Trekking the Himalaya, the beginning

My friend Nerissa and I are stoked on this trek.  We will be unguided but armed with a map, common sense, hiking experience and nice homestays.  Lets go!  Being out of the city is the most welcomed notion.

After the gorgeous monastery of Lamayuru, the end of day one found us in Hinju, a small village newly accessible by road. A wild and crazy drive let me assure you! The road has been in place for two years, lucky for us because our taxi rolls us up right in the middle of the village.  We stay at the first guest house we cross, have some tea and gaze down the lovely valley.

Before dinner, I have a brief yoga practice by a stream with some cows and local kids running around.  Dinner was in the kitchen with the guest house owner and his wife. The heaping helpings of rice with dal and veggies, spinach, onions, capsicum, would become my dinner for most of the next ten days. There is no shortage in being fed at the homestays throughout the trek.  Our homestay in Hinju gave us salt with our egg and potato pack lunch.  Yum.

 The next day, we truly begin our walk.  Today, we scale our first pass, 5150 m.  In other words, high, very high.  The Great Himalayan Range surrounds us as I creep to the top.  Breath by breath and step by step the altitude and lack of oxygen presses and stresses and weakens the body. It takes almost two hours to get up the pass. maybe one km, but easily 1000m elevation gain. The arrival to the top reawakens my senses, I have made it to the top of the world; colors unseen to my eyes pop out of the towering rock, cool wind refreshes, prayer flags sing.  Breathtaking.

 The next destination is 8 hours walk away in Sumda Changmo.  This village rests in a beautiful, quiet valley with towering crags and crevices.  All I want here is a harness and a rack of trad gear.  Ya'll want to go climbing?  I have my heart set on coming back here to climb these rocks.
We have an interesting situation on the way up to our homestay.  We seem to be rooming with the animals, donkeys and goats, but then after climbing the stairs we find our room lays rooftop and gazes into the biggest crack in the Himalaya.  Stunning.

After a good yoga stretching sesh for the legs, the first day put the ole legs to work!, we set out for Sumda Choon.  And to my utter happiness, this day of our walk was to be a short and delightful one. An amazing trek as we followed a river the entire way.   The mountains towered over our heads, the water was cold under the hot, high sun and we found a perfect place to chill and swim after navigating the rocks and waterfalls and colorful boulders that lay in the riverbed.After a chill day, 6 solid hours of walking, 3-4 solid hours of playing in the water, we came the the village.  This is our guest house.  Best cook in the village and the best food I have had yet.

  And, as it turns out, this village has the oldest Monastery and Gompa in Ladakh.  Not often visited because the village is off the beaten path and there is no road, we struck gold.  The entire back wall is carved out of one piece of wood, painted and lacquered.  This gompa has recently been declared a historical place of significance and will soon be preserved and a road will be constructed to access the site.  

It is here the two of us meet a small group of electricians from France and our plans change.  Our trek will be extended as we find our trip could easily be detoured to the Markha Valley.  

Yo Yo YO! I am back in the city, head still in the mountains...

Howdy and hello.  My four day trek turned into a ten day trek with a short stint (5 days) volunteering in a remote school, I am back in the city.  Just had some riata and pizza and will shortly have a delicious piece of chocolate, coconut cake.  But first...the trek, day one, a synopsis. 

A friend and I set out on our trek with an interesting group of Europeans; two Frech cousins, one German, one Italian.  Interesting dynamic in our taxi with the close quarters, not a lot of ventilation, etc.  We found these folks with short ads posted about town for a taxi share to Lamayuru.  Worked out fine, got to the gorgeous monastery after a crazy drive; the roads are questionable and the drivers...well, the drivers are questionable too.  I am pretty sure our first guy didn't look at the road at all and the second guy got his driver's license yesterday.  Luckily the landscape is more breathtaking than the driving.

