The lunatic driver and his guru
Still in Uttar Ranchal and luvvin it even though it's freezing. We met 2 american girls during our rafting trip down the ganga river that we got along really well with. The following day all four of us decided to go for a mammoth walk together in search of a temple up in the mountains behind Rishikesh. One of the guys at Red Chilli Adventures drew a little map for us but we ended up getting lost anyway (turn left when you get to the tree...??!). We only had a litre of water between us and 4 Parle-G biscuits but occasionally we'd walk through someone's house or bump into someone herding cattle so they'd fill us up with masala chai while we tried to figure out where we were.
Finally we found the village and the temple but by then the sun was setting and we had no way of getting back into town apart from walking back in the dark. Luckily a guy had just driven his guru up to the temple and was heading back down so we ran over and begged for a lift. All four of us, cramped in the back of his ambassador, were scared shitless for the next hour by the lunatic driver who thought he was in a formula one race and amused by his barefoot grey-haired guru dressed in orange who kept singing and clapping along to the blaring music completely oblivious to the threat of careening off the mountain. Had to cut conversations short with the race car driver who would continually turn around and have a chat, offer cigarettes/food/etc or hack outside the window and generally not focus on driving the car. So, whilst I was able to appreciate the view and the sunset, most of the time I kept repeating slogans off the side of the road - "Life is Precious", "Speed thrills but kills", etc - hoping he'd catch on and slow down.
Anyway, we made it back down alive. Dave said that he wasn't worried cos who'd ever heard of a car nose diving off a mountain with a guru in it?
Finally we found the village and the temple but by then the sun was setting and we had no way of getting back into town apart from walking back in the dark. Luckily a guy had just driven his guru up to the temple and was heading back down so we ran over and begged for a lift. All four of us, cramped in the back of his ambassador, were scared shitless for the next hour by the lunatic driver who thought he was in a formula one race and amused by his barefoot grey-haired guru dressed in orange who kept singing and clapping along to the blaring music completely oblivious to the threat of careening off the mountain. Had to cut conversations short with the race car driver who would continually turn around and have a chat, offer cigarettes/food/etc or hack outside the window and generally not focus on driving the car. So, whilst I was able to appreciate the view and the sunset, most of the time I kept repeating slogans off the side of the road - "Life is Precious", "Speed thrills but kills", etc - hoping he'd catch on and slow down.
Anyway, we made it back down alive. Dave said that he wasn't worried cos who'd ever heard of a car nose diving off a mountain with a guru in it?
posted by W at 6:29 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home