Sitting, Thinking.

Just another day on the beach, thinking of the mountains, thought I would include a pic of a contemplative saddhu. Sitting at the temple in Vashisht.

In the mountains Vashisht

Can't believe we have been here 3 months and only now am I adding another posting to the blog. The weeks here fly past. Enough of excuses, I will now post regularly. I will start  were I left off. Hopefully I can remember things that have happened as, not having to use my brain much here, I think I have a lot less functioning brain cells now, than 3 months ago! So here I am sitting on the balcony of a house we have rented in Goa where we are currently, cup of tea, cig and the fan on to keep me cool and hopefully re-juvinate my fried brain cells to help the old memory to work.
We left Delhi and flew to the mountains on 11th September as planned. Glad I was asleep when we were landing in the small domestic propeller plane because, as you fly over the high mountains and down into a valley, you are that close to peoples houses when landing that you would be able to see the whites of someones eyes in their house as you fly past. We landed in Kullu and got a taxi to Vashisht (1.5 hour journey). The road up to Vashisht is very narrow, bumpy and washed away in places by the monsoon rains. There is no barrier along the edge of the road, so if you skid over the edge you face a long fall over the side of the mountain. This journey is scarey enough when driving slowly and carefully but unfortunately I think our taxi driver was a formula 1 driver in a previous life! Because the taxi was a 4 wheel drive jeep rather than a car and the rule of the road in India is 'the bigger the vehicle the more right of way you have', this driver thought he was king of the road. Unfortunately there is a lot of trucks on the road and they were bigger than us, but that didn't stop our driver thinking he was still the king, and the only driver on the road. Got to Vashisht in one piece, although my eyes were wide open like saucers and it was a waste of money having a perm in the UK before I left. That drive would have curled my hair.
It was great to be back in Vashisht, Colin's favourite place in India. After the oppressive heat and dirt of Delhi it was great to be in the fresh, clean mountain air. Vashisht is a small village in the Indian Himalayan Mountains, the nearest town being Manali. It is very green with lots of plants, trees and apple orchards. You are surrounded by the moutains, the taller of which are covered in snow all year round. It is not that far from a place called the Rhotang Pass (about 50kms), which is only passable from June to November, and the rest of the time is closed due to snow. There is even a ski resort in Solang Valley, about 30 minutes away from Vashisht by car. Beyond the Rhotang Pass is a high altitude dessert, where the yearly rainfall is very minimal.
We headed to Preetam and Champa's house, an Indian couple that Colin has known for about 15 years, are same age as us and who we stay with when we are in Vashisht. Their house is in an apple orchard about 10 minutes walk from the village, along a small dirt path. It is a 3 storey wooden built house and, from the front, it looks like a ski-ing chalet you would see in Europe. It is not a guest house as such but travellers do stay there. They tend to be people that Preetam and Champa have known for many years or people that have been introduced to them by travellers that have stayed there in the past. People tend to stay there for some time, can be weeks but usually it is for months. Colin has stayed there for 6 months at a time.
Poor Colin had to make 2 trips to the house so he could carry the 2 rucksacks, as my back was still pretty bad. As always there was a warm welcome from Preetem and Champa, who are always delighted to see Colin. They are a terrific couple and typical mountain people. Preetam tends to his apple orchards and his fields and animals in the high pastures and Champa forages in the forrest for food and knits socks etc. They speak Hindi. Preetam's english is quite good but Champa's is quite limited. Colin speaks and underdstands some Hindi so we all get by, although usually accompanied by a lot of laughter.
When we arrived there were other travellers staying there. On the ground floor of the house there are 2 rooms. One is a bedroom for Preetam and Champa. In the other room was a Neplese couple who were living there permanantly, as they worked in Vashisht. The kitchen is also on the ground floor, but that is to the side of the house and built recently. The first floor has 2 rooms. One was occupied with a Swedish couple, Freddie and Linda (Linda was 6 months pregnant). Freddie's surname is Kruger - no kidding. We had the other room. Also, on this floor, above the kitchen is a small self contained 'apartment' with kitchen and bathroom, which has also recently been built. An American woman, Simone, had rented it for a year. The top floor of the house is one room only, but because it is the full length of the house it is very large. An English couple, Jayne and Guy, had occupied that room for several months, along with their  one and a half year old son. Colin has known Jayne for around 20 years so it was nice to see her again. They were leaving in a few days to return to the UK for a while so then we would move up into the top floor large room. Along each floor of the house runs a wooden balcony and the views from this are absolutely stunning.
Time to head off now as it is getting a bit cooler so time for a walk on the beach. Will try to add something regularly so that I can get up-to-date to where we are now. There has been good fortune and misfortune occured to date and I am sure you will have a laugh at some of the things that have occured. E-mail and let me know if you if you are finding it interesting and, if so, I will keep writing it keep writing it. Alternatively you can add a comment on this blog page.
Here are some photos of the house.

Preetam and Champa's house is the house that is the bottom one in the picture.

Side view of the house, coming along the path from the village.

The path from the village to the house.