And even though in recent years the JNF has made efforts to plant other types of trees as well, they still continue the practice of planting pines - whose needles cover the forest floor, suffocating the other plant life that grows beneath.

So think again when you are looking for a Bar-Mitzvah present. I recommend the New Israel Fund.

And that brings me to my current country of residence - Israel. The last few weeks have been overrun by the President’s sexual misconduct and maybe even rape of his former personal assistants. I am not saying it isn’t something to be ashamed of, and the President (who has no real policy related resposibilities) should be released from his duties, but those crimes can not be compared with the travesty of the war that afflicted this region over the last summer. A second political scandal involving the former Minister of Justice (how appropriate) and how he slipped the tongue when kissing a flirtateous young girl who asked to take a picture with him. She is not to blame - he probably did something wrong and overstepped boundaries. But I just don’t care. This country is overridden with so many problems - a never ending war, kidnapped soldiers, an oppressed Palestinian population, major water pollution (that’s my job), vast poverty, conjestion, air pollution, failing municipal governments, and the list goes on. Yet our judicial resources are being devoted to a french kiss. It only took six months before the case of the kiss was heard and decided on in court. I am involved in a court case at work regarding the illegal construction of sewage lines adjacent to drinking water wells. Our court date was set to over a year after the complaint was made.
These kisses take up time in our courts, take up pages and pages of our stupid newspapers, and aremaking us stupid and complacent. Instead of focusing on the real issues, instead of gathering in public squares, protesting the lack of vision, the lack of solution-seeking on behalf of our political “non-leaders”, we are busy following the soap opera of who kissed who. Keep your penis in your pants and focus on running the country.

When will we ever wake up?

אני שמח מאוד להודיע על פתיחת גרסת ההרצה של אתר צמחיית ישראל ברשת לציבור הגולשים.
האתר מרכז בתוכו מאגר מידע עדכני של צמחי ישראל, הכולל את רשימת הצמחים, תמונות, ומבחר תכונות של כל מין. נכון לרגע זה האתר כולל מידע על 2856 מינים שונים (רובם מישראל ומיעוטם מירדן או סיני), מתוכם מעל ל-2000 עם תמונות. בנוסף, ניתן להוריד מהאתר מצגות ומאמרים (28 מהם כרגע).
הפרויקט מנוהל על ידי פרופ’ אבינעם דנין האחראי על הצד המדעי, ואנוכי, שאחראי לצד הטכני.
אנו עובדים על אתר זה תקופה ארוכה מאוד, וכמות המידע, הנושאים והשיפורים שברצוננו להוסיף לאתר עוד ארוכה… החלטנו בסופו של דבר לפתוח את האתר כבר עכשיו מכיוון שבעיננו הוא בוגר מספיק בכדי שישמש כלי טוב ומעניין לציבור אוהבי הטבע, וכן בכדי לנסות ולשתף את קהל הגולשים בהמשך בנייתו - לדוגמא, ציבור הגולשים והמטיילים מוזמן לתרום מתמונותיו לאתר: בכדי לעשות זאת יש להרשם לאתר ולאחר מכן להעלות תמונות דרך דף הצמח המתאים (כל תמונה עוברת בדיקה לפני הצגתה). אנו מחפשים עוד מתנדבים המעוניינים לעזור בהזנת מידע חדש ופיתוח תכנים שונים באתר.
נשמח מאוד לשמוע ממכם מה אהבתם באתר ומה הייתם רוצים לראות בו בעתיד. בהמשך הקיץ נמשיך בפיתוח האתר, ונשמח לצרף לשורותינו עוד חברים המעוניינים לעזור לצמיחת האתר.

מקוה שתהנו מהאתר ( http://flora.huji.ac.il ),
אודי.

מצחיק איך פועלת האבולוציה. בהתחלה הלכנו על ארבע, עם הזמן התפתחנו,התיישרנו, שחררנו את הידיים והפכנו להולכים על שתיים. כל זה רק בכדי להמציא דרך ללכת על ארבע שוב. היינו מוקסמים מהיעילות של ההליכה על ארבע.

דניאל והילי היקרים מטיילים בניו זילנד. מילותיהם מחממות את לבבותינו המתגעגעים.

Originally uploaded by Udi Oron.

Happy hanuca!

We are alive and kicking in Israel, for those who missed it.

Here is a classic picture. Let’s see who knows where is it from.

