Photo - Our room in the house

Our room is divided into two, separated by the wooden beam that runs along the floor. This is obviously the sleeping side. If you step out the window at the head of the bed you are standing on the roof of Jayne's apartment. It's just like having a wee private sun-bathing terrace with lovely panoramic views of the mountains and surrounding villages. The main door into the room is in the other area

This is the chill area (sitting room back home). There is a distinct lack of chairs as most people here sit on the floor, hence the mats on the floor. The wee lone chair is mine because of my gammy knee as sitting on the floor and putting excess pressure on my knee when standing up contributed to it becoming a problem in the first place. Anyway my knee is back to normal again but that's another story for another day. It's a great space for chilling and chatting with friends when they come round to see us and for when Pritam comes upstairs to play chess with Colin, which they're normally still doing 5 hours later! It's really entertaining watching them as they're like a pair of kids.

This is our balcony with our wee kitchen at the end. The small bags with packing tape on them, on the left hand side of the photo is our rubbish bags. There is no refuse collection here so we have to dispose of any rubbish ourselves. Anything that is burnable we take down the path to an area where we burn it. Bottles, cans and plastics are sporadically collected by a wee Indian man who then takes them to somewhere, where he gets money for them. Food rubbish e.g. vegetable peelings - and there's always plenty of that as vegetables are what we mainly eat here - we throw onto the path for the cows and sheep to eat and if there is anything left on our plates after eating it goes into Tiger's bowl. When you buy shopping you don't get it in plastic bags as they are banned here - the shopping is put into bags made from newspaper - so you don't have loads of plastic bags to dispose of. There really is very little waste her as anything that is re-usable for something is not thrown away e.g. when you finish a jar of coffee you then have a new storage jar for the kitchen!

This is the balcony from the other direction. The wee blue bin is for our veggie peelings and it only takes a few days for it to be full! Oh well, it keeps the cows and sheep happy.

This is our wee kitchen. It doesn't look much but there isn't really anything else that you need - well maybe Colin's nespresso machine as he's stuck with instant coffee here and hates it. I remember when we were packing up the flat when we were selling it and, when it came to the kitchen, packed many large boxes of kitchen 'stuff' - more pots, crockery, cutlery, utensils and gadgets than you could ever actually use. Here our kitchen consists of a 2 ring gas burner, 2 plates, 2 bowls, 2 knives forks spoons and serving spoons, a chopping board, frying pan, sieve, cheese grater and some storage jars - most of which are re-cycled coffee or mayonaise jars - and it really is more than adequate. We don't have running water on the top floor so we keep water in a bucket by the side of the cooker for wiping surfaces etc. There is a sink in the main kitchen with running water and an outside water tap at the bottom of our stairs and this is where we wash our pots and dishes. The water comes from natural springs higher up the mountains. Its very cold, clean and perfectly safe to drink. Next time you buy bottled water, buy Himalayan water and that's the same water that we are drinking. We keep a couple of 2l bottles that we fill from the tap and keep in the room for filling the kettle. With the amount of tea that is drank here they need filling several times a day! Keeps us fit though going up and down the steep spiral staircase.

Photo - Our lovely home in Vashisht

I originally posted this page yesterday but when I checked it today on the blog I seen that large sections of text hadn't posted. I seen on our blog dashboard that a lot of people had looked at this post yesterday, so sorry for the goobledygook. The other pages that I posted yesterday seem to have disappeared into thin air - not sure if it is computer error or Frances error but probably the latter. Hopefully it will now post properly.
This is Champa and Pritam's house where we are staying while in Vashisht. The bottom floor of the house is accessed from the garden. The bottom floor has 2 good-size double rooms. Laxmi, Maniraz (the Nepalese couple) and their 6 month old baby Asna live in one room and the other is Champa and Pritam's bedroom. The white part of the building, on the lower right of the picture, is the kitchen and around the back of the kitchen is the washroom, toilet and storage area. The middle floor of the house is accessed by the spiral staircase at the side of the house. It also has 2 double rooms, directly above the ones below. These rooms are normally rented out to other travellers who also know Champa and Pritam but they have been empty since we arrived as none of the usual crew have turned up yet this year. The middle floor also has a self-contained apartment (the red brick building above the kitchen). Jayne and Guy (the English couple) and their young son Corbin have rented this for 3 years. The top floor is also accessed by the spiral staircase - 2 flights of scarily steep steps - and this is where Colin and I stay. It is a really nice room, bright and airy and really big as as it runs the same length of the house as the 2 double rooms on the floors below. Mustn't forget the other occupant of the house - Tiger the dog - who sits on whatever floor of the house takes his fancy.

