Monday, October 15, 2007
Trek Your Breath Away
So we wanted to trek up Tibet midlands.
Got a map, bought some food in Lhasa's Market (dried yak meat, yak butter, etc), and went to celebrate my birthday (yeah yeah, i got older...) over a nice dinner with our trekking team (secretly produced by Anati).
Speaking of food - The Tibetan kitchen is based on rice, noodles and...Yak. typical dishes are Manto (steam tasteless bread), Tsampa (barley corn flower), Momo (dumpling-like), Tok-Pa (spicy soup), Yak steak/burger. the Nepal-Indian (Dal, Biryani, Nan) and Chinese (Chewmain and the rest) influence is apparent. Interesting also to see the Tibetan way to heat water, using solar pots.
The next day, a local bus brought us to Ganden, a cute tiny village up the mountains at 4500M, with a sacred 14th century temple, and amazing serenity, which we just couldn't resist, so we stayed the night and got friendly with the locals. A group of man were playing cards, dice and cubic games. One of the nicest games played is called 'Kirum' (a kind of a hand-pool without sticks). Naturally we joined the happy gang and played kirum (cool game!). Lou Joung, the host, invited us for dinner at his small house - where we re-celebrated my birthday over extremely spicy noodle soup, drinking beer and singing Hebrew, English, Tibetan and Chinese birthday songs.
This is the point to mention that very few Tibetan speak (funny, meshed, unclear) english, so body language takes action as the main communication channel - Most dinners ends up inside the restaurant kitchen, trying to understand the menu/ingredients and even preparing soup and momo with the chefs, which was a great experience.
Back on trek - The road starts at Ganden, crossing some bare naked, almost desert-ish mountains, and goes through deserted yak farmers villages. Soon enough, we were heading up towards two passes over 5200M (nearly 16,000 ft.). After a looooooong boulder climb, with longs yearn for (non-existing at this height) oxygen, heart pounds like a mad man and the rest of the body just freezing under the falling snow... a real struggle, that payed-off once reaching the 2nd mountain path, crossing blue lakes, and (finally) descending towards green meadows, swiss-like valleys, with rivers and changing yellow-green-red vegetation scenery.
Along the road, we were listening to a background tune of Yak bells, Tibetan whistle-steer their Yaks, and singing traditional tibetan melodies. Pikos (mountain rabbits) were the only animal (apart from Yak) seen to survive those heights. After a challenging 4 trekking days (not to mention the freeeeeezing nights), we reached Samye, with its romantic temple and an extraordinary geography - snowy mountains, brown-red terra and dunes islands sporadically lying within a river.
Yak (the famous 3 letter crossword animal), is by no doubt an essential part of the Tibetan life - being the ultimate high mountain vehicle mule, a strong carrier, a meat supplier, milk used for drinking and making cheese and fine yak butter (base of the notorious butter tea) and creating candle wax (used in the temples), fur for sewing clothes and tents, teeth and hairy tail for beauty, and even the Yak disposals are used as fire coals...
Before leaving Tibet we went to see the marvelous Nam-Tso - a peaceful sacred turquoise lake lying at 4700M with up to 7100M surrounding peaks with nomads and monks leaving in cave monasteries.
Got a map, bought some food in Lhasa's Market (dried yak meat, yak butter, etc), and went to celebrate my birthday (yeah yeah, i got older...) over a nice dinner with our trekking team (secretly produced by Anati).
Speaking of food - The Tibetan kitchen is based on rice, noodles and...Yak. typical dishes are Manto (steam tasteless bread), Tsampa (barley corn flower), Momo (dumpling-like), Tok-Pa (spicy soup), Yak steak/burger. the Nepal-Indian (Dal, Biryani, Nan) and Chinese (Chewmain and the rest) influence is apparent. Interesting also to see the Tibetan way to heat water, using solar pots.
The next day, a local bus brought us to Ganden, a cute tiny village up the mountains at 4500M, with a sacred 14th century temple, and amazing serenity, which we just couldn't resist, so we stayed the night and got friendly with the locals. A group of man were playing cards, dice and cubic games. One of the nicest games played is called 'Kirum' (a kind of a hand-pool without sticks). Naturally we joined the happy gang and played kirum (cool game!). Lou Joung, the host, invited us for dinner at his small house - where we re-celebrated my birthday over extremely spicy noodle soup, drinking beer and singing Hebrew, English, Tibetan and Chinese birthday songs.
This is the point to mention that very few Tibetan speak (funny, meshed, unclear) english, so body language takes action as the main communication channel - Most dinners ends up inside the restaurant kitchen, trying to understand the menu/ingredients and even preparing soup and momo with the chefs, which was a great experience.
Back on trek - The road starts at Ganden, crossing some bare naked, almost desert-ish mountains, and goes through deserted yak farmers villages. Soon enough, we were heading up towards two passes over 5200M (nearly 16,000 ft.). After a looooooong boulder climb, with longs yearn for (non-existing at this height) oxygen, heart pounds like a mad man and the rest of the body just freezing under the falling snow... a real struggle, that payed-off once reaching the 2nd mountain path, crossing blue lakes, and (finally) descending towards green meadows, swiss-like valleys, with rivers and changing yellow-green-red vegetation scenery.
Along the road, we were listening to a background tune of Yak bells, Tibetan whistle-steer their Yaks, and singing traditional tibetan melodies. Pikos (mountain rabbits) were the only animal (apart from Yak) seen to survive those heights. After a challenging 4 trekking days (not to mention the freeeeeezing nights), we reached Samye, with its romantic temple and an extraordinary geography - snowy mountains, brown-red terra and dunes islands sporadically lying within a river.
Yak (the famous 3 letter crossword animal), is by no doubt an essential part of the Tibetan life - being the ultimate high mountain vehicle mule, a strong carrier, a meat supplier, milk used for drinking and making cheese and fine yak butter (base of the notorious butter tea) and creating candle wax (used in the temples), fur for sewing clothes and tents, teeth and hairy tail for beauty, and even the Yak disposals are used as fire coals...
Before leaving Tibet we went to see the marvelous Nam-Tso - a peaceful sacred turquoise lake lying at 4700M with up to 7100M surrounding peaks with nomads and monks leaving in cave monasteries.
# posted by Hanan @ 6:07 AM 
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