Leaving Leh

We will be flying out of Leh early in the morning. Tomorrow afternoon we should be in Kathmandu, Nepal. Looking forward to some good Dal Bhat. We are ready to leave Leh even though we have had a really good time and have met some interesting people here. We hope that Bryan and Mary and Bill and Mary - two other US couples have made it safely to their next destination. So as our friends group begins to dissolve it is time to go. Angchok took us to dinner last night as a going away and brought his 12 year old son. We had a good time.

As we discuss the last month we can't believe all the different things we saw and did. We laugh saying that if this were all and we were heading home we would have had a rich trip.

The home stay trek in Sham Valley was great and introduced us to the traditional Ladakhi home life and food.
The Nubra Valley trip was so beautiful and we saw what a traditional Muslim village is like. Being that close to Pakistan and the fighting on the high glacier was sobering and brought the threat of agressive neighbors close to us - we are lucky to not have that in the US.
The Markah Valley trek was challenging for us but was a real highlight to our trip. Remote villages and high passes and our first pony trek. Really nice, happy people. Great time.
Seeing and spending some time with the Nomads above Tsomoriri Lake was very interesting -- we live such a Cush life and are many times unhappy while these people live a hard life and seem to be very happy. A couple who just returned from there told us the Nomads had now moved on to lower grazing areas.

Snow level on the mountains around Leh has moved down a bunch the last few days and it has been raining here and getting colder. New people are showing up daily but are younger and have the look of real outdoor people. They will be trekking in much colder and snowy conditions than we did.

We are working to select a suitable trek in Nepal and have already started talking about what food we want first and what restaurants we will go to first! As John says - Food is an adventure!

We will write from Nepal as soon as we can.

Darryl and Susan

Ladakhi Festival

We were lucky enough to be in Leh for the annual folk festival.  Great time watching the dances, music, polo etc.  The ladies headdresses are fantastic with so many turquoise stones.  All the villages and some tribal areas in Ladakh come in their traditional dress.

We were sitting on the edge of the polo match with balls sometimes flying into our sitting area and then battles over the ball jut a few feet from us with flailing mallets.  A few photos below.

We would ask for permission for a photo and talk to them as much as possible, showing them the photo in the view finder.  They all would giggle and point and get their friends to look.  Fun.

Beautiful jewelry passed down through generations.

Far off village getting ready to do the plate dance.

Backstage a tribal village gets the call that they are next to perform and move out for the field with their drums.

Love these handwoven shoes and the pattern.

Good Hat.  And a good performance.

The lady on the left asked if I could send her a photo and gave an address.  For 30 rupees each a photo shop made four copies of two photos so I could send.  The lady in the post office wanted to see the photos and said this is a friend of mine she is still here in Leh - I will give it to her tonight!  So we left it with her.  She said the village is so remote that it will take weeks for mail to get there,  The village is Skurbuchan.  It felt good to provide the photos.

Ladies from another remote village.

Tsomoriri Lake and Tsokar Lake

9/23/13 We have been on a one night trip to the high lakes of Tsomoriri and Tsokar. We overnighted in a town overlooking Tsomoriri, Kozog, at just over 15,000 ft and it was Cold. We went to see the local monastery - some of these are really old and beautiful. Then we went further up to see if there was a nomad camp around. We ended up crawling into a nomad tent and visiting for a while. The tent was hand woven Yak wool and looked black in the distance. The tents are so low - dug in with a circular rock wall under ground maybe three feet with about three feet of very low flat tent above. It was so neat and orderly since a whole family live in there. They burn any kind of dung they can get in their stove. We're very polite and welcoming. They have many Pashmina goats which are their main source of income when they sell the wool. Sheep for milk, cheese and meat and Yaks and Horses for moving up and down with the seasons. Really interesting.

Then going past Tsokar Lake on the way back to Leh we saw a lot of birds and red foxes hunting the pikas and marmots and hot springs spewing up. Then over quite a pass Tanglang-la at 5224 meters 17,135 ft. It was spitting snow and driving these roads is a bit frightening at best and we get pretty beat up being bounced around so much.

Photos of army bases definitely not done but this sign seemed OK.  Up here India is surrounded by enemies claiming this area as theirs - China and Pakistan.  

Tsomoriri Lake -- mountains on left are about 22,000 ft

Driving through high desolate beautiful country.

Big Yak making a break from the heard.

Nomad hearder tent at above 15,000 ft near Tsomoriri Lake. 

 

He has moved a stone and invited us into the tent.  What a nice smile for someone living this really hard life.Most are not in the traditional herder robes but we saw some still in traditional garb, but not this guy, however his wife surely was but she was down in the village helping with the harvest earning some barley.

