A short visit to Nako

The flight back home was coming closer and it was time to move on again. The first stop on the way to Shimla was Nako. A small village not too far away from the main road. I went to the bus stand very early in the morning. Somehow they insisted that I get a ticket for the bus. The locals get the ticket on the bus. So I did ask the guy for seat number 2 and I got it. In the night my finger started to hurt a lot. I could not see anything wrong with it and in the morning the pain was a bit less. Still, it was not to easy to get my big bag on the roof of the bus. The Kaza festival was over and the roof full of bags and stuff. The bus was super full as well. So I was happy with my seat #2
After one hour my finger started to hurt again – and it did get worse every kilometer.

Oh God save me??? Great!

When we stopped for breakfast the finger were starting to show that something was not right. By that time the pain was really bad and I was even thinking of going back to Kaza to visit the hospital over there. But when is the next bus coming and am I not faster if I continue towards Nako? So I did…

When the bus finally reached the stop where the road goes to Nako I was quite happy. Another challenge to getting the stuff down from the roof again. Then it was walking to Nako and getting a room. Turned out that they had a public holiday and the hospital was closed. Great! I found some headache pills in one of the shops. Better than nothing.
Then I saw the Land Cruiser of Rini and Ronald parked in front of a hotel. So I went over there for a chat. They came all the way from Europe with the car and were all over South America before. You can follow them on their website: http://www.2globetrotters.nl. That was quite an interesting talk and a bit of distraction from the pain. Ronald even gave me some ointment for the finger.

The car was built in Germany by Custom Campers

I walked with the Dutchies over to the festival ground. But after a few minutes, I had to go back to my room. The pain was too much. I was not happy – this would be a day for the big camera. Sorry, I could only snap a few with the S95. But you can get an idea of what was going on.

Then the swelling started. Since the blood had nowhere to go it started to press under the skin behind the nail. I had to cut holes to press the blood out. That was basically what I did for most of the night.

This morning it was easy to get the bus at 6. I was not really sleeping anyhow.

The bus does stop next to the helipad so I walked over there. The 2 Globe Trotters did park over there for the night. But they were still sleeping.

On their way for breakfast, we said good-bye. The bus was late – as usually here in the mountains.

The next hospital was closer towards Shimla so it was no question to go there. After a few hours, the bus did stop somewhere and I was on the street. Did stop a car that got me up to the hill a bit. Then some locals did stop another bus for me. The conductor did not know where the hospital was but with the help of some other locals he pointed towards it on some stop a bit later. It was quite a walk with all my baggage. Somehow they did manage to build that hospital on the other side of the town upon a hill.
The doctor was not in when I reached the hospital so I could wait in the sun and had to tell the finger story to a few locals that wanted to know what was going on. Then I got in line to see the doctor. Since I was the 4th or 5th that reached the hospital in the morning it should not be a lot of waiting. But this is India! So you stand in front of the door and a very old and small woman is suddenly in the room before you can say anything. Then an old man and another old woman. And then I had enough since I wanted to reach Kalpa today. Standing in the frame of the door and blocking it with my elbows I was next. The doctor looked at the finger and wrote me some pills and told me to go to the other room for treatment. So I did. The guy did do some more cutting and bigger holes. And a nice white bandage. Then some pain killers and antibiotics. And then the bill – This is 5 Rupees, sir! Ups I only had 10 and she wanted to give me 5 back. Keep it! Now 80 Rupees is about 1 €! Incredible India!.

I did not want to walk back the whole way back to the street down in the valley. So I asked the locals for a short cut down. Sure enough, there is one – a maze that leads to all the small gardens on the hill. Going down with flip-flops was not really the best idea on that trip since the bags keep pushing me and the way was steep and full of gravel. Somewhere this big snake was on her way up. She decided to take a detour and I was to slow to get the camera out and snap her. At last, you see a part of her.

Down at the bus stop, friendly locals let me sit in their shop for a few hours. I had a good lunch at the daba and waited and waited for the bus. There was a small tire shop and this is all the tools they have.

Finally, the bus came round the bend. Since I had the finger now all white and it did look serious there was no “back on the roof” good for me! On the bus, I did meet these friendly guys on their way to Kalpa. We reached the village where you have to change the bus late in the afternoon. Too late to go up to Kalpa. So we went to a hotel together and I did share my room with Sandra. We told the manager that we are married so we had the wedding party right away in our room. This picture was taken before the food arrived from the kitchen opposite our room. After a shitty day with lots of walking, pain in the finger and a really dusty ride on the second bus a nice evening after all.