La La Ladakh

Author's note: there are no photos loaded to illustrate this post because of Ladakh's woeful lack of internet capacity. See point 3 of this article. Sorry about that.

Simon: What are you going to write about Ladakh?

Me: I just can’t get my head round this place.

The reason I can’t work out my reaction to Ladakh, and its main city Leh, is because of its weird juxtapositions.

Peace and war

Ladakh is where the nuclear-armed forces of India, Pakistan and China stare each other down over a disputed border. The uneasy truce often descends into stone throwing, armed incursions and threats of annihilation. 

Last seen in Lhasa

Canggu nunnery: nuns prepare mantras

We got a couple of extra days in Lhasa because we didn't complete the Kailash kora - I think we put the time to good use. 

We wind through the back alleys to Ramoche Temple, a tantric university where lamas come to learn to lead chanting, to sing internal complex tonal harmonies and manage the rituals of their own monasteries. 

Gear failure No. 1: lungs

Kailash: worth the effort

I had thought I might write a post or two about the inevitable gear failures that always happen. (I’ve already bitched on endlessly about how my boot soles peel at inopportune moments.)

I hadn’t anticipated that the first bit of equipment to fail would be my respiratory system. 

Yup, sadly Altitude Sickness scotched my intentions to hike the kora around Mount Kailash. I got as far as the first valley but, as elderly fat Hindu ladies in bedroom slippers sprinted past me, my oxygen levels plummeted, I started to cough, my legs stopped working and we all turned round and came back.

Peak Practice - at Everest Base Camp, Tibet

Interested in getting to Everest Base Camp? Don't want to hike for days to Namche Bazaar? Don't like dodgy mountain hygiene or the risk of avalanches? Like to sip a hot drink in comfort while viewing the Mother of Mountains?

At the end of the bus route

Biggest travel tip ever: if you can get into Tibet (ok, it’s a big IF), get a comfy car, drive along good roads to Rongbuk Monastery, stay in the guest house which serves great lemon/ginger/honey tea, and take the shuttle bus to Everest Base Camp. Look down the valley. 

In good weather, there is Everest/Quomolunga looking as if it is 10 minutes stroll beyond the glacier moraine. 

High plains drifting - across western Tibet

The pass overlooking the holy lake 

Leaving Lhasa we head west in our 7 seater van down to Xigatse, Gyantse and Sakya. The roads are good, and the public toilets plentiful even if they are only a concrete slab with 4 to 5 slits to squat over and a low wall between each. Communal, but the smell and lack of facilities doesn't encourage lingering to chat.

We enter tourist country. The famously fierce flock protecting dogs that keep the sheep safe from wolves and snow leopards now pose for photos with dyed yak hair extensions and sloppy tongues. 

A sense of devotion - moments in Lhasa

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Lhasa is a flat modern Chinese city. Creamy mid-rise apartment buildings; giant malls under construction; long straight highways run into the city streets that are organised by traffic lights and lane markings. All drivers ignore the rules.

The Potala is almost too big to comprehend.

We slip into the remaining Tibetan quarter of rendered row houses and shops, laneways and courts, tiled roofs, white wash walls and hopper windows with painted black window surrounds under fluttering pleated window curtains. And over the next few days in Lhasa and beyond we gain a sense of the city and valleys as home to ancient culture and still living religious fervour and devotion.

The middle kora around the Jokhang Temple

In the still-beating Tibetan heart of Lhasa, there are three koras (ritual circuits around spiritual places): inside the 7th century Jokhang Temple; the middle kora around the walls of the Jokhang in the old Barkor market; and circling the entire city in the outer kora.

Kathmandu corners - little bits of beauty

A welcoming offering to guests at the
entrance of the hotel.

Mud, mosquitoes, and mould. That's Kathmandu's monsoon season reputation.

Added to the year-round chaotic traffic congestion, why come to Nepal's capital in the wet season?

Don't get me wrong, I have always enjoyed my time here. As we got off the plane on Friday after crossing a couple of time zones sustained only by the queues, dubious vegetarian meals and dodgy in-flight movies provided by Thai Airways, a blast of city dust and humid air hit me - and I realised I was wearing a great big smile. Happy to be back.

Kathmandu has a way of charming visitors. The careless and careful placing of flowers in water at entrances to delight your senses. The patience and humour of Nepali people in the face of crazy rudeness by us foreign tourists.

