ONE MONTH IN INDIA!!!

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Well, STILL in Ladakh, and starting to feel like a local - today I even went to a school festival where I dressed up in traditional Ladakhi costume to have my photo taken, and they were playing games like pin the tail on the donkey!! Ladakh, in the northernmost part of India, and it's capital, Leh, where I have made my base for the last few weeks, is the type of place you find hard to leave. The people are delightful, I have made so many friends here, and the scenery is just breathtaking.

Very soon after I arrived, the Kashmiris packed up their carpets and went back home for the winter, so I could forget my Kashmiri experience and plunge headfirst into Ladakhi culture, very similar to Tibet. I have been really fortunate to meet Rafi, a local working in a tiny STD telephone shop, who invited me to his place in Leh (a square room serving as kitchen, bedroom, living room... just big enough to sleep four - his two siblings and I) as well as his family home in Nubra Valley in a village called Hagam, just north of Panamic, and the northernmost point in India you can go before entering a 'restricted zone' for tourists. Very exciting, GORGEOUS scenery with picturesque desert-like mountains rising up from the valley, and most of all a FABULOUS experience homestaying with a traditional Ladakhi family! I even helped out on the farm (despite their objections that I was a visitor and should just sit and watch) carrying big bundles of grass to dry on the roof for the winter, raking up wheat to store, and going and bringing home the goats!

Rafi has some adorable little nephews who never ceased to keep us amused - in particular little Ifan would come up and give me a kiss each time I pointed to my cheek! 😊 His sisters were also good fun, and I was sooooo touched that they and his mother had tears in their eyes when I left!! In total, the last night I did a head count of 11 people under the one roof, sleeping in two bedrooms and Rafi and I in the living room. Imagine feeding such a large number every night! The only problem was that, because we were in the main living/eating area, I was woken up each morning at 3am when they got up to cook breakfast. I made the mistake of choosing a Muslim friend during the month of Ramadam fasting. The first night I stayed at Rafi's home in Leh with his brother and sister I discovered they - or rather the youngest sister - gets up at 3.30am to prepare breakfast which they eat at 4, before going back to sleep for a couple of hours. Basically they are not allowed to eat during daylight hours so this is the only chance they get to eat breakfast! In Nubra valley I had my earplugs ready by the 'bed' (they sleep on thin matresses on the floor) for when they all came into the living room at 4 to eat and chat!

The best part of his house would have to be the toilet. Unlike Australia where we dig a hole in the ground for 'bush' toilets, here they build a square enclosure, and climb stairs or a ladder up to the roof which has a hole in it (normally covered)! So every night I looked up at the gorgeous stars as I did my business!! As for washing, everything is done at the stream running through the backyard. I managed to wash my face and hands each day, and also my hair, but anything more requires disappearing behind the house with a bucket!

One day we went by bus a few hours to the main town in Nubra Valley, Disket (the spelling varies with each sign and map, as with most place names in India), where Rafi had to do some administrative papers (he knew everyone in the town as he did his schooling there), and where I climbed to the local Monastery on the hill (puff puff) with the French guy we met. The town was huge compared to where he lived - it consisted of one main dusty dirt street with shops on either side. We stayed in a guesthouse about a 20min walk away from the center, passing an area devastated by recent floods (it normally rains on average 3 days per year in Rafi's village). The guesthouse was lovely, except that the concept of cleaning doesn't seem to exist in India. The floor was FILTHY, complete with dead mouse and all, and I ended up washing the bathroom floor before I washed myself! It was nice to be back in 'civilization' again though, and we even hired a DVD - I was dying to see a movie - for about 20 cents (which we didn't end up watching - the family in the guesthouse watched soaps all night and the electricity went off at 11pm!!). Ah, but it was so nice to have an uninterrupted night's sleep till 10am in the morning!

Foreigners need a permit for the region (I discovered this reading a book in my hostel on Ladakh the day before we were due to leave!), which Rafi managed to get me for a very cheap price in only one day via a travel agent he knew. He also knew the jeep driver (called local taxis) who happened to be returning the Sunday we wanted to go back! Rafi's sister in law joined us for the return journey with her two boys. The baby was throwing up in the back, and she was also car sick! Rafi and I sat with the children sleeping in our arms... ahhhh... bliss....