Chau,
Udi+Sarit

לאלה שהתעניינו מה מעשי בהמשך הדרך: אני חזרתי להימלאיה, ברכבת קטנה ומדהימה המתפתלת גבוה מעל לצוקים ודרך מעל למאה מנהרות והרבה הרבה גשרים, שבסופו של דבר מגיעה לבירת הימצ’ל, שימלה.
שימלה ידועה יותר כמשכן הקיץ של השלטון הבריטי בהודו. מדי שנה הממשלה וכל משרדיה היו מהגרים מהחום המזעזע של דלהי לכאן, ועד היום ההשפעה הבריטית ניכרת כאן בכל פינה.
שימלה היא מקום די משעמם לתרמילאי המצוי, ומאכלסים אותה בעיקר הודים שבורחים מהחום להרים, ומבלים את זמנים, כמוני ביומיים האחרונים, בשוטטות במדרחוב מצוחצח ונקי שאמור להשקיף על נוף קסום של הרים. ההרים עצמם לא ממהרים להופיע, מכיוון שענני המונסון כבשו בשבוע האחרון את רוב הודו, בנתיים בלי הרבה גשם אבל עם ערפל שמרשה רק לפעמים להציץ לנוף חמקמק ירוק ויפה. מלבדם מסתובבים ברחובות הסגורים לכלי רכב גם הרבה פקידים, עורכי דין ואנשים בחליפות, וכל יום בשעה 10:00 נשמעת צפירה ארוכה המודיעה לביקורקטים על תחילת יום העבודה…
מכאן אני ממשיך רק למבואות של עמק קינאור, ובתקווה גם לספיטי. העמקים האלו מתחברים בדרך הראשית ההודו-טביטית, אבל בשבוע האחרון דרך זו נסחפה בשיטפון מוזר, ולכן עלי לשנות את תוכניותיי, ועל כך תשמעו שאחזור מהעמקים עוד כשבועיים…

The minute we left our plane in Indira Gandhi Airport we understood what we didn’t miss anything outside North India: The heat wave, together with unexpected pre-monsoon moist was really unbearable.
On the other hand, the shopping was much better…. The Main Bazaar street, one of the prototype of hangout places for backpackers is packed with really cheap (and sometimes even good quality) shops and ‘emporiums’ selling many many different kinds of Indian merchandise, mostly clothing, pillow cases, bed covers, incense, musical instruments, bags but also very good looking antique furniture.
We didn’t do alot except for shopping, and arranging our bags for Sarit’s departure. We tried to visit the Bahai Lotus Temple, taking an autoriksha there just to discover it was ‘closed on Monday’ like most of Delhi sites…
Some rain signaled the arrival of the monsoon to this area, making the ugly main bazaar also very muddy… I took a sight-seeing tour, just to discover that sight-seeing is not so exciting, and the very nice New Delhi picnic area around the India Gate, every sunset.
To summarize, for us Delhi was mainly the end of our trip together and also a good shopping place… Sarit got on the plane, leaving for her new job that starts on Sunday, and leaving me behind, for a couple of weeks, to get another small glimpse of the Himalaya before I come back home.
Hey! You still have a chance to leave a comment and greet Sarit before she starts her new job!

The flight from Leh to Delhi took us over the endless Himalaya mountain range and I said my goodbyes (for now) to the mountains that have accompanied our travels for over three months.

Our last few days in Ladakh were spent in the Nubra Valley - the northern-most point in India foreign tourists are allowed to go. Since the buses were fully booked, we again had to hitch a ride - this time in style, as part of an Indian army supply convoy (we were in the commander’s truck). With turbo-power, we drove on the highest motorable road in the world as we crossed over a pass at an altitude of 5,603m! The highest we have ever been! Apparently the Indian army likes to take many “tea breaks”, and so we switched vehicles and hitched a ride with a hydrologist who was on his way to drill new wells at the base of a glacier. We then transferred to the truck carrying the drill and finally arrived at our destination of Panamik. This small village lies along a wide river bed (mostly dry with meandering streams of water). From the hills above flow hot springs which are collected in mikva-like hot tubs where we enjoyed a bath at night.
After a nice, relaxing day and a half there, we took a bus to the village of Hunder which lies next to large sand dunes and where we went for a ride on two-humped camels.

