21 Sept. Manali / 2050 m. height / sun shines final again.
This morning the sun glow reflecting in the snowy mountain tops, which I only now really see. The air is still cold at 7:30 am. I am sitting in bed with a thick blanket around me, writing a few thoughts from this part of the town of Old Manali, which is very charming with its narrow, crooked mountain roads.
First at 8 am the sun come up over the mountain top and shin directly into my bed. I thought it would come up more to the left of me. I had estimated from the sun-lit mountain peaks in the distance.
I am sitting on the balcony with my morning meal, yogurt, toast and Thai. First today I discover who there are living on the same balcony. First, I welcome a man in my own age. Beside him, dressed in a bikini a handsome lady with beautiful big breasts and big sunglasses. Probably in the late thirties. She greets us both. On closer inspection and assessment of distance, I now think she must be late forties. She has probably got a little silicone. Yes there are running many thoughts through my head, just by one look or two. Now my close neighbor came out in the clothes he had slept in. The young guy rubs his eyes and straightens his body, and then he took a photo of this beautiful sight. Later in the day I meet the handsome lady with the big bosom outside the house. Now I think she must be around sixties.
I hung my wet clothes and MC. leather boots out on the balcony to dry in the morning sun from my trip yesterday in the rain, to the small town Vashishth 3 km. from here.
Visit 'The Hot Spring' in Vashishth.
Yesterday at 2 pm. I decided to drive to Vashishth, it was raining still, but not so sharply. I had now found myself 2 days in the hotel room wrapped in blankets. I had absolutely fine with the first day indoor. A day off where I could get some of my notes together.
I was forced to cross the site four times since I first thought I had went too far. The thrird time I had to pass it, I was forced to slow up a bit in the middle of the flow, because of an oncoming tuck. MC stalled mid-stream. I had to get off and push it through the water mass.
It was just one of many landslides that had occurred because of the extraordinary body of water from the rain the last few days.
The rain has caused landslides in the entire Shimla region.
In the evening I heard from a young English girl who consulted me whether she should take a flight back to Delhi instead of the bus because she had heard about all the landslides, with many human and tragic accidents on the roads. Many places were road blocks of rocks, trees and soil that had caused the large holes in the roads. It was especially bad in the entire Shimla region. The area she had to pass with the bus to Delhi next day. She was not quite comfortable with the speed and the chances the buses took. It's only up to god and not just to them and the oncoming whether it goes well.
Hot Springs gateway / Vashishth
Hot Springs
I was well up to the mountain village and drove directly to The Hot Spring. From the way I could actually stand and look down to the man department. It looked really intimate and exotic looking. It was completely free. It took a while before I got the hole body down in this burning hot water. I was down I n the water 20 min.
The rain had actually stopped and the sun broke through the clouds slowly. So in dripping wet shoes and leather pants, I walk around in the small local streets and enjoy this picturesque old mountain village there seems to survived because of tourism.
The first rainy day I went first out at 8 pm. in the pouring rain. The water streamed down the mountain road in certain places. Local small alleys in this small enclave of houses they call Old Manali, most tourist stalls was still open, with all their Indian and Tibetan costumes, jewelry shops and stalls with 'German' bread. I have never seen so many internet cafes, there was at least 12. in such a small area
They had experienced the same for a few years ago when it rained also in September six days in a row and then came the snow, which is quite unusual.
Old Manali tourist area shuts down in October. For there is no heat in the hotels up here in the old town. I've been a little lucky to reach up here before it was too cold.
Hidimba Devi Temple / Manali
Turmoil in the body, I must continue.
Now I had rested two days, so now it was time to move on. But actually I have not seen Old Manali really because of rain. So I used a couple of hours in the morning to see Old Manali before I checked out of the hotel.
Wooden Houses / Old Manali
So I walked with my camera down and up the small stone path that runs between the old wooden houses away from the tourist road. Clothes and mix colorful rugs hanging everywhere to dry out on their beautiful balconies. I saw some beautiful buildings and took some good photos. Then I got down to the the center of Manali, just to experience something of the mood here.
