Weather conditions prevented me from going to Manali this week so I got myself on a bus to Katra Kashmir to see the Vaishno Devi temple. Its an intense 24km trek, 12km up and 12km down. Millions of pilgrims make the trek making it the 2nd holiest joint in India. It was a total mission getting there. I took an 18 hour bus ride from Delhi to Katra. Katra is in Kashmir and Kashmir if you don't know is a hot spot for rebels and has a strong military presence there - basically everyone’s carrying gats. The bus smelled like it doubled as a samosa factory avec crying children. Getting on the right bus was also a quite the task. I had met up with a colleague of my cousins who was also making the trek. He couldn't handle the bus we were on and suggested we switch to another bus going to the same place. So we did, only to be kicked off to our original bus an hour later. I personally didn't care, I thought 'hey, this is India...' Anyways, all things happen for a reason right, well I believe so. Apparently the bus we tried to switch to had snapped its axel in Jammu Kashmir and was stranded for 2+ hours. Seems like the divines already got my back!
The bus stopped at a eatery in Punjab called the Eagle Food & Drink or something awful like that. The minute we entered into Punjab the surroundings changed from tree's to liquor stores and truck stops (not surprised). This is where everyone got out and ate (the food was surprisingly good). This is also where our bus driver invited a few of us to come up stairs and enjoy a bottle of whiskey with him. Drinkin' n drivin' what what! Apparently its pretty common for truckers to be wasted here. Finally got to Katra after driving up mountain roads where families (children too) break rocks on the side of the road (I'm guessing they get dough for doing such). Along with families breaking rocks are monkeys break dancing. There were tons of monkeys sifting through garbage drinking juice boxes and eating Lays chips (they've got it made). Once we got into the core of Katra we booked ourselves into The Durga Palace, it gave off a real creepy vibe but was sufficient for our needs. First thing I did was check out my washroom, I was expecting the worst but was happily surprised. It was decent, a couple of centipedes here'n there, the toilet flushed and had toilet paper, and had running hot water.
Once the accommodations were all sorted out we made our way to the mountain. The up hill trek wasn't that bad. You have the option of taking a horse or donkey if you don't feel like walking or 4 dudes(in sweater vests) will carry you on a lawn chair attached to some poles all the way up. We walked. Some people walk bare foot all the way up others you see walk a couple of steps and then prostrate get back up and do this all the way to the summit. People say what you wish for at the top comes true (2 ppl have told me personally that their wishes have come true) but only if you keep your end of the bargain and come back and pray again. I'll just have to wait'n see if my prayer comes true.
Getting back down and home was a whole other mission and would require another page worth of writing, so instead I'm going to go eat a mango popsicle.
2 comments:
Are you sure they aren't selling Aryan girls....that doesn't look like an F to me!
The view in some of those pictures is amazing...
Also, Seneca College represent!
The pics are great!
Seems like you're having lots of fun (and with mango popsicles how could you not?)! Keep us up to date!
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