Finding god in the mountains
March 13, 2012 8:12 AM Subscribe
I want to go on a spiritual quest in central Asia, and my current best idea is one of the many advertised 20+ day guided treks to Tibet and/or Nepal. I have extensive day hike experience in the western US, and I've spent a few weeks working in Shanghai, but I otherwise have no backpacking or international travel experience. Looking for tour company recommendations and curious about the best time of year to go, in addition to anything else I should know about travel and trekking in the Himalayas.
I'm a 30ish American woman in good physical shape, and will probably be traveling alone.
My goal is to have a strenuous physical and spiritual experience. I don't believe in god ... but I want to see god in the mountains, if that makes sense. I'm trying to reset my life with a bang.
If it helps you make other suggestions, I'm a curious novice in Zen Buddhism, and a very enthusiastic practitioner of western-style hatha yoga. In class, I enjoy hearing about watered-down Hinduism. I grew up a very militant atheist and I've never even been to a Christian service.
I'm a 30ish American woman in good physical shape, and will probably be traveling alone.
My goal is to have a strenuous physical and spiritual experience. I don't believe in god ... but I want to see god in the mountains, if that makes sense. I'm trying to reset my life with a bang.
If it helps you make other suggestions, I'm a curious novice in Zen Buddhism, and a very enthusiastic practitioner of western-style hatha yoga. In class, I enjoy hearing about watered-down Hinduism. I grew up a very militant atheist and I've never even been to a Christian service.
My sister (in her 40s and single) has traveled to Nepal twice with Mountain Travel Sobek. She did their Everitt Base Camp and Lodge to Lodge trips and was very pleased both times. You sound a lot like her and what she was after in these trips.
posted by Pineapplicious at 9:43 AM on March 13, 2012
posted by Pineapplicious at 9:43 AM on March 13, 2012
I traveled to Tibet with a "group" (since individual travel is not allowed) that happend to be made up of family members of mine (one of my aunts married Tibetan, but not everybody is so lucky) - so I don't have advice on what company to go with, but I have a few ideas about what you should know about traveling there.
1. You're not going to catch tropical diseases in Tibet, but traveler's diarrhea is nevertheless super common. Definitely bring antibiotics. Traveler's diarrhea is no fun no matter where you are, but if you're at 14,000 feet and it takes 13 hours in a Jeep over 3 passes to get to the nearest clinic (NOT UNUSUAL), it's a hell of a lot worse. I was actually advised to take my own needles with me in case I needed IV for any reason, because apparently re-use of needles is common. I ended up not taking them and didn't need any medical attention anyway, but you might want to consider it.
[Things to avoid so you don't get sick: hot pot meals, ice, ice creams, any suspect non-boiled beverage, non-peeled fruit. I didn't encounter too many raw veggies when I was there, but ymmv.]
2. Tibetan food is REALLY really good. Some of it may seem too oily at first, but after a week running around at altitude, fat starts to taste extra good. Yak butter tea, which you are sure to try, is an acquired taste, and again, it tastes better after some time at altitude. (I'm vegetarian, and it was no problem except for a few people who were bummed they couldn't serve me their prize yak meat - just FYI.)
3. My experience was that plastic bags are hard to come by. Plastic bags are really useful if you'er out in all weather in the rainy season. If you have literally no way of keeping your stuff dry, well, it's kind of miserable. Bring dry bags if you're going to be out in the rain.
4. Altitude sickness is a real thing, of course, but I was way nervous about it and didn't experience it at all. I arrived at 14,000 feet from about 4,000 feet and although I got winded pretty fast cycling along with a 25-year-old Tibetan man through the mountains the next day, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten winded trying to keep up with him no matter what. Seriously, a was a bit tired for a day or two and then I felt great. No headaches, flu-like symptoms, etc. There is a drug you can take to mitigate altitude sickness, but one of the people I was traveling with (another friend of the family) took it and it just made her have to pee constantly.
5. I brought candy to give to little kids.
6. Wooden outhouses are much, much better than porcelain pit-style toilets. Seriously. SO much less smelly.
7. You might want to read up on proper etiquette when visiting monasteries. For example, you always walk around in a clockwise direction, and it's polite to always leave a bit of money on an altar - a small amount will do. You don't point your feet at monks. Etc. It's just nice to be in the know.
8. I found that the best possible way to connect with Tibetans with whom I could not actually converse was by singing. If you memorize a few songs (folk songs, songs from your country, etc.) you might find a whole new way to socialize. Many of the Tibetans I interacted with turned out to be terrific and enthusiastic singers.
9. I went to a few towns that had hardly ever seen a Westerner. This probably won't happen to you if you're with a larger tour group... but I guess it's possible. There are quite a few cities in Tibet that only recently opened to Western tourists, and when I was there in 2004 there were some cities that were still closed. If I was the first American that some people had ever met, it was really important to me to be polite and respectful and appreciative.
