Himachal Diaries March 2016: Day 5, Sangla, 1615 hours, 9th March, 2016

We walked into Prakash Hotel 45 minutes ago, dusty, hungry, and hungry and dusty and hungry. The hotel owner and some of the staff had arrived from their winter break a few hours earlier, and the sleepy hotel was just waking up (as was the whole of Sangla by the looks of it). We were hoping for mutton or chicken curry and rajma and … what each of us got was a very wholesome bowl of daal, a steaming bow of rice and an omelette.

Now, three bowls of rice and daal later, i can honestly say that that dal-rice was the best i have had in years. i am not hungry any more, the madness born out of hunger is gone, the dust and weariness from the drive has dissipated, and I am very much sober and in my right senses, and i say again: that was the best dal-rice i have had in years. It was so fresh and simply cooked without any masalas, that one could take in the aroma of the dal and of the cooked rice and just keep eating (which is what I did). It’s super and I find myself without the desire for any meat just at this moment.

This morning we started off from Kalpa and arrived at Sangla so:

• Kalpa
• Reckong Peo
• Powari
• Karcham
• Sangla