Leh - Delhi - Agra and Agra Fort

This morning, we got up even earlier than yesterday. My mobile phone woke us at 4am... We had a light breakfast half an hour later and the hotel staff got some Austrian sweets from me. Poor them had to be awake this early as well. We then gave our drivers their tips and sweets and a postcard. They were really thankful and happy although they didn’t even open the envelopes. Our guide was nearly moved to tears when he got his yesterday. It is really sad to say goodbye to the three of them, we all like them very much!

So off we went at 5am. One last time driving through Leh. At the airport parking lot we had the very final farewell. Then the checks started. We had to show our passports and tickets to even enter the airport! Then our luggage was x-ray examined, we were checked through too. Then we met our guide’s sister who had been in Nubra when we visited his family. She helped us through the check-in and the rest of the security stuff. Then she even organized some tea for us when we waited for the boarding. Unfortunately, we then didn’t see her again and couldn’t really say goodbye.

At twenty past six, we could start the boarding and at seven we left the Ladakhi ground. There was not much to see during the flight because the weather was all cloudy and you couldn’t see a single snow-capped mountain.

In Delhi, it was cloudy too and had “just” 27°C, which was quite a shock for us after the 18°C that we had in Leh this morning. We met the guide that had welcomed us in Delhi on our first arrival and he led us to our bus. It is a tourist bus which has eleven seats, nine for us and two for the driver and his assistant. We haven’t found out what the assistant is there for yet...

We left the airport at nine. It soon started to rain and we drove through streets that were rather lakes or rivers. I felt very sorry for those bicycle drivers who got all wet and muddy. I was very busy watching the people passing by while we slowly rolled through Delhi. This city is not only the capital of India but also one of the biggest cities in the world. More than twice the population of Austria lives here!

Motor rickshas, buses, trucks, bikes, motorcycles, pedestrians, cows, dogs,... I watched everything I could see from my window. I took some pictures too. Although I had expected this to be completely different to Ladakh, I was astonished by what I saw. For example, the cows were much taller than the ones I was used to by now. And they had humps on their backs!

I noticed that in Delhi there were lots of plants, trees and bushes. 20% of the city are green and it is planned to raise this number to 30%! What I didn’t like was all the trash that was lying around. It was really much more than in Leh.

I saw women in beautiful saris and orange vests cleaning the streets. For the first time in more than two weeks I saw traffic lights. There were children in neat school uniforms and kids that wore torn shirts. Motor rickshas with at least fifteen people in them, some standing, some kids sitting on the lap of their parents. Motorcycle drivers sometimes wore helmets but the women in saris that sat behind the driver (except for one always a man) never had one. Sometimes they had kids inbetween them.

It were too many impressions at a time, I can’t even remember half of the things I saw...

It took us two hours to get out of Delhi. At 2pm we finally stopped to had lunch. I expected it to be some tourist-restaurant. But I didn’t expect it to be some tables in between souvenir shops and with a menu that only had prices written in it that were up to four times higher than in the expensive restaurants in Leh. And tax was not included. Most of us had a tomato soup. I didn’t finish mine because it was too spicy. Like I said, I can’t eat that spicy stuff, I wonder why.

Seven hours after we left the Indira Ghandi airport, we arrived at our hotel in Agra. It is a beautiful building inside and the rooms are very clean. But they charge for everything. In our room there are two bottles of mineral water. If we take it, we have to pay 300 rupees per liter. Plus tax. Guess what a liter of water costs in Ladakh. 20 rupees, tax included...

We immediately met again to see the Agra Fort. Our new guide is not from WeltWeitWandern but from the ministry of tourism and culture. He is nice too but to me it seems that he kind of tells us his text by heart with all numbers and facts that we will never remember.

The Fort was more impressive than we expected it to be. It is the former residence of the Mogul kings. We saw all the defense gadgets that were similar to those you can find with European castles. Then we went further in and had a look at all the rooms that were made with stone inlay, gold and precious stones. It is a pity that most of it was destroyed. Our guide told us that it were the British but our guide book says that most of the stones, gold and silver was robbed by invadors. One could feel that our guide wasn’t best friends with the British. He always stressed that it was the British’ fault that he couldn’t show us how beautiful the Frot once was and we had to imagine the shining gold and stones.

