Ladakh - in the Himalayas

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At last we have got round to giving an update to our time in Leh which is up on the border of India with China and Pakistan. It is high up and has the Indus River flowing through it.

4 security checks to get onto the plane - lot of military personnel on the plane. Phenomenal flight and saw the Himalayas. Can now understand the desire to go climbing. Very mountainous even leading up to the high mountains - was difficult to see where we could land! Anyway landed at what is in effect a military airfield.

What was amazing was the effect of the altitude - it is around 11500 feet and felt a bit woozy straight after getting off the plane - happy to say that was the only impact on either of us however going up a flight of stairs made us a bit breathless. Picked up and dropped off at Hotel Lassermo. Looks lovely from outside.



Room is interesting - there is no running water so big plastic dustbin of cold water in bathroom - used to wash and flush loo.

Perishing cold and had the heater going - the worst morning was when it was 6 degrees in the bedroom and 2 degrees in the bathroom.
Washing is novel - strip off so totally naked in bathroom - which is really a wet room. Get the bucket of hot water and with the scoop mix some of hot with cold -make sure it is hotter rather than colder. Pour water from scoop over head - shampoo everywhere - repeat six times. Steam is everywhere. Then run like mad to stand in front of heater to towel dry. It is actually very invigoratig but something to be sampled rather than practiced repeatedly. Carol does the same which is quite fun to watch!!



Waiter is called Sunny and is from Tibet. Nice chap. Had lunch which was all vegetarian and delicious - drinking loads of hot tea.

Had an afternoon nap using the sleeping cotton liners (HURRAH one of our better purchases) and wrapped in heavy blanket - needed to, to make sure we didn't get altitude sickness.
Afterwards sat in the sunshine on the terrace which was lovely and warm with an awesome view all around.



The National Geographic people are here doing a film on the highest road in the world as part of a series on Perilous Jorneys.
The Lonely Planet guidebook says you need to be crazy to come here in the winter



Had a paddle at a slow walk into Leh market area - very much organised for tourists and excellent internet café. Walked back in the dark using pocket blue light torch HURRAH - thank you Carl for recommending getting a torch that fitted on the keyring.

Had another cup of tea and chat to Sunny. When we asked if we could have couple of hot water bottles he said we would have two each! And extra blankets HURRAH - hot water bottles should be the top of everyones Christmas list


Lunch - soup, Rice, eggplant, paneer, dahl
Dinner - Soup, rice, pasta, dahl, potato and green spinach stuff, fantastic banana and custard

Breakfast - porridge, scrambled eggs, toast, honey - It is amazing how tastes change when it is cold.

Now to the proper travel guide stuff. As we were now reasonably acclimatised our driver collected us, went higher up the Indus Valley bordered by mountains, and we went to tour some palaces and Buddist monasteries called GOMPHAS.

There are also little shrines (moe like buildings) called STUPAS which you either built becos ou were very dvout or as a punishment determined by the King. He would say build a stupa in 2 days as a punishment. As a result there are loads of stupas around.


We had a phenomenal morning seeing the Buddhist gompas at Hemis and Thiksey and the palace at Shey which is the old capital of Ladakh. Hemis was seriously remote.





(I now have to consult our guide book - one of the things we do each day is a diary so that we don't forget what happens - but what we findis that so much happens it is easy to forget - as a result I try to do the blg as quickly as possible)
The focal point of a Gompha is the prayer hall or DU-KHANG - in each of the ones we saw there was a big statue of Bhudda (sometimes 3 stories high). All of the inside is wood with paintings all over the walls - you walk clockwise around the Bhudda which is usually in the middle of the room. They are very dark and atmospheric and like something from Indiana Jones - there is a feeling of worship being made valid by prayer. There are various other things eg coloured sculptures made with yak butter - or mandalas which are elaborate patterns - we saw one made of coloured powder which was 7 feet across and incredibly finely done (imagine sneezing as you were just about to finish?!)



The other thing is prayer wheels - these are drums which are filled with prayers and as you spin them it is the equivalent of the prayers being said (I think this is right). There are lots of them around and there is usually a big one ie 6 feet high and the size of large oil drums in most villages - people spin it as they pass.

Almost forgot - we saw the summer residence of the Dalai Lama!

When we got back that evening we walked into the restaurant to find an American Thanksgiving dinner being prepared under the guidance of the National Geographic team. They instantly invited us to join them. They had done all sorts of things. Harish, their advisor, had led an expedition to ski over the Himalayas in 1995 and wrote a book about it. Lovely to have chips, mashed potato, grilled chicken and cranberry sauce.





That night made a comfortable nest out of the bedding and filled it with 4 hot water bottles.

Next day had a day off to toddle up to Leh from the hotel - during the summer it is buzzing - but only saw one other white face which didn't talk to us. In the main street the old ladies sat on the pavement with their carrots etc to sell - milk is left outside as well as it is cold as a refridgerator. Lots of displaced Tibetans about.




Following day had fantastic visit to Alchi and Likir. We went along the main road to Srinagar which is halfmade, blasted from the mountain!Built about 1958. Nowhere is it more than a C road. For large parts it is single track and often it is like driving through a quarry - also there are vertical drops of 500+feet in places - I was well and truly puckering for most of the ride.


Great views down the side of the mountain to the Indus where white water rafting takes place in the summer. Two rivers, Indus and Zanskar meet and colours of turquoise and blue merge.

Now a very odd phenomenon… there is a large magnetic hill on the road - the driver turned off the engine and left handbrake off and car started to move and continued going uphill - it was astonishing cos it was a big 4x4.


On the way we stopped to give 3 village ladies a lift into Alchi. They were going to hospital and the walk would have been about 4 hrs there and 4 back. It was very up and down as well.




Alchi Gompa is built at foot of mountains with a thriving tourist village in the summer. The Head Lama, Sarapag Ichis, was preaching to his flock when we arrived and we joined the end of the service after looking at the 11thc temples. Very interesting artwork….in similar vein to the work of European monks at that time. Awesome and somehow familiar experience.




Likir Gompa was uphill all the way and we gave a lift to two Bhuddist monks. The enormous gold Buddha is outside of the monastery against a sapphire sky. Built in 1998.




Lots of soldiers presence with barracks at frequent points.







On the way back stopped at a Sikh temple where a rock containg outline of Guru Ji is enshrined.

Guru Ji travelled through Tibet, Nepal and North India in 15th C. Stopping to pray on the mountainside the people told him of a demon who was terrorising them. Guru Ji was praying when demon threw huge rock down to kill him. His prayers turned the rock to wax so that it didn't hurt him.
The demon came down the mountain thinking Guru Ji was dead and kicked the rock where his foot got stuck in the wax. Guru Ji opened his eyes and looked at the demon who realised that this was a holy man and realised the error of his ways!. His punishment was to serve mankind for the rest of his days and to be a disciple of Guru Ji.

Lots of Sikh visitors and we joined in, invited to share food and allowed to photograph the actual rock.

Following day had an early start to fly back to Delhi - and hot running water!!!!




We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Leh and would recommend it to anyone who wanted to see a vey different place and in summer take part in loads of trekking/adventure sports.

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Photos

Ian and Carol at Thiksey Bhuddist Gompha
Bright saffron gold olours with rich reds

Head of Budda
This shows just the head of the statue - the whole statue is 3 stories tall!

Himalayas from the plane as we left Leh
..what a great time we had in Leh - but good to get back to warm weather and running hot water!

Comments

[Martin, Lisa, Isobel and jacob]

Wow
It just gets better. Sounds like your havin g the time of your lives. Keep smilin. - Nice hat LOL