My friend got married in her father's ancestral village just outside of Ludhiana. It was immediately apparent that the village people (not the band) had never seen white people before. Any blonde haired people were immediately the centre of attention.
The setting of the wedding was the local temple and the entire village attended (apparently there had never been so many people in it). My friend looked brilliant in her traditional dress (and as you can see below, I definitely looked a prat in my outfit!).
<>After the wedding we headed to The Golden Temple in Amritsar. We had planned on staying at the temple, but having seen the accommodation on offer, decided against.
We also paid a visit to the border closing ceremony with Pakistan - basically just a comedy show featuring The Ministry of Silly Walks - a good laugh nonetheless. Check out Michael Palin's video of it here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9y2qtaopbE From Amritsar it was a 12 hour taxi ride (haha - yes 12 hours in a taxi going up the most God-awful roads) to Manali in the Himalayas where we were trekking for a week. Manali was a really peaceful place - a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of Delhi and Amritsar. The place we stayed was also fantastic
Our guide and team of incredible Sherpas took us across the Chandrakani Pass. We trekked with a really nice guy called Kaushal that runs a company called Above 14,000 ft
http://www.above14000ft.com/. It was a brilliant trip but as we were the first people to cross that season the snow was still pretty deep in places and progress was slow going at times. The views were absolutely fantastic. On the third evening of the trek we saw some figures in the distance - they turned out to be a group of lads from a village down the mountain. It was almost dark and they were completely lost. They were wearing converse trainers (bear in mind there was 5ft thick snow on some parts of the trek), had no food and no shelter. If they hadn't found our camp, they would have been totally screwed. Our sherpas built them a make-shift camp, built them a fire, fed them and probably saved them from a horrific night on the mountain-side in the freezing cold.
The following morning we set off (with our group 5 people bigger) and headed to our last destination. During the morning there was one very hairy moment when we were traversing across a fairly steep ridge and I lost my footing. Before I knew it I was sliding down the side of the mountain (the one in the picture below) unable to slow down due to the nylon over-trousers I was wearing. I probably slid for about 300 metres before coming to a halt. I was lucky the mountain side bottomed out. If I had fallen a bit further across the traverse where there was no basin, it could have been a different story. Needless to say, this tumble came as a bit of a shock and really slowed our progress down. Again, our Nepalese sherpas were fantastic.
Once reaching the top of the pass, we had to get down the other side. Easier said than done. It was very steep and I cannot believe the Sherpas who were decending with enormous packs on their backs (they carried our tents, food for a week, pots and pans, our rucksacks [I felt unbelievably guilty when I thought that they were even carrying my bloody aftershave!])
Having negotiated the descent we headed down a ravine which led to our final destination - Malana. From above, the village of Malana looked like an Alpine haven. Wood building with tin roofs. Upon entering the village a local drunk shouted abuse at us. In the 2 weeks we had been in India, this was the first sign incident of unpleasantness. We pitched tent on the outskirts of the village and told Kaushal that we were going to head into town to get a few bits and pieces (namely some beers and a bottle of whiskey for the sherpas as they had polished off the small bottle of whiskey a couple of nights previously). Kaushal asked if we wanted a sherpa to accompany us. This sounded a bit odd and assured him we'd be fine. As it turns out, Malana is the oddest place that I have ever been to. Far from being an idylic Alpine village, it can only be described as a shit hole. Full of rubbish. The inhabitants of the village view themselves as superior to other humans and avoid eye contact. You cannot touch the locals and they hate outsiders (it later transpired that the drunk was shouting abuse at our entire group, not just Mark and I). We were not allowed in the local shop. The shop-keeper (who refused to look at us) got the beers from the store and came outside and put them on the floor. We had to put the money for the beers on the counter (we weren't allowed to put it in his hand in case we touched him!).
It was unbelievable these people thought they were superior. Their village was a rubbish dump and the people were just weird. On the way back to camp we noticed one of the guys that we had rescued the night before in the front yard of one of the houses we past. He saw us and hardly even acknowledged us (no eye contact)!
Here's the link to Malana on Wiki. I have just read it and it doesn't do the place justice. Malana is an awful place - by far the worst place I have ever been!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malana,_Himachal_PradeshSo, the descent from Malana the following morning brought us to the end of an amazing trek. It was harder than it sounded on the internet due to the snowy conditions, but the views made it all worthwhile. Our guide and the sherpas were fantastic.
The minibus took us back to Manali and The Johnson Cafe. We stayed there for another day and met up with the sherpas and had a few beers with Kaushal too. Next stop The Pink City - Jaipur.
Labels: Chandrakani Pass, Malana, Manali