This is the bottom floor of the house, with Laxmi's room to the left and Champa's bedroom to the right.

The kitchen is the hub of the house. This is the sitting side and opposite is the functional side. Although Colin and I have a kitchen on the balcony, Jayne and guy have a kitchen in the apartment and Laxmi and Maniraz have cooking facilities in thier room we all still use the main kitchen at times. The other evening Pritam cooked goat (meat is relatively expensive here so it is not cooked that often) and we all ate together in the kitchen and had a good laugh together, between Hindi, Nepalese, English and Glasweigan!. The kitchen has the only fridge in the house, another reason why we are in and out. It's a really welcoming room and if you go in there and Champa or Pritam has friends round it's 'sit down, have a chai (tea) and chat. Also, if we bring any friends back to the house they are certainly welcome in the kitchen.

This is the functional side of the kitchen. In the bottom centre of the picture is the tandoor (wood-burning stove) which can also be seen in the picture above. It is usually only used the colder months - Nov to May. It is an amazing source of heating and has the added advantage of being able to cook on it, so no need for them to use gas unnecessarily. As we arrived here in May this year and the local people think that the evening weather is quite mild - yeah right! - the tandoor hasn't been needed, but we have great memories of previous years when we have been here in the colder months and all of us who are staying in the house are sitting, chatting and laughing, round the tandoor all evening as it is the only source of heating in the house. Doesn't take long though, before you have to open windows, as the tandoor makes the kitchen so hot. When the tandoor stops being used it's over to the gas stove - 2 gas rings on the kitchen worktop, supplied by bottled gas. There's also an electric oven but I've only ever seen someone use it once and that was a Swedish girl who was staying here last year and was cooking us all a carrot cake! Mind you, as India gets fairly frequent electricity outages, you can't be sure that your dinner with a 1hour cooking time will actually be ready in 1hour! Better stick to gas stove-top cooking as the locals do.

This is the view out of the kitchen window, looking towards the garden and the stairs that lead to the path to the village (it's a pity I took this photo when the weather was overcast as you can't see the lovely snow-capped mountains that are along the top of the photo). When you get to the top of the stairs you can turn left or right. If you turn left you go along the uneven rocky path which brings you out at the top end of the village where the village square and Temple are. Also there are a few wee shops for food supplies and many cafes. The path is not too up and down and only takes 10 minutes to get to the village. If you turn right it brings you out at the bottom end of the village. This path is a different kettle of fish. It's quite rocky and has large muddy patches where you have to depend on hopping over rocks to stop from being ankle deep in mud. Then its stepping stones over the river, through the forest and down steep incine of stairs/stones embedded into the hill. It only takes about 15 minutes but you do get a wee sweat on. We use this path if we are going to the main town of Manali 3.5kms away or to neighbouring villages, as it is quicker than walking along the path to the top of the village and then downhill for about 1km through Vashisht. Most people call this path 'the shortcut' and it certainly is when you are going down to Manali. However, when you are coming back from Manali with a weeks worth of shopping in your backpack and you have the choice of a gradual 1km incline walk through Vashisht to the top of the village and then along that path to the house, or straight up the steep incline at the bottom of the village and through the forest over a river and patches of mud, the short-cut doesn't seem that short any more. The other week we had gone to Manali for shopping. The rucksack probably weighed about 15k, so with rucksack on Colin's back we went to get a rickshaw to take us to Vashisht. As the area was still very busy with Indian tourists at that time and there were heavy traffic jams in Vashisht because of this we couldn't get anyone who was willing to take us. So off we started on the 3.5km uphill walk on the mainroad to Vashisht. By the time we reached 'the short-cut' at the bottom of Vashisht village it was completely dark and poor Colin was looking a bit worse for wear - not that surprising as Manali is 2300m above sea level and Vashisht is 300m higher than that, so any exertion takes more effort at this altitude. As we hadn't been expecting to be getting home when it was dark we didn't have a torch with us - a necessity for getting along the path at night as there is no lighting on the path so it is pitch dark, Colin decided to take the short-cut, despite being already knackered. So we stumbled, tripped and swore our way up the short-cut until we got to the house. When we finally arrived at the house I could have made a joke of how knackered Colin looked but even I know when to hold my tongue!

