Advertisement
Published: June 29th 2008
Oh yes i do actually, it is the spelling misake of the previous entry. 'Survived' not servied LOL
Seriously though the past 10 days have been the most intense of my life. I have felt like i have been on a constant period, i know that will affend you ladies but tough - My emotions have ranged from being very happy to being completely relaxed and content all the way through to anger, loniness and probably the most depressed i have ever been when a female of the species has not been involved and let me tell you, that much change is VERY tiring!!
Here we go, this could be a long one as bare with me as there will be some personal comments towards the end.
As you all know i have been out of contact for the past week camping in the Indian Mountains. I spent 6 nights and 7 days doing this where i climbed to a height of 9000ft and could see K2. Those of you who do not know, K2 is he second highest mountain in the world. I climbed so high that i got to play in the snow, i made snow balls, had a snow ball fight and of course turned some of it a lovely bright shade of yello 😊
The gypsies who live in the mountains, 6 months at the top and 6 months at the bottom camped with me, 5 of them and just me. We had horses to carry all our gear so all i had to carry was myself and a camera which at times was about all i could carry. Gypsies in the mountains are not like English gypsies or Pikes as they are better know - They do not steal, they do not expect anything from you, they they will do anything they possibly can to help your enjoy yourself and make you fel happier and they will not charge you a fortune to tarmac your driveway and then disappear after doing half the job. They are similar in the sense they leave there crap where ever they go. I found this surprising considering they live of the land. A couple of times we had camp fires and i thought being the peole they were they would have a traditional method to starting the fire - Alass no, whack on the petrol and chuck their nearly finished fag on!!
The emotional part ... The happiness and contentment came from having cleared my head completely because when you are vertuall;y alone on a mountain side with no-one to talk to all you can do is think and i mean really think - My head is a scary place i have decided. I guess at somepoint i wanted to have a deep week of thinking but assumed it would come a few months in not in the first week. I thought about everything through from being sent out of class at primary school for doing arm pit farts through to dropping out of uni, through to all the girls i have been with (13 by the way - Someone let me know if that is a good number or not? I think it is alright but certainly room for improvement. As all my school reports used to say "Could do better if only applied himself") through to dropping out of uni, to the happier side of things to, scuba diving in Eygpt, the readers of this - My friends - the season i scored 15 goals for Ware Youth (missed a pen that season as well and it still hurts - Went straight down the middle but keeper did not move), to, yes mum, family etc. I did mjost of this on the Saturday night. All was going fine, we had climbed for 5 hours and setup camp about 3pm and then the skies opened and when are in a tent alone (It was an orange 'A' frame tent same as the ones the scouts and guides used to use - Hink this is what set of the tinking because as soon as put my head in side the smell took me back 10 years to when i last used one, it was exactley like being on Scout camp 10 years ago all over again) on Indian mountain side with nothing to do from 3pm onwards, everyone you are with talks only small stuttery English and my Indian is non-exsistant then the brain wanders and i am not afraid to say it but i had a little cry for a couple of minutes. The enormatity of the challenage i have taken on hit me then, it had not up until that point because the weeks leading up to leaving, the flight and even the first few days were all run on adrenaline and WOW did it kick in big. Some of you will find out what i mean in 4/5 weeks.
I was also ill on the mountains, we went fishing one day caught some trout then ate them, because this was the 7/8th night in India and had not had 'Delhi belly' yet did not even think about getting sick, bu sick i got. Each morning when healthy the only place to take a dump is in the woods, and taking a dump in the woods in the bright sunshine on a mountainside is very liberating - Have diarrehea on a mountain is not liberating, in fact it is good damn painfully and unpleasant but hey i got through it - Just about!! Day after illness i climber about 3000ft further to see K2 and that was hard, not only was it incredibly steep but as had not food inside me and both ends had been working overtime the previous day it had to walk/climb on will power alone - Did not know i had that much will power!
Going back to the food - "OH MY GOD" i was feed like i was a captive and they needed information out of me. I do not mean they starved me, they over feed me and mean over feed - By the third day one mouthful of dinner and nothing was going in, i was almost glad to be ill so body could empty out. We ate 3 meals a day, not unusal but each meal consisted of about 3/4 different courses. E.G -
Breakfast ... Cornflakes, 4 slices of toast, omlett
Lunch ... A bowl of flavered rice which if served at Shahenshah is meant to go round 3 people, biscuits.
Dinner ... Soup, rice, a meat dish, 1 or 2 vegetable dishes, salad followed by a pudding.
That is enough food to feed me for a week, in fact even after i was ill i did nt eat for 2 days as my body just would not allow any food in. It was tortue because when they said "dinner sir' i was frightened and thinking of excuses to get out of it. But better to get to much than too little i guess.
This brings me to my thought of the day. The gypsy people are pretty much penniless and have very little, their homes are built out of dried mud and wood, they have a maximum of 3 rooms - kitchen and lounge one room, bedroom another room and if have a third this is for the goats and baby cows. However these people will do almost anything for you. Where as so called first world countries where food, money, water and technology is plentiful people are sellfish. So has technology ruined our modern world and the decenty of people - I think so, what do you think??
Final paragrapg guys - When i came down the mountain the town i was staying in, Sringar, was on strike and i mean every shop was closed only the doctors remained open for emergencies. There was some dispute over some land a few years back, i asked someone whatr was going on and his reply was, "people are bored and have nthing better to do than strike" Fair enough i though.
Oh oh one more - Don't give in now youa re nearly there ... There was a guy who is 58 also staying in Sringar in same house boat, asked him how he was and what he was doing there, his answer was, and i quote ... "I have a feeling something will happen, i can not explain it but will wait here until it does (he has been there a month so far), in Belgium i have been put in a mental hospital 5 times because of my thoughts but here they understand me"
Over and out
Marky
Laura - Will not donate but i am sure you can understand why!
Everyone - Send address and i will send postcard (eventually)
Mum - Hope this has kept you upto date enough
Dad - Thanks for footy scores
Gemma - Good luck with job and say hi to Chris
Bye
PS - Have not read this back so hope it makes sense.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0399s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
gem
non-member comment
lol u should turn all this in 2 a novel wen i finish...made me and my mum laugh loads... xx