a long and winding road....

I survived the long bus ride from Rishikesh to Uttarkashi. It actually took just over seven hours, to cover less than a hundred miles. It was just winding mountain roads the whole way, mostly paved but occasionally gravel and pretty narrow much of the time, although fortunately it wasn't one of those roads where you're staring down a cliff a few feet away the whole time. There actually didn't seem to be all that much elevation gain, and so it's really not much colder here than it was in Rishikesh. But it was also a very clear and sunny day today so it sounds like today might have been warmer than normal. I talked to someone in town who said yesterday it had rained here. But good to know it's not intolerably cold, so far at least, as I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But it was an absolutely gorgeous bus ride, which I would have enjoyed more if it hadn't been so long, and also if I hadn't been crammed into a small seat with my knees jammed against the seat in front. It was a smallish bus and it was pretty full much of the time, although most of the riders were people getting on and off regularly, going shorter distances. But I got several amazing glimpses of the fully white Himalaya, which can't be too far away at this point. It's definitely a trip when you see huge mountains that aren't just snow-capped, but are completely white top to bottom. But the hills right around here don't have any snow on them, although I get the impression that if I were to hike up one of them then the snowy peaks might be right there.

So, tomorrow morning I'll decide whether to stay here another night or else head straight for Gangnani, where the hot springs are. Right now I'm feeling like heading up there tomorrow. Uttarkashi is set in a beautiful valley, with the Ganges (although here it's the Bhagirathi I think) flowing through it, but as for the town it's pretty much a typically busy and dirty Indian town. So no particular reason to hang around, as more of what I'm looking for is some peace and quiet, and views of the mountains, which it sounds like there will be great ones up at Gangnani. Then from there I might go even a little farther north to Harsil, but I'll just see how much colder it is up in that area when I get there. Also the guest house I'm staying at tonight, although cheap and the owner is friendly and speaks English, is pretty funky and right near the bus stand so rather noisy during the day, just one more reason not to stay here long. But it feels great to be farther up in the mountains and also to be away from a major tourist spot, as I haven't seen any other Western travelers so far since I got on the bus in Rishikesh. But my guest house owner did mention that a German guy had stayed there a short while ago, so I'm not the only one going north when everyone else pretty much is headed south.

I'm assuming that there won't be any internet access in Gangnani, but you never know, it's just about everywhere these days. I don't have a firm idea of what sort of facilities there are in Gangnani yet, like whether anyone actually lives there or if it's just a few lodges. So hopefully my guest house owner can fill things in a little for me. It sounds like the accommodations there might be a little over my budget, so that could be a determining factor as to how long I stay there, we'll see. Well I'm pretty wiped out after getting up early and then enduring the bus ride, so I'm headed to bed early tonight. But I had a great meal at a restaurant here, it was just some flavored rice, dhal (which is lentils generally, but this seemed to have some kind of other beans in it) and chapati, but the guy cooked it all up within view right at the front of the restaurant and it was excellent. The one time I really can't do Indian food is breakfast (they eat spicy stuff and rice balls), so to solve that I bought a jar of peanut butter in Rishikesh, some biscuits that are more like cookies, then I bought some oranges and bananas here, plus a loaf of bread. So with that I can do breakfast on my own (peanut butter and banana is great together, by the way) and then I can survive on pretty basic Indian stuff for lunch and dinner, if that's all there is. But I'm guessing I'm probably going to be missing the great selection of food I had down in Rishikesh. I think it will be a worthwhile trade-off for the mountain views though....