Travel Stories: The magic mountains
When I first was Invited there I was on an India tour and no matter how much I love it, India can be a pretty exhausting place If you re primarily touring the cities, which I always did. I truly love some of the urban grounds like Bangalore though and this city, in particular, became actually a piece of my life(I visited Bangalore for more than ten times from 2013-2016) After getting the booking in Parvati Valley confirmed I was more than happy that my dear friend Yano from BioBabas project was up there at the same time and was already expecting me.
Arrival in Kulu
Yano is an Israelian producer with extensive connections and he is literally known by everybody up there. He traveled there for the first time more than 15 years ago and basically became a part of the village by helping a lot of people. Being with Yano was a clear advantage, he made my trip so beautiful. Hot Springs, self-cooked food, and good vibes. After an exhausting trip up there by Bus, I finally arrived in Kulu and was on my way to Kasol for the first time in my life.
A Crazy Ride
After Delhi, this was a shocking difference. the people, nature, the animals and most importantly the culture of the mountain people blew me away instantly. I just loved the place.
The craziest thing I ever did in my Life was taking an Enfield Motorbike and drive the road uphill from Kasol o Tosh. Yano brought a bike from his Jewish friends from Beth Chabad and I had the honor to drive the glorious Enfield of the village mechanic of Kasol. I never drove a Motorbike in my life proper to this day. Only scooters in Goa and those are a completely different story. This was literally the first time for me using a clutch. And the road from Kasol to Tosh is one of the world craziest roads to drive a Motorbike on. It is actually a small miracle that I am still alive. Yano taught me how to use the gears and showed me where the different brakes are etcetera. Then we headed towards tosh. In T-shirts. It became evident that this was a hell of a stupid idea. We drove towards the exit of Kasol. A police roadblock stopped us. My heart was falling on the floor. I couldn’t even properly maneuver the bike and we get stopped in the first minutes of hour many hours long journey.
Fortunately, the Police just wanted to say hi to their best friend: Yano. Yano and the military and the Police had a nice little chat while my inner-self was pissing itself of fear. They wished us good luck and farewell. We were supposed to start the bikes at that moment and drive away in grace. But instead, I was struggling to get the half-ton motorbike to start. The police and Yano started laughing and I finally made the Enfield start.
Many times during this trip I almost died. There are often avalanches and waterfalls where flowing over the tiny little road at some spots. Sometimes trucks passed us with crazy maneuvers an high velocity. On those roads, one mistake will be your last one. Finally, we reached our goal. We climbed on a huge rock with two guys on it already smoking. You could see down the valley from those rocks which are surrounded by Cannabis plants and forests. The sun was shining at this moment and we enjoyed the view over the holy mountains glowed yellowish green in the sunlight. After a while clouds started to gather in the sky. Yano said it is going to rain and we should head back to Kasol. He was right.
On our way back down, it started to rain. I was in shorts and Tshirt. The problem with rain on bikes is that: The faster you drive the colder you get from the wind. Your muscles might cramp and this will lead to (in this case) fatal mistakes. Yet the longer you need the more of your stamina and concentration will fade away. I was so happy when we finally saw Parvati River again. I knew we where close. On the last kilometers, we picked up two Nepali hitchhikers and took them with us to Kasol.
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