Photo - The path from the house to the village

These steps go from the garden of the house to the country path that leads to the top end of the village. Normally its quiet but, as you can see, it sometimes gets a bit 'busy'. Add in a few dogs, shepherds and people carrying large loads of hay etc on their backs and it can become a tad too narrow.

 

Coos walking and munching on the path.

The first day we arrived in Vashisht, after catching up with everyone at the house and getting unpacked, we headed along the path into the village. Colin was in front and, as we rounded a bend, there was 2 cows on the path. Although Colin is a big brave lad he is definately city born and bred and isn't too comfortable around the cows. Normally the women tending the cows are really good when you meet them and they will manouver the cows so that you can squeeze pass the cows on the inside of the path - on the outside of the path is a drop that you really don't want to fall down. But the girl tending the cows was young and a bit unsure of herself. To make matters worse it was actually a cow and her young calf so she was a bit frisky, jumping around and protecting the calf. Colin kind of stood motionless. The cow wasn't frightened and started coming towards him with horns at the ready. Luckily I had the walking stick with me and we were able to eventually prod at it, get around it and get on our way without any major mishap. Disaster averted we got to the village. When we got there it was really busy with Indian tourists. Also someone in their wisdom had decided that, even though it is the busiest time of the year for tourists, it was a good idea to fully dig up the main road  for it to be re-laid - probably taking a few months. There is only the one road through the village and it was like a building site. Never mind, having narrowly missed being gored to death, and happy to be back in the mountains we were in great spirits. We were walking over a large pile of rubble when a loud roar happened. Next thing we knew a dumper truck was reversing towards us, right in our path at full speed. Colin grabbed me and pulled me into a gutter. Luckily another disaster was averted.

Great to be back in Vashisht

It's great to be back in the mountains where the air is fresh and clean. After the humidity of Thailand and Malaysia and - dare I say it - the constant sunshine in Goa (it's only really Colin who moans about the heat) it's great to be here where the weather can be unpredictable. As we arrived here at the start of May we had missed all the heavy rain and snow. The daytime weather at the moment is changeable, some days are glorious sunshine and others are overcast and cloudy. It's a bit like Scotland where you can go out dressed for sunshine and the next minute it's raining - although the sun is certainly seen more here than in Scotland and certainly a tad warmer! The temperature cools down in the evening and can get quite chilly - although Colin still walks around the house in shorts and a t-shirt, bearing in mind that there's no source of heating in the house except in the main kitchen. Me, well I sleep with 3 blankets, a hot water bottle, a bed shirt and thick woolly socks that Champa knitted me. Not exactly sex on legs but got to keep the tootsies warm.
Vashisht is generally a relatively quite place although it does get it's share of tourists. Out with the winter there is always Western tourists in Vashisht, some passing through on their way further into the Himalayas, some coming just to see Vashisht and some here to go trekking, rafting, canyoning etc. There are also the ones that you see year after year, dossing around just as Colin and I are doing. At the moment though Vashisht is really busy as it is Indian tourist season and people come here from all over India. Most of them stay around Manali, the main town 3kms down the valley, but because Vashisht has the Temple with the natural hot springs it's a day trip not to be missed by most Indians. This season will last until about the end of June and then things will quieten down again
At night, when all the Indian tourists have left Vashisht becomes a quiet place. Most places are closed very early at night and Colin and I tend not to go out much in the evening - with the exception of the footie the other night and also tonight again. Because the house here is not right in the village but is about 10-15mins along a narrow, uneven, rocky country path Colin and I have the problem of having to come along the path in the pitch dark, which appears even more uneven and rocky after a few beers - better to be at home before complete darkness and in full charge of all your senses - well, most of the time.

