Bhutan: Final words

This is the first time I've written this blog so much longer after a travel. Bhutan created a deep impression in my mind and as I wrote it (with the help of my mindmaps/ notes), I could recollect everything...in fact, I could actually see it, feel it, experience it. It's one of those places, I could go back again and again and again. And I could live there. I feel a sense of belonging in some places...in a lot of places actually when I go deep inside. With its rawness, I felt it there...I feel it for Bhutan. The country is rapidly changing, modernizing...it shows up with one of the highest growth rates in The Economist rankings (I think top 5 or 10 for 2013-14). With its changes, it'll also change its perception of happiness. I was curious to find out about this happiness thing...that's why I went. I can't say the people were happier than the rest of us...people are the same everywhere. I saw fear glittering in Sonam's eyes...that night when they trailed off the trail...I heard Cookie talk of his ambitions...I heard stories of uncles who had gone on up to mountains to meditate and never returned...the region is different...they are more calmer, people have an easier, more accepting view of life...but then they also have variations of the same emotions...fear, anger, love, hate, lust, contempt, greed and so on. How could it be any other way?

**
(Below is what I wrote in my notes immediately after the trek)

I was in an Indigo plane after Everest Base Camp. Everything felt strange, difficult. This time not so much. My ear block (I remember now I even had this ailment!) seems to have just disappeared. I'm more adjusting - even accepting. The psychological burden of the trek was interfering...but what a bliss! Is Bhutan really the happiest place - I wonder? There is confusion there - all the basic human tendencies exist. Some are dealt with differently. Well...it feels strange to have my ear and hearing back. My throat....is vague - difficult to explain. Wonder about the Hyd trip - should I simply have gone back to Mumbai? I don't know.

(some random words...)

New way of organizing. Extreme attention to detail. Focus, narrow narrow narrow. Whiteness. Gross National Happiness? Design and priorities. Community. Remote working. Thinking ahead - making list, executing. Stability of mind. Trust. Presence is nice but something more? No fakeness. Fix fly. Tighten. Do less. Cut-out distractions. Empathy. Extreme attn to detail.

(And then I saw this doodle...)

That's that.

Bhutan: Return to the plains (Day 15, 16, 17)

DAY 15
After Koina, we reached the campsite we were supposed to go to the previous night.  It was all the way up. I was glad we didn't do it the previous day. We had an early start and reached the camp 3.5 hours later. Had a good breakfast after.

We kept descending going towards Gasa. Somewhere I tried washing my face...in a waterfall and caught an eye infection. Ok, thank you! I looked a mess again with some gooey coming out of my eye all the time and my eye was red. I think I put some medicine...nothing helped. It finally went away on its own by the next day.

My general state of mind was ruffled with the happenings of the previous day. I'm sure it was the same for everyone. We were okay but also not...something like that. When I reached Gasa, I turned my phone on. And from the messages I gathered that my dad wasn't going to be available in India for his 70th birthday. I had requested for a change in the entire trek schedule (which happened) so that we could coordinate the dates. What fun, I thought. :)

At the final camp site, the trek organizer had got us a lot of goodies...beer, cool drinks, cookies...I can't remember what I ate but basically, I couldn't consume much. The trek and our life there seemed better, nicer. I was feeling very strange being back.

The next morning I called Patta...asking if I could stay at his place and Ahaan and Suzette would come there a day later in Hyderabad...if he wanted to hangout etc. This was the alternate plan to Nana's birthday hangout. So he said yes and that was the plan. (The Hyderabad trip ended up being great fun with Kody and family also joining...Neelu sent me to some closeby expensive hotel for massage...I took a few days to be physically normal).

The dinner was strange. Everyone was there but there were disconnects. But we ate, we spoke, we joked.

DAY 16
The drive to Thimphu was maha fun. Different people took turns being the DJ. We went to see the Punakha dzong on the way. There were these purple flowers...beautiful trees...purple flowers all on the ground, monks sitting chatting, praying, joking. Divya said those were jacaranda trees. I liked the drive. We bought lot of junk food. We bought stuff on the highway...like that red-chillies paste with corn...I loved it. We finally reached Druk hotel. There was TV...I like to watch mindless TV after treks...I watch it without knowing what am watching...just staring into the TV. In some odd way, it helps me reconcile with the reality...to accept that the trek is over and we are in the city...something like that. I remember drawing too. It's what I happily do when I want to do nothing.

