Adventures: Ladkah!

Going to Ladkah was not part of my original trip to India, but it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. One of my best friends from UVM, Holly Borday, had worked in Phey for three semesters as a teacher and facilitator for Vermont Intercultural Semesters (VIS). She finished work on May 10^th, almost the same time that I finished up work in Dharamshala. I hadn’t seen her since August and between her travels and mine had no clue when I would have another opportunity to see her again. Since she first visited Ladkah in 2009 I had heard incredible tales of the beautiful mountains and culture of the high altitude dessert of Ladkah. I was never able to understand this region that means so much to Holly until I was able to see it for myself. And now I see why she is always wanting to come back.

VIS was located at the SECMOL (Student Educational Movement of Ladakh) campus. SECMOL was founded in 1988 by a group of young Ladakhis with the aim to reform the educational system of Ladakh with a focus on Ladakhi culture and sustainability. Today the activities are extremely varied and numerous. They organize activities for Ladakhi youth, run a campus for students going to school or college en Leh, develop solar energy projects and much more.

Originally Holly, two of her friends from SECMOL and I were planning to do 10 days of the Zanskar Trek. They decided a few days before I arrived that this probably wasn’t the best idea due to high amounts of snow. We would end up in Padum and be unable to leave since all the roads were still closed. I wasn’t disappointed in the least, and am so thankful I got to spend more time at SECMOL volunteering with English conversation class and getting to know the SECMOLpaws (students).

Dance party outside of the SECMOL campus

My first day I tried to take it easy and adjust to living at 3800 meters, but there was a dance party that evening that I couldn’t help but join. Throughout May the SECMOL students were hosting two camps for younger students from different villages in Ladkah, so in addition to the few staff and about 40 foundation students there were about 30 other students. Every day during camp there would be two or three hour long English conversation classes with the students. We were provided with conversation topics and sat with groups of 2-4 rotating every 5 minutes. It was a really good opportunity to learn more about Ladakhi culture and how these students lived, as well as share with them about my culture. Something I learned (a little too late) was that you never ever step over a table (they are much lower to the ground than in the US) or step between someone and their food. It is quiet offensive and shocking for Ladakhi’s when they see this, which I quickly realized as I gently stepped over the table followed by gasps of the students. Though no one held this against me since they have had many foreign volunteers it was still quiet embarrassing.

Though we didn’t do the 10 day Zanskar Trek, we did go on an unforgettable four day adventure. We attempted to start at 8am by walking through the Indus River , which turned into 8:30-9, which turned into not at all because we discovered the river was not safely crossable. Undiscouraged we walked, hitched, and took a taxi to Stok Village. There we stayed with a lovely family Holly had met 2 years ago when she first came to Ladkah. They happily took all four of us in, and we happily ate their delicious food, played with the baby and went for a full moon walk to practice English/Ladakhi with the 14 year old daughter.I also explored the village in the afternoon, visiting a monastery during the afternoon prayers, which happen to include a meal and butter tea. Side note: butter tea is exactly what it sounds like, it is very popular in Ladkah. It is an acquired taste to say the least, personally I hate it. But it is nearly impossible to say no to tea so I ended up having a good amount of it during my stay in Ladkah.

From Stok Village we trekked over Stok La Pass (4900m) to the next village of Rumbak. The trek was difficult given the altitude and terrain, but so beautiful. Ladakh is a whole new world, a high altitude desert with only layers and layers of snow capped mountains in view. From the peaks the world seems like only and endless range of mountains. In Rumbak Holly and I stayed with a family she had met two years ago, and Thalassa and Kate stayed with an equally charming women next door. There is a homestay system in the villages since they get a lot of tourists, especially Rumbak because it is the snow leopard capital of the world. There is a fixed price that includes accommodation, dinner, breakfast and lunch and part of the profits go to the snow leopard association. In the villages they have a system to rotate the tourist to different families to share the wealth.

The four of us girls and the two families all had dinner together followed by a spontaneous dance party. I’m pretty sure it was Holly’s idea, and since it was just women in the house it turned into quiet the party. After many circles of (attempted) traditional Ladakhi dancing we finally had to put an end to the giggles and collapse in our beds. Though our host mom followed us to bed for a quick snuggle we slept soundly after an incredible day. The following morning, after an incredible breakfast of Ladakhi pancakes, we pushed on over Grand La pass (4950m) to the village of only nine families. We drank tea and helped with dinner then had another dance party! We were exhausted but our host mom, and her three daughters loved it. They also picked out all of our Ladakhi husbands (Thalassas actually walked half way with us the following day!). The following morning our plans changed yet again, we were informed that the trail we were planning on taking was wiped out by the flood and would probably take 11 hours, if we didn’t get lost. So we decided to take the easy route through the valley then along the road, which actually turned out to be quiet the adventure.

Towards the afternoon we had to cross the Zanskar River on a trolley bridge. For some reason we didn’t think too much before Thalassa and Kate hoped in and thanks to gravity started cruising across the river, until the middle. There they stopped. Holly and I, still on the land had no idea what the trouble was but were occupied trying to untangle the rope we had neglected to straighten out and tie to the side before they started across. Thalassa and Kate were stuck and had no idea what to do so they stood up and start to pull themselves along by the wire. Thankfully there was a small shop across the river for the workers who were going to build a real bridge and a Nepali and Ladakhi women came to our rescue. Not without reprimanding us in Nepali first, but that didn’t really bother us since we had no idea what she was saying. Together they pulled them safetly to the other side then Ama Leh (grandmother) jumped in and pulled herself with ease to rescue Holly and I and fix the mess of ropes we had created. Then of course we joined them for tea and a had a good laugh together.

Though we were on a road walking towards the village of Chilling there certainly weren’t any cars. Once we got to Chilling we had to call a taxi to bring us to the nearest village that had buses, people, cars etc. From there Holly and I continued on to Saspol and stayed at the parents house of a friend of Holly’s. In the morning we checked out the meditation caves and then went to see the old monastery in Alchi and then back to SECMOL. After a few more nights at SECMOL and an evening in Leh Holly, Thalassa and I headed to Kashmir.