delhi - himalaya

I think the notion that I'm a travel ninja might just be wishful thinking, because I seem to be getting terrible migraines whenever I travel for even a few hours. It has taken me almost 24 hours to recover from the 1.5 hour flight from Varanasi, and I'm still moving around in sloth-like slow motion, mustering up about as much energy as "an asthmatic ant with heavy shopping" (thank you Black Adder!) My biggest concerns for the past day has been where to find a McDonalds, which of the 4 bathrooms in Brina's flat to use, and why does it smell like something has died in my bedroom?!

I'm flying up to Kullu Valley tomorrow at 7 am, and then I have to figure out which bus or buses will take me to Baijnath, where I'll be picked up by Paan or his brothers. The bus ride will take anything between 6-10 hours, I'm a bit worried I'll be a absolute wreck by the time I arrive at my final destination. I'm not very pleasant when I feel like I've been run over by a truck. Since I'm going up to the mountains I've had to change my whole packing, but it doesn't seem I'll be really that high up, only around 1500 metres, which is good because it won't be THAT cold, but bad because it is still not high enough to deter cockroaches and other creatures with exoskeletons.

According to the forecast the temperature will be approximately 28 degrees C during the day and 13 in the night. My only previous mountain experience is from chasing alpacas at 5000 metres in the Andes, and even though the days were warm when the sun was out, the nights were absolutely miserable. I had to sleep with three layers of clothing, three woolen blankets + my sleeping bag, and I was STILL cold. And this was during the Peruvian summer... Hopefully the conditions won't be as harsh this time, or I'll have to book a flight to the Maldives or something.


I'm dragging two of my saris with me, I tried them on last night and they're so beautiful! Although I'm pretty sure they'll look even better when having been put on by someone who actually knows how to do it.