Our Trek to Triund

Our journey through the Himalayas was as memorable as our first trek in India could get. We started the morning by waking up slightly later than we had hoped, and the few mishaps that took place that morning should've forewarned us of the series of unfortunate events that we were about to embark on. (I tend to exaggerate sometimes, but when I do just take a spoonful of sugar, and enjoy the story.)

The night before I felt a little feverish, and took one Ibuprofen before going to bed. I woke up tired, but with no fever and just a slight upset stomach. I took one Pepto Bismol to calm my stomach as I knew we had quite a long trek ahead of us. For breakfast, Eric and I ate mangoes on the rooftop deck of our monastery guest house. We had hoped to grab some Tibetan bread for our journey, but no one was open at 6:45am, so we landed in Llamo's Cafe and grabbed day-old chocolate croissants. (Not the best fuel for a day-long trek, huh?) When walking out of Llamo's Cafe, Eric banged his head off a metal gate that was hanging at the top of the entrance.... I honestly thought he had a concussion or something based on the loud clang that sounded from his poor head. (He is fine though, apparently he has a skull of steel.)

We met up with our friend, a monk whom we helped earlier in our stay write a letter in English to his friend in Australia. He was gracious enough to go with us on our first trip up the mountain. All three of us chomped on our chocolate croissants as we started our venture.

Our first encounter on our hike was, of course, a monkey. There was a clan of about 6 monkeys ahead of us. Being the daring guy that he is, without notice, Eric decided to chase after one of the little guys as if it were a squirrel he'd just seen in his backyard. Do you think this monkey ran away? Ohhh no... not these monkeys... this little guy stopped, turned to Eric, and then exposed his teeth while hissing at him. That was when I yelled to Eric to get his butt back here and leave them alone. Our friend went on to tell us how these monkeys were sometimes known to jump on people if they felt threatened. I couldn't tell if he was kidding or not because throughout the entire trip, he made jokes and tried to scare me. I never would've expected this kind of trickery from a monk! :)

After our near death monkey encounter (cough* cough* time to take your spoonful of sugar and chuckle), our hike took on a steeper incline up the mountain. It was rough as our bodies struggled to digest the croissant and make the climb.

At one point our friend stopped us and suggested a different route up very steep stone steps past a farmer's home. He said it was the easiest route... Well, I'll be darned! If that was the easier route, I'd hate to see what the hard route was! We spent about 30 minutes just walking up the side of a mountain. Thank goodness there were stone steps (half chipped away by the weather). Along the way we passed a farm with several farm animals. There were young Indian girls between the ages of 8 and 17 years old working in the yard. Some were washing clothes, others were gathering straw. I tried to imagine girls in America doing the same hard work that these girls do day-in and day-out... ey yey yey.. my brain is hurting! This is entirely too hard to imagine. We have no idea how good we have it!

We finally reached grounding with a steady incline and began to make better time on our trek up the mountain. Our friend was very interesting company; he sang Tibetan songs, made jungle noises, and ,boy, could this guy leap from boulder to boulder. He was so agile in his loafer shoes! Yes! He was hiking in the type of shoe most men where with some nice white or khaki shorts... not quite loafers, but the same type of style... you know, same same but different (for the Indian critics out there).

Three hours later we were nearing the top and the dark skies that we noticed from the beginning of our trek opened up with a thunderous boom! And would you believe, with our good fortune... it started to hail?! We ran under a large rock, and hid from the storm for about 15 minutes. Soaked and cold, we waited along with 5 other hikers caught in the storm until the hail seemed to let up. Eric and I clung to each other trying to keep each other out of the hailstorm as much as possible. I hadn't brought any extra clothes, and Eric brought a long sleeve top which was bound to be soaking wet by now. ..

...While we're on the subject of clothes... this is a good point to take a break and pull in our previous night's festivities. See, Eric and I forgot to do our laundry the day before, and so we brilliantly decided to wash it that evening. (Mind you, we're hand washing our clothes in a bucket.. no laundry service for us!) We hung our clothes on the clothesline of our rooftop, eh, around 8 o'clock.... at night! Yup these were the clothes that we needed to wear for the trek. Needless to say, the moon just didn't do its job. Our clothes were still wet by 6:30am.

So, what did I end up wearing? A beautiful wrap around skirt with my pink Indian sequence top, and of course hiking shoes. Yup! I was the most stylish broad on the mountain! Little did I know, my dashing attire would come in handy later in the hike.

When the hail slowed, we dashed out from under the rock and made our way up the side of the mountain to a nearby shack (or as they say, “cafe”) It was about 10 minutes away. Thank goodness it was reasonably close! The hail started up again, leaving us even colder than before as we tucked under the blue tarp that kept us dry in the small cafe on the side of the mountain.

There were at least 10 others huddled inside. Barely enough room for all of us, Eric and I nestled ourselves next to the cafe owner making chai on the stove. Each of us were thankful for the hot tea as we shivered from the cold. We waited in there for about 45 minutes, as the hail storm did not let up. Eric and I were sure that we wouldn't go the whole to the top of the mountain, to Triund. We were pretty miserable, wearing wet clothes and soaked from head to toe.

And then, our trip took yet another surprise turn. Our monk friend came over and saw how cold and slightly purple my hands were, so he started massaging them and pressing very hard on certain pressure points on my hand, so hard that it was painful! Then he took each finger and thrusted it hard towards the ground, in a snapping action. This shot an electric beam of heat through my body like nothing I'd ever felt before, and before I knew it, I had fainted. Yup! Good ol' Pammi played her fainting “trick” again!

