Kaza

I woke up super dehydrated with a minor headache but overall not feeling too bad. Last time I had some minor nausea and a bad headache from the altitude change even though I had stayed the night in Reckong Peo, so I was worried that this time, having skipped the night in RP, I would feel worse. None of the shops were open yet so I went across the street and had a chai while I waited to buy water. I bought a couple of bottles, went back to the hotel, brushed my teeth and washed up, then went back out for breakfast. Kaza was surprisingly busy; taxis kept pulling up and unloading people (all locals, I didn't see any tourists until later that afternoon). After breakfast I walked down to the main shop area and tried to call the states, but the phone lines were down. I had another chai and hung out a bit people watching and reading, then I walked over to the Sakya gompa where they were preparing for the Budh Purnima/Saka Dawa celebration), however everything seemed slightly subdued. Given the time of day/importance of the holiday I would have expected folks to be lined up and things underway already, but the monks were sort of milling about and slowly putting up banners.

I walked back to the main area and started chatting with Lodrey, who owns one of two internet cafes in Kaza (his wasn't up and running yet and probably wouldn't be for another week or so). I asked Lodrey about what was going on at the Sakya gompa and he said that the festivities were partially canceled because a young man had died the day before. He didn't say who or how and I didn't want to press it, but that explained the strange air that was hanging over the monastery and the sort of sluggish pace of the monks setting up. He said all of the folks who had come in from neighboring regions for the celebration (which would have included some 'chams dancing) were milling about the town without anything to do because they had come to spend the whole day at the monastery celebration that was now canceled. I tried the phone again and eventually got through to the states (it took forever to get a line), had some lunch, then went to the main bus stand to ask about bus times. A few people told me the buses hadn't started running yet this season because the roads were still too bad. That was fine, I figured I could catch a taxi later that afternoon and went back to the market to kill time with Lodre. We drank tea and chatted about Spiti; he knows most of the Bhuzhen in the area so we talked about them for a while, which was really interesting. Around 2:30 I went back to the taxi area to try to find a ride to Kungri and met with absolutely no luck. Everyone who had come in for the festivities was trying to leave Kaza. The taxi/bus area was packed, but everyone I asked about Kungri already had a full car. I went back to the main area and told Lodre I was having trouble finding a taxi, so he walked back over with me and found a group of people who were all waiting to go to Kungri. There are only a few jeeps that go between Pin and Kaza, so he located their drivers and, sure enough, they were all full. However they were apparently coming back to Kaza to do a second run after dropping the current set of passengers, so I just hung out at the taxi stand waiting with the rest of the folks going to Kungri.

Around 5, the taxis had still not returned but a group of monks walked by who I recognized from Kungri, so I went over to say hi. They were also waiting for a ride but had apparently secured one of the returning taxis, although they weren't sure when it would return. Their car was full, but they said they would make sure I got on the other taxi going to Pin. We hung out, drank chai, and chatted a bit until 6:30ish when both taxis came back about the same time. Everyone rushed the first taxi when it returned and the driver said I couldn't get on because it was full. This was pretty frustrating and I was worried I would have to stay another night in Kaza and catch a ride the next day when there were fewer people (I found out later on in Kungri that the driver thought I was tourist and he apologized for not letting me on right away, which made me feel a bit better, oh ego). When it was clear he wasn't going to let me on, I went back to the area where everyone was waiting to see if there were any other taxis going. I guess one of the monks went to argue with the driver because he came rushing over, grabbed my bag, shouted "dro!" (go) and took off. He opened the back of the jeep and two of the girls from Sangnam, who had also been waiting the whole time, moved over and squeezed three to a seat so that I could get in. The monk shut the door behind me and threw my bag on top of the jeep and we were off.

I tried to chat with the two girls, who I was pretty sure I had met a few times last time I was in Spiti, but they just giggled and whispered to each other and pretended they didn't understand me. Later on when I was showing pictures to the nuns from my last visit, I found a bunch of pictures of both girls. They were friends with the nuns and in 2009 had come over for a couple of parties. I had pictures and videos of them singing and dancing. I told Yeshe that I rode with both girls on the taxi to Kungri but that they pretended they didn't know me. She kind of laughed and said that was weird and that they were probably just being shy but maybe they didn't recognize me. Interactions like this make me wonder how difficult it will be to do field work in this area, especially when folks who I've met before won't talk to me.

