Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Flyfishing for Trout in the Himalayas

I just experienced my first Fly Fishing Trip for Trout in the Himalayas

We hit the road at 5am for our very long bumpy 4 hour drive to Daksum, the most beautiful valley in the region. We pass fields upon fields of freshly planted rice which are now emerald green. We turn off the major 2 lane road, where you find the saffron growing in November, to a 1 lane road from hell. Through small villages with pots holes the size you'd lose a VW Beetle in we charge in our SUV's.

We climb into the mts. and finally reach our destination at about 7,500 feet.
The green green valley is surrounded by the snow capped Himalayas. The Daksum river races past with small rapids that might be run in a small rubber raft.

A family fishing trip in Kashmir calls for lovely carpets to be spread on the ground under the shading Chinar trees. A gas 2 burner, fry pans for cooking the fish, and extra food brought just in case there weren't great baskets of fish caught that day.

Some went up the river 1km. and worked their way down, others went far down the river and kept going. I learned that 5-6 casts and you move on cause the water has been "disturbed" If you catch a fish it is disturbed too, so you move on and don't try for the others lurking between the rocks.

I was loaned a great graphite rod and reel for the day. Even with that I still didn't look like Brad Pitt in "A River Runs Through It"....but I was told by the old man who was assigned to me that I was casting well. He tied my flies, drug me up and down ALL of the river, hopping over small streams, shallow areas, with him holding my hand most of the time for balance.

At lunch time we had some of the fish that had been caught thus far. I was fortunate to be given extra fish cause I was the visitor, and they knew I loved fresh fish straight from the stream into the pan.

My shoulder is just a bit sore. I only toppled over once trying to balance on the large and small boulders along the river bed. Didn't tear, sprain or scrape any part of me so I was pleased. Only sank once at the rivers edge up to my ankle in slimmy mud. A bit sunburned, but all in all an injury free day, and my Tevas are washable.

I caught 1 very very small Rainbow Trout that sparkled in the sunshine. Too small to my mind so it was thrown back. When I returned to camp I saw that they kept such small fish. In the USA you would be shot for keeping such tiny fish. My first fishing teacher, my father, would have been horrified.

FYI as a young girl I held a record for years for catching the biggest trout in a small place in the Santa Cruz mts. that I went to with my father. I was the son he never had.

Since the years of trouble throughout the 90's and early 2000 years, tourism and the economy in general, has been depressed and created a lack of food. Fishing year round they have fished out the river. Some say the terrorists poisened the river and killed the fish?? Who know which rumors are true.

After all the guys finally gave up trying for that 7kg. trout we packed the vehicles at dusk and headed out on the long bumpy drive home.


So if you have ever had a fantasy to fish for trout in the Himalyas it can easily be fulfilled. Let me know and I will point you in the right direction.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

A Halwa Party in Kashmir

Halwa is pronounced Halva.
Today is a Holy Islamic Day called Urs Ajmer Sherif. This is a mosque in Ajmeer near Jaipur in Rajasthan. Today in Ajmeer it is probably 48 degrees C...about 118 degrees F. Pleased the celebration is here in the cool mountains of Kashmir today.

As I entered the large garden I saw a huge umbrella tent shading the work area.
The grass was covered in colourful mats.
A line of about 5 meters of open wood fires held three 25 gallon pots bubbling away with the Halwa mixture. There are approximately 30 women and 8 young men there to do all of the work. The older men are sitting around the garden in the shade merely as observers, waiting for the lunch to come.

Two people per pot are constantly stirring the mixture with large long handled spoons. One was quite liquid while the rest were thickening nicely. As it thickens it begins to lift from the sides of the pot. Several women and a few young men were helping with this very hot work over the open fires.
No menstrating women are allowed to take part in the proceedure.

These fellows handle the pots too. When the time is just right they lift and carry them to huge galvanized tubs where it is poured like golden lava. Here it cools enough to work with. There were women sitting smearing Halwa on a medium sized thick hard pancake called a Bagrkhan. I find them flavorless so a good base for something sweet. Others were dipping the cooling mixture into 1 cup-1 pint aluminum containers. Large pots, bowls and jugs were also being filled. A hot sticky job for sure.

