For the next adventure- back to SECMOL!
After the relaxation in Leh we were off again (by we, I mean me and 3 of the remaining SECMOL volunteers- Kristen, Garett and Ben). This time we were not going to the secmol campus, instead we were off on holiday with the perminant students. Secmols regular purpose (by thet I mean apart from running the summer camp) is to house and support 60 perminant students through their important exams. This being the end of the year all of the students were leaving the SECMOL campus for bigger and better things. So, to celebrate they were going on holiday for 4 days to the Nubra valley.
(important background information)
While we had been trekking in the Sham valley the SECMOL had been sitting around not doing a whole lot. Additionally, the SECMOL campus had been taken over by 100 meditation students on a silent valpassna retrete. The secmol stundets had had to be uber quiet- that is untuil we got on the bus. The munute we got out of earshot from the campus the ladaki music started pumping, the drums started banging and the kids started throwing shapes!
(end of important background information)
Day 1-The average
The Nubra trip is the story of the good the bad and the average...
So, it begins- in every average day there are good bits and bad bits, high points and low points. The high point of day one was actually the highest... motorable road in the world. Kardong La at 5602meters (18,380feet) is pretty dam high.
1) The high pointHowever, the low point was spending 4 hours waiting at the bottom of the pass for the road to open. In addition to this the other lows of the day were- maggi instant noodles as the only source of nourisment, running a fever, 12 hour of ladaki music and getting stuck in a river (the getting stuck in the river was actually quite funny looking back on it)!
2) The low point of day 1- Stuck in a river after a 10 hour bus ride.Day 2- the good
We camped under the stars on the first night and awoke to a beautiful day... and camels! All of the kids piled onto the bus on a massive bus mission which (fortunatly) we were not allowed to join in with (as foreigners we were prevented from entering the 'boarder area', which is very close to Nubra valley). Instead, we went walking on sand dunes which, incidently make very good slides! Then we ate momos (dumplings) mmmmmmmmm
When the kids returned the amp was plugged in and the ladaki music started pumping again! suprise suprise!
3) Sand dune slides.
4) Mine and Kristen's best zombie impression.Day 3 the (very) bad
During my time in India I have taken many epic 14 hour bus trips usually however I have a destination in mind- it may be a different city or a different state or a place of interest, never before have I sat on a bus for 14 hours not knowing where I was going, on a bus driving to ... nowhere in particular. On day 3 in nubra I did exactly this! It seemed like we were driving for the sake of driving. We had no idea where we were going, why we were going there or what this is to do there (where ever there is). To make things worse the ladaki music pumped out at full volume (of cource). And the road, wasn't a road, it was just stones. at one point we had to get out and basically build the road! (a picture will hopefully be posted soon)
We eventually got to our destination (sic) which was a (pretty average) monestery; the day turned into a complete farse when we were taken to a mountain (well we are in himalayers after all) and told that there was a Buddha embossed into the rock face. Sorry Buddha (if your up there) but i didn't see you- perhapse it's because i'm a non beliver!
The only plus point of the day- we were told by a monk in the monestry that we were, almost certainly, the only foreigners to have ever visited the site of the monestry. We were technically not allowed to enter the boarder area. We were just 30km from the disputed Pakistan boarder and the worlds highest battle ground (India and Pakisthan are currentl fighting over the Siachen glacier). Although interesting, at the time I found this to be of small consolation.
The day ended at 10.30 when we eventaully pulled into a town and stayed in the community centre. Apparantly dinner wasn't served until 2.30am, by then I was in the land of nod- glad that the 20th June 2009 was over.
I think I can justifiably call it- the most pointless day of my life so far!
Day 4- the Average
We were (suprise suprise) back on the bus at 8am, more ladaki music, the kids who had danced the night away were full of energy, while us foreigners looked like death warmed up! At least today we broke up the long bus journey with some interesting sites- hot springs, interesting gompas (monestries) before heading back over the pass to leh where a hot shower, traveller food and warm bed awaited us!
5) Back over kardong LaI'm not going to lie... I was not sad to wave the SECMOL bus behind for some peace and quiet- I think I had enough ladaki music to last a life time!
On the next episode of Sammysamsam- sam does one last trek, sam leaves Leh (sob sob sob) but sam meets a very very famous Tibetan- in fact sam meets the most famous Tibetan man alive! Tune in next week!
love and love
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