Day 5 ::  WEDNESDAY 19 Aug 2015   stayed put @ Lha Tse  

Today was to be a leisurely day. Woke up at 0545 did my kriyas in a leisurely manner and got ready for Guru Puja and breakfast.  Breakfast was Upma with chatni, toasted bread with jam/butter/honey, corn flakes. 

Unique traditional hand made bricks..clay, stones, husk....

Gender, age no bar...off to work!!!

Notice the run-off pipes possibly to drain melting snow from rooftops

Powdering barley

Engrossed in the so called "smart technology"... 

wooden furniture w.i.p...

Painstakingly hand painted furniture

Four lovely women !!!

innovative briquettes for firing / heating in stoves

Chinese noodle making ( like pasta making machines)

Ready to cook noodles!!

Different cutting dies for different shapes / sizes of noodles

Team effort... all smiles after a hard days work !!

Had a good breakfast, teamed up with Nagesh, Shailaja, Sakar Mattoo and Satish for a leisurely walk in Lha Tse town till 1300.

Enjoyed watching the daily routine of the locals: cleaning mustard, extracting mustard oil, powdering barley, traditional bricks made of clay, stone & husk , furniture making etc.  With just the bare necessities in the midst of the harshest environments, the sheer joy of life in their faces is remarkable. 

Many a lesson to be learnt from these humble folk!! The town of Lha Tse has a quaint air about it. Mostly plains, it is ideally suited for farming and rearing livestock. The houses have a standard typical traditional look, built either with their unique locally made clay bricks or with hollow concrete blocks also made locally. The locals do not mingle much with the foreigners, but are a cheerful and hardy lot.

Came back to rest at the hotel and had hot lemon juice, followed by a lunch of dal, roti, rice and cauliflower + potato + capsicum sabzi. Decided to rest and stretch my legs a bit and get ready for a repeat walk in the other part of town in the evening.

We were advised to go out in groups of min 4 or 5 so that even if one of us felt dizzy the others could fetch us back safely. We were also warned to be wary of the local dogs (look like cousins of the famous Tibetan mastiff) as they were supposed to be familiar with human blood. Were told that one of the customs is not to bury/cremate the body but offer it to the animals!! Not sure how true that is, but the dogs sure did appear tame and mild!!

Saw some local noodle manufacturing facility and did some shopping for local curios etc. came back and dined early, getting set for an early day start from Lha tse to Saga another long drive. Completed the medical check ups for BP and oxygen saturation levels. The excitement of possibly meeting Sadhguru enroute to Saga on the next day, was palpable. An early morning departure was indicated so as to avoid a few road-blocks on account of some construction activity. 

Cleaning mustard

Mustard oil extraction