i have a friend that's working in Leh...his company oragnizes adventure tours and marathons and he is one of the marathon organizers...and that's the really really good news...because my health is about to get a lot worse...when i say my friend is part of a team organizing marathons i mean like a real marathon...ya crazier people than i actually fly to Leh to run a bloody marathon at 12,000'...well they were short a photographer...long story short...$200 plus they cover all my expenses...best of all though there were three drs that were apart of team...western doctors...they simutaneously looked at me and my back and were not very happy...i told them that i went to the tibetan doctor a few days prior...they were not impressed by that either...i was sick...and they were pretty serious with me...they gave me some major pills and made me sleep at their hotel during the day...for two days...they wanted to make sure that i was healthy enough for the race...to take pics...lol...well it was amazing that my buddy was there and that they hired me...i would have done it for no money...just medical care...
well my health got better with the antibiotics...i shot the marathon...it was fun and beautiful...my health was better...still i was very weak...i decided to fly home rather than ride...it was 5-6 days of hard riding back to delhi...i was not up for it...i hadn't the strength in my upper body...plus the weather was bad...i had bought myself a new jacket in Leh...i was very cold and i figured that i would need the layers to ride home...oh well...i put shanti on a truck and my ass on a jet...straight to Depa's house i came...Depa is my adopted Indian mum...i met her at the art residency...this is where i am now...i spent the whole week here...depa and her son Nimy took care of me...i was quite sick and had to go to the hostpital nearly everyday for a week...i need the bandage on my back to be changed everyday and i had a bunch of doctors look at me...in the end it was decided that i had a wicked virus brought on by malnutrition, fatigue and generally being ass by riding up to Leh...i guess they don't see the heroics in riding a 1950's motorbike over an 18,000' pass...if they can't see they can't see i guess...one of the drs actually told me...enough with the craziness you stay at home until ur bored for the next 3 days...well Depa made sure of it...i was home for the remainder of my time here in delhi...i made a few appearances at night when things cooled down to a paltry 35 degrees...ya that's cool weather....
my time in Leh was well spent sleeping...i didn't really get to see much...the ride though was as amazingly insane as it could have been...i'll be totally honest...that i was rediculously under prepared for the trip...as much mentally as material wise...i never imagined it would that tough...i really didn't...i hope shanti is ok...
and so i sit here and wonder at what i will say for my last indian post of the first half of my journey here....silly i know...silly because i wonder about an answer...crazy...the answer which will follow the question...'so what did india teach u mag'...i start to feel a bit quizzy and it's not because the dog outside is wearing vomit on himself again....really dogs with out vommit look a lot nicer...what did india teach me...hmmm...i have no frick'n clue...no idea...where to start answering this question...who's india anyways...what does it have to do with india...am i in india...is that where i am supposed to be...and teach...don't i already have all the information...isn't it all inside me anyways...so perhaps the question ought'a be...what did india reveal to me...any new shit get dug up on this trip bhai....
well perhaps a quick appology is in order or maybe we should just fuck that idea as i stopped the act of appologizing and started the act of recognizing the shit i do and am responsible for...we can leave this topic for another discussion...honestly though i have pages of notes here in my book worried about the appropriate message that i should bring home with me...like who the hell am i and what's this about a message...hey i came to india to chill...waste a few months...smoke a lot of charas and fuck india women...that's it...wow ego mag just went wild...where did that come from...i remember the sound of it from a few years ago...this trip wasn't that style of excitment i can asure you of that...not unless u consider my relationship with shanti...well we were in a few tight places together but.....
i'm not sure why i came to india...except that it was on my path...so i followed it...maybe i wanted to test my belief...my belief in me...i know that's not a lot...honestly i was expecting break through awe inspiring light shinning profound experience...which i had in thailand...i thought that perhaps i would experience something which i could share with everyone at home...you know like meeting a guru and finding out the answer to the caramilk bar or something...all the swamies and guru's were pretty chill...with a chill message...simple be happy...live in the moment...we already know all that...i didn't meet anyone who i thought was any closer to love than the people that i already know...maybe i need to look harder...or maybe not...maybe it's me and my new vision...everyone i see looks like god...everything i hear are gods words...i see god all around me all the time...it's wonderful...it's wonderful to be able to see it here in india...india is a gentle slow moving lady...india demands balance and graticousness...leave the attitude at the door white guy...beyond the dust and the hear are wonderful experiences that one has to see, touch, taste and feel not to mention sometimes smell...just to get an idea of the setting...
i guess i was hoping purpose would become a bit clearer during this 5 month journey...i really have little idea as to what i will do with life...i'm no further or closer to figuring that out...as i write this though i am not too worried...doing nothing has been everything i thought it would be...i rather like and often find myself so busy that i could possible handle this life and one where i actually worked...no that will not happen...work i mean...keep it away from me...so i will continue to hope and wonder and put together little ideas and write them down for the precise moment where the timing will be perfect to start doing something....util then...i am not so starving artist...which i rather love...and maker of friends...
so that's it...no big sermonds from mounts of stone...if anything india solidifed that i am on the write path and that anything is possible...i met so many awesome friends here which i can't wait to host in vancouver so they can meet my awesome friends there...and i am realizing that i have given myself a year to do nothing and not feel bad about it...which i fully intend to take advantage of...i may not have profound answers from india...i have profound stories and memories though...
