Monday, August 07, 2000
Journey To Ladakh- Part 9
Rasik Shah
Rasik Shah was born in the Indian diaspora in colonial apartheid type society of Kenya. Having grown up in a multi-lingual, multi-racial society, he studied law in the London of the early sixties and went back to Kenya, practising as a criminal lawyer. He migrated with his young family to Canada in 1974 and practised law in Vancouver till 1995. He leads trekking tours to the Garwhal region of India and overland jeep safaris to Ladakh years. He writes full time now, leading trekking tours as a hobby. He has published short stories and articles at the following sites:
1. "The Ngong Hills" at www.dorsai.org/~tjhubsc/ngong.htm
2. "At the Dentist's" at www.es.co.nz/~treeves/rasik.htm
3. "The Discreet Charm of Nairobbers" at: www.litnet.mweb.co.za
4. An article on magical realism at: http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu
5. The Display Suite at: http://www.mweb.co.za/litnet
Links to his other travel and trekking articles can be found at:
http://www.sawf.org/rasik
He has written a novel set in Kenya and is now putting together a book on Trekking in the Indian Himalayas.
He plans to lead a trekking group to Gaumukh, the source of the Ganges in September, 2000. (See his articles on the Gangotri-Tapovan trek in the previous issues of Sawf), and a jeep safari to Leh, Ladakh overland from Shimla via Lahaul and Spiti in the summer of 2001.
Please address any queries to him at: rshah132@home.com
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Pang Tea Shop
Having crossed Baralach La, we have a quiet and comfortable night at the "luxury", permanent camp in Sarchu. The next morning, we start on the road to Pang, after we which we will approach Taglang La, the 5,500 meters high mountain crossing that is reputed to be the second highest motorable road in the world. Of course, there is to be no end of problems, as in life itself. This journey has become a true metaphor for life and its vicissitudes. As soon as you solve or get over one set of problems, a new series begins. You go on for ever doing this, till you reach some mythical state of nirvana or moksha, which in our case is represented by our projected arrival in the city of Leh.Leh itself is still distant, a couple of days journey if we encounter no further hurdles!
We make our way on the now rather well-built, smooth and relatively straight road on the Sarchu plains, chugging along. Distant vistas promise sightings of the wild ass, for which Dr. Anand is on the lookout, video camera ready and rolling, pointing out over the window ledge.
We reach Pang Camp in the early afternoon and stop for a tea break at one of the many tea stalls in the place. These stalls are in fact huge tents, big enough to accommodate large parties. We check in at a restaurant/tea shop run by a "Nepali" woman, who seemed to be highly energetic and organized. Little did we know that we are going to be her guests for two nights, the road up ahead on the mountains being blocked.
We settle down and walk around stretching our legs. Word has already reached us that the road at Taglang La is blocked because of a heavy snow fall and we would have to wait at the Pang Camp till the road had been cleared. There was no guarantee as to when the road ahead would be cleared for traffic. Already a colony of trucks has collected here. By the time we go any further hundreds of trucks will stop here on their way to Leh. Business is going to be good for the teashop owners and people running eating places. I notice that the back walls of the tents are secured to the ground with heavy rocks, pinning the bottom end of the flaps of the canvass walls to the ground. Obviously the wind here must have gale force at times. The day this afternoon is lit by a brilliant sun under a cloudless, pristine blue sky, the temperature quite warm yet. It is the light in Ladakh that is unique, rendering everything in a hue of another world, bright, eerie, mysterious, vaguely foreboding. Hemis Monastery, for example, as yet far from us and close to Leh, remained clothed in great colour contrasts with its own hues of red and burnt earth against the blue of the Ladakhi sky -- producing excellent photographs.
The sunset and the short twilight have a mix of brilliant red, dark and blue colours. The bright moon will soon dominate the night ahead. We roam around the camp and note that the hundreds of people who will camp here for the night and sleep in the cabs of their trucks are all male, mostly the drivers of the trucks. Many of the tea shops are run by Tibetan women. Many come from Nepal and other Tibetan refugee camps in India here for the summer season, to work and operate their businesses at way stations such as this one. I am beginning to get a picture of the Tibetan women, fiercely energetic, independent and capable. These women are not self-conscious and talk freely to everyone, not shy and retiring, as the women in traditional India tend to be.
We spend time listlessly, moving from one tea shop to another , sampling tea, soft drinks, go for little walks around this by now bustling village. More trucks keep coming in and stop here for the night.