Before going to Nubra, I did another two homestays when I went to visit the nearby Gompas (Monasteries) of Lekir, Alchi and Saspol. The region is dotted with Gompas built into hillsides up valleys where monks busy themselves with daily tasks of prayer, schooling, washing, eating etc. I walked a couple of hours up a gorgeous valley to Lekir Gompa where the monks were having a two day celebration before fasting, complete with games, music and cricket!! They invited me to lunch and I had my first taste of butter tea, famous to the region, in the monks kitchen! Ladakhi kitchens are lined with shelves upon which are balanced one on top of the other all the plates, teacups and crockery they own - not at all like the cupboards in our kitchens! Some other tourists arrived and they opened up the temples for us to see the elaborately painted walls and statues. There was even a museum with artefacts as old as 500 years!! The Monastery is known for its huge golden Buddha statue (cf. Japan!) which I caught glimpses of shining in the sun as I walked up the valley. That night I stayed at a homestay guesthouse near the Gompa with a delightful family - a mother, her mother, and her child. I helped them make the local flat bread, chapati (but I think I still need practice!!), which they cook on a woodfire.

The next day I caught a bus to Alchi monastery - some very elaborate paintings and statues, but nothing much from the outside - and then, on recommendation from a French/Australian couple, walked the 5 odd kilometers through the lunar landscape to a delightful little village, Saspol (a truck driver kindly gave me a lift the last kilometer). Saspol is unique in that it has paintings in a cave in the mountainside, decorated as a sort of temple... All the guesthouses were full, I was told, so a man kindly offered to let me stay with his family! Again, fantastic (but as he laid a carpet on the ground for me to sleep on a cloud of dust arose... nevertheless, the view out the HUGE second storey window to my room was fabulous, and I fell asleep looking up at the stars!). This family was big on the butter tea and the formalities (cf. Japan again... I'm seeing a common Asia element here) - I had a little gold lid on my teacup and each time I took so much as a sip, they refilled my cup - eugh!!!!! Their son was also gorgeous though, and I even helped him copy out 'BOY, DOG, CAT' for his English homework!

I returned from Nubra on Sunday, and planned on leaving within a couple of days, but my Sikh friend, Gerry (you can tell who is a Sikh as they wear a turban on their head), told me a Brisbane girl was getting married today to a Ladakhi man, and suggested I come along to the party (tomorrow)! Gerry owns a restaurant just down from my hostel, and when he heard I'd bought a carpet from the Kashmiris, he told me I could eat there anytime for free!

I also met a couple of Swiss guys through Eric, the French guy I met in Disket, all staying in the hotel next to mine (I joined them for dinner and my goodness, the place is full - at least a dozen people - compared to my guesthouse where I am the only one staying - tourism dies down for winter), and I joined them in visiting a few more Gompas in the region. Tuesday we caught a bus to the huge Monastery in Thiksey - where we looked in on some lessons of the younger monks (we were captivated by an old monk telling them a story, although we didn't understand a word!), and sat in on the hour long meditation session of the monks, complete with musical interludes - symbols, drums, horns, bells... absolutely fabulous! Then yesterday I relented and joined in the touristy jeep tour of Lamayuru (which I passed after dark on my way to Leh from Srinagar) with its incredible rock formations in the surrounding valley, Rizong - tucked away in a remote valley, and there is even a nunnery here... yay, finally some female monks! - and Alchi again.

I plan on leaving Leh for Manali on Saturday, but the winter season is here, and it all depends on the frequency of the busses - I have heard varying reports from busses not running anymore, to them only running when there are enough people... otherwise there is always the option of a jeep!

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Photos

Gorgeous scenery
On the road from Srinagar

A shop on the way
Normal standards of cleanliness!!

Scenery becomes lunar-like
Nearing Leh, the greenery changes to a desert type landscape

Comments

[Kiriel]

Sounds fantastic... but what are you up to now?
Hi dear. Its always so nice to read your messages, but it has been far too long between them! Please, let us know what you have been up to... the weather in Geneva is really starting to cool down, and we could use some warm news!