The atmosphere was very relaxed, since it was Sunday morning. The width of the main street, located in the large bus station was closed to vehicles. It was filled with people just hanging along the edges. Many dogs were laying in the middle of the street as death. They probably suck the heat from the asphalt and the sun, after a long cold night.
I were forced to withdraw money here in Manaly because now the journey takes me more away from the main road and therefore I will not meet as many ATM over the next few days. One machine would not take my card. The other was run out of money. It's Sunday so the few banks that are in the city is not open. Well I may have enough cash to cope with me today. I have also assured me of having $ 500 in cash as an emergency reserve.
Travel more than a Journey.
I am not sure that I still can call this trip for a journey. I had hoped that I over a month could have completed 3.000 km. and traveled through several different region of Northern India.
I found it difficult to provide a route for the architecture book I have with sacred temples and buildings, I wanted to see. The routes with the most interesting temples and buildings end up like the blind up on the high peaks.
This is perhaps my nature that I do not really like to drive back the same way. Duplication I have always had a hard time with.
Maybe it's just a part of me that will it. In my profession I seek the challenge. Likes to go in detail and are never completely satisfied with the result. But has learned to recognize that there are different factors there come into play for the final outcome, economics, time factor, partner, your physical and mental resources. The product must be clear and complete, since it is part of a larger machinery.
Usually I have always been able to complete the various little details I did not come to get fully in place before the exhibition or the show had opened.
I have an idea that it is important for me 100% to finish my idea row to move forward. It is every time a great liberation that could make its best. Nothing is good enough, it must be really good, I have the opportunity because I'm not paid by hours.
I believe in reincarnation and that I have to live millions of lives through before I will manage to become an informed person. Therefore, I try as a human being to think about everything I do. But as the emotional and limited human I am, it is not always easy to control and balance of life's challenges.
By attempting to do its best in a positive way, what is hard, and I may skip some of these many reincarnations, to achieve what I see as the goal of life. To achieve the higher consciousness and become one with the university and one with god.
All you are doing, you get direct response in this life or the next. In yoga philosophy this is called Karma. So when you commit a bad action against other conscious or unconscious, you come to do penance for this, maybe not in this life, but then the next. So therefore my life had not been about making money, but to appreciate the opportunities I have had to create and provide the utmost, I could with my talents.
On my MC.journey to Iran, I could feel that the visual and human impression, passed through me without the opportunity to take root. I did actually never quite get really grounded. It was more a journey through, what was also incredibly exciting. There was submitted a schedule of that journey.
Because of the lack of grounding, too many impressions I quite often was missing the big picture and therefore I lost so many of my belongings in various cities. On this journey I am more grounded and therefore I have not lost any of my belongings.
Therefore, my reports to the hinterland incredibly important for me because through them I got a little track of all the visual images, experiences and thoughts which during the day gathered in a brain. The reports helped to settle just a little of all ones impressions and thoughts.
Similarly, these reports in my meeting with the Indian culture, including a way to get a little track of who you are and what culture you are a part of.
New Enfield route.
This MC. India Journey is entirely up to me to create the right conditions. My plan was already affected at the outset. With the dense traffic and the speed it was possible to move forward so fast, I could see that it would be difficult to implement my first planned circular route around. 3.000 km. during that time.
I started out too hard. I should instead have done a shorter distance on the first day, to learn MC. Enfield to know. And learn to relate myself to congestion, road quality, cows, humans and the heat. On top came all the technical problems with MC. the first day.
From the very beginning, I could see that I needed a rest day between, if I also have slightly different pleasure, albeit a psychological one experiences when you implement something physical you have set themselves for.
The purpose of this journey was to find a balance between the to travel distances using MC. and give myself time to see and feel the Indian culture.
So the further route I now presented in Manali, was not so long. The great circle had to be abandoned. Partly because of all the extra days off I had allowed myself to take.
I made a big mistake from the start in Delhi, by failing to find a Road Map Shop. I was in some of the major bookstores, but they had no map here was detailed enough. They had in size 1:500,000. On the maps, I can not see the heights by colors or numbers. Only the highest points are indicated.