rest in peace
mag
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
On top of the world
no woman no cry...thanks mr. marley...i am surrounded by a bunch of local ladakhians...we are sitting around a fire...one that was started with diesel fuel and i love the Vietnam bon fire smell...nothing like napalm in the morning i used to say...it's a dam nice smell almost as nice as wet close cramped into my ruck sac for three days...hmmm good...i'm in Leh the capital city of Ladakh in the region of Kasmir and Jammu...Ladakh means surrounded by mountains which of course it is and again i find it hard to explain the beauty...i'm sure it's the same feeling the german tourists get when they visit canada...actually i am inspired to travel across canada now that i have done this trip as i know that there are many beauty place which i have forgotten about in my own country...i rode over the 2nd highest motorable pass in the world today...17,553' and it was an awesome feeling...and a very light headed one...the moment i was waiting for...i have been thinking about this for nearly three months...i have been riding amongst 3,4, 5,6, 7000 meter giants for weeks now and finally i made it the top of the world...i felt like i was walking on the surface of the moon...not that i have done this yet...no really i haven't...ok maybe once but i was really high at the time and i think i was walking on my mattress at the time...no idea how my mattress got to the moon though...actually i don't feel very funny right now...i just ate a pizza though and that might have something to do with it...the sun is setting and i feel sad for it even though the sky and the mountain peaks glow with a brilliant soon to come darkness...of course it can be argued that all this is in my head and part of my imagination which i know to be true...who the fuck cares...the pizza too was part of the illusion and it tasted dam good so there...actually anything that isn't dal and rice and chipatti tastes frick'n remarkable to me these days...ya i know that there are friends at home who are saying i told you so...you will get so tired of indian food you will crave canadian food...well i am here to say that you are all wrong...this is not indian food...this is poor villagers food...i can assure you that at Viji's restaraunt you will not find dal malcana on the menu...and i swear to you that i am not on crack at the moment...i just karoke James Blunt's Your Beautiful with an indian guy...i wonder if crack is an ingredient in Ladakh made pizza...i was an awesome feeling being at that altitude...an insignificant feeling too...this thought comes to me often as i ride along alone only to look off into the mountain air to see a bird flying along side of me like a dolphin swimming along with a ship...see you are not alone says the bird to me...you here to play with me...and i laugh...this pizza is good...there are perfect little flowers at the top of this pass...blue and yellow...tiny little flowers...quivering in the howling winds...everything works like perfection here and it makes my think about my perfection or imperfection...let's not get started on this topic though after all it's an easy trip to insane if one continues to wonder what god actually has in store for them...after all none of this actually exists and this is all a glitch in a main frame computer somewhere...just kidding...really i am made in the image of god and that alone is all the perfection i need...god doesn't make seconds...over my pizza dinner i was talking with this lady from spain...she's here in ladakh to check out some manuscripts that provide evidence that Jesus didn't actually die on the cross like many of us have been told...after all he could heel people by just looking at them so what's a few metal spikes going to do...perhaps there's some sense to this...i mean half the world believes he's the son of god and really cruxifiction is a kind of Hollywood way to go don't you think...anyways supposedly he came to live in india in ladakh where he studied previously in his life time...i wonder if he liked dal rice and chipatties...
shall i take you back a week to fill in the gaps...can you hear the me...as if anyone but me is reading this...well then i will take me back...i had a very nice shabbat dinner in Kaza which kind of came out of the blue...the next day i rode up to Ky Monastery and spent the night there which really was a bit of disappointment as the place is a but run down...those monks are kind of messy...i woke up early sunday morning thinking that i would cross Kunzum pass and have plenty of time to get to key long...a quick trip to the local petrol station which was closed on sunday introduced me to Collin, certified enfield mechanic and his girlfriend Gemme...they too had the idea of crossing the pass early and riding to key long...well a close petrol station in india only means that one has to go wake up the petrol station attendant which a few of the locals did for us gladly...actually a quick mention here...the local are only too helpful...what ever the task...well the lad finally arrived and then that's when we discovered that there was a second challenge...there were two petrol pumps that are each connected to a separate underground tank...well the one pump that was broken tank was empty...the full tank was connected to the pump that was broken...makes perfect sense...so what will we do...simple we will pump manually from one tank to the other...we finally received our petrol around 11am...only to ride into a terrible storm that closed the pass with snow fall and land slides...i was so cold...i have never been that cold before in my life...i could barely move my hands from the handle bars...i was so unprepared for this weather...we were lucky enough to find a little village and a family that took us in...feed us chai and food...we spent 3 hours there warming up...kind of...the house was a traditional house where the animals lived in the bottom and the family up stairs...and they used shit as fuel to cook and keep the house warm...ya it smelled something awful...we were going to complain...we might have stayed the night there but there was a village just about 13km away and we suited back up for the painful ride...we were stuck in losser for two days...finally the sun broke and the pass was open...it was stunning...fresh snow and sunshine...what a reward for a two day delay...i learned just how at the mercy of these mountains i am...especially riding on a bike...i also learned again that stupidity can cost one there life in these hills...so bought rain gear from the guest house keeper where we stayed in losser...that poor lady didn't want to give up her yellow rubber dish gloves...
i met up with a group of riders in key long and decided that it would be a good idea to ride with them to pang...the halfway point to Leh...except that about 30kms out shanti stoped and wouldn't move...a bit of messing around...checking the clutch on the side of a mountain etc and i decided that it would be best to put my steed on a truck and head back to key long to have a mechanic check it out...800Rps later and five hours shanti was running better than ever and i headed out the next morning with three riders from the UK...i was feeling pretty low being truck backed to key long...sitting in the back of a big blue truck...it took 6 guys to lift shanti into and out of the bed of this truck...it's a heavy bike and the this truck was big...turns out the there was a landslide about another 40kms out from where i was left stranded...maybe that's the reason why i was turned around...it could also have been the fact that shanti had no engine oil...gear oil...clutch oil and gear grease in her...ya all things that i guess need to be checked more often...all things that should have been checked by the mechanic that worked on my bike two weeks prior...well i made it to pang the next day...an epic day...two large passes...sun...rain for which i was now prepared for...i had to wait for the trucks to clear the pass...that took four hours...the scenery was amazing...i know i sound like a broken record but it's true...just beautiful...about 10km before pang there was a 300 meter river crossing...that was huge...and it sucked as i arrive at sun down with wet boots...luckily i met the riders that i started with the day before and james Lent me his flip flops...Pang is basically a temporary town of about 20 tents at 14,000'...i froze my ass off once again...and i wonder why i am choosing to do this...because it's epic dad...