That night we had a great time at dinner...wine, gossip and stuff. The hotel manager came up to Mayur and asked if he knew a friend of his who had died a year ago. We were all shocked. He showed us the friend's facebook pic...and told us how dear a friend he was. We talked a lot about rebirth and reincarnation. I was reading Tibetan Book of Living and Dying through the trek and I remember being very active and animated about some story I had read about how an Englishman remembered a past life from several generations ago and helped archeologists discover and make sense of the entire landscape (can't remember where this was)...middle-east/ Europe.

DAY 17
There was sightseeing and stuff the next day. I think I took a break and went to sleep in between...I missed the Thangka painting school...Milan took several pictures...I would've loved to see it from the look of the pics. Very technical art work. Earlier we went to the general post office - it's an interesting place...Bhutan celebrates everyone's success...it could be US going to the moon, there'll be a stamp...India gets independence, there'll be a stamp. It's an amazing, amazing place. And amazing, amazing people.

We had pizza for lunch, did some shopping...the whole day was generally vague for me...being in this city-like life. I loved one book shop...but never bought anything from there.

Bhutan: Koina where hell broke loose (Day 14)

We were descending. I caught on a weird persistent cough...everyone kept asking, how are you? I must've looked a mess...though I couldn't gauge it myself. Our group had its ups and downs through the trek but this was the day when humpty and dumpty had a fall. One part of our group reached the lunch spot late while the others were waiting for well over an hour. Possibly, I could be the cause of that delay :) There was some decisions during lunch on whether we would camp at Koina or beyond and it was finally decided that it would be Koina because of my condition. I was a little confused on what my response needed to be - should I be insisting no, am okay...let's go all the way or should I just follow instructions and not potentially trouble everybody. I decided to follow instructions - that was my role there.

We reached Koina. Our horses had moved ahead, some part of our group had moved ahead. The camping site was moist. Finally the group reunited...the ones who went further, returned. But by then there was so much stress...physical, mental, psychological that we had some fireworks amongst ourselves. Anger, confusion, frustration, sadness and all the stuff that usually follows anger. I did what I usually do...went and did my kriya in one corner in the mountains :) It was nice...calming. Then I cleaned up my bag, settled the various currency notes I had, ate some bar...just kept myself occupied. Nothing that one would say or do at this point would be perceived rationally because everyone's minds were up, up and away and emotion was rife. Tanaav is an amazing thing.

Dusk fell...it was cold. I found the family living in that Koina house (it was a house...with a choking cooking, fireplace inside) very endearing...the father especially. I sat and sketched the mountain ahead and the fallen tree. It seemed as though a landslide had occurred. The father took interest. I was sketching on a card that one Laughing Buddha-like lady had given me in Paro - beginning of the trek. I gave the card to him. It's been several months -- I can still see the image of that landslide place clearly...drawing is an amazing thing. Later the father offered me betel leaves and lime (it's called doma)...it does give a kick...I put it in my mouth. Sharing doma is a friendly gesture.

At night when I went to pee...I saw the moon. It looked like a tube-light...round of course but so bright and white. I didn't need any headlamps.

So that was that. The groups finally reconciled to the situation but stayed distant. Some were quiet, some laughed, some were normal, some were introspective, some observed, some smiled, some ignored...Late at night, a few of the staff members brought back our sleeping bags...they went all the way up and back. Torturous. We had put them through it. Possibly, I had in some way created this situation with my cough and such - I'll never know. When they arrived, the boys were still smiling. It was amazing, humbling.

Koina was very interesting.

Bhutan: Reaching Laya and the rest day (Day 12, 13)

DAY 12

By this time, our group had its own gossip and masala. It was the last day in the mountains...we were actively descending. I felt like spending more time with and within myself. I thought about the Long Tail in a different way...when you pursue happiness or rather what you think gives you happiness, there's also a long tail of dissatisfaction that comes along in small, small ways. It goes hand-in-hand...you can examine any situation and that'll be true. Mumukshatva is to let go of both joy and no-joy...to be neutral and therefore be liberated.

