Hello again. Pretty sure I can remember where I left off last time so here we go.
Repeated my day trek/excursion to Saboo with Tim, Johann and Hem (London med student), because it was so nice they wanted to see it and because I had nothing better to do.
Also had a couple of meals with those three with a ridiculous amount of food- everything is so cheap everybody ends up ordering loads and sharing with everybody else- the other night we had 4 kinds of curry, and 5 kinds of bread- and more than one portion of most of the bread! We actually had to send one back. And all for about 1 pound 25 each!
Don't think I mentioned the the language here is Ladakhi, and they have the same word for hello, goodbye, please and thank you - julay. Which makes it pretty easy really, although Julie, if you ever come, I expect everything to get pretty confusing!
Also, they have the most amazing road signs telling you to slow down here- our favourites are:
-Don't be a gambler in the land of the lama
-Be mr late not late mr
The fantastic
-I like you darling, but not so fast
And a new favourite we saw yesterday
-Don't gossip, let him drive
Somehow I don't think they'd get away with that one in the UK!
Anyway, last time I wrote I mentioned Johann and I were sorting a trek. We managed to join one at short notice leaving the next morning, and despite saying he never wanted to trek again, Tim decided to join us (just like I said he would!). It was a trek through the mountains to a salt lake called Tso Kar. We were planning originally to go to the Nubra [green] Valley, which is supposed to be very beautiful and feel more like central asia than india or the himalayas, but we were assured by the very knowledgable-seeming man that this was also very beautiful, and we were having some difficulty sorting the Nubra Valley trip.
Already signed up for the trip were Jerry, a med student from Belgium, and Becky, a staff nurse from London. Quite why there are so many medical people in India, I don't know. Funny since there are so many Indians in the medical proffesion in the UK... Anyway, it was a 2-3 hour jeep ride to the start of the trek, and after breakfast and lots of tea, we set off in high spirits at the bottom of a valley. After a bit it started to rain. Then it started to snow. Then it started to hail. I was trying to think of other kinds of things that could fall on us while we finished the 4 hour trek of the first day. Me and Johann developed a new catchphase- 'I'm so glad I bought this'- we both bought bit fleecy, woolly coats in Leh before we came, and I am still really glad I bought it. That evening we all huddled inside the communal tent, fighting for space by the stove for out wet boots, clothes and bodies.
In the morning the sky was clear and we could enjoy the amazing scenary a bit more. We climbed the first pass of the day (something like 4400 metres) which was really, really hard, and collapsed at the top. By the time we reached the second pass (4700m) it was snowing and blowing again, everyone was suffering with the altitude- as soon as you started off from a rest, you felt you needed another one. My. legs. were. so. heavy. At the top we collapsed again, and amusingly, Johann fell asleep. When we made our way down from that pass, everybody developed splitting headaches from over-excursion, under-nourishment, dehydration and altitude sickness. We wandered through a herd of yaks, and I couldn't even be bothered to take a picture (and I took 151 pictues on the 3 day trek!). I was expecting a gentle potter though some pretty valleys, not an endurance event! Money, our Nepalese guide, and the pony men really looked after us though, and the food was really nice. Money even managed to make a cake!
The next day was tough, but not as bad as the day before, and by the time we reached the jeep we were all pretty knackered again. We drove to the lake, took a picture, and started off on the 5 hour drive home. Which, incidentally, was brilliant- the road went over the second highest mountain pass in the world! And even better, we didn't fall off the side off the road!
Bolognese and sleep last night, a wash this morning (somebody borrowed the water heater from my guest house while I was away and I had to borrow a bucket full from the owner's sister next door).
Tomorow I'm getting the bus to Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives, which takes about 24h or so. Yippee! Think it'll be ok actually, and Tim's coming too. Only planning on spending a couple of days there, then will head to Shimla, summer home of the British Raj, for a bit.
Will be back in touch in another week or so, hopefully will be able to show you some photos soon. I've noticed you can subscribe to this as an RSS feed if you know how, which I don't, so you'll have to ask someone who does if you want to.
Bye Bye
