On our way down from the mountains. The walk is long, but so scenic that we had to stop a lot to marvel over the beauty of nature.
A game of cards at the local(Pulga) bar that happen to be open for the change . The local businesses in these villages keep a very random opening time, depending on the chores on the "fields" that even the shopkeepers attend to.
Some locals working on the field in the village of Tonga. Summer is real short here, so they have to get the best of it.
Pine forests like this are all over in the lower-Himalayas. This one is in Manali.
Kiriganga has a thermal bath that is outdoors, so one can sit in hot-hot water up on 3000 meters and look at the snow-caped mountains around.
Tosca on the rocks. We went to this mountain refuge called Kiriganga. Two days camping there... endless joy in splendid isolation.
This was one of our dogs out of four. We had them for two days. Real mountain strays. They looked a bit rough off, but they also where real smart.
Sleepy afternoon in Pulga.
Ga' on the patio.
Negyszogletu kerek erdo.
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Believe it or not, no touch up has been done. This place really looks like this :-))
Chocolate please....
These women are breaking rocks by the riverside all day, so it can be used for construction. One of the most dreadful jobs I have ever seen, but at least they are doing it in a lovely setting.
This is a tiny village in Parvathi valley called Pulga. Time stops when you enter the place.
Throughout India there are these posters in public places that usually display an idyllic life situation of some kind, accompanied by some "wise" saying. The only thing left to the observer to decide is ; which one is cheesier, the picture or the quote. (In this case I guess the quote rules by fare :-))
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The thermal bath of Vasist village..very-very hot my friend!
Cow-lonics :-)
Bonny and Clide with a runaway bike...
We couldn't sit too long on our butts without taking another hike to the snowy peaks. This one is Solang valley and it took us two days shanty-shanty.
This respectable size of specie is called yak. They mainly parade them around for tourist, but also use it's milk to make yak cheese. It's skin and bones can be used for all kinds of handmade memorabilia, and given the size of the beast one could supply a whole handicraft store.
Almost every house has this ancient looking weaving machine on the patio and the woman surely use it to make all kinds of colorful winter clothes.
This is a typical house in the mountains of HP. Downstairs live the animals, and the second floor is for the humans. Nicely-nicely :-)
The woman are the spectators of the show...
There was a nice local celebration at the local Hanuman temple. The band plays in the middle and the man dance around them for long hours (basically the whole of the afternoon, stopping only for some quick shots of local booze).
This is me and Gabri, after trying some local herbal remedy.
The sport of the locals besides the mandatory cricket of course is the volleyball. They do competitions between the different villages and it is fun to watch because these kids play damn' well.
So we got to Manali, this little town in Himachal Pradesh that is famous of it's apples, cherries and the large amount of weed and charas that the locals produce around September.
Well, according to the picture, they also make cotton-candy (that I did not know).
Varanasi being the holiest hindu place that is, harbors thousands of sadhus from all over the country. This old baba makes the last blog photo from this magical world called India. The place that can be visited thousands of times over and over again, but never can be fully understood. Now we have to head to the Nepalese border, so see you later Incredible India! ;-)
Little chai wallah.
Straight out of mother Ganga :-)
Varanasi in early June. Average temperature 45-48 C. Three-four hour powercuts a day are almost garantied. When those happen and the ceeling fan stops, there is nowhere to hide. All you can do is take cold showers in every ten minutes and guzzle down fresh mango juice by the dozen.
"I work in a tailor shop of my cousin-brother. Now I have to stitch and iron these few clothes."
Typical Benares street scene.
This is the inner courtyard of a brahmin family house with dancing Shiva in the center.
Ohm Namah Shivaya
This photo was made around the burning ghat. There is a lot of wood needed for the 24/7 cremations.
At the end of each day there are several ghats where they have elaborate ceremonies to salute the Ganga. Some of them are over two hours. This is a small one by one of the more modest ghats.
All kinds of species swim together by the shore. These ones are water-buffaloes.
Thousand of people come down to the ganga every day to salute the holiest of rivers, to wash their clothes, to take a shower or just simply enjoy jumping around in the water.
Plenty of fisherman around the river. Basically they live on and around their boats.
This is a splendid day according to the babu in the back.
Of course the cadavers have to be brought to the ghat somehow. This is the most usual mode of transport, although I have seen dead bodies tied up to the top of rickshaws as well.
This is the burning ghat which according to hinduism is the most desireable place to be cremated of all places on the planet. So whoever can afford brings the deceased relative to be burned here and scattered into the Ganga. Only at this ghat they burn over two hundred dead bodies per day. The purchasing of the firewood is a crutial financial factor for lots of families. A funeral pyre made of ordinary wood can be obtained for about a 1200 rupees. Richer brahmin families can afford rosewood that will cost anywhere between 5000 and 8000 rupees but have a much more "pleasant" smell when burning.
There aren't too many stencil works I've found in India. This one being a refreshing exception.
Hanging out at the barber shop.
Or you can take one of the boats on the Ganga. This one is certainly more leisurely than the mad city traffic.
In the city there is no public transport of any kind so the only thing left to take is the good old rikshaw man.
There are also plenty of Ashrams belonging to prestigeous families. This one is a family shrine in one of them.
In Varanasi it is hard to guess if there are more houses or temples in the city.
This city has been continuosly inhabited for over 3000 years. Walking down the narrow streets one definitely feels the deep inprint of time.
So from the cool and fresh Himalayas we arrived to Varanasi (or Benares) the cradle of Hinduism, one of the oldest cities of the planet.
