Valley of Flowers; the Ganga retreats...

As the worst flooding in 80 years hits many parts of Northern India and Pakistan, we return to Rishikesh to find the mighty Ganga subdued. Has Shiva been appeased by the millions of pilgrims here to worship him? Or are the freak weather systems that have flattened half of Leh all the way down to Pang in Ladakh just that, freak weather systems that have come and gone? Perhaps global warming is to blame. It is certainly true that as the total energy in our weather system increases, the intensity and frequency of storms and flooding will also go up. Look to Venus for the end result of a runaway greenhouse affect.

We've returned from the Valley of Flowers in northern Uttarakand, in the foothills of the Himalaya. Getting there was quite an adventure, involving sweltering local buses that were held up for hours by landslides or broke down with impressive regularity. For some reason buses in Uttarakand only leave very early in the morning, so we grew used to getting up at 6am! After reaching Joshimath, a small town in the mountains where we stayed the night, we got a shared jeep to Govinghat, where the walking began: a 13km hike up-hill alongside the river, one of the Ganga's tributaries, to the one street town of Ghangaria. This was hard work with our backpacks on, but only took us 5 hours (the LP reckons on 7!), so we were quite pleased with ourselves when we reached the top. (An Indian girl asked Rotem if she was an athlete!) After staying the night in Ghangaria, with its 3 hours of electricity in the evenings and erratic water supply, we made the final 3km ascent to the Valley of Flowers...

Only to find the entrance cost wasn't 350 Rs, as the LP (2010 edition) claimed, but 600 Rs.

Of course, this was only the foreigner price - Indians get in for 100 or so.

We were understandably a little shocked by this price - the highest any of us have encountered for an admission price outside of the Taj Mahal, and the daily budget for many backpackers. However, having come all this way, we decided to take it on the chin and go up to the valley.

The Valley of Flowers certainly lived up to its name. Miles of flower-filled meadows patrolled by lazy bees, lit by the hesitant sun who peeked out from behind the clouds to brighten our day. We walked the length of the valley where there are flowers, then turned back and returned to Ghangaria for the start of the long trek back to Rishikesh.

So, is it right to charge foreigners more than Indians? If so, how much more is reasonable? My own thoughts are that it isn't a bad idea - that local attractions should try to attract local people to experience them, as it's a part of where they live. So many people I've spoken to agree that often the places you never explore or visit (for no real good reason) are those closest to home, and it's a shame. Also, it is true that many foreign visitors are better off than many Indians - this is something that is changing quickly though; I'd bet my backpack most of the Sikhs we met on their way up to Hem Kund had more money than all of us put together. So, there have to be sensible limits to this system. When the price is 6x or more what local people pay, for no good reason, it becomes just one more scam added to a long list of them in this country. I would not recommend to backpackers on any kind of budget to go to the Valley of Flowers, as it simply isn't worth the entrance price. Which is a shame, because it's still a beautiful place to see.

In other news, I can now read most signs written in Devanagari (the script used to write Hindi), which has proven useful a couple of times with buses. I've found it to be quite difficult to learn, mostly because of the many varieties of "marks" - e.g. vowel marks, "n" marks, the nasal mark, and so on, and also because some conjuncts (consecutive consonants like in hindi) are letters in their own right, and there are already 53 or so basic letters. It's interesting though, writing in a script completely different to your own alphabet, and it's definitely rewarding when you get some practical use out of it.