Trekking- Valley of Flowers

Starts off in a woody forest with conifers

Map

 Oh so beautiful. Very few flowers out but the valley is gorgeous surrounded by snow covered peaks, many waterfalls and streams. One can walk for miles along the valley floor. This is the nicest place I have seen in India.

Going up

Stream crossing into VoF



Clouds generated by snow condensation

It would be perfect for backpacking, but one cannot spend the night which may keep the valley clean. Indians are known to drop garbage as its nothing. Hike in was decent, 3 km mostly uphill but also some flat and level, perfect hiking terrain.

We meet three women who we saw yesterday and were talking. She asked how we were getting back to Govinghat and Sue told her we wanted to use the helicopter but were short $20.
Bela offered to lend it to us and Sue could pay here back when she goes to Dharamshala. Ok we are going to take the helicopter back to Govinghat but will not have any money left for a hotel tonight. Sue thinks it will work out.
This allowed us to spend more time in the valley. Stopped by a beautiful stream and hung out in the sun. Heaven. There were a group of men, all doctors who came to chat with us. They were filling their water bottles in the stream. I looked and really there is nothing above us so I filled our bottles also, we need to save every rupee we can.

Relaxing

 

Trek Hemkund

Sue took a pony up to Hemkund, 6 km all uphill.  I planned to walk but after going only 2 km in 1 hour I opted for a pony.  Nice lake at the top. Interesting to see all the Punjabis praying, cleansing themselves in the cold sacred lake. We walked down but it took 3 hours for 6 km with a few stops. That’s ridiculous.

Up and Up

Look at the switchbacks

Happy we meet at the top

At top

The pony which took me up the hill. Nice ride, comfortable saddle

Could look up at the scenery while on top of the horse instead of looking at my feet

A Shik cleansing himself in Holy Hemkund Lake.
Chains are attached to the concrete for safety?
Lake is fed by the snow melt of surrounding mountains.
 

We walked down but it took 3 hours for 6 km with a few stops. That’s ridiculous. Sue started talking about taking a helicopter out of here, that's a possibility. We can for 3500 rupees (70 USD) each.  Once we got back to town we inquired: no credit cards, only cash, we are 20 USD short. Other options: horses, 3-4 hours or walk 6 hours. We are strapped for time and the terrain has been rough. Trail is all rock making walking up and down slow.

Trekking-Day 1

This is Punjabi territory. We walked around town.  Coordinated with a local to transport our luggage the 14 km hike tomorrow to Ganghria, 3049 meters where we will stay for three nights at hotel Nanda Lokpal Palace.

 

Hike to Ghangria
How wonderful to be hiking, serenaded by the roar of the beautiful green crystal clear Alakund River and being surrounded by mountains. The walk today was only 14 km but it was all uphill. We climbed from Govindghat, 1828m to Ghangria, 3049.

 

We were accompanied by lots of ponies carrying luggage or people. At the beginning of the trek many ponies wait to be hired. 1 km into the hike, more horses for hire and they were only charging 500, good opportunity for the people who realize that they couldn't or didn't want to walk the entire trek. Interesting the prices didn't go up as we continued to climb. Sue has not been doing much exercise and she paid the price, she made it though. I would walk ahead and then wait. Towards the end I would not have been surprised to see her on a horse, but nope she got here on her own two feet. The trail was all laid with stone making the walk a bit more difficult but maybe adds safety. Most of the people were Punjabi on a pilgrimage to Hemkund Sahib, a holy site that people go to find courage and strength to face challenges ahead. People along the way have been wonderful and very informative about India, it was a wonderful day.

There were a lot of people walking, many more than I would have thought, children, parents, grandparents and an occassional 70-80 year old.  It was amazing to see some of them.
Our hotel, well... No hot water but if you ask you can get a bucket of hot water, basic, very basic. It's cold, borrowed my friend Priya's warm winter jacket. Thank you Priya.

 

Had dinner with 4 other non-native folks, 3 from Israel and one from Chile. .  It was nice to have dinner with others who speak English well.  Haven't been eating much as I am tired of Indian food and sauces. For lunch I had a bag of chocolate cookies and they were yummy, not my usual diet.

All is good. This town is a dive, I think we are staying at the nicest place. Narrow streets with pony poop and water everywhere. No views as the town is just one long street.

 We did pass a nice hotel restaurant about half way between Govinghat and Ganghria with nice views along the river and mountains, I would recommend staying there but then it adds miles to the future hikes.

