longhaulers

It’s such a nice feeling to wake up in the morning and think that all you have to do today is go for a walk in the mountains. That’s how we’ve been feeling for the last two weeks as we’ve treked a good 125miles around the Himalayas.

It took an excruciating 11 hour bus ride to reach the mountain town of Syrabesi. Once the bus got stuck in an old landslide site and everyone had to get off (including the 20people on the roof) so it could make a run through the sketchyness. We had once again hooked up with our friends Ben and Abby (a photo of big ben)…..

…and the next day the four of us started up a 6 day loop that had only been established as a treking route in the last year or so. That doesn’t mean the trail was new, parts of it were along the ancient trade routes connecting Tibet/China and Nepal. I suppose it was more or less new to treky trekertins. The route is best described as a ‘cultural trek’, as most of it passed through steep terraced agricultural land and Tamang villages. Tamang people are basically Tibetan people, sharing similar food, dress, religious practices, etc. but living in Nepal. Tibet was just a hop and a skip away. We could see big Tibetan peaks but the Nepali Army stops foreginers in their attempts to cross (we tried). The people along this route were amazing. They were dirt poor by western standards, simple farmers, but they were incredibly kind and accomodating. Between villages old dudes with big kukuris (curved knifes carried religiously by the men) stuck in the waist sashes would come up and start rattling off in Tamang like we were old neighbors. Most people spoke no english at all. Buddhism was very prevelant and the track often passed around ancient looking chortens with carved stone tablets in Tibetan (mani). There was several old gompas (monasteries) that looked truly ancient and colorful prayer flags adorned almost every structure. One of the high points of this walk was bathing in the healing hot spring pools of Tatopani under a full moon looking towards the peaks of Tibet. Sonja got a haircut…

From our last homestay of the walk in Briddim we said goodbye to our friends (they were off to Jordan, Scotland, and then Maine) and Sonja and I linked up the Tamang track to Langtang valley. The change was immediate, tourist hotels sprung up like spring wildflowers and lodge/shop owners were persistent in soliciting our tourist dollars. We were treking in the off season (the approaching monsoon obscures views) so most of the lodges were empty and lodge owners a bit desperate and pestering. That aside, this was a ‘nature trek’ and the natural did not dissappoint. We spent three days in the upper valley fully enjoying being surrounded by 20,000+ ft peaks. We did some amazing day hikes into tributary valleys, over peaks, and crazy glacial topography. One blue-bird morning we hiked up 15,655ft high Kyanjin Ri and sitting on top, on a pile of stones and prayer flags, was a giant raven that was totally unafraid of us. It just sat there watching us watching it. It was really cool and was probably quite auspicious in some way that I’m unable to interpret.

We spent the next couple hours at 15,000ft with a bunch of Tibetan mushroom hunters looking for the coveted Yarsa Gumba. Yarsa Gumba or Cordyceps sinensis is a bit hard to describe because of it’s pretty ecologically unique. Basically it’s a parasitic fungus that invades the body of a certain caterpillar, killing it and mummifying it. Then in spring, the mushroom fruiting body bursts out of the caterpillars head and emerges from the soil. The fungus is highly valued medicinally, and has apparently been used for a good 1,500years by the Tibetans. Visually it is difficult to spot as it only rises about an inch above ground and is camoflouged with the grass. We gave it a good two hours on our hands and knees but didn’t find any, but we watched one of the guys dig one out - caterpillar and all. We saw him again at the end of the day (10hours later) and he had found only 10, but he was stoked! They sell at about $800US/kilo (http://everything2.com/e2node/Cordyceps%2520sinensis%2520%2528dong%2520cong%2520xia%2520cao%2529).

On the way up the Langtang valley, we made an attempt to escape the tourist lodge circus and asked a local woman if we could stay at her house. She was enthusiastic to have us there and it was good to spread our tourist dollars to people who normally don’t get any. Her name was Ang-mu. She had a three kids, one of them being only about 30 days old. Her husband was a Yak herder who was out all day with their nine yaks, only coming home in late in the evenings. We sat around her fire (in the house…see photo) and drank cups of yak milk tea.

I never thought I’d consume so many yak products. Yak milk tea, Yak butter on Tibetan bread, Yak cheese, etc. I never tried the yak curd but I was wearing my yak wool scarf the whole time. When her husband came home we drank cups of chang, which is a fermented rice drink that would probably make you go blind if you drank enough. They were super friendly, even giving up their bed for us. It was a good experience, and so different than staying in touristico lodges, although you sacrifice some of your hygenic standards a bit. Animals live and crap under the house and in the yard…as do the children (if animals do why not humans?). The little boy laid a big one out across the front door and I was expecting him to get a walloping, but the turd was simply tossed into the yard and life went on as usual. The cooking fires are in the houses which also makes for pretty poor indoor air quality. But these are the conditions these pople live in everyday and it’s good for us to see that.

Coming out from Langtang we were planning on catching the pain-trap (bus) back to Kathmandu, but all the buses were stopped due to the deposing of the Nepalese Monarchy by the Maoists. This seems to have been a peaceful transistion, with elections almost free of vote-intimidation and fighting, but it’s been a long bloody struggle. Apparently about 13,000 people have died in the last 10 years in fighting between maoist geurillas and the army. Most people seem a bit indifferent towards the maoists; they’re willing to give them a chance because the previous government did nothing for the people. Others say the Maoists are just as corrupt as the status quo, but everyone is happy that the fighting has stopped (for the most part).

Anyway…..because the buses were stopped we decided to walk back to Kathmandu. This meant a our 2,000 meter descent from Langtang would be matched by a 2,3o0 meter (7,500ft) ascent the next day. We agreed it was probably one of the toughest walks we’ve ever done. At one point we lost the trail, but then hired a 10 year old guide to take us on the ‘local track’…all we had to do was eat luch at his parents’ lodge. The local track was unrelentingly steep and the 10- year old was running circles around us while we slugged up the hill. We spent a night at the beautiful Gosaikunda Lakes before huffing and puffing over the 15,000ft pass and onto the Helambu trek, losing another 2,000meters into hot jungle and leech territory. Then Sonja pooped her pants, she thinks she had giardia but she’s better now.

We eventually made it out to Thimbu after a 7hour walk, where we caught a 6 hour combustion engine ride back to the city. It was so nice not to hear a motor for two weeks. But here we are back in the city…

Yesterday we went Swayambunath Stupa where a group of Tibetan monks and nuns were doing a 24hour relay fast to protest the violence in Tibet by Chinese oppression. They were on their 52nd day of continuous fasting and mantra chanting. A detail that I felt emphasizes the compassion of Tibetan Buddhists was that they also had a donation box set up to collect funds for Chinese earthquake victims!

Anyhow, this was a long post, thanks for reading if you made it this far….   Another two days in Kathmandu and then off to Delhi, India. Last I checked it was over a hundred degrees in Delhi…stoked. Then back to Rishikesh where we will reunite with our bicycles!!! and head off towards the rugged and remote Spiti Valley in the Indian Himalaya.

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