A taxi ride to the ends of the earth... no seriously.

this insane journey began quite early - before the crack of dawn to be exact.
Julie came rollin in to 'ole Nimda* by 7 or so and we hit the road.
I think at one point of the trip we were quite unsure of what to do OUTSIDE of a taxi.

Over the course of 4 days, we spent about 21 - 24 hours in the car - OI!Which one would normally think no big deal but we only covered about 850 kms = 528 miles.
Pesky Himalayan roads... but What to do.

Anyhow, we went to our state's capital, went exploring ( I got to get my pic taken in front of the christ Church that is on the bollywood movie "black" so i was quite excited! Then we spent one night there then made it to Aplak* on the second day of our journey. We did the exploring we needed to do, spent one night there and came back to our state's capital. The only way to explain it is a whirlwind. I wish we had had more time. This is quite a fascinating place... in some villages polyandry is still in practice due to the fact that there are many more men than women in the area... so i have an encyclopedia of our state that i bought in Nimda* and i have been reading a lot about this place! Absolutely Fascinating... i won't bore you but if you would like to learn some random facts about this place then i would be happy to oblige you!! I promise i am not a nerd! ok so maybe a little...

We made some friends in each town...some seemed to enjoy our company so much they bordered on "stalker-like" but ya do what 'cha can. While in aplak* we spoke to people from the area and took random pictures, and stared in awe at the gargantuan snow covered mountains that surrounded the area. It was one of the most beautiful places i have ever been. I can only term that plce "Beautiful Seclusion". It is cut off from the rest of the world 6 months out of the year because of snow. I think we were at an altitude of 5,000 something meters.

Foreigners are only allowed access halfway into the district before you are required to have a permit. This is due to the fact that it borders Tibet. Jules and I thought we'd be cool and "get this permit and go to the border" HA! Yeah we quickly found that you must have a traveling group of 4 to pass the line and then if you were to go to the border... as our new Napali friend told us "the second you look over the fence, they will shoot your head off"
So then considering this new information we said "we choose life" and decided not to go to the Border.... As most would agree this was the wise decision...lol.

I will let you in on a little secret...
While in Aplak* which is called the "Indian fairyland" we saw the strangest looking creature... We called it a "Yorse" - a combo of horse and yak...
why not?? if you ever venture to singapore you may see the Mer-lion...
so why would a yorse be any stranger??
However i am sad to report that Beki informed me that according to Google there have been no known successful breeding attempts of yaks and horses... however there has been success in yaks and cows breeding.... i don't know if i'm ready to give up on my Yorse... because a Yaow or a Cak just sounds silly....

congrats if you made it all the way through the text part - but if you didn't here are some of the pics of our journey...