caravahan

How does one post a wide/tall pic on Instagram?

Anywhoo. Witness some watermelon devourment 🍉

The colours that come out at this time of the day here are to die for

The kids decided to do a bit of cleanup around the #campsite. They'd already cleaned the spot where we pitched #tent.

There was endless commentary about the kinds of garbage people had left

It's time to call it a night.

After holding things back for an hour, I crawled out of my sleeping bag and tent to take a leak.

On the way back, I swung my head around because of a noise (of course I'm jumpy when it's this dark). And lo and behold. As I swung my head, I noticed the night sky. *low whistle*

You would not believe what I saw. Its aglow.

So, I'm wearing shorts and I'm cold. The tent is wet with dew. But I still go back in and fish my specs out.

Then I look up again.

The stars. The milky way. Oh the glory of it all. It could make anyone believe in higher powers.

So, see the attached pic. The Innova came with a DSLR. I've never used one. I have no clue. And yes, I did make one shameful attempt with my phone camera, only to get a completely dark picture. So I go into the car and fish it out.

It won't work. I read some tutorials. I actually stackoverflowed Nikon D90s. It won't work. When I point it at the sky and press the shutter button, it won't click. I tried M A P S. I fiddled with the ISO.

It obviously works in full auto. I took some pics during the day (not showing ya 😜). It only doesn't work with stars. I can't practice the settings during the day because in the day it works. And in the night it's cold and... You get the drift. It's late and I'm incoherent but I need help. I'm likely headed to Tabo people. I gotta make this useless heavy piece of metal photograph night skies.

OK. Good night.

#NikonD90 #nightsky #nightskyphotography

I like our Coleman instant tent, because it's literally instant. Up in sixty second. But it has no rainfly. Which means all night it was soaking in dew. This morning it's dripping wet. You touch it from the inside and water drains on to you, your electronics and books.

Gotta fashion a rainfly for this guy.

Late start to the morning. Gotta unpack and go now. Chitkul calls.

#vanlife #campinglife

I think I'll just let the kids sleep in this morning. We are on #vacation. Why the rush?

#campinglife #vacationwithkids #campingwithkids #kidstravel

Kailash Parvat

कैलाश पर्वत

The awe of it

#mountains #snowcappedmountains

We are all tired this morning. Sleeping in the #tent 🎪 wasn't anywhere as comfortable as sleeping in the #van 🚐. In fact I have had better sleep 🛏 in the #van than I usually do at home. It was chilly at night, but were warm in our bags. It is super hot this morning - the air is cool but the mountain 🏔️ sun ☀ is beating down on us.
The kids are sleepily stuffing the sleeping bags. I can't be bothered to arrange the #gear exactly as I'd originally laid it out. The crate wasn't letting the shotgun seat slide back as much as it can, so we've put the cooler (which is smaller) in its place. The books in the crate are now in the cooler 😬

The crate and the table are now on top of the bed. This likely will #fail on broken roads. But it's worth a try. Anyway no one sits on the bed while we are moving. Per @umeshunni 's suggestion I've tied down the table.

So we've prioritised passenger comfort over gear stability. Let's see what happens.

Chitkul!

#vanlife #kidsofinstagram #kidstravel #travelwithkids

More #mountains for you.

Like a #painting

A moving painting with sound

For #geography wonks. In this one pic you see #clouds, #snowcappedmountains, #glaciers, melting #snow and #moraine, a glacial #stream, and a #river

+1 would make this the logo for our products. Rugged like these rocks.

#apple #orchards

#गाँव #village

#ताला #lock

+1 would trade my #caravan to live in a #tinyhouse above a #stream with the sounds of #flowingwater and #childrenplaying in the #school #playground next door.

बड़े बड़े ताले और छोटी छोटी खिड़कियाँ। क्या हैं यह?

#locks #lock #window

#HimachalPradesh

#dogs #dogsofinstagram #goodboy #HimachalPradesh

आज हमने कई दरख़्तों से दोस्ती की 😊

#TheHiddenLifeOfTrees

#GooglePhotos has been itching to get in on my #Instagram game

#Moar #trees

#TheHiddenLifeOfTrees

As you folks would have noticed by now, we went for a #village #walk.

Walking through villages is always the high point of any trip I make to the mountains, whether it is Himachal, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya or Assam.

