Poop with a purpose

Walking through the high Himalayan desert has us inspired to share some insight on the usefulness of poop!
Ain't no reason for wastin this 'waste'!

In the USA there is massive pollution caused by an excess of manure from industrial meat and dairy farms as if there is no better use for this nutrition rich material than to sit in giant ponds. But here people can't seem get enough of the stuff.

We will often see women carrying baskets full of cow and yak dung they've gathered from the pastures, sometimes also leading donkeys loaded with sacks full of dung as well. They then dry the dung out on their roofs, on rocks, any open space available and then stack it up on big piles all around and on the roof of their house. 

In the high dry desert where trees are scarce, the dung is the primary fuel for cooking and keeping families warm during the long winter.

With our own small rocket stove we've been using a mix of small sticks and cow and horse dung to cook our meals on the trail. The amount of sticks we need has been drastically reduced and the smoke has a new pleasant earthy smell to it!

And of course throughout the world and all throughout India dung is used for fertilizer for farm fields. Rather than the purchase of chemical fertilizers in the western world better use could be made of the organic 'waste' that is in an over abundance.

Throughout Spiti and Ladakh the traditional toilets are pit compost toilets. Each house has a simple small building or room with stone floors and a rectangle hole leading into an open space below that can be accessed through another door. You do your business in the hole, wipe with paper, cardboard, a leaf, etc. and then shovel in dried horse or cow manure and grass over your own manure.

This over time all turns into nutrient rich compost and ends up in the fields, growing the barley, potatoes and peas!

The dry pit toilets make the best sense in this climate as they conserve water, prevent pollution, and provide the extra fertilizer needed when so much animal manure is used for cooking.

A beautiful example of people living in greater harmony with the world around them. Completing the cycle of nutrients flowing from life to death and breakdown and back into new life.

Kinnaur part 2

A few scattered thoughts/images from the second half of Kinnaur! Sorry it's not complete but we're just too busy being where we are at!

-Reckong Peo:
A permit is required to enter this last stretch of Kinnaur due to its proximity to the Tibetan border. And who knew getting a permit could be so fun and official business could be taken care of so quickly in India! Within 30 minutes we had our permit, were full of smiles, and down 800 rupees.
Check out the photos below for one of the best rainbow we've ever seen!

-Spillow:
Cooking outside hotel, hanging out with all the shopkeepers, local men chatting in Hindi cooking up kitcheri, given a gift of satu (barley flour) that one man had brought from his village
Just a simple perfect evening
-We met two other cycle tourists the next morning! Joan and Alice we had cycled into Kinnaur from Kathmandu. We were surprised by a couple of cycles across the street as we went to leave and enjoyed getting to have some extra company on and off over the next few days.

-Pooh:
Camping at the monestary
Special puja ceremony with free 2nd lunch with sweet ladies,
Old old ladies with small braids and big smiles
Wild excited sassy kids 

-Colleen's Birthday ride!
Pooh to Nakho, huge mountain views
Climbing and feeling strong
Cooking special kitcheri in a cave
La de DAH
Getting high on altitude
Amazing thali
Birthday Prasad Cake
Rooftop camping

-half day
Feeling like aimless donkeys
Sweet giving sisters: cheers!
Staying with Nepali workers
Papa: chai, and 'give her a kiss!' 'Puppi'

-On the road we often encounter cows walking slowly along as they graze on the roadside grass or get their share of the garbage that has been left. Whenever they feel they want to stop walking they just lay where ever they please which often times means in the middle of the road. While rounding a high mountain bend our sight fixed on a herd of goats with a couple shepherds guiding their way. Seeing this scene where cars, bikes and busses are backed up on either side and the shepherds guiding the mass of goats to one side had me imagine the time before these highway roads were here in the mountains. Maybe a generation or two back this remained a forested mountain jungle with small dirt paths where the cows, goats and shepherds more peacefully foreged around moving place to place.

-ride out of Kinnaur the next morning with lots of friends on the roads as we pass the workers we had stayed the night with. The valley begins to widen as we reach Sonnam check post to enter Spiti

Reminders :) (this one is short:)

Starting from one source
Becoming their own form
Again returning to one

Analogy to all beings, species and forms that we all have come from the same source... from the creation of the universe.
Throughout life we take on these individual forms allowing for each to share their gifts of giving and compassion in their own way just as each river and stream that brings life throughout the world.
However while being blessed with these forms that provide life we must keep the awareness of oneness. We all return back to the original source just as all the rivers and streams return to one body of water.