And Lamayuru is gorgeous.  I witnessed amazing chanting there.  A fifteen day period fo Buddhist worship had just begun, so cool to see this spirituality eminating from every pore of this religious space. I also sat with a very old monk and watched a little cricket played by the little kid monks.  I do not know how to play cricket or even what it is, really, and this was of great pleasure to the little robed guys.  The old man monk I sat with had been there for 50 years. Fifty!  Thats before tourism began in this area; he must've thought the first of us there were nuts. 

Pictured to the right is the meditation hill above the main monastery.  The prayer wheel in the cylindrical structure is wind powered to spin clockwise.  Genius. All Buddhist mani (or spritual assitants is what I like to think of them as) are spun or walked around in a clockwise direction.

An amazing start to the trek. We left the monastery for Hinju, our first homestay and where we would begin the walk.  Our plan would soon change however so that we could trek the Markha Valley.  And on our way, we will see a multitude of flags.  I even flew some of my own. 

These flags fly at the very top of the monastery's land. 

I have ten more days to write about.  Stay tuned. 

Let the Trek Begin...

Tomorrow morning I will embark on our trek, 124 km over two Himalayan passes over four days.  My friend Nerissa and I have recruited two Frenchies to share a taxi to Lamayuru monastery, then we will be dropped in Henju and we will trek and homestay in villages along the way to Alchi where another ancient and beautiful monastery lies.  I am stoked and so ready to get out of the city for a few solid days.

I will write about food in a few days for now I am off for pizza and raita and roti.

Much love.

The Country and Local Monasteries

The weather has turned for the worse and my belly has as well. Ew.  Up until this point of my trip I have been eating whatever I fancied and I have been just fine....  But a couple days ago the altitude and action and differences in the food has slowed me down. So what better to do on a sleepy, slow day, or few days, than take a drive? We found the monastery above in Sebo when we were looking for the Oracle/Sebo Lamo.  Lamo means female teacher, Sebo: the village.  I am terrible at Hindi, but I am trying. 

We got a car from a local friend and took on some local monasteries, gompas and we even ventured to find the local Ladakh oracle.  We will see her tomorrow for questions and prayer.  The palace we saw was erected high on a hill top in 650 AD, the queen now lives there and it is beautiful. Located 8km outsie of Leh in Stok, the Palace became the home of the royal family in 1834.  At the monasteries, the monks are most welcoming to tourists and very open to questions. We drove to Shey and Thiksay monasteries.  Gorgeous, Shey monastery sits below an old crumbling fort. Thiksay is massive with a school, a hotel, restaurant, an ancient library, numerous temples and a 14m high Buddha. We are in the home of Buddhism here.

The country side has the most vivid colors, the trees as green as you could imagine on the back drop of the sandy brown and blue Himalaya.

The trips out of town are unbelievable: to get away from the honking and black smoking cars and the shouting and the staring.  To experience a bit of the village life style invokes relaxes and grounds me.  The people here have real problems and yet continue to smile; they are willing to help and share. Also seeing what life has been like here after the floods that came last year at this time, building and rebuilding with mud and clay bricks, piles of rocks and rubble and debris everywhere, sets your sense of reality a flame.  I see it and still can't imagine the responsibility, the difficulty, the necessity.  

These ponies walk through a remote village after a trek.  All the animals work too. 

The internet and power situation can be a bit dodgy here in Leh so posting can be troublesome at times. I will keep up as much as possible.  Have a lovely day and maybe have some Indian food. I know I will!  Tomorrow I will post about the food as I feel much better. Yay!

Independence Day Festival in the Rain

Well, it is Independence Day in India and because it is raining and the trek proceeds to be held up, we have the luck to be invited to the local Independence festival.  A military parade began the day, the various factions of the military and the local school children organized a beautiful parade with bagpipes and drumming and dancing as well.  Everyone in the town turned out for the occasion.  And my friend and I got a front row seat.

