Friday, September 12, 2008

Zanskar Trek

We've now completed the first half of our journey into Ladakh, a 2
week trek through the Zanskar region. From Darcha we headed out on
foot, travelling through snowy mountain passes and high desert,
finally arriving in the town of Padum.

Most days had an early start, the cold made more bearable by bed
tea--exactly what you would imagine it is, hot tea magically appearing
at 6am, while still in our sleeping bags. Definitely the way to start
a long day! Tashi, our guide, arranged the logistics of 12 horses,
horsemen, and cooks for our group. This means horses haul the majority
of our stuff--tents, clothing, food--and all we have to do is drag
ourselves over the Himalayas with a little daypack. (And med kit. And
sat phone.) This seems to be the norm for Himalayan expeditions and I
could definitely get used to it!

After packing up camp each day, we'd set off on the days trek,
anywhere from a 4 hour day to a 9 hour one. Most days were around 12
km, though the altitude makes everything harder. Our group did really
well with acclimatizing, this was mostly thanks to the planning and
prepping on Curtis and Ashley's side of things--talks with Dr. Dave
about which medicine for HAPE versus HACE, talks with Ashley about
what to do when someone starts getting bad off. We had one person get
a little sick at about 12,000 feet, so we rested an extra day at about
14,000 ft. which I think made all the difference in everyone being
healthy enough for the crossing, and then finally crossed the
Shingo-La pass (16,732ft) with no problems. Definitely tough to
breathe at 16,000 feet, but everyone managed ok, even when a snowstorm
really complicated our crossing!

Where to begin with the scenary? Beautiful snowcapped mountains, snow ice crusting
in swirls like ribbon candy, small shrubs in an array of oranges and
reds, trees exploding in yellows and greens, blue sky meeting sandy
colored rock.

Other highlights from the trek were:
-A visit to the Sun School, a solar powered school near Lhakang on
September 7th. The school is in it's final phase of construction, high
on a hillside, solar panels on the roof, glass in the greenhouse,
almost ready for the kids to inhabit it. We also had dinner the night
before with the Czech architect who created the whole project.

-Phukthai Monastary on September 9th, an incredible sight, following a
two hour hike along a winding canyon, we crossed a suspension bridge
and were met with the sight of the monastary rising out of the rock
walls. We toured the monastary, an incredible vast endless string of
rooms, staircases leading higher up the rock walls. While holding the
bathroom door shut for one of our group, I was standing in the hallway
when a young monk about 10 or 11 came running down the stairs, eating
a candy bar. He spotted me and slowed, shoved the candy bar into his
robes, and gave me a solemn nod and a polite "jullay" as he passed.

-Kalbok, a small village where we helped to harvest the barley growing
in the fields where our tents were. James and Tashi gave a lesson on
Ladakhi numbers while we harvested alongside the villagers from
Kalbok.

-Purni, on September 8th, where Tashi arranged for us to have a
traditional tea in a family's home in the evening. The overpriced
showers (50 rupees!) made some some of our group very, very happy. Kit
Kat bars at the store were also a big hit and Sooner and Howie stocked
up on Coke and Sprite for the rest of our trek.

Currently we are in the town of Padum, checking internet, during the
brief periods of the day when the power is turned on--we're not sure,
but we think they may turn it on when all 10 of us turn up at the
internet cafe--and taking a rest day. Tomorrow we head off on the
second part of our journey, a winding road trip through the Zanskar
mountains, up to Kargil, then heading east to Tashi's village for a
few days, and finally, in about a week and a half to two weeks,
winding up at our home base for the rest of the semester, SECMOL,
located just outside the city of Leh.

Jullay,
Amy

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