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we survived our maiden himalayan voyage! we had an amazing time hiking the old stone trails built by the British, scrambling over an incredibly steep pass (almost 8,000ft) and into green terraced valleys and oak, chestnut, and rhododendron forests. we got a day late start due to heavy rain and the first april snow in the mountains in 20 yrs. but we were fortunate to have sunny blue-skied days and clear mornings with spectacular views of the mountains covered in fresh snow. the days were typically really hot and nights/early mornings were freezing!! the forests and snowmelt rivers were just beautiful and sometimes all that we could hear were the chime-like bells of the pack mules, sheep or goats. no horns. no city clamour. just shanti, shanti, shanti. our accomodation varied everywhere we stayed from gov't guest house to tent to wood cottage, to old colonial style home. we discovered a magical little village named khati and stayed there two nights. the village was terraced in beautiful green swaths of wheat and women/children carried the harvested wheat in big bamboo baskets on their heads. it was surprising to see bamboo growing in the forests (mostly on the exposed hillsides) but the locals strip the bamboo with their crescent shaped knives and use it to make rugs, baskets, roofs, etc. each morning the owner of the cottage where we stayed in khati would motion towards the mountains and say "nice glacier." we enjoyed this quirky remark and indeed it was a nice glacier. we spent one full day hiking pack-free towards the pindari glacier, alongside the pindari river. about 6 or 7 km later our plans changed quickly as dark clouds rolled in. we waited out a rainhailslush storm in a smokey little bamboo tea hut, charred back from the litte fire. it was so funny watching the water buffalo's and cows come running in from the storm and the village women walking barefoot between their huts. we were so grateful for the shelter. happy to be warmed by the small smoky fire, a steaming bowl of maggie (the indian masala-flavored version of ramen noodle soup), and the kindness of the little old man shop keeper. by the end of the storm (about 2hours) everything was white: the hillsides, the grooves in the river rocks, the backs of cows. the one gripe we have from our trek is the monotony of the food. no more dhal and rice, please! as you can imagine, there's not much variety in mountain meals. all the food gets hauled in by mules. by the end of our trip we were eager for something, anything, besides the "d" word. so now we are happily stuffing ourselves with naan and trying to refrain from dreaming about all the things we want to eat when we get home! today we will make our way back to the plains, heading towards varanasi/sarnath, and then onto delhi. from the himalayas to sanfrancisco in less than 2 weeks. that's wild. see you soon!! xoxo!
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