The Land of Moonlit Snows: & Other Real Travel Stories from the Indian Himalaya

by Gaurav Punj

when time stands still, do we acknowledge it, feel it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is reason 101 that you must go to the mountains.

We woke up the next morning to a white Rumbak. Fluffy snow was still falling, and even though it was bitterly cold, we just had to be out. After a couple of failed attempts at a replay of the snow fight, we rushed back in as our hands had frozen. We sat around the kitchen fire along with our sensible hosts, and once we were warm, enjoyed the snowfall from the small kitchen window. We ate Ladakhi bread with yak cheese, drank butter tea churned in a long vessel and chatted for what felt like eternity. The snowfall stopped and the sun peeped out from behind the clouds.