Tabo to Kaza (21/05/11)

Tabo to Kaza (21/05/11)

Yesterday was a massive disappointment in that I missed both buses to Kaza. I woke up diligently at 7:30 A.M so as to catch the 9:00 A.M bus and was on time at the bus stand but the bus never came. We once again, correctly, assumed that the bus had taken the main road and didn’t come to the bus stand. With no other alternatives, I came back to the hotel and spent the morning and afternoon idly passing time waiting for the 4:30 P.M bus to show up. At 5:30 a bus showed up and I hastily said my goodbyes to Sonu and I ran up to the bus only to find that it was headed in the direction of Peo. The driver told me that he had passed the Kaza bus on the way and I discovered that the damn bus had once again not showed at the bus stand and merrily taken the main road. I hurled a thousand curses at the driver and conductor and went back to the hotel to stay another night. We bought Chang once again and drank till late and slept.

I woke up at 7:00 A.M sharp, finished my breakfast at 8:00 and was at the general store on the main road by 8:30 A.M. I was determined not to miss the bus today and after a period of tense waiting the bus finally showed up at 9:15 A.M. I scampered to the top, tied my bag down, and took my seat at the back of the bus. The bus was a sparsely populated palace of unlimited space compared with the one that I took to Tabo. The road to Kaza was fairly decent with some excellent landscapes on view. We passed Kurik, Nadang, Shichling, Lingti, Sagnam and Lidang, most of which seemed to have a restaurant and a guest house. The road was extremely bumpy at times and the wanton driving had me off my seat high into the air several times. I was trying to take a photo of the mountains at one point and my camera almost went out the window when I was hurled into the air. I did some kind of aerial pirouette and landed on my elbow much to the amazement of my fellow passengers. I avoided everyone’s eye and stared resolutely out of the window. And then we reached Kaza.

As usual the sun was shining down brightly and I walked all through town to find a guest house only to find that a lot of them were still locked up. I was very disappointed and I came back to the bus stop and found a guest house adjacent which had rooms for Rs. 250. I was too tired to bargain and I said that I’d take it. I asked the guy when the bus to Kee/Kibber was and he told me that the bus service hadn’t started yet for the season. The only options were to take a private taxi that cost Rs. 400 or to go in a Maxi cab that left in the evening and returned to Kaza the morning of the next day. The only course of action to me seemed to be to take the Maxi Cab up to Kibber, spend the night there, and return the next day to Kaza and leave the day after. I told the guy that I’d be back the next day and I left, not really knowing how to spend 4 hours.

I ate some lunch in a little dhaba which took me about fifteen minutes. Then I walked into an internet cafe despite the exorbitant prices (Rs. 80/hour) and spent an hour there. I was happy to catch up with the world back home for a bit. I like to walk alone but I also enjoy knowing the affairs that are going on in the lives of my nuclear group. After the internet cafe I really couldn’t think of a way to spend time and simply walked up to the taxi stand where the cab would leave from. I found the designated cab but the driver was absent so I found some shade and sat down for a while before I hit up on a crazy idea.

My idea was to hire a private cab to take me up to Kibber/Kee and then return in the evening, spend the night at Kaza and then take the 7:00 A.M bus to Peo and eventually Delhi. I considered the factors, made the calls, found myself a taxi guy and then left. The car was an Alto and the driver was a music enthusiast. Loud Tibetan music flowed continuously out of the cheap speakers and he sang along as best as he could. To stem the cacophonous assault, I turned the volume down and started to ask him, what I hoped would seem, pertinent questions from a visitor. Just as we reached the Kaza Bridge, tremendous winds started to blow and the dust that rose up clouded the entire landscape.

I cursed my luck heartily and sat back glumly waiting for redemption in the form of Kee Monastery. I noticed little drops of water on the windshield and mused that all that was missing from the miserable scene was rain and even that seemed impending. When I noticed closely, however, I saw that it was snow and not rain and I almost jumped up in my seat. I excitedly pointed this out to the driver who was underwhelmed and told me that this wasn’t all that uncommon a phenomenon. At the Kee village the snowfall got slightly thicker and I stopped the car, stepped out and enjoyed my first snowfall in India. I also sighted the Kee monastery and couldn’t wait to go. We decided to go up to Kibber first and then visit the monastery on the way back.
The driver had been driving in the area for the last 19 years and the experience showed. He maneuvered the car deftly and we reached Kibber faster than I expected. The mountain views and landscapes were, as expected, beautiful and I could also see Chicham in the distance. I spent some time walking around in the village and taking pictures. At some point in all of this a girl walked up to me and asked me in English to give her ten rupees. I spoke to her in Hindi and then she walked off. Apparently this is a regular occurrence; local kids asking for and getting stuff from foreigners. After some time we got back into the car and headed for Kee monastery.

We found the monastery mostly empty when we reached and we parked and walked up to the main prayer hall. It was a short walk uphill and the altitude kicked me in the lungs to remind me that it was boss. My heart rate was spiked and I was gasping when we reached. The driver stayed behind and I went in and looked around. The entrance walls were adorned with paintings of the Maha Kala Chakra and the inside of the temple had statues of the Buddha and pictures of the Dalai Lama. One of the monks was giving another group a tour and he called me along as well.

I found out that one of the guys in the group was in the administrative division of the PWD and he certainly had an attitude to go with it. The monk took us into the kitchen area and gave us some Kashmiri tea and some ‘Tho’ (Prashad). He then showed us a couple of temples and a Stupa. The temples and the prayer hall, despite being impressive on their own, didn’t even come close to the sanctum of the Tabo Monastery. It was, however, a nice experience and the monk was a very devoted servant of the monastery and had an aura of austerity about him. Although taking pictures wasn’t forbidden, I chose not to take any, just to let it be and have visitors discover the
place themselves.

The driver asked me if I wanted to Langza and Komik but I told him that I would cover them the next time I visited and that we’d just go back to Kaza now. We reached Kaza shortly afterwards and I went back to the hotel room and rested a while. At 6:45 P.M I left to eat dinner and went straight to The Dragon restaurant which was recommended to me by a guy in Tabo. I ordered Falafel expecting the worst, but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out really good. On the way back to the hotel I had some Ras Malai for dessert and ran into Gaurav, the driver of the Bengali group. We talked for a while and then parted. The electricity went out at that moment and I came back to the room to finish up my writing. Tomorrow I leave Kaza and embark on the last leg of this trip. I feel very odd knowing that I’m going back from Himachal Pradesh. Life back home seems strangely alien after all these days here. I’ll just have to wait till tomorrow to see if it gets any better.