We made friends with some boys from the village. 5am tomorrow they're gonna take us to a glacier nearby. Can't wait.

#HimachalTourism #HimachalPradesh

लकड़ा हमारा hero है

#kidsofinstagram #kidstravel #kids

More hero गिरी

#kidsofinstagram #kidstravel #travelwithkids #HimachalPradesh

Since you people are clearly suckers for the #sound of #flowing #water

#HimachalPradesh #experientialtravel

Tonight we #dine at a #fancy #buffet. A little luxury doesn't take away from the #vanlife #experience.

Monster flower gonna get you tonight.

#HimachalPradesh

दरवाज़े और दीवारें #doors and #fences

#cowsofinstagram 😂

What's the first thing you see when you slide out of bed in the morning?

Last night when we came back from dinner, we found our #caravan boxed in by a couple of other cars. We were anyway gonna sleep here tonight, so it didn't matter. However, being a city dweller, I was quite uneasy about being trapped in my spot.

In the morning I asked someone for help. She pointed out that most cars have the cellphone number of the owner printed on the car. And yes indeed, the cars blocking me were stickered. Before I could call the owner, he came and took his car away.

#Himachal is so safe that people put their numbers on their cars 😲. In Gurgaon you'd get stalked.

This is a very #scenic, #idyllic spot. I'm unable to capture its #beauty with my phone. There are some winding stairs, a narrow path, a stone cabin. A stream flows through the place. The kind of location authors picture with words in stories.

We are #ontheroadagain. Let's see where we reach today.

We lost our way on the road to #Tabo. Looks like it wasn't such a bad thing 😀

It's the #journey not the destination!

#travel #instatravel #India #incredibleindia #mountains

Nowhere near the most spectacular #overhang we have encountered so far. But the one safest to photograph 😀

Now accepting #roadtrip #song #recommendations

M2 noticed that this is how our #route looks in #satellite view.

Been #riding beside the #sutlej for an hour now.

Perfectly nice brand new concrete bridge lies unused while we had to go over a rattly, noisy, scary #metal #bridge.

The kids have not watched a single minute of T. V. or video, or used a smartphone, since we started. All kids need is constructive engagement.

#blast
#shovel
#dump
#build #road

Lots of #donkeys in #Nako today

A #highaltitude #game of #cricket at #Nako

We haven't bought any packaged water since we started. We have been refilling our bottles and managing with that. On the way up to Tabo we have purchased two 5L jerry cans as backup.
It takes a special kind of stupid to come to the mountains and buy bottled "mineral water". Everywhere we go there are natural water springs and glacial rivers. My kids have had to learn to not be queasy about drinking water that doesn't come out of an RO machine or plastic bottle.

#Aquafina #Kinley and #Bisleri don't have a patent on clean water. They do have a patent on trashing the planet with plastic waste. We should only use them when absolutely necessary. I see tourists buying 12 packs of Bisleri for ₹240 because "Oh, its only ₹240". It's not. It's you coming to 3,000+ meters and leaving your trash here for perpetuity.

Butter doesn't need refrigeration round here, even at 30°C ambient. Apparently it's the dry weather that keeps it unspoilt.

On NH505 between Karchham and Nako:

M1: This road is so broken. How can it be a National Highway?

Me: There is construction work going on, so it is broken in places. But where the road work is complete, the tarmac is as smooth as the best road in the world. They even go around manually sweeping the roads every day, to remove the stones that have fallen from the mountains above.

People from all over the country have gathered to build this road for you. Engineers, military people, and poor labourers. All of them are slogging here in the most inhospitable conditions, covered in dust, with the sun beating down on them and the wind howling all around. Every time our vehicle passes, they stop their work and move to the side. One one side is a steep fall, on the other side rocks can fall down on them. The poor labourers must be working for a few hundred rupees a day, their poor children playing beside them with rocks. The children are unwashed, unkempt, sunburnt, and when the cars whizz past they throw up little sharp pieces of stone that hit them. Yet they are all working relentlessly.

M1: Ouch!

We can never have enough #gratitude and #respect for what #nature and #mankind give us. I try as much as possible to make my children be #thankful for all they have, and to be aware of their privilege. Sometimes that ends up in rants like these.

It is Thursday morning now, and the kids refuse to leave. They want to spend the rest of the vacation here, eating delicious food and making friends with all the nice people. They no longer want snow, glaciers or scenery.

