Himalaya Memories
The more I research for my upcoming trip to Tibet, the more I reminisce about my time this past summer in the Indian Himalayas. One of my favorite stories (which I also have a picture to go along with!) is our 10 mile trek in Sangla.
Sangla is a beautiful part of the Indian Himalayas. The area is lush in vegetation, gets abundent rainfall and glacial rivers, and all set against snow covered peaks for a backdrop. We spent 4 nights camping there and exploring the valley (and might I add, I camped for the first time in my life the year before my time in India, so I still consider roughing it for 5 nights in a tent and no shower the whole time a feat for me. Albeit, an enjoyable time, but still a feat nontheless).
One day, we took a 10 mile hike from our camp site to the town of Chitkul, a town that's situated in the Indo-Tibet boarders and whose back yard is No-Man's-Land between India and China. While the trek itself was not hard - in terms of the uphill incline -the length of the trek and the strong rays from the sun still made the trek a bit strenuous. In fact, the rays were so strong that my friend, Kimiko, got burned through her shirt and was peeling for days afterwards.
We weren't in a race to see who can get to Chitkul the fastest, so we took our time with the trek and took many photo and breathing breaks. During one of these breaks, Crystal said, "You know, you guys are in pretty good shape."
"How so?" we asked.
"Well, last year when the group got tired [on the same hike], they would stop on the side of for cigarette breaks."
We gave ourselves a pat on the back after hearing the story. The rest of the trek, by the way, was amazing. The picture on this post was taken that day while trekking to Chitkul. Just to give you an idea of the size, we would've appeared to be about the size of ants on that trail, under the huge boulders.
I also fell in love with trekking while in the Himalayas, with the ultimate trek being the mountain above Nako. I'm thinking of blogging more stories and memories from these past few years, as a way to better remember my college years. I'll save the story of how we got to Nako and the subsequent journey to Tabo for another day.
Sangla is a beautiful part of the Indian Himalayas. The area is lush in vegetation, gets abundent rainfall and glacial rivers, and all set against snow covered peaks for a backdrop. We spent 4 nights camping there and exploring the valley (and might I add, I camped for the first time in my life the year before my time in India, so I still consider roughing it for 5 nights in a tent and no shower the whole time a feat for me. Albeit, an enjoyable time, but still a feat nontheless).
One day, we took a 10 mile hike from our camp site to the town of Chitkul, a town that's situated in the Indo-Tibet boarders and whose back yard is No-Man's-Land between India and China. While the trek itself was not hard - in terms of the uphill incline -the length of the trek and the strong rays from the sun still made the trek a bit strenuous. In fact, the rays were so strong that my friend, Kimiko, got burned through her shirt and was peeling for days afterwards.
We weren't in a race to see who can get to Chitkul the fastest, so we took our time with the trek and took many photo and breathing breaks. During one of these breaks, Crystal said, "You know, you guys are in pretty good shape."
"How so?" we asked.
"Well, last year when the group got tired [on the same hike], they would stop on the side of for cigarette breaks."
We gave ourselves a pat on the back after hearing the story. The rest of the trek, by the way, was amazing. The picture on this post was taken that day while trekking to Chitkul. Just to give you an idea of the size, we would've appeared to be about the size of ants on that trail, under the huge boulders.
I also fell in love with trekking while in the Himalayas, with the ultimate trek being the mountain above Nako. I'm thinking of blogging more stories and memories from these past few years, as a way to better remember my college years. I'll save the story of how we got to Nako and the subsequent journey to Tabo for another day.
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