well that about brings me up to date...with the exception of my health and ladies it gets a bit gross here...it's not great...i don't think that i have been neglecting myself...it's just that this area is harsh...i live in the same clothes for days...it's cold and bathing with freezing water isn't that inspiring...i have three festering blisters on my left foot...oozing white puss...one on my right foot just under my big toe in the crack where the toe meets the foot...some where i think in Kaza or at the Ky monastery i got bitten by something i think while i was a sleep...well that festered into a puss oozing golf ball size grossness...my throat has been sore for over a week which i think is due to all the dust and fumes i inhale being on the bike...my back is sore...i am walking as bow legged as a bull rider...i am a mess...and so i have decided to chill here in leh for a bit and fix myself up...i went to see a Dr and the good news is nothing need to be amputated...some cream and some herbs and in a week i will be all better...and so i relax for the next few days...i went to a second shabbat dinner which was great and i even made it to the lunch and service the following day...
i have decided that i will head south through manali into the Kullu valley and on to Delhi...i have about two weeks to get there which is plenty of time...well i am tired now...so it's time to sign off...i guess the pizza crack has worn off...it was pretty good while it lasted...
rest in peace...
mag
shall i take you back a week to fill in the gaps...can you hear the me...as if anyone but me is reading this...well then i will take me back...i had a very nice shabbat dinner in Kaza which kind of came out of the blue...the next day i rode up to Ky Monastery and spent the night there which really was a bit of disappointment as the place is a but run down...those monks are kind of messy...i woke up early sunday morning thinking that i would cross Kunzum pass and have plenty of time to get to key long...a quick trip to the local petrol station which was closed on sunday introduced me to Collin, certified enfield mechanic and his girlfriend Gemme...they too had the idea of crossing the pass early and riding to key long...well a close petrol station in india only means that one has to go wake up the petrol station attendant which a few of the locals did for us gladly...actually a quick mention here...the local are only too helpful...what ever the task...well the lad finally arrived and then that's when we discovered that there was a second challenge...there were two petrol pumps that are each connected to a separate underground tank...well the one pump that was broken tank was empty...the full tank was connected to the pump that was broken...makes perfect sense...so what will we do...simple we will pump manually from one tank to the other...we finally received our petrol around 11am...only to ride into a terrible storm that closed the pass with snow fall and land slides...i was so cold...i have never been that cold before in my life...i could barely move my hands from the handle bars...i was so unprepared for this weather...we were lucky enough to find a little village and a family that took us in...feed us chai and food...we spent 3 hours there warming up...kind of...the house was a traditional house where the animals lived in the bottom and the family up stairs...and they used shit as fuel to cook and keep the house warm...ya it smelled something awful...we were going to complain...we might have stayed the night there but there was a village just about 13km away and we suited back up for the painful ride...we were stuck in losser for two days...finally the sun broke and the pass was open...it was stunning...fresh snow and sunshine...what a reward for a two day delay...i learned just how at the mercy of these mountains i am...especially riding on a bike...i also learned again that stupidity can cost one there life in these hills...so bought rain gear from the guest house keeper where we stayed in losser...that poor lady didn't want to give up her yellow rubber dish gloves...
i met up with a group of riders in key long and decided that it would be a good idea to ride with them to pang...the halfway point to Leh...except that about 30kms out shanti stoped and wouldn't move...a bit of messing around...checking the clutch on the side of a mountain etc and i decided that it would be best to put my steed on a truck and head back to key long to have a mechanic check it out...800Rps later and five hours shanti was running better than ever and i headed out the next morning with three riders from the UK...i was feeling pretty low being truck backed to key long...sitting in the back of a big blue truck...it took 6 guys to lift shanti into and out of the bed of this truck...it's a heavy bike and the this truck was big...turns out the there was a landslide about another 40kms out from where i was left stranded...maybe that's the reason why i was turned around...it could also have been the fact that shanti had no engine oil...gear oil...clutch oil and gear grease in her...ya all things that i guess need to be checked more often...all things that should have been checked by the mechanic that worked on my bike two weeks prior...well i made it to pang the next day...an epic day...two large passes...sun...rain for which i was now prepared for...i had to wait for the trucks to clear the pass...that took four hours...the scenery was amazing...i know i sound like a broken record but it's true...just beautiful...about 10km before pang there was a 300 meter river crossing...that was huge...and it sucked as i arrive at sun down with wet boots...luckily i met the riders that i started with the day before and james Lent me his flip flops...Pang is basically a temporary town of about 20 tents at 14,000'...i froze my ass off once again...and i wonder why i am choosing to do this...because it's epic dad...
well that about brings me up to date...with the exception of my health and ladies it gets a bit gross here...it's not great...i don't think that i have been neglecting myself...it's just that this area is harsh...i live in the same clothes for days...it's cold and bathing with freezing water isn't that inspiring...i have three festering blisters on my left foot...oozing white puss...one on my right foot just under my big toe in the crack where the toe meets the foot...some where i think in Kaza or at the Ky monastery i got bitten by something i think while i was a sleep...well that festered into a puss oozing golf ball size grossness...my throat has been sore for over a week which i think is due to all the dust and fumes i inhale being on the bike...my back is sore...i am walking as bow legged as a bull rider...i am a mess...and so i have decided to chill here in leh for a bit and fix myself up...i went to see a Dr and the good news is nothing need to be amputated...some cream and some herbs and in a week i will be all better...and so i relax for the next few days...i went to a second shabbat dinner which was great and i even made it to the lunch and service the following day...
