Day One:
'High Altitude Desert’. Experienced the true meaning of this word today.
Good lord, what an event. For the first time since I left Bangalore, I found myself smack in the middle of a traffic jam. Every tourist in the vicinity of 60km and his brother seemed to have headed to Phyang.
The actual event itself took place in an open courtyard with the populace taking positions on the available 3 sides – one side was reserved for the performers making their entrance. Everyone had to crouch/sit on the ground or the wall or the terrace - basically wherever they could find a spot to hang on to for dear life. We made a late entry, wrongly assuming we were going to be the early ones and needless say all the prime spots were taken! As a result, I nearly got stomped to death, sitting as I was, near the main doorway. And the heat!! And the dust!! And the crowd!! Oy.
To make matters worse, after the first couple of performances, all of them looked pretty much exactly the same to me and I couldn’t for the life of me understand what all the fuss was about. Hello?
Thankfully, just when I was about to give up and begin what I was sure would be a solitary journey back to Leh,(I had no clue where the others were!) – bumped into them one by one and everyone decided to call it a day. The heat, it seems, was getting to everyone.
A long shower, a couple of dispirin and a nap later – feel human'ish' again.
Leh has all these beautiful garden cafes with loads of atmosphere, which look very enticing from the outside. In the evening, I picked one of them - had a couple of chai’s, read my book and chilled out completely.
Quite dreading the prospect of heading back to the festival tomorrow. Unfortunately for me, none of the others seem to have had the drastic reaction that I have had. And Neville seems to be convinced that the second day of the festival is much more entertaining and authentic than the first day and hence can’t be missed. Blah...I have my serious doubts.
So I plan to check it out, if it’s any different hang on there, otherwise do my own thing (basically scram out of there as soon as I can, that is).
To be very fair, it’s not all that bad a deal. And I definitely don’t mean any disrespect to the meaning behind the festival or to the monastery as such. It’s just that different things appeal to different people. Strictly speaking for myself, I would much rather be up in the mountains or walk around exploring – anything other than sitting around in one helluva hot, dusty courtyard watching masked people prance about. The festival to me is worth maybe half a day – y’know get a feel of what it’s about, experience the atmosphere and out you go. Two days is a bit much.
Not without a tinge of embarrassment, I have to say here that I’m feeling a little homesick..Yikes! Maybe it was just a tough day or maybe the starkness and rigors of the last few days catching up or whatever… I miss home!!! :(
Day 2:
Well to begin with, we wisened up and reached there real early. Much better! We got to pick some vantage points (not that we could afford to sit there all day – a photographer I’ve learnt spends half his/her life chasing the damn light).
That aside, the crowd was much more under control and not as aggressive as yesterday. Clearly my theory of ‘half a day for a festival’ was being followed by everyone else other than my group ;)
Long story short – the whole thing was a lot more tolerable today. Took quite a few pictures and was able to walk around the monastery and in/out of the festival, without worrying about silly things like ‘If I leave this spot, will I get it back’..
Stayed till about 3 pm and headed back into Leh. I got some shopping done in the evening. Lakshmi (one of the sweetest people I’ve met and someone I’m getting along very well with) came with me and was pretty amused by my style of shopping. I find meandering aimlessly in and out of shops a complete bore and end up buying whatever I first like. No dallying for me –nope, not much of a shopper.
Yay! Off to Pangong Lake tomorrow! Finally..
|