Anyways, the waterfalls started thinning down wherever they were. I remember having a very quiet moment there...chomping on some almonds. We ran into confident locals who waved hi. I could hear the din of JCBs sometimes. One of the staff (everyone called him LT) - a 22 year old kid who used to do photoshopping in an IT park in Thimphu - told me all about Laya's wealthy Nomads. They weren't wealthy to begin with but started finding and selling Cordyseps...the bug that goes into Chinese medicine...it sometimes sells for $12,000/ kg. So the nomads got wealthy, they bought yaks, they bought winter homes in Laya, painted them, rented it out to travelers like us, they also bought a lot of home appliances...

That night, it was one of trek-mates birthdays and Cookie baked a real big cake with carrots and such using just aluminum foil and pressure cooker! It was amazing. The staff gifted a wooden phallus! We had arra (made of barley)...the local liquor. 

We were all getting back to the plains...ouch, ouch, ouch.

DAY 13

This was a very nice relaxing day...it was sunny, the mountains looked spectacular. We gave each other head and shoulder massages...I thought my shoulder would dislocate itself...I learnt that my backpack wasn't a good one...blah blah bleh. I was amused to see Mayur's many many tattoos and I think even one ring. Candi and I made 5 plaits with Divya's extremely long hair...and even tied it with some twigs/ grass.

We could see the majestic Tiger mountain in the distance...I felt like shaving. I borrowed Candi's broken mirror and shaved all my beard...it generally felt nice.

We strolled all over Laya...it's a group of 5 villages. We stopped at a house...the lady invited us up, she had a beautiful baby...we walked more, took more pics...it was laidback, nice. I got into a field and found two fierce dogs guarding it. They were eating something when they spotted me. I didn't know whether to run or stand. I decided to quietly walk back and thanks to their lunch...they ignored me. Finally, we ended up at the alter of someone house...they invited us in. There was a puja going on. The main priest's baritone voice took us to another zone. I felt like meditating. It was all too much. (I've written about this in the Natgeo article).

Bhutan: Sonam the ninja and Cookie the cook

Sonam (he's 36 years old...always dressed as a Ninja in black, with a big knife and he has this Kung-fu type body) gave me company to the campsite...we talked about Nagarjuna movies (he saw Don #1 in which the villain is a Bhutanese actor)...I was surprised that he saw Telugu movies! He told me several things during our walk...about their health system (many doctors, sent by the government to be educated in other countries), their youth wanting to look like Korean pop stars, about the gross national happiness index, about alcohol is offered even to Buddha (nothing wrong...whatever is available in the world is there for us), sex and phallus and divine madman, about no gays in Bhutan, about his work in Japan (he worked there for 5 years), about his parents and farmland, about the development he saw in the last 30 years under the 4th king, about Internet and its usage, about polygamous relationships, about the benevolent 4th king whom people loved (he keeps giving land away and isn't money-minded) and about how he educated people about democracy. He told me once that he was told that he was a bird in his previous life. I generally found him very knowledgeable.

In that chat with Sonam...some themes kept resonating...that people know what's right (inside) and often major decisions are left for them to take instead of a government or a higher authority intervening. The other theme was that nothing is taboo...there's really nothing to be averse to or have obsessiveness towards...everything is the same...on being neutral...there's a gentleness in approach about everything.

Here are my notes of Sonam and Cookie...

Bhutan: My toughest day on the trek...Sinchey La (Day 11)

DAY 11
I didn't sleep well the previous night. It started there. The next morning, I ate a cold, boiled egg...big mistake. My left ankle ached...I padded it with two socks. I coughed. Okay, I thought - let's do this - the highest pass on our trek, the fourth pass...the most difficult one. Sinchey La...over 5,000m.

As I kept trekking, my heart rate kept going up. Nothing seemed okay. I could feel that boiled egg rolling in my stomach. Most of the group had gone ahead. Sonam kept checking on me every half hour or so. I trekked pretty much alone. It was nice in some ways. I'm trying to remember...yes, Milan started last and I think he went ahead somewhere along the way.