i have decided that i will head south through manali into the Kullu valley and on to Delhi...i have about two weeks to get there which is plenty of time...well i am tired now...so it's time to sign off...i guess the pizza crack has worn off...it was pretty good while it lasted...
rest in peace...
mag
Happy Birthday Dali Lama
i rode from Nako down through Tabo on to Kaza today as i heard that there was going to be a celebration there for the lama's birthday...tabo is a beautiful place and i wish i had spent the night there as they have a beautiful monastery with stunning wall fresco's some over 1000 years old and well preserved...i would have liked to see the monastery at dankar as well and maybe spend a night in mud...however i thought that the lama's b-day comes only once a year and what an opportunity it would be to participate in it...well it wasn't that great...first of all there wasn't any cake...i mean it's the lama's b-day and no cake...i spoke with a 11 year old representative of kaza and i expressed my disappointment...he said that i would have to go to Darmasala to get cake because that's where the lama was...i told him that i didn't understand after all we are celebrating the b-day here in Kaza and the lama isn't here...he disagreed and insisted that only where the birthday boy is will there be cake...i told him that i didn't like that idea and that i was going to go buy some cake for myself so i could celebrate...he smiled and came around thinking that i had a pretty great idea and that it would be auspicious to share that cake...
while sitting watching the lama's b-day ceremony a village girl beside me sneezed on my arm...it was a wet sneeze too...i even said bless you to her...although i don't know her...where she's been or what type of sneeze that was and i am thinking that maybe i should have said god bless me...i still feel the wetness on my arm and i slowly begin to rub my elbow against my t-shirt...wouldn't want to insult her or anything would i...
rest in peace
mag
while sitting watching the lama's b-day ceremony a village girl beside me sneezed on my arm...it was a wet sneeze too...i even said bless you to her...although i don't know her...where she's been or what type of sneeze that was and i am thinking that maybe i should have said god bless me...i still feel the wetness on my arm and i slowly begin to rub my elbow against my t-shirt...wouldn't want to insult her or anything would i...
rest in peace
mag
on top of old NAKO
have you ever contemplated nothing...for say 3-4 hrs...i am sitting under a old pine tree looking over one the world's great epic sites...the himalaya mountains...there are so many mountain peaks in my view it would take an atomic calculator to count and remember them all...well ok maybe not that many...there are several hundreds in my site though...next to me are 10 very highly thought of monks that have been buried in a traditional stupa's...i say highly thought of because i am about 1000' above the town of nako and to carry the buggers and all the stones up here must mean that the people like them...that of course is my assumption...i am at about 13,000'...not sure if i have ever been up this high...i know that i have never meditated at this height which is a pretty blissful and easy task...i think this is how a bull dog must feel through out it's life...kind of slow and ok with the that pace...and so i am here after a breathless hike up the mountain which took less than an hour i think...i am sitting perched under a pine...meditating and i realised that i just spent the last 4 hours thinking about nothing...it was so enjoyable...in this thin air environment i can think of nothing better than to just sit...breath....now my curiosity has gotten the better of me and i am thinking about how high the mountains across the valley are...maybe 16,000' possibly higher...they go on for ever...i am reminded of the view i see every time i fly back into vancouver...our mountains go on for ever as well...why haven't i been impressed by this before...hmmm...
last night i slept outside...well sort of...i dragged my mattress and blankets out to my balcony just outside my guest house room...it's covered...and it's as outside as i could get at the time...it was beautiful...the sky was so dark...the stars and the galaxies were so bright...i was reminded of the sky back in lillooet were my bro lives...it can be argued that my outside adventure was a little bit boy scoutish...i don't really care though as i enjoyed myself...so there...
Nako is a beautiful little village nestled into a small valley at 12,000' between giant peaks...there's so much agriculture here and my guest house sits in front of a lush green field of rice and wheat...it's really beautiful to watch the sun set behind the mountains on the other side of the valley...however this tiny little quiet village was a little bit deceiving upon my arrival yesterday...i learned a lot on what to look for in a guest house and i think that the information is pertinent enough to be blog about for the benefit of all...so without further hesitation here are a few things to look for when choosing your guest house...
a.) lush green fields:: now while lush green fields provide beautiful fresh air as well palate of greens that dance in your eyes as the sun sets they also include farmers...now farmers are early to rise mother fuckers and the ones the reside in nako are not the silent types...in fact they are dam right noisy...not to mention a bunch of alcoholics...now i don't know that for sure...biased on the hollering that went on each night...yelling to one other across the green fields on what topics i have no idea...but that lasted well into the early hours of the night...not to be undone by the female farmers who at 5am seem to have no problem about yelling to one another across green fields about the previous nights earth quake warnings perhaps...i went out to my balcony one morning to politely ask mama g if she could shut the fuck up...well one can imagine just how successful that was...it's actually quite remarkable how the villagers have no concept of personal space...it's not uncommon to have a villager walk right on in to answer a question that one asked maybe a day ago just because they finally have the answer...
b.) Steam Roller...Drums of Tar...Piles of stone:: now as i was parking my motorbike behind the 1950's steam roller it never occurred to me to look around at the piles of sand and gravel or the drums of tar that lay just beyond it...i mean well of course there was road work to be done...there's always road work to be done...i just never thought that they would start up a asphalt mixing machine in front of the 4 main guest houses that support this little village...upon descending from my morning and afternoon meditation hike on top of Nako i walked into a stinky noisy stomach turning mess that went on into the wee hours of the night...it was disgusting and every visitor that i spoke to either left the village immediately or the next morning...it never occurred to anyone that perhaps it would have been better for business to locate the tar machines a half km down the road where they were working...
i hope these tips will be helpful for other travellers...
rest in peace
mag
last night i slept outside...well sort of...i dragged my mattress and blankets out to my balcony just outside my guest house room...it's covered...and it's as outside as i could get at the time...it was beautiful...the sky was so dark...the stars and the galaxies were so bright...i was reminded of the sky back in lillooet were my bro lives...it can be argued that my outside adventure was a little bit boy scoutish...i don't really care though as i enjoyed myself...so there...
