AS MUCH OF A CHANGE IN SCENERY, GEOGRAPHY, AS YOU CAN MAKE WHILE STAYING IN THE SAME COUNTRY
from zero to three thousand metres
so its
out of that and into this
Chennai to Ladakh
from metropolitan swelter to mountain chill
...
so its
next step the next step
from the shadow of the imminent Monsoon
to the coming blazing sun of the two-month Summer
...
and its
next stop the next stop
from Chennai
at its swelteriest
just before the Rainy Season arrives and
ends the long-building intense city heat
to, now, the morning cold of mountainous Leh
at the very Northern roof of India
...
so that’s an all-change for me
from sweaty streets to “cold desert”
from baking to thawing
from rammed crammed and brimming
to bare stark and stretching
...
from sea-level
to way way on high
...
from bustle and throng and jam
in thin alleys and leafy lanes and stretching flyovers
to the bare rock-walled lanes
and grey-brown valley-sides
with, beyond them, the stark rocky slopes
backed by snow-capped mountains
...
from the verge of heat-stroke
to the risk of altitude sickness
...
from an unknown,
now known
to an unknown
soon to be...
...
from filthy to bare
from cheap to cheaper
from a population between 7 and 13 million
to a population of 45,000
...
from Hindu temples and mosques and churches
to many, many, big and small, Buddhist stupas
...
from the call of the mullahs in the towering white minarets
to the chant of the old black-shawled woman circling the intricately-coloured stupa
turning its single huge prayer wheel
...
from a very Indian colossal mega-city
to somewhere that doesn’t feel like India
feels more like the uplands of Nepal
like Manang or the Mustang Valley
and is, i guess, culturally Tibetan
...
so that’s next step the next step
from the dying coral and the lushest of jungles
to the deck of a passenger ship…
from the cabin bunk
and the water swilling in the oblongs of the ships corridors
to the tight South central neighbourhoods of vast sprawling Chennai
Triplicane and Mylapore…
and then from that utter sweatbox
through the non-time
and successive line-ups of
airports
to this mountain world
with its stone-walled alleyways
its square white houses
its white-dusted horizons
and its gigantic sky
...
so here i go
quite the leap
seven weeks in this mountain world
seven weeks of i’m not quite sure what
yet all will unfold
as i learn more...
...
...
Ladakah is only really accessible two three months of the year
around June-July
so i’ve never been able to travel here before
as i always been mighty mighty busy
in Ontario and Manitoba
come June-July
and one of the reasons i decided to take a year off the Fringe Tour
and be a not-quite-broke poet wandering in South and South-East Asia
was it meant i could head for this total unknown
this long dreamt destination
Ladakh
...
and here i go
swapping shackbox
for cabinbox
swapping cabinbox
for sweatbox
and, now
sweatbox for icebox ...
a melting icebox
...
so here i go
to the high meltwaters
now flowing down the legendary Indus River
...
so here i go
in search of some kind of trek that
ISN’T STUPID to do solo and semi-fit at 63
...
maybe begin with the Sham Valley Trek, aka the Baby Trek
or the Markha Valley Trek, a bit less baby
?
the first i guess
but not for a couple of acclimatising days yet
...
...
...
in other news
the next Pour of The Bucket approaches
June 1
33 new pieces
...
...
...
meanwhile
my thigh-muscles sense these high treks are coming
they know they are not used to climbs
and they know it shall hurt
so
the very sight of Leh Palace
way up and stately on a huge rock above the town
is enough to get my semi-fit thigh muscles twinging
…
…
these photos are by way of
complete contrast to anything down South
…
…