In any event, the taxi ride from Kaza to Kungri isn't very long, but I quickly saw why the buses weren't yet running. The road was in terrible shape! There were several land slides (small enough or cleared enough for the jeep to get around but impossible for a bus), and in many places we were pretty much driving through small rivers from all of the melting snow. I wasn't sure if the monk who put my larger bag on top of the jeep had tied it down at all and spent the whole ride gazing out the back expecting to see my bag fly off. Every time we took a sharp turn or hit a large bump, I would look out at the road and visualize where my bag would land, whether it would bounce along the road getting dirty but recoverable, or whether it would drop off the side of the mountain into the river below. When I got off the taxi in Gulling, I found that the bag hadn't been tied down at all and felt pretty lucky that none of my visualizations materialized. Gulling is the first town on the main road into Pin and is just before Kungri. Since the taxi was headed to Sangnam and not up to Kungri, they dropped me in Gulling. The taxi driver also charged me 70rs, which was a little too much (standard is 50rs), and may have been part of why he later apologized. It was maybe 8pm by then and dark out. I stood on the side of the road with my bags waiting for another car to come through that was going to Kungri. A few younger local guys stood in their doorways staring at me and hassling me a bit. Eventually the taxi with the monks came by and I hopped onto that for the rest of the ride up to Kungri.

Reckong Peo to Kaza

The guy driving me was named Vinod. He was only a couple of years older than me and incredibly obnoxious. He picked up his friend on the way out of town so he had company for the ride back. Vinod and his friend liked “American rap” and they liked it loud. I think I heard more Eminem in the duration of that ride than all of the Eminem I had previously heard in my life combined. Vinod was also a rather typical 20's male driver in that he liked to be in front of a line of cars and insisted on passing everyone even if he didn't need to. It was going to be an interesting ride.

We were only an hour and a half out of RP when we had to stop. There was another land slide up ahead that took them half an hour to clear. Vinod was more than happy to hang out on the side of the road at a chai stall chatting with his friends (apparently he knew everyone at the chai stall). When it seemed like traffic was moving again I had to be pushy to get him back in the car. We drove a little distance and came up to another road block, where we waited some more. At least this time there weren't any distractions for Vinod, who was increasingly petulant about the whole thing. A bunch of cars piled up waiting, including two of the folks from the ILP office. We chatted a bit, I read a book and listened to some music. Eventually they blew up the largest boulder that had fallen and then brought in a plow to clear the rest (everyone had to back their cars up quite a bit to be clear of the explosion). It was becoming somewhat late in the afternoon and I was starting to wonder if we would get into Kaza in the middle of the night. We drove for a few more hours until we came across a third road block; this one wasn't a land slide but a road widening crew. The wait wasn't as long but everyone in the car was getting impatient. Luckily, by this time Vinod had exhausted his supply of rap and had switched to some Kinnauri music, a surprising selection coming from him but one that I enjoyed.

I didn't mind waiting for the road widening crew so much because the stretches of new road they had finished were quite nice. They're widening the road to two lanes; right now the road is a single lane and cars often have to stop and pull over to pass each other. They're also paving the entire thing, which probably won't last very long and will require constant upkeep, but still, I appreciated the parts that are done. Eventually the entire stretch of road from RP to Kaza will be redone, but for now the newer sections spring up in patches separated by the narrow, rocky, washed out dirt road. Vinod made the most of these new patches, increasing his speed until the impending dirt roads made him slow down. The road itself was in really rough shape overall; this and the frequent delays made me grateful I had sprung for a jeep rather than taking a bus. The road from Shimla to RP is not so bad on the bus, but from RP to Kaza the condition deteriorates dramatically (the height of the road and sharpness of the turns increase as well).

At Chango we stopped for the first permit check. Both permit checks are now on the road between Nako and Tabo, which is nice because it means that tourists can visit Nako without getting a permit. Previously, the first permit check was in Spello, which is before Nako, but it has since been moved to Chango apparently due to complaints by the residents of Spello and because two trucks smuggling goods over the border to China had been stopped near Chango. This is the part of the permit concept that really confuses me. In Shimla, the Additional District Magistrate gave me a lecture about how the permit check was for foreigners' safety because the road was so difficult and it was easy to become lost or “fall off a mountain” (the latter apparently preventable merely by paying a travel agent). In RP, according to the permit handler as well as Vinod, my driver, and later confirmed by the military official who checked my permit in Chango, the permit check is primarily to stop smugglers and people from passing over the Chinese border. If the latter is the primary motivation for the check posts, then it really doesn't make any sense to target foreigners, the vast majority of whom are tourists just passing through and stopping off at the monasteries. If they wanted to stop smuggling, I would imagine it would be more productive to focus on checking locals. Part of the check post system requires all vehicles to stop and register (free, no permit required), not just those vehicles carrying foreigners, which makes me wonder if the foreigner permit requirement was just an extra step tacked onto the process to financially supplement the cost of checking every vehicle that passes through. In any event, there doesn't seem to be any indication that they'll do away with the ILP any time soon, based on the fact that both Shimla and RP have been investing in digital cameras and new computers to expedite the process, as well as establishing agencies to “assist” foreigners. If the Kunzum pass doesn't open by the time I need to leave Spiti (which is unlikely), I'll have to double back on the same route and get another permit in Kaza. We'll see how that process compares to RP and Shimla. [update: I did have to get another permit in Kaza, which will get it's own wonderful delay-laden post]

