Monday, August 12, 2013

Keeping the hunger alive!!

At any point of time, when I am not traveling, I have this need of at least planning a trip/trek. I will keep bugging a few close friends till the next trip is confirmed, time-gap between two trips notwithstanding. Once I have booked the tickets for the next travel there is this happiness which gets over me & I start with the research that would go on to make my trip memorable. Also I like to visit places which are not so commercial as a tourist destination, so that the opportunity to interact with locals & seeing the things as they are exist for me. Also another advantage of the strategy is to avoid sharing the place with loads of other travelers, like a Goa trip in Monsoon or a Ladakh trip in winter. And more often than not, they happen to be great on VFM  :)

I am not much into shopping & hence more often than not, I come back empty handed. But what I have carried back from trek/trip are loads of memories which revolves mostly around people or beauty of the place or, on a few occasion, food. At times one does get to experience negative incidents also, I have had a fair share of these. But the impact of positive experiences outweighs that of negative experiences. This post is dedicated to all those positive/funny/quirky incidents which revolve around people & for me these are the real reason behind getting desperate to pick up my backpack & get on the road.

  • Srinagar fruit-seller- When we were in Srinagar about 4 years back, on our way to Ladakh via road, it was a bad time for the city. For all those 3-4 days there was full day curfew & our strategy was to start early reach the designated place before the curfew is enforced & stay the day at the place till late evening. On one day we got to know that the market is open & we can go there to buy stuff. Since I wasn't keen on taking anything back I decided to randomly go & chat with some locals while my friends shop to their hearts content. One of the guys who I started interacting with was an elderly local fruit seller, he asked me where I was from & what I did for living. I asked him about his life in Srinagar & the answer wasn't very good to hear. Being in the business of selling perishable goods that too in a place where curfews are part of your regular life doesn't bode well for anyone. Education of the grand-children was an issue amongst other things. I decided to pick some stuff for the road journey which was to start next morning to Kargil. So as soon as I asked him to weigh some quantity of all variants of fruit he had he asked me to go to a close-by shop. I was completely confused & asked him whether its his relative's shop to which he said that the fruits are fresher there though he had nothing to do with the owner of that shop. When I asked him why isn't he keen on selling his stuff & make some money given his condition & given the situation of the city. To this he replied that the biggest thing hurting the city is state of tourism & he wants to ensure that people like me who comes to the city has good experience here so that they can go back & talk about their experiences leading to more tourists coming there. To say that I was amazed by the interaction would be an understatement & it happened to be something by which I remember the city.

  • Lukla Lodge lady- About 5 years back on my first ever trek in Nepal, on the way back I got really sick to the extent that people decided to get me carried down while covering the distance worth two days in a single night. There were 6 friends who were part of the troop which went through the ordeal of traveling through the night with the help of torches in not so friendly terrains. After walking throughout the night we reached Lukla early morning at crazy hour (I do not remember what time it was for obvious reason, but I do remember it was still dark). We didn't have any booking or hadn't informed any lodge owner in advance, and after knocking on doors of many lodges for what seemed like an eternity, one lady lodge-owner woke up & opened the doors of her lodge for us. Since many rooms were not empty she advised us to take the common hall so that people can sleep for a bit there & we can have breakfast before catching a flight to Kathmandu. All this while I was crying in pain, as my situation wasn't improving, so at that crazy hour she decided to burn some fire for me plus she also made a potion using local herbs so that I could feel better. When that also didn't help she decided to sit beside me & talk, while pressing my head gently throughout. Others had to get some rest as some of them had been walking for 16 hours without break & some the whole night sharing my weight on their shoulder. That day till 11 am, due to weather the first flight out of Lukla was delayed by quite a bit, the elderly lady did nothing else but sat beside me & tried her best to get me to drink something which I was vomiting out the very next moment. I could not thank her on that trip but got an opportunity to meet her on the next trek in Nepal, we stayed at her lodge on both ways.