The garden is permeated with the wonderful fragrance of cardamom, cinnamon, ghee (clarified butter), and saffron.
The saffron is used for colour as well as flavor. It is added to large pots of water to steep and change colour. Now it is added to the mixture.

Large glasses of cool lassi is served to everyone in the garden. This is a plain yogurt mixed into water with salt, cumin, and mint added. What a refreshing drink on a hot summers day.

The completion of this huge task will be about 12 noon, it has been going on since
6am. As large amounts are packaged the Halwa is delivered to the poor, the orphanges and the old age homes.
This event is held every year and funded by my friend Rasool. It is a family event, with his wife, daughters, with Masarat in the lead, sisters, nieces, and close friends all involved.

When the job is completed lunch is served. Today it is the traditional celebratory Kashmiri Waz Wan. There have been cooks in the back garden cooking away all morning as well. Into the house where large platters of rice topped with kebab, chicken, dumplings of lamb in yogurt, a couple of veggies, made just for me I am told, and a delicious slab of lamb ribs is served. These ribs are roasted to a crispy finish and then simmered in ghee. Talk about heart attack material. I must say it is my favorite of the meat dishes. I love pork crackling too.

Now it is time for a nap!


Now for the recipe...good luck cutting it down to a workable level!

Tools needed:

3 25 gallon pots which are filled 5 times
6 large long handled wooden spoons

Ingredients

90 kgs. of semolina
60 kgs. of ghee
180 kgs sugar
40 kgs. of dates, raisens, cashews, fried coconut
Water

Spices...
Lots of whole cardamom seeds, cinnamin, and 25 grams of Kashmiri saffron
White poppy seeds to sprinkle on the top of the finished Halwa

Cooking time:
1 hour per pot stirring constantly



Who's up for a Halwa party??????

Thursday, June 17, 2010

A Visit to a Prophet

Yesterday I went to see an old man they call Baba. He lives in a small village called Sopoore very near the line of control on the Pakistani border with Kashmir.

Hundreds come to see him each day. He is about 77 years old, and frail. He takes no food, or water nor does he often speak.
People are healed, obstacles are lifted from their lives etc. All of this is done in prayer and in the mind, as he speaks to none of the people who come. He must work exclusively with telepathy, many highly enlightened people do.

Baba disappeared many years ago into the Himalayas. Twelve years passed before he re-appeared naked, which is how he usually appears unless it is too cold. The morning I saw him he was in a long wool flannel robe called a pheran.

It was a 2 hour drive so we left Srinigar at 7am. Fayaz and Raj, my friends who took me, have been visiting Baba for more than 20 years. Fayaz and his good friend Raj, who is visiting from New York City, attended the same English school in Srinigar. Their lives went in vastly different directions, until they met again at Baba's. One Kashmiri Muslim, one Kashmiri Hindu, both in search of understanding and peace in their lives.

Fayaz is in the "inner circle" I am told, which is why when we arrive he goes up and sits on the raised bed Baba sits, leans, and sleeps on while people come and go all day long. Raj and I join him.
As I entered the small room he allows visitors to gather in I felt an unbelievable rush of love. Was it him or was it the collective energy of all the visitors? Who can tell.
Soon after I joined them on the dias, sitting on his blankets, I was overwhelmed with emotion and tears came to my eyes. I looked up and my friend Raj was weeping as well.

The guys rub his stooped shoulders, his scarred feet with holes, comb his beard and trim his nails. He allows all of this without saying a word. He bends and rubs his balding white head against another man's knee like a kitten wanting to be stroked. It is all extremely tender attention. He then indicates he wants to rest so he puts his head on a pillow that was at my feet and they cover him with a blanket.
At one point Baba had glanced at me, and then again. The guys ask me later if Baba had looked at me and I said yes he did. I have a feeling this was something special.

