Walking on Clouds

“It takes a village to raise a child”… Interestingly enough, it also takes a village to get two Jewish girls up a mountain! Andrea and I… and our guide, 2 cooks, 2 porters, dzo man, and 4 dzos (cross-breed between a yak and a cow)… have just returned from an 8 day trek in the Himalayan Range.

We did our trek in the mountains of West Sikkim, making our way up to the area surrounding the third highest peak in the world – Mt. Khangchendzhonga (try saying that three times!) Sikkim is a fascinating state in the Northeast of India that jets out and is wedged between three countries: Nepal, China (Tibet), and Bhutan. It only became part of India in 1975 and therefore still retains a very distinct culture, more similar to that of Nepal or Tibet.

Our caravan departed from Yuksom (1780m) and ended in Dzongri (4200m). We walked a total of about 100 km in 6 days, with plenty of time to rest and acclimatize to the change in altitude. One of our stops along the way was in the town of Tshoka; a small Tibetan village with 11 houses, a beautiful temple (gompa), and many animals. There we drank “tungbah” (millet beer served in a wood mug and drunk out of a bamboo straw) with the local people.

The higher we got, the more difficult the walking became. Partly because there was more and more snow as we climbed higher and higher, and also because it became quite difficult to breathe. We spent almost two days exploring Dzongri and it snowed the entire time. It was a shocking change from the smothering Bombay heat.

The trek was pretty hardcore and definitely the most difficult hiking I have ever done. However the entire experience was marvelous. It was some of the best service I have had since I arrived in India. All we did was walk and the rest was taken care of. We couldn’t stop laughing how we were the princesses of the forest! We were woken every morning at 6:00 am with tea. Around 6:30 am someone would bring us hot washing water. At 7:00 am we moseyed down to our set table and breakfast was served. It always included cereal (my favorite was the hot cream of wheat with cashews, coconut and golden raisins), eggs, and toast or pancakes. We then would start walking around 7:45 am, but we would quickly be passed by our caravan who would start preparing lunch for us midway. Wangchuk, our guide and the cutest sherpa ever, was always with us explaining the flora and fauna and all sorts of interesting stories about sherpas and the Himalayas. We even got to meet Tenzing Norgay’s son. For those who don’t know, Tenzing Norgay was the first man to ever climb Mount Everest as the Sherpa of Sir Edmund Hilary. He is a National Hero in these parts. So a hot lunch would be waiting for us midway and as we would approach the lunch area, one of the porters would rush to us with warm juice. When we got to our campsite, tea would be waiting with a yummy snack. We must have had an average of 8 cups of tea every day. Primarily because it was soooo cold, but also because it was so good (we took the trek out of Darjeeling so we had premium Darjeeling tea!) Dinner was the best and always had a hot soup and dessert. After dinner we were usually too cold to stay up any later, so we would quickly get into all our warm clothes and cozy up in our sleeping bags and fall asleep after a couple rounds of rummi.

The mountain views from Dzongri were spectacular, as you can see from the picture. It actually takes your breath away standing on top of the mountain with some of the highest peaks in the world surrounding you. And at that moment you feel such a sense of accomplishment for climbing all that way to experience that one moment of pure ecstasy. Have you ever walked on the clouds? I have now! Sitting in a yak hut in Dzongri, you could actually see the clouds rolling in. It was just awesome.

Hope you like the pictures I’ve included of our caravan (minus a couple dzos in the picture who just joined us walking), Andrea and I on the peak, Andrea and I sitting at our breakfast table and the team back in Yuksom minus our dzo man, one porter, and of course our adorable dzo!

We are now in Darjeeling, a beautiful hill station that was built by the British with some of the best tea in the world, and amazing views of the Himalayas (though now they seem so far away). It’s the most adorable little town and the people are so amazing. I hate to say it, but they are so much more chilled out than the rest of India. Next we are off to Varanasi which will be a great shock since it’s hot, and chaotic, and a holy city where they burn dead bodies on the Ganges. Back to India!!!

Today we went for high tea at the oldest hotel in Darjeeling and it was tres chic. We were surrounded by a garden of orchids, which are indigenous to this region. It was really a throw back to Colonial days, but it was nice to see that now most of the guests are Indians.

If you’ve read this far, I’m impressed, and I’ll be even more impressed if you post replies on the blog!

Miss you all and thinking of you always! The world is a beautiful place but there’s no place like home. A bientot!