From some points we also had a great view on the Taj Mahal. It is strange to be so close to my original destination. Tomorrow morning I’m gonna be there! We had bad luck because the sky was still all cloudy and we couldn’t see the Taj in the evening sun. But we were rewarded for that when we saw two rainbows before we left.

To get from the bus to the Fort and back, we had to pass through a real mass of street merchants. Our guide gave us a good advice before we left the bus: don’t hear, don’t see, don’t speak. Just ignore those guys. As soon as you say “no”, you are already responding to them and they will run after you. If you completely ignore them, they’ll most likely let you be. And this really worked so far!

Back at the hotel, we had a shower and then six of us met again to go out for dinner. Eating at the hotel would have been even more expensive than in the restaurant we were driven to. It was simple and looked sterile. I ordered some “very mild please” vegetable plate. Guess what. It was hot after all. Not too hot but it tasted a bit strange too. Annetraud and I changed plates and I had some of her fruit rice but I didn’t like that too much either. I’m looking forward to some really mild pasta or any dish in Austria! But here at least the bread was good.

Getting up early on the last day in Ladakh

Our day started early. After having a light diarrhea at night, I thought about whether it was a good idea to get up at ten past five, but I decided that I probably won’t have the chance again, so I rolled out of bed, got dressed and joined the others in the dining hall. They had tea but I just dared to drink some hot water.

One of our drivers was the “unlucky” one who had to get up early as well. Five of the group members, the driver and our guide squeezed into one of the jeeps and off we went. The streets weren’t as empty as one would expect them to be shortly past six. The first shops opened, people washed themselves and brushed their teeth.

We arrived at Thikse monastery. Few other tourists were here as well. We also met two camera teams, one of them from the Hessischer Rundfunk. Our guide led us to a terrace on the top of the monastery that is – surprise – built on a hill. After this morning sport we were rewarded with a short concert of two horn players who called the monks to the morning prayer, which is called Punja in Ladakh. They called three times and then we could sit down in the assembly hall and watch the morning ceremony. And listen too. Especially the young novices chanted their mantras loudly and were very eager with reading them from their books. Several times, they offered butter tea and tsampa to the other monks and some of the visitors who had brought their own bowl. I was busy with taking pictures (without flash of course!) and filming a bit. It sounded different but beautiful too. Funny thing was that two of the monks at the end of the ceremony had kind of a battle. Both sang very loudly and it seemed that everyone wanted to do it better than the other. Inbetween, there were songs with drums, horns and cymbals.

When the monks had finished, two of the young boys cleaned the floor and we had a closer look at the statues in the assembly hall. The rest of the group had arrived and our guide explained some more about the monastery. Its first parts were built in 15^th century and there are parts added every year, so this is a growing monastery!

We had breakfast in the monastery’s restaurant and then walked up again to see the shrines. In one of them we saw the very famous statue of Buddha Matreya that has become “the face of Ladakh” and is to be found on the cover of our guide book. It is so huge that you have to go to the second floor to see its face.

Also, we again learned about the wheel of life, this time about the outer circle. It was very interesting but too complicated to explain here. If you are interested in it, google it up. :-P

It started to rain a bit when we drove on to Shey. Shey is the former capital of Ladakh and still has a palace next to the monastery. There you can find a stupa which is too big to fit onto a picture and which has a golden top. We also saw another famous statue made of brass, copper and gold. It is the only of its kind and as tall as the one in Thiksey. The best thing was that we were allowed to walk around the base of the statue, which our guide never before did with a group. We weren’t prepared that the room where the statue was based was completely dark. So it was rather funny feeling the way around it in darkness. We went clockwise of course and afterwards we were happy to see light again.

We got to know that the closing ceremony of the Ladakh Festival was not in the afternoon but right now instead. So we went straight to the polo ground. For me, this was a bit of a problem because I hadn’t brought another battery for my camera and the one I had was already low. So not many photos of the ceremony...

To get in, men and women had to queue in different lines and were controlled exactly. Well, not that exactly because luckily nobody noticed my pocket knife. But we had to prove that our cameras were real and no bombs!