This is a sight I don’t get to see in the cities - families playing with kids. Even on a weekend, I find most parents just don’t have the time for their kids, so consumed is their life with chores, leisure and the Internet. In the villages around Gurgaon this is common - men and women hanging out with kids, enjoying the sun on a weekday morning. But in the cities it is usually the primary care giver who spends most of the time with the kids.

We have done 1,003 km so far, and the mileage has averaged out to 11.7/100km, over plains and mountains. This is still a lot better than the mileage in Gurgaon, so I’m not complaining.

So far, fuel was our primary cost in this trip. Food was cheap, averaging ₹100 per person for lunch and dinner, and lesser for breakfast. Here at #Tabo, there is so much good food, so much local cuisine to try, that our food bill has gone for a toss. I am frankly not keeping count. We are here to have a good time, not to keep costs low. Enjoying local cuisine is definitely a part of the #roadtrip experience. A good sideeffect is that M1 has stopped asking me when we are going to begin cooking our own food. We have always used our cooking gear when we go camping, except this time. It’s a big let down for him. But now that we are surrounded by pizzas, pancakes, thukpa, samthuk, fresh green salad, phaktse and what not, he doesn’t care about cooking.

About an hour before #Nako, on Tuesday, we lost phone signal. We did get a #BSNL SIM, and Nako is supposed to have #3G connectivity, but there was no signal at Nako. The restauranteur at Nako was elated that #Jio would soon bring #4G connectivity to the entire #Spiti Valley. We reached #Tabo by nightfall on Tuesday. We parked in the lot opposite the Monastery. We had lovely dinner, including pizza with olives. Sleep came easily after a long day of driving. We were #cozy in the #caravan inspite of the cold winds and rain outside.

It was supposed to #snow on Wednesday morning but that did not happen. The kids weren’t too dissappointed. We got busy looking for a place to shower. The lovely people at Kunzom Cafe offered us the use of their solar heated shower at no cost. As I sat there chatting with the owner, he told me that we all need to keep ourselves fully covered and warm. Weather changes suddenly around here, and the temperature difference between night and day is high. People coming from the plains fall sick easily.

Just as he was telling me this, I felt illness take over me. I moved indoors into his cafe and just lay down. Maybe it was the fatigue, maybe the altitude, maybe the cold. I don’t know. In no shape to walk back to the caravan, I rented a room and slept off right there. I must have slept all day. The kids had a whale of a time, running around the place, eating delicious food, showering, playing with kids, and gorging on candy.

M1 was dissappointed that we weren't staying in the caravan. Wasn't that the whole point, he asked. Perhaps. One has to adapt. Also, once you've seen the scenery between Nako and Tabo, nothing really matters. You are in another world. You just want to soak in the scenery. Tell yourself this is real. Are we still on planet 🌏?

You guys are lucky. Because we were offline and basically vegetating, I found the time to upload the #DSLR pics into my phone so I could #Instagram them. Yes, I figured out how to use the DSLR. There is basically an idiot friendly, everything auto mode in the camera. The autofocus in this mode does not work when pointed at stars in the night, but works great during the day. I will be uploading DSLR pics from the beginning of my trip, occassionally. Enjoy.

The ride quality of the #Innova #Crysta is pretty amazing. The steering wheel requires more force than a Hyundai Xcent. There isn’t any perceptible body roll. The 2.5L petrol engine is adequate.

In the plains I was driving in Eco Mode. In the mountains I realised it leads to a peculiar situation. When I try to overtake another vehicle while going uphill, I need to press the throttle all the way down before the automatic tranmission will downshift. Then it downshifts twice, and the engine lets out the most unnerving growl. I have seen the most seasoned Bolero drivers look around at the car when it growls like this, and make way for it. Which is not what I want. I am here to have a travel and share the road, not be the boss of the road. Turning off Eco fixes this. I haven’t tried Power Mode yet.

I am told that the ground clearance of the Crysta is higher than the older Innova. But still not high enough to take us past Kunzum Pass. In any case, the kids aren’t enamoured with snow any more. So we will just hang around here for a while and turn around, not risk it at the pass.

We had tea at #Nako. The restaurant owner was the nicest man. His restroom was covered in requests, in Hindi, to travelers, asking them to please leave the place clean. Common sense suggestions. It is sad that we send tourists up to these places without imparting them basic civic sense and lessons in hygiene.

#vanlife