Blogs from Leh, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India, Asia
October 31st 2011
On reprend notre souffle tranquillement. La 2e journee nous avons montee lentement les escaliers vers la Shanti Stupa (temple japonais construit il y a 20 ans par les japonais pour promouvoir la paix dans le monde) qui se trouve derriere notre guesthouse. Hier on a "ose" monter la crete du palais, une petite montee sur laquelle se trouve le palais de Leh (commence en 1583, 9 etage, ce qui lui conferait le titre de plus haut au monde a l'epoque!) et un peu plus haut le fort de Leh. Aujourd'hui nous avons pris un taxi pour nous rendre a Stock, la residence royale actuelle. Le palais est joli, dans un petit village, entoure de stupas. Malheureusement le musee du palais, la seule choses visitable, etait ferme (nous sommes en dehors de la saison touristique et beaucoup ... read more
October 30th 2011
The Himalaya Insight approach to Ladakh from Kashmir Valley via Kargil is approx. 434 Km, which remains open for traffic from early June to November. The most dramatic part of this road journey is the ascent up the 11,500 feet 3,505 m high Zoji-La, the pass in the Great Himalayan Wall that serves as the gateway to Ladakh. The J & K State Road Transport Corporation (J&K SRTC) operates regular Deluxe and Ordinary bus services between Srinagar and Leh on this route with an overnight halt at Kargil. Taxis (cars and jeeps) are also available at Srinagar for the journey. Groups can charter Deluxe and A-class buses for Leh, Kargil or Padum (Zangskar) from the J & K SRTC at Srinagar. Manali to Leh - Since 1989, the 473 km. Manali-Leh road has been serving as ... read more
October 29th 2011
La nuit de Diwali Le 26 octobre les indiens fetent la Diwali. Mais nous avons choisi de voyager, encore en bus de nuit, de Manali a Delhi pour rejindre Leh par avion de Delhi. La derniere journee a Manali nous avons encore visite un temple dedie a Rama et un autre ou il y avait une source termale arrangee dans 2 piscine pour femmes et hommes qui se baignainet dans ces eaux sacrees (nous autres aussi). Le soir nous avons quitte la ville en fete - meme les bus etaient decores de fleurs, partout ou on passait il y avait de bazars pleins de fleurs et les gens dessinaient de leur doigts mouilles en couleurs sur le ciment devant leurs maisons ou magazins. C'etait tres festive. Le bus nous a laisse sur le bord de l'autoroute, ... read more
October 15th 2011
Day 6 & 7 – 31.07.2010 & 01.08.2010: These two days were spent in sleeping, eating and wandering around the lanes. Leh, the district headquarter of Ladakh, is situated at the foot of Namgyal Hills in the valley north of the Indus River. At that time of the year the temperature was somewhere around 20 to 25 degree Celsius. But it was told that it ranges from minus 40 in winters to plus 35 in summers. The road from the airport runs straight to the end of the main bazaar. Leh is not difficult to navigate around, with narrow intersecting lanes and one main street leading to the old, dilapidated palace of the king. Fort Road is where most restaurants and guest houses are. As we got the accommodation at Kangri for two days only, we ... read more
September 26th 2011
So the minibus was booked and the decision taken to hit the famous manali-leh road on the morning of the 8th sept. Who was to know what an amazing road trip that woul dbe for myself and friends who were booked to take the 2 day road trip through the himalayas! After various travel stories, mostly scary ones from others we braved the road trip ourselves, only to find it was the most inspiring road trip i have ever taken, not to mention the breaktaking views one after the other of almighty peaks and valleys. Ofcourse the sky was the brightest blue with only a few puffs of cloud to add to the painting effect. The scenery out of this world, the locals people we saw en route were just lovely, amazingly interesting looking faces and ... read more
August 1st 2011
The Leh-Manali road is the only overland route in to Leh from the south and is only open during the summer months thanks to the nasty Himalayan winter. Most sane people do the 20 hour trip over 2 days with a nice stopover in a village along the way. We decided to buy our bus tickets the day before we wanted to leave and found the bus companies were sold out so we had to book into an 11 passenger mini-bus that left at 12:30am that night and did the whole stretch in one go. We prepared for the trip as best we could with crackers, cookies and plenty of music and met the bus at midnight. There was plenty of leg room and we had the premium spot right behind the driver with a full ... read more
July 30th 2011
We arrived in Leh after a comfortable one hour flight from Delhi. Leh is in the Kashmir region in the far north of India and we had heard that it was a place you can't miss this time of year. Well, it certainly didn't disappoint. The city lies at an elevation of 3700m in the Ladakh Range of the Himalaya Mountains and the high elevation desert scenery is absolutely beautiful. It's a popular spot in July and August as the weather can be tricky the rest of the year. Many people come to Leh for trekking but as we are not really set up for this type of travel this time, we decided that we would mostly take it easy while we were here. It's a good thing we didn't have any big plans because we ... read more
July 30th 2011
The trip to Ladakh was a rather sudden one. I was between switching jobs and got about a month or so to travel. Grabbed the opportunity and realized that I couldn't go to the many places I wanted to as the monsoon was playing havoc in the Indian subcontinent. Ladakh was one of those few places that were shielded from rains. It was the perfect season to be there as the temperatures were tolerable and the road connecting Manali and Leh was open only during this season. If you have time in your hands the best way to get to Ladakh is by road, from Delhi to Manali and then to Leh. It is said that this is one of the best routes to ride on. But as I did not have that much time on ... read more
Von Rishikesh aus dem Ashram, zum Dalai Lama und dann ins Himalaya nach Ladakh
Published: July 27th 2011Asia » India » Jammu & Kashmir » Ladakh » Leh
July 27th 2011
Hi all, Nach langen und sehr intensiven Wochen wird es mal wieder Zeit fuer ein Update. Wo bin ich gerade? In Kuala Lumpur fuer einen Tag und fliege morgen nach Sulawesi, Indonesien weiter, genaue Plaene fuer die dort gibt es noch nicht, aber brauche schon mal wieder ne kleine Insel zum tauchen und tollen Straenden…. Aber ist auch etwas komisch nach 7 intensiven Monaten in Indien nicht mehr dort zu sein, aber so ist das eben mit der Hassliebe fuer Indien. Die Inder machen es einem manchmal leicht, das Land zu verlassen und dann doch wieder nicht. Aber das ist wie immer nur schwer in Worten zu beschreiben, freue mich aber auch nun auf Indonesien. So was ist die letzten Wochen nachdem ich aus meinem 4 woechigen Yogalehrerkurs gekommen bin passiert. War erstmal fuer ca. 10 ... read more
