Small Himalayan village
When we are not half naked playing with toys in complete ignorance of the views around us, we venture around.
The second place we stayed in Himachal Pradesh, was at a spot that gave us great views of the two valleys around – the Tirthan and the Banjar. The second gave me plenty of love and opened its hills to reveal the full extent of its winding river.
Going up the road that delivers me the best view of the valley, we find it turns into rubble, which after a few big boulders reduces to a small path through the bushes and not long after that we reach the top of the hill. There, as unassumingly as its infrastructure, sits a village consisting of no more than 10 houses.
There is no fanfare, no touts, just curious, but friendly looks. Kids are running around pushing a wooden cart with metal wheels, which after awhile gets put upside down, I imagine so they dont slide all the way down, as there are no fences or protections of any kind against the steep slope that can be seen as soon as you step a few meters closer to the views.
A house is being built, slender agile people pass from time to time under bigger than them piles of grass they collect from the forest, and disappear into the full to the brim with feed for the animals for the winter buildings. It smells like cows, or cow poos, of fresh and not so hay, of nature and dust – surprisingly enjoyable and brings me back to the summers I used to spend at my grandfather’s village.
As we walk around, a few kids follow us, trying to be secretive, hiding behind the rocky houses. A dog passes by. A woman bent in half is filling up big bucket at the long necked tap sprouting from the ground in the middle of nowhere. Corn is drying everywhere, bringing the warmth of yellow to nature’s palette that is surrounding us.
Simple. Real simple.
Wow it looks stunning! It reminds me a lot of Northern Spain, but with bigger mountaind. You must get to the Picos de Europa if you make it to Spain. You’d love it.
Wow – so many impressions… but so few informations! Forgive me for pestering you, but I would like to KNOW much more about all this. How did you get there, how did you speak with the people, what did you eat ;-)? Why three weeks here after so much rushing through Korea (at least it seemed to me like this from reading your posts)?
Did the kids make friends? Did they fall down a mountain? (I am getting afraid just from looking at your pictures :-)) Did any of you get altitude-sick?
And so many more questions, but as I said: I do not want to seem pestering you…
Wow! You really brought us in. Could feel being there… thanks for that. And the pics, are fantastic!
Nancy & Shawn
Sigh… so beautiful. I love the mountains, and it’s truly hard to beat the Himalayas!
Jenny, how I love your curiosity. Ok, we got here by a long windy bus ride; we spoke with some English and sign language; food was Indian – dhals, rice, chapati, dosas, curry, paneer and plenty of chai. We have friends here, so it seemed like a good place to rest for a bit. The kids made friends and thankfully didnt fall down the mountain, no altitude sickness (mostly about 2700m). I hope that settles your curious mind until I have had time to write my catch up posts ;)
Susan, now I want to go to Spain.
Welcome, Rebeca.
This has been one of my favorite stops on your travels so far…the pictures are soooooo peaceful and pretty.
Wow! I can’t wait for your catch-up posts ;-)
“Corn is drying everywhere, bringing the warmth of yellow to nature’s palette that is surrounding us.” I love this!
Your photos are amazing. What a magical place!