18,380 feet...I was there!

'ello 'ello this is your captain ben speaking, we are crousing in life at about 11,000 feet and will be arriving in heaven in approximately...NOW !!!  let me just start off by letting you of you reading this know that, well you are all beautiful people, but that we are in ladakh and it is heaven on earth people! I only have one wish in my life right now, that is that everyone has a chance to see what all of us are seeing, pure and utter beauty that has been here for...well a long time.  we are seriously missing our other half, it is like being the headless horsemen, you have a seriously sweet horse to ride on, but you can't see where you are going (i am not sure if that made sense, im rollin with it though). anyway miss crissy left you all off with us going to nubra valley and yes she was right we did go on the highest morotable road on the planet, i know i know calm down i will tell you all about it.  it is approximately 4 to 5 hour journey from leh to nubra.  starting off on an amazing road going up into the mountains, breathtaking views of the himalayas that slap you in the face they're so gorgeous (nothing you could capture on a camera, but we tried) stopping about every 30 minutes to snap a quick photo and take a wizz, at 11,000 ft+ the water you drink goes right through you...literally, trust me.  we finally get to the top of the pass (yes 18,380 feet i'll say it again) and stop for another satisfying release and to check out the souvenier shop and take some snaps wish each other next to the world famous sign.  anyway it was then a long trek down (trust me with plenty to look at out the window) and about 3 hours later...are we there yet!? we arrive in a small (and i mean small) town called hundar.  we stay the night at the snow leopard guest house, after some rigorous haggling with the owner, getting a elegant dinner at a army camp cafe (sarcasm there folks, we ate this stuff called maggie noodles, roman but not as good, and some very very mediocre dosa and samosas).  f.y.i. nubra valley is absolultely littered with military presence, army trucks here and there, army camps here and there, you caqn't escape the madness! no no it wasn't that bad, just the food they eat blagh, if i had to eat that every day i would honestly just walk across the border of pakistan and let nature take its course.  but that is neither here nor there, back to the goods.  so we woke up in hundar and had a very expensive 150 rupee (about 3 u.s. dollars) breakfast which consisted of bread, eggs, and butter, oh oh almost forgot the tea, thats what must have made it so expensive, aaaaaaaacha.  after that we lightened the mood with possible the highlight of my trip.  we hiked up to the gompa in hundar which was about an hour, which desmond (a.k.a. cruch-and-stuff) with me, no offense dizzy.  and we walked around the top and just had an amzingly wowing moment staring face to face with one of the most beautiful scenes i have ever seen, its good, goooooooood.  ohh almost forgot dizzy removed his cast (all u know he had broken his foot in sikkim) on the first day in hundar right after we got there,  let me tell you the thing stunk! ohh it was bad! but it is cool to see him pretty much learn to walk again, he is slowly developing an even stride and, news flash, he hiked in the himlayas the day after he was free of the little devil.  it was like seeing a 6 year old eat chocolate, just the look on his face as he says, "holy crap i can bend BOTH of my legs now.  i haven't done that for six weeks", ohh good stuff.  so after our magical hike chris and amber, the french girl we went to pangong with (she also came with us to nubra) went to ride camels! pretty sweet, ohh yeah hundar is pretty much surrounded by sand dunes so there are camels there, funny looking animal if you ask me.  but after the camel ride we went all the way around nubra to a small town called sumor, stopping for dinner along the way, and ended up just getting into a guest house, that was actually quite nice.  the next day we had breakfast (bread, butter, and tea) and went to panamik, the town that is closest to the boarder of pakistan, for tourists at least (still 100 kilometers from the actual boarder).  in panamik there is pretty much only one thing to see, and that is hot springs, yes yes i said it hot springs.  these springs are about 100 degrees and smell like sulfur, actually pretty magical and awesome when you are in the middle of nowhere and used to taking cold showers.  we dilly dallied around the spring for a while and then went over tot he bathing section.  here are the showers (i use that term very lightly) and we all got a chance to bathe, defanitally the most memorable shower i took in india.  when i say shower this is whats goin on, you walk from outisde into one of two rooms, these rooms have about a 3 foot boarder and then a pit that is about a cubic meter.  stpes lead down to the pit and near the top of the pit, about waist height is a pipe.  constantly pouring out of this pipe is 100 degree sufur hot springs water, magic was in the air.  a bar of soap was conveniently waiting there for us, no need to prepare.  and after you were done bathing, me at least, just went directly outside and dried off in the sun (keep in mind what you are looking at is the himalayas) pretty much one of the best feelings i have had in this country.  so after that we started to head back to sumor, and on our way stopped for a small, 15 minute, hike to a lake in the middle of a mountain, kinda.  it is hard to explain but it was pretty sweet, green water and surrounded by hills, you wonder how and why that is there.  starving we jumped back in the jeep and headed back.  we got a good lunch, rice dal and chapati, at a little restaurant in sumor (the best and most filling food we had had in days) and then headed back.  some went for a walk to the gompa while others chillin and read and caught up on rest at the guest house.  we had an amzing dinner at our guest house and then went off to bed, very nice sleep.  the next day (today) we got up early, ate the standard bread butter and tea, then jumped in the jeep for the ride back to leh.. once again the most amazing landscape in the world in the other direction, and it didn't stop even when we arrived in leh.  it is nice to be back and settled, even though we are flying out tomorow and going to delhi, train to aggra to see the taj, then trasin back the next day.  its all good in the neighborhood and we are stoked to meet up with the head of the horsemen tomorow.  wow, i just wrote an insanely long blog all by myself, im a big boy mommy! sorry if i bored you, if you could see this (*and i hope all of you do some day) you would truly and will truly know.  peace easy for now, hope you all enjoyed my rant.  i am sure all of you will hear the great details in a couple of days in person as we only have 4 days left in india, wowzuz!! 

