alright, id like to add some info to the last 2 updates that kendall has made (this is thane). so much has happened, and we fell behind. id like to start from the trek in the himalayas, and just ramble on for a while. hope you dont fall asleep and BUST your head open on the keyboard.
our 7 day himalayan trek was, all in all, fantastic. we were surrounded by snow-covered peaks the whole time, had great weather, and got to hike through beautiful scenery every day with only 10-15 pounds on our backs. it was quite a different style of backpacking than anythign we have done, in that usually my experiences have been with a group, sharing a sense of community and comradery and above all, self-sufficiency. everyone is conscious of and responsible for the basic needs of the other members of the group (food, water, shelter), and you come out with a sense of accomplishment having carried your house on your back and taken care of one another. in this case, our group were our servants, they did everything for us, and all we had to do was walk and stare at the incredible mountains around us. we certainly didnt complain - it wasnt better, or worse, just different. the challenge became the cold nights, altitude gains (reaching heights of 16,000 feet, higher than kendall or I had ever been before) and for me at least, constant headaches as a result. we drank so much water that we had to pee (no exaggeration) at least 15 times a day. the food was incredibly good - tons of produce, always diverse menus, always multiple courses. and as you know, indian food is my favorite. we spent our time hiking through huge boulder fields, walking on glaciers, relaxing next to crystal clear carribbean looking high-altitude lakes, lying in the sun as the wind performed its daily ritual of pulling teh snow off the peaks and stirring it up in to clouds - every afternoon, like clockwork.
of course, we decided to cut it short after a week and skip the second leg of the trip, mainly because of our extreme annoyance with our organizer, Sanjeev. i once a gain learned a lesson that i have leared so many times in the past - liking someone does not tell you ANYTHING about living with someone. we very quickly grew tired of dealing with his constant jabbering, lecturing, interrupting, and total lack of a sense of personal space (easy to understand in India, but nonetheless infuriating).
so, we told them we were sick, sent him packing for home, and after a lot of arguing, ended up with half of our remaining money back, which is more than we would ever get back in the US.
the next week we spent traveling with 3 friends we met along the trail and in the neighboring town, uttarkashi. the 2 dutch brothers were hilarious travelign partners, and we enjoyed our israeli friend yael so much that she is still with us 2 weeks later. we had a great dynamic amongst the 5 of us and kendall and had a blast sharing stories and traveling around this sometimes maddening, sometimes comical, always interesting country together. we did a 3 day backpacking trip (this time, no guides) through fascinating traditional villages and beautiful mid-altitude scenery, up to another lake called Dodi Tal. this was one of my highlights of the trip so far, as our wrong turns steered us into tiny, extremely poor villages full of dirty children. at Bankoli, the entire village came to meet us and then sat around staring at us for about an hour while the few brave souls with some english tried their hardest to communicate with us. kendall wandered through the rows of shacks and took some great photos. at the next village where we stayed the night in a beautiful concrete house overlooking the valley below, i exhausted my hindi vocabulary in just a few minutes, and got my first experience with relating to people primarily with hand gestures. what an experience - to travel through an area where you have to shove your hand towards yoru mouth to ask for food, lay your cheek on your hands to ask for a place to sleep.
our second night we all slept in a round hut on the concrete floor ($4 for the 5 fo us) and on our last day we hiked down the entire mountain - about 13 miles in 7 hours, with a lunch stop in a dhaba (tarp-covered shack that serves food cooked on an open fire). as we reached the village at the bottom of the trail, the last bus of the day was full and ready to leave. i jumped on the roof of the bus immediately, and was still strapping the bags onto the side rails of the roof rack when the bus driver got tired of waiting for the foreigners and tried to drive off. everyone yelled at him and i scampered down the ladder to give him my 2 cents also. then, amidst bags of potatoes we crammed into the (as usual) overloaded bus and people crawled all over us for the 10 miles back to town....which, on indian roads takes about an hour.
the next day we all took a hellish 6 hour bus ride down the mountain roads to get back to the plains, and since none of us wanted to say goodbye yet, spent one more night together in Rishikesh (the holy town on the ganges where kendall and i spent 5 days previously). i was sad to leave the dutchmen there, but after a couple refreshing meals of western food at the infamous german bakery, left them to take a yoga class and head back to amsterdam where i hope to see them again some day soon.