Our guide got us good places where all the dancers passed by when entering and leaving the stage. They wore very beautiful traditional clothes, the women had hats with lots of turquoise on it (that are called Perak), the men sometimes had swords or little shrines with a picture of the Dalai Lama. It was great to watch and to hear the music too. Unfortunately, the dancers danced for the important minister on the other side on the field, so we just saw their backs...

We left when the last dance started to avoid the crowd that would form as soon as the ceremony was over. On the way to our lunch, Annetraud and I stopped by in a shop to buy a blanket. We started a conversation with the young shop keeper and found out that he was Tibetan but born in India. He was very smart and knew a lot about Buddhism and about Europe too. He even estimated the population of Austria correctly! Other people we met here mixed up Austria and Australia... The Tibetan showed us some of his CDs and we ended up buying some of them and a DVD too. We hope that they will work at home. :)

So now we had lunch and my stomach seems to be fine with that. I guess that the apple juice yesterday evening was a rather bad idea... Luckily, I’m not really ill and I will not have any problems with flying to Delhi tomorrow morning (departure at 5:40am and being at the airport two hours in advance!!!) and then to go on to Agra by bus. It will be hard but worth it, I’m looking forward to another culture and climate shock and to meet the “real” India and the Islamic India in Agra and Delhi.

I hope that the hotels then will have WiFi or internet so that I’m no longer dependent on those Cybercafes which, as my favorite here in Leh, can close at any time.

Leaving Ladakh feels strange. I somehow got used to this country. It will be hard to say “Namaste” instead of “Julee” and I will miss the monks in the streets, the stupas and the prayer wheels. But India is more than Ladakh. I was a bit sad today when our guide said that we should take off our shoes for the last time, that this was the last time he is shooing us up to a monastery. Everything comes to an end. That’s what Buddhism teaches and that’s what happens all life long.

So good-bye Ladakh and hello Agra!

Khardung-La again and back to Leh

I slept really good tonight and felt much better in the morning. Voices woke me up and soon we saw that farmers had started to harvest the field behind our tents. I found it really nice that they sang while working.

I had a normal breakfast but without any egg omelet and with tea instead of milk and Ovomaltine. Then I packed and we were ready to go back to Leh.

We left Tirith at 9am. Luckily, there was not a lot of traffic and we only had to stop once because of street works. Three hours later, we again stood at the Khardung-La. It was rather cold and some snow flakes came down from the sky. Most of us went into the “highest cafeteria in the world” to have some Maggi 2 minutes instant noodle soup. It was a bit spicy but very tasty too. And the military guy behind the counter was nice and funny. He moved as if he was dancing to the music that was playing from the radio.

Can you make out what that is? Right. Lots of Maggi!

The drive down was without any problems and we reached Leh already at 2pm. We had lunch at our old hotel and now we are free for the rest of the day. Annetraud and I are going to do some more shopping. But before that we’ll have to get some more rupees... :)

Leh once again

We are back in Leh safely. Nubra valley was great! But there is no WiFi today, so more blogs tomorrow!

A very hard day in Nubra

Our breakfast was prepared in the garden of the tent camp. Two of us didn’t eat anything because they were ill. They decided to stay at the camp because today we had a tight program and it was going to be very hot – we couldn’t make out a single cloud in the sky!

The drivers brought us to the foot of a mountain. From there we started walking up a steep path that led to Entsa, a hermitage. While walking I felt worse and worse. I had stomach ache and felt sick too. I reduced my pace and when I told the others that I thought that I was ill too, everyone was immediately nice and caring. Someone took my backpack, I got offers to take medication and it made me feel better to see that the group was worried about me. I finished the 250 meters of altitude and lay down in the shadow of a tree in the courtyard of the hermitage. I got a Aspirin, but when I tried to drink it, I felt even more sick, so I stopped drinking and tried to relax instead. In the meantime, the others had a look at the building which is still not reachable by car. The road is being built at the moment.

Soon, the group finished and we went back down. I already felt much better, the rest in the calm garden was good. While going down, I didn’t feel sick at all and I could keep my normal pace.

on the way to the hermitage

After a short drive, we had lunch in a farmer’s garden. It was a pick-nick with rice, potatoes, vegetables and tofu. I only ate some vegetables. The problem that I had was that I was thirsty but when I drank some water, it made me feel sick, so I didn’t drink that much.