 

Valley of Flowers Adventure Day 1 & 2

I tried to put the entire trip on one post but the pictures were giving me difficulties.  There will be a few..

VoF has 300 species of small multicolored flowers amongst the snow clad peaks. The valley is 10km long, 2km wide and is divided by the Pushpawati stream creating many off shoots and waterfalls.  The ideal season for viewing the flowers is July-August which is the rainy season.

Sue and I get along well. I did all the planning before departure, now she has taken over, reading the tour book talking to hotel managers...
Picked up at home by driver, Pradeep. Small sedan car. Driver speaks enough english to get along. 
7 hour drive to Rishikesh.

Stopped in Hardiwar for lunch. Interesting place, people bathe in the Ganges, a spiritual affair. Walked around, ate at a street cafe looked clean enough. Not bad and no stomach problems.

 First night at Rishikesh, a small town with a large Akshardham. Akshardham means the eternal, divine abode of the supreme God. No meat or alcohol served in town as it’s filled with Hindu worshipers.

View from hotel

 Staying at the Great Ganga along the Ganges river. Nice.Had a lovely relaxing massage and steam bath.
Rishikesh is known for the yogis and many people come to join spiritual retreats and participate in the evening ceremony held at one of the Akshardhams. Sitting on the opposite side of the river we heard the chanting from the other side.

Drive to Govinghat.

 

Arrived in Govindghat
Was a 10 hour drive cramped in a small car that didn’t have enough power to go uphill AND use AC, very long but nice scenery.  Drove switchbacks up hillsides and then down again....

 

Overnight at Hotel Bhagat. Not bad.

 

Whiskey update

Have visited Friendicoes three times now. Whiskey is in a cage amongst many horribly damaged dogs.  There was one that had its entire head bandaged except one eye.  What happened to the poor dog?
Whiskey can stand and maybe takes a few steps but she is afraid to come out of the cage, probably because of all the other dogs around.
I am now thinking about bringing her back to the USA.  When sue and I took her off the street she could not walk or even stand, so there is some improvement.  Before i departed for india a Pfizer collegue gave me the name of a vet that helps transport dogs from India to be adopted in the USA.  I called yesterday to inquire about the rules.  Eric is hesitant about me bringing her home as he is concerned about house breaking a 8 month old dog and she is a complete unknown. I understand his concern.  If I bring her home I decided that I will not go to Laos/Cambodia but come home to help in the transition period of home and Whiskey.
I will do more investigating today.  I feel that if I bring one home I should bring all four and try to find responsible pet owners for them.  They are all lovable and gentle and I am sure would make great pets.
One thing I know for sure is that I have to get Whiskey out of Friendicoes as they are not even walking her, so how will she recover?  Life has been easy not having responsibilities but often I want to do the best I can especially when it comes to dogs.
After visiting Whiskey I went to feed the others.  I believe they could smell their sister on my clothes.  Do they miss her?  What goes on in a dogs head?
All the dogs will have to be desexed and vaccinated, it would be much cheaper to do it in India than in USA.
I also need to look into having the dogs adopted at home.  Do I just take them to the kennel?  I'll try to get in contact with the Roger, Pfizer collegue who also brought dogs home from India.
Who wants one?

The life of a street dog

Whiskey

Yesterday only Alpha, Nimba and Spritey came for dinner. I heard a dog crying but could not see her, assuming it was Whiskey. A couple and I located the crying noise under a car. If it is Whiskey she must be in bad shape not to join for dinner. It was dark so couldn't get a good look. Went home feeling helpless.

 

Next day I was showing Sue around and took her to see the puppies. Alpha and Nimba came running, no Spritey and no Whiskey. Suddenly we heard the dog cry, it was Whiskey at the front of the car. She could not get up. Assuming she got hit by a car or someone beat her with a stick. No blood but she was damaged. Luckily Sue is a dog lover also and she picked her up, I wouldn't be able to because of my shoulders, for the walk to the vet. She didn't show any signs of aggression. I held her head and snout as Sue lifted her into her arms. As we walked she kept looking back at her two brothers. Five minute walk to the vet. For Sue this seemed like two miles due to the weight of the dog. We laid her on the table and she didn't/couldn't move. She was so calm but aware of surroundings and didn't seem in too much pain. The vet examined her, when he pinched her rear paws Whiskey didn't even flinch concluding that she might have an injury in her spine. Vet was concerned but thought that with time and TLC she might be OK as her muscles in her legs worked. His recommendation was to care for her for a few days and see if she recovers. With my current living situation that is not possible. We asked that she be put to sleep. Very sad but she felt safe with sue and I. Earlier in the day Sue expressed her dislike of street dogs as it’s a horrible life for the dogs not being cared for. The vet said he could put her down as he believed that she could recover, he gave us the name of an animal NGO hospital and suggested that we call them. Sue was angry at the vets’ decision; she felt that Whiskeys life would be horrible with no one to care for her. Putting her back on the street was not an option. We carried her home, got a towel for her to lay on close to the door, gave her water and food which she ate eagerly, a good sign. Whiskey seemed content, wagged her tail when we petted her. Called Friendicoes, they said they would come get her. When they came they were very ruff in handling her, put her in the back of the truck on smelly newspaper with another, not too friendly looking dog. I can’t blame the workers as they are probably poorly paid and deal with aggressive difficult dogs. Off she went. It was sad as she went from being content on the towel and then thrown into the horrible unknown surroundings - a vehicle.