Inside the hand woven wool tent everything was very neat and clean.  Notice the large battery connected to the solar panel outside!  Also there is a propane cooking burner. Blankets were so neatly folded and stored around the tent ledge.

The top is open in the center and he tells us that it stays that way unless it snows and then they throw wool blankets over it.

The Nomad (forgot his name - we have to start writing things down on the spot)  Is considering a question from Susan as translated by our driver - All chances of error because the driver is not very good with English,  So we think the answer is about 70 Pashmina goats. sheep enough for the winter and for wool, some Yaks and horses to use for carrying the household when moving.  Notice the head space -- the tents that sit barely above the ground are dug in and surrounded by a circular rock wall

He used sheep and goat dung to fire up the stove and put some water on for tea.  His son was very polite but he wanted candy -- we gave him a banana we had with us and he ran back to the tent all excited,

A little girl in the town at the lake where harvest is in full swing before the snows arrive. She is in traditional dress for the area.

Tsomoriri Lake surrounded by big snow covered peaks.

Chanting while they cut the barley with hand scythes. 

Gathering what small pieces are left in a field.

Red fox hunting for pikas

Yes they are here too -- The Wild Ass.

We gave this man a ride to where he will begin his 4 hour walk up into the mountains to home.  We are at about 14,500ft.

Susan's photo of the Nomad herder.

Susan's photo of the Tsomoriri Lake

Plain above Tsokar Lake

Plain above Tsokar Lake with our road in the foreground.  Desolate high beautiful place.  Nomad animal pen in foreground for when they move through here grazing the animals.

Beautiful, rugged canyons - passing them regularly. 

View across the lake - snow in the mountains

They posed so we took their photos -- will come up with a name -- for now Abe and Bill  OK?

Yaks on the move

Markah Valley Trek

Old Mani Stones carved many 100s years ago -- maybe 100s years.  Some are in a scanscrit language called Pani.  Very old.  These photo are mostly Tibetan language.

Markah Valley on the way to our next camp.

Stenzen - Cook - in his office,

At Chortens and Mani wall in Markah Valley

Young boy at the school next to our camp in the village of Markah.

Looking down on camp from Markah Monastery.

Drum in Monastery

Mani stone

Working her garden in Markah.

More and better photos on the way.


What a trek! Beautiful streams, valleys, narrow gorges, many many river crossings ( by rock hopping or wading - few bridges), High mountain passes, Cold rain, some snow, some really cold nights, wildlife including wolves in our camp, and a really good crew. Overall Great trip. We are now recovering in our nice guest house in Leh trying to remember all that we saw and did in the last 8 days.

Angchock of Ladakh Travel has put together some really good trips for us. He organized this trek and picked the crew he thought would be best.

I think what I will remember most are the sounds of the camp waking up and starting each day. The Buddhist prayer chants, the pony bells as the ponies were brought in to be prepared to be loaded, and the pony man in a very deep soothing voice singing softly and talking to the ponies while he checked their hooves, their skin and carefully placed blankets and saddles on each one. It was the most soothing amazing way to wake up. Then the camp helper would show up at our tent with what is called bed tea. A tray of tea, instant coffee, hot chocolate, and a pot of hot water so we could have tea before getting out of the tent.

The pony man would sometimes take the ponies up to a high pasture at night where the grass was good and go get them at about 4 AM. As they returned to camp their bells, which were of many different tones, could be heard as they approached camp. Other times he would source food for them in local villages and people would come into camp with huge bundles of alfalfa or barley on tump lines on their foreheads.

The Tibetan pony man slept in his own tent resembling a teepee but was the traditional tent for pony men. Who knew? It looked like a nomad's tent and was quite interesting. He travelled with everything he needed to live in the tent-cooking gear and all, even though he ate with the crew in the cook tent.

Our cook and guide also sourced fresh potatoes, cabbage, and carrots from local people with large gardens for us. Even at Nimaling at 4,730 meters our guide came to us saying the shepherd that lived up there had fresh curd (yogurt) and butter and things that good shepherds have to sell. So we had some wonderful fresh curd and butter on potatoes that night. Not that we could eat much. The strange thing at high altitude is even though your body is burning up a lot of calories and you've been climbing for hours, the thought of eating makes you feel sick and its hard to eat.

We ate in a dining tent with a plastic take apart table and chairs and were served our meals there with a little electric lantern hanging above. The crew ate after we finished and had gone to bed. Sometime in the fourth day we realized that the acquisition of locally made Chang was also part of this trek's goals as strangers would sometimes appear in camp with strange liquid in old soda or some glass bottle. We tried some very small taste and left it to the working men to consume.