btk out

abaduh-abaduh-abaduh-abaduh thats all folks! (porky the pig rules!) 

Swine Flu - Update from Carpe Diem HQ

The following is a post recently made to our FAQ page that we wanted to include to all of you who might be reading this blog.

Swine flu has recently been confirmed throughout Mexico and parts of the US. A few other countries have also reported possible infections. While we're in touch with the CDC and monitoring all of the international news we can put our hands on, we also feel we are uniquely placed to handle the situation given that all of our field staff are trained in Wilderness Medicine; two of our office staff are currently Emergency Room nurses; and the other is a Wilderness EMT. We also have contact with a variety of local doctors (including a few with advanced training in international and tropical medicines) that should needs require we can reach out to.

Our spring & fall 2009 programs will continue to run as scheduled although we plan on requiring flu shots for our fall programs as they have been proven (with Avian Flu for instance) to much reduce any severity of infection. We may also choose to outfit our medical kits with extra supplies such as extra hand sanitizer and the like.

Swine Flu is an offshoot of the 1918-19 flu: just as every flu since then has been. In that strain of flu as well as most that have followed including Swine, Pneumonia has been the actual concern and the one we're most on guard for. The good news is that once recognized there are very good treatments for Pneumonia and we are very familiar with good doctors in the areas our students travel. Of course we plan on continuing to take the proactive approach and deal with any medical potentialities quickly and professionally. Since that initial pandemic in 1918, the subsequent strains have historically been more and more benign. The Swine Flu is presenting thankfully as a low-mortality flu (currently, in the US as an example, there have been 50 suspected cases and only one took an overnight in the hospital before being discharged in good health). So, while this particular flu strain is stronger than the typical seasonal flu, we are hopeful that it will continue to be as easily treatable as it has been.

Sitting on Top of the World

Well, sort of. Our half of the group is in Ladakh, which is at around 10,000 ft. elevation. The four of us agree that this is one of the coolest, most amazing places we've ever been to, hands down.