  • Thailand speed boat with old Englishman- It is one of those incidents which has stayed with me for a long time now. I was traveling in Thailand with friends & one fine day we decided to go to some island (do not remember the name) on a speed boat. Weather wasn't particularly good that day & hence the ride which is normally difficult became even worse. So everyone sitting in the front part of the deck went inside to have a safe journey, to the extent possible. It was just me & a old British man who decided to stay put as it was too much fun, a few bumps on the head notwithstanding. We also started chatting which was difficult due to weather but not impossible. So he started telling me his story, he was an ex-army guy who was retired now. He keeps traveling with his son & they always travel to places where they have currency advantage. India was also high on his list, but he mentioned that he would rate Thailand high on the list above India. I got so offended that I stood up & gave a speech which lasted for decent time on why India is a better place from tourism point of view. Unity in diversity, so much of culture to absorb, mountain, river, ocean, valley, dessert, heritage sites, temples, mosques, shrines, in short almost everything under the sun. He agreed to everything & mentioned that he loved Rajasthan & he has been to Goa which is a great place. I followed up by asking why he didn't find India better, to which he replied in two words "Cheap girlfriends". For about 5 seconds I was watching his face, he sensed what I was thinking. He said "I am over 50, both my hands have broken bones, same with my legs, my back has been fractured more than once, I have issues with my shoulders. In fact there is just one part of my body which works properly & I feel need to keep it in working shape hence I come here often". He also mentioned economics involved & with pension money he has to come to Thailand as rest of the location would be expensive. We discussed the entire thing so openly & then talked about his experience in army & other stuff. To have a conversation like that, in a neutral place, was just the right thing to remember the trip till today.

the small one also happens to be an awesome dancer
  • Family at lingshed-  A couple of us were trying to complete "Chadar trek", which is basically walking over a thin sheet of ice formed in winter over Zanskar River. Throughout the trek you keep camping at night in the open near the river, which makes it extremely cold (maximum temperature being -16 degrees, minimum recorded temperature being -38 degrees). One of the stops was Lingshed village where we had a luxury of house stay, where we had a proper heater & proper bed for a change. The family which was hosting us had two little kids with their mother & grand-mother. Men of the family were traveling outside the village for work, while women maintain things at home. We had occupied a better part of their house & they were as graceful as any host can be. They invited us to their house, offered us butter tea (Gurgur chai), apologized, for unfathomable reason, about the condition of their house. But what really took the cake was they arranged a party for us at their home where locals were singing their songs & playing drums & beating empty cans, while we were dancing with them. With some local rice liquor the entire setup was as amazing as it can be @ 4000mts plus height. They even wanted us to shift to a common hall which is used for village functions, where proper instruments were kept, with more people to join us. But we had heard the news that Chadar was deteriorating & had to start early next day morning. We called it a day, but the experience took the meaning of the word hospitality to a different level.

  • Pakistani Shop owner at Barcelona- We were pretty impressed by the city of Barcelona, majorly because of the awesome work done by Gaudi. Also we loved the other places we went to in Spain, but what we wanted was a local food experience which would have completed the experience for us. We had tried all kind of road side food, pizzas and all types of comfort food that is available. Went to as many different kind of restaurant as possible, but we were yet to experience the Catalonian cuisine, which made us travel across the city on the eve of our departure. Language is a big barrier & English is not a language which many understand in Barcelona. We were still trying hard to figure out a local restaurant where we would get local flavors in a fine-dine setting.After a point we realized that asking people on street is not helping at all, so new strategy was to enter restaurants and asking them where can we get authentic local food but even this didn't work. Very few people knew English & those who did didn't have an answer for us. In one cafe the person asked us to wait & went to get somebody. We thought he was trying to call someone who knew English and the person who came out was the owner of the shop who we thought was an Indian but he was actually a Pakistani. We had a long discussion on how he landed in Barcelona & how was he finding the experience of living their. He had a few questions about India, which we answered happily. We also discussed cricket, which was the most animated part of the overall discussion. He offered us food at his cafe, which we respectfully declined with the reason. He recommended a restaurant for local cuisine & also offered us to drive there. We responded by telling him he can drop us only if he joins us for dinner. In the end we walked down to the restaurant as cafe owner had work to finish before dinner. Its a really old incident hence I cannot remember most of the conversation but what struck me at that time was that similarity that exist between Indians & Pakistanis, who I always used to think were very different from us. His helpful nature & his manner of speaking put a seed of thought in my head, i.e. visiting Pakistan someday. BTW local food was nothing great, they served us artichoke which was half-burnt. There was a decent dish which was made up of cheese and roasted potato (nothing can go wrong with that combination) which ensured that I came out of the restaurant with on a full stomach.