Photos - European Championship, England v France

Monday night we watched England v France in the European Championship. (I'm skipping ahead of myself  here posting about last night, when I've not posted anything about the last 5 weeks here, but I'll get back to that. I just thought the footie was topical at the moment). Vashisht is generally a quiet place and most places close early at night. As the Indian time difference means that the games are shown here at 9.30pm and 12.30am, Colin thought that we wouldn't be able to watch any of it. The other week we were sitting in the village square and ended up talking to an English guy Pete and his Austrailian Partner Beatrice who travel to India a lot. Pete is football daft so we all got talking about finding somewhere to watch the footie. We were joined by a Glasweigan guy Dave (not only do you not meet many Glasweigans or Scots when you are travelling but you certainly don't tend meet one who went to the same school as Colin!). He even knew Colin's mother, although that's no great surpsise. Amazingly another Glasweigan guy appeared so now the footie talk got serious. Dave and Pete then arranged with the Rainbow Cafe in Vashisht to stay open late so we could watch the footie. Colin and I never went to the first two nights games but we couldn't miss the England game as we knew it would be a hoot watching it with Pete. Poor Pete was devastated on the night when we all turned up, as all the Scots were supporting France. Beatrice had made the flag you can see in the photo and it turned out a really good night. Pete was, as expected, a hoot throughout the game and was quite happy with the draw. On the same night there was a festival in the Temple which is just beside the Rainbow Cafe. Just before the game started they all came out of the Temple and paraded around the square, banging the drums and blowing their really loud horns. Pete was jumping around the balcony of the cafe and waving frantically at the procession and he was shouting to all of us that they were playing for the barmy army. Luckily the villagers are used to Westerners behaving strangely!

Grabbing a seat inside before the mad rush.

A few more arrived but later this wee room was packed and there wasn't a bit of floor space or standing room free. There were Scots, English, Germans, Israelis, Aussies, Irish and maybe a few other nationalities. Pete had told a few French guys that he met earlier in the day that the Rainbow Cafe wasn't showing the game so there were no French people to boo the English. His team did get a roasting from us Scots though, just to wind him up! I wasn't able to post he wild photos of everyone jumping around when a team scored as they turned out a blur with all the carry on that was taking place.

Returning to India and Vashisht

We arrived in Delhi and headed back to Cottage Yes Please Guesthouse in the Paharganji, the large backpacker area. We just grabbed something to eat and had an early night as we had to leave at 04:30 hrs the following morning to catch our flight up to the mountains. Again we didn't take any photos of the Pahargangi as, if you take out a camera there, you are accosted by countless street sellers hassling you to buy their wares. So, once again I have downloaded  photos  to let you see how busy and crazy it is.
Once more we chose the more expensive option of the 1 hour flight to Khulu then a 1.5 hour taxi journey to Vashisht rather than the cheap 14 hour plus, white-knuckle bus journey from Delhi to the mountains. Even the thought of getting back on that domestic propeller plane and the scarey landing in Khulu where you fly over the high mountains and then down into the valley where you are so close to peoples houses on the hillside that you can see the whites of their eyes, we still chose the flight over the bus journey. It was only last October that we did  that horrible bus journey when we left Vashisht to go to Dehli to catch the train to Goa, so it was still a bit fresh in our minds to want to do it again so soon.
This time when we arrived in Khulu, instead of getting a taxi driver who thought he was a Formual One Racer, we got an old guy who must have been someone's great, great grandfather. It wasn't long before we realised he was also half blind. The winter had been a harsh one, so the road was in a worse state than usual where it had been washed away with the rains and snow. As well as the road being uneven and seemingly non-existant in some places, there were huge holes which, because our blind taxi driver didn't see these large holes until the front wheel had banged into them, it was a very bumpy and slow ride. A neck brace might have been a good idea to wear on the journey.
Finally bones rattling and teeth shaking we arrived in Vashisht Village and made our way along the path to Pritam and Champa's house where we stay. As usual they were delighted to see Colin and were so welcoming. The house had some of the usual suspects staying there. Jayne and Guy, an English couple and their son Corbin were in the self contained apartment on the middle floor of the house which they have rented for 3 years. Laxmi and her husband, a Nepalese couple and their baby were on the bottom floor with Pritam and Champa and Colin and I, once again, had the large top room of the house. The 2 other small rooms on the middle floor of the house were empty. It sounds a lot of people to be staying in one house but the layout of the house is perfect for it and everyone has their own entrance as such. I will post photos which will explain the house better.

