Agony
We'll come back to how I arrived at this state later.
The day started early with a delicious filling breakfast typical of this trip. After an hour and a half's drive, we came to the Sangchen Choekhor Buddhist Institute of Higher Studies, situated up in the mountains at 2,800m. We rendezvous-ed with our two porters who would carry our non-essential items and go ahead of us on the trail to set up our lunch spot next to a small meditation retreat at 3,500m. But they could have gone home, cooked breakfast, taken a nap, and then hiked up to set up the lunch spot, and they would still be bored waiting for us to show up. That was how slow we were.
Before the start of the hike: a photo with our two guides, UD and Tschering, our driver, another Tshering, and one of two porters.
You may notice many Bhutanese have the same first name, and they do not have surnames. To differentiate the Tsherings in his class, for instance, our driver was called Tshering A, while his other namesakes were Tschering B, Tschering C, etc.
It was graduation day at the Buddhist Institute, so relatives of the young monks were there in their finest, and the monks were running around, making sure the visitors and guests were taken care of. We were invited to sit to have a cup of butter tea and snacks while waiting for the ceremonies to start.
Bhutanese home-made rice crackers
Home-made flour crackers
And off we go! Blue skies await us!
The first part of the hike up until our lunch break would take about 2-3 hours, gaining 700m in altitude, from 2,800m to 3,500m. I figured we took more than 3 hours, because I was plagued by a mild form of altitude sickness. We did not know this before, but one of the effects of high altitude is the cumulation of gas in the bowel. I had woken up that morning at the hotel with a slight discomfort in my stomach, which was a little disquieting, since I was perfectly fine up to then. Of course it got worse as we climbed, and the normal breathlessness that people from sea level experienced was compounded by cold sweat, dizziness, slight nausea, mild diarrhea, and, of course, a bloated cramped stomach.
Taking a much needed break
My prince came to my rescue by carrying my bag, leaving me free to grouse without any encumbrances. Mostly I was just shuffling along half a step by half a step each time, just plotting my next toilet stop. YL, on the other hand, was bounding up the slopes like a rabbit - albeit a bizarre-looking one. This is in total opposition to what happened in the Andes, where *I* was the rabbit and *he* was the suffering tortoise.
You can't tell from the brilliant smile. That's because I was glad to have a chance to sit and catch my breath and rest my lead legs
Along the way, we came across the odd wooden hut here and there. Very simply built, often dilapidated, these huts are used as meditation retreats for monks or laypeople. How they survive up there without many basic necessities is a testament to their faith and sturdy makeup.
Mushroom
Wildflower
More wildflowers
How I dragged myself up to the lunch spot, I have no idea. I just remember I literally collapsed onto the ground once I got there. Of course, I did it with as much graceful nonchalant flair I could muster that no one could tell that I had transformed into a bag of rubber.
I sat there immobilized, hoping for my prince to notice that I had grown roots where I sat slumped, and my arms could barely reach beyond my folded legs to reach the food. He noticed, eventually, and brought food to my grateful feeble hands. Or maybe it was the guide who did that, because I vaguely remember my prince chatting and excitedly opening up all the tiffin containers and then devouring the dessert first, then the sandwiches, then the curry chicken, then the mixed vegetables while I watched him...
It was supposed to bring blessings to YL especially on his birthday that day
Fluttering prayer flags
At around 2pm, we continued our hike uphill. Fortunately, I recovered after that lunch stop (a toilet stop also helped), and could make better progress.
Ominous clouds appeared just as we spotted the bright blue tents at our campsite (on the left in the photo above) near the Bumdra Monastery at 4,500m. We would walk for another 20 minutes to reach it.
Here our guide started telling the story of a pilgrimage he made with his uncle and young teenage cousins several years ago to a sacred site somewhere beyond these mountains. By the way, Bhutanese do these 3-day hikes with the regularity and casualness of a weekend stroll in the mall. They were caught in a downpour that lasted 3 days, but they continued to hike and camp throughout the ordeal. When they arrived at the last mountain pass, it proved too dangerous to cross due to the slippery terrain, and they regretfully had to turn back, also since they were down to their last rations, and several of the young ones had taken ill with fever. On the way back, they came within a meter of a bear, and his young cousins recovered immediately and bounded away leaving our guide - who was carrying everyone's gear - to extricate himself from the situation. Now doesn't that beat your family outing, hands down?
The Bumdra Monastery is built onto the cliffs several metres above the ground and houses several resident monks. Our campsite is a public one, the bright blue dots on the right side of the photo above
We made it to camp just after 4pm. HURRAY!!
Our "luxury" camp - two comfy mattresses on beds, supplemented by sleeping bags and fleece quilts, carpeted floor, a plastic rubbish bin,
and shower caps!
We were wondering if there was wifi and electrical sockets, but no.... that would be too much, wouldn't it?
View of the campsite from inside our tent. The white one is the dining tent where our meals were served. A small core crew of six are stationed here for 3 months each time during the tourist season. They cook, clean and look after the welfare of the hikers who are with the Uma Como and Amankora hotels. But the campsite is open to all.
The toilet tent. Actually it is just a hole on the ground with a wooden box with a toilet cover placed on top of it, and a tent built over the whole thing. It's a luxury hole-in-the-ground, ok?
This was what the cooks at the campsite made for YL's birthday - a cake made with a pressure cooker and garnished with apple skin peelings. The hotel also thoughtfully gave us a complimentary bottle of wine, although we took two sips each and passed it around back to the crew. They deserve it more than us.
It started to pour 15 minutes after we made camp. After dinner, the wind howled, the rain lashed, the cold started to seep in. But we were nice and warm inside our tent, tucked into our sleeping bags and quilts, hugging our hot water bottles given to us by the crew, dreaming of deities and mountains and bears.
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