So each day is a new surprise. If I run into a valley or on a mountain peak. The maps of roads, has not detailed enough, so the smaller swing has been avoided. The cards also provide slightly different information about the distances between cities. Some of the maps shows, for example. that the town is just off the road. But in reality, is perhaps 3 km. up on the mountain side.
This I found out through the guide, who had helped me before in Shilma.
I called the Indian Guide I meet in shilma from Manali and consulted on the new route I had planned where I would take the smaller roads more to the west, on my return in a very soft arc with the ultimate goal Delhi.
On the map, I could see that I would had to passed Jalori Pass at 3,223 m. He advised me that because there had just be blizzard and avalanche. I was not really in shape for snow driving, with this heavy Enfield. I think actually it had been cold enough in Manali under the carpets.
So the route back to Delhi become a sort of loop consisting of three circles. A very fine symbol of the whole trip.
21 Sept. / Leaving Manali.
On my way out of Manali. I was stopped on a bridge to take a photo of Bear River. Right next to the bridge, there sat a whole group of Sikh snake charmer. One began to play, to attract my attention and a rattlesnake, began to raise the head and swing the body from side to side. I was ready for a little entertainment that this distinctive character, so I sat down and looked at. The lid was taken off some more wicker baskets and other rattlesnakes emerged.
Professionally, one of them borrowed my camera. So here was a proof that I'm not so afraid of snakes. At the same time he whispered in my ear, that for this little session, I had to support their small group of people with a few thousand Rs. I told him I would give him and the group 200 Rs. He was not happy with that because, as he said, many would have food. I told him that if he was not satisfied with the 200Rs for this short little session, I would not give anything.
I have choose to take he smaller towns and roads, rather than the majors. There is almost no traffic. The roads have more holes and are more twisted. I do not enjoy constantly having to overtake or having big trucks coming threat against one. It is a quieter and slower drive. But it means that I also can enjoyed the nature and all the small villages I drive through.
The hotel owner in Manali, wrote down the names of 12 various small towns I would pass on a stretch of only 24 km. before I reached the town of Naggar where I have to see two ancient temples.
In Naggar I asked an elderly gentleman on the road, by showing him the photo in the architectural book. He was very interested in the book and looked in it, while I have a little fruit break. He gave me some leaves he had collected. He had picked them as a trefoil. I think it must mean God bless me.
BabaMatsyandraGiri / Ashram
Hash smoking Guru Baba.
The next day I choose again, the small roads. The first piece was down in a valley, so it was a very straight, but a very muddy piece before I turn and came up in the mountains.
I stopped at a small ashram to take photos. The guru invited me into his temple / house. I got Thai and a very good political conversation with this English spoken and newspaper reading Guru who could also tell me about all the landslides that had been in the area.
In his little round temple / house sat besides me four others. One had a pipe clear. The hash came from Guru Baba Masyandra Giri hand. I was allowed to take photos of the hashish-smoking guru, who told me that he had friends in Sweden.
I said no thanks, to join the hash group. I had to go further on my Enfield. There are still a little fear in me with regard cannabis, I have had some bad psychotic experiences. Marijuana I can better manage and I still enjoy this, but I do it very rarely now. When I find myself in a circle of friends, there are mostly wine on the table.
In another small village on my route where I stop to ask for directions, another guru ask if he could get at ride on my MC. He was guru a good distance from where we sat. But I got a photograph of a man who sought truth in life.
Another Hot Spring & massage.
The day after I lie by the roadside to relax. An older gentleman comes over and asks where I was going. I told him that my next goal was Tattapari. Why was I not a day extra here, I could stay with him. It was a very unexpected offer I was maybe a little too quickly declined, because I was far from Delhi. In a way I had been a little nervous about whether I could arrive to Delhi in time, now that I had chosen this very slow and somewhat longer route.
View from the Hot Spring / Tattapari
He told me that Tattapari means Hot Spring in Hindu. For there is a Hot Spring in Tattapari. It was great to know it was the day after my fall, so my body I was still well sore and could use a Hot Spring cure.