Leaving Koh Samui for Bangkok

Yet again it has been a while since I posted but this time it's not because I have been lazy as usual but because we have had a very slow internet connection. For the past 5 weeks we have been back in India, up in the mountains in Vashisht. We have just now managed to get a faster internet connection hence, back to blogging.
We left Koh Samui on Thursday the 3rd May after a great week with Emma and Craig. Colin and I headed to Bangkok for a few days essential shopping, then onward back to India. Emma and Craig headed to Koh Phangan Island for the full moon party, then onward to Austrailia where they were hiring a camper van and travelling around. Kho Phangan is a beautiful Island but, at full moon one of the beaches becomes a massive party venue that lasts for 48 hours. Hence,  the full moon party .  Many backpackers don't even bother to book a room and just spend the whole time on the beach. Emma and Craig tried to get us to go with them but, even though they had booked into a lovely hotel, it still wasn't enough to entice us to 48 hours of madness.
We flew to Bangkok and headed to the New Siam No 2 Guest House, near Khoasan Road, where we have stayed in the past. Khoasan Road is a really vibrant place that is great to wander around or to sit in a cafe and watch all the sights go by, and you do see some sights! It is 1km strip where you find countless budget guesthouses and mid-range hotels, internet cafes, swanky bars, restaurants and clubs, massage parlours, countless market stalls, tattoo shops, street food stalls and much more. The guys at the Glasgow Barras would be amazed to see the amount of stalls that sell copy goods - clothes, bags, watches, CD's, DVD,s - the list is endless. We bought a load of copy DVD's and because Emma had brought me a new IPOD from the UK, I took it to a guy who filled it with music for me, for a very small fee. Khoasan is also a great place to buy really cheap travelling clothes. Having left Glasgow 9 months ago with only a few pieces of clothing, all of which were already on their last legs, I thought I deserved a few bits and pieces to supplement my meagre wardrobe. Colin, as usual, wasn't interested in buying any new clothing, as, after all, he still has his blue vest top that he has had for what feels like forever, but it still has years left in it, according to him!
We stayed in Bangkok for 3 nights. We had a really good time wandering around and eating great Thai food from the street stalls. The Bug Seller was there as usual but Colin wasn't tempted this time. She wheels this massive cart around and it is just rammed with bugs - silk worms, crickets, beetles etc. She quickly deep fries them and then you have a bag of bugs to eat. Usually Colin likes a bag of silkworms but I pass. He insists they are a great beer snack and that I'm a fussy eater because I won't eat them! He really will eat anything. Many years ago when he was travelling alone, and he had been travelling for some time, he ended up in Bangkok with not a lot of money left. So, he was trying to make it last as long as possible before having to go back to Scotland. One night he was feeling a bit peckish so he wandered over to a food stall that was selling 'THINGS' on skewers. Without knowing what anything was he just asked for a skewer of the cheapest thing the guy had. He chomped into whatever was on the skewer and was chewing for ages but nothing changed shape in his mouth, so he just swallowed whatever it was. When Colin asked the guy what he had just eaten he was told 'chickens anus's. When he told me about this I said 'you must have been horrified when you found out what you had just swallowed'. He answered 'no, they were OK just a bit rubbery'. If not eating bugs and chicken anus makes me a fussy eater then I'm happy with that. I never took any photos in Bankok because we didn't want to lug the camera around so I have downloaded some photos  of Khoasan Road to try and show how vibrant it is.
We flew to Dheli on the Sunday, where we stayed overnight then caught our flight the next day up to the mountains.

Photo - A day out on the scooter to see The Big Buddah

We went to see The Big Budda. It is Samui's most famous landmark. It is 12m tall and is visable from several kms away and can be seen clearly from the air when taking off or landing. 

 

 The Big Buddha is situated in Wat Phra Yai Temple. Inside the Temple is lined with large prayer bells hanging from the roof. On entering the Temple you collect a wooden stick and bang it on all the bells on the way round to bring you long life, health and prosperity.