We finally caught up at the base of this Sinchey mountain. I was just not up to it. I gulped some Gu gel. Then started...I could see the others as various colored dots in the snow...each color their jacket. I took one slow step at a time. Gasel the horseman met me along the way and insisted I sit on the horse...I think this happened about 7-8 times on the way to the summit. I kept saying no - I think even very firmly. I was trying to tell him that look I can do this...it's just that I have this egg rolling in my stomach...so I'll do it slowly....don't pressurize me! I recall some horse trotted close to me and pushed me to the ground. Luckily, I fell on the side where I wouldn't fall all the way down!

Milan sent instructions through someone for me to pop another Gu gel...I did. But it didn't help. I kept doing it at my pace and finally I reached. I remembered to take Pradeep's Beardo hat out, wear it and take a pic. I was totally drained. Milan, Divya and Amit were waiting on top. Amit was sliding, jumping around. It was a lot of fun...a nice reunion. Milan told us to start descending...can't stay on top for too long and we did.

Divya helped a lot at lunch and at the campsite. At lunch, I had difficulty sitting and serving myself. Back at the camp, I had high fever...fatigue fever I think. I was beat. After vicks, crocin, soup this and that...I recovered by dinner.

After descending Wang De (one of the staff) gave me company...everyone else was far ahead...in my fatigued state, I slipped into a river...wet my boots (ouch it's cold!) plus there was rain...but I finally settled as we reached the plains or lower altitude and the weather didn't matter, I kept walking.

Bhutan: Cedar forest, mad mongrel, a yak meadow...Jhari La (pass #3) (Day 10)

DAY 10
We trekked 18km today up to Jhari La (4,750m)...about a 6-7 hour day. It was a nice ascent - clear day, unlike yesterday. On top, I tried to lift the bamboo that was holding the Buddhist prayer flags...had to balance the pole between rocks but it kept falling down because of the winds. The shocking thing about this pass wasn't this pass - it was seeing Sinchey La (5,005m) across in the far far distance...we had to reach there, climb that by tomorrow. What the hell?!

We started descending into a cedar forest...just amazing life inside...you can listen to the life. I wondered how it would be to hug an old old tree...instead of hesitating further, I simply did. I tried to listen...it wasn't saying anything. But it just felt nice...even in a very real way to be one with Nature. The forest opened up into a vast meadow...a yak meadow. We received a message on the walkie-talkie (someone had) that there was a mad mongrel out there and we must be careful...it could attack. But how do we be careful? We saw the mongrel...we simply kept walking. It was fun-scary. It simply went away on its own after some time. I remember lying on the dung-filled meadow with Candi and posing and taking pics.

I saw a dzong there...a fort. Who would build it here I thought? Then again...that's exactly the reason why it's here.

Sonam told me about the Takin...Bhutan's national animal. He said it was the divine madman's creation. It had the head of a goat and body of a cow. Apparently Druka Kunley ate a big feast and clapped his hand and created the Takin.

Bhutan: Chebisa and Goku La (pass #2) (Days 8 and 9)

I started making my notes using mindmaps and breeze through it. It's much later now but helps me recollect the day fairly easily. The brain doesn't think linearly as in text, as in time...it thinks in random as in blobs of time, places, incidents, images...


DAY 8
It was a nice normal trek day. We stopped for lunch at Goyul village in a herder's house. As we entered Goyul, I remember seeing yaks and farmers plowing the field. There was one farmer with glasses...dignified in his dress (maroon stripes on a cream), demeanor. I remember a mother calling out to her toddler and pointing to me, then to my chin...they don't usually see bearded men in those areas. There was one toothless girl in jeans...staring.

Inside the house, I saw pieces of yak hanging from the ceiling...it doesn't get spoilt...the whole environment acts as a big refrigerator. There was a shelf with several music cassettes. There was one toothbrush lying around. There were vessels of all sizes...big aluminum ones...small ones. The family left their main living-kitchen area for us to sit. Divya sat with one of the kids - a Madhav-like boy...quiet and understanding...chatted him and his sister.