Nako is a beautiful little village nestled into a small valley at 12,000' between giant peaks...there's so much agriculture here and my guest house sits in front of a lush green field of rice and wheat...it's really beautiful to watch the sun set behind the mountains on the other side of the valley...however this tiny little quiet village was a little bit deceiving upon my arrival yesterday...i learned a lot on what to look for in a guest house and i think that the information is pertinent enough to be blog about for the benefit of all...so without further hesitation here are a few things to look for when choosing your guest house...
a.) lush green fields:: now while lush green fields provide beautiful fresh air as well palate of greens that dance in your eyes as the sun sets they also include farmers...now farmers are early to rise mother fuckers and the ones the reside in nako are not the silent types...in fact they are dam right noisy...not to mention a bunch of alcoholics...now i don't know that for sure...biased on the hollering that went on each night...yelling to one other across the green fields on what topics i have no idea...but that lasted well into the early hours of the night...not to be undone by the female farmers who at 5am seem to have no problem about yelling to one another across green fields about the previous nights earth quake warnings perhaps...i went out to my balcony one morning to politely ask mama g if she could shut the fuck up...well one can imagine just how successful that was...it's actually quite remarkable how the villagers have no concept of personal space...it's not uncommon to have a villager walk right on in to answer a question that one asked maybe a day ago just because they finally have the answer...
b.) Steam Roller...Drums of Tar...Piles of stone:: now as i was parking my motorbike behind the 1950's steam roller it never occurred to me to look around at the piles of sand and gravel or the drums of tar that lay just beyond it...i mean well of course there was road work to be done...there's always road work to be done...i just never thought that they would start up a asphalt mixing machine in front of the 4 main guest houses that support this little village...upon descending from my morning and afternoon meditation hike on top of Nako i walked into a stinky noisy stomach turning mess that went on into the wee hours of the night...it was disgusting and every visitor that i spoke to either left the village immediately or the next morning...it never occurred to anyone that perhaps it would have been better for business to locate the tar machines a half km down the road where they were working...
i hope these tips will be helpful for other travellers...
rest in peace
mag
Cows Are Solid...Think?
ya i do a lot of thinking as i travel along the NH 22...i sing and talk aloud...mostly nonsense but sometimes i come up with brill ant thoughts...for instance...why are there no signs saying watch out for cows...or maybe a sign that could represent that cows are much harder than they look...really i bet it's true...i mean some of these mountain cows look darn cuddly...however i suspect that it's not the case when one drives into one...i would say that they are dam solid mother fuckers and it would hurt both cow and what ever drove into it...it would probably feel a lot like driving into say a side of a mountain maybe...i don't know...well i don't plan to test this theory out...i will trust my higher senses and trust that cows are quite solid...
Mum told me that i Stink!
I had a dream last night where mum was telling me that my farts stunk really bad and that they were smelling up the house...in the dream i am home from india...well i woke up that morning and sure enough i had to leave the tent i am sleeping in to write this note...because the tent smelled like farts...really bad farts too...from me...i mean i did have a bit of a stomach ache last night...this mountain food is really hardy...it takes a bit to digest...i mean is it my fault...no one told me about the farts...i wonder how long it will take to air out my tent...i can't help think about the next set of guests to stay here...i am out of here...
and the farts continued...in nako they were really bad...i mean like 40 large farts in a row...it's getting worse night by night...no joke...ok it's funny...i don't mean for it to be though...well maybe i do...butt seriously my ass feels like the fog horn on the titanic...i kept peering over my blanket looking for icebergs...the walls were shaking...i think i heard the local villagers talking about warning signs for earth quakes...the people in the next room were banging on the walls telling me to keep it down...i couldn't help it...my stomach was swollen like a beach ball...i couldn't move to tell them...hey there's no party over here...i have the farts...i guess they were upset that i didn't invite them to the party...what a party that would have been...the air is already quite thin up here...it's morning now the air is still so thick with fart...i can barely read what i have written here...i think that i will move on to the next town...
and the farts continued...in nako they were really bad...i mean like 40 large farts in a row...it's getting worse night by night...no joke...ok it's funny...i don't mean for it to be though...well maybe i do...butt seriously my ass feels like the fog horn on the titanic...i kept peering over my blanket looking for icebergs...the walls were shaking...i think i heard the local villagers talking about warning signs for earth quakes...the people in the next room were banging on the walls telling me to keep it down...i couldn't help it...my stomach was swollen like a beach ball...i couldn't move to tell them...hey there's no party over here...i have the farts...i guess they were upset that i didn't invite them to the party...what a party that would have been...the air is already quite thin up here...it's morning now the air is still so thick with fart...i can barely read what i have written here...i think that i will move on to the next town...
Hindustan Tibetan Highway (mum you might want to skip this post)
I have chosen to take the long way around to reach leh...not because i am a glutan for punishment...which it can be argued that i am...but because i want to ride through the Kinnaur Valley and the Spitti Valley along the route that was used to carry goods into tibet from india, pakistan etc...the road goes right into china, but of course i won't be allowed into china...now the highway is called National Highway 22 (NH 22) and i don't want to start picking fights with the indian department of transport and highways...but...well...highway????
