Roadkill

Himalayan style...

And so it came to pass that we got the longer bike ride under way, late of course...coffee and goodbyes to tarik and Natalia...and then the whine of underpowered engines bleated gentle between the foothills of the Himalaya...and stopped, and returned due to a lack of petrol...and then set off again...further being the mantra of the day....
And further it turned out to be...about 150km round trip...which sounds like nothing, but on scooters on these roads is a pretty tiring run...took us about five and a half hours....and it was an utter delight...we ended up at a town called Deoprayag, which is where the Ganges takes its name at the confluence of the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers. A beautiful place hanging on clifftops, quiet and beautiful, another facet of enchantment cast by this crazed country and at the meeting point of the two rivers a cave, with a charming baba...Ganges puja bullshit! He informed us, just for money...he leaned across and stuck his fingers in the ash from his fire and smeared my forehead.,.we smoke chillum? And so in a cave with ganesha marij, phonetic attempt, I sat listening to a couple of workmen chipping a wall down with hammer and chisel...Siva likes noise I suppose....
And on the way back Milo had his first crash, scrapes and scratches and reacted well to it....there was another 50km to get back to rishikesh...and I think that's the end of the bikes.,,unless pushkar....
Its difficult to describe these places that are it off the beaen path without falling into cliché....today it was akin to walking through a doorway into the past, of course that's untrue, there were motor bikes along the, narrow, streets and the new atm which was being installed today...its possibly a glimpse I to the lastays of such places...Its a smaller world now...and I wonder if the places I remember and the changed that have occurred there need also occur here? There are the ten thousand things and they are always changing...
and there's also the ongoing hypocrisy in finding such places; the ideal that backpackers are stateless or, possibly, in some way creating a small erosion in borders and horizons...I wonder if that was ever really true...and yet we bemoan the same, a apparent, erosion when it interferes with the dream....
change and transience...I sometimes wonder if these combined with beauty is why we travel...seeking something wonderful, a treasure for the memory to return to, to dream upon, some glimpse to carry, and that's also the payment you make for such things, not the time and distance travelled, but the urge to find some semblance of a dream that others walked and wove before..and we drift...
but there's a uniformity involved now...and like deoprayar and hampi, I wonder how long these glimpses will continue or will they remain for those who are willing to travel a little further (not me I hasten to add)....and, maybe, we seek difference also....
And after that ramble....
this was on the road to deoprayag, it looked much worse on the away back...
And Natalia's blog is....we-go-together.ru

Which only leaves sleep to be found....Maharishi's ashram tomorrow and find a bus to shimla...and will put some of today's other photos on flickr....probably tomorrow...fish....