Cookie was our cook - his lunch always tasted similar - at least to me. I was simply thankful for all the vegetables we were getting to eat in these desolate regions. I wrote a lot about Cookie in the Natgeo article. It was nice to observe him - he was very calm always.

After lunch, Jyoti pointed out to a Juniper tree outside and said...it must be at least over a hundred years old. At 5 years, they grow only to 2-3 feet. This was a rather tall one. We climbed up from there...saw a flock of blue sheep (they don't look blue)...they were as surprised to see us as we were of them. We passed through Linghi Dzong.

At night, I was taking a dump somewhere near the campsite and I realized a dog was closeby...it could see me but I couldn't. I quickly wrapped up my task and trotted back to camp. Dogs barked all night. The whole place smelt of animals and poop in general.

DAY 9
This day was tough but nice.

I panted, climbed, panted, climbed...up to Goku La/ Gobu La. On the other side, the slide down was steep - in the distance were several other snow-covered mountains. But we couldn't see that much - we could see occasionally - there was a lot of snow. On the way, one of us broke down...the climb with feet treading in and out of the snow was too much. "Am not a f**king mountaineer!"...I remember hearing that. Cookie sat and waited until there was calm again. And we continued up to the top.

While we were climbing down from Goku La to the lunch spot...we suddenly thought Dorji was lost...he was one of the staff...it so happened that he was listening to his iPod and couldn't hear us screaming through the mountains for him. I found this whole mountain communication thing interesting - a lot it dependent on how sound reflects and people midway also pass the message on.

At the campsite, I hung out at the kitchen tent with the staff. They made some interesting eatery...very yum...local stuff. I wanted to make masala papad. In doing that I cut my finger. I also saw Dorji using his big knife to cut tomatoes...he had used it earlier to cut the tail of a dead yak. Ouch.

Yenten (another staff, also son of the organizer) picked up a puppy along the way...naming him Shomuthang puppy...our campsite. There were three dogs that followed us through the trek...this one was amongst them....someone or the other would put it in a bag and carry it across.

Bhutan: The first summit, Nyila summit (Day 7)

What a day today was. It showed all the risks of trekking in these unknown terrains.

I had a cold to start with...possibly because of washing clothes in the river and then wearing a linen shirt and braving the cold. 

It was a slow, steady ascent...lot of snow. When I finally made it to the summit, I had a dizzy head. There were Buddhist flags between rocks. I felt privileged seeing what it takes to get a few cityfolk up on these mountains. There were 20 horses carrying our food, bags and supplies including a gas stove and some 300 eggs. The staff would get up earlier than us, sleep later than us, reach camp sites earlier than us and carry a heavier weight and cook, pack and do all those things and yet have a wonderful smiling face.

While one part of our group reached the camp, three of the girls didn't. It was getting dark and we started getting worried. They were with Sonam so in that sense they should be safer. Finally, they returned well into the evening/ almost close to night. It was pitch dark by then. It's a miracle they made it. We learnt that they got lost, Sonam got lost...finally they had to traverse through a jungle, streams and so on and make it back. 

Everyone had different reactions and it was interesting to observe. The ones who were affected, the ones who were helping, the ones who felt responsible. 

Anyways, while giving Reiki to one of them, there was so much energy being drawn from my hands that night that I felt a sensation - a sensation recognizing the fragility of human life. Our securities are all false and mostly to keep us mentally sane. Reality presents itself differently all the time. Risk doesn't have to manifest in mountains - it shows up just about anywhere - that's why it's called so. We take so much for granted - never realize that we are walking on the edge all the time. We can fall off that edge anytime...into the dust of time.

Bhutan: Washing clothes by the river (Day 6)

Today was acclimatization + rest day. I'm enjoying the day. I gotto take a shower after nearly a week, unwind and write. I washed clothes by the river (people teased me endlessly about this). I can hear people chatting in the dining tent. The short trek in the morning was beautiful. We stopped at a lake - Lake Tsophu - high up in the Himalayas. The sun glittered and made it turn green with a tinge of yellow-orange all around the sides.

On the way back, I took my own route - spent a quiet moment there sitting by myself. Felt blessed that I'm here and everything that led up to me being here.

