Mountain Momma

I have to say, I had a pretty great weekend.

Everything started on Tuesday evening. While messaging with a friend from Hyderabad (South of India) we got to know that the both of us are currently in Delhi. Actually, that took us around half an hour to understand that we are in the same city, after three years. Once, I finally got it, Dinseh is in Delhi, I jumped in the Uber and drove through Delhi to the Northern part.
Firstly confused where I am, my friend picked me up and thanks to him shouting out loud "Mutti" we found each other. Regardless that I am 10 to 15 years younger than my friends I got the nickname Mutti here in India. Just because I try to keep the kids together and remind them drinking enough water and eat properly and healthy.
We had a great evening together and tried to go through the last three years. I guess it is obvious, that that conversation took some time, but the result of our catching up was, that we needed to use this coincident and spend the weekend together. Also on Friday, it happened to be Dinesh's Birthday.
Our final destination was quickly chosen. Up, up to the mountains. Escaping the full, loud and chaotic and most of all hot Delhi. Kasol it is. Now, traveling to the mountains like a Mama bear with Dinesh, I got remembered of the song 'Take me home, country roads' by John Denver.
Next day, we booked the tickets and we were nearly on the road. Literally on the road, because in the rush hour of Dehli I got stuck for two hours just to get to the bus terminal. But, as the smarty I am, I started early. Even with plenty of time and for a way of 'just' 40 minutes regarding Google, it took nearly two hours. Arrived, a bit stressed, we entered the bus, and again on the road for 12 hours. But overnight, my stress should vanish, because once I woke up, I found myself in the Himalayas. I could have slept a little longer, but the road or more precisely the bus driver made that impossible. Sure, it makes sense that the driving conditions are not the best in mountains, but the serpentine roads and no asphalt does not make it better.
So when I woke up, got rid of my sleeping mask and pull on the curtain I looked down into hundreds of meters of cliffs. If I would have put my hand outside the window there would not have been any road. That moment was pretty effective to wake me up. On top of the interesting driving conditions, we had continuously oncoming traffic. Of course, that traffic was not little scooters or a cute smart. Mostly we faced busses the same size as ours, what means travel busses. When we passed the oncoming bus, we could have touch each other's nose without any problem. It is amazing how the bus drivers were able to get through the streets.
For me, it looked like an elephant tries to get into a mousehole with his ass first.

Arrived in Kasol, the first joined activity was to find a Susu place (a toilet), followed by tea.
We found a great, little place close to a river with a garden directly in front of our room door.
Happily, my friend took jackets with him. I guess in summer time whole India sweats like a pic. But not necessarily the North. The mountains keep the most amazing weather with sunny days, or some clouds and chilly evenings. So I spend my first evening wrapped in a winter jacket while I tried to come as close as I could to the born fire with my feet while listening to life Hindi music.
Within the day we entered a local bus to go to a super small village named Tosh. This remote village has absolute no infrastructure, but amazingly nice people. So it happened to be, that we sat in one bus with Ulli and his owner.

Btw, I do not make the name up. The sheep's name is Ulli

I really do not know why, but Ulli traveled with us in two busses and my friend discovered his love to sheep. The two of them (my friend and the owner, not Ulli) started a conversation and we found out that we had the same destination, Tosh. After walking the last meters of the hill up to Tosh, we met the guy and Ulli again and he showed us around in his little village.

On the roots of Ulli

We followed closely

To arrive in this little village, Tosh

The next two days we spend in our little garden and in Kasol itself. The little market had some nice offers to make and the biggest surprise was the amount of Israelis we met. Confidently, I can say that I never met a single Israeli in India and arrived in Kasol I felt like the only foreigner with my Indian friend... in India in the middle of Israelis. After some chatting with our room neighbors we found out, that there are a few places, mostly Northern India, who are very much visited by Israelis. For me, it was the perfect coincidence to get to know a bit about Israel.

Garden

Just the perfect place to work on the first sunburn in India...

My friend and I spent a great weekend relaxing in the sun, mostly me, talking and discovered some local food. I can just recommend the Northern part of India.
So different to what I experienced so far and exactly the same beauty and hospitality as I got to know India.

Thank you Dinesh

Bis bald, Johanna