http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Hilly-Helen/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Hilly Helen en-us Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:00:13 +0000 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:00:13 +0000 Well I finally got to see some high mountains by booking the Everset flight at the last minute so the weather didn't know I was going as my name wasn't on the ticket and consequently it behaved itself I did have my doubts though as it was very misty first thing in the morning 5.45am. We sat around for hours and hours at the domestic airport waiting for the visibility to impove and when we fi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/Everest-flight/blog-217879.html Many things in Bhutan were beautiful except the weather we had a lot of cloud on the days when we were supposed to see the 'most beautiful mountain in the world' according to our Guide and other big mountains and the like I am beginning to think I'm jinxed about seeing views from high places maybe I shouldn't book the flight around Everest...It is the complete opposite to Ladakh in that http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Bhutan/Thimphu/blog-213851.html Glad to hear that the postcards are getting through with amazing speed. I was a bit dubious as to whether they would arrive as the postage is so cheap and you hear accounts of people steaming the stamps off so I would stand at the post office and insist the guy franked them infront of me. Mind you I reckon they keep the postage costs down by not putting any glue on the stamps so it's a tedio http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-206568.html Last week the staff students of SECMOL embarked on a major DIY project replacing the roof of the eating area adjacent to the kitchen.The original roof was constructed of 12ft poplar tree trunks spanning from the ends to one central beam supported by a single column. On top of the trunks at 90o were laid lots of shorter thinner willow sticks. Over these was a layer of dried twigs for insul http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-206559.html Life is still going well in Ladakh so here are a few snippets of the things I have been doing recently After years of not calling myself an engineer at work in case someone asked me a technical question I am happy to be considered an engineer in Ladakh partly because it is too complicated to explain what a project manager is but also because I realised that I do have quite a lot of practi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-202277.html In the last few days I've seen lots of traditional Ladakhi culture during the Ladakh festival. It runs for 15 days from 1st September and is aimed at Tourists although the Ladakhi people enjoy the events too. They have taken tourism on board in a big way and don't seem to mind people sticking cameras right in their faces They also seem to tolerate some Westerners walking round half naked where http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-198246.html I didn't race the mountain and went up it at snail's pace so it didn't defeat me but there is no accounting for the weather...Catherine and I joined two others to do a four day trek to climb the local mountain Stok Kangri which is 6130m high. We had a Guide a Cook and a Donkeyman with about four donkeys to carry our heavy stuff. We trekked up stunning valleys of coloured rocks to a camp at a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-197958.html This week the SECMOL students went on a 6day field trip to the Zanskar area which involved 2 days on a bus each way so I opted to go on a local trek with Catherine another volunteer from Quebec. We did a 'Homestay' trek which involved walking between villages and staying in the homes of local Ladakhi families. It was a great way to see both the scenery and to see inside Ladakhi homes and meet http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-195830.html Here's a little problem I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me with SECMOL pump water for irrigating the land up from the Indus river which is very fast flowing with lots of silt and small stones in it. They keep having problems with gravel getting into the mechanical seals.My idea to reduce this problem is to pass the water through a kind of sump prior to the pump made from a metal http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-192656.html SECMOL Students Educational Cultural Movement of LadakhWell Irsquove been at the SECMOL campus for more than a week now and havenrsquot been asked to teach any quadratic equations yet thankfully I have been trying to teach the Juniors how to add fractions though which has been quite a challenge for us all for me to explain fractions in simple terms and for them to understand not only http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-191549.html We definitely agreed that PIA stands for 'Perhaps It Arrives' not Pakistani International Airlines as we waited at Skardu airport for hours for our plane then had to get on a bus and endure another two days bumping down the KKH. I finally left Islamabad for Lahore on a PIA flight that did runIn Lahore I experienced true Pakistani hospitality as I was looked after splendidly by the brother S http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-190415.html Well I think I039ll run out of superlatives trying to describe the mountains I039ve just seen in the Karakoram range. They are just breathtaking. I had stunning views of K2 from its Base camp similarly of Broad Peak which we passed enroute. Although we had quite a few days with cloud we got to see most of the big peaks as we travelled up the Baltoro galcier I think it could be a long sl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/The-Great-Himalaya-Mountain-Range/blog-185788.html This is very different to my previous travels as I was met at the airport and ferried by taxi to the very posh hotel in Islamambad where I'm staying which thankfully has air conditioning as it's scorching outside. There was a wedding reception on last night so I thought the pops and bangs as I went to sleep were their fireworks. However when I could still hear them this morning I realised that http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Islamabad/blog-178311.html Well only 3 days left before I go yippeeJust sending you this pretrip Blog so I can check it works. If you haven't received this or can't open the links let me know. If you don't want to receive these updates then let me know in the next 3 days and I'll take you off the list otherwise I think you can remove yourself on line.If you want to read about where I'm going the links arePakistan http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Nottinghamshire/Nottingham/blog-176314.html