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hari om, hari om!!!
first, sorry a million times sorry for not writing more often, particularly to the people who are writing to me and getting no replies...i've been incommunicado for about a month now, first in an ashram for a couple weeks, then in a small hot springs village in the himalaya without milk or rolling papers, much less internet access.
phoolchatti ashram was my home for a couple weeks, at the confluence of the holy ganga and a tributary, the hem river. beautfiul location, good time for yoga and meditation, and enjoyed the bahjan (chanting) circle by the fire every night before dinner.
left there and travelled north to uttalkashi, also in the state of uttaranchal. the plan was to go to gangotri and badrinath in the higher himalaya, although everyone was telling me it was impossible as the road is closed for another few weeks. i went anyway. indeed, gangotri and badrinath are unreachable at this time, but the small village of gangnani (thank you to noam for that suggestion!) was reachable and equipped wtih hot sulphur springs...!
the mountainsides are terraced steeply with the local villagers farming..potatoes, carrots, and onions, from what i could tell. we were seeking shelter under a roof in one village during a rain storm, and a villager offered for us to sit under the shelter of his proch. soon, it was gettin g colder, and we all moved inside the one room he shared with his wife and three young children. they invited us to stay for dinner and sleep the night, and when the hail started, we accepted. the night passed with a warm fire and delicous dinner of dahl, sabji, chapati, and chawal, and copious amounts of chai and charez. his wife hand-makes the charez, which made finding more to buy a more simple matter.
another day we hitched a ride with a school feild trip to the end of the road (as close to gangotri a we could get), but the buses dropped us off when they were entering a military base, as foreigners are not allowed on the base. someone vaguely mentioned there might be a restaurant we could go to, but no one really offered much in the way of suggestion. we hoped to catch a ride back to gangnani with the buses, and the prospect of walking the 20 or so km was not all that enticing. so, we walked up a riverbed and found a small cave, and made a small fire to keep us warm for a few hours. time passed with gathering firewood and keeping warm, moments earmarked with more charez consumption. eventually, we returned to the road and began walking, preparing to hitch with whoever passed. soon, the school group came along and picke us up. although our drivers were in a very different mental state than in the morning and looking for our reactions to their shitty driving more than at the road (something i didn't look at because, well, if i'm ginna die by sliding off a raod into the ganga, why know about it?) anyway, somehow we arrived back and enjoyed yet another late evening soak in the hot springs.
we got quite friendly with the guy in the kitchen at our guest house, and soon he was walking by dropping off half a tora at a go of nice charez, insisting we make a chillum. after a couplke of times, he started telling us we didn't make the chillums strong enough, "put all! put all!" all being about four chillums for us..at one point he was in our room smoking with us and told us that he and the baba or the village were smoking partners and smoked, "one tora, one day." fuuuck.
and so, we bade farewell to gangnani and after an adventurous journey down the mountain (climbing over a rock fall with our backpacks, almost leaving without the dog, etc), we embarked on a two day journey to manali. yesterday was local bus hell, spending first 7 hours on one bus then 11 on the other. yeah, so a long couple of days, but now in more beautiful, amazing mountains and quite happy.
that's my story.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
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