I found the Hot Spring, which turns out to be a pool of only 1.5 x 1.5 m. it was in connection with a hotel and a restaurant. I could also get massages here.
While I got massages, there appeared 40 English MC. drivers on rented Ensfield. They were all in full safety equipment. Some had already jumped into the warm pool. I hurried me to jump in. It was really warm so they had to cool the small pool down with a continuous stream of cold water. - It was really good for my body.
MC. group had not yet come so far as they wanted. They had been stopped by all the landslide and waited for the route to open. They wanted to drive much more north than Manali. In the MC. group was also 5-6 women. When they drove, they were actually spread out over 1 km. They had a mechanic with them on their trip. They stayed in Shilma. This was just a little trip before they were going on the long trip. Their trip was planned so they drove around. 100 km. a day.
I chose to run ahead and eat food at another restaurant on my way back to Shimla. I wanted to find the nice hotel again with the incredibly nice room with view over the valley.
Shimla is the town where my route meet.
I stopped 25 km. before Shilma to take a photo of a giant landslide. The road was made fairly passable. I brake and progresses in the very muddy ground. I lose control and the heavy Enfield lie down on the side in the muddy soil mass there has been shoveled into the page. My right foot is standing in clay mud up to my knee. I got the MC. up again, but something has happened with the gear, it has got a shock. I can’t get it in neutral, so I have to push it away from the wheel track because a bus is honking and will pass. I struggle to push the MC, but I slip in the ground and my right feet are alternately in the mud or on the road. A young guy from the bus try to help me but there has to be one more before we managed to get it onto the other side of the mud. There I stood with my feet of clay, which was really heavy.
I examine my Enfield and found out that I can continue if I drive slowly because of the broken gear shift. The mechanic in Shimla may then look at the gear again.
I arrived this time to Shimla from the north side and discover how big and noisy and poor it really is. Now it look like all other semi-large cities in India, I have run across. That part of town of Shilma I have visited before was just the rich part. Where the historic English buildings exist.
It turns out that gear slices, which makes it possible to switch gear is really hot. They had to be replaced. It could also be that I was not cautious enough with my gear changes.
Meeting with the Guide Ranjan Thakur.
The morning after I met the Guide that I have been in contact with, in his home town Choghi, located 13 km. down the hill from Shilma. He suggested that I should go to the Holy Renuka Jee Lake. He also gave me a bottle of wine made in Choghi of Rhodondendron flower, which bloom in the area. I'm not a big wine connoisseur, so I did not actually know that one can make wine from flowers.
The guide had an Enfield 350cc. He said about my model that it should be treated it with caution. No strong gas up at gearshift. Throttle must be fully depressed and then switched happen gently. Enfield 500cc, is like a big elephant and has to be treated with gentle hands and it do not like the sudden fast twitch and speeding.
I actually think I've had a share of the blame. I had pressed the big animals too strong and had not listened to its nature. I had dealt with this heavy animals there is a little slow on the uptake as I did with my previous flying MC.Aprilia pegasus 650cc.
25 Sept. Renuka Jee Lake.
I found a lovely hotel here in the Holy Renuka Jee Lake, the largest lake (about 2.5 km in circumference) in the Himalayan Mountains. It is the embodiment of god Renuka and a small lake beside the consecrated his son Parshurama. Both have temples lying down to the lakes.
It is early morning at. 6:30 am. The sun has yet to reach the mountain top in the distance. Sea is completely calm. I got myself ready for my morning yoga ritual. I find a thick blanket in the closet, fold it three times with a sheet over, so it gets a sufficiently thick so I can make rolls on the spine, without noticing the white marble tiles and do my headstand to get some fresh oxygen to the brain.
I took my breakfast on the balcony an saw how chimpanzees strokes in a large flock over the terrace of the old main building, which reminds me a bit about the Danish writer Karen Blixen's book 'My Africa Farm'. I was first offered a huge room, with four meters to the ceiling, with plenty of damp patches on the concrete wall. It had a direct view over Renuka Jee Lake. But I chose instead a room in the newer annex, with its own balcony, which I could sit more private and the room seems more comfortable. It was important to get a nice room because I wanted to take a day off here, in this beautiful surroundings. There was only one Sikh couple besides me at the hotel.