Kinnaur: part 1

Thinking back on our ride through Kinnaur brings to mind images of high mountains, roads on the edge of slides and cliffs, small villages, big dams, military checkposts,  herding sheep, buckwheat and barley, woolen caps, and big smiles.
We've highlighted a few stories and lessons from places we ventures and people we met along the way...

-Nigulsauri: the first night in Kinnaur we stopped in a small village as evening approached to seek out a place to spend the night. A group of ladies were sitting out on the balcony of a large building smiling down at us. We came up and asked if it might be possible for us to stay with any of them that night. After some discussion and some chai they had us all sorted: we slept with one family, ate dinner with another, and were invited in for chai with everyone else on the two floors of the building. Some of them were local, some from Nepal or elsewhere in Himachal,  all drawn to this spot for roadwork and because of the nice new school.
We connected the most with a strong unassuming woman named Sania whom we met on the balcony later in the evening and were invited in for chai. She is a teacher at the school there, and lives alone in a small apartment. She comes from a village about 30 kilometers away but is stayinging in nigalsauri for work at the school. She shared with us ayurvedic juice, green tea, and taught us in the morning how to make a traditional Kinnauri breakfast of buckwheat pancakes ('oogal ki had' ) with local honey and ghee... It was the breakfast of our health conscious dreams :) She seemed to us to be a more rare woman to meet in rural india, independent and content to live on her own, appreciative of community yet relishing her solitude.
Meeting Sania made us think of our own mother, that they would connect really well and dreaming of having Sania stay at our home for sometime and maybe even help out and share her cultural traditions at our school... We exchanged information and it seems like it could be a real possibility!

-arriving in night to Kuppa
We have a general rule never to ride at night but ended up having no choice but to ride until about 930 into Kuppa as we took a side trip up to Sangla valley. There were no villages along the way to stop in or no places to camp. It is easy to create problems and build up situations in the mind as I found myself starting to feel anxious as night was approaching on this remote high mountain road. I began to create divisions between colleen and me, putting blame on her, wanting her to have the energy to cycle faster... after a couple of unhelpful remarks towards her and several minutes of creating tension inside myself I came back to my senses and looked at the reality of the situation.  We were cycling on a beautiful quiet mountain road in the evening light, we had a tent if we found a flat spot, we had lights, water,  and snacks. There was no problem and any challenges we face should be faced together, making us stronger and making the challenges smaller rather than enlarging them with the ego. Another lesson in the habits of the mind, and in maintaining clarity and seeing the moment truly as it us.

Arriving in Kuppa we were greeted by the most enthusiastic guest house owner, Jingmed Negi.
One of the most generous thalis we've received filled our hungry bellies as he shared his love for his home, showing us some documentaries of the area to explain the local culture and explaining his upbringing in Kinnaur, always maintaing a wide smile on his face. Even when staying at guest homes there is often a feeling of cultural learning and sharing between one another of which Jingmed expressed incredibly. 

So giving yet in the end taking less money from us than we had agreed to before, him feeling happy that we put in the extra effort by cycling to visit his home

-sangla ghoomna:
In sangla valley we spent a couple of days "ghoom"ing (wandering) through the back pathways through fields and alongside homes. We spent a lot of time scoping out the fields, looking at what was being grown, and in what way.
We were excited to see such a diversity of crops being grown with one another, maximizing plant interactions and space! (Yayy permaculture in its traditional form!)
The space under Apple, apricot, peach, and walnut trees was all being used to grow vegetables, grains, and pulses. The fruit trees providing the families income and the land underneath providing their sustainance. A seemingly perfect balance.
We were lucky to get to talk to some farmers about their fields and to have some seeds shared with us to plant at home! The climate in sangla valley is nearly identical to upstate New York so it made it extra exciting to see the farms here since we could apply the same things back home.

Throughout Himachal there is a general transition towards the growing of cash crops replacing traditional foods or often replacing food for  families sustainance all together. Apples being one of the largest cash crops with many families no longer putting in the effort to grow anything else. It was reassuring to see this better balance remain between income and nourishment in Sangla Valley. 

