Kasar Devi does not appear on the map but it gets a very brief mention in the Lonely Planet - thank goodness it has still not been completely overun by us. You cant even find Kasar Devi without help. Kasar Devi consists of a long narrow street which splits in twwo at a little fork and along this road and a half are a number of guest houses - the tourist population is mainly Israelis and at least half, if not more are riding Enfields. KD is perched on top of a little hill and on a clear day you can see across huge mountain ranges the hugest of them all, the mighty, snowtopped Himalaya (sorry, I kind of got carried away there). Anyway its pretty impressive and even on an overcast day you can see acroos the valley for miles into the mountains. It's very tranquil, electricity is the exception rather than the norm and even when its on its weak and the light flickers and there is no running water. The locals hump it up from the stream some 100 meters below us in buckets and jerry cans and for the first time in my life I used bottled water to brush my teeth. If the water were clean you could have a clean hot shower if
you could get hot water.
But every morning I'd wake up to the view and at 7:30 the litlle girls in the little school across the little valley would raise their little voices and sing for half an hour at school "assembly". The peons till their fields with oxen and monkeys scamper about and birds sing and it was almost paradise (the grass was crap).
Besides enjoying nature there are 3 centers of entertainment and meeting in KD. In the morning there is Mohans which has high-speed internet, great muffins and the sun in the morning. Then there is the Galaxy which is where you sit in the late afternoon if its warm, to watch the sunset or if its cold you crowd into the one room and eat supper. I did try their snitzchel but it was more like KFC and I dont like KFC.
The third and most important center of socializing and activity is Danis' Enfield Garage run by Dani and his brother Dani. For some reason every bike that reaches KD needs an overhaul or some other major repair job or at the very least a 2000km service. Dani and Dani know nothing about motorbikes (apparently they have property and several businesses, our Danis do) but they
do employ a very talented mechanic called Asim. However Asim works alone, no
assistants and he is completely illiterate, cannot even write his own name so if he finds a problem that he hasn't dealt with before he cannot go to the manual, which they don't have anyway, but must proceed by trial and error. At any one time there are at least 4 bikes and their owners screaming for attention and Dani is bouncing around trying to calm everyone down and promising everyone the earth and that he'll be first out and pandemonium reigns. Things calm down after a while and we all sit around drinking tea, chai or coke brought by the 12 year old "babu" who works at the kiosk just down the road and swap stories of our adventures on the highways of India and the mechanics who have fucked us or not.
We become used to spending our days at Danis and only occaisionally wander off to the market in Almora which is a totally local one, nothing for the greedy tourist (since leaving Pokhara I have had no desire to shop at all, maybe I am kicking the habit). I was lucky, the work on my bike was mainly cosmetic and though I spent hours sitting around and waiting the work only took a few minutes and a few rhupees.
Finally we were all ready. Even Noam's bike, which had stubbornly defied repair was pronounced fit to travel. We decided to leave the next day, Friday the 13th (and I can hear your ominous sighs but we're Jewish for Christ's sake, for us 13 is a lucky number). Toto did voice an objection but very quietly and I was the only one who noticed and I told him that he was not fit to make a judgement (this because he had just become number 36 or 46 on Ms X's list (Noam had been number 35 or 45) and wanted one more night of passion as she was leaving on Saturday. On Friday everyone except Toto got up and started packing and by about 12 we were ready to roll. Although we did only take delivery of Noams bike that morning but it was supposed to be in perfect working order. Except for Toto but he too was eventually persuaded to move and by about 3 (!) we were ready to roll. Except that Noam's bike died on him again and we went back to Dani and Dani. Fortunately the road from KD to Almora is almost all downhill and Noam managed to coast down to the garage where there were three Israeli bikes being worked on and it soon became clear that Almora was as far as we were going to get that day. Indeed, we spent the night in an empty flat below the garage which was owned by the Danis and was due to be let in the near future. It did have a hot water boiler but we ran out of water after only two guys had showered. As soon as it became clear that we were not moving Toto rushed up the hill and got his (last) night of passion.
The next morning we got up, all the bikes were working and we set off. the journey to Rishikesh took two days of not too hard riding, we couldnt go more than 55kph because Toto's engine was being run in. And now we are here and this is another picturesque town with more cows than I have seen up till now in any other town, in addition there are monkeys all over and although I have not been bothered by them they often become very troublesome (is that how you spell it?). The big problem is that there is nothing here for me to eat, since this is a particularly holy area, on the banks of the Ganges and all that, everything is veg or pure veg or purest veg. Mind you we did organize a chicken BBQ last night but it was still only chicken.
