About this blog

Melanie and I retired in 2010 and this was our "get as far away from work as possible" trip.  We had both traveled extensively before but with Melanie definitely the more adventurous one between us.  Ladakh was her choice and the trek we planned to do was my compromise.  The decision was made on 27 April so we had three months to plan.  We both greatly looked forward to the trip, particularly once serendipity introduced us to Khandro-la Thrinlay Chodon on 11 June.  She was planning a medical clinic in Ladakh from 24 July to 9 August that fit in perfectly with our schedule.  We would join her group in sponsoring and assisting with the eye clinic as well as seeing sights and events that she had access to.

This blog was more than seven years in the making, mainly because of all the other travel and work we have done but also due to my procrastination.  During our trip, I wrote copious notes along with my journal.  I also took 1,940 photos that needed sorting and fixing.  You will see that I am a pretty poor photographer.  I also supplemented my memory with the photos, the Facebook posts and e-mails from the time of the trip.  This is as accurate an account of our trip as possible but it is decidedly from my point of view.  It was put into blog format for three reasons, i.e., 1) to remind myself of the trip and details for when time and dementia start to take it away, 2) for my family and descendants to let them know a bit about my travels that have kept me so far from the US for most of my life, and 3) to entertain the random blog reader.

Michael & Melanie with Khandro-la

Justin's excellent video of the work that we helped support through Khandro-la.