I can feel that I have been through some tough physical day. Four days in a row I have been on the road 6-9 hours, the small winding bumpy and at times slipped true and deadly slippery mountain roads. Swing, holes and staccato run. It's wonderful that you do not meet so many oncoming, but instead they comes sudden and again you have to make a counter maneuver - it causes tension in the body. My body screamed for a break.
All the time you are forced to overtake trucks and buses, as the dust rises behind them. So you have to keep a good distance from them, but it's hard because there always comes an oncoming, so you have to brake a little to pass each other. It disturb your sense of freedom and air, to have some big noisy and dusty trucks in front of you. It requires energy with all these overtaking.
Just before the town Chindi a few days ago, I was unlucky, down a very steep mountain road I had to do a very sharp left turn. The swing was very smooth because there was running water directly onto the road, and I had laid me down to much in the swing so the MC. got to lie down on the page. Enfield side bar took the fall and I escaped with a blow to my left shoulders. But in the fall I held so tightly on right brake handle, so it broke.
It was a very small harmless crash. I got the tongue MC. up for grabs again. It is not so easy on a steep slippery and wet mountain road. I drove on, now only with a foot brake. I stopped in the small town Chindi to ask further towards Tattapani.
As had happened so many times before, because of my bad card, I had to stop and ask directions many times. Either they do not understand what I say or can not read or look on a map, so I feel many times that I was in the same situation as in the movie 'lost in translation'. Because I think I got so many wrong answers, so I too often must turn back, because it is the wrong direction, they have sent me.
But I was willing to drive a detour to get, which proved to be 15 km. away. Two young people at an MC. show me the wayto a MC. workshop in the city Karsog by driving in front of me.
Fast Service
I got a new brake. The good thing about driving an Enfield, is that they all had many parts to it. While I stood there, all the young men and looked at my map. They had the opportunity to inform themselves about where their city was located in Himachal Pradesh.
Early morning in Karsog
The only hotel in town, was 'something'. I had really come a long way into the country. My hotel was not worth eating at, so after having gone into a sort of Internet Box there was in a kind grocery store, but then the electricity desappeared in the whole city, what is very normal here in India. It happened more in some cities than others. He took her camping lamp up so he could continue his employment. I found my own computer up and sat there and wrote while I waited for the electricity.
I never got internet connection again so I went to a restaurant opposite, since it seemed to be OK compared to other places I had seen in the village. It reminded me a lot about the places I visit for more than 20 years ago in Cairo, together with my good friend and artist colleague Niels Nedergård. He had lived in Cario in several years. It was incredibly intimate and it was very cheap, but hygiene was far from what one is accustomed to. So it turned into me, even then, when the dirty cloth was run over tables and everything was washed in cold water.
Well the food is freshly prepared. We were 6 customer there had ordered the place today's only specialty. So first one chapati, then the other, depending on whether the young man who stood in front of me with his forehead against the gas, was ready with a new one. Then a bowl of cucumber and lemon.
I've now been in India for 3 weeks, so I may well have gotten used to their bacteria. So I was not so afraid. But the fear is still sitting in me. This I learned the next morning. When I had packed the Enfield, I felt again, dizzy and very uncomfortable. A bit of the same, I had the first few days in Delhi.
Maybe I had got a stomach infection from my visit to the local restaurant. But it could also be because I had taken malaria pills, which I only have to do once a week. Maybe they were very strong. Perhaps they hit me because of to little sleep and after the fall yesterday my body were completely worn out. I was even more stiff and sore in the muscles than usual.
27 Sept. Kurukshetra.
I'm back to the global noisy world. A newspaper ‘The Times Of India’, was pushed under the door to me this morning.
I hope I have answered all you who there have sent me a greeting on the road, which I have been pleased to receive. I'm not able with my server to see whom I sent it to, as it does not keep copies. So maybe I have only been written thoughts and greetings in my head, but not got them out as a email.
The noise outside the window is very hectic, back in the big city.
Spiritual greetings
Bjarne
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar