As we make our way further inland we put on a second layer of clothes. The first time it has being need since we arrived in India. A welcome change. As the we race along dawn is nearing. The bus comes to a hault and myself and Peer jump out for a quick smoke. It appears to be a fairly long traffic jam that is going nowhere. We walk up the length of the traffic to investigate. A fairly severe crash had happened, I imagine a couple hours before. The front of the purple bus is a mangled mesh of metal. A rather foreboding feeling comes over. The thought of what the passengers went through is upsetting. The results of the insane driving become evident here. My mood feels rather subdued as we turn from he carnage. Myself and Peter say few words as we back down the road. I notice myself playing with the beads of my bracelet, like worry beads. I look up and notice one of the most beautiful sunrises ever. I turn smiling and mention it to Peter to look up. Its a welcome return to the moment for our brains after witnessing the frightening carnage. Ian is standing away from our bus looking at the sunrise when we return. We relay the story to him and mention he was probably better off not seeing if first hand.
Its not long before we are back on the road. We stupidly presume the driver will take it easy after seeing the crash. The view as we drive up the mountain is spectacular. Its a slow windy road that the you can see the driver is infuriated by. He does his damnedest to get the most out of the old bus engine as he roars it to pull the monster vehicle of steel up and around the steep inclines and bends. The road drops off to cliff face of trees and astounding panoromic views as we climb higher and higher. Before long Peter has fallen asleep and his head is bopping away rhytmically to the turns and jolts of the bus. Myself and Ian are in hysterics with cameras poised as he imitates the toy dogs you put on the parcel tray of cars. As we get higher more hotels start appearing on the hillside. Not long after we pull into an Alpine style village nearing the summit of this spectacular mountain. We give Greg a call after we get off the bus. Five minutes later he comes down to meet us with a some local chocolate as a gift for our breakfast.
We are brought to Yogpappa guesthouse were the boys are staying. We look at some rooms and take a room for 600rps for the three of us. The room feels really damp. Ian & Peter go straight to sleep.
I decide stay up and go for breakfast in pastry shop with Greg. The pastries are delectable and we munch through 10 of the between us with coffee. Next while exploring the town we find a Camera repair shop. Yes, hard to believe. At over 2,000 metres I find a guy that says he can perhaps repair the Canon camera. He tells me the charge will be between 900 and up to 1600rps at the maximum.
After an hour or so we head back to the guesthouse. I woke Aidan & Eoghan who appeared to have had their own mountain top adventure during the night. Living a recollection of a night in West Cork it seems, the boys entertained themselves high in the mountain top with stories and tales that had them giggling till the early hours. Amazingly Greg slept through the whole thing in the room next door. They were both in mighty form and were ready to head out for lunch. We went about waking Peter and Ian next. It took us to carry Ian from one room to another still wrapped in his bed linen. The female cleaner stood by watching in silence as we carried the lifeless body across the veranda. All of us laughing and she stood there staring at us as we came out of the room. We realised she was worried that something sinister was going on so we invited her in to check the very much alive although lazy McD. Ian lay still lifeless as the slightly oldish lady touched his forehead. Next thing he smiled, opened his eyes and she turned to leave, smiling at the high jinks of the lads. She got the joke. We were all falling around at the fact she thought we had murdered someone. What stories go around of the crazy whities!
As we went to leave I checked with the manager whether we could get a less damp room or a heater to dry it out a bit. His english seemed to worsen as I stood there playing charades over the words 'dampness' or 'heater'. I left him as he smiled warmly and blankly at me. We all headed up to the viewpoint restaurant for lunch. An amazing view, looking down over the valley, sprawled out in front of us. This was quickly changed as clouds raced into blocking the view with its fog like thickness. We ordered food and within a moment the skies opened and it started bucketing down. We ran inside and watched as the water poured down the windows like a car going through the car wash. The windows steamed and as we sat their waiting for our food it really felt like being in a country house back home. Lunch arrived after quite some time. Fairly mediocre, apart from the delicious chicken and sweet corn soup. After eating we were talking to the manager of the place. He told us his wages were 100rps per day. 10 years ago a years wages was enough to build your own house. Now you'd be lucky to build one after saving for 10 years. We continued chatting for a while until the rain eased off and then we left.
Before heading in to town, I wanted to show the lads a cottage with an open fire that was being rented nearby. It was taken by the time we got there. The man said he had an even nicer one and told he could brings us there. Supposedly only 500 metres away or as we say in Ireland, around the corner. After walking over 1km, in the rain, up a hill, we finally got there. It was quite a pretty little home. It had its own kitchen, fireplace, bathroom with hot water and three beds. We took it for 700rps per night. The caretaker was called Soobo and spoke with a hint of a British accent. We headed back to check out of Yogpappa. The manager was not to happy when we informed him we had found another place, that was not so damp and better for my health. We moved our bags into the boys room and headed off into town. We used the internet. I checked up on the camera that I had dropped in for repair. He said tomorrow morning. Myself and Ian collected supplies and food. We grabbed a taxi and returned to our new little cottage.
The boys joined us shortly afterwards with beers and water. We passed over the job of cooking dinner. Aidan and Eoghan did most of the work at preparing a chicken masala and rice dish. We played chess. Ate dinner and drank beer. Dinner ended up being a mass of bones. After a bit we sat down and played poker. We had a brilliant even with fire blazing away in the background. It was a lot of fun. Aidan went to head home, although the dog wars are going on outside so he declined from leaving and sat on the hammocks outside to wait for Eoghan. By 4am I climbed into bed as the embers of the fire glowed away beside me. It was a great feeling being all wrapped in blankets in the cold.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment