hello everybody!
Hope you are all doing well!
I sure am... The last days have been some of the most incredible in my life! Im gonna try to pass a little of what happened with words, but as you know, it will never do complete justice to the actual events. But if it at least gives a little taste, and brings some wings to your imagination, then it was already worth writting
From Naggar, in Kullu, we took the 3hr local bus to the Parvati valley, more specifically Jari, from where one can go to the intriguing village of Malana. And as it couldnt have been otherwise, the bus ride was a whole story on its own: being the only foreigners, sitting next to charicature-like local characters and their ever surprising baggages (generators, construction materials, pots and pans, leaking gasoline containers and heaps more), driving through extremely narrow (but two-way) hole-filled roads, at one or two meters from certain death cliffs. All of this while some extremely funny music was blasting out of a pre-historic cassete sound system 'attached' to the bus.
It wasnt the first time I thought:" It seems like im in a movie or something", and it wouldnt be the last.
After arriving in Jari, and the usual mess to find a taxi and agree on a price, we continued to enter the malana valley, which is marked at its junction to the parvati valley by a very big dam (and its consequences to the landscape, nature and local inhabitants). But we were going further up, to malana, far from this construction's sight, and then even further...
From the entrance of the dam, was still another hour 'serpenting' the sharp twists and turns going up the mountain, passing by waterfalls and ever more dramatic mountains and cliffs.
With another small half-hour-up hike, this was the short way to the village. This new road reached this far only as recent as one or two years ago due to the necessity of transport of material from the dam project. Before, malana was only reacheable by a few different routes, all being several hours trekking, and it was through one of these long ways that we left.
But its not only the geographical position which made and make Malana have a different appeal. Also its peculiar (and disputed) history, along with high quality charas, make it a very interesting place to go to.
As far as the history and culture go, supposedly they are descendants of Alexander the Great and his army. They have an old independent democracy, own government and rules, own beliefs and chaste system. Their chaste system is such that anyone from outside is considered impure, so foreigners (or even locals of neighbouring villages) are not allowed to touch anybody, anybody's belongings or house, with the exception of the couple of guesthouses in the limits of the village, which are run by outsiders. To buy something, you say what you want, put the money on the floor, they put the product on the floor, and then each one gets their part. I guess you can imagine how weird but hypnotically interesting is the atmosphere of such place
As for the charas and the marijuana plants , they grow all around the surrounding valleys. It really does justice to being called weed, as it grows even around garbage, in front of police stations and so on. But the good plants are seeded and grown away from the main paths, in fertile and healthy patches of land on the high mountain slopes. Since rubbing season is october, now the plants were relatively small (though some of already 1-2m tall), but was nice to see anyways. The charas supply is plentiful all around, but most of what is sold is low quality, often mixed with natural and chemical adulterants of all kinds to make it seem good. One needs a propper contact or good luck to find the real cream.
The architecture, appart from the new houses built after the fire that some years ago consumed part of the village, is mostly traditional, with the houses built with alternating layers of stone and timber, and the typical slanted stone roof, which gives an interesting feeling to the place.
There were MANY kids running around. In one memorable scene, a big group of women in their traditional clothes, and their dirty kids, were looking at each other's hair for lice, and washing clothes on the steps of a stairway through which a little stream passed. As we came down the steps, the mothers, in a near-desperation, started shouting to the unnatented kids to get out of the way and take the clothes away from the steps so we wouldnt touch. As i said, strange, but interesting. It makes one feel a bit how it must be, to be one of the low chaste (or no-chaste 'untouchables'
in the rest of hindu india.
We spent one night there, smoking and talking with A. , the owner of the guesthouse. He told us some very funny stories, and his general way of speaking and his expressions were hilarious.
We also talked to him about our trekking plans to a nearby village, and he suggested we instead take a longer way out of malana, passing through the beautiful 3700m high chandrakani pass, into the other side, to the kullu valley where we came from the day before. He also had a house there, where we could eat and rest when we arrived if we wanted. The description sounded perfect, so we went for it.
The next day, armed with muesli bars, cashew nuts and water, we started our journey. We knew malana was at 2700m, and that we had to go up to 3700 before going down to 2400.. Not easy on paper, and even worse in practice.
For he first two and a half hours, there was no horizontal walk.. Every single step was up. Of course this also meant that every step brought a more open and beautiful view, which helped motivating us. But after 3000m, one starts feeling there's less air, the heart beats faster to try to compensate, and the moments of rest seem to be insuficient to bring the breath back. But we moved on...
Finally we saw a U shapped part in the top of the mountain, with tibetan prayer flags hanging across it, like a spiritual portal to another dimension. And what a dimension! Sure, it wasnt even half the way, but was basically the end of the going up. This was chandrakani!