First off it's a stretch at times to even call it a road let alone a highway...perhaps 'path' is a better definition...according to the experience i have had with roads and highways...i am reluctant to believe that a cartographer had anything to do with the publishing of the map book that i am carrying that calls this a highway...think lord of the rings when frodo and his crew are tr eking over the mountains...you now have an idea of the highway that i am riding over with a 1950's british designed indian built iron horse...and i am not kidding in the least...and really the brits haven't been known for their designing and well i won't touch the sticky subject of indian manufacturing...
OK...i haven't given you nearly enough detail here and i doubt if u really understand the hell i rode through today...so here it goes...and mum please don't worry...it's tough to explain but at no time was i worried or concerned for my life...not once did it occur to me that i could have travelled my last meter...it was as if i was surrounded by protective light...
ok where to start...well i thank god that 'shanti' (the nick name for my motorbike...which means peace) seemed to know the path and with out exception fought the highway with me as co-captian or possibly captain and i as passenger...who knows...we left Sarahan at 8:30am for what i thought and was told would be a 4hr ride...100km...to Sangla where i was told i would find woman with magical powers that can put spells on the men that they kidnap...by the by i saw no magical woman and no spells were cast in my direction and if you want to be honest then i can see why the woman would have to capture men and put spells on them...they aren't that attractive...
as i mentioned earlier so far the roads have not been great...good enough ride a stead 25km/hr on average...being that i am riding in the Himalayas one of the most beautiful areas i have seen on planet earth and difficult areas i am sure to build roads on i appreciate every km that i earn in this remote wilderness...i never expected the toll i would/could have paid today...i suppose giving my life would have been the highest toll and although there could have been or maybe should have been 100s of close calls today as i think back while writing these notes i can't think of any...not one...it's like god's hand was in my pants guiding us along...no funny ideas here...don't let this fool you to believe that this was a cake walk or the mountain air has corrupted my sense of reality...that was corrupted way back in Thailand...lol...
the hwy started off quite the same as the days before...a bit narrower in sections and a few more washed out areas...the weather was cloudy and i thought that i would hold as the clouds looked quite high...well it didn't...the rain started soon after i started...i sat out a good portion of the heavy rain in a little village...the hills are littered with little villages...i see them in the most remote locations and although i know that they have been there for generations it's sometimes hard to believe my eyes that they are there perched on some ridge without any purpose obvious to me at least...the villagers young and old wave to me as i pass...i am not the first foreigner they have seen although i don't expect too many come through here on motorbike...i earn instant respect with the villagers...riding on an indian made motorbike through the remoteness instead on taking the quick way...when i do get to chat with a villager that speaks english...there's always one...they always ask me the same questions with the last being "you travel alone?"...without exception i get asked this...it's always spoken as more of a statement than a question as they can see that i am alone...the last guy to ask me this question as i started off after waiting for the rain to stop looked into my eyes and said, "good luck my friend."...as i write this i laugh and wish his english was just a bit better so he could have describe the gauntlet that i was about to ride into...now i am sure everyone at home is giggling with fear and shaking their heads...dad included...i knew from the start that this would be an epic journey...i knew that i had to do it alone...but i don't feel that i am alone as i mentioned earlier shanti is a part of this journey and i really believe that god is with us...i am travelling through nature as god intended it in all its beauty and simplicity...which means over and through just about every substance one may think a road can be made of...i wish everyone could see this...i am sure that u would stop shaking ur heads...ok maybe not...the indians believe that this is where their gods lived and i can see why they believe this...tonight i will be sleeping in shiva's play ground...
now electrical power is a major problem in india...one that is being answered with hydro electrical dams...i rode through india's largest hydro project today...an immense undertaking i will do my best to explain...the hyw continued to be tight and curvy...it was raining so the roads were wet with a sludge like mess the kind that likes to suck ur boots off...the hwy is cut into the side of the mountain...picture a C shape being cut through a vertical mountain and yes a very steep drop on one side...steep is an understatement...the road clings with it's claws to the side of the mountain...i can hear the scrapping of it's claws at times the only thing holding the road to the mountain side...the next stop hundreds of meters to the raging river below...evidence where the hwy lost the battle with gravity is at every third or fourth turn...enough room for one vehicle perhaps to pass scraping it's side against the mountain for sure...these mountains are alive and breath and no two turns look the same...the roads aren't the only thing i contend with...cows...goats...wild pigs and of course Tata's (trucks and buses)...now this is a normal day in the life of a driver on these roads with one exception...the hydro project and all the vehicles that go with it have made this stretch of hwy a 1000 times worse...in most other countries of the world a by pass would have been built to keep private passenger vehicles out of harms way...not here...massive earth moving trucks...cement trucks...gradders...blasting machines...everything that you would expect that goes along with building a dam along 10 kms on international hwy...and so the hell began...with every turn i honk my horn hopping to grab the attention of the tata trucks or the cows or the children...my concentration on high alert...code 5...RED!!!!....the road torn up by these big trucks moving earth from one tunnel to the other side of the hill for land fill...ruts in the road large enough to hide a small animal criss cross my path...i have never seen sludgy mud so thick let alone rode through it...boot sucking mud...the kind that holds your boot and leaves u hopping around with one naked socked foot looking for where the mud has captured your boot...and often shanti and i round a bend and the dance begins....