Happier times when they were all togheter
04 Sep 2012

I felt that we did the best we could with the situation, regardless, it was painful to see her being taken away.
I want to believe that at the center they will treat her kindly and help her recover.
Called the following day, they told me her identification number for future calls, that means she's there and being taken care of. A vet told me that she has a broken spinal column. He did not think she would make it through the day. I bet she will as she had the injuries for two days, even though she couldn't walk she had good spirits. The clinic has Visiting hours between 5-6:30 pm. They are located close to work so I hope to go tomorrow evening, if for nothing else to make a donation.

I will visit the puppies tonight to see how the others are doing and try to get a sense if they miss her.
Very sad. Maybe at home I could have taken her in and nursed her back to health as she is a sweet puppy, enjoyed being carried and appreciated the care we gave her last night (at least while she was with Sue and I).
Assuming she got hit very close to where she was hiding makes me angry at the person who was driving that fast. The life of a street dog is not valued and becomes a burden to society. Much work needs to be done for the street dogs, but there are TONS of issues needing attention in India.

Whiskey

Diabetes in India Part 1

Diabetes is prevalent in USA.  We have good healthcare systems even for the under served thru Medicaid.  NCD, non communicable disease, have surpassed infectious disease as the number one killer in India.  It is wonderful that diseases which can be prevented by administering vaccines have decreased with the help of WHO, CDC AND NGOs.

India is a country with great disparities.the caste system is still strong and obvious everywhere I have visited, besides Ladakh and Kerala. The number of malnourished are much greater than the urban overweight. Almost 42 per cent of the children in the country numbering over 61 million (India's population is 1.2 billion) are malnourished and stunted according to the Hunger and Malnutrition Report released by Prime Minister Singh in New Delhi on Jan 2012, The report published stated that one in three malnourished children in the world is an Indian.  Malnutrition is NOT just the underfed but all people with improper diets.  I am here to work with diabetes, don't you think there are many other more pertinent healthcare tasks?  

The prevalence of malnutrition varies across states, with Madhya Pradesh-central india recording the highest rate (55 per cent) and Kerala among the lowest (27 per cent).

Malnutrition in children is not affected by food intake alone; it is also influenced by access to health services, quality of care for the child and pregnant mother as well as good hygiene practices. Girls are more at risk of malnutrition than boys because of their lower social status. Statistics found on UNICEF website.

Articles in the newspaper frequently discuss the corruption In high levels of government. There are multitude of issues that need to be addressed to solve healthcare and economic problems in India.

I live in a middle class area even so I see less fortunate, builders, rickshaw drivers, garbage collectors and sorters everywhere.  The haves and have nots. Maybe when walking NYC streets homeless can be seen but they are not everywhere allowing me to forget that its an issue.  The builders here, often transients from rural communities, come to the cities for work.  I am told that there is a strong hierarchy in the building unit.  The true laborers that carry the bricks, sand, stone are the lowest in the group, the brick layers are above and then a person overseeing.  A days work could easily be 12 hours/day everyday of the week.  And for pay, the laborers might get paid $5-7 USD/day.  Vishwa asked if I would like an interview with the builders.  I am embarrassed to ask for one but have so many questions.  They do have water for drinking, bathing and washing clothes.  They cook, sleep and exisit in their building lots.  The entire families are at the site, women and men work side by side hauling heavy loads of sand, bricks, concrete up one, two, three or even four stories.  Only a couple of times have I seen any large equipment to assist the manual laborers.  Not only do they build but they also dig, maybe a full story down - by hand!  I cannot answer if building homes in middle class areas are helping the economy as reports in the newspaper suggests that the economy is doing poorly similar to other parts of the world.