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From left to right - Caroline, Kamal's auntie, and Kamal our trekking guide at auntie's cafe near the Japanese World Peace Buddhist Stupa above Pokhara town and lake - February 2002
A beautiful peak of Hindukush, Terichmir, 7775 m, could be approached from Chitral town, either from climbing or trekking.
Tserin began to trek when she was in the eleventh standard and a year later joined the Ladakhi Women’s Trekking Company (LWTC) as a porter. The LWTC, a completely women-run outfit, employs ten guides and ten porters. As a porter, she had the opportunity to learn different routes—there is no shortage of trekking options in Ladakh—and how to communicate with trekkers from all over the world. In a couple of years, she had graduated to a guide and now leads fifteen to twenty treks during the four to five month long tourist season. In the off-season, she is a student of Economics, Political Science and the Tibetan language.
Unlike Tserin, I was a trekking newbie. On the first day of our three-day trek through Sham Valley, I twisted my ankle, suffered blisters, and waned under the sun in the shade-less deserts of Ladakh. The altitude didn’t help either; at one point, I stood with my hands on my hips, gasping for breath.
“A seventy-two year old completed this trek,” Tserin said.
“Really?”
“Yes. She was all red too because of her high BP. But she finished it.”
“And she was seventy-two?”
“Seventy-two.”
I looked at the smiles on the faces of Lea and Toby, my fellow trekkers.
“Okay, I’m fine. Let’s go,” my bruised ego said.
We stayed with local families in the villages we passed, and this concept of the homestay is essential to the trekking experience in Ladakh. It offers travellers a chance to interact with the locals, and the income gained from homestays helps the locals make up for the losses caused by snow leopard attacks on their livestock. We thankfully didn’t encounter any predators, but everyone seemed to have a snow leopard story.
“When I was in the fifth or sixth standard,” Tserin said, “there was a snow leopard attack in our village. The leopard made its way through a hole in the fence and killed 45 goats. In honour of the goats, the villagers put a white blanket over the hole in the fence.”
“Do your parents still raise goats?”
“No… only cows now.”
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People in Ladakh (Part 8 of 19)
We got our first taste of "real" Lao food. Hong Thong explained that most of the local stuff are grown organically as (1) fertilizer fed food tastes funny and (2) most of the local farmers can't really afford good fertilizers (3) Local people really have an environmental concern on what excess fertilizers and chemicals does to their food and water source.
I really hope he meant every word he said as we really do need reduce our reliance on synthetic chemicals to grow our food and do away with all those GM stuff.
Final days trekking on a five day point to point trek in the foothills of Annapurna, Nepal 3rd November 2015
Saying a formal goodbye to our trekking guide and porters.
Our trekkingguide, Bond shows his kicking skills. The former Thaiboxing professional quit the sport to become a tourguide...
Me with So, my ever gentle guide who helped me as I trekked through the rice terraces of Sapa and into So's village. So if from the Black Hmong tribe and one of the tribal girls who walked with us wove a little gift of ferns and flowers for me. It's on my "walking stick", a bamboo pole I bought for 10,000VND before the trek down the village.
Final days trekking on a five day point to point trek in the foothills of Annapurna, Nepal 3rd November 2015
Basanta Lodge Dhampus
Filling water bottles before setting off on the last two hours trekking.