Hannah: Amritsar to Kasol

AT HOME IN KASOL

CENTRE

ME TRYING TO GET THE TIMER RIGHT!

THE GREAT HIMALAYAS!

OUR GUESTHOUSE

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After the smoky, noisy mayhem of Amritsar, we finally arrived into Kasol last Monday; a little town about 2000m up in the Himalayas. We spent about an hour riding in the dark against our intentions as Angel was determined to spend the last little bit of his birthday here.

Kasol is nestled in the Parvati Valley with lush green pine-tree lined mountains in every direction. In the distance you can see the rocky snow-capped heights of about 6000m.

Angel thought it was a perfect birthday ride. We started off at a huge lake, where we'd stayed enroute from Amritsar and the scenery got more and more spectacular as we followed the windy road through the Great Himalayan National Park. It looks more like Switzerland or Canada. You would expect to see black bears catching salmon in the river rather than the monkeys which play around on the side on the road.


Kasol has lots of colourful cafes and guesthouses and cool candlelit restaurants. The shops mostly sell fake North Face stuff and woollen hats and hoodies. There's the choice of traditional tea stalls and dhabas- most of which sell Tibetan noodles and stuffed dumplings. There's also a huge selection of middle-eastern food in the restaurants thanks to the dominant Israeli backpacker population. The locals call Kasol 'Little Israel' apparently - due to the typical groups of chillum-smoking hippies who listen to trance music wherever they go - So not much has changed on the backpacker scene over the last ten years!


Anyway we're gradually relaxing into the slower pace of life- at the moment, we're sitting on the balcony outside our room in the sun, typing away on the iPods, surrounded by half the contents of our rucksacks which are hung up drying around us. Our neighbour is also Israeli - coincidentally, but he is much older - more our age! - and he also tries to avoid the loud groups of his fellow countrymen who are obviously enjoying their first taste of post military service freedom!


He's also just bought a Royal Enfield - though his last motorcycling trip was 15 years ago, so I think we was glad to get reassurance from Angel that he got it for a good price. He's waiting now for a new crankshaft and we're waiting for our new pride and joy to be cleaned up and resprayed. - not sure we'll be able to keep calling it 'The Rusty Rocket' after that! We're also getting new shock absorbers- something which I'm personally very happy about. Bikes were never really built with the pillion in mind! After persuading Angel of the benefits of parting with an extra twenty odd quid for a brand spanking new fully sprung seat and now new shockers too... the ride should be a dream - even on the bumpy roads!


The mechanic originally said it'd be done by Tues but in true Indian style, Tues became Wed and Wed became Thurs so we'll what happens. I'm not too bothered - lovin' this place and I'll especially miss my afternoon tea and cake at the German bakery by the river. We've spent three days trekking to make up for it though!


The first trip which I though would be a gentle meander through the riverside woodland, ended up being, to quote the Rough Guide 'a day's hard climb' to Rashol, a village at the top of a bloody mountain, where the main income is from the production of charras (a resin made from marajuana) which everyone smokes everywhere in chillum pipes. It took four hours of constant climbing to get up there and by the time we crashed into chairs at the first guesthouse we found, we couldn't speak - not just because we were so knackered though, the views were amazing too! To be honest I wasn't sure if I was getting a bit old for this backpacking lark, but I don't whether India is changing, but it strangely seems cleaner than it used to! Not spotted even a single cockroach or rat at all! Fine by me!

Next stop Rishakesh! Xx

Spanish version:

Finalmente cuando Hannah se encontraba mejor dejamos Amritsar con su Sagrado Templo Dorado. Pasamos dos dias conduciendo bastantes horas para llegar a donde estamos ahora, Kasol. Decidimos ir los 400 km totales por carreteras comarcales con poco trafico y paisajes mas bonitos, las carreteras Nacionales son una pesadilla, camiones, coches, jeeps, motos, bicis, cabras, vacas, tractores que vienen en tu direccion y en tu carril...etc. Ademas el diesel y el polvo es mucho peor por tanto trafico, se mete por todo lado y parecemos indios al final de un dia en la moto.

Paramos a dormir al lado de un lago enorme en un hotelito que yo pensaba era una casa abandonada. Al fin y al cabo una cama y una ducha era todo lo que necesitabamos y lo tenia, osea que despues de negociar el precio(aqui se negocia/regatea todo) sin ninguna fortuna para mi nos quedamos igualmente. El dia de mi cumple fue otro dia largo. Las carreteras en la ruta que elegimos no eran tan buenas, una moto de motocross habria venido de maravilla. Finalmente ya entrada la noche llegamos a Kasol donde llevamos una semana de relax.

La moto de momento se ha portado genial, hemos decidido pintarla y hacer otros arreglillos, como nuevos amortiguadores, filtros...etc que la haran mejor y mas segura, ademas de mas apetecible para otro turista el dia q la vendamos.

Kasol es un pueblecito en El Valle de Parvati, ya metido en el parque Nacional de los Himalayas. Hay mogollon de Israelitas que viajan despues de terminar la mili. Estan todo el dia fumando hashish y con musica trance!! Pesadisimos!! A parte de eso el Valle es alucinante. Restaurantitos locales y turisticos con todo tipo de comida, rio salvaje, cascadas, baños termales naturales y demas. Hemos  hecho algo de trekking. Hay plantas de hashish por todo lado, en nuestro jardin, en la carretera, en el templo etc. Pero mejorl es un pueblecito en El Valle de Parvati, ya metido en el parque Nacional de los Himalayas. Hay mogollon de Israelitas que viajan despues de terminar la mili. Estan todo el dia fumando hashish y con musica trance!! Pesadisimos!! A parte de eso el Valle es alucinante. Restaurantitos locales y turisticos con todo tipo de comida, rio salvaje, cascadas, baños termales naturales y demas. Hemos  hecho algo de trekking. Hay plantas de hashish por todo lado, en nuestro jardin, en la carretera, en el templo etc. Pero mejor no tocarlas. Los locales lo usan como negocio y aunque parezca silvestre no lo es. Es mejor no meterse en lios, ademas ni fumamos ni nada.

Desde el balconcito de nuestra habitacion vemos picos nevados de mas de 6000 m. Un paisaje como decia brutal. Estamos super relajados, pasamos el dia en la terraza disfrutando las vistas mientras desayunamos, pasando el dia leyendo, o de paseos o simplemente no haciendo nada. Mañana nos dan la moto y nos iremos en direccion sur. Vamos a Haridwar y Rishikesh. Lugares sagrados en la ribera del Ganges. Mas en el proximo blog.