May 20 to May 25 1985: Leaving Kashmir and heading back to the UK: Lesley gets busted.

 Taken from Back to the East, India, Nepal, Kashmir on Amazon 

 20^th May

We wasted much of the afternoon trying to get to Thomas Cooks, which turned out to be at Johanson Travel not the Grindleys Hotel as we had been told. Money was coming. This was after being told for ten days that money for us was at Grindleys. But there was still no money there. So we sent a message to Thomas Cooks in Delhi to tell them to keep the money there.

Jimmy, who did not turn up last night where we were supposed to meet him at the Tourist Office and waited, came to see us and said he had been waiting for us on Houseboat Jupiter. He said that he would bring the smoke to the New Wild Rose tonight.

We never did get "Numero Uno" from Jimmy but I did get my money back.

I had asked for tickets back to Delhi tomorrow, but so fat there are none, so we will be here another day. I have arranged to pay our bill later, either in Delhi or back in the UK. They said that is no problem. Yeah, like my sitar!

I just wanted to get back to Delhi now, pick up some money and confirm the flight home. If we needed to wait a week, we could go to Kulu and Manali and get stoned, I thought.

The people here were all friendly enough, but they never say they don’t know and brush everything aside as if nothing mattered to them but of course it did. In fact everything mattered. There was a lot of ignorance and lack of experience. Many lived such limited lives. They didn’t understand tourists and travellers, think we are all super rich; well compared to so many we are, after all, we are there on holiday often living like kings, miles from our home, and they have so little and life can be hard. They don’t even realise the harm that can come from washing in the sewage of Dahl lake; they don’t know that it was getting worse because they are polluting it themselves.

Many people are fighting for freedom, freedom from India. They mistakenly, in my opinion, think they would be batter off as part of Pakistan because they are Moslem. It’s not violent in Kashmir, completely different to Pakistan. They are too bound by superficial religious appearance and ritual.

The family structure was very strong but men could take multiple wives and, strangely enough, although they would all smoke hash with us, they hid it away from each other; and many were secret alcohol drinkers.

They often used smiles and pleasant offers of chai or small gifts to buy their way into our pockets.

But still, Kashmir was one of the safest and most beautiful parts of the world. 

 21^st May

Suddenly Yussef told us our money was at Grindleys, so off went go again. But of course it’s not. “The money has not been sent”, they told us.

Then suddenly our flight back to Heathrow was confirmed for the 25^th, four days time, so we planned to get the bus back to Delhi tomorrow.

In some ways I thought I’ll be glad to be back in Norwich. In other ways I felt I could travel on.

22^nd May

The bus ride back to Delhi was almost 24 hours, but it’s the best one yet, with no problems. We spend some time in the drivers cabin, up front, so some fantastic views.

23^rd May

Back in Delhi at 7 AM at the Ringo Guest House with air conditioning and shower, opposite the Indian Oil Building.

We went to Thomas Cooks and picked up some money. It’s been there all the time.

We bought some cheap chokers and beaded necklaces and some very cheap women’s shirts from the underground market where they had a sale. Some were less than £1 each and I know I can sell them for at least £6 each.

Ali met us and had Lesley’s lost jeans from Rajasthan. He took her to a night club in the evening. When they got back to the hotel, he as clearly a little drunk.

24^th May.

I went back to the market and bought more cotton blouses, now my rucksack was packed very full. It was far too hot and uncomfortable outside during the day.

In the evening we went to the Mandarin room at the Hotel Imperial.

Then we went to see Ali and on to the airport.

 25^th May

Back in the UK.

I walked through customs at Heathrow airport without a problem.

Lesley got pulled by the customs team. They found her little musk ball and, she told me later, she said “That’s not what you think it is.”

So they did a strip search and called in a doctor and she had to hand over her little stash from her personal space and was busted. Fat Stan had come to pick us up with another guy called Nigel and we were waiting in the arrivals hall for Lesley when there was an announcement for Stan. Nigel went in to learn that she was being detained for a few hours and so he gave her enough money to get back to Norwich by bus or train, as we could not wait.

A couple of months later, we took her to Uxbridge Court where she as fined £100. Everyone else in court while we were there had suitcases full of drugs.

 

 Stanley Atkins RIP