To get here we took an overnight bus from McLeod Ganj to Delhi, which wasn't exactly fun, but was actually more comfortable than some (much longer and less nice) trips I've taken on the Greyhound bus. We got to Delhi and our favorite hotel, the Shelton, in early morning, took naps, and set out for our day. We went to the Baha'i Lotus Temple, which was pretty spectacular. It's designed by the same person who designed the Sidney Opera House in Australia, and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, and the acoustics inside were mind-blowing! We sat inside the Lotus for a bit, heard some prayers and a woman singing this amazing song that seemed to reverberate all through the temple. After the temple, we went to go see a movie (Monsters Vs. Aliens) which was hilariously ridiculous, and ate at Ruby Tuesday's, which I would not recommend doing in India!

The next morning we got up super early for our flight to Leh, the main city in Ladakh. It was short, but one of the most beautiful flights ever! Looking out the window, once we got out of the smog of Delhi and up over the mountains, there were high, defined snow-covered peaks as far as the eye could see. It was a pretty awesome experience flying over the Himalayas!

After our arrival we spent the first two days exploring the city of Leh. It's super quiet and clean, and there are awesome trees. The people are so friendly. It is really like nowhere else in the world, at all. I don't know if words would do it justice. Ladakh was an isolated place, with almost no contact from civilization until recently (maybe within the last fifty years or something? I watched a video about it seven years ago, can't really remember the specifics), and is in the northernmost Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. The elevation makes it pretty cold at night, but warm and toasty during the day. It's now a heavily touristed place, but we are here before all of that begins for the year, which is pretty nice.

Yesterday, we went with two other travelers we've met (one from France and one from Israel) to Pangong Lake. To get there we drove through a snow-covered pass on the third highest motorable road in the entire world. It was breath-taking, driving through soooo many mountains like that. As Karen put it, it felt like we were driving through a painting. And the elevation was insane. We were at 17,586 ft! We stopped for a bathroom break, and the bathroom was actually covered in frozen pee! This was at an Indian army stop, and they had tea and (disgusting, supposedly boiled) water for us to fill up on. We drove through lots of checkpoints and made our way to lower ground to the lake, which was pretty deserted, and still a bit frosty at some parts. The lake is right on the border of Tibet, as in a quarter of the lake actually belongs to Tibet, and so we walked/drove to the point, also called the Line of Actual Control, which was pretty much deserted and uneventful. It was cool to know we were that close to Tibet, that now makes two borders we've been super close to.

We headed back on a wild ride through the same snowy passes and back down to Leh, at which point 10,000 ft felt like nothing. On the way back we had some English pronunciation lessons with our Israeli friend which I can't repeat on this blog but which Karen caught on video. Never-ending laughs.

When we arrived back in Leh, we watched a parade for Tenzin Gyatso, the fifteenth Llama, as it was his birthday.

Today we're going to a palace that's up in the mountains and possibly to a monastery as well, and might visit the Tibetan Medical and Astrology Center where our friend Norbu's sister's husband works. I can't wait to check it out!

Tomorrow we are headed to the Nubra Valley for a few days and nights. To get there we will be on THE highest motorable road in the entire world! It's going to be an adventure. While there we're going to do some trekking and camping. Desmond still has his cast on, so he and I might ride horses instead of hike so we can keep up. Oh, and my glasses got broken while being tossed around in the back of the jeep on the ride yesterday, so that is a bummer, but we're going to see if we can make them last a few more days.

Our homestay is awesome, in beautiful rooms with an awesome family, who cooks us delicious Ladakhi meals and makes some of the best tea we've had in India. We've only felt really minor altitude affects (minor headaches and lightheadedness) and really wish the other half of our group was with us to be experiencing this most amazing place. All of us have talked about wanting to come back someday.

That's all for now, I'm sure we'll have more to report about our adventures after we return from the Nubra Valley.

~Chrysanthemum