As we crossed this 'portal', one of the most incredible views i have ever seen opened up before my eyes: on one side, where we came from, the steep, narrow, lush green malana valley and the parvati valley behind it. On the other side, the open, wide, more populated kullu valley. Behind us, a majestic chain of several snow peaks reaching 6000m+. In front, our aimed direction, an amazing grassy long ridge along the top of the mountain, with ups and downs like a chamel's back. We were above the tree line, and eagles flew around us catching the thermal currents. It felt like the top of the world! There was even some snow were we were, so it was quite cold, probably just a bit over 0°c.
But that was not all... A huge storm was approaching from the snow peaks! With the afternoon sun shining through occasional cloud holes and hitting the snow peaks, and the sudden spark of massive lightnings contrasting against the dark grey cumulus nimbus, it was a joint vision of heaven and hell! At near 4000m, with no more trees around, being the tallest objects in the vicinity, this was not the place to be during a thunder storm, unless the plan was to become shiva barbecue
A mixture of feelings and sensations arouse in me, from fear of the storm, to complete awe with the surroundings, hunger, tiredness, happiness to be alive, etc etc.
We had to get out of there, find some cover in case the storm catched up to us. Haze started falling, so we hurriedly found a small cave where we waited a bit. A sheppherd that was nearby joined us in silence. Luckily the gods smiled in our favour and the wind changed direction, taking the storm to the malana valley on our left, leaving us only it's tail with small drops, and a beautiful view.
Walking along this ridge before going down to kullu was amazing! There were some rectangular stones sticking out of the ground, which reminded me at the same time of stone henge, and also of tomb stones in a cemetery. All over there were stone piles, and also there was a little temple-like circle with some objects in the center, some cloths, drawn symbols, etc. It all gave the place a very strong, eery but also positive 'spiritual' atmosphere.
You know how people always have these tales of places with a special 'energy' and blablabla. Well I usually dont believe these kinds of talk, but I must say if such things exist, then this place must definitely be one of them. One can easily imagine some powerful rituals happening there.
All the time I was having the feeling of really exploring the world, getting away from the tourist path. In fact, we only met three shepperds in the whole way, and for nearly all the way there was no single piece of plastic or other litter (which is always so common in india).
After this there were still many hours to go (a total of 8, for the whole trip). Apparently some people make it in two steps, camping on the way, but we went straight. From chandrakani we began our descent, first through open fields, (as I mentioned we were above the tree line), and then down through beautiful forests, decorated with all kinds of (at least for me) unusual vegetation.
About an hour and a half before arriving, we passed a little stone-built shack, which was made as a base by two semi-nomadic shepperds. They invited us to have a tea, so we went in. It was not more than 2x4m and 1,5m tall, so one had to crawl in. They didnt speak english and we didnt speak their language, but our mutual smiles and gestures were sufficient. We had our tea, thanked them, and continued the last part of our journey.
We finally arrived in A. 's house (the owner of the malana guesthouse, which had come the other shorter way around). We were greeted by his sweet children, and enjoyed the view from the beautiful wooden porch with hammocks, overlooking the kullu vallley and the Beas river. His wife prepared us a wonderful spicy meal with chapati (bread), which we proceeded to eat the local way, with hands. A few more charas grams went up in smoke as we all talked and laughed together.
But we still had to go, meet some other friends in a nearby town. A. called us a taxi, and we were sure our adventure was already over, but india loves to surprise people. We had arrived from the forest, so we had no idea the road conditions and how far it would be.
A. decided to come with us, as he also had to meet someone there. A's friend also decided to come, for no specific reason... So we all squeezed in the crappy 'taxi' and off we went
The driver had said 600 rupees (a little less than 10 euro)... But the road was no road, it was some freshly opened dirt track, full of holes and stones. In the first 10 mins, im sure only the damage to the suspension and bottom of the car already costed more than that... But this india, many things dont make sense.
In the middle of the way, we passed by A.'s cousin walking on the road, and he decided to join us. So we squeeze a bit more and continue, with the car shaking like a mixer at max speedwhile the taxi driver puts at top volume some weird mix of electronic music and traditional hindi singing... All of this with A.', talking "out of his elbows" about all and everything... Overload of stimulus... So you can imagine our amazement when we passed by two other relatives of A. , and they were looking at the car's trunk to see if two more would fit in that mess! Fortunately they decided otherwise...
And you think its over? I also thought so... But there was still the episode when the car started stinking VERY strongly of gasoline. I asked A. about it, and he exchanged a few words with the driver, turned back to me and calmly said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world: "The gasoline must be leaking". So he turned and continued talking about something else, completely ignoring the nauseating smell. For them it must be like this... If it hasnt blown up yet, then its perfect, no worries.... Haha
So after 1,5 hours of dodging stones, holes, dogs, cows, children and a varied assortment of other obstacules, we finally arrived... It was quite a memorable marathon. We went straight to sleep, after this long day that i will never forget!