It's 29 Aug'15. I sit back in my room in city of Hyderabad. The fumes from vehicles took a toll as I walked a km towards my home in evening. I feel so alien after the thin yet fresh air of Ladakh. I was at an altitude of 11000+ feet for more than 10days. Acclimatizing back to the ‘normal’ air of the city will definitely take some time.
The memories are fresh and must be pen down before I miss the subtle feeling running in my head. This time I will try to get away from chronological sequence of the proceedings. I have no idea how well this will connect.
The story
Finally Ladakh called me! I was waiting for this since a long time and what better could have been than a volunteer travel opportunity with the Global Himalayan Expedition team. The Global Himalayan Expedition for 2015 included 20 members from across the globe. We all met in Leh city on Aug 9, surrounded by the unbelievable landscape of this cold Himalayan desert. We were mainly here to set-up a solar grid in the remote village and a lot of adventure! And more importantly to deliver the message of environmental sustainability.
As a prologue, here’s how we traversed Ladakh during the 13 day expedition.
Day1, we reached Leh at Ladakh Sarai resort and acclimatized for a day
Day2, sight seeing of Leh city in morning and reached Mahabodhi meditation home post lunch. We went to Ladakh’s Nun Association (LNA) in evening.
Day3, we spent time at Mahabodhi school and hostels during day, followed by a cultural night.
Day4, we started for Pangong Tso, reached by evening, story telling session night. Most of the excerpts about people I mention in this blog are from these sessions.
Day5, started back from Pangong, visited Hemis monastery in evening
Day6, we bicycled for 40km, had a home lunch in Stok village, travelled in Zanskar valley to Xinchang and trekked till Rumbak.
Day7, trek till Ganda-La base camp.
Day8, cross Ganda-La pass at 4980mtr to reach Shingo.
Day9, electrification day at Shingo followed by celebrations
Day10, return to Rumbak via Ganda-La
Day11, trek till Xinchang and bus ride till Leh
Day12, river rafting in Indus river and shopping in evening in Leh bazaar
Day13, see-off at 06:00am
The right side of this page you can browse through various stories I want to share of our expedition. I still have a lot to tell and update. Subscribe to keep looking for more stories :)
the background image is where we had our lunch on our way to Pangong Tso after crossing Chang-La Pass