Our next destination were the hot springs. They weren’t that interesting, you could see where the 70°C-water was coming from and shortly hold your hand into the stream. But we didn’t use the simple bath that they had built. I thought that in Europe, there would be a big thermal bath with lots of basins and a sauna and all that stuff. But here they have some simple showers and one blank tub...

The third thing we visited was the holy lake of Tirisha. To get there, one has to do an uphill walk again, so I stayed behind and enjoyed the shade again. It is told that on full moon, one can see the Potala in Lhasa in the lake. Although we just had full moon, nobody could see it.

One last point we visited was a monastery called Samstanling. Again, I stayed behind and sat down on the stairs that led to the building complex. While I sat there dozing, suddenly something mad a loud noise when walking up the stairs. When I looked up, I saw a big cow passing by. It simply went up and then started to eat the flowers in the monks’ garden!

Annetraud and the others were lucky to see some beautiful statues and a mandala that was not yet finished.

I didn't see much more of the monastery than this... :-/

Finally, we drove back to the camp. I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt, sometimes it was better, sometimes it was worse. We arrived at five o’ clock and didn’t have any program until dinner at 7.30. I had a shower and went to bed. Those two hours of sleep helped me a lot already. For dinner, our guide had ordered rice soup for the three ill group members. The soup wasn’t too bad if you added enough salt to it. I also drank some Magenfreund-tea and had some plain bread. Then I immediately brushed my teeth and went to bed again.

Camel ride and Diskit monastery

In the morning we did a walk through Hunder which is described as the most beautiful village of Nubra. But we didn’t agree with that, it was mostly dusty and didn’t have a real center- We had a look at the famous Mani wall. People from all over Ladakh come to walk around this wall.- The special thing is that it doesn’t only have stones with mantras but also stones with the names of the 1000 Buddhas and stones with the wheel of life or stupas on them.

the mani wall in Hunder

Our next stop was the sand dunes of Hunder. We started walking and came past lots of soldiers. We got to know that they were having a funeral ceremony. They had problems when crossing the pass, I think...

We walked over the dunes. I originally wanted to take off my shoes and walk in socks but the sand was hard and I didn’t sink n at all. So I kept my shoes on and was amazed by this strange landscape. Lakes in between the dunes and wetland, green grass and trees next to them.

 We arrived at the camel station and although I was at first the only one who wanted to ride, finally all women of our group sat on a camel. It felt good to be there and I liked it very much. We did a short walk, made a group picture and went back again. In total 15 minutes. It cost 150 rupees, which is 2.40€- Afterwards everyone was happy to have done the riding and we walked on between the sand dunes and the wetland and met our cars.

We continued to Distikt. Here we drove up the hill and had a look at the monastery. It is really built on the mountain and we gained some more altitude when we walked up to the assembly hall. The monks were having their full-moon-prayer while we visited the a shrine and the Dalai Lama’s room. Then, after the monks had finished their lunch, we could have a look at the assembly hall. We saw a mandala and were allowed to watch the monk’s prayer and even take pictures of it! I felt a bit strange because I wouldn’t want somebody taking pictures of me when I am praying, but our guide assured that the monks were used to that and so I took the chance to get some nice shots. But I didn’t use my flash although I was allowed to. I didn’t want to disturb them more than I did anyways. It was very special for us to watch the prayers.

When we walked down, our guide told us that he wanted to show us something special. I didn’t believe that anything could take my breath now, but then he showed us the path that the monks had used until five years ago to take water from a canyon up to the monastery. It. Was. Steep. Not a nice way to go when it is bitter cold and slippery! And the monks had to go down there at least once every day! Now , they have pipes all around the monastery and the path is not used anymore.

on the left you can see the canyon, on the right the stairs down...

We drove down of the hill and up the next hill again. There we saw a huge statue of Buddha Matreia, which is sitting on a building. The statue is 107 feet high (35 meters) and very impressive. We didn’t stay long because everyone was hungry and so we got into the cars again and drove to Tirith.