I enjoyed washing clothes in the cold river. Have left it for drying on the stones. :) Divya has had some fever - 101.5 or so. She's better now.

Last evening, it was interesting to chat about Akira Kurosawa movies with Mayur. Later he told me about the Highway on my Plate story and how it came about. Was very interesting. He's eaten in around 2,000 places all over India - it's amazing.

I combed my beard and mustache after bath today. What fun! 

Bhutan: Once we started trekking...(Days 3, 4, 5)

DAY 3
We are camping near river Paro. It's nice. I can hear Amit, Mayur and Divya's voices from the dining tent. The tents are amazing - quite comfortable. Sonam (our guide) says that from tomorrow onwards we'll get deeper and deeper into interior Bhutan. There wouldn't even be villages...just nomadic tribes. The tribes move 4,000 mts up during summer and then down during winters with no permanent location. We'll see them, we'll see a lot of yaks he says.

I'm thankful and full of gratitude for these experiences. Bhutan is already a special place. Today was supposed to be a shirt 4-5 hour hike but took us 6+ hours. I'm expecting tomorrow to take 10+ hours - a long day,

What I see now is a spectacularly beautiful field - green, river flowing, the mountains, the clouds. A dog keeps staring too - along with me. I wonder what it's thinking.

(This dog prompted me to base my trek story on it - I called the story, The Dog That Stared At Mountains - the name was reworded and the story was published in the September 2013 issue of National Geographic Traveller India).

* Mayur gave an idea to use enki to track children's health at camps.

DAY 4
The start of the trek was literally like a garden - beautiful Himalayan flowers, trees snuggled among the mountains. It prompted me to take silence until lunch :) I troubled Divya, Amit, Milan, Mayur with this silence thing...they would come and talk and I would walk away. I was maha entertained but they were annoyed and took my trip during lunch. The silence helped me go inside and at times become one with Nature (there's actually a term for it - prakritilaya samadhi).

As I reached the lunch spot, Jyoti who had reached first - was waiting for the rest of us. She told me about the Northern Lights and how the intensity of the earth's north-south magnetic field shows up as a light....She also told me about her trip to Alaska.

It was a long 22km day. I went slower in the afternoon. There was some caution/ fear that it might get dark and we'd still be in the forest. At one point in the morning when I was trekking alone in silence - I came across a fork. I first took left - then found a sign that said Thangthanka in green - on the other side. This was where we were supposed to get to. So I came back and took the right side of the fork. I sat near a stream and wondered where the other fork would go to. Apparently (I found out later), it goes to Tibet. We are on Bhutan's northwest frontier and bordering Tibet.

The campsite was nice - all of them are nice. Divya said later that I don't show compassion and reach out and I constantly comment and take contrarian point of view just for the heck of it. The weather was generally cloudy and we couldn't see what we surrounded with.

DAY 5
It snowed at night. We woke up to a cleared up sky, sun and spectacular, white Himalayas. Ahtushi showed me Mt. Jhomulhari - a holy mountain for the Bhutanese. I learnt that no one climbs mountains that are over 6,000 mts - any of the holy mountains.

The walk was mostly open lands - the landscape kept changing. Fewer trees, shorter shrubs - an indication that we are gaining altitude. I don't know whether it was this day or the previous - we kept seeing houses that have paintings of animals (four animals) and phalluses!

The Bhutanese have a very different view of life - even their beliefs seem to have a tinge of humor. They hang carvings of a phallus to ward off evil. Apparently when demons come visiting - they see the hanging phallus, laugh, have a change of mood and decide not to attack the household. Drukpa Kunley - a Buddhist monk who is often referred to as the Divine Madman brought this go-easy attitude towards genetalia, sex and alcohol. That is not the focus or the obsession. In fact, it's something to not pay too much attention to so you can easily overcome them and seek enlightenment.