The local Ladakhi leader, dressed in traditional Ladakhi robes, gave a speech...I am sure it was good, as I couldn't understand any words of the lengthy time he spent talking. The best part may have been when the leader in black robes and two high up military guys were toted around in a "pope mobile" type rig.  The colors and the songs and the dancing were cool.  You know parades, they are just fun!  And entertaining...and a little weird...

 

These Darn Mountains...

As one knows who loves and lives in the mountains, the weather can be tricky.  And today, I wake up to cold, cold rain and the Himalaya have disappeared into snow. We have decided to wait to day and see what tomorrow brings.  We are both ready to trek the weather but, as one knows who loves and lives in the mountains, wait around as the weather will soon change.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring sun again.  I scarcely believe my thin California skin will adore the Himalaya snow.

In case you didn't notice, I have been reading Wuthering Heights, I picked up the classic on the book shelf of my guesthouse, and it has begun to influence my ideas about wording.  I do wonder way we stopped writing so eloquently!  Totally read this book it you have any interest, it is quite clever and gossipy and lovely.  

The Top of the World

 The view from my guest house window.  I see the Castle Tsemo looming over the city if i look to the left.  There grows a garden below and there are flowers and cactus everywhere. 

Above, flowers look upon the edge of the world; I see these on my way up the 600+ stairs to the Shanti Stumpa.  A place of worship built only 30 years ago by a Japanese Buddhist monk, the Stumpa overlooks the city of Leh in glorious colors with ornate Buddhas and Buddhist stories.  I cilmbed up here yesterday, my second day at sunrise.  Practiced a little yoga and met some nice Indian people while enjoying the sun and the views.

And yesterday evening...a rainbow so brilliant my eyes felt deceptive.  And...it ends on the Castle?  Sweet.  And then...It becomes a double!?  Yay!  I ahd a great day yesterday.  The rainbow was a graceful and beautiful dessert.

My trip proves fabuous so far.  I have seen beautiful things and heard interesting sounds and tasted local cuisine.  I have even made a couple local friends.  One of them is a dog. I call him Rufzy.  He has an owner but he likes to walk along and be crazy with me. He is a funny ugly little fat dog.  The castle Tsemo behind him clings to a cliff high above city.

Prayer flags are everywhere.  These are the most dramatic I have seen.  I have sat under this prayer post on a couple occasions.  The other end is attached to a crag opposite neighboring the Castle Tsemo and when the wind blows the whole strand of flags a bounds with joy at its placement.  Coo.

My friend, Sonm, has agreed to take a break from his cafe to accompany me and guide me on a 5-6 day trek from Lamaryu to Chilling.  The highest peak we will trek sits at 4900m.  That is high.  I am so excited!  I wanted to go and he needs a break from business life.  He is a MERO guide and I feel good to have him and be on our own too.  So, we will go into the Himalaya and into Ladakh villages and get the heck out of the city.  The city, with all its charms, remains a city and though I have only been here for three days, the time has come for me to get the heck out and see some of beautiful Ladakh.  I will bring stories upon my retutn. 

love love love

Arrival in Leh

Well, that was a hoot. Two days of travel got me the most dramatic entrance to this high up city of Leh.  I have never been on a plane that landed like this.  Quite the exciting ride really; the captain had his turns down and good thing because there were many of them.  The mountains seem to go on forever, snow capped, towering, colorful, treeless, beautiful, as far as the eye can see, and then you see a bit of green and then an air strip...way down there, in a tight valley.  Dramatic to say the least.

The altitude wears on my body.  It is 3500 meters here.  I made a friend, Sonm, he owns a trekking company and a coffee shop.  I had green tea and Nepalise cake this morning in his shop and he pointed me in the direction of a dramatic stumpa that overlooks the city. Though I wait to climb the dozens of stairs up to the mountain top overlook because my body is not yet ready for such intense climbs in this altitude. 