10. People in Tibet generally drink hot water. This is first of all because it has to be boiled to be safe to drink, and second because hot water is considered healthier than cold water. You'll get used to it. Again, it tastes a lot better if you've been out in the sun and wind all day.
posted by Cygnet at 11:42 AM on March 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
1. You're not going to catch tropical diseases in Tibet, but traveler's diarrhea is nevertheless super common. Definitely bring antibiotics. Traveler's diarrhea is no fun no matter where you are, but if you're at 14,000 feet and it takes 13 hours in a Jeep over 3 passes to get to the nearest clinic (NOT UNUSUAL), it's a hell of a lot worse. I was actually advised to take my own needles with me in case I needed IV for any reason, because apparently re-use of needles is common. I ended up not taking them and didn't need any medical attention anyway, but you might want to consider it.
[Things to avoid so you don't get sick: hot pot meals, ice, ice creams, any suspect non-boiled beverage, non-peeled fruit. I didn't encounter too many raw veggies when I was there, but ymmv.]
2. Tibetan food is REALLY really good. Some of it may seem too oily at first, but after a week running around at altitude, fat starts to taste extra good. Yak butter tea, which you are sure to try, is an acquired taste, and again, it tastes better after some time at altitude. (I'm vegetarian, and it was no problem except for a few people who were bummed they couldn't serve me their prize yak meat - just FYI.)
3. My experience was that plastic bags are hard to come by. Plastic bags are really useful if you'er out in all weather in the rainy season. If you have literally no way of keeping your stuff dry, well, it's kind of miserable. Bring dry bags if you're going to be out in the rain.
4. Altitude sickness is a real thing, of course, but I was way nervous about it and didn't experience it at all. I arrived at 14,000 feet from about 4,000 feet and although I got winded pretty fast cycling along with a 25-year-old Tibetan man through the mountains the next day, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten winded trying to keep up with him no matter what. Seriously, a was a bit tired for a day or two and then I felt great. No headaches, flu-like symptoms, etc. There is a drug you can take to mitigate altitude sickness, but one of the people I was traveling with (another friend of the family) took it and it just made her have to pee constantly.
5. I brought candy to give to little kids.
6. Wooden outhouses are much, much better than porcelain pit-style toilets. Seriously. SO much less smelly.
7. You might want to read up on proper etiquette when visiting monasteries. For example, you always walk around in a clockwise direction, and it's polite to always leave a bit of money on an altar - a small amount will do. You don't point your feet at monks. Etc. It's just nice to be in the know.
8. I found that the best possible way to connect with Tibetans with whom I could not actually converse was by singing. If you memorize a few songs (folk songs, songs from your country, etc.) you might find a whole new way to socialize. Many of the Tibetans I interacted with turned out to be terrific and enthusiastic singers.
9. I went to a few towns that had hardly ever seen a Westerner. This probably won't happen to you if you're with a larger tour group... but I guess it's possible. There are quite a few cities in Tibet that only recently opened to Western tourists, and when I was there in 2004 there were some cities that were still closed. If I was the first American that some people had ever met, it was really important to me to be polite and respectful and appreciative.
10. People in Tibet generally drink hot water. This is first of all because it has to be boiled to be safe to drink, and second because hot water is considered healthier than cold water. You'll get used to it. Again, it tastes a lot better if you've been out in the sun and wind all day.
posted by Cygnet at 11:42 AM on March 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best time of year NOT to go is during or shortly after the monsoon, as it causes plenty of landslides that cut roads & make travel painfully slow, if not impossible. This would apply to Nepal more than Tibet (which I think isn't affected by the monsoon at all, as the clouds would have shed their load before reaching that far?).
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:18 PM on March 13, 2012
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:18 PM on March 13, 2012
UbuRoivas - Tibet is not AS affected by the monsoon, but there still is a landslide season. Sometimes if roads are closed there is simply nothing you can do about it because there are just no other roads to take.
Bridge washouts, shoddy civil engineering and mudslides were also common sights when I was in Tibet. On a few occasions we had to leave a town in the middle of the night to get to a bridge before it was shut down for the rest of the day or week.
posted by Cygnet at 6:30 AM on March 14, 2012
Bridge washouts, shoddy civil engineering and mudslides were also common sights when I was in Tibet. On a few occasions we had to leave a town in the middle of the night to get to a bridge before it was shut down for the rest of the day or week.
posted by Cygnet at 6:30 AM on March 14, 2012
If you go to Tibet, make sure you have a Tibetian guide! Otherwise you'll just hear the Chinese side about Tibet.. Also, it's recommended that you take your time. Don't over estimate you abilities in high altitude.
A few tour companies I'd recommend are:
From China->Tibet
Access Tibet Tour
Great Tibet Tour
Nepal based groups
Himalayan Adventures (I heard about this company through a friend that visited EBC via Kathmandu. Sorry I can't seem to locate the proper website)
EcoTrek Nepal
Good luck and have fun!
posted by melizabeth at 9:09 AM on March 22, 2012
A few tour companies I'd recommend are:
From China->Tibet
Access Tibet Tour
Great Tibet Tour
Nepal based groups
Himalayan Adventures (I heard about this company through a friend that visited EBC via Kathmandu. Sorry I can't seem to locate the proper website)
EcoTrek Nepal
Good luck and have fun!
posted by melizabeth at 9:09 AM on March 22, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
However, given the current political strife in Tibet, Nepal might be a better bet.
posted by zjacreman at 9:40 AM on March 13, 2012