Lansdowne

Google “Lansdowne” and you get a series of sites in “Lansdowne UK”, some in United Kingdom and some, in Uttarakhand! The place was named after the 5^th Earl of Lansdowne, who served in the British Army and lived here. It took us forever to drive the 270 km from Delhi. The toughest part was getting past Delhi and Ghaziabad. Meerut was another nightmare. After that it was through sugarcane fields and temples of eco-friendly Gobar on either side of the road until we came to a long stretch of forest leading to the hills. 15 km before you reach Lansdowne, the pines accompany the drop in temperature.

Fairydale, the guest house, happened to be hidden at the end of a path that you’d think your car won’t go through, but miracle of miracles, it will. Lansdowne is just what the doctor ordered. The place is so quiet you can hear silence. I especially liked the non-touristy atmosphere around the circular roads with bungalows tucked in between the trees. Each of the bungalows in the cantonment area has a number and a plaque with its history and/or a ghost story on it. One Bungalow for example, had a story of a British Army man who died in 1912 but whose ghost frequented the Mess. His ghost was last seen in 1947. He apparently came riding on his horse and told the driver of a military vehicle to wish the “sahibs” for him.

The cantonment board has done some really good work by naming all the trees in local language. You can see bainj (oak), buransh (rhododendron), pangir , morpank(fir) and chir(pine). In the evening the light was brilliant and we went crazy clicking photographs. The Garhwal Rifles mess is quintessentially Raj with its wooden staircase, lah -di -dah verandah and clusters of blue and pink hydrangea giving the place a surreal Englishness. Supposedly, one can see Chaukhambha from Lansdowne. However, according to the hotel manager, because of forest fire, the valley is really hazy and assured us that we would not get a view. So we decide to go to Khirsu.

Day 2 – Lansdowne- Jwlapadevi – Pipalpani- Buakhal-Khirsoo

Jaiharikal is a few kilometers away from Landsdowne and another option for stay. The drive was hot and road construction made it challenging. To visit Jwalpadevi temple, you walk down all the way to the river. It is of non-descript architecture, but a pilgrim to the shrine prayed by intensely yelling and shrieking and the priest kept a bell ringing furiously all along. This apparently is an accepted practice of praying to the Goddess who granted Sachi’s wish to marry Indra – the king of gods.

We went on to Buakhal and dense forest started. Because of the dry spell for the past two years, the ground is dry and forest fires are rampant. We followed a fire engine which tried to put out the fire but after a while ran out of water. Water seems to be a great problem in the area. Little children with colorful plastic jerrycans wait for a water tanker to pass and the driver stops and allows them fill from the dripping water. At the Khirsu guest house, an entertaining Manager told stories of his woeful existence in this place with no plumber, electrician, water supply, (water comes from Srinagar) or internet connectivity.

The place is beautiful and would be spectacular if the weather were clear and allowed views of Chaukhamba. The people are gentle, open and seem to have a great sense of humor. We met a lady carrying a rope net to carry fodder or perhaps firewood. When asked “Where are you going with the net?” she replied with a twinkle in her eye “I‘m going to catch this giant fish from the reservoir” What she didn’t voice was “…you stupid tourist!”

Day 3

We decided to stay on at Khirsoo. Next morning at 10, we started off on a trek to Rakhal, a hill top where the horticulture dept has an orchard and a greenhouse. You take the Srinagar road for about 30 mins and you come to a dry stream. The road takes a U turn and an old dilapidated uninhabited house stands next to the trail. Walk up the trail into a baanj/oak forest for 30 minutes. In monsoon, this trail would be greener and water would, depending on the precipitation, trickle or gush from several springs. Even though it was dry, it was still a beautiful walk along a dappled trail. Once you reach the top, there are a few houses and an apple orchard. From here, you get good views and there are plenty of birds to identify and photograph.

Khirsu has a helipad, certifying its tourism potential or ministerial clout. The walk to the helipad was through a village speckled with blue and green houses, nestled in the midst of terraced slopes looking their fancy best for photographs at a time of long shadows. The trail to the helipad was straight up, and 15 minutes later, you are sitting on the H with a couple of pine trees in the backdrop. There’s a 360 degree view. Leopards are common sightings here in Khirsu. We met a woman who offered us some kaphal - a sweet sour berry she’d picked. She was returning from the forest without fodder for her cattle because there’s a leopard on the prowl. And no, we didn’t get to spot one here.