My guest house room overlooks the mountains and a palace clinging to the cliffs.  The flowers are gorgeous and there are tourists of every kind here in Leh.  And cows and donkeys and motorcycles and prayer flags everywhere.  I will acclimize for a couple days, then hope to hit a meditaion and yoga camp and trek to Manali.  I hope to post pics for it is beautiful here. 

xo  

xo

Howdy from Seoul...

Well, I have made it to Korea. The flight over was enjoyable, these flight attendants really are hospitable. And even the airport is beautifully done with simple angles and inviting lighting. I will be in Leh tomorrow morning if all follows schedule from here.

If not, I sit just outside of a Dunkin' Donuts. Smells delicious!

Check this Out

While in Leh, I will likely check out some fantastic sounding gompas.

http://leh.nic.in/religious.htm

Here we go

I am excited and exhilirated.  A little scared, too, for I do not know what I am doing.  I only know to an extent what I am capable of.   Capable I am.  I am smiling and extatic and joyful and hopeful and realistic and loving and open.  All of this, I am and I can do this.  I will.  Because that's what I came to do.

Objective in India: make it.  Travel around and smell new smells,see new sites, have new experiences and center.  Center myself in the midst of newness. 

I got it. 

This is It, Folks...I am outta here!

Hi.  As of 6:00 a.m Monday, my travels of flight begin.  I leave Phoenix for San Fran.  Then I am off to Korea for a brief stay, on to Delhi and then to Leh.  That is 38 hours of travel time, folks, including layovers, and Ladakh is 12.5 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.  So...I will arrive in Leh at 7:00 a.m. Wednesday the 10th.  Let the fun begin.  I am so excited. 

And like these sunflowers say: with every beginning, there comes an end.   I think I am really funny but, its true. Have a beautiful day. 

Come and See, Look Here at Me, This is Where I will Be...

The long awaited destination of choice, Leh, Ladakh, India, sits in Jammu and Kashmir of Northern India.  Leh holds mountainous views, ancient palaces and numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries.  

The mountains draw me here. I love mountains.

The mountains have been my home for years and I have a sense of belonging there; the people, the culture, the weather make the mountains feel like home.  The vistas and the crisp air keep me wanting more. These mountains will be an adventure; the Kunlun mountains to the North and the Great Himilayas to the South.  Leh is known for its mountain culture and I cannot wait to hang out there.

Figuring out the kinks...of family, travel, the world...and the internet

Hi! This is going to be awesome.  My trip, this adventure, traveling and discovering new things prove to be amazing, including writing for ya'll. Disclaimer: I will try but will unlikely be able to gaurantee 100% correct spelling, beautiful layout, or enchanting words.  However, I will promise to give it my all. I want you to enjoy the fun.

Have a great day.

Lillies in a Sneedville, Tennessee hay field. 

Bro loves his Corona. We are lucky to hang together. Love you, Bro!

Lightening Strikes

The desert holds an interesting place here in my mind.  It is beautiful and oppressive.  When the wind blows, the baking desert finds your bones.  It is hot.  It is a challenge to drink enough water.  And yet it is gorgeous.  It is exhausting.  And it holds surprises. 

Lightening storms are one of those cool desert surprises.  Most evenings in the summer here the sky gives a show.  Today was no different.  The clouds gather, pretty and puffy.  The wind whips the whispy trees and bushy flowers. And, if you are lucky, the rain cools the skin.  The lightening, romantic and strong and shocking, reminds me that I am small. And I am lucky to see this show.

I have a ticket to Northern India, Leh.  I will be there next wednesday.  Its going to be awesome.

A very good goodbye, Tahoe

Well, Tahoe, I was gonna stay home; but, alas, my time to go is here. The most beautiful lake and beautiful people remain strong in my heart and in my eyes as I arrive in Phoenix.  I will be here for a few days until my abroad journey begins.  The blog will begin there with my journey.  Until then, the kinks and quirks of this fun online adventure will be straightned out...so a new adventure this week.  I tackle the internet. Uh oh. 

I will keep you posted.