Advertisement
Published: June 16th 2011
HuuuHuummm. it has been quite a long time since my last blog entry. I've traveled far and wide in the past couple of months, I've seen remote areas of India and have moved on to Nepal. Although not all of my travels have been at high elevation, the common theme of the last couple of months for me have been mountains.
After Darjeeling, I headed in Sikkim, a very small area of India that only joined India 30 years ago for protection from Tibet. Sikkim is below China and in between Nepal and Tibet. I did a beautiful trek to Goeche-la, which is just on the other side of Kangchenjunga (third highest mountain in the world) which is on the border of India and Nepal. The weather was especially bitter cold this year, and although I went in the supposed on season for trekking, I hit massive blizzards some mornings. Which was beautiful. the first two pictures below are from the Sikkim Himalayas.
Next I traveled to Assam, an extremely remote untouristic place in the east most state of India, below Bhutan and above Myanmar(Burma). What a weird beautiful place! I viewed rhinos from the top of my elephant on a jungle safari and I laid in a hammock on a remote river island. I traveled to Assam with my fake husband number two, Ville, who told me all about his country, Finland. I was very glad to be with him. They don't rent hotel rooms to girls traveling alone, for some fucked up sexist reason. Assam was a weird place, I was definitely happy to embark to my next location. Unfortunately, 40 hours on a hot train and a 5 am flight separated me from Ladakh.
Ladakh is just as remote as Assam during it's off season. Off season is from October to June. Ladakh is above the Himalayas, one must drive through them to get there, and the road is incredibly dangerous and shut down most of the year. I had to fly in if I wanted to see Ladakh before my visa expired! The flight was the most incredible sunrise over white jagged mountains. We landed in Leh, which is about 11,000ft high, the lowest city (and pretty much only "city") in Ladakh. Ladakh is under the ambiguous conflict area (Pakistan?? India??) and just left of Tibet. The landscape is a continuation of the dry, cold Tibetan plains. Many Tibetans fled here after China invaded, joining the old buddhist Ladakhi kingdom and the beautiful Ladakhi people, who look something of Indians and chinese mixed together. The villages are mostly situated in the valleys, surrounded by walls of giant, dark, snow covered jagged peaks. The trekking passes are all incredibly high, thus closed during most seasons just like the roads. I did two treks while I was here. The first was with my two friends Ursela and Guillome. Guillome is a ski instructor from France who works in Switzerland. Ursela was a business woman from Germany who was afraid of heights. This proved to be a small problem when we were 500 m up, trekking on foot wide paths of extremely steep mountains. The trek was beautiful, though, and the cultural aspect was awesome, we stayed in small villages alone the way, drinking butter tea and eating tsampa breads.
The next trek I did alone. I think that this trek is best described in a semi personal email that I sent my mother when she asked for an update.
Mama dearest,
The trek I just did, I actually did it alone. No guide or friends
or anything. I didn't want to tell you or dad because I didn't want
you to worry. It was kind of a rite of passage for me. I stayed in
small Ladakhi homestays the whole time. The trek was supposed to last
for 4 days, but I did it in two. It was so beautiful to be alone in
the wilderness and be able to reflect on my life. I was carrying a
very heavy trekking bag with all the gear i needed, just in case I
did get lost or hurt in the wilderness. I crossed a mountain pass
that was over 17,000 ft. I think I'm on top of the world right now.
I'm trying to understand what it was about my life last year, in
Davis, that urged me to run away for so long. I keep on coming back
to the point that recovering from my illnesses and breakup, while in school,
was so incredibly difficult for me. Even some of the relationships I had around me
were stressful to me. And now I'm being drawn to silence
and alone time. I've been taking pretty big risks these days....
coming to India alone, trekking alone... I've never been one to take
risks, I've always been a scaredy cat, I've always leaned toward not
living as much instead. The risks that i'm taking now are small risks,
but I'm learning how to live and how to try harder do more, take care
of myself. I'm being smart about it, of course, but I am pushing
myself out of the Bianca comfort zone, which has been really small in
the past.
Have you ever read the Book "ceremony", by leslie silko? If not you
def should. Alot of the time, i feel like I am Tayo, the main
character. He is broken from war and must undergo a very long healing
ceremony. and this trip, for me, is a ceremony. I can quite
pinpoint the exact things I'm healing from, but whatever it is, it
runs quite deep... I feel refreshed in my travels and hope that I can
bring my healing back with me when I return.
Trekking actually reminds me of you.
