Hash - The Himalayas Finest

Well I feel like flexing the fingers, it's been awhile and do enjoy writing soo.. this is one escapade that took place deep in the Himalaya's around mid March and is a tale I've never really shared other than with the old man and a few close mates.
 
So I was in a Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalaya's which is a very serene location, lots of spiritual stuff going on, yoga, meditation and whatnot and also a place where I had an extremely surreal experience while tripping on an unmentionable one afternoon (story for another day). Anyway the time had come to leave and after a few days of too'ing-and-fro'ing I was able to get a local bus to Manali which is deep in the central West region of the mountain range. It was a cheap cheap ride which was great as at the time I was ballin' on a budget, bit uncomfy for a 13 hour journey but you get used to it when on the road and come on.. It was India. Also met a couple real characters whilst on the ride. The first was this older dude who was from Manali and was coming back with his family from the port city of Kolkata, locked and loaded with a plethora of plants. I was the only white dude on the bus which, again, you get used to. We chatted for a while, about various things, he warned me to be careful about the Israeli's in Manali, I found out what he meant further down the line. He was keen to take a listen of my mp3 so I handed him the headphones, fired on some Bob Marley - Legend, and he was LOVING IT! Haha, really made his day I think. About halfway through the journey the bus had pulled over for a pit stop. I was out having a ciggie and this dude comes up to me saying, "Hey I remember you!". Was a Sherpa dude who, funnily enough, I had met a few days previous in a travel agents in Rishikesh when trying to book a bus North. I sat with him and we chatted deep into the early hours for the remainder of the trip as we climbed and climbed, a really, really nice guy. He earned his living taking tour groups up mountains, the foothills in the winter, Northern ranges in the summer. Had some gnarly tales of toking chillums 7500m up.. Don't think my lungs could handle that, but you know, Sherpa's have them good lungs, higher red blood cell count. Anyway he gave me a tip to stay not in Manali itself but in a small village a couple k's just outside called Vashisht. What a tip. Manali sits at the Northern end of Kullu Valley which is around 90km's long and the road is not one for the faint of heart, especially when the driver just gives no fuck's and is bombing it along. Sherpa dude's stop was around 30km before mine so we said our farewell's and he said he might take a trek up to Vashisht in the coming days and look for me, but to no avail. The sun was starting to bathe the surrounding peaks in a golden tint as we neared the final stop and seeing the mountains hemming in around was a spectacular sight. The remainder of the journey was filled with a dude on the bus singing in Hindi and myself drifting in and out of sleep.
 
Arrived in Manali around 7am and it was cooold. Blue skies, conifers and mountain peaks abound. Hauled my gear off the bus and instantly a dude comes up to me, "Tuk tuk?".
"Yip, please!" I says with a shiver. We hop in the rickshaw and I ask for a run to Vashisht.
"OK, no problem, but chai first!", he says with a smile an a wink. We go to his home where his wife and daughter are sitting around fire in a steel drum, welcoming the morning. We take a chai and the driver talks to his mate. Now let me tell you, when its zero degrees and you're in minimal clothing, chai is a godsend! Warmed me to the core to no end. After around 20mins we hop back in the rickshaw and I says to him I'm looking for somewhere cheap as. This dude knew what was up. The drive to Vashist didn't take long but was fairly mind-blowing. I'm a mountain man so was totally in my element. The village was basically one long windy street of a kilometer or so with houses and stores and whatnot on either side. The driver took me to, I assume, a guesthouse his mate owned. We woke him up and he showed me a room and offered for 300 rupees (£3).. Basic, but can't really turn that down can ya.. Although, very cold. Cold showers too, however there were hot springs flowing out the mountains at the top so it's where the village would go for early morning bathes, idyllic.
 
