On the Buddha Trail (2) ::::::Kibber

Here's the 2nd post after the one on Tabo.

Finally, I reached Kaza around noon after 2 days of trying to leave Tabo and being stranded because of no bus in sight, heavy rains,bad roads etc.

I was really hungry and found a small shop near the bus station where i had a wonderful meal of steaming hot mutton curry and rice. A meal to remember!! With a happy stomach I tried asking around for the next possible bus to Kibber but was told that since no buses had come from the other side for 2 days, no buses were available for Kibber that day. Asked around for Taxi but there was no share ones available and hiring just a jeep for self would work out to be too expensive for just an hour's ride. Was cursing myself for not having a light backpack, else I could have walked the 20 odd kms to Kibber.


But I didn't have to hurry, I had all the time, I remembered something i had read someplace earlier that goes something like this " Life, takes on a neat simplicity too. Time ceases to have any meaning. When it is dark you go to bed and when it is light again you get up and everything in between is just in between. Its quite wonderful" .

I walked around Spiti, called home to inform my mum all was well and was heading to another village and not expect to hear from me for another few days. Some locals at the bus stop asked me to wait till later in the afternoon and mentioned that a share jeep would surely leave for Kibber with locals coming and going that way.
One of them even introduced me to an elderly locally gentlemen who was going to Kibber that evening. I went and had a word with him and later after a few hours he did call me when a jeep was leaving. The jeep was filled with 10 of us and the luggage rack outside had everything from a gas cylinder to bunch of wooden furnitures. But the journey was just 1 hour and I was more than happy to head out of Kaza. The jeep passed through some wonderful sceneries and also the Ki Gompa.

I got down at the Village and saw the board to 'Rainbow GuestHouse'. I went in and checked into a nice clean warm room for Rs 100. The sun was almost setting in and after a hot cup of tea and a hot water bath, I came down from my room to chat with Kesang, the young owner and Heather, an American who has been staying there for past 4 months.I was the lone person staying the Guest House all the days since the tourist season was over.

Kesang, has been running the guesthouse which has 6 rooms for past 7years now. We became really good friends over the days I spent there. I found her an extremely strong and positive person, who along with running the GH on her own had also completed her BA and B Ed from Simla by Correspondence and was currently working towards her MA. I never saw her sit idle. Either she was working on something at the GH or knitting. Very enterprising and cheerful. We discussed about so many different things and I was surprised to know that she loved listening to Bryan Adams and Enrique and I gave her my ipod one evening which had a few of those songs and it was fun to see her skip and dance while she cooked with the earplugs on.
Heather, an american I met is graduate has been staying, travelling across Asia for the past 7years. She has been visiting Kibber for the 4th time in 4years. She was also staying at the GH and helping Kesang with its running this summer .


Next morning I walked around this village of about 300 people. The rustic little village still probably hasn't changed much over the centuries. It has those traditional old Tibetan styled houses, all built using natural material and with hay stacked on the roof for the animals during winter months and also to keep the house warm.
It really made me wonder what would have taken the people to come and settle in this arid desert in the middle of nowhere in such harsh weather conditions centuries back. However, the place has a certain spirit in its air, with really friendly and peaceful people, its something to do with the religion and place. In contrast the people with all the conveniences in the cities of today are always in a race, trying to overtake,overdo without really even slowing down for a second to wonder where they are heading.


There are two schools here and I walked into them and had a really wonderful time with the children, reading along with them and interacting with them.

These kids have such innocence and creativity in them, very different from what i see in the modern world of kids who are always attached to different gadgets-computers, mp3 players, video games or watching animations.I only hope these kids have a good future whatever they do later on .


I was able to walk/hike to some villages nearby-Gette etc . These walks take about 1 to 1.5hours one way. Time just waits as you walk all by yourself and your one with the surroundings of blue skies and mountains. What else does one want in life. Just the freedom to be there !!







I was the lone traveller in the GH but the 2nd evening Gottfried came in for a cup of tea from the next GH. An Austrian residing in Germany for a longtime. At 54, he was hiking all by himself when heavy rains and snow caught him and he was stuck in a cave for 2days before getting to human inhabited roads and now taking it a bit easier. He has been travelling around the world for a long time and india for more than 15years.

As all of us got talking and our conversations shifted from mere introductions to media, human mind, Pschology-Jung,Freud, Darwin,Goethe and then turned to more spiritual and philosophical discussions about mind , Buddhist way of life -desires, objective and subjective realties, karma etc.
It was a night to remember !! All of us strangers till a few hours back, seated on the kitchen floor around the stove on a freezing cold evening having great dialogoues over hot cups of chai.
As we sat talking, we lost track of time and the weather there also changed drastically from the great sunshine of the day to heavy snow. Finally around 9pm we decided to have a good hot meal of Alu Ghobhi and Roti and hit our beds.


That night as I went into the room, I noticed the bus had arrived that evening after two days of not being able, and I slept in two minds whether to make an early exit from this wonderful place.

Woke up early and found Gottfried in the next GH also wanting to head out, so we just packed up and took the 7am bus out of Kibber to Kaza. I could have taken a break at Ki but with the weather not being too good I decided to skip a visit to the monastery.

A great few days spent in a rustic village with some wonderful people. The next time I visit I have been invited by Kesang to stay with her at her home and not the GH.






Pics from this trip:

• Tabo
• Manali-Kaza
• Kibber
• Nako
• MacLeodGanj

Other related posts:

• On the Buddha Trail (1) ::::::Tabo

• On the Buddha Trail (2) ::::::Kibber

• On the Buddha Trail (3) ::::::Nako

• On the Buddha Trail (4) ::::::MacLeodGanj