For the next two nights we are staying in a tent camp. We have tents with a solid floor, carpets on the floor and beds on the carpets. The sanitation house is very clean and the food is fine too. And we have flower gardens in front of our tents! Camille, margaritas and cosmea are in full blossom.

We finally had lunch (it was already 2pm), some tea in the nice garden and then a rest. We then walked into the village, which is our guide’s home village. We met his family, who is busy with harvesting at the moment. We were invited to his sister’s house. It was nice to see a Ladakhi house from inside, although this one hasn’t been finished yet. The five family members are living in two rooms that are finished, the rest is being built when the father, who is a soldier, comes home for three months every year.
The sister offered mint tea (the first mint tea that I finished!) and we tried chang, the beer that Ladakhis make out of barley. We could also try some tsampa in its original form. It looks a bit like flour and I am still wondering how you are supposed to eat it. I definitely failed and had it all over my lap, my camera and my mouth. At least everyone found it quite funny.

I didn’t like the chang very much. First, I thought it was nice to drink but I don’t like the aftertaste and so I left most of my cup for the others to drink.

Our guide’s nephew was in the kitchen where we got the drinks too and he seemed to like being photographed. The second sister came in as well. She is working at the Leh airport and speaks English quite well. She came here for three days to help the family with the harvesting.

pure Tsampa

We left with lots of “Thank you” and “Julee”. Back at the camp, Annetraud and I quickly put together some things that we brought from Austria. Some chocolate, some nuts, some Obstriegel and a post card from Innsbruck. Our guide was totally touched when he saw it and he was eager to get to know about the little pictures on the post card. I hope that the family will like the presents.

Everyone used the time until dinner for a hot shower and enjoying the calm scenery. For dinner we had “non-spicy” food, which I still found spicy but that’s nothing for real Indians. I guess that I will never get used to hot food...

Highest motorable road in the world to Nubra

At 7.30 we left Leh and started our long journey to Nubra valley. The two jeeps crawled up the mountain in the north of Leh and we gained altitude very fast. Road conditions were okay and the view was excellent. We could see the whole are around Leh and Stock mountain in the south of the city.

Some meters further up we came to the first check post. Nubra is a restricted area because of its location between the Chinese and Pakistan border. Tourists have only been allowed to visit for some decades and still you aren’t allowed to get there without a permit and not longer than seven days. After the post, road conditions worsened. In our guide book it is written that the street is better on the south side and we wondered what it would be like in the north because we already were shaken a lot.

Finally, we arrived at Khardung La. It is the highest motorable road in the world and located at 18380 feet, which is 5606 meters. Funny thing was that the two GPS and two altimeter which the group had showed only about 5300 meters. Never mind, it was 5600 for sure! ;)

Up there it was cold, not as cold as I expected but still I needed two jackets and still didn’t feel too warm. We walked around slowly to avoid being exhausted too fast in this thin air. When I wanted to have a look at the other side of the pass, an Indian man in a funny pink suit started talking to me and I thought that he wanted me to take a picture of him and his other pink comrades. But I was wrong. He wanted a picture with me! I was a bit taken aback but agreed. Another woman from our group was also asked to be on the photo and so we ended up in between lots of pink men. We talked to them and they said that they were from Mumbai and that they crossed the whole of India from North to South on their motorbikes. They gave me their mail and blog address and said we should check out their page: http://thebikeriders.blogspot.com/2011/09/high-altitude-desert-safari.html

After this adventure, we climbed up a bit to the big mass of prayer flags that people have brought here. Annetraud added one too. We didn’t follow the advise of an Indian to go even higher and enjoy an even better view because our guide already waved for departure and we didn’t want to overdo it at this altitude. Anyways, we are going to be back in three days. More time for reaching a 5000er summit then.

The drive down was really harder than up because the street was even worse. I really admire the drivers for their abilities to lead their cars past big holes, through mud and rivers and to still drive safely. And we often forgot about the shaky trip because we were busy with absorbing the incredible landscape that awaited us in Nubra. We did a short one hour walk next to a river and while half of the group nearly ran down, I enjoyed the scenery of the nice stream and the green all around. In addition, we there saw the first yaks. I didn’t know that they can have white tails.