Our first night in Rumbak was interesting and scary but only after we woke and got up the next morning. The night before our camp had been invaded by Tibetian wolves intent on getting a nice pony or food from the cook tent. The whining growls had awakened me several times but I didn't know what it was and nothing was bothering us. Our tent was 40 or 50 yards away from the main action where the pony man, helper and guide were fending off the assault. Maybe the wolves were regrouping around our tent for another run at their goal because the sounds close to our tent woke me several times? The cook did not join in the defense, telling us the next day that he had been terrorized and couldn't sleep all night. I guess the sound of the stream we were camped on and the distance kept us unaware. For that we are thankful or I may have unzipped the tent and crawled out to find a bad face to face surprise!

Our cook was the personality of the trip, wearing a long bright pink scarf wrapped in various ways around his head and neck and face and striking dramatic hilarious poses when photographed. He had such a huge mischievous grin that just looking at him made us laugh and lifted our spirits.

As remote as it felt there were still several other trekking groups, couples or individuals on the same route. We took a day off on the fourth day in the village of Markah to rest up and wash clothes etc. That night another set of Trekkers arrived in the surrounding camp sites. Most of the trekkers were Europeans and Israelis. We saw no one else from the US. There was also a Canadian group.

Our guide Stanzin, who was always wanting to help when there was a need, ran up and down the trail and acquired ponies for two young Israeli ladies and a Canadian, who is working in California, to be taken to the two person hand operated cable car across the river at Chilling where a car back to Leh can be hired. They all were doing home stays and had eaten some bad food and were in pretty bad shape. Stanzin is 25 and has done this trek more than 30 times and is always kind and helpful. So every village we passed through there were always ladies inviting us in for tea and snacks who loved talking with him and sharing the news of the area which he would share with us. He is a devout Buddhist and explained and showed us what the different stupas and monastery histories were. He always knew who had the keys to get into the monasteries in these remote areas where there was not always a monk.

The trek went from the Leh side of the Stok Mountains over a 15,000 plus or minus pass and down to the valley on the other side of the mountain range. ( Markah Valley). Then the length of the valley and over a 17,000+ pass back over to the Leh side of the range. There are no roads in the valley and it is part of the Hemis National Forest.

Approaching the last high pass we had to stay high and cold for several days. The last night was at Nimaling above 15,000 ft. Once we climbed the ridge we could see camp across a large plain. Great! We just stride out and walk flat to camp! No way at 15,000 nothing is really flat.. Ha! Then the next day was similar - we climbed a high ridge and were faced with a large plain then the last climb to the 17,000+ ft pass -Gongmaru La. Seemed to take forever just to get across that plain at 16,000 ft. All the while the view is getting better and better. The Zanscar range with the many jagged peaks and the Himalayas behind us. The snow covered Stok range all around us, and from the top being able to see the Ladakhi, Karakoram range in Pakastan including we were told K2.

Then the trail plunged down the scree slopes on the other side and into a narrow turquoise, red, green, brown colored steep narrow deep gorge. We crossed the stream rock hopping many many times. Sometimes the walls were so steep we had to rock hop down the stream to get by the high walls, other times we had to take very precarious steep narrow trails up and then down to the stream again. There were waterfalls, huge bolders and seemingly impassable places. After about 5 hours of this finally camp could be seen perched up on an exposed windy ridge/ledge above the gorge. Our last night in camp was windy and cold and it lightly rained all night making the next day's rock hopping a bit harder but Stanzin took rocks and placed them in the stream to make dry crossing possible. It was lightly snowing when we got up the last morning - we were glad it wasn't rain.

We walked out and met our car. Had a group photo and drove back to Leh. The pony man probably made it home with his ponies well after dark since his transport was on foot back home.

We are trying to recover from upper respiratory infections, taking antibiotics and sleeping a lot. A big festival starts tomorrow in town and we plan to attend for a couple of days and then head for the high lakes where we are told we will probably come in contact with some nomadic people. Sounds interesting.

Darryl and Susan.

On the pass -- Stok mountains behind

On the pass with the Zanscar mountains in the background

The gorge we descended after the pass.

Pony man.  What a gentle nice person.  Tibetan refugee.

Sharing chapati with her favorite pony.

The trekking team -- Front left guide Stenzen, pony man, Norboo helper, cook Stensen.

The guys checing their messages at the end of the trek when we got service and the Pony man watching and wondering!