The Package
I left Kasol with lots of questions in mind and thinking of the possibilities that if I get a chance to meet her again. Isn’t it obvious with human beings? We always think that the outcome of various possibilities is always in our favor. We are happy with that even if it was for a moment. Best time pass of a leisure person. The bus was good and the route from Kasol to Rohtang pass is awesome. It was from Parvati Valley to Beas Valley and then into the snowy mountains on jeep. You will fall in love with the journey itself. It is strange that at first I was avoiding to come here and now it is turning to be a game changer for me.
I have been in Manali and Rohtang pass before. First as a college student with my friends and then as traveler for my livelihood. I have taken this road many times and every time I fall in love with it. This time I am delivering a package to Leh as a request from one of my best friend. As he is busy and we don’t have any options left. So taking this package to Leh where my other friend is doing research on Buddhism. It’s like a dropshipping, but here I am doing it for free. I don’t know what is in this package? And what is special about it? But he insisted of delivering it in person instead of using some courier service. The suspense will break when I reach Leh.
You must be thinking then why took a road trip to deliver the package? Why not take a flight? The thing is I have heard many people say that if you are going to Leh then you must go through road once. I have been to Rohtang only, not beyond that. So that is one reason. Other reason is money. I don’t have enough money to book flight tickets in such a short notice. And in one way flight ticket, I can do whole trip. The thing is a traveler is rich when he has foreign sponsors because Indian sponsors can’t pay much. When you get paid in Euros or Pounds or Dollars then it is convenient to book flights from one country to another and can wander whole world. This trip is a favor to friends, not official trip. Also sponsors from India, they pay less in Indian rupee and you can only afford a road trip from that. So you have to be multitasking. You have to find other means of earning like blogging, giving reviews on everything, photography and freelancing sometimes. It always tough in the start but you will get used to it. One advice from my side is always keep some backup for hard times or whenever you are going to start something new.
I reached Rohtang in afternoon. The snow valley is all white. You can’t see without sun glasses. Pulled out my camera and sunglasses and started wandering around. Families were making snow man. Kids were playing with Snow. All people were happy. What a positive and happy ambiance! After some clicks, my stomach started growling. Good thing in snow that we have hot tea, coffee, Maggi and omelet etc. in India. Bad thing is that you get 20 bucks Maggi in 50 bucks or sometimes 60 and same for tea and coffee. At least something is there in this cold. I waited for my order i.e. a tea and an omelet.
In this cold where the temperature is touching 2 or 3 Celsius when you take first sip of hot tea. It travels through your throat via food pipe to the stomach. You feel each organ within your body that they exist. You feel the hot thing travelling inside your body. It feels consoling. People were doing skiing and parasailing. This mountain zone of India is completely different from other India. Well each part of India is different from other. You can visit various forts and deserts etc. in Rajasthan. There is so much green mountains,beaches and temples in Kerala and Tamilnadu. A variety of forests and lakes in Madhya Pradesh. India is full of varieties from beaches to desert to forests to lakes to snow. You can never get over with it. The thing drawing us back is the hospitality and maintenance of this wide range of heritages. If we can improve these things then we can attract more visitors from within India and outside of India. Our people are going out on holidays. Why? May be the answer I have given already.
With all these thoughts in my mind, I finished my tea and omelet. I wandered around for some time to get some positive vibes from kids and happy people. This is the fuel for every traveler. Or I can say it is the fuel for life. You can’t be negative all the time with all the bad things happening all over India. We have to find small objectives and positive attitude to carry on our own life. Well for most of the people it’s true that I came across in my life.
Until Rohtang I have been before. I am also excited to see beyond this. Next destination is Spiti Valley, which Google map says will take 2.15 hours for 145 kilometers. It’s no exact but it will take around 3 to 4 hours depends on traffic and road conditions.
So we left again in Jeep. I was sitting in middle and it’s very cold. I kept track of the edgy road for some time and road going between two snow-made mountains. It’s very cold, so I started feeling sleepy. I was feeling tired and the cold did the rest. After 5 hours of bus journey from Kasol to Rohtang and now again on road, one repower nap is must. I planned it for 5 minutes.
But it lasted for 2 hours. It is one of my specialties. I can sleep while sitting position also. And I thought there will be some speed bumps and huge pits which will wake me up but nothing. Why the road was so smooth? Incredible India. While in cities we face big pits and pot holes but here nothing. I am little disappointed with me because first time I came through this way and I slept. But not all route is gone. I woke up near the Spiti which is on the mountain and we can see that from a distance. I requested driver to stop and click some snaps from here. But I am not the owner of the jeep. Why would he stop? So I have to convince everyone in jeep to stop. That was a tough job for me because I am not convincing at all. I started requesting to others. But why would they listen to a stranger? I started showing my previous clicks to everyone. At last my work talked. That convinced them all and we stopped at one point.
I clicked some snaps and a group photo of jeep crew. It was nice. A wide range of mountains and a city at top of mountain and Spiti river flowing side by side. It is new for me. I have never seen this before. It’s like a small paradise among these mountains. Very well made and I don’t how they got idea of making a city here. Might be history can help here. So after my work is complete, we started moving to Spiti village. While going there I asked people what I missed during my sleep. They told me that we came through Kunzum pass and Spiti river going through mountains. Also we had chats around to Spiti Village.
I reached Spiti Village. I can’t believe what I found there. We have met before in Kasol and now here.