I've been wearing the two pairs of woolen socks that you gave me on my
treks, and I feel like I am you! I imagine how you must have used
trekking in peru to heal from the divorce.
I'm trying to do this silent meditation for 10 days, starts on the
4th. I hope that it will quite my mind a bit. My mind is quite
peaceful here, on vacation, but I spin when i'm in my real life and
I'm hoping to numb this.
I love you mama!
Bianca
Soo yes the email was a bit personal, but I feel that it best describes my traveling. I did a 10 day silent meditation in a remote area of Ladakh shortly after. It was very intense!! All of your deepest fears and craving surface during your silence on day 3, and you must spend the next 7 days trying to meditate through these things. I came out of the meditation very calm and happy, and I made friends with the Ladakhi girls who had also participated. The morning the meditation ended was the last day of my Indian visa, so I hopped in a taxi and took a plane to NEPAL.
Trekking is huge in Nepal!! I immediately started planning my Khumbu trek, which would land me at Everest Base camp. I purposely came at the end of the season to avoid the tourists- Nepal is a huge contrast to Ladakh in this way; its very exploited by tourism. I wanted to do this trek alone (and easily could have! the roads are paved with guest houses and trekkers) but my mother begged me not to after discovering that I went on my last one alone.
You see, the problem is, I have problems with trekking guides. My guide in Sikkim left me with a porter and no food in the mountains- I had to join another couples' trek. I don't like guides. There is something about traveling alone as a woman where you run into pretty big problems in this area. I did get a guide, just to make my mother happy. He was 23 years old and he immediately started hitting on me; holding my hand, constantly asking me if I was ok, trying to have sex with me... the usual haha. We went up through Gokyo, a more remote area, and there were no other tourists around until day 3, when I met my friend Cameron and begged him to stay with me over the next couple of days. My guide was very mad and wanted to leave immediately when he realized that i didn't want him to be my boyfriend. Or my husband. I wonder if actually liked me or just wanted a visa out of Nepal haha. I convinced him to take me over cho-la pass (which was 17,782 ft and potentially dangerous alone) and then let him go. I did the rest of the trek with two guy friends I made in the next spot, Milo and Ben. They were very nice to me, they kind of adopted me. The best part of the trek was meeting the climbers. I met one spanish woman who had climbed 13 out of 14 of the 8,000 m and above peaks... without oxygen!! So cool!! I then trekked from Lukla to Jiri. It was all in the nepali hillside villages, and it was very remote. there are goats and chickens everywhere. I was trekking for 12 hours a day for this part ( I did a 5 day trek in 3 days) and it was really cool, because I got to see nepali lifestyle during all hours of the day... waking up in the mornings, farming in the day, kids walking home from school...ect. It was pretty cool.
So I guess the last two weeks in Nepal have been "dating" themed. I went on a date with a Nepali guy in Kathmandu, it was interesting to say the least. I think that the nepali people have a greater capacity to love. At least, they fall in love much much faster. I went on one date with this guy and backed off when I realized that I was just having some fun and he was serious. He was very upset with me. It was just a kiss, ok?! jeez.
Some friends and I headed to Pokhara the next day, which is extremely touristy. The lake is beautiful. There were the cutest 4 girls in our hotel who were orphans, and they had the biggest hearts ever. My friend Swatee could speak hindi, which is very similar to Nepali, and she really brought them close to us in a way that wouldn't have been achieved otherwise. This is also where I met the french guy, Mathew. fun fun. We parted our separate ways after a couple days, but it was a nice little romance.
I guess I've been having a little TOO much fun... drinking and what not a little too often. Did I mention that cannabis grows freely in Nepal? You definitely have an interesting mix of climbers, trekkers, stoners, and volunteers here.
I'm about to start a very interesting phase of my trip: WWOOFing on a farm. I'm really excited for this experience! I want to work with crops. Most of the Nepal landscape is composed of hills with farms packed everywhere. I have no doubt that working on a farm will give me a very rich cultural experience.
I have about 5 weeks left and will be absorbing as much of Nepal as possible, its a very beautiful country! Commence monsoon season 😊
Much love,
Bianca
Advertisement
Tot: 0.078s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0425s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Shashwat
non-member comment
Hi Bianca !
Its good to see your amazing experience of Nepal's visit & your trekking on several mountains but the one which you trekked alone was really appreciable as it was the push out of your comfort zone being a scaredy cat (as U mentioned :) ). Don't attempt these risks friend, have a safe trip, hope U haven't forgot me......... ENJOY the lovely Nepal.... Take care.