The best place to Bike

Ladakh is described by the magazine "India Today" as the best place in India for recreational motorcycling. Here's thinking of you, dad.

US govt shutdown

What the hell US?  I don't like having to explain to the other volunteers (Indians, Singapore citizens, French) why we have enough money to think of bombing Syria but not enough to keep our country running.  Get it together!

A Ladakhi bang trim

On a whim, I ducked into a beauty salon in Leh and asked for a bang trim. The good news is, hair grows back.

Travelling with local women

For the Markha trek I am travelling with women from a local female trekking agency.  One of the women is from the town of Markha, and it seems most people who live along the trekking route are somehow related to her. She often describes a person as her "cousin's brother". Why this isn't also a cousin I am not sure...

Today we ended up having impromptu tea in a hay field (it's harvest time!) with some family member. The women call me a tea pot because I drink so much black tea. What can I say, by my calculations it takes 3 black teas to make 1 coffee!

Seriously both women are hilarious and I love trekking with them. They are teaching me some Ladakhi, giving me grief for being the rich westerner with only one pair of pants, and, because I'm an acheley (older sister!), they have taught me how to say "will you marry me?" in Nepali. Just in case.

Nimaling

Finally, after days of desert hiking, we ascended to big sky country ( my favorite!), as we approached the high camp of Nimaling. At 4200m, the camp is cold, windy, and breathless!  When we arrived we needed salt, and I felt $0.66 for piping hot ramen was money well spent!

Base camp of 6000m+ Kang Yahtze day: snow! I woke after falling asleep with clear skies and milky way to a huge cloud, snow, and no mountain.

Luckily, the "sheep doctor" was visiting the local shepherd to give worm medicine to the flock, so I headed over to see what can only be described as a sheep mob scene/sheep rodeo. Literally hundreds of sheep in a small pen trying to avoid being force fed medicine. In the mood to help, I would corral escapees back into the pen.

Later the same day I felt the sky might clear, so I set off to get a better view of Kang Yahtze. The camp organizer informed me that the weather is often bad the day sometime sets up to climb the peak, as she is a sacred mountain and does not wish to be climbed. With this in mind, as I walked uphill into a graupel storm, I told Kang Yahtze I only wanted photos and not to climb her. And, just as I reached the viewpoint, she emerged!

Markha to Hangkar

After a homestay with my guide's niece in Markha, we headed to Hangkar, where we washed our clothes by hand (less soap, more hands!) and took solar bucket showers. Also, it's harvest time in Ladakh, so I got to witness threshing of wheat, where cows and horses tied together are driven in a circle over the wheat to beak it up so the wheat and chaff can be separated (that's biblical!).  Songs are sung while the animals work, supposedly to keep them from getting dizzy!

Excel, Biogas, volleyball, oh my!

I am currently volunteering at SECMOL (www.secmol.org), and the experience so far is amazing.  The volunteers, the staff, the students are all such great people.  I am teaching EXCEL!, helping with a biogas reactor design, playing volleyball daily with a bunch of competitive 17-yo boys, so that's hilarious, and in general being constantly amazed, humbled, and excited about alternative methods of education. 

I have about 5 posts waiting for good internet/wifi so I can upload pics, but in the meantime, just know I'm off influencing young minds, and having mine influenced also! 

And a side note: Research indicates 100% of Ladakhi teens like Justin Bieber (sp).  Sample size:4.