I decided to go into a deep meditation and see what transpired. I saw an old man standing in my mind's eye, and he looked very like the old man sleeping at my feet.
That, or I have gone completely bonkers.
I decided to ask him to remove the anger in my heart and I soon felt extremely light.
I asked about the book my friend Tessa and I are writing with the help of Babaji.
He confirms that what we are doing is genuine and beneficial.
Then he says to me you don't need to eat as much food as you do to live. Didn't expect such frank comments. I sat a long time in meditation,it felt extremely peaceful.

People toss bags of dried fruit, sweets, bottles of water, letters, key rings, hair clips, you name it, and it appears on the bed. He picks them up and tosses them into the laps of Raj and Fayaz's and they re-distribute them to their owners. I am told these things will be taken home and shared with family members.
People stretch in and touch his feet, his robe and even the blankets I am sitting on. They take the energy they gather and touch their hearts, lips, or run the hand down their faces. Such a display of devotion is awesome to witness.

In an ajoining room Baba's daughter-in-law has put out bowls of cookies, biscuits, snack mix, cakes etc. and offers tea to anyone who sits. Raj translated my experience to her and she said she would answer any questions I had about Baba.
Her husband, Baba's son, is a doctor. He has taken blood samples to be tested and for all intents and purpose he should be dead with what the readings indicate.
He eats only a flat crisp bread, drinks salty tea, and has taken no water for the past 1 1/2 years.
I ask about the deeply scarred holes in his feet. She says no one knows how he got them, but at times they fester and fill with worms as the one on his back also does. I have heard the same thing she tells me of many highly enlightened people. He takes on the woes of the world and this is what happens to his body because of that.
We decide to enter the room again and Baba is sitting up now. More people have gathered in the room and we sit for awhile longer.
As we are leaving the house a woman is cooking food that I am told feeds the people who come. A lunch and then a dinner. All of this is free.
The wire fence around the house is tied with strings of hope and prayers.
As we leave the police who guard the compound allow us out and more are arriving.

So does he hang onto his body so there is something tangable for people to relate to? I am sure it is more powerful than a picture hanging on a wall.
I feel blessed to have witnessed this old man they call Baba. On the way home there is a promise to return before I leave Kashmir. What great pals!

P.S. Shortly after my return to South Africa in July Baba passed on quietly in a hospital in Srinigar. They say millions of people arrived for days to his humble home in Sapoor to pay their respects and feel the energy that remains.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Happy Healthy Traveling in 3rd World Countries

Your good health maintained....Recently I have encountered people who have become very ill while traveling in India. I am astounded to hear that so many people haven't a clue about how to protect their good health while traveling. They came from New Zealand, United States, and Germany, places I thought were more clued up. They had never read anything about heat stroke, dehydration, and the various tummy bugs???
Why when you have limited time for your holiday would you be no negligent? Do you really want to spend 3-5 days in bed running to the toilet every hour? Or worse yet, 3 weeks in the hospital with kidney failure.
It can be avoided with a few precautions.
There are terrific products on the market that help you maintain good health while traveling. A week prior to departure start taking Pro Biotics and continue the duration of your trip. There is also a French product called Touristurim. You can find it on the internet and locate where they sell it. In CapeTown it is the Wellness Center in Cavenidsh Square.
It is for all sorts of parasitic invasions. Again start taking it 1 week prior to departure. I use it as an anti malarial as well.
Take ALL of your regular vitamins and suppliments to maintain a balance in your system. Carry Imodium, Pepto Bismal, Carbo Patuli, and a course of antibiotics if you take them.
Weather....Please read up on the weather before you plan a trip. Know that you don't do desert destinations in the summer months when it is upwards of 45-48 degrees in Morocco, Egypt, and much of India. That is way over 113 I believe, eggs fying on sidewalk temps. Stay out of the tropics as well which will boil you alive and or drench you in monsoon rains which bring typhoons.
Do your research, don't depend on travel agents to know anything about anything...remember they rarely travel themselves, and probably never to where you are headed. They are in the business of selling you a product and nothing else.

Stay Happy and Healthy as you Travel!!!