my shoulder presses against the wet mountain...the ground soft below mine and shanti's feet...the truck slowly sews a path past us...rubbing gently against the side of my mirror and the bags tide to the back of my bike...honks from our mutual horns ensure that all is ok and we move on from the entangled mess only to round the next bend...only this time it is a pick up truck and goods carrier...the largest truck india has to offer...they are moving in opposite directions...in a stand still as the road will let only one vehicle...and there's a third truck trying it's best to back up an impossible steep section of curve...it's a hill side dance with a 500 foot drop and everyone is tense with respect for the other drivers...and shanti and i in the middle...the pick up driver motions me through the eye of this hurricane dance and i am waved to pass by the goods carrier...i nod back and with a flick of my wrist shanti kicks up the mud beneath our legs...you have to understand that these truck drivers are the life blood of these villages...without them no food or water or anything gets through...they drive night and day and through most conditions...i see the slimmest gap between the two trucks and understand this is where they want me to pass...the gap of freedom must seem like an abyss to these stranded drivers...i push shanti throttle full and clutch half in...god please don't let me stall here...slowly in the thickest of mud we push through inches at a time...we our scrapping both sides...mirrors rubbing against both vehicles...my bags rubbing too...no stopping now though...a few scratches would be a shitty excuse to turn back now and i would lose all respect from these drivers...the ground is soft and the movement is slow...and shanti is slipping...the engine starts to roar...fuck...my rear end is losing traction...milli seconds seem to last for minutes...my rear has lost traction and in a few moments which seem to last hours i and shanti will be lying under a 30 ton truck in the mud...my bag...the one on the right side has snagged the bumper of the truck stalling shanti and pulling our rear end to the right side...i beat shanti with the throttle and wrestle the rear end loose...we are free for the moment...and the moment stops and we are still sliding...if not out loud then in spirit i scream, " one day we may fall but it won't be today" as i lay on the throttle...in a professional but what some would say careless move the pickup driver turns his steering wheel and thus his bumper into shanti and i...he can see that we are moments from losing it...and as quickly as it all started we slide out the other side...the pick up driver's brave and stupid move righted shanti's rear enough to regain traction..to the grins and respect of the the tata drivers we moved on from this dance...they know that this battle is not an easy one...
i don't know how many times we wrestled with the elements and trucks on this stretch of highway...i don't know how many times i pressed my shoulders against the wet mountain...there always seemed like there's was a path to take and always with camaraderie of the tata drivers...after all it's life...i didn't lose my sneaks even though i surfed my feet several times to help stabilize the bike...i would chastised myself every time i put my feet down...it's not the right thing to do on a bike...more often cause more trouble...i doubt u even have half an idea of what is was like to ride through this hell...as i type this the shivers go down my spine...
i arrived in sangla 6 hours later...we rode through mud over 6" deep...sand...tarmach...rocks...salt...metal...i rode up streams and down streams ...i rode over just about every surface known to man...my body is sore...my hands hurt to hold this pen...we didn't go down once...rubber side down all the way through...i don't know what the road will hold for us tomorrow or the next day...however i know this...i earned the right to ride on these roads today.
rest in peace
mag
First off it's a stretch at times to even call it a road let alone a highway...perhaps 'path' is a better definition...according to the experience i have had with roads and highways...i am reluctant to believe that a cartographer had anything to do with the publishing of the map book that i am carrying that calls this a highway...think lord of the rings when frodo and his crew are tr eking over the mountains...you now have an idea of the highway that i am riding over with a 1950's british designed indian built iron horse...and i am not kidding in the least...and really the brits haven't been known for their designing and well i won't touch the sticky subject of indian manufacturing...
OK...i haven't given you nearly enough detail here and i doubt if u really understand the hell i rode through today...so here it goes...and mum please don't worry...it's tough to explain but at no time was i worried or concerned for my life...not once did it occur to me that i could have travelled my last meter...it was as if i was surrounded by protective light...
ok where to start...well i thank god that 'shanti' (the nick name for my motorbike...which means peace) seemed to know the path and with out exception fought the highway with me as co-captian or possibly captain and i as passenger...who knows...we left Sarahan at 8:30am for what i thought and was told would be a 4hr ride...100km...to Sangla where i was told i would find woman with magical powers that can put spells on the men that they kidnap...by the by i saw no magical woman and no spells were cast in my direction and if you want to be honest then i can see why the woman would have to capture men and put spells on them...they aren't that attractive...
as i mentioned earlier so far the roads have not been great...good enough ride a stead 25km/hr on average...being that i am riding in the Himalayas one of the most beautiful areas i have seen on planet earth and difficult areas i am sure to build roads on i appreciate every km that i earn in this remote wilderness...i never expected the toll i would/could have paid today...i suppose giving my life would have been the highest toll and although there could have been or maybe should have been 100s of close calls today as i think back while writing these notes i can't think of any...not one...it's like god's hand was in my pants guiding us along...no funny ideas here...don't let this fool you to believe that this was a cake walk or the mountain air has corrupted my sense of reality...that was corrupted way back in Thailand...lol...
