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"I sat in the back holding my bottle of gin in the brown
paper bag, chewing on soggy half popped corn, peering
bleary eyed through the jeep window at the dangerous
road ahead. I was a weeping, pissed, wheezing bag of
misery, poised on the edge of a pulmonary oedematous
collapse."
All Go On The Gompa is one part tragedy, one part hysteria, and one part loosely threaded travel guide. This is a humorous (some might say catastrophic) record of an unforgettable first time voyage to the little known Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim, and of Nepal.
Harassed into traveling to India by her husband Max, her troubles began in Calcutta-not a good place to start when you are terrified of rats, rubbish and the heat. She takes an instant dislike to their guide Sunni especially when he explains that they will be the only ones on the five-week tour!
After discovering the sweaty streets of Calcutta, they travel north to Darjeeling and the Kingdom of Sikkim. The days are spent in a state of high anxiety and not just because the gin was running low. They huddled in the back seat of the jeep, white knuckled and terrified as they drove relentlessly on narrow, dangerous roads of the Himalaya.
The sudden onset of acute altitude sickness in north-east Sikkim put them at serious risk. This near death experience was soon eclipsed by narrowly averting arrest as they had been unwittingly smuggled into a restricted Indian military zone.
Finally the tour took them to Chitwan and Katmandu in Nepal-not that changing countries improved matters. Bad tempers, sulks and arguments increased, as did their canny ability to hide from their guide at every opportunity. Finally the end was nigh, and like cheering, hysterical children on the last day of school, they boarded the plane home, vowing never to return. Well, she did!
If you are considering traveling to India and you know that life is too short to go without a flush toilet, read this book. You'll need all the tips you can get.
About the Author
Veronica Wohlstadt lives and works in the Barossa
Valley, South Australia. She is married to Michael and
has four children. She is an artist and writer and this is
her first book.
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