Mcleod I

The bus leaves in the evening. En-route, I realise I can't sleep in buses. Numerous subsequent bus rides echo that. Kalsung guest house. The view from the top: top left - snow clad peak, low center - Dharamsala valley, right below us - Mcleod. Oh. Rewind. We see Yakshi as we reach (of all the people, of all the places!), she recommends Kalsung. She is here to save Tibet. Day shows us random treks - to Bhaksu through Dharamkut, to the river through nowhere. Breakfast is usually at Peace Cafe (vegetarian - maida paranthas, crispy pancakes, and large ginger milk teas). Lunch is at German Bakery (hot loaded thin pizzas) and Jimmy's (Big Chill - only one-third the prices). Dinner varies. We watch Jackass 2 at a makeshift picture hall - it is just a huge TV screen with (torn) sofas. Doesn't matter though, we're stoned. Oh. Rewind. We've been stoned all along. The night is a partay at Kalsung. Swedish, French, Israeli, Polish and various Indian (including TS's daughter) - share the same chillum. The same rum. The same submarine. The same stone. The same music. The Swede, playing the harmonica, stops abruptly. He's not very happy. He looks around. To the left. To the right. A movement plucked out of a ballet performance. He exclaims, "My 'honeybee'! Where is my 'honeybee'? I want my 'honeybee'!". We placate him. He proceeds to look for his honeybee, proclaiming his loss loud enough to wake up a slumbering 2 a.m. hill town. We are stoned. We are in splits. He suggests we look in the town. We agree. A search party of 15 goes out to look for his honeybee in an eerie empty town. We ask the dogs, the empty streets, the closed shops. 'Oi Jimmy! Where's the honeybee?!' Nobody responds. The Swede slumps, 'There's no honeybee here', and walks back. Under his breadth, he's asking us to stop laughing. We cannot comply. We mourn his loss with laughs and giggles. But then. One of us is sombre.

'Why?'
'We didn't find the honeybee. I would've liked some.'
'Some of his (dead?) wife?'
'Honeybee's the rum we were drinking.'

We go back and puke.