the hwy started off quite the same as the days before...a bit narrower in sections and a few more washed out areas...the weather was cloudy and i thought that i would hold as the clouds looked quite high...well it didn't...the rain started soon after i started...i sat out a good portion of the heavy rain in a little village...the hills are littered with little villages...i see them in the most remote locations and although i know that they have been there for generations it's sometimes hard to believe my eyes that they are there perched on some ridge without any purpose obvious to me at least...the villagers young and old wave to me as i pass...i am not the first foreigner they have seen although i don't expect too many come through here on motorbike...i earn instant respect with the villagers...riding on an indian made motorbike through the remoteness instead on taking the quick way...when i do get to chat with a villager that speaks english...there's always one...they always ask me the same questions with the last being "you travel alone?"...without exception i get asked this...it's always spoken as more of a statement than a question as they can see that i am alone...the last guy to ask me this question as i started off after waiting for the rain to stop looked into my eyes and said, "good luck my friend."...as i write this i laugh and wish his english was just a bit better so he could have describe the gauntlet that i was about to ride into...now i am sure everyone at home is giggling with fear and shaking their heads...dad included...i knew from the start that this would be an epic journey...i knew that i had to do it alone...but i don't feel that i am alone as i mentioned earlier shanti is a part of this journey and i really believe that god is with us...i am travelling through nature as god intended it in all its beauty and simplicity...which means over and through just about every substance one may think a road can be made of...i wish everyone could see this...i am sure that u would stop shaking ur heads...ok maybe not...the indians believe that this is where their gods lived and i can see why they believe this...tonight i will be sleeping in shiva's play ground...
now electrical power is a major problem in india...one that is being answered with hydro electrical dams...i rode through india's largest hydro project today...an immense undertaking i will do my best to explain...the hyw continued to be tight and curvy...it was raining so the roads were wet with a sludge like mess the kind that likes to suck ur boots off...the hwy is cut into the side of the mountain...picture a C shape being cut through a vertical mountain and yes a very steep drop on one side...steep is an understatement...the road clings with it's claws to the side of the mountain...i can hear the scrapping of it's claws at times the only thing holding the road to the mountain side...the next stop hundreds of meters to the raging river below...evidence where the hwy lost the battle with gravity is at every third or fourth turn...enough room for one vehicle perhaps to pass scraping it's side against the mountain for sure...these mountains are alive and breath and no two turns look the same...the roads aren't the only thing i contend with...cows...goats...wild pigs and of course Tata's (trucks and buses)...now this is a normal day in the life of a driver on these roads with one exception...the hydro project and all the vehicles that go with it have made this stretch of hwy a 1000 times worse...in most other countries of the world a by pass would have been built to keep private passenger vehicles out of harms way...not here...massive earth moving trucks...cement trucks...gradders...blasting machines...everything that you would expect that goes along with building a dam along 10 kms on international hwy...and so the hell began...with every turn i honk my horn hopping to grab the attention of the tata trucks or the cows or the children...my concentration on high alert...code 5...RED!!!!....the road torn up by these big trucks moving earth from one tunnel to the other side of the hill for land fill...ruts in the road large enough to hide a small animal criss cross my path...i have never seen sludgy mud so thick let alone rode through it...boot sucking mud...the kind that holds your boot and leaves u hopping around with one naked socked foot looking for where the mud has captured your boot...and often shanti and i round a bend and the dance begins....
my shoulder presses against the wet mountain...the ground soft below mine and shanti's feet...the truck slowly sews a path past us...rubbing gently against the side of my mirror and the bags tide to the back of my bike...honks from our mutual horns ensure that all is ok and we move on from the entangled mess only to round the next bend...only this time it is a pick up truck and goods carrier...the largest truck india has to offer...they are moving in opposite directions...in a stand still as the road will let only one vehicle...and there's a third truck trying it's best to back up an impossible steep section of curve...it's a hill side dance with a 500 foot drop and everyone is tense with respect for the other drivers...and shanti and i in the middle...the pick up driver motions me through the eye of this hurricane dance and i am waved to pass by the goods carrier...i nod back and with a flick of my wrist shanti kicks up the mud beneath our legs...you have to understand that these truck drivers are the life blood of these villages...without them no food or water or anything gets through...they drive night and day and through most conditions...i see the slimmest gap between the two trucks and understand this is where they want me to pass...the gap of freedom must seem like an abyss to these stranded drivers...i push shanti throttle full and clutch half in...god please don't let me stall here...slowly in the thickest of mud we push through inches at a time...we our scrapping both sides...mirrors rubbing against both vehicles...my bags rubbing too...no stopping now though...a few scratches would be a shitty excuse to turn back now and i would lose all respect from these drivers...the ground is soft and the movement is slow...and shanti is slipping...the engine starts to roar...fuck...my rear end is losing traction...milli seconds seem to last for minutes...my rear has lost traction and in a few moments which seem to last hours i and shanti will be lying under a 30 ton truck in the mud...my bag...the one on the right side has snagged the bumper of the truck stalling shanti and pulling our rear end to the right side...i beat shanti with the throttle and wrestle the rear end loose...we are free for the moment...and the moment stops and we are still sliding...if not out loud then in spirit i scream, " one day we may fall but it won't be today" as i lay on the throttle...in a professional but what some would say careless move the pickup driver turns his steering wheel and thus his bumper into shanti and i...he can see that we are moments from losing it...and as quickly as it all started we slide out the other side...the pick up driver's brave and stupid move righted shanti's rear enough to regain traction..to the grins and respect of the the tata drivers we moved on from this dance...they know that this battle is not an easy one...
i don't know how many times we wrestled with the elements and trucks on this stretch of highway...i don't know how many times i pressed my shoulders against the wet mountain...there always seemed like there's was a path to take and always with camaraderie of the tata drivers...after all it's life...i didn't lose my sneaks even though i surfed my feet several times to help stabilize the bike...i would chastised myself every time i put my feet down...it's not the right thing to do on a bike...more often cause more trouble...i doubt u even have half an idea of what is was like to ride through this hell...as i type this the shivers go down my spine...
i arrived in sangla 6 hours later...we rode through mud over 6" deep...sand...tarmach...rocks...salt...metal...i rode up streams and down streams ...i rode over just about every surface known to man...my body is sore...my hands hurt to hold this pen...we didn't go down once...rubber side down all the way through...i don't know what the road will hold for us tomorrow or the next day...however i know this...i earned the right to ride on these roads today.
rest in peace
mag
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)