Neelu has successfully negotiated the rental of the big room at the back of the tea shop of our Nepali-Tibetan woman host,whom I shall call Angmo, to house our party for the night. It is a big circular tent. We will sleep in rows of sleeping bags arranged around the outer wall of the tent, heads near the wall, feet pointing to the centre. At nightfall Angmo got busy preparing a meal of rice, naan style chapaties, daal and vegetable curry. She is as efficient as she is ebullient and in no time at all has rolled out scores of flat round naans roasted and fried lightly in a hot metal sauce pan. She has a gas cylinder feeding her little cooker rings. We eat around a makeshift table, sitting cross-legged along the length of boxes and bags covered by a long sheet of cloth.
The night passes fitfully, sixteen of us in this round room, snores marking the good sleep of some, disturbing the light sleepers. We cannot complain because we all have sleeping bags to keep us warm. Brian's bags and the luggage of some of the others has not yet arrived. Chilli had remained behind in Keylong to return to the scene where the luggage had been stored after the recalcitrant pony had bolted as we trekked from Chhatru to Gramphu! Chilli would hopefully get all the left luggage and somehow catch up with us by whatever means he could find to transport himself and the several bags he was to bring back.
The next morning we wake up among the noise of the whole colony of people getting ready, clearing their throats, washing themselves, etc. in the bustle of this temporary town. There is still no word as to how long it would be before we could proceed further. We hang around sipping cups of chai, getting a puri and potato curry breakfast. We spend the day hanging around, waiting for more news, not knowing what to do. By the afternoon, energies are running low. Some people retire in the big round bedroom tent that has become our quarters and take naps. Around four o'clock as we are sipping hot chai, I hear a buzz. Something has happened. Loud cheers broke out from members of our party as a rickety old water truck arrived and parked itself near Angmo's tea shop and disgorged Chilli from the front passenger seat. The applause, as most of us realized that Chilli had made it with our lost bags, thundered along the campsite Chilli was welcomed and hugged by every member of our party as he retrieved the bags he had brought from different parts of the water truck. This truck had no real room for any luggage. He had stuck bags under the round tank on the back of the truck, lodged and tied up on the body of the undercarriage, more bags were tied to the tail of the truck and a couple came from under the driver's cab seat!
Chilli was overwhelmed with emotion and almost cried as he described the ordeal he had been through, the difficulty he had in persuading the driver of the water truck to give him a lift in the wilderness, to a man who seemed to have a train of bags to carry.
A few hours were spent with Chilli regaling us with narratives of his adventure. We had all of us by now realized how much we missed Chilli's cooking. Well, tonight, we would let Angmo be helped by Chilli in preparing our dinner!
I presume Neelu rewarded the driver of the water truck adequately, for now all our lost luggage had been retrieved. We spent another night at Angmo's "hotel", enjoying the excellent meal that Chili turned out assisting her at her open "kitchen". I watched Angmo with fascination as she worked with Chilli, the two of them hitting it quite well. Angmo was an attractive woman, apart from being a confident business woman, it was clear. It was fun watching her make small talk as she worked, in a language beyond me. It was probably Ladakhi, seeing we were well into Ladakh by now. Tomorrow the road would be cleared for traffic going north, I felt certain.
Indeed, the news came the next morning that the road ahead was open. A line of trucks moved up the mountain ahead, engines roaring as they worked the trucks to unprecedented heights. We were soon in a snow bound mountain, the narrow, parallel ruts of the road going up to above 17,000 feet before we began to descend on the plain to Upshi, the last big centre on the bank of the Indus as we approached Leh itself. Our bus made slow progress and we made it to Leh before nightfall, stopping at the Hemis and Tikse Monasteries to pay homage to these great Buddhist monuments, where living Buddhist communities of monks thrived.
Outlook from Hemis Monastery |
Monks in Tikse Monastery |
We arrive in Leh, the road clinging to the rapid waters of the Indus, in the lush green valley that accompanied the river, small farms and produce garlanding the surface of the narrow valley. Beyond the valley was a rugged landscape of barren rock and snow. Leh itself left us breathless as we caught glimpses of the Leh Palace. Leh itself left us breathless as we caught glimpses of the Leh Palace.
We checked into Hotel Mandala and breathed a sigh of relief that we had finally made it into the heart of this land of Shangri-la.
Rasik Shah is leading a trek to the source of the Ganges and Tapovan this year in September. There will also be an overland jeep safari of Ladakh in the summer of 2001, going via Lahaul and Spiti. The Ladakh series will continue. See past issues of Sawf magazine for the articles on the Gangotri and Tapovan trek.
For further details or inquiries please e-mail him at: rshah132@home.com
In India his trek and tour organizer is:
Neelamber Badoni
Trek Himalaya Tours Pvt. Ltd.
The Upper Mall, Jhulaghar
MUSSOORIE (UP) INDIA
Ph. 011-91-0135-630491
Telefax: 011-91-0135-631302
E-mail: trekhimalaya@vsnl.com
Or:
neelubadoni@rediffmail.com
Credits
- Photographs taken by Rasik Shah.
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