Since our time in Ladakh was limited, we set out on a two day trek between villages in the Indus River Valley. Our first stop was the village of Likkir where we stayed at the Norbu guesthouse. We enjoyed sipping tea and looking at the views. The owner is also a painter and the whole house is decorated with intricate paintings. We also met Erez, Alona, Keren and Lilach, another Israeli family travelling with two children (ages 6 and 2.5) in India for a whole year. Kol HaKavod! We visited the monastery in Likkir which houses a 28 foot high statue of Buddha.
The next day we hiked through desert terrain, very reminiscent of the Negev, to the next village of Yangtang. All of the villages are set in river valleys and are oases of green fields in the middle of the desert. They water their fields with the snow-melt, and their growing season lasts only 4 months out of the year.
The last day we set out down-river to visit the Rizong Monastery where we were graciously invited to “Tibetan Tea” in the humble quarters of one of the monks. We didn’t know it was Tibetan tea, and when we took our first sip we were a bit shocked: Tibetan tea is essentialy melted butter, salt and hot water. Mmmmmmmmm. He also offered us flour to add to our tea, we politely replied “no thanks”.
We then head out to the road to catch a bus back to Leh. However no buses passed, so instead we hitched a ride on a truck that drove at a maximum speed of 20 km/hr. That at least gave us the opportunity to take a few more snowy-desert landscape pictures!

After the long drive, we arrived in the main city of Ladakh - Leh. Being in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, Ladakh is a high altitude desert, and Leh lies at an altitude of 3,500 meters. The Ladakhi population consists mostly of Tibetan Buddhists, although there is also a minority Muslim community. The temperature changes drastically between the shade and in the sun. One morning the sun was shining and we stepped outside. Immediately we were hot and so removed our sweatshirts, took out the bottle of sunscreen and put in on. Not a minute later a cloud drifted to cover the sun, the temperature dropped by ten degrees and we put our sweatshirts back on over our sunscreen covered bodies (and two minutes later took them off again).
Leh is a very attractive town with many tradition Ladakhi-style houses, each surrounded by their own fields for growing wheat and vegetables. The fields provide a green oasis on a brown and white desert backdrop. Our time in Leh was spent visiting stuppas and monastaries that are perched on the top of small hills and provide great panoramic views of the area.
We also caught the annual “Hemis Festival” which celebrates the birthday of the man who introduced Buddhism to Tibet. The festival is held in a monastary in the village of Hemis during which monks dress in costume and adorn masks to dance and act out stories and legends. The festival could have been very nice if it weren’t for the hundreds of middle-aged Western tourists each carrying their own professional-sized camera with telefoto lens bombarding any innocent local who happened to be wearing traditional clothing. These tourists formed mobs of photographers and ruined the experience for us a bit. But we still managed to appreciate the festival and were able to snap a few shots from afar (without shoving our camera lens in the faces of the Ladakhi’s).
(Udi:) Another very interesting thing we did in Leh was to visit the local ‘Women’s Alliance and seeing a movie called “Ancient Futures” based on a book with the same name. The author came to Ladakh once it was opened to tourists in 1974 and almost every year since then. She witnessed in her own eyes the change that modern culture did to the traditional oasis of Ladakh, and the book talks about this change and about our own lives in the modern world, which were already changed many years ago. Highly recommended!

At 3 am on June 14th, we waited in the dark for our jeep from Manali to Leh. The drive was to take 20 hours, with only short stops for food. Once the jeep finally arrived, we headed up the ascent to the first pass (Rohtang La) where two trucks got stuck in between walls of snow. That allowed an hour to pass and the sun to rise and we got to see the beautiful peaks surrounding us. The next 20 hours were filled with the most amazing landscapes I (Sarit) have ever seen, along the most gorgeous drive. We were breathless. The pictures were taken hastily out of the window of a moving car, and DO NOT do justice to the utter beauty of the place.
I strongly recommend this drive to everyone - even if you don’t have time to spend in Ladakh - just going on the drive is worth it.

It has been a while since we updated - so here go a string of updates of the places we have been in the last few weeks. After Dharamsala, we headed to Manali, the main town of the Kullu Valley. The Kullu Valley is a very green, beautiful place, with waterfalls and the usual backdrop of snow-capped mountains. We actually stayed in the smaller village of Vashisht nearby, but spent time walking around Old and New Manali. Our stay there was brief since we were anxious to reach the region of Ladakh (in the state of Jammu-Kashmir).
If we haven’t mentioned it before, India is overrun by Israelis. The picture above is just one example of the “Israeli occupation”, where we gave into the temptation and ate one of our favorites: Sabeech.

