October 11, 2011

Greetings and happy fall! I am ashamed to report that I have been back from India for nearly three weeks. Being a new professor is definitely a full time job. It is currently perfect weather in Cincinnati. Sunny and golden days followed by cool nights. I spent last week in Toronto. I felt very proud of myself for driving up by myself. I had the foresight to borrow an Agatha Christie book on CD and as a result, the trip went very smoothly. Matt and I enjoyed a very nice first anniversary. We explored this year’s Nuit Blanche from dusk to dawn art festival that featured, among other things, a group of women rolling a large rock down the road, gigantic flames exploding to the beat of some electronic music, a recreated tennis match, a number of robots, and an eerie courtyard filled with smoke, ominous helicopter sounds, and spotlights that picked people out of the crowd. It was lots of fun.

The rest of the week went very quickly. We ate at all of the restaurants I miss, visited with friends, and took some walks around the city. Then it was time to return to Cincinnati… with Lou. Both Matt and I have been dreading this trip but it actually went smoothly. Once we escaped from the traffic horror that surrounds Toronto, we sailed westward. Lou was a relatively good traveler. He seemed extremely frustrated to be locked in a little tiny cage for hours and destroyed anything I gave him with an unparalleled rage. I can’t blame him. It must have been a very frustrating day for him. Luckily, the trip was timed so that he fell asleep and much to our relief, we did not have trouble importing him into the US.

Back in Cincinnati things are good. Matt and I are working like dogs on our science and working on the house and yard in our free time. We only have a few days here together and the weather is not impeding our efforts. This period of being home homebodies will be brief. Tomorrow morning I’m off to Minnesota for the annual Geology Department Field Trip. I will be camping, taking in some geology, hunting for fossils, and hopefully getting to know more people in the department. Matt’s watching Lou while I’m away. Then I’m back, Matt’s off, and the fall will, I’m sure, rocket onwards. Never a dull moment.

But wait, this email was supposed to be about India. On September first, the day I officially started my job, I flew to Dehli along with 23 other scientists and students. I then proceeded to have two and a half weeks of adventure driving north across the Himalayas. Due to time constraints, I cannot go into the detail that I would like to, but I can hopefully provide a sense of what our trip was like.

To begin, India exists on a time zone that is half an hour different from everywhere else I have ever been. This is completely confusing to me and I can never quite figure out what the time difference is between Dehli and Cincinnati. I believe that it is 9.5 hours, but maybe I’m wrong. Somehow that half hour really throws me off. My overall impressions were that people are very nice, the food is great, and the roads are terrible. The weather was much better than I had feared (I really had no idea what to expect knowing I was going to be camping at 15,000 feet) and I did not suffer from any food or water born illnesses.

India is VAST. I as continually struck with the country’s tremendous beauty and awe-inspiring splendor. We started in Dehli, which is on the very flat Indo-Gangetic plane. We then drove north across the Subhimalaya (Siwaliks), the lesser Himalaya, the High Himalaya, and on into the Tethyan Himalaya, which preserve sedimentary rocks that formed under the Tethys sea back in the Mesozoic. We just kept getting higher and higher. Everything is on such a grand scale that I was easily fooled into believing that I was 5-6,000 feet lower than actuality. Even the birds get huge (e.g., the Himalayan griffon). I had feared that the altitude would affect me but I really didn’t feel anything unless we were out on top of a mountain pass. Then I tended to feel just a smidge dizzy. At least that was true until we took a hike up to a glacier. We hiked about 8 miles, mostly straight up a mountain. This hike probably would have hurt even at sea level. I’m honestly amazed I lived through it. We started at about 15,000 feet and gained about 2500 feet. I was like a fish out of water.

Aside from this rather epic event the trip was rather undemanding physically. We spent most of our time careening along cliffs in four wheel drive vehicles, attempting to avoid countless rockslides and goat herds. I am very grateful to our patient and very capable drivers who were unaffected by the narrow roads sloughing off into oblivion or the large, colorful cargo trucks that barreled straight towards us without any apparent inclination to slow down. Being a passenger for days on end gave me a lot of time to observe our surroundings. At some point early on I noticed that there were frequently posted amusing road signs with clever messages about driving safety. I began to eagerly watch for these and to write down some of the catchiest phrases. My favorites include “after whiskey, driving risky”, “if you sleep, your family will weep”, and “don’t gossip, let him drive”.

I spent most of my time as a passenger thinking about what sort(s) of projects I might be able to conduct in India. After much deliberation, I decided I might be able to gather some pilot data about seasonal migrations in nomadic herds by collecting hair from sheep, goats or donkeys. I was saddened that I hadn’t come up with this idea earlier in the trip, because there had been ample opportunities to sample all sorts of goats. Nevertheless, I was able to get a few samples from various critters. I had to convince our driver to help me ask permission from the goat herders. I can only imagine what he said: “excuse me but this crazy lady would really like to sample some of your goat’s hair. She’s an ecologist”. Most people gave me a very strange look but in the end agreed to let me sample some hair. I now have a nice little collection of goats, sheep, cows and donkeys. As soon as I have my lab set up, I’ll process these to see if I can track any seasonal signals. I hope I can.

In addition to learning about the geology of the Himalayas, I learned a lot of glacial geology and geomorphology. We saw many text book examples of glacially carved landscapes, active glaciers, and erosional features. I took many photos but they wound up looking kind of like “here are some more rocks” so I am refraining from sharing the vast majority of these. I brought nature guides about native plants and animals of the Himalayas. These proved to be very useful and I spent a lot of time looking up various plants and a few interesting animals. Goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, and huge donkey sized dogs made up the vast majority of what we saw, but there were a few yaks, large marmots, various wild sheep with big curly horns, and a multitude of birds.