yael, kendall and i bussed it back to dhera dun, our least favorite city so far, spent a day and a half retrieving the rest of our luggage and money from our trek organizers, then slowly made our way to the train station 2 hours south to catch our rain up north. this is where we jumped off and walked along the tracks - a bloody lip and a 4 hour bus ride later, we reached (FINALLY) the peaceful haven of Dharamshala, where we are currently living and havnig a great time.
we are staying in the Tibetan community here in Dharamshala, knwon as McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile. we've been here a week, and since its a popular spot for tourists theres always something great going on. The tibetans seem to be much more successful entrepreneurs than the indians, so most peopel speak english, theres fantastic food, lots of decent hotels, and more beautiful carpets, rugs, wall hangings, clothing, jewelry, wood carvings, and singing bowls than you could imagine. on our first day we went to the library to see collections of ancient manuscripts adn artifacts, beautiful sand mandalas and statues. we watched a hilariuos basketball game between 2 branches of the tibetan parliament in exile, as their familes cheered them on. i went to a multicultural show put on by the tibetan youth as part of an annual celebration - wonderful music and traditional dress, dancing, etc. we saw our first long-awaited indian music concert...tabla, sitar, flute, guitar, and cyianth (sp?) which was truly incredible. we've gone for walks in the forsest, visited the Tibetan children's village full of 2000 refugee children, watched great movies in the small DVD-playing theaters, and, well....eaten. a lot.
but the highlight has been the group of monks that we have taken on as our enthusiastic english students. we spend hours every day in the tiny apartment of my main student, Sonam, who I just so happened to hook up with through a friend I made walking in the street. he and his two friends, Lobsang and Tenzin, are Tibetan refugees with horribly sad stories, who have been living in South India in a monastery for their entire lives. they came to Dharamshala to learn english and study in a different monastery for a short while. they are focused, determined, and beyond grateful. we transcend the language barrier and spend most of our time laughing and joking around. we cook meals toether on sonam's tiny gas stove. we drink tea and tell stories and whenever they have a spare 30 minutes between prayers adn ceremonies, they rush to the apartment for a lesson.
it has been so great to connect with someone, feel that we are truly helping them, and see the gratitude and kindness and genuine care in their faces.
so, in case you made it all the way to the end, thanks for listening and thats pretty much the update for now. im due for an english lesson in 30 mintues, so ive gotta run. love you all.
thane
our 7 day himalayan trek was, all in all, fantastic. we were surrounded by snow-covered peaks the whole time, had great weather, and got to hike through beautiful scenery every day with only 10-15 pounds on our backs. it was quite a different style of backpacking than anythign we have done, in that usually my experiences have been with a group, sharing a sense of community and comradery and above all, self-sufficiency. everyone is conscious of and responsible for the basic needs of the other members of the group (food, water, shelter), and you come out with a sense of accomplishment having carried your house on your back and taken care of one another. in this case, our group were our servants, they did everything for us, and all we had to do was walk and stare at the incredible mountains around us. we certainly didnt complain - it wasnt better, or worse, just different. the challenge became the cold nights, altitude gains (reaching heights of 16,000 feet, higher than kendall or I had ever been before) and for me at least, constant headaches as a result. we drank so much water that we had to pee (no exaggeration) at least 15 times a day. the food was incredibly good - tons of produce, always diverse menus, always multiple courses. and as you know, indian food is my favorite. we spent our time hiking through huge boulder fields, walking on glaciers, relaxing next to crystal clear carribbean looking high-altitude lakes, lying in the sun as the wind performed its daily ritual of pulling teh snow off the peaks and stirring it up in to clouds - every afternoon, like clockwork.
of course, we decided to cut it short after a week and skip the second leg of the trip, mainly because of our extreme annoyance with our organizer, Sanjeev. i once a gain learned a lesson that i have leared so many times in the past - liking someone does not tell you ANYTHING about living with someone. we very quickly grew tired of dealing with his constant jabbering, lecturing, interrupting, and total lack of a sense of personal space (easy to understand in India, but nonetheless infuriating).
so, we told them we were sick, sent him packing for home, and after a lot of arguing, ended up with half of our remaining money back, which is more than we would ever get back in the US.