Tomorrow we are probably leaving (I still have some "luf" and Nepali biltong) and heading to the Paravati valley although since my companions are all still in the garage (again) I am not too sure about that.
Till next time.
you could get hot water.
But every morning I'd wake up to the view and at 7:30 the litlle girls in the little school across the little valley would raise their little voices and sing for half an hour at school "assembly". The peons till their fields with oxen and monkeys scamper about and birds sing and it was almost paradise (the grass was crap).
Besides enjoying nature there are 3 centers of entertainment and meeting in KD. In the morning there is Mohans which has high-speed internet, great muffins and the sun in the morning. Then there is the Galaxy which is where you sit in the late afternoon if its warm, to watch the sunset or if its cold you crowd into the one room and eat supper. I did try their snitzchel but it was more like KFC and I dont like KFC.
The third and most important center of socializing and activity is Danis' Enfield Garage run by Dani and his brother Dani. For some reason every bike that reaches KD needs an overhaul or some other major repair job or at the very least a 2000km service. Dani and Dani know nothing about motorbikes (apparently they have property and several businesses, our Danis do) but they
do employ a very talented mechanic called Asim. However Asim works alone, no
assistants and he is completely illiterate, cannot even write his own name so if he finds a problem that he hasn't dealt with before he cannot go to the manual, which they don't have anyway, but must proceed by trial and error. At any one time there are at least 4 bikes and their owners screaming for attention and Dani is bouncing around trying to calm everyone down and promising everyone the earth and that he'll be first out and pandemonium reigns. Things calm down after a while and we all sit around drinking tea, chai or coke brought by the 12 year old "babu" who works at the kiosk just down the road and swap stories of our adventures on the highways of India and the mechanics who have fucked us or not.
We become used to spending our days at Danis and only occaisionally wander off to the market in Almora which is a totally local one, nothing for the greedy tourist (since leaving Pokhara I have had no desire to shop at all, maybe I am kicking the habit). I was lucky, the work on my bike was mainly cosmetic and though I spent hours sitting around and waiting the work only took a few minutes and a few rhupees.
Finally we were all ready. Even Noam's bike, which had stubbornly defied repair was pronounced fit to travel. We decided to leave the next day, Friday the 13th (and I can hear your ominous sighs but we're Jewish for Christ's sake, for us 13 is a lucky number). Toto did voice an objection but very quietly and I was the only one who noticed and I told him that he was not fit to make a judgement (this because he had just become number 36 or 46 on Ms X's list (Noam had been number 35 or 45) and wanted one more night of passion as she was leaving on Saturday. On Friday everyone except Toto got up and started packing and by about 12 we were ready to roll. Although we did only take delivery of Noams bike that morning but it was supposed to be in perfect working order. Except for Toto but he too was eventually persuaded to move and by about 3 (!) we were ready to roll. Except that Noam's bike died on him again and we went back to Dani and Dani. Fortunately the road from KD to Almora is almost all downhill and Noam managed to coast down to the garage where there were three Israeli bikes being worked on and it soon became clear that Almora was as far as we were going to get that day. Indeed, we spent the night in an empty flat below the garage which was owned by the Danis and was due to be let in the near future. It did have a hot water boiler but we ran out of water after only two guys had showered. As soon as it became clear that we were not moving Toto rushed up the hill and got his (last) night of passion.
The next morning we got up, all the bikes were working and we set off. the journey to Rishikesh took two days of not too hard riding, we couldnt go more than 55kph because Toto's engine was being run in. And now we are here and this is another picturesque town with more cows than I have seen up till now in any other town, in addition there are monkeys all over and although I have not been bothered by them they often become very troublesome (is that how you spell it?). The big problem is that there is nothing here for me to eat, since this is a particularly holy area, on the banks of the Ganges and all that, everything is veg or pure veg or purest veg. Mind you we did organize a chicken BBQ last night but it was still only chicken.
Tomorrow we are probably leaving (I still have some "luf" and Nepali biltong) and heading to the Paravati valley although since my companions are all still in the garage (again) I am not too sure about that.
Till next time.
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1 comment:
Kasi Devi is great will be going in September again.
Visit kasardevi online
http://kasardevi.com
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