Spiti – when snow became ice! (Part - II)

19 kms away lay our next stop; Kunzum la (pass), the gateway to Spiti valley

but the first hairpin turn itself turned out to be too much for our mini car rally

The run-down tyres kept spinning in the snow and our car kept sliding back

until some solid push from the helping hands, wrenched it back on the track

It was just the beginning of a long icy spell that left us scared out of our wits

for the powdery snow that fell last night was turning into ice as the sun hit it

The way ahead was neither over dirt nor snow, but a layer of frozen water!

And our car now had a mind of its own, that spurned brakes & accelerator

It sailed right when steered left, lunging for the valley, while we sat in tight

clutching on to each other, eyes away from the edge, praying with all might

The brakes couldn’t be trusted any longer; instead the rubble along the side

held back the rear wheels from sliding outwards, leaving all physics aside

With no hint of humanity to remind us of the civilization we had left behind

we clung to the loose soil paths just wide enough to let us pass if it were kind

Hours later we were at the top, walking humbly towards the Kunzum stupa

Chanting Auṃ maṇi padme hūṃ, pleading for clemency for any chutzpa

Spiti – when snow became ice! (Part I)

When I was about to set foot in Spiti, I knew it to be the land of extremes

A land of staggering landscapes, ancient Buddhist culture, yet simple genes

I was all set to trek up to the Dhankar lake & camp at night near Chandrataal

& ready to face the chilly weather with double dose of gloves, mufflers & all

I planned to visit the highest motorable villages in Asia (Langza & Komic)

& post a letter or two from the highest post office in the world, Hikkim (sic)

But I never knew that 30 more minutes of sleep could leave us praying for life

& that angelic snow I was chasing all along would pit us into a deathly strife

For when we left our guest house, the light was still behind those mountains

But our driver didn’t let us forget that it had snowed last night after the rains

Homesick, we sat in his run-down Innova one last time for more pics & fun

muttering his prayers, he turned to us, ‘We really can’t afford to see the sun’

We lunged towards Losar crossing river Spiti, blinking past the prayer flags

& got an eyeful of the Kye Gompa meditating above the Himalayan zigzags

The mountains began to blaze golden as the sun soared up from the sphere

& the landscape was more like a goulash of soil, stones, snow & sleet here

Cold eggs & sandwiches popped up for breakfast at the forsaken check post

The drive was mostly uphill from here & that is what we all feared the most!

Tiny travel woes - II

Behind the Instagram filters of her weekend getaway were buses delayed, failed railway reservations, overpaid auto drives, missed breakfasts, disoriented Google map, aching legs, throbbing head and more ... 'like' it mattered (sic)!

#bts #vacation #longweekend #notOoty #willcomeback #keepitreal #slowtravel #Coonoor #Kotagiri 🧡

The road to nirvana

A last-minute booking for a much-awaited vacation from the city
led us to the oldest & smallest of the Nilgiri hill stations, Kotagiri

Taking left, from Aravenu junction seeking ‘The Door to Nirvana’

we lumbered down the last 2.5 kms on foot, starving for a banana

The Door to Nirvana hostel ;)

With the first whiff of tea, I was carried away to a virginal terrain

wrapped in amaranthine greens, rolling clouds & rhythmical rain

Gingerly peppered with old tea factories and brick roofed villages,

the path opened such soul-stirring vistas that I could walk for ages

Later in the day, I crossed a stream to hoist myself up a plantation

Only to find myself watching raptly a serpentine dragon in action

A li’l behind was Catherine, a charming double-cascaded water fall

From where arose the beasts & the butterflies, entrancing one & all

Wikipedia showed the average elevation to be around 1850 meters

But my happiness was already flying up there in the misty theatres

Sitting in the middle of the tea plantation, I tried to pen it all down

But the words slipped away with the clouds sliding past my crown

So, here’s a tip on things to do in Kotagiri; sip a lot of fragrant tea,

undo your to-do list & let your inner child take over & set you free!