My mind went into a darkened dream state. I even felt my body shaking in my dream (as it shook in real life)and when I woke up, I had forgotten where I was. I only saw several Indians around me, a blue tarp hanging above me, and an old gas stove atop a large stone. I didn't remember where I was until I saw a chocolate Special K bar smack dab in front of my mouth, knowing that it could be none other but my dear, Eric, who would act so quickly. I was immediately relieved. I remembered everything. I had fainted... whether it was from the cold, from the heat our friend ignited in my hands, from low sugar, or all of the above, I wasn't sure. It was incredible though, meaning the dream state that I was in for the mere 10 seconds that I had fainted. I felt like I had been out for much longer.

As you can imagine, Eric was pretty startled. Luckily I was pretty close to Eric when I fainted and so I had only fallen and hit my knee. My leg was dirty all the way up and my knee was bleeding slightly. How was I feeling? Utterly embarrassed. Of course everyone in the cafe was concerned and the cook even offered me a spoonful of crystal sugar. I refused, feeling embarrassed enough that I had fainted and was being hand fed a Special K bar like an infant.

Now believe it or not, after being drenched to the bone, huddled in a small, tarped shack for an hour, and losing conciousness; we dragged our sopping wet bodies up the mountain. Our friend and Eric traded off holding my hand for most of the way up, for fear that I would faint again and go tumbling down the side of the mountain. They were very kind, but again, I was embarrassed that they even felt they needed to help me like that.

Soon started our trek again, the sun started to shine partly through the clouds. About an hour later, we made it up the mountain (following a trail of donkeys carrying goods up to some of the shop owners at the top of the mountain).

Triund, the top of the mountain, was incredible! Not only because we could sit and relax, but also the view was spectacular. It felt like the snow-covered mountain was in our backyard, just teasing us with its majestic presence! The way the forest graced the hills was magical, leaving only openings for random houses perched haphazardly on the side of the mountain. It was these same houses and shacks that we would seldom pass, wondering how they manage to live so far away from roads. I'm sure they maintain their own livestock and vegetable gardens. They would have to, because the closest store is a 3 hour hike away!

While resting on a manja, or cot, as we know it in the States, we shared some homemade Tibetan bread with our friend and a wounded dog, drank some chai, and watched the mountains in their glory. Our friend had made the bread at 5:30 this morning specifically for the hike! It was absolutely delicious! Yet one more recipe we are determined to bring home to America!

Oh, regarding the wounded dog, he was being tended to by a couple of kind Israeli travelers who had no experience in the medical field but were determined to stitch up the flap of skin hanging from the dog's leg. It was an admirable gesture, especially considering that this was a stray dog. The stray dogs in McLeod Ganj are very kind because the Tibetans are very kind to them. They pet them, feed them, and give them water. Often we'll see dogs resting on the doorsteps of businesses and homes. They are surprisingly docile, and only get irritated with each other.

We met a few interesting folks at the top. For instance, a group of Punjabi men celebrated their climb with some rum and by waving the Indian flag as if they'd just landed on the moon. We met an American woman who will be starting her Masters at Georgetown University in the fall who was hiking alongside an Israeli man whom she practices Yoga with. All very inspiring people, each with their own intention in mind for reaching the top of the mountain. More and more, I'm finding that every traveler is looking for his or her own personal sense of fulfillment. Each has his own way of doing it, meditation, yoga, classes, reading, painting, or staring at the mountains looking for an answer.... Meeting these individual encourages me to look deeper into what I want out of life. I came to India for volunteering, but how will I be changed when I leave?

Anyway, I could philosophize all day, let's get to the good stuff, right?

After a good hour and a half of rest at the top of the mountain, I started feeling a little woozy in my stomach. Apparently, the one tablet of Pepto Bismol I'd taken this morning was wearing off. I marked my territory once on the top of the mountain and then we began our trek down. (Oh, and never did I think that I would be going to the bathroom next to a slug the width of a quarter and the length of pencil! But there it was, climbing up the tree sitting next to me. Yuck!)

Although I was blessed with the gas, bloating, and “gotta go” urges that the Big “D” offers its hosts, I actually enjoyed the hike down the mountain. I don't want to get too graphic, for fear that you may be having your mid-afternoon snack while you read this, but let's just say I made my mark on the Himalayas three times that day, and it wasn't pretty! This is where the benefit of wearing my skirt came in. Hurray for late night laundry! When I would feel the urge, I would alert Eric and our monk friend. We would find a decent region for me to “set up shop.” Then each of them would stand guard on both ends of the trail to warn me when other hikers were near. One time our monk friend tried to stop an Indian couple hiking by, and they refused to stop! Good thing I was wearing a skirt! :)

On our way down we ran into a herd of goats grazing along the path. These were not your average goats. They were stylin goats, with hairdos that resembled Ringo's, Paul's, and John Lennon's. They were quite friendly too, with horns that twisted like those American red, white, and blue popsicles!

We eventually made it down the mountain stopping shortly with some Punjabi men who insisted on taking a picture with Eric, our monk friend, and I... I guess we must've looked liked an interesting bunch to be hiking together...

After our 3 hour journey back down the mountain, we said our good-byes and thank-yous to our friend who had taken us up the mountain. Eric and I were ravenous, so after getting cleaned up, we ventured off to one of the worst Italian restaurants in town... (Dag gone it... how were we supposed to know? We just wanted some hot soup and pasta to warm us up from the inside.)

With all of the crazy events going up, and the awful discomfort I had descending the mountain, I was surprised to realize when we reached the bottom, that I had enjoyed the journey immensely! It's funny how things turn out. There was a point in the hike, when we were soaking wet and huddled up in the shack that Eric and I were sure we weren't going to trek the whole way to the top. And there we were! We made it! *sigh Gotta love the feeling of accomplishment.