Stuck in Chango: Day 2

Next morning when I opened my eyes very bright light blinded me.. after my eyes adjusted a bit, I looked towards the source to see what was so bright.. the light was coming from outside the window and what I saw made me jump with happiness.. there were no clouds in the sky and the sun was out!! the bright sunlight from the sun that was reflecting from the snow covered mountains was blinding me.. I ran out to find an equally happy Manik..

My poor car again..

Now there were some signs of life in what had been a desolate place past 2 days.. some birds captured beautifully by Manik..

This pipe had been tapped into some under water reservoir.. so even when all the water was frozen, this continued providing water.. this was our source of fresh water..

children were sliding around in the snow..

My car had been standing in the same place for 2 days now.. so I decided to clean her up and also to start her once so see everything was working fine..

with the snow melting cleaning was easy..


But without goggles it was difficult to stay outside very long. We stayed inside the day now waiting for the snow to melt.. I did my bit by going outside and trying to break snow with my shoes but dint make much difference.. also 3 days since contact from home.. my parents must be really panicing now.. but still no electricity, no phones..

in the evening we went out sight seeing through the village.. the locals told us that there were 2 monasteries in Chango which were just a few kms away.. so we set out to see the nearest one..

could resist the temptation of playing in snow.. angels wings..

More apple orchards..

as the snow was melting the snow covered roads were not becoming very slippery..

as we came near the village, every where children and teenagers were playing in snow.. on the slope they were sliding down on wooden boards or on plastic pieces which they attached under their shoes.

it was quite a long walk, mostly uphill..

more apple trees..

After walking over an hour, we still could not see monastery.. finally when we see saw it, it still looked far far away. i will kill the person who told us it was only 5kms away!!

tired from walking, Manik decided to not go ahead.. instead he took a closer look through his lens..

I walked on and came across this bridge on the river.. crossing this was tricky as the ice on top had melted and ice below had become really slippery..

The ice covered river..

After the river was again a climb with a very small trail going up through the snow.. there were some locals there who warned me that I should be on a look out for falling rocks..
On the way..

After lot of climbing and getting out of breath, I saw this path ahead.. (the line of the trees is the path..)

This dint seem to safe.. the snow was slippery and below it was loose gravel.. I was already finding it difficult to get a foot hold.. so I also turned back.. on reaching back to the place where I had left Manik, I couldn’t find him there.. but there we these kids playing cricket..

I was amazed how these kids were running on ice on which we could bearly stand.. we went ahead into the village.. there on a cross section there was a small monastery..
The inside..

The outside..

in the village..

There was another monastery near the village but it was far away.. from where we stood we could even see the path to it..

in no mood to walk further, we turned around and headed back..
some color in the whiteness..

the river..

we reached back pretty tired and very very cold.. my shoes were dripping wet but due the waterproof socks, the feet were dry.. but still they were getting numb with cold.. so we went straight to the bukhari..

our hosts seemed busy and were not there.. we were too cold to tell.. infact later we noticed they had been absent for a very long time.. but right then we put lot of wood in the fire and warmed ourselves up..

it was the new years eve.. and this was not the way we had ever imagined we would be celebrating it.. but still our hosts played sport and got us some local liqour from the village.. it was called ghanti.. first i was apprehensive in drinking because local liquors can be very strong, very bitter and not easy to handle.. also our new friends poured half a glass full of the drink and then mixed little water.. the liquid was white in color and looked suspicious.. and half glass peg of anything would be a smasher.. i kept on refusing but they insisted, i had to concede.. hesitantly i took a sip.. it was sweetish and tasted like apples.. i took a bigger sip.. it was indeed very nice.. infact is was a very mild drink made from apples and after 2 bottles also we were not high..
our new year party..

waking up till 12 itself was a big deviation from routine for these people and immediately after wishing each other new year and having dinner they went to sleep.. i too went to sleep praying to god to open the roads tomorrow or atleast enable the phone lines.. more angels in my dreams...


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