Along with a shift towards cash crops is the shift away from eating traditional foods. We had to search long and hard in sangla valley to find something other than dal and rice or Chinese.  It seems silly that no restaraunts in Kinnaur serve Kinnauri food! Real local food can only be found in locals homes.
I was asking about Kinnauri khanna when a sweet smily man and his wife invited us to eat with them. They really got excited about showing us the traditional way for doing everything,  cooking over the fire instead of their recent switch to the gas stove, showing us the different steps, letting us churn some butter and telling about the different grains. We made two types of pancake like breads from two varieties of buckwheat and had green vegetables from two homes and fresh butter to go with It!
We even acquired some seeds from both varieties of buckwheat so we can grow it under our Apple trees and make this same dish back home! Kinnauri style :)

We were fortunate to get invited to spend the night with the most beautiful aunty that night and get a tour of her families farm land and a breakfast of Kinnaurs best parantha and rajma before setting back on the road out of the valley!

So many lovely people and so much lovely food!
Seems to be the theme of this blog :)

Slow the Pace of the Human Race

We feel completely blessed to have this opportunity to travel in different ways, allowing to gain these different perspectives... and then to shed them with the glimpses of the truth.
*refer to the less than adequate drawn map*
Setting out from behind the monestary of Kaza with just a pack on the back already felt much lighter than with the weight of the cycle. We had intended to spend just a couple days walking around to the upper villages but once we sensed the physical and mental lightness that walking gave we continued on foot for about 10 more days into Pin Valley as well.
Each step, each day, we became lighter, the feeling of freeness set in more and more. Just the simple act of moving one foot in front of the other in no rush and no expectation made anything feel possible. The possibility to let go of these constraints we put on ourselves, these expectations that we perceive others place on us.  This weight began to lift as the mind disattached from the societal constructs and found peace in the emptiness of each step.
Often while walking as well as cycling the mind would try to find things to fill the emptiness that moving simply brings... grabbing the attention to what will be around the next corner or in the next village. Often finding the mind placing expectations or hope when seeing a home or a group of people that we will be invited in for chai and get to experience a glimpse into their lives. And even though this is what tended to happen due to the incredible Spiti hosptiatily and of the Indian people in general, the slow pace of walking allowed for us to more clearly recognize this and begin to break these conditioned habits of the mind. As the days passed with much of it filled with walking and many blessful encounters the mind began to fill further with this emptiness, this reality of ever present space that we so often try to avoid or fill. A feeling sank in that there was no where else to be, nothing else to be doing. In this peace is found, in this the ability to surrender further to the universe grew stronger. As the universe presents itself to each of us in every form we encounter and experience we found it easier to simply allow the feet to flow freely with each of these expressions of the universe. Here are just some experiences that the universe presented:
* the village of 200 souls showed the strength of Spitian community as the whole village was helping in building a new home. Luckily we were able to assist in some building and cooking of some Spiti dishes.
*without even a second thought the nuns (chomo in spitian) allowed for us to spend the night in their classroom and enjoy their presence around food and the full moon. Singing 'dawa demo do' (moon is beautiful in spitian), teaching dances to one another and  jumping into a the car to join the young nuns for a picnic
*cave dwelling meditation
*take a moment.... take a deep breath, expanding your lungs and belly and release the breath with the universal 'OM' letting the sound and vibrations fill the space within and around until the 'MMM' drifts off with the final release of breath. Now this time do the same thing but add 'hOMe' to the release of breath. Can you feel how the same thing is felt as we are always at home no matter where we are or whom we are with as long as we are a part of this universe.
*cooking in the rolling hill mountain plateau with low laying bush hillsides on either side and snow covered peaks meeting the blue puffy cloud sky in front we enjoy the simplicity and allow it to soak into our being. From behind we hear a slight stampede and as quickly as it had started a herd of the local blue sheep are directly across from us just a small swamp bed away. We look at them. They look at us. We watch one another for a few moments as each slowly drifts their attention to the grazing to be had, making their way over the hillside and out of sight. Harmony seeps into the silence of the mountains, the soft breeze of the wind. This oneness is felt in living simply, not harming... just being with one another.
*ecosphere is a organization based in Spiti working with the local people to better transition into the changes that come with modernization and the growing tourism. Their impact is seen in the many villages that we had visited from the traditional village of Demul to the many naturally built greenhouses. Really great initiatives and passionate people!
*We slept freely under the night sky with only our sleeping bags, cooked our meals with sticks and cow dung, tasted and learned how to cook many new foods in families homes, we helped farmers in their fields, and we consumed more bitter than we ever thought we would.
We remained open to what is and received endless warmth and hospitality..

This is not to say that you have to walk for 10 days as there are many ways to slow the pace of our daily living. Simply to wake up each day and set the intention to be aware of how you will go about your day, recognizing the simplicity that can be found in each moment.
Become aware of your breath that brings life and movement to your being. Become aware of the steps you take.