and it was raining. The group had a plan of staying at Ojus’s friend’s house for two days and then further go to Kalpa. I wanted to continue my journey to Kaza, but there was only one bus to Kaza which leaves at 0530 hours every morning. So I had to stay at Reckong Peo for the night. Geetha forced me to stay with them, I was little hesitant. But later I decided to stay with them. Ojus’s friend was a local Kinnauri, his name fascinated me. He was named Manglu because he was born on Tuesday..!! His house was on a little hill which we had to climb.

Me, Geetha and Manglu were sitting on the roof and enjoying the sunset. We were sharing our travel stories, Manglu was an avid traveler. He rolled a joint, lighted it and took a long drag and gasped, This is life. Me and Geetha say each other’s face and grinned. Out of the blue, Geetha said Travel needs a lot of money..! Manglu pointed at me, and said neither of us are rich or employed but look at us how far we have travelled, it is just the consequences of our life choices. This put all three of us in deep thought. Manglu cracked a joke to make the moment light.! And the Sun went down in the layers of mountains leaving behind the darkness.

When we entered the house, we heard the vessels crinkle from the kitchen. All the 10 were inside the kitchen trying to cook. Geetha winked at me “Vietnamese cuisine for dinner today”.
We all sat down in a circle for dinner, I could only see colourful veggies and a black coloured liquid. Ojus explained me the food. Food is a very important part of our well-being, you become what you eat. Once all of us had understood this, we all turned Vegans. So this is your dinner for today. They served me some colorful bland veggies and some brown rice with a bowl of black coloured liquid and a pair of chopsticks. I said I have never tried eating with chopsticks. Geetha giggled, Try it now baby this is your day. I smiled at her and tried eating with the chopsticks for the first ever time in my life..! It was one mysterious dinner..

Dinner Time..!!

They all sat to meditate before sleeping, I joined them. Ojus explained me the basics. After which Manglu was kind enough to give his room to me and Geetha. I had to leave home at 0400 hours in the morning to catch the bus to Kaza, so I thanked everyone for all the help they did. Geetha said, “You are one crazy soul, your travel stories are so inspiring. Hope someday I get the courage to travel like you.! Keep travelling..” And then we all called it a day.

Next morning alarm rang at 0330 hours, I could not get up from my hypnotized sleep. And suddenly when I woke up, it was 0405 already. Like a panic stricken child I ran around gathering my things. It was 0420 hours when I left. Bus stand was a bit far, I was walking on the empty street. It was raining and dark because of the clouds. I hitch hiked till the bus stand. I was very late, it was 0445 hours and the bus was to leave at 0500 hours. My bad luck, the bus was already full. The guy at the enquiry suggested me to try shared cabs. I came out of the bus stand and was standing in a corner thinking. A guy came running towards me, I wondered why he was running towards this corner. He passed over me to fill water from the tap behind me. I asked him where can I find shared cabs. He then asked where I am heading to, I said Kaza. To which he replied that he also was heading to Kaza in a shared cab and there is one last seat left. I screamed I will come. It was a 8+1 seater vehicle. I was lucky enough to get that last seat.

Road to Kaza..!

Let me introduce the other 7 people for you, the handsome guy who ran for water was Hamdaan, he was from Kerala, just out of college travelling solo from the last 4 days. An old couple in their 70s who were the locals of Reckong Peo travelling to Kaza to meet their daughter. One quite guy who never spoke anything except his name when asked. Neelam, short pretty girl, dance teacher from Delhi. Tenzing, a local from mudh village. The last one, was a drunk guy who was not in his consciousness, when I asked him what his name was, he replied he wants to eat paratha for dinner. We never spoke to him after this.

It was a memorable journey, the never ending barren mountains, hundreds of bridges with prayer flags fluttering loud and colorful, the constant sight of the Spiti river that flowed rigorously, and that little drizzle added so much beauty to the journey. Then we stopped for breakfast. We could see a helipad near by, me Neelam and Tenzing ran towards the helipad, and the time we spent there connected us so well. After a little while we could see our driver bhaiyya calling out at us.

View Point next to the helipad.!

Neelam had this dream of dancing on the mountain road, me and Tenzing said we will join too. Neelam taught us some moves, Like crazy little kids we three danced on the road as the vehicle came slowly behind us. Hamdaan sat in the vehicle giggling at us. A few bikers passed us, they gave us a weird astonishing look. Within a short time we three were tired and got back into the vehicle.
We reached Kaza around 1800 hours after a crazily amazing journey. Neelam had booked a homestay in advance. Me and Hamdaan had not booked any stay, Tenzing took us to his friend’s homestay where we got a dorm bed for Rs.200, after which Tenzing left for his village, he said he will come to meet us day after tomorrow.

Mountain Chill.!

After resting for a while Me and Hamdaan came out to explore the market area a little bit, Neelam joined us. Kaza market is a nice place with some cool cafes, bakeries and so much stuff to shop. The temperature started to dip and we chose a café for dinner. I will tell you a secret here, there is a German Bakery in the Market road where they give all those yummy croissants and breads for 50% price after 9pm, so we treated ourselves with some yummy chocolate croissants.! 😍

To be continued