Day 5: Acclimatization in Ngawal

10.8.08

Random notes about Ngawal village:
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Rooftops dotted with prayer flags,
blowing wind carrying the prayers,
stone houses, solar panels,
children playing,
Annapurna II, III,
Gangapurna, Chulli,
mountains surround us,
bright, beautiful morning,
grandma talks to me,
perhaps because I look like her:
`where are you from?'
I say: India and America.
She proudly names all the beautiful peaks surrounding us.

She makes a gesture either indicating our hard trek or their hard life of carrying everything up here without cars - I presume it's the latter - Tashi Delek.

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We did an acclimatization hike from Ngawal. We visited the stuppas above the village. There is also a sort of a cave up there, marked with a lot of prayer flags, I presume a monk must've meditated here. I had a slight headache at first but was good after drinking water. We had a quick lunch of thenthuk at hotel Kailash, say bye to our host Maya and were off to Braga.

On our way down to Braga, we stopped at the Tibetan monastery school. There were about ~ 50 kids there, some from India (Assam) and some from Mustang. It was great to talk to them in Hindi, they were very polite - called me didi (big sister) and showed us around the school and the gompa. They study Tibetan, English and Nepali. They're playing something like marbles but with stones, I wish I could send them some things though I don't know where I'd send it.

We finally make it to Braga, the hike should've been short though it took us awhile, perhaps Alex and I were goofing off. We stopped by at a small place to have some `CHEESE'. There were two kids there, we taught them to play tic-tac-toe - both were quick learners and quite entertaining to watch them play their games.