It was interesting to observe the free, independent minded attitude that our guide Sonam has - while talking about phallus or sex. Imagine this in India or America. Also imagine a Bhutanese household with children who grow up with a neutral (neither shy nor obsessive) attitude towards sexual symbols. Now imagine the same thing in countries like India or the US. :)

We found an Indian army checkpost along the way. They invited us for a cup of tea and conversation. The army trains the Bhutanese army and has been around since 1969. I think it's there to keep an idea on China's interests in Bhutan. Chinese occupied Tibet (where I almost wandered off to) is 15km away.

By evening (after 19km of trekking), we settled into this campsite. Ahtushi says there's a saying among Bhutanese trekkers that if you want to meet an old friend, this is where he's likely to come and camp. Our tents are nice and comfortable and even spacious.

The day ended with extensive brainstorming about Mayur's shoes - the soles are out and were nailed back in.

Bhutan: Initial acclimatization days

The last I wrote online about the Bhutan trek was on April 15, 2013, just before trekking. Today is Jan 18, 2014. I have several notes and I want to write them before the next trek begins.

*

DAY 1
We did short acclimatization hikes today. On top of one of the mountains, I had a realization.

I saw from the top that a cow was moving in a particular direction. I noticed that it was moving towards a pole - though it seemed pretty sure it didn't know it was going towards the pole. I could say that with 80% probability that the cow will reach the pole. Anybody from my vantage point would. But the cow didn't. If I had a way of communicating with the cow, I could 'predict' for it that it would reach the pole. The cow would be surprised at my prescience and would may be even think am God.

Anyways, Sonam educated us on Drukpa Kunley - the crazy wisdom monk. He said he would make thousands of women pregnant because their offspring would be born enlightened. Sonam told me that he and his wife went to the Punakha temple of Drukpa Kunley after which they had a child.

DAY 2
We trekked up to Tiger's nest. It's a good acclimatization hike. I remember stopping on the way with Candi and verifying our compasses - it showed two different things. The one on his iPhone and my real one. I stared and stared at Tiger's Nest and the monastery on top. It was surreal. Why did they build it there? On top of this huge huge mountain rock. If you actually see there's no practical purpose behind it - the practical thing would've been to build it close to where everyone lived so they could access it. The practical thing would've been to have an easy path to get to it. But no, most timeless creations don't have a practical purpose. On the face of it, they are all really impractical. And when they become timeless, people struggle and do all the things required to reach it, share the experience of the original thinkers who built it. To reach the same impractical purpose of the founders. So may be we are all indeed seeking not-practical things. But we don't recognize that and spend our times in the so called practical things according to some preset idea/ agenda that we have about life for ourselves.

Kilimanjaro is next

It's been awhile since this has been deciding. I'm climbing in less than a month. The group has been introduced etc. I read the group leader's blog and gulped at the summit day -- it lasts 15 hours and starts at 11pm at night...am reasonably fit...much fitter than before Bhutan.

I workout (weights at the gym) three times a week (tue, thur, sat). The rest of the days I run on Juhu beach. I nearly ran the entire stretch of Juhu beach today....it's wonderful. Sarah, the group leader says stairs, stairs, stairs...if possible I must climb or do a short hike with a backpack. Let's see.

I want to read/ learn a bit about Kili before I go. I worry if it'll be too touristy. I miss the wilderness of Bhutan. I worried about EBC being touristy too but it was an amazing journey. Regardless it'll be me and Nature...climbing a volcano...that too one of the seven summits will be interesting.

I want to write the other blogs/ notes...Bhutan, Laos, Sri Lanka, Varanasi...the travels I did. Actually even small trips do a lot, make a lot of impact...went to Pune for Aaryana's birthday for a day and Bhaskar told me a story about a 68 year old wealthy businessman who left everything to look after stray dogs. Comes home over the weekend to buy groceries etc for his wife and then spends the rest of the week along with a caretaker at the kennel he built near Mahboobnagar. He looks after 350 or so dogs. It's the most interesting story I've heard in awhile.

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tue 12.29am jan 14th

am finally done with all the booking, planning stuff related to kili...it took a lot of time for some reason...mainly because things seem a little unreliable but expensive...for example a car ride from Arusha to Dar-es-salaam costs $650 v/s the bus costs $30 v/s the flight (there's no flight from Arusha) from Kilimanjaro to Dar-es-salaam costs $210. Anyways, it's all done.