the next week we spent traveling with 3 friends we met along the trail and in the neighboring town, uttarkashi. the 2 dutch brothers were hilarious travelign partners, and we enjoyed our israeli friend yael so much that she is still with us 2 weeks later. we had a great dynamic amongst the 5 of us and kendall and had a blast sharing stories and traveling around this sometimes maddening, sometimes comical, always interesting country together. we did a 3 day backpacking trip (this time, no guides) through fascinating traditional villages and beautiful mid-altitude scenery, up to another lake called Dodi Tal. this was one of my highlights of the trip so far, as our wrong turns steered us into tiny, extremely poor villages full of dirty children. at Bankoli, the entire village came to meet us and then sat around staring at us for about an hour while the few brave souls with some english tried their hardest to communicate with us. kendall wandered through the rows of shacks and took some great photos. at the next village where we stayed the night in a beautiful concrete house overlooking the valley below, i exhausted my hindi vocabulary in just a few minutes, and got my first experience with relating to people primarily with hand gestures. what an experience - to travel through an area where you have to shove your hand towards yoru mouth to ask for food, lay your cheek on your hands to ask for a place to sleep.
our second night we all slept in a round hut on the concrete floor ($4 for the 5 fo us) and on our last day we hiked down the entire mountain - about 13 miles in 7 hours, with a lunch stop in a dhaba (tarp-covered shack that serves food cooked on an open fire). as we reached the village at the bottom of the trail, the last bus of the day was full and ready to leave. i jumped on the roof of the bus immediately, and was still strapping the bags onto the side rails of the roof rack when the bus driver got tired of waiting for the foreigners and tried to drive off. everyone yelled at him and i scampered down the ladder to give him my 2 cents also. then, amidst bags of potatoes we crammed into the (as usual) overloaded bus and people crawled all over us for the 10 miles back to town....which, on indian roads takes about an hour.
the next day we all took a hellish 6 hour bus ride down the mountain roads to get back to the plains, and since none of us wanted to say goodbye yet, spent one more night together in Rishikesh (the holy town on the ganges where kendall and i spent 5 days previously). i was sad to leave the dutchmen there, but after a couple refreshing meals of western food at the infamous german bakery, left them to take a yoga class and head back to amsterdam where i hope to see them again some day soon.
yael, kendall and i bussed it back to dhera dun, our least favorite city so far, spent a day and a half retrieving the rest of our luggage and money from our trek organizers, then slowly made our way to the train station 2 hours south to catch our rain up north. this is where we jumped off and walked along the tracks - a bloody lip and a 4 hour bus ride later, we reached (FINALLY) the peaceful haven of Dharamshala, where we are currently living and havnig a great time.
we are staying in the Tibetan community here in Dharamshala, knwon as McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile. we've been here a week, and since its a popular spot for tourists theres always something great going on. The tibetans seem to be much more successful entrepreneurs than the indians, so most peopel speak english, theres fantastic food, lots of decent hotels, and more beautiful carpets, rugs, wall hangings, clothing, jewelry, wood carvings, and singing bowls than you could imagine. on our first day we went to the library to see collections of ancient manuscripts adn artifacts, beautiful sand mandalas and statues. we watched a hilariuos basketball game between 2 branches of the tibetan parliament in exile, as their familes cheered them on. i went to a multicultural show put on by the tibetan youth as part of an annual celebration - wonderful music and traditional dress, dancing, etc. we saw our first long-awaited indian music concert...tabla, sitar, flute, guitar, and cyianth (sp?) which was truly incredible. we've gone for walks in the forsest, visited the Tibetan children's village full of 2000 refugee children, watched great movies in the small DVD-playing theaters, and, well....eaten. a lot.
but the highlight has been the group of monks that we have taken on as our enthusiastic english students. we spend hours every day in the tiny apartment of my main student, Sonam, who I just so happened to hook up with through a friend I made walking in the street. he and his two friends, Lobsang and Tenzin, are Tibetan refugees with horribly sad stories, who have been living in South India in a monastery for their entire lives. they came to Dharamshala to learn english and study in a different monastery for a short while. they are focused, determined, and beyond grateful. we transcend the language barrier and spend most of our time laughing and joking around. we cook meals toether on sonam's tiny gas stove. we drink tea and tell stories and whenever they have a spare 30 minutes between prayers adn ceremonies, they rush to the apartment for a lesson.
it has been so great to connect with someone, feel that we are truly helping them, and see the gratitude and kindness and genuine care in their faces.
so, in case you made it all the way to the end, thanks for listening and thats pretty much the update for now. im due for an english lesson in 30 mintues, so ive gotta run. love you all.
thane
posted by thane at 11:11 PM
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