Leaving on a jet plane

That's the packing and prep done,
now we can start the travelling.

And we are off!

The apartment is clean, the fridge is kinda empty, there's a cardboard box for the tenants to put our mail in.

Our bags are zipped and padlocked for the last time.

Now there is just time to sit in the departure lounge listening to Simon cough (because he finally came down with the respiratory tract infection that has knocked me around for the last 3 weeks), and wondering why the Bluetooth keyboard won't talk to the iPad. 

Is this a harbinger of future tech snags and gear failures?

And there might be a problem getting our Tibet visas .....

The joys of travel. 

What's your worst departure experience?

A quart into a pint pot - packing it all

My overwhelming pile of stuff. Do I really need 2 tubes of
Vegemite and a sketch book with 5 pencils?

An hour into the first Jaws movie: Roy Scheider is cheerfully shovelling burley into the ocean from the shark-catching boat owned by Quint (Robert Shaw). Without warning, without fanfare, the truck-sized head of the monster shark pokes above the waves, jaws gaping, teeth bared. Shocked and appalled, Scheider's character turns to the skipper in the wheelhouse and murmurs, 

"I think we're going to need a bigger boat."

Two tiny bags

I reached that stage in my packing last week. 

Larger than a monster shark, the mountain of accumulated stuff on the spare bedroom floor loomed over my two tiny empty bags, which looked hopelessly inadequate. 

Laundry on the road

Travel laundry challenges that happened to me and fellow travellers:

Typical hotel laundry costs -
but at least this one offers
to wash your monk robe and
safari suit

• It took me one whole week to dry my wet jeans in an Iceland summer
• Meg says she has to stay 2 nights everywhere just so she can dry t-shirts
• Felicity sent her travel pants to the Moroccan hotel laundry, who set them on fire.

But you can travel with a small bag of clothes - or even just cabin baggage - and keep moving from place to place once you figure out how to wash and dry items overnight, without running up outrageous hotel laundry bills (or having your clothes charred beyond use).

Imelda Marcos in the Himalayas - what shoes shall I pack?

From the Pyrenees to the Himalayas, my boots have
seen a lot of the world.

Planning travel footwear needs thought.

Clothes are soft, fold flat, roll up, squish down and you can wear a lot of layers if you run out of room in your luggage. 

Shoes, on the other hand, take up a lot of space in a bag and you can only wear one pair at a time.

Choosing a pared-back footwear list has been a challenge during my packing planning. For someone who prefers to walk around barefoot, I already have way too many pairs of shoes lurking in my closet: heeled courts for a woman who has poor balance and dodgy ankles; two pairs of tango shoes although I haven't danced Latin for 10 years, four pairs of streetwear boots even though I live in sweaty Brisbane.

The last trip for my Keens. Despite
the wear on the heel, they will
have a new life with a friend on
the Granite Belt.

In this Himalayan adventure, I plan to travel across deserts, over mountain passes and around mountains, up and down valleys and across streams, through markets and towns and villages. I don't plan to go clubbing, dancing or going to cocktail parties - but why rule out the possibility?

What shall I take to wear on my feet? How shall I choose which pairs to take and whether to buy new pairs?

Show me the money - getting the travel budget together

Best ever op shop bargain: my 60 Degrees North jacket
sourced from the Reykjavik Red Cross shop,
being modelled on the Icelandic island of Videy

Heading overseas for months is an expensive business, even if one is a) retired with a pension, and b) going to inexpensive India. 

We worked out that our daily travel budget should be $85/day.

No-one has actually been upfront enough to ask this question yet, but an obvious query is:

How can you afford to do this?

Picking a pack - how will I carry my gear?

My new Osprey Kyte, 33 L
of useful pack.

Goldilocks had it easy. Choosing a bowl of porridge for one meal or a bed for a single night means a bad choice only lasts a short time.

But I'm trying to make a decision about which bags will carry my gear across the Himalayas for months. What I choose will affect how I live, where I can fly, whether I'll keep my gear secure, and whether I'll suffer a bad back in this trip. 

These are the factors that I have to think about. Some airlines we have booked only allow 20kg maximum checked luggage so I've got to get the best value out of cabin luggage. My packing list is getting longer and longer and longer - I've realised I can't carry on my back all the bits and pieces I need for the simple nomads' life we have planned.