local food @ Barcelona
Small kid at the back is Jigme & one on right is Nuwang
  • Visiting Bhutanese monk's house-The best part of my Bhutan trip was visiting monastery where Nawang, who is a practicing Monk, works & stays. Me & couple of my friend were walking up to Swiss guest house, where we were staying, from the town which was at a 30 mins walk downhill from the guesthouse. We decided to take a new trail & after a while we couldn't find the road going anywhere. Nawang came there just then & we asked him about the way to our guest house, he not only mentioned how to reach but also offered to accompany us till we reach the main path again. On the way we started talking about Bollywood and went on from there to discuss life of a monk. Seeing our interest he offered to take us to his monastery, Khurjey Monastery. After giving us a small tour of the monastery, he casually mentioned about spending some time with his roommates at his room, we jumped at this opportunity. All this while we were discussing life@monastery & life before being a monk. As soon as we reach his room he introduced us to Jigme, who was a reincarnated lama. Such people are identified early on & taken into monastery before they even turn 10 years in age. Jigme was watching a tom cruise movie when we entered their room. They both were forthcoming in answering all our questions regarding Buddhism, sacrificing normal life, aspect of future from a monks perspective, etc and after were we fully satisfied with their answers we asked Nawang to sing. Nawang was a good singer after singing a few lines from various Indian movie songs, on our request he sang a Bhutanese song & translated the same for us. Post this he even took us to the classrooms of the monastery, all the while explaining things or answering question without showing any signs of getting irritated by our badgering. My respect for Bhutan & the King's philosophy of Gross Happiness Index increased manifold after interacting with locals, especially people like Nawang & Jigme.

  • Help from Tourism employee of Mizoram- We landed in Aizawl thinking we would interact with the local tourism center & then make our plans. There was no tourism kiosk at Lengpui Airport or Aizawl city & we were left on our own for figuring out our plans for next few days. Our driver was trying his best to take us to a place where we could get some help. At last we reached the administrative head office of tourism department, we asked almost everyone to help us figure things out as some routes were bad, weather was not that friendly, accessibility was another concern which we wanted to clarify before heading off in specific direction. Most of the people couldn't even understand what we were trying to figure out, as the concept of tourist was itself alien to them. After a lot of explaining from our side a bunch of ladies started paying attention to us & one of them was really impressed with what we were trying to do. She mentioned a couple of impressive places where she had been herself. Also she had a discussion with our driver Sangtea, as to how we can best utilize our time in Mizoram & how he can help us reach Reiek Tlang in a day which route to take and all. She also called up the government lodge employee in Reiek Tlang & asked him to prepare room & food for us. We were so happy to get so much of help & thanked Nonni again & again. Then she asked for our cell numbers, which we happily shared. Having received so much of help from an unknown lady was great, she would have at least spend an hour apart from making multiple calls checking routes etc. But this wasn't all she was about to do, for the entire duration of our trip she kept on calling us back asking about our experiences & checking up on us to see if we are not finding anything too difficult. On the way to Muifang from Reiek Tlang she again called & asked if we have made our bookings in Muifang, as there is only one decent resort which was owned by Government. Like this she kept on helping us throughout the trip. Such goodness in people is not visible in most of the places, but Mizoram was full of such examples of good. Our driver Sangtea helped us a lot, he even sacrificed his Sunday mass as we couldnt find a cab back to Aizawl from Hmuifang to catch our flight. Caretakers at all the lodges were more than forthcoming with any kind of support that we asked from them. But Nonni's efforts to ensure that we go back from Mizoram happy & the kind of ownership that she took to ensure that we had a good time was not just unexpected but also unbelievable.

  • Interaction with the Soldier at Draupadi Kund-  This is a rather short incident pertaining to a road-trip which was from Srinagar-Kargil-Leh-Manali-Delhi. First half of the journey, i.e. till Leh, it is almost impossible not to interact with Army-men. We used this opportunity to maximum possible effect & interacted with quite a few of them. The fact that they are sacrificing so much for the call of duty to spend time in harsh conditions without complaining much is mind boggling in itself. Plus when they start sharing their anecdotes, it becomes even more overwhelming. On the way we even interacted with a senior officer who was in-charge of managing the Vijay Diwas celebrations. Post which we reached a small tourist attraction called "Draupadi Kund", where we met a Sikh soldier. We chatted for a long time & because the person was responsive we asked too many question, some of them personal. The soldier was more than happy to answer everything, but we started feeling guilty of going overboard with the questions. So I apologized to him for taking so much of time & thanked him for answers. But he told us that there was no need for an apology, given the fact he had to spend majority of his time here away from the base & his fellow army-men he is more than happy to interact with people. He also told us that the biggest issue with soldiers is the boredom due to inaction. He keeps looking for tourists, who visits Draupadi kund, for some company. This made us realize about a completely different reason for us to appreciate the efforts of soldiers, they withstand mundane job, lack of company, no bakar, etc & still continues to fulfill their roles.And they do all this without much bickering & this does stand out in sharp contrast compared to most of us.