I felt that the walk was much too short. We saw some beautiful birds and Himalaya marmots today. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a picture of a flying bird. They are so beautiful!

the marmots are fat here too!

We had lunch in a garden in Kardong. I didn’t eat too much because it was too spicy for me but the others liked it. I guess I won’t be able to eat much in Agra and Delhi because Ladakh is known for its non-spicy food...

We sat in the cars again and after some time we came past a bend and saw the whole Nubra valley. It was indescribable. I tried to capture it with my camera, but I guess that I failed. If you ever come to Ladakh, you have to see it for yourself. There is a river that looks like a river should look like. It is broad with islands in between and floats just as it wants and is not regulated at all. Left and right of the river there are green areas and villages. And on top you can see a mountain range and in the far, there are the snow topped summits of the Karakorum.

As we drove on, we passed Diskit. Then we came past sand dunes. It looks a bit like in the Death Valley in the US. In between the mountains you suddenly have dunes with fine sand. We even saw some camels!

Then we arrived at our hotel in Hunder. In the program it is written that we have three nights in the tent camp but we will stay here for one night. The hotel is not the best, it would need some renovation, so let’s see how the food is.

Tomorrow, we will visit some temples in Hunder. We will also go hiking in the sand dunes to what I’m especially looking forward. And if we want, we can ride a camel too! I’m so gonna do that! :)

we had full moon tonight! it lit up the whole sky and the mountain range too!

Tibetan Amchi and Shopping Day

On this chilly morning, we got up earlier to see the Amchi. An Amchi is someone who knows Tibetan medicine and here in Ladakh, they are particularly good at doing diagnosis by feeling you pulse. At ten past seven, the Amchi arrived together with our guide. She was very nice and Annetraud and I, who were there first, talked to her a bit. Her English is very good. Then we got started and Annetraud was brave enough to give away her arms first. She got the opportunity to get some medication against the altitude symptoms that she has.

Then it was my turn. The woman felt my pulse, asked some questions, felt it again, changed arms, changed arms again, asked again and after quite a long time she told me that I was completely healthy and didn’t need any medication. I was quite happy about that because in the end everyone except for me got some medication. In addition, the Amchi told me that I am taking the height more easily because I am younger and have more energy. Nice thing to hear!

We had breakfast after the Amchi’s visit because her diagnosis is better if you don’t eat anything first. Today we didn’t only have the good apricot jam again but also a sweet apricot juice, which was really good and tasted a bit like that you can buy in South Tyrol in those small glass bottles.

Annetraud and I are using our free day to do some shopping in Leh. It is exhausting to compare all the prices and that every shop keeper wants you to buy everything he has. You hear the same phrases over and over again: “I’m going home soon, so you get good price.”, “Morning costumers get good price.”, “If you want it, I make you a good price, Miss.”. But the good prices are still way to high and you first have to trade before you buy anything. I sometimes want the nice fixed and written prices back that we have in Europe...

So tomorrow we are leaving once again, this time it is going north, over the highest driveable pass into Nubra valley. This means no news for four days. :)

Another monastery, the first nunnery and a hermitage

The flies woke me up today. They seem to like sitting in my face. We could have slept until 8.30 but I could only doze and from time to time shake my head or arms for the last one and a half hours.
We had breakfast in the garden of the hotel and it was the first traditional breakfast we got: Tsampa soup, sweet, Kiachl-like bread, normal bread and spicy potatoes. In addition we had a very good apricot jam, butter and, of course, tea and masala. I still stick to drinking Ovomaltine.
Our guide told us that today was more or less a relaxing day but in total we nevertheless walked a bit. Our first destination was the monastery of Tingmosgang, which is once again located on a hill. The walk up was steep and it was getting hot. I liked the fact that our two drivers joined us. When we arrived on top of the hill, we had a great view over the valley.

view from the monastery

The monastery was originally a palace for the king of western Ladakh. To one statue of the monastery there is an interesting story: it is told that the king once had a dream in which Avalokiteshvara told him to build a statue of him for Buddhist practicing people. The king wanted to obey but his Lama told him that this matter would handle itself. Some time later, the statue that is now in the shrine, appeared out of a fire cloud. Nobody knew where it came from and that’s why it is called the self-born statue. It shall have a wish-fulfilling power and many people, especially women who want to have children, come here to offer special prayers and to have their wishes fulfilled.
In the building next to that shrine, there is a seven meters high statue of Buddha Maitreya, the future Buddha.