Click here for more photos!

We’ve just returned from our third trek - From Dharmsala to the Chamba Valley. The trek took only 5 days this time and was different from our other treks in that we needed camping and climbing equipment - no guesthouses this time. So we had to hire a trekking company to take us, which turned out to be even more luxurious than the other treks. We were assigned an experienced guide, Manu, and no less than 4 porters to carry our stuff. Each morning we were awoken with tea in bed (yummy chai masala), which was followed by a hearty breakfast, snacks, lunch, more tea, soup, dinner, more tea, desert and finally hot chocolate! Yummy!!
The first two days were relatively simple. We left Dharmsala in the morning and climbed 900 meters to a ridge called Triund that overlooks all of Dharmsala and the Kangra Valley and also hosts an uninterrupted view of the Dhaula Dhar Range. We arrived early in the afternoon and spent time looking at flowers, bird-watching (amazing vultures and the Himalayan Griffin), and laughing at the millions of goats grazing around our tent. The sheep and goats made the same climb as us from the Kangra Valley, and belong to Gaddi shepherds that lead them North every year in this season over the snowy passes of the mountains to greener pastures that are emerging from under the melting snow. The second day was pleasant, as we passed grazing pastures and tons of purple Irises and arrived at the snow line. We crossed the snow and climbed some boulders to reach our stopping point for the second night - Lahesh cave. The small and modest cave provided shelter from the hail storm that started blowing outside, and our guide and porters served us a nice hot meal. We craned our necks to see the pass that we were to climb to the next day that lay vertically above us, and were a bit apprehensive…
On the third day we were awoken with nice masala tea and the “baaa baaa” of dozens of sheep and goats heading up to pass. We got an early start and set off onto the snow. For our first time we used cramp-ons - metal spikes that you attach to the bottom of your shoes - which helped us traverse the steep (70 degree) slope. While the spikes kept us safely attached to the mountain, it took our minds time to get used to the fact that we were basically on a cliff. The ascent was slow and hard and when we finally reached the top, a snow storm began to stir, blocking our panoramic view.(If this sounds familiar, yes, it also happened on the pass of the Annapurna trek). We descended through beautiful snow fields on rolling hills and over an ice bridge that is formed above a running stream. After continuing down we reached large grazing meadows where we set up camp once the skies finally cleared up.
The last two days were pretty easy again, this time with views of two different mountain ranges, the Dhaula Dhar and Pir Pinjal. We hiked through coniferous forests of Cedar, Fir and Pine and over a few fresh landslides to the beautiful and remote village of Kuarsi. The two-storey, wooden, family-style houses of Kuarsi have slated roofs, that house a total of about 450 people. We stayed at the temple that is devoted to the snake god, and which also acts as a community center for the village. Not only do they celebrate things there, but also there is a drinking water source in the temple, and the women come to fill large golden jugs. That day they celebrated the purchase of two new drums for the village by making Halva for all the men in the village. It rained for much of the day, but when it stopped (marked by an amazing triple rainbow), we took a walk and visited some houses as well as the school where we played games and sang songs with the kids.
On the last day, we walked on a trail that had been blasted out of the steep canyon side to the road in the Chamba Valley. We said goodbye to our porters and guide as we headed to Bharmour - the ancient regional capital, where we rested for a day before returning to Dharamsala.
So - we really enjoyed the trek, much due to the great treatment we received from our superb team from ‘Summit Adventures’. We highly recommend the trek to anyone travelling in the region.

Let’s get things organized…
Mcleod Ganj is only one village of what is more widely known as Upper Dharamsala. This area became the home for the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and for many Tibetan refugees, who came here in 1959, following His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama who escaped the hostile Chinese occupation of Tibet. Many travellers and volunteers came around later, creating a crazy backpackers hangout here.
After a lot of activities, we are leaving for a trek to the Chamba valley, over another Himalaya ridge. This trek is less luxurious : we will actually sleep in tents and sleeping bags, but on the other hand it is compeletly organized by a local trekking office, including a guide and 3 porters…

See you soon!

P.S. - We are now officialy addicted to Sudoku, are you too?