For those of you who like to know such things, here is a very conscise version travel itinerary:

Dehli north to Manari, Manari to Jispa, Jispa to Patseo (which isn’t really anything other than a valley with a military base), Patseo to Sarchu, Sarchu to Puga, Puga to Korok, Korzok to Leh, and Leh to Dehli. With the exception of Dehli, Manali and Leh, Most of the places are little more than a village or a couple of tented huts or Dhabas. It is amazing to me how these tiny communities survive. I believe that there is some seasonal tourism. The rest must be based on domestic animal products such as wool.

Although I will hold on to many memories from this trip, some are more notable than others. We spent two nights camping in a valley called Puga. While there, we donated water filters to two residential schools. The children were incredibly cute and it was pretty neat to see how much the schools do with very little resources. While in Puga we also wandered out to a geyser in the middle of the valley. It’s pretty surreal to be able to walk right up to a geyser that is situated out in the middle of a lush, tussocky valley, surrounded by a few prayer flags and horses. The only sounds were the spouting geyser and the horses’ bells. I didn’t go in the water. It was a pleasant temperature, but didn’t seem very clean or otherwise inviting.

We then spent three nights camping at the edge of a town called Korzok, which is just on the shores of lake Moriri (labeled Tso Moriri on maps). During our stay, we had a chance to visit an old Buddhist gompa (a fortified monastery and school), which sits on the hill overlooking the town and boasts incredible views at sunset. We met a monk who invited us to join him on a walk over to a nearby nomadic village. We of course agreed. Our walk not only got to see a bit more of the land, but I also had an opportunity to sample some donkey hair for my pilot project. The monk and I must have made quite a curious sight – tracking down approachable donkeys and snipping off bits of their manes with safety scissors. In case anybody is worried about the donkeys, never fear. Most of them liked being touched and they started to follow us.

After we returned from the village (which actually was a bit overwhelming. A visiting llama was teaching a huge group of people in a tent), I visited the lakeshore with a few friends. They decided to go for a swim. I decided that getting my feet wet was enough. That lake is COLD. Instead, I skipped stones. The lakeshore is composed of perfectly sized pieces of slate and I was able to get those little pebbles to literally skim across the water surface. This was great fun and very rewarding.

After eight straight nights of camping, we returned to civilization. While I had enjoyed sleeping outdoors, I was more than ready for a good hot shower. Plus, we had experienced a flood through our camp the last night and everybody was ready to dry out. We stayed at a very nice guesthouse in Leh, which offered clean, dry beds, hot water, and an ideal location for accessing everything we could want as tourists. Leh is a surprisingly lovely little city. Although it’s crowded, it still feels pleasant. There are willows growing everywhere, the air is clean, and it isn’t too dirty. I enjoyed wandering around the streets, trying to avoid the vendors who heckle incessantly.

We spent our last day in the Himalayas driving up the Kardongla, which is reportedly the highest drivable road in the world. The weather was pretty harsh and we had to contend with snow and a bitter wind as we stepped out onto the 18,000-foot pass. But it was such a fitting ending to our Himalaya trip. Squinting, I could look north and see the Karakoram mountains which towered over us even at 18,000 feet. It is mind boggling that after two weeks of working our way north, we still didn’t manage to traverse the entire Himalaya.

We flew from Leh back to Dehli on a plane that boasted some of the best views I have ever seen. Snow capped mountains pierced a sea of clouds, literally scraping the sky. Sadly, we were told we could not bring batteries for our cameras, so I have no photos to share. Then we had a day in Dehli to decompress and do a bit of sight seeing. I was pleased to find it both cleaner and greener than I had expected. My overall impression of Dehli is that it is hot, the air is thick, and there are zero rules on the road (including which direction one should be driving). We had just enough time to see the Red Fort, a 17th century monstrosity that was built after the 6th destruction of Dehli, and the (Swaminarayan) Akshardham Mandir, which looks like a 17th century monstrosity but is actually brand new. My favorite part of the Red Fort was its marble palace with ornately carved and inset floral designs, and its manmade river to keep people cool. The signs did not explain how the river was kept flowing. My colleagues and I guessed that this responsibility might have fallen on an unlucky human or two. My favorite part of the Akshardham Madir was leaving. That sounds a bit harsh but that place was crazy. To begin, one must wait in an interminable line and then undergo a thorough body search. Anything that you might have with you (including paper) is either confiscated or you are turned away. It would be fine if they tell you this ahead of time, but you only find out about the list of prohibited items after waiting for at least half an hour in line. There is supposedly a “cloak room” that can be used but the first thing that their form says is that if an item is lost, the visitor must pay a fine. Wow, what a bad deal for the visitor! The interior was impressively beautiful, and somebody clearly snuck in a camera because it is possible to find images on Google. But it was killer hot and crowded and the only place for food and water was a cafeteria that required multiple lines (or rather areas to shove your way to a window) first to buy tickets for food and water, then to obtain food and water. It was an experience. I guess I’m glad I saw it (in particular the carved elephants were nice) but I don’t know if I can say I felt the “bliss” or the “divine bhakti, purity and peace, which forever pervade”. So it goes.

After our full last day, we had enough time to take a shower, lie down, eat a hearty meal, and then head back to the US on our 12:30 am flight. All in all, this was an incredibly fulfilling and eye opening trip. I enjoyed myself immensely and I plan to return. Now it all seems like a vague distant memory. Writing down my experiences has helped remind me that this did, indeed, happen, and it didn’t happen that long ago. I hope that fall is as lovely for you as it is here in Cincinnati. And now I’m off to Minnesota. More updates soon…