I paid and thanked the driver, promised him I'd give him a bell if I needed a lift anywhere else, threw my stuff down and headed off to check out the village. I'd been walking for around 5mins when this guy approaches me and says, "Smoke?",
"Yeah I smoke dude", I reply.
"OK, come".
I follow him down this small alleyway off the main street and into his house, which was blissfully warm. His sons were still lying in bed, to which he rattled off some Hindi at them and led me through to a small room/kitchen type place. The stove in the middle was going, his wife was cooking and we sat down on these long mattresses that are ubiquitous throughout India.
"So", he eyes me with a toothy grin, "Smoke, I have good smoke. But first you test".
I can't believe my luck so after some introductions I prepare for a session with Baba G. He wasn't toking as he was away for some construction work after this (which was funny as every time I seen him after he was just standing around) but he just smoked up in the evenings which was fair enough. He rummaged around in a drawer and pulled out a kilo slab of charas.. Never seen anything like it in my life. Now if you don't know what charas is I'd recommend watching the Strain Hunters Episode on YouTube when they go to India, that'll give you an idea. But basically, you'll only get it in the Himalaya's (from the Kush foothills to the Tibetan Plateau and more - an enormous area right enough, with variants all over) due to climate, altitude etc. and it's when the plants are ripe for harvesting and are producing the peak amount of resin the growers rub the buds in between their palms and get them sticky, icky and black. This is then peeled off and formed into small balls, bigger bricks, slabs, what have you. So this stuff had came from the very valley I was in and the term coined for it was, Manali Cream. Previously when in the south I'd got a hold of Manali Temple Ball which comes from the exact same region however the plants for the Temple Ball come from further down the mountainside whereas the Cream comes from higher up the slopes. So after I roll up and smoke a quick doobie, I'm feeling very, very STONED. He was trying to get me to take the kilo slab which I just couldn't afford (and it was now I was starting to see him for the business man that he was, a dude, but a business dude nonetheless). He realized I was just after some percy smoke so opens up his jacket and pulls out a much smaller, but in no way less amazing, slab of the Cream. 30grams - 6000 rupees (£60) WOW!! So £2 a gram for some of the finest hash in the world, the same gear goes for around 25 euros a g in Amsterdam.. Lucky day indeed.. We get the formalities with cash done and done, and chill for a bit longer, which is when he opens the other side of his jacket and whips out a FAT bag of *unmentionable* (think den's/Trainspotting/chasing dragons etc.). Waow, I'm sure it was some gooood shit but, alas.
"Nah I don't smoke unmentionable baba, cheers though". I reply
"Oh you don't smoke unmentionable? No, don't smoke unmentionable", he says and swiftly tucks the bag away. "How about some oils though?", Again with the toothy grin.
He sends his wife out to dig up a 300 gram tub of this oil that's buried deep in the snow. While she's away he explains the process. The Cream I lifted from him was from a crop in September last year, so 6 months or so it had been sitting.. The cold kept it fiiiine. The oils however had been sitting from September the year before so around a year and a half.. Damn. 6 Kilos of the Cream to make 300g's of oil, that's some potency. His wife comes back with this tub and he starts fiddling about with the lid and taking filters out a couple ciggies. Now, bearing in mind the business man he was, and the fact I'd just spent the last of my cannabis budget on that slab (it was keeping me stocked for the remainder of the trip), I couldn't really afford this, but he was trying to push it. So he slathered the oil on a couple ciggies with a matchstick and offered them over. I wasn't going to say no was I... Well I must say, that is definitely up there with some of the finest homegrown, various hashes, Cambodian police weed I've ever had. Something else. This was about 9am and I was fried for a good 12 hours or so, ridiculous. However it was far too fiddly for travelling, I was over the moon with the charas, and I just couldn't afford it. So somehow I was able to wriggle out of the situation by telling Baba G I'd possibly be able to buy some in the coming days. He was happy enough with that, and didn't seem too fussed when I seen him on the streets a few days after. A connection for life, he said.
 
I went back to my room, rolled up another (in for a penny, in for a pound ay  ) and just got blasted listening to the women outside my window sing away while sowing some North Face bags (probably for export to the West). It was the most psychedelic high I've ever had from bud, watching the clouds morph and twist and shape as they flew over the peaks. Something else.. Regarding bud escapades in Vashisht, that was not all.. Can you believe. A few days after I was at a little stall buying some water that was like 20 rupees or something. I hand over a 100 rupee note.
"I have no change", she says.
"Well, I have no change?"
She looks, left to right, "You take hash for change?"
I can't contain the grin, "AYE!" I exclaim. To which, she scuttles to the back of the stall for a few mins and comes back with this tiny ball of beautiful blonde hash. I think this was made from sifting the plants after the charas had been taken, much more like the Moroccan method of making hash. A golden colour, and it was absolutely delightful.. Enough for a couple doobs.
 
It honestly was too good to be true.. but it all happened well enough. A few other odd things happened while in that part of the world, that were, again, too uncanny, but it certainly was one hell of a time. And I'd say to any connoisseur of bud here (you ALL!).. Go to India, go to the Himalayas!
 
Peace & Love blades. 
 
Oh should probably stick some photo's up actually, for a vague idea. 
 
View from the window -
 

 
Vashisht -
 

 

 
Cream -
 

 

 
Blonde ball -
 

 

 
Just to be nice and cheesy and to paraphrase Jordan Belfort - 
 
"The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it."
 

