along the indus #3

after waking up and having breakfast with some of the locals, we went to go see our new friends gem mine (unfortunately, it was friday, the only day where they don't use dynamite in the mines) and immediately began chiselling away at the walls. didn't find anything, sadly.
but it was super funny because the guy basically only spoke in catchphrases that he kept saying over and over. here's a couple of our favourites that were immediately adopted into our vocabularies:

"gemstone available"
"blast here, blast here"
"tourmaline here"

after that great start, it only got worse. i was struggling a lot, especially around noon, where i really had to keep myself from fainting or throwing up. i chugged some yeast solition, which brought me back to life so far as to at least make it to our target village for the day. some truck drivers helpes us get up a steep climbing section by letting us hold on to their trucks and we even played volleyball (which seems to be the national sport of gilgit-baltistan) with some locals. in the evening, we found a hotel (with internet access!!), but they tried to scam us and we went for a small homestay instead.

(by the way, even if i don't mention it in every entry about the bike tour, the views were great, of course)Read more