the whish-fulfilling, self-born statue

We walked down on the other side of the hill and into a valley. At the end of the road, there was a hermitage. I don’t know how you imagine a hermitage but I can assure you that it looked completely different. It is a new temple that was inaugurated some years ago and is still not finished. We saw workers painting the windows and a fence. The temple itself was painted with very bright colors and it was strange to have new paintings after all those thousand year old, often half destroyed pictures. Inside, our guide explained the life of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama.
The hermitage is part of the red head school and was built for monks, especially elderly ones, to come and practice meditation and find some peace. There is also a little cave in the mountain for one person to meditate.

not lonely or small at all!

In the shadow of the hermitage’s nice garden we had a short rest before walking down again. We stopped by a nunnery, where we got some tea. It was the first time I finished a whole cup of mint tea with black tea! The nuns were very friendly and offered cookies as well. There was not much to see in the nunnery, so we walked back to the hotel. It was very hot by now and I was afraid of getting sunburned, although I had used sunscreen on my arms twice. I’m quite happy now that I don’t have red arms, they are just a little bit warm. I should wear my long-sleeve shirt all the time when it is sunny...

We had lunch and then left the hotel again. There was no more program on the plan but our guide had the nice idea to visit a village in a near valley. After thirty minutes drive we reached it and walked around while we got explanations on how traditional villages look like. We also saw some secret tunnels which the villagers used to get water without being seen by invaders.

There are still many flies in our room although Annetraud already threw about 40 out of the window already. This is so annoying, you can’t imagine. -.-

Lamayuru monastery and walk through the moon landscape

It was the worst night since we arrived in Ladakh. I woke up again and again, first because it was rather hot in my room and later because I was cold without my blanket. So getting up at 6am was kinda hard...
After breakfast we packed out things together once again, said goodbye to the professor and left Alchi. It was a long drive to Lamayuru and we had some adventurous roads on the way. Near the village, there is a rock formation that is said to look like on the moon, but actually it looks more like in the west of the United States where I was in 2009. Nevertheless you’ll find a Moon Guest House, a Moon Land Hotel and all other possible things are called “moon”.

I have never been on the moon, but I don't expect it to look like this!

At the monastery we met some young monks who were playing in the courtyard and liked being photographed. We visited the assembly hall and our guide gave us some information about the history of this monastery. We saw a cave where the monks saved some statues from invaders who destroyed most of it except for that particular cave. Another important fact about Lamayuru is that the swastika symbol is told to have been first recorded there. This symbol looks like a right turning Hakenkreuz but actually it is much older and stands for the historical Buddha Shakyamuni.
Before leaving again, we turned lots of prayer wheels that were all around the monastery.

The cars brought us to the foot of the hill on which the monastery was built and from there we started our first long hike. Two group members didn’t join, so there were six of us. Our guide made us go slowly, which was very good because I would have run too fast.
It was the first time I used my new hiking sticks to go uphill and they were very handy. We walked through a dry valley again but we hardly noticed the missing water because we were taken aback by the changing rock formation all around us. There were yellow rocks and gray rocks, loose rocks and hard ones. We also saw lots of mountain goats in the distance. One and a half hours later we reached the Prinkiti-La, the lizard pass. It is about 3790 meters high and marked with a prayer flag. On the top, our guide surprised us with some cookies and KitKat which he had carried up for us to eat, which was really nice. Annetraud offered Mannerschnitten and it felt a bit like at home.

Annetraud and me at the Prinkiti-La

The walk down was not as bad as I had imagined it, because during the 550 meters, there were clouds and wind to make us feel less hot. We reached the cars after three hours and had lunch at a nice river which we crossed without our shoes on to enjoy the shade on the other side. We got luch boxes from the hotel which included toast, an egg, an apple, mango juice, a potato, a Milk Treat, cookies and one slice of cheese.
When we had finished, we picked up the two others, who were waiting in the next village, and drove all the way back and further to Tingmosgang. Here we had some tea before we got our rooms which are very comfortable. Maybe that’s because this village is called the richest in Ladakh.

