The Himalayas have been calling to me since I was a young woman. Having visited there half a dozen times, I cannot even begin to explain in a page of words…why. A page is flat, and the words are black and white. The Himalayas surround you with 360 degrees of visual splendor that can never be captured fully by the lens of a camera. And it is more than a visual masterpiece.
It is a journey of the spirit that cannot be described with words, it can only be felt. Much like the magnificent mountains that surround your physical being, the spirituality of the people and their connection to their higher power is what makes the hills feel alive. The hills ARE alive, but not with sound… it is with emotion.
I remember the first time I landed in Tibet. The nomads on the plane began to cry as the plane touched the ground, which made all of us cry, and we weren’t even sure why. They were happy to return to that emotion…to that spiritual place and connection. And now they have been driven from Tibet, which is the very place that connects them. The northern Himalayas of India is where many of the Tibetan refugees have fled seeking a new place to call home and the freedom to keep the beliefs that are the very essence of their existence.
Not wanting to flee the place they love, yet prisoners in their own country if they stay, the nomads who live in these mountains are pure in heart. Their lives exemplify the pleasure of simplicity. Their smiles are genuine, and their curiosity is inviting. As I look around my living room at the trades I’ve made over the decades, I remember the nomad and the story behind every one of them. The interactions were priceless. There is no other place on earth that calls me back, time and time again like these magical mountains, and these spiritual people.
Riding through this virtually untouched landscape, the roads are in constant need of clearing and reparation. The work is most often done by the hard working nomads of the land. As we came across a group of women sweeping and doing road maintenance, I offered to take over their jobs to allow them some free time to go off for a motorcycle ride with my friend Buddhi. At first they seemed reluctant, but they are never too serious or busy to laugh, learn and be silly.
Having traveled through the various countries of the Himalayas mostly by foot, I wondered how it would feel to be traveling through a place that virtually stands still in time……….on a motorcycle. It has been my main source of transportation in America, and has taken me on nearly every back road between the west coast and the Mississippi.
But part of what I love about traveling through third world countries is doing it at their pace, and blending into the fiber, which allows for a natural interaction with the surroundings. I worried that traveling at warp speed would be passing the very things I come there to experience. So along the road, whenever I caught someone looking at the motorcycle, or smiling and waving in my direction, I took the opportunity and stopped for the exchange.
There is an art to stopping to interact with locals, and Buddhi has a wonderfully easy and inviting nature. It is always polite to ask before you point your camera at someone, especially older native peoples who have long feared that a camera can take away from their spirit. Respecting the beliefs and ways of the country I am in, is very important to me, even for a liberal thinker who may or may not agree with those ways. I always ask before taking out my camera, and I have learned it helps to have chocolate or cookies. Just about every being I encountered enjoyed sharing my sugar coated crackers that I always had a full bag of!!
The animals in third world countries must struggle for survival. Money and food are scarce, and they are at the bottom of the chain of who gets the food. Even when they are treated poorly and never shown compassion, man’s best friend still sticks around, hoping for scraps and leftovers. Most have never been shown compassion, and are afraid to even take the food, or let you touch them. Their faces are scarred from fighting. Their legs are broken or missing from fighting with the older, stronger dogs, or being hit by people or vehicles. If I was Noah, I would have filled the entire arc with every dog and brought it home. There are conditions in this world that break your heart, and leave you wondering, what can I do? The problem is so overwhelmingly out of control, what kind of solution could there ever be?
The sad elements never prevent me from wanting to visit and experience a place. There is no place on earth without those elements. They are just present in different forms. “Break my heart for what breaks yours”. I have LONG believed that if something truly touches and breaks my heart, then it breaks God’s heart too. And the ONLY way that change ever occurs, is when we are MOVED to change. I want to see everything, and feel everything, and then come home and share it. Answers are only followed by questions, and questions evolve from the heartbreak of wondering “how can we change what needs changing in our world?”
I LOVE to travel…and I LOVE to ride. I love taking pictures, and I love writing stories. I wanted to experience combining the things I love most. Buddhi Singh Chand of www.motorcycleexpeditions.com and I connected on Facebook. He is the co-founder of a motorcycle expedition company that travels throughout India, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. Being the “Backroads” rider and traveler that I am, I mostly like to travel and ride alone. I seek out the path less traveled, and I like to go in the opposite direction of the crowds. I had never been on an organized motorcycle expedition, and didn’t know if it would feel right to me. But Buddhi Singh Chand is not your typical person, and I knew I was in for a unique adventure before I even arrived!
Buddhi and I planned a trip to ride the highest motorable passes in the world. And we scheduled it slightly before the season kicks off and gets more crowded with tourists from all over the world. And as it is in life, every situation has its advantages and disadvantages. But what I set out to learn was if we could generate interest and organize small group expeditions to amazingly untouched roads in faraway places. Can we?
The price of such an expedition is not cheap, and the truth of the matter is, you could probably do it yourself for less money. But I can tell you, I have traveled that way most of my life. So I tried to pay attention to all of the pros and cons of going on an organized expedition, as opposed to winging it yourself. From the moment you land in a foreign country, if you do not speak the language, you are in for some difficulties.
