Travelling Teadom, since 2010

Drinking tea in high places and low. But mostly high.

[travellingteadom]

Kareri Lake

With so many places to see on this planet I usually don’t like going to the same place more than once. So forgive me for taking you to the Dhauladhars for the third time in four months. In March we home-stayed in the village of Kareri, walked around and pretty much loved it. In May, we went to Palampur, learnt a lot and also loved it. In June, we went to Kareri village again but stopped only for an hour. Our main agenda was the lake that lies 13 kms up and above. 

The walk was continuously uphill but we had two FULL days of camping in front of us, so we didn’t mind working the legs. The next two days we interacted with the lake in many kinds of passive ways while the clouds interacted actively with us. 

[travellingteadom]

Sambhaavnaa, Palampur

In May, I went to an enlightening food workshop in Palampur. It was cruel in bringing facts of food which we know but ignore. It tugged at something inside us, asking us to change. In all that, and all the talks and cooks there was no time to take photos of cups I drank from. 

But! Palampur as many may know is tea land so I found an opportunity to do a micro-workshop with one of the tea-pickers there, Anu. She ran me through the steps and I promised to go back and do the whole thing at its pace. In the photo is Anu’s hand and she is holding the top three leaves picked from the bush behind. 

Bonus! Here is a quote from a book I read last year and loved:

“When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?” 

―  The Elegance of the Hedgehog

[travellingteadom]

Kareri Village

Mustard farms to me is a thing of northern plains. I wouldn’t even dream of a scene like that. 

It was March, it was mustard season, it wasn’t the time to snow. I guess this is how they say travel broadens your horizons. Or brings you face to face with effects of climate change you have been ignoring or trying to avoid. 

[travellingteadom]

Nohli Village

Any kind of tea (it is generally the boiled variety though) served in those steel glasses would do if in front of me the earth blooms in yellows of mustard. 

[travellingteadom]

Jilling

A kind of a rich man’s hill-station, Jilling has a few boutique stays and is dotted with Delhiites’ holiday homes. It is large enough that you would never get to see another house or person if you want. The forests are deep and the ridge top offers a vantage spot to eat and sleep, under the sky.

[travellingteadom]

Jilling

I reluctantly concede that there is also a beauty in low hills. 

For one, they are so easy to get to. And at a place like Jilling, also so easy to get away from everything else. 

[travellingteadom]

Tharangambadi

Three hours down south from Pondicherry is this little dot called Tharangambadi. But it would be a crime to treat it as a dot on the map. It has two names, a couple of past rulers, rich history, beautiful heritage buildings some of which you can stay in, decrepit museums with enthusiastic hosts, ozone rich air, a 100 year old post office and the Bay of Bengal singing at your feet.

Tharangambadi literally means “place of the singing waves”.

[travellingteadom]

Pondicherry

Of late a few friends have expressed their failure to understand the hype around Pondicherry. I might have been of the same opinion if not for the rain that poured at different tempos through the three days. This particular morning, I had the whole compound to myself along with a fabulous cup of French press and the rain continued to fall, I felt a kind of peace that is hard to come by anywhere other than the mountains.  

[travellingteadom]

Dal Lake

In Srinagar we dive right into the Dal (in Shikaras of course) and start looking for the houseboat from our stay four years back. We succeed and are offered a great deal. Anchored into the Dal through the next day and a half (prolonged by a SpiceJet rescheduling) my mind settles down quickly. There is such a sense of calm, everything floating, nothing rushing past, vendors coming to you but you can see them coming from a distance and make up a polite reason to refuse. Someone wants you to dress in a Kashmiri dress so that they can take photos and sell you the prints, someone is selling an ice-cream cone, while a few want you to look at an exhaustive collection of Kashmiri crafts in their Shikara. I buy some seeds and an ice-cream.

In the photo, the awesome bread called Girda. We brought some home but it tastes better when you eat it on the lake :)

[travellingteadom]

Wanla

Till now, only dogs have heroed lasting memories of treks, but the Wanla cat changed it all. She and the fresh apricots we plucked from the trees to eat made this camp the best possible farewell camp.  

[travellingteadom]

Skiang

There is a gentle cheer, a spring in our step. There is a dhaba where we buy Sprite. We laugh at the horses’ way of unwinding. Today was the last day of walking, but no small task, we crossed 3 passes. 

Now, what separates us from ultimate civilization (read : road) is a dirt track over two pretty massive passes : Singge La (4800m) and Sisir La (4700m). These mammoth ones were traditionally on the classic route (Darcha to Lamayuru) but as the road construction gradually eats up the trek route from both ends, these two are the first to go. For someone starting the trek from Lamayuru or Wanla (where we end) I feel nauseous thinking that these two passes would appear on day 3 and 4. 

The view from Singge La is insane, one can see up to Baralacha La! We tie our prayer flags, snatch the last panoramic view that would need to last us till the next trek and shut ourselves into the car. With greens in our eyes.

[travellingteadom]

Lingshed

We note that somewhere over the brown trails, we left the subdistrict of Zanskar. We overheard someone tell someone else that Zanskar is supposed to be much greener than the rest of the region. We looked at the scant grass underfoot and wondered how.

Lingshed is a sprawling village with homes set long distances away from one another. The fields are luminescent with golden wheat that covers much of the space between the houses. We spend two beautiful days in the village. 

[travellingteadom]

Pidmoo

Contrary to other Himalayan treks, on this one we looked forward to the clouds. For they could cut down sun’s wrath, even if for a few seconds. But cloudy days were the hardest to come by and one such day was this, from Pishoo to Hanumil.  

[travellingteadom]

Padum

Padum is the where phase I of our trek ends. Here we take a bit of a breather, stock up on stuff, get rid of facial hair (Rohit), go to the health centre (me), take baths (all) and wash clothes (all). 

Halfway report is that we are all a bit more tired mentally than physically. The relentless, ceaseless and featureless (not technically because there are lots of mountains, but if mountain after mountain looks the same, does this term not apply?) landscape does take a toll on motivations. I can’t explain it, we wanted to do it, we did it, we really cursed it then, but I don’t think it was so bad now. 

I truly do love walking, memories get etched easily when I am going slow. But for how long can the mind etch the same brown mountain? Note to mind: 8 more days till the browns would make way for the greens of Kashmir valley. 

[travellingteadom]

Raru Lake

When life gives you a quote you wish to live by, go and find a place to do it in. And I did.

Words by Ruth Krauss and Illustration by Maurice Sendak from the book “Open House for Butterflies”

[travellingteadom]

Phugtal Gompa

I know it is not possible, but I would really like to meet the guy who first looked at that cave and decided he wanted to live there. 

DDA flats need to learn a thing or two about construction from these people. 

[travellingteadom]

Testa

On this trek, all camps came with little streams of fresh water. Since by the end of every walk we were always covered in sweat and caked in dust, we used to really look forward to those streams and our mini-baths in them. In Testa though, since we had a good few hours of sunshine left, we washed our clothes too. And by the end of all the washing, not a single branch was free.