Part 3
6 - Cold Mountain
The nomad alpine trek was classified as ‘challenging’ and was to take 8 hours. Having done the 8-hour in Chiang Mai, this experience was easier as the climate was cooling and dry. However, the terrain consisted of steep inclines, and most of the route was taken on horses, which is not the most comfortable experience. These horses had no saddles or bridles, just cloth draped over their backs and a piece of cord as reins. (Riding elephants was far kinder on the posterior.)
Before beginning a trek, the guide, Tenzing, made an offering at the stupa, burning Styrofoam, then spruce wood, then sangji, which is a powdered mixture of butter, milk, tea, sugar and zanba. We then walked around it thrice in an anticlockwise fashion (as it is bad luck to pass to the right of a stupa), before embarking. After walking through the 800-year old village of Geinu, and the dabaoshi (Ringha) monastery, the rest of the way was on horseback, save for a few times when the path was too narrow, or when the vegetation was too low.
The nomad lodge was a wooden cabin that had a porta-loo in it, and a little fireplace that doubled up as a stove. I was expecting something like sandwiches for lunch, but instead lunch turned out to be a spread of noodles, pumpkin soup, potatoes with onions, black pepper chicken and yak meat. (Which tastes not like chicken, but more like beef.)
Horses in Tibet don’t have names; they are treated much like sheep and cows. I asked the horseman:
‘他叫什么名?’
‘马.’... -_-“
The forest was very scenic, with mountain passes that were flanked by huge shale outcrops that formed a burnished, rocky passage, like that of a castle, and there was a lot of tree’s beard moss which was draped all over the branches. The dewdrops caught in them were just sparkling in the sunlight and when they hung over head it formed some kind of boulevard in an Elvish garden. The 108 types of mushrooms in the forest provide all the medicines used by the nomads. Eg, tree’s beard moss is burned, and then rubbed on wounds as dressing.
7 - The Way Home
Leaving paradise was rather sad, and this was one of those times where I prefer staying there than coming back. It was another long day of transits and flights, finally arriving home late at night, promptly missing Saturday Night Live. Damn.
Photos uploaded next week. If i have any idea how to do that.
The nomad alpine trek was classified as ‘challenging’ and was to take 8 hours. Having done the 8-hour in Chiang Mai, this experience was easier as the climate was cooling and dry. However, the terrain consisted of steep inclines, and most of the route was taken on horses, which is not the most comfortable experience. These horses had no saddles or bridles, just cloth draped over their backs and a piece of cord as reins. (Riding elephants was far kinder on the posterior.)
Before beginning a trek, the guide, Tenzing, made an offering at the stupa, burning Styrofoam, then spruce wood, then sangji, which is a powdered mixture of butter, milk, tea, sugar and zanba. We then walked around it thrice in an anticlockwise fashion (as it is bad luck to pass to the right of a stupa), before embarking. After walking through the 800-year old village of Geinu, and the dabaoshi (Ringha) monastery, the rest of the way was on horseback, save for a few times when the path was too narrow, or when the vegetation was too low.
The nomad lodge was a wooden cabin that had a porta-loo in it, and a little fireplace that doubled up as a stove. I was expecting something like sandwiches for lunch, but instead lunch turned out to be a spread of noodles, pumpkin soup, potatoes with onions, black pepper chicken and yak meat. (Which tastes not like chicken, but more like beef.)
Horses in Tibet don’t have names; they are treated much like sheep and cows. I asked the horseman:
‘他叫什么名?’
‘马.’... -_-“
The forest was very scenic, with mountain passes that were flanked by huge shale outcrops that formed a burnished, rocky passage, like that of a castle, and there was a lot of tree’s beard moss which was draped all over the branches. The dewdrops caught in them were just sparkling in the sunlight and when they hung over head it formed some kind of boulevard in an Elvish garden. The 108 types of mushrooms in the forest provide all the medicines used by the nomads. Eg, tree’s beard moss is burned, and then rubbed on wounds as dressing.
7 - The Way Home
Leaving paradise was rather sad, and this was one of those times where I prefer staying there than coming back. It was another long day of transits and flights, finally arriving home late at night, promptly missing Saturday Night Live. Damn.
Photos uploaded next week. If i have any idea how to do that.