 
Far out Toasty, hitting the road again ay, respect.   Thailand should be sweet, only spent a day in Bangkok passing through from Cambodia to India and what struck me was how modern it was. Skyscrapers everywhere, huge highways, busy busy. Of course this was Downtown. Crossing the border at Poi Pet was a bit of a shock can you believe.. Suddenly there were cars everywhere.. Ha. I hear the North of Thailand is beautiful, mountains, lush tropics and whatnot. Chiang Mai I've heard nothing but rave reviews. The South and Islands however seem to be going the route of Magaluf/Malia/Kavos etc. You get the idea. I'm sure it's lush but the constant EDM/party party scene ain't really for me. My friend lives and works on Koh Phangnan and she loves it, however, she's cut from that type of cloth. Who knows you might be in your element, there's much more gems to SE Asia than there though imo. Cambodia dude, you must go. I hear is what Thailand was maybe 20 years ago or so. You have to bear in mind they have a pretty murky past, and the poverty is quite rife.. But my man, it is sorta paradise and they're really on board with tourism. Lived on the beach in the South West for around 3 weeks just doing pretty much nothing or than chilling, snorkeling, cruising about on a moto and a few messy times. Cambodia's the sort of place you can drive around on a moto with no licence, no helmet, a beer in one hand, joint in the other, and no one gives a hoot! Haha. And when you do get pulled over you just pay a bit of cash (called baksheesh in Hindi) and it's done and done. Like that in India too, although there's only certain places in India I drove, lol, most roads are a bit too much.. Weed is abound, many places can just buy over the counter in bars/restaurants (look out for 'Happy Pizza' places.. man do those pizzas get you baked!), same for many other drugs, just over the counter in a pharmacy. The locals are soo cool, the food is not bad if you go the right places, a lot is MSG infused though. Oh and a really good ex-pat/backpacker scene in SE Asia (whereas in India you can just be engulfed at times.. which I loved but guess not for everyone, there is a well worn route in India though). You also have the Temples in the North which are just serene.. Vietnam and Laos too seem wicked, definitely going a wander round those areas when back in that part of the world. Boat cruise down the Mekong from Laos to Thailand would be sweet. Perhaps Burma too, although they're just opening up their doors to tourism these past couple years after (another) very murky past so prices are bit higher. Soo untouched though, definitely off the beaten path. 
 
As for India, yip, it's a different ball game. SE Asia is like League 1 whereas India is the Premier League if you get me. I have to say it's the heart of the world. 1.5 Billion people, the variations in topography, geography and climate.. The Himalayas, deserts, lush jungle in the south, temperate forests, the swampy mangroves of the Backwaters of Kerala in the South. Has it all for me. The variation of people too.. you have your dark almost African looking Indians in the South, the Portugese/European influence in the population of Goa as it's a former colony, the Sherpa's of the Himalayas, guys with 3 long chin hairs in the North Eastern regions of the Himalayas that are definite descendants of Genghis Khan, the SE Asian looking Indians that border Burma, the Middle Eastern influence in the West and everything in between. 18 Official languages, 200 unofficial languages... Yip.. Again, smoke and various other goodies abound. Personally I couldn't really handle the cities. They were faaar too crazy, absolute sensory overload, but was an experience. Spent a couple days in Delhi with no money and no access to my bank back home, no one was helpful (which was stark contrast to how it usually was), definite big city mentality. But when you get out the cities dude.. wow. It's also a different breed of traveler that ends up in India, and 9/10 when you go, you aren't going to leave without feeling something.. more. Also the higher your prejudice, the more India's going to knock you down which is worth bearing in mind. It's definitely not an adventure to take lightly, but you definitely won't have a light adventure. I think I'll return every year or two.. Have barely scraped the surface. You're either going to love it or hate it, but even if you hate it, you're still going to love it.  Oh also, I was pretty stupid and done SE Asia and India with zero vaccines and also ended up with mega gnarly wound on my foot for around a month that was not fun at all and could have been soo much worse so probably worth getting that sorted too. Malaria etc. Also I reckon with your timing the whole of that area of Asia is gona be pretty crazy with the Monsoon so beware, probably will be fun though. 
 
But yeah dude, if you like adventure, you're going to want to go to India. The whole of Asia for me was just like being on the other side of the fence. In the Western world we're so hemmed in and restricted by what we can and can't do, hear it's the opposite and you can just let loose. Very liberating experience.
 
It's a shame I never made it up to Darwin when was down under actually dude, maybe in Asia ay. 
 

 
Nice video dude! Oh yes the foooood! Wow, never eaten so well in my life, seriously. It's just divine. I too am a curry (well any Indian cuisine actually) aficionado and let me say, the stuff we get back home does the original no credit at all. I ate vegetarian my whole time there and it was the spur I needed to take it fully on board, so haven't had meat in awhile. 120 rupees/$2 for an all you can eat thali (many different curries served on a platter with rice/naan/popadoms/salad/sauces etc.) YES PLEASE!!
 
You should take the plunge and go for it dude, the place sucks you in and all you can really say is, "wow........".
 

 
Cheers for the kind words blade. However I was living the dream, I'm now back in the Homeland, trying to play a responsible adult. But that wanderlust is creeping in again.. And 21st is next week, damn.. Best start saving.
 

 
Thanks, again, dude. What would you like to hear? There's many. Getting weed off a local police chief in Cambodia, getting robbed by monkeys in Jaipur, many many crazy coincidences, hitching a lift in Eastern Australia with a 70 year old batshit crazy ex-Vietnam vet called Peter Pumpkin who started explaining the intricacies of growing bud and making hash. There were a lot of odd hitching times in Aus actually.
 
Or even, better yet, pack your bag, set out on the road and come back with some of your own stories. 
 
Peace. 

 

Course don't mind dudes, post away.

Seconded, a backpacking thread would be aces.