Today I took a bus trip about 45 minutes away from the hotel to 4,000 – 4,500 meters (about 13,000 feet. I think it’s called Mota (pronounced Mosha). I felt the higher altitude again but it wasn’t as bad as when I first arrived in Ladakh/Leh back on Sept. 27. (If you want to read some interesting info about Ladakh, please go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladakh . This was the first time I had Yak butter tea. I was a bit skeptical at first but I really liked it! It’s buttery in taste but not too heavy and for some reason they mix it with salt. The first cup I had was better because it was the last in the pot and it wasn’t so salty but the second one was fresh and just a bit too salty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_tea The people live in interesting mud houses with a sort of grass on the roof. Inside it’s very dusty and dirty because the floor in the hall is also made of hard mud. The living rooms all have carpets down and mattresses covered in carpets. The living room/kitchen was fairly large and was brightly painted with small windows all around. This family had two sweet dogs and various donkeys (one was pregnant) and a few yaks and cows. They were very kind to us while we visited. The road to get there was an adventure! The roads in general are VERY rocky and with lots of holes and it’s always a trip to ride on them. Thank God we had a very experienced driver. Going back to the hotel at night though I experienced my first stand off on the little road that could only handle one car in one direction. The Ladakhi’s though are really calm about these situations. At the stand-off location, the cars coming in our direction eventually started to back up. Then we had to inch ourselves through whatever opening was available to the large bus we were in. It was a hair raising event that gave us a bit to talk about back at the hotel before dinner. The hotel owners were again very accommodating to us foreigners by making us spaghetti with red and white sauce. Mmmmmnnnn yummy. Sometimes it’s nice having a variety from white rice and some sort of Indian dish which is what we usually ate two times a day. In the market I found some oats, raisens, almonds and honey so they make me porridge every morning which is great cause it’s so cold in the mornings and gives me lots of energy until lunch.
Last night we had sort of a “jam session” after dinner. One Tibetan who lives in Dharamsala was playing guitar and a German guy was playing keyboards. He also had a little portable BOSE speaker I could hook up to my mobile phone where I had a playback of Route 66 from my show and we had sort of a sing-a-long. I also drank some Kingfisher beer. It’s tasty but strong. I was glad to hit my bed but I couldn’t sleep because someplace nearby was having a wedding or festival and there was loud music playing with a lot of bass and even my custom made silicone ear plugs couldn’t block it out.
More later…
Last night we had sort of a “jam session” after dinner. One Tibetan who lives in Dharamsala was playing guitar and a German guy was playing keyboards. He also had a little portable BOSE speaker I could hook up to my mobile phone where I had a playback of Route 66 from my show and we had sort of a sing-a-long. I also drank some Kingfisher beer. It’s tasty but strong. I was glad to hit my bed but I couldn’t sleep because someplace nearby was having a wedding or festival and there was loud music playing with a lot of bass and even my custom made silicone ear plugs couldn’t block it out.
More later…