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Published: November 14th 2006
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Well due to complaints re my lack of blogging I feel I should get going again…Please ingore spelling mistakes and typos...typing at camp is something of a race to finish before the computer crashes.
Last weekend we went trekking in the Himalayas (so much cooler than just ‘mountains’). Started by getting a bus to McLeod - as there were 25 of us idex hired a normal state bus to take us all there…. Several people sat on the roof for some time, those of us in the safety of the inside could just hear “DUCK” yelled every ten seconds…. Power cables run about 3ft above the top of buses here..
Having safely not lost anyone off the edge we arrived in McLeod, met our guides, checked into our hotel and did the compulsory wandering and shopping. Met up again for dinner (Tibetan food rocks, especially a noodle dish called Thukpa =- basically large, flat, square noodles in stock with vegetables, meat, tofu etc mixed in). Reconvened at 7am for a 7.30 start up the mountain. The first stretch was extremely steep (provoking nightmares about the rest of the trip..) and took about an hour before emerging from the forest to
a little rest stop with wonderful views of valleys to two sides, and mountains to the others. Atopped here for breakfast, Tibetan bread, hard boiled eggs and various jams, cheese, mayo etc - as with every other meal eat ate during kend noone can quite remember whether the food was amazing, or whether everything just tastes better up a mountain…During breakfast someone started a game of “Big Blue Moon” - anyone who remembers the Hand Game in Amsterdam should have some idea of the mental anguish…
Then basically uphill for another 4 hours! We hit the clouds at about 10am, which was really amazing, hopefully some of the pictures I’ve taken should give yopu some idea. There was a path all the way up, but it varied from hard-packed earth, to piles of loose slate. To vaguely laid massive rocks, which required some leaping from rock to rock. McLeod is at about 1700m, and we camped at just over 2,800m, so we climbed over 1000m in a day. Again a stupidly tasty meal at the top for lunch - this though had all been carried up on our team of donkeys (who were allowed to roam free at the campsite,
and due to previous expeditions have clearly learnt that if they stick their noses in a tent the might get food,….) and then cooked by our guides.
The campsite led to what is currently number one on the list of surreal experiences (narrowly overtaking being on a bus racing another bus along mountain roads, and the previous top spot of standing behind a monk in the queue for the ATM) of meeting a shepherd, his flock, and his flock of lambs. Clearly Indian lambs are trained to follow people, as when the shepherd disappeared (we later discovered he’d gone to the temple to offer a lamb..) the flock of about 25 lambs followed Kate, Alex and I wherever we went… Just take a moment to imagine the three of us attempting to loose 25 lambs who are bleating madly with fear that they might loose us…. (see: dozens of photos of lamnbs…I’ve published a small selection)
In the evening we kept to tradition, made a bonfire, and sat around singing songs and telling ghost stories, with the added bonus that the majority of the singing and stories were courtesy of our Tibetan guides. I’ve got a couple of videos, so
hopefully will get them up here when I’ve got a connection that won’t die under the weight.
Next morning the overly energetic trekked up to the snowline (and several promptly fell down…leading to the conversation “oh my god, what did you do to your elbow?” “I fell down a Himalaya!!”) Whilst the rest of us sat and talked to our lead guide about Tibet, Buddhism and the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. And then we trekked back down the mountain…. (which took about half the time the uphill bit did…).
Back at camp (which for two days resounded with cries of “argh! My muscles!”) I got back to teaching my little horrors in the mornings and little angels in the afternoon… Mornings were ok but the teacher came in on Tuesday and told us that what we were teaching was far too hard for them. So now we’re teaching out of their books, and they’re all bored stiff. Which is not a good thing when boredom seems to equal an excuse to kick someones legs out from under them and then karate chop the back of their necks.. (7year old boys - who’d have them?!). I’m now teaching on
my own in the afternoons, but the kids (4 4th graders, 1 5th grade, 1 7th and 1 8th) are really good, so its good fun. I’m trying to ignore the little voice that tells me that I really like teaching…
All the old volunteers who were here when we arrived, and some our those in our original group left on Friday morning. Of course this meant partying on Thursday night, and some bright spark decided what we all needed was a good old Eurovision song contest… Germany won, and Britain narrowly avoided taking the bottom three places (with Land of Hope and Glory Breakdown, The Streets (She’s fit) and Teletubbies say Eh-Oh). No work on Friday (this happens fairly frequently, when nooone’s quite sure why…) so we went back to McLeod for the weekend. Having checked into a nice hotel, but then spending rather too long in McLlos (Pierce Brosnan’s fav bar when he’s in town) and Q-Ball (..predicatably, a pool hall) we got back to out hotel to find it was locked shut…. So all eight of us slept in a 4 person room elsewhere….
Note to anyone headed to India, McLeod is evil, it will
steal all your money… This includes girls who hate shopping and guys who like to pretend they hate shopping 😉 as we have both and we’re all wondering what on earth to do with our various purchases….
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sam b
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crikey
Blimey would you look at those views, I'm awfully jealous as I sit here trying to catch up on 2 weeks of uni work. And Thukpa sounds amazing. Keep having fun and keep the blogs coming. Laters.