Day 4

On the drive back to Lansdowne, we took the lesser frequented road from upper Pauri, after Buakhal. It goes through Adwani and pine forest and the road is perched on the upper ridges, and you get fantastic views of valleys on either side. The drive to Satpuli through Khanskhet was about 85km and was simply divine with pine forests and lots of wishful “This piece of land, I want to live in” stops. Lansdowne again made us go round in circles trying to figure out where the GMVN Machan is. After a good lunch, we visited St Mary’s church where there is no worship but where now, the Garhwal Rifles has done a superb job of restoration and maintenance. St John’s church looked tacky but had service. We walked on random trails , paid the touristy Tiffin top/ Tip and Top a quick visit, said hello to Bhulla lake and read the plaque on every little ghost bungalow there locking some of Lansdowne in memories to revisit.

Trekking in Arunachal

It's something else. The first time I ever went to Arunachal, I saw the forests I had only read about. Our new car swam through the river as the bridge had collapsed. The thick forests were dark and moist, giant ferns right out of a sci fi movie, and a world which, for long stretches, without plastic. An occasional human on the road carried with him his Dha in a intricately woven bamboo scabbard, a cane backpack and a hat made of such tightly woven cane that you could scoop out water from the river and drink form it.

It was several years after this first journey that I went to trek in this eastern himalayan region. First it was the Subansiri Valley that we followed from Limeking to Taksing and followed the river fork to another small valley, exploring the Indian semicircle of the kora(parikrama) route the early Buddists have written in ancient texts. We went looking for pilgrim shelters and spoke to people who could tell us about lores of the region. People still carried a catapult (for a quick bird snack), had a waterproof jacket made of reeds, their waterproof hat, serving as a bowl and the ubiquitous cane scabbard with their Dha in it.

The trails here are unlike any part of the Himalayas. If you have to ascend, then you climb a ladder or hold on to vines and climb 85 degrees. You reach the topmost ridge and walk on the knife edge with sharp, scary,unbelievable drops on either side. To avoid falling into the river, two casually thrown logs were the only, albeit euphemistic,"bridges". the concept of trails is different here as the foliage is thick and plants (like the magic beanstalk) cover trails overnight. You could get lost forever. So, you need a local (a hunter preferably) who knows where to hack the bamboos and other green things to make a trail. In several places, for an unrealistic amount of time, you can't see the sky because of the canopy of trees.
When you "trek", you crouch, stomp, balance on single,slithery logs, proceed valiantly till you reach the next wate source. When you camp you may have to shrug at a snake, watch out for leeches, make a fire to keep out the bears. When you breathe, you inhale a concoction of leaves, animal scents, fresh water and the bourbon biscuits you've pulled out for a snack. At meal times you notice that the cook's spoon has been carved out of a young tree or an old branch, everyone else is drinking out of a fresly cut bamboo glass (is that an oxymoron?) no plates are necessary because there are banana leaves or some other leaves bigger, better and more environment friendly making you camp style multipurpose utensil look like a fancy fool.
In this Subansiri valley, people hunt, live off the jungle or wait for Government supply of rice , salt and kerosine. the only reason they go to the plains to to lug 100 bottles of rum. It breaks the monotony of drinking the home brewed Apung. Besides, its good business. This valley had villages and people wove, farmed, went to school and even had electricity. One woman was weaving on a waist looma nd we got talking. i asked her what she would do with the fresh deer pelt that was hung out to dry. She, answered, " Oh, I plan to make a fancy hand bag with it!". Sorority- Women world over.
But there were also those who lived in the jungle - like "Bandar Mara" (before you think blood, mara is a clan name) who set traps for hares, rats or mongoose. He shot at bears, deer and of course monkeys. He built his new home in a few days, flattening and weaving bamboo for walls and felling a few perfect trees fro pillars, layering flat palm leaves for the thatch. He showed us how to set a trap for small animals using a flat stone and a couple of slivers of bamboo with a tiny bit of bait. This, I christen as the "chutney trap" with the poor rodent being flattened for its mistake. I was to meet this trap and its casualties in my future journeys in the Lohit valley and the Siang (Yang sang Chu) valley as well.