Dance Around a Campfire (and encounter a bear!)

On our trip to Kashmir, my partner and I spent two nights camping in a mountainous area called Naranag. Joining us was Jaz, our houseboat host in Srinagar. Now if you've read my previous post on the houseboat, you'd know that we had had some issues with this guy. Fortunately for us, we were not alone with him in the mountains. He had hired a local guy named Riyaz to be our mountain guide cum porter cum cook.

At nightfall, Riyaz and his assistants (the village kids) would go to gather firewood. Then they assembled them to form a little teepee on the grass, and lit it up. Somebody had to keep prodding the fire with a stick to keep it burning. Usually this somebody was Riyaz because the kids weren't so good at it yet, while Jaz, being the scumbag person that he was, boasted that he only wanted to be treated like a king wherever he went.

 

The fire kept us warm and cozy in the cold mountain nights. We sat close by it. Since my partner and I were the only two ladies, we were given the best spot in front of the fire. Riyaz even draped a blanket around us because the fire only warmed our fronts, not our backs.

On the second night, Riyaz had brought a bottle of smuggled rum. It was meant for defense and military personnel only. How he managed to get hold of it, we had no idea, but it got us feeling warmer still and the mere idea of doing something illegal was thrilling in its own right. The only downside was that the more we drank, the randier that scumbag got. He wouldn't keep his filthy paws to himself.

We had to put on some music on my phone because Jaz couldn't live without noise. He connected it to his annoyingly loud portable speaker and egged us on to dance with him. My partner and I are introverts. We would have preferred a quiet night lazing by the fire and listening to the beautiful sounds of nature, but Jaz insisted that we should learn to have some fun. So despite our reluctance, we got up and danced, just to shut him up. I tried to keep myself as far away from him as I could because he kept trying to grope me under the pretense of dancing. I was glad that Riyaz danced along with us. He was a much more respectful person.

However, by 9 pm, Riyaz had to leave because his young daughter was at home alone that night. He left one of his boys with us to help with the fire and keep us company. With Riyaz gone, my partner and I refused to dance any more. We wished we could just retire to our tents and enjoy some quiet for once. But the night was far from over for Jaz. He continued belting out Urdu songs and made us repeat after him. Occasionally he would cup his hands around his mouth and bellowed into the darkness, "Helloooooo, worlddddd!!!"

Our temporary mountain guide, a 9-year-old boy named Manir, took a torchlight to go in search of some more twigs for the fire. But not even a few minutes later, he came scampering back and screaming. Now that wasn't something you would normally see a mountain guide do. That's certainly something you don't want your mountain guide to do, regardless of his age. He shouted something at Jaz, who then told us to quickly get into the mess tent. I thought it was something to do with the rioters (which Kashmir has many of). But it was something even worse. There was a huge black bear lurking near our campsite, just about 20 meters up the hill. With its speed of up to 30 mph, it could reach us in just a few seconds. One-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississippi, and goodbye world.

But somehow, my alcohol-addled brain didn't quite register the magnitude of the danger we were facing. I was secretly thinking, "A bear? Aww. Can I go take a photo?"

If it hadn't been for Manir, I would have thought Jaz orchestrated the whole thing to get us to sleep in the same tent as him. But the boy started crying in fear, and we had to take turns consoling him. We then called Riyaz to ask him what to do. At first our calls went to voicemail. By then I had sobered up a little and realized that it was starting to feel like a thriller/suspense movie. Nobody picks up your call in a suspense movie.

Finally Riyaz answered. But there was nothing he could do. It was too dangerous for him to come over. The best thing for us to do was to stay put in the mess tent till morning. We had an ax, a kitchen knife and hiking poles in that tent should we need to use them as weapons (although I doubted they would be of much help). Riyaz told us to switch off the lights and stay silent. Despite the anxiety that was building up inside me, I couldn't help feeling relieved because finally, some silence.

With the lights from our phones, Manir--who had regained his composure--ladled some rice and dhal onto our plates, because if we were going to die anyway, we might as well do so with our stomachs full. Then, we turned off our phones and tried to get some sleep. We ladies, were in the middle, flanked by the two boys on both sides. Jaz, of course, went to lie down beside me.

Quietly my partner and I switched places in the dark. When he started snuggling up to her, she turned around and snapped at him. Imagine his surprise. "Oh, it's y-you...!" he stammered. My partner and I joked that now we had two bears to deal with, one outside the tent and the other one inside. We both agreed that given the choice, we would rather kill the one inside the tent first. At one point in the middle of the night, I gave him a hard kick after he tried to feel up my legs. Boy, was that a satisfying feeling!

When I woke up again, it was bright outside, and our mountain guide Riyaz was quietly preparing our breakfast. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief at the sight of him. When he saw me getting up, he sent me back to sleep and said he would wake us up once the food was ready.

After breakfast, we quickly packed our stuff. We were supposed to leave that day anyway, but even if we weren't, I don't think we would have wanted to stay another night. The whole village was talking about the bear. A sheep had died. The cornfield was destroyed, and our little tent was trampled on. Good thing we had stayed on in the mess tent. Apparently there was another camper, who was a local, but he had fled in the middle of the night, running across the river with his tent and all. So we were the only four people out in the wilderness that night.

Our tent, destroyed

Before leaving, we took a photo with Riyaz (left), Manir (second from right) and another guy from the village.