Trained Bladders

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The bus to Naggar was so crowded people were sat on the roof, luckily for us we've become seasoned pro's in the battle of boarding buses so we were happily seated for the journey. We were planning on staying actually at Naggar castle however it gets quite busy during the day, we didn't fancy people peering into our windows and the like so we opted for the hotel next door.

The village is very small but there are views of the hills and mountains from every which way and other than a few cow's moo-ing the place is nice and quiet. The castle is interesting to walk around, its very well maintained however the museum is tiny, it kind of makes you wonder why they even bothered.

The Roerich house a short walk from the village is worthy of a visit. Nikolai Roerich was a famous russian painter who mainly specialised in landscape paintings. In his twilight years he moved to india and got into yoga and judging by some of his later work got into smoking the wild weed that abounds the hills around the Kullu valley. Walking around his gallery the range of his work goes from himalyan mountains at sunset to heads in wine bottles and floating banana skins!

Our route from Nagger wasn't so clear cut to Kasol and I didn't fancy or mores the point couldn't be arsed to use the buses, leaving us arranging another crap tourist taxi, great. Problem was, and its happened a few times, somewhere at the start the driver stopped to pick up a friend. I was thinking this was going to be a short term situation but sadly no. The said friend came for the whole trip making us feel like hitch hikers in our own taxi or that they were doing us a favour, I mean its not exactly a short trip and makes it a bit crap for us wondering why he came along.

Kasol didnt really prove to better the situation, Manali and Vashisht its not. Its a grubby stretch of street miles from anywere with some pretty unsavoury looking locals and attracts travellers whom have a certain persuation towards smoking "da ganga". Being the upright citizens that we are we declined all offers of a smoke and went about eating our way around every german bakery in town. Must say the chocolate brownies were quite delicious.

Again we opted for a taxi to get us from Kasol to McLeod. For some reason we choose a chap just down the road who said he would do it for R2500 providing we left before 7am as the taxi union opens then and would do the same journey for R3500. I reckon its something to do with the local goverment not wanting the competition.

So we went with them and done the one fundamental thing we have learnt not to do and thats chase something too much, its a bad omen. It was hard to arrange because by the time we had decided to use them the bloke who we had initially spoke with had disappeared and his missus had taken over the shop. A few phone calls later left us R500 down for a deposit and a faint air of uncertainty; a product of indian travel.

Still the morning came and the taxi did show up however the vehicle was a battered heep and the driver was stoned. Off we went, on came the music and on went the off road driving. At the first town the driver went on the go slow. Maybe there was a speed camera? About as likely as rocking horse shite, no he was looking for his mates as it was time for a car change, of course.

The new driver sped off leaving us questioning his driving ability and this didn't really abate for the rest of the journey. Upon reaching Mandi Lewis Hamilton pulled over and gave us some story about needing to change the oil in the car and not wanting to cause any ripples and knowing its not that bigger job we said ok, bum move. We drove fifteen minutes in the wrong direction and ended up sitting in the customer lounge of the garage for an hour before getting annoyed and having to have a shout at the driver. All of a sudden the R3500 from the taxi union was starting to look outstandingly good value.

Not unsurprisingly he managed to pick up a friend enroute and I thought on several occasions he going to drive off the mountain edge. Somehow we managed to make it to McLeod seven hours later, dehydrated, needing the toilet and starving hungrey. Great taxi journey.

It took days to get over the awful taxi journey and somehow we managed to spend a week in McLeod. Our favorite past time was walking to the nearby villages of Bhagsu and Dharmskot for the views and of course the german bakeries.

It was really interesting walking around Dali Lama's residence and learning more about the Tibet/China situation in the museum. I have to say there is alway two sides to every story but some of the things the poor Tibetians have had to put up with is quite amazing. Its great they've been able to make India their new home.

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Comments

[Michelle]

Taxi!
After reading all your accounts of the various taxi journeys i don't think I'll ever complain about one again!