Ice Ice

Go in March or early April. Pangong Tso is still frozen. You can skate on it. There are hardly any tourists. The garnet hill is all yours to forage and find garnets. I believe the locals do it this way. They climb up, lie on the hill and squint downwards. If there's a glint, its a garnet. Quite unbelievable that you can pick up a rock with a garnet the size of a grape. Meanwhile, below the icy surface of the 140 km long, 7 km wide lake, the fish look at you through the ice. Some sea creature can be heard sluicing the waters below. Sea creatures did I say? Well, its the highest salt water lake. Once upon a time the Himalayas were submerged in an ancient ocean. On the side of the lake, you can see salt crystals glint when the cold sun strikes them. On the drive there you can see sand, rippled by the wind. Juxtaposed are the high snow capped mountains and glacial morraine . Marmots test the ground outside their burrow and Kiangs graze on the spartan spiny grass. Not far away is Chang La at 17800ft, a high prayer note, a bridge back to Leh.

Why I do what I do. Every time I read a travel article with enviable visuals, the words rush by and there is only one emotion that races through my capillaries and that is - " That should have been me!'' , so much so , I end up telling myself to stop wishing and start writing. What happens next is that I close the magazine and with that goes the urgency to make a start. Therefore the blog.

Life takes you to the most unexpected of places and situations. If you try to think of one such episode, several knock on your mind's door. The one knocking loudest today in my head is about a day in the market in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. Formalities were being done for a trek in the Takpa Siri trail in the Subansiri Valley, my adventure yet to start.
Shopping for food for the trail at the local market was an uninspiring logistical exercise. Aalu, Pyaz, Dal, Rice, Coffee, the regular stuff. In the midst of the oranges and berries, sat a no-nonsense woman selling some bright green globules. I hadn't seen any berry this green. There was a crowd around her little market display on her maroon scarf. Edging inwards, getting a better glimpse of her wares, I saw that the berries were hairy and ..waita minute.. they were moving. Apparently a delicacy, they were rare and tasty caterpillars. To check its freshness /youth/ taste level, a little woman popped one into her mouth and started bargaining. The seller looked my way, flashed a toothless grin and continued bargaining for a wholesale transaction. I managed to get a pic. Wasn't brave enough to get a taste.