Ashtanga Yoga, Indian cooking (Udi), Buddhist Philosophy, some more Israeli influenced Yoga, Jewelery making (Sarit), good North Indian food, many many many Israelis, amazing snow-capped peaks, beautiful cedars, more Indian food, nice and clean hotel…
… so why should we go anywhere?

Our next stop was much lower in altitude and much higher in celsius degrees: Rishikesh, the holy town by the Ganges riverside, was visited by The Beatles in the sixties, and by us alongside many many Israelis now. Starting from this stop we have changed alot the way we travel: apart from much more westeren food, we also started taking Yoga classes, and apparently we joined the huge Israeli “wave” migrating from the south to the much cooler north.
Rishkesh is full of Ashrams, gigantic Hindu temples, reminding malls in appearance and content, and many pilgrims. We spent a few days wondering around, trying to settle for this more relaxed part of our trip, until we understood that the heat is stronger than us, and we ran for our lives back to the Himalayas…

After hiking an average of 20 km each day, we needed a rest! So we headed to the village of Kausani, with spectacular views of the same Himalayan mountains we had just trekked through.
As written in the Lonely Planet (we refer to it as “the Bible”):

Built upon a ridge, with breathtaking views on either side, Kausani is a peaceful place where lots of mountain gazing, tea drinking and scenic walks are the order of the day

We spent a few days, waking up for the gorgeous sunrise over the mountains (and then going back to sleep), relaxing, taking walks through the village, watching movies on TV (yes, TV) and visiting their tea gardens and factory. One evening we enjoyed the “live astronomy show” where we viewed Jupiter, Saturn and the moon through a telescope. We would have stayed longer than the three days there, but were running out of cash…

So we left the quaint Kausani for the much hotter Rishikesh on the Ganges River (back to the Ganges!). Stay tuned for more to come, and keep your comments coming!

Last week, we did an amazing 7-day trek to the Pindari and Kafni Glaciers. The trek began in the small village of Loharket. We arrived in there mid-day and spent the day and night there, where we were lucky to observe a traditional wedding - a musical parade leading the groom to the bride’s house, where there was dancing and celebration. We stayed at a family-run (big ‘hamula’ actually) guesthouse, and observed how they processed and sorted their freshly picked wheat.
The next morning we began a 1,000 meter ascent to Dakuri, and from there descended into the Pindari River Valley. From the pass in Dakuri, there is a great view of the Himalayan peaks of the area - Nanda Devi, Nanda Khat, Trisuli and others. We hiked through rhodedendron forests (trees with big red, pink or purple flowers), passed terraces and over streams until the village of Khati, where we stopped for the night.
The next day we continued upstream along the Pindari River, passing herds of sheep, and enjoying our first clear views of the snowy peaks. (Udi took pictures of the many different wildflowers along the way, and will probably create “Flowers of the Himalayas” photo album sometime). A bit past noon, we arrived at the guesthouse in Dwali for lunch, where we met the very interesting Dr. Orus Ilyes, who is researching musk deer of the Himalaya for her post-doc. We talked for hours and learned a lot from her about wild animals as well as about life in India. (Orus! Thank you very much for your help - we really enjoyed chatting with you, good luck with your important research!)
Pushkar, our trusty guide, is a comical, friendly 55 year-old man. The following day, he led Udi to the view point of the Pindari Glacier (I didn’t make it the whole way). The trail to the Pindari glacier is covered by many snowy patches, often on very steep slopes. The views were fantastic and we even saw five different colors of rhodedendron flowers. Udi made it to the glacier and visited the Baba - holy man - who lives there year round.
The next day we set out for the second glacier, Kafni. The trail and Kafni glacier are beautiful. Puskhar pointed out many wild deer and goat. On the way back we sledded down the snowy slopes - much more efficient and enjoyable than climbing up!

After our visits to the glaciers, we were ready to head back. We slept the next night in Dakuri, and woke up early to see the panoramic view of the Himalayas. It was truly amazing.
As first-time trekkers in India - we learned a few lessons from the trip. First of all, in Nepal we were very spoiled with “five-star” guesthouses and good food along the way. Here in India - the guesthouses and food are very basic, although sufficient. Secondly, one must be careful when hiring a porter in India! We hired a porter the first day who drank a bit much and was VERY slow, and tried to extend our trek by a few days to make some extra cash. By day 2 we fired him, and Udi had to lug our bag instead. But we were lucky to have found Pushkar as our guide, and it all turned out for the best.
For anyone travelling in northern India, this trek is highly recommended!