so... it turns out that trekking in the himalayas is like spending three days on a stairmaster set at top speed.

And as you stagger up the mountain in your wind/rain repellent gear and your special shoes, nimble tibetans skip by you, effortlessly. Carrying refrigerator-size loads on their heads. Wearing flip flops.

I was fortunate enough to get hit by altitude sickness AND food poisoning halfway through the first day, so i spent the trip sipping 100% World health organization approved Oral Rehydration Salts (and cursing them for spending billions of dollars determining the perfect formula , but apparently failing to consider the taste). This means that i missed out on the fresh yak cheese the others ate for breakfast every morning(?!).

We climbed to about 4000m, sleeping in tents along the way. The only people we passed were shepherds.. at night we would listen to herds of sheeep getting closer and closer, until they were nearly in our tent. The cows liked to check us out, sometiimes wandering close enough to the tent to take an experimental bite... it only scared the hell out of me the first three times.

The hard climb to the pass was truly worth it - snow capped peaks surrounded us, continuing as far as we could see. The vastness of this area makes me feel impossibly small. The knee-jarring climb down took two days and was somewhat softened by the valleys filled with wildflowers and waterfalls. We stopped in a remote village that has retained nearly the same way of life since mongol times. The first thing I saw when we arrived was a man stuffing a newly dead sheep's head into a bag... he couldn't get the ears in, so they flapped along in the breeze all the way down the path - right at my eye level.

We had to walk carefully along a certain path, and we weren't allowed to touch anything unless we were prepared to pay the 1000 rupees necessary to sacrifice a goat to purify the whole village.

I was careful.

2:57 p.m. - 2003-09-05