At the ripe old age of 28, Buddhi spoke 10 languages & dialects, and never once did we encounter someone he could not communicate with! This is an incredible asset! Not to mention that he grew up in this region, and went off to Paris to study tourism in college and personally knew most everyone, everywhere we went. We were always welcomed warmly and taken good care of. This is especially helpful when you are crossing into areas where special permits are required just to be there. These official boarder people can be very problematic and hold you up or turn you away for no reason. We sailed past check points, and moved to the front of lines without question.
Then getting around the dirt roads of the Himalayas can be challenging on so many levels! The roads are either not marked at all, or poorly marked. Finding your way is beyond challenging. Plus, they all drive on the wrong side of the road! And they pass in the middle, so it feels like a constant game of chicken, and at a pretty rapid pace! Not to mention the roads are cluttered with trucks, cars, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, people on foot, holy cows that can walk, stand or lay in the roads, wild donkeys, mountain dogs, goats, chickens………..just about everything! Buddhi just said follow me, and I did!
I followed him through puddles the size of lakes, through rain and snow, mud and ice, cold and wind, hot and dry, potholes upon potholes upon potholes…every condition possible in a month of travel. We stayed in local guest houses, with families of friends, and mostly with his good friend who just happens to be a Buddist Monk, and lives alone in a small house on the grounds of a monastery just on the outskirts of Leh, Ladakh in the Himalayas of northern India.
The experiences I had with Buddhi are not what you can always expect on an expedition where you would be partly camping or in guest houses. I appreciated having the opportunity of getting to meet, stay with and spend quality time with these local people. It is the part of the journey I seek, and the experience I will never forget.
When you are staying at altitude, there are a multitude of problems to overcome. You can get headaches, nausea, sleeplessness, and general fatigue. It’s important not to overdo yourself, and having a knowledgeable guide helps you to acclimatize at the correct pace. Once you get altitude sickness, sometimes the only cure is to descend to a lower altitude, which can interrupt your whole journey. Life in the Himalayas is harsh, and if you are not prepared for the elements, it can really beat you up. The extreme sun, wind, and snow reflection takes its toll.
Rule of thumb for food…boil it, peel it, or leave it! Rule of water is boil it, bring a filtering bottle, or drink bottled water with a good seal. I tell you all of these bizarre little details, because it is the little details that can make or BREAK you having a spectacular adventure. Having an experienced guide keeps you safe. He keeps you well, he keeps you healthy. He keeps you from being lost, or scared, or in danger.
Being in a third world country can be dangerous, confusing, scary, frustrating, and darn uncomfortable! Having a hilarious and silly guide can turn even the most difficult of situations into the funniest memories you take home. And with the right guide, it can be the amazing journey of a lifetime.
Buddhi showed me an amazing journey of a lifetime in the Himalayas of northern India. He and Tupstan showed me incredible hospitality and taught me many things about the Buddhist culture and way of life. Mostly I learned that Buddhist Monks are just people like you and I. The oldest son of every family has the privilege of being a Monk, and is sent away to worship for his entire life. Only recently are some questioning this tradition, and making choices to live a different way.
I learned that a monk lives according to the economic ability of his family. For example, Tupstan had his own three bedroom house on the monastery grounds. I learned that even though he has tremendous compassion toward people, he doesn’t want stray dogs shitting in front of his house, so he didn’t want me feeding the strays in front of his house. They started waiting there for me every day. Nor does he want lizards living in his house, and when I found one in my room, he squashed it and threw it down the hole! I learned to be careful brushing my hair, because it is disrespectful for your hairs to be beneath a man’s feet.
I learned that a Monk can have a nice house, a car, an i-phone, a nice gold watch, and a TV. He cannot, however, ever wear pants. So even when it was freezing, there he was with his robe flapping on the back of my motorcycle! Tupstan is a very good person, and took very good care of me. We enjoyed shopping for groceries, peeling, chopping and cooking dinner together. We watched Bollywood videos, and the Animal Planet. He spoke almost no English, but still he taught me much.
The Buddhist religion and culture is based around compassion. Compassion is not something that you inherently have because you were the first born. I don’t even believe it is something you can force as a way of thinking, feeling or living. Compassion is something we are here to learn. The human beings who have walked the earth and shown the greatest compassion are remembered far and wide. They are our greatest examples of how we can be, even when we are not given compassion, we can respond with compassion.
You can call that whatever you want to call that. I call him Jesus Christ. People argue and fight wars over religious contradictions. It doesn’t matter to me if Jesus was THE son of God, or if it was Buddha, or Yoda. We are all sons and daughters of God. We are all human, and less than perfect, and on different paths seeking our own version of nirvana. Hopefully what we learn along our path is compassion.
If you have ever dream’t of this type of adventure, you can contact Buddhi for upcoming expeditions. He and I discussed several possibilities for expeditions we would like to do together. You can check out my website, monthly column, or Facebook for plans in the making. I would love to begin putting together a small group to adventure to Bhutan…who’s with me??? If you are not living life on the edge, you’re missing the view! Let’s plan the next adventure!!!
www.motorcycleexpeditions.com – Buddhi Singh Chand
www.womenridersnow.com “Backroads With Betsy”
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