The permit check at Chango was surprisingly busy. Another woman at the checkpost told me that she and most of the folks milling about were traveling to the monastery for the Budh Purnima (Vaisaka) celebration the next day. I somewhat kicked myself for not paying better attention to the Tibetan calendar, because that would have been something interesting and potentially useful to stop and see. I figured there would also be something at the new Sakya gompa in Kaza the next day (if I made it in time) that I could check out anyway. Back in the jeep until the next permit stop in Sumdo. By this time it was dark out and we had run out of water (there hadn't been anywhere to buy bottled water at either check post and, while I had brought plenty for me, Vinod and his friend hadn't brought any, so the water went twice as fast as I'd planned).

I had asked Vinod several times to stop for dinner and water and he said that we would soon. Turns out he had a specific place in mind, again, so he could hang out with friends, but which turned out to not have food or water. It was before we reached Tabo, I think somewhere just past the checkpost between Gue and Hoorling. There was a cluster of houses and two dhabas, one with lights on and full of activity and one mostly empty and dark. I think the first was more of a bar/local hangout and the other was a rest stop for travelers. Vinod took me to the latter and told the guy I wanted food and then walked off next door (he was seriously turning out to be a very bad driver). The guy who was running the dhaba kitchen and I had a confusing conversation in broken Hindi in which he told me that there was no food! I asked him if there were any eggs and maybe just roti (seemed super simple to me) and he said no eggs and walked away. I sat there for a bit and he came back and asked if I liked daal and sabji, I said yes but that I was in a hurry and something simple/quick would be best, again he disappeared. About this time Vinod and his friend came back and asked if I had finished eating. I was pretty annoyed with him for disappearing for half an hour (and in general) and said no, I hadn't had anything yet. Vinod went back to the kitchen and argued with the cook and then we all sat down to wait (it had been 40 minutes or so by this time). The cook eventually came out with an omelet and roti (magically I guess there were eggs). I started eating quickly and then he came out with a veg thali (rice, daal, sabji), at which point both Vinod and I were like, what the heck? A minute ago we told him we were in a hurry and he said there were no eggs and there was no food, and now he's bringing out way more food than I wanted or needed. The whole situation was rather absurd. I should mention that five minutes earlier a handful of guys had come in and also asked for food and been told there was none, so when the cook brought out the thali they also started shouting at him. So he gave my thali to them and then brought them out another, much to everyone's confusion. I finished the omelet and roti, all the while wishing I had some water, and then we got back in the jeep. I argued with Vinod a bit about the poor choice of a stopping place and the fact that there was not water and he just sort of shrugged.

It was getting late and I was tired so I tried to doze for the rest of the ride, but that's kind of difficult when the road is as bumpy as it was. I put on headphones to drown out the rap, which had returned to replace the Kinnauri music, and was sort of out of it for the rest of the ride. We reached Kaza around 10:30 and pulled up to the Zambala Hotel, which is right where all of the taxis and buses come and go. I hadn't called ahead to reserve a room (again, you can usually just walk up to a hotel or two and get a room in Kaza). I had stayed in Zambala twice before because one of the managers/owners/not sure, lives in Kungri and is the financial secretary or something for the monastery. I turns out that Zambala was in the process of being renovated and they weren't renting out rooms. When I explained to the younger guy who answered the door who I was and where I was going, he said okay and found me a room that they hadn't yet begun renovating and then brought me a bucket of water (there apparently wasn't any water, either from the renovations or just because the city was out, I wasn't sure). The downside of the renovation was that the restaurant in the hotel was empty, so there wasn't any bottled water there either. Everything in Kaza was closed so I washed up a bit and then collapsed, hoping to find water first thing in the morning.