In the afternoon we had spare time which I used to upload my pictures and to get some rest. Also, Annetraud and I did some yoga which was quite funny.
Dinner was not as good as in Alchi but that’s really hard to reach up to. We had buffet again and apricots as dessert.
Now the flies are really annoying me. They got in in the afternoon and now they are sssrrrring around and tickling my arms. Why is there a cow right in front of our window?

How many flies can you find on our room's ceiling?

Mangyu and Tsatsapuri temple near Alchi

In our hotel in Alchi, breakfast was better than in Leh. We had muesli and fruit, toast, apricot jam and egg omelets. Then we got into the jeeps again to drive to Mangyu, another monastery that is located in a valley that didn’t have any road leading to it until 14 years ago and where there is a bus that drives there once a week.
For our tour today, a professor from Austria who has been working in Ladakh as an architect, joined us and explained some things as well. In Mangyu we also met a young woman who was in charge of the renovation works that were currently being done. She explained that the most important thing of a monastery like the one here or any other building with paintings was the roof. If the roof leaks, the paintings get destroyed. She showed us some wooden parts which they had replaced and we saw people working in the temple.

Two were just making a new courtyard which would allow the water to flow down instead of into the temple.Inside we weren’t allowed to take any pictures because the paintings are very fragile.
We walked down the road we had come up with the jeeps. On our way we were fascinated by all the different rocks and mountain forms.
For lunch we had Italian and American food: really good french fries, maccaroni, spaghetti and vegetables. And after a short rest we had tea and then walked up the hill to see Tsatsapuri, a temple that is somehow a secret tip. It is a private building and therefore we were allowed to take as many pictures as we wanted. We saw many beautiful paintings and some rare mandalas. One was not symmetrical but had five smaller mandalas in the middle which represented the five forms of the Buddha. Another mandala had eight entrances instead of the typical four.

A very rare mandala

On our way down we met some sheep and cows that were running around freely.

Now lunch and tomorrow we ware getting up early to avoid the midday sun when hiking.

Likir monastery and Alchi

Earlier than in the past days we had breakfast. We packed our things together and our drivers put them into and onto the jeeps. Then we left Leh to drive west. For a long time we passed by military areas. There are 30 000 soldiers in Ladakh to defend the country against Pakistan and China who both occupied parts of the land. Our guide said that there is going on some kind of cold war between China and India because of that. To understand why China claims Ladakh, one must know that Ladakh agreed to accept the Dalai Lama as its religious leader. When China invaded Tibet, it thought that Ladakh also belonged to Tibet and therefore now to China.
While we drove, we sometimes passed diversions that leaded around parts of the street that were washed away with the flood last year. Now there are street workers (very often women, sometimes they even bring their kids) who build it up again.
One photo point we had was the joining of the Indus and Zanskar river. The latter freezes completely over in winter and people use it as a road to Leh.

The first monastery we visited was Likir. It is famous for its huge sitting Buddha statue. It was a pity that it is renovated at the moment and we couldn’t see its full beauty. In the courtyard of the monastery there were some of the oldest prayer wheels in Ladakh. They are still in use today (I turned them too :-) ). Inside the assembly hall, there was a seat reserved for the brother of the Dalai Lama who had been the leader of this monastery and some others. But after some time he decided to give up his life as a monk and lives a “normal life” since. He is working for his brother actually. The funny thing is that on his seat there is a picture of him as a boy because today he is not wearing the monk robe anymore.
Another explanation we got was about the wheel with deers on each side. The wheel symbolizes the whole Buddhist teaching while the deer remind the viewer of Buddha’s first teaching which he gave in a deer park.

We left the monastery and after some minutes of driving, we were left by the drivers and went on by foot. We walked down a dry valley which looked like an American canyon. It was very hot and there was hardly any shade to cool down. It took us approximately two hours to reach Saspol, a quite large village. There we met some children who just did the washing up. This was the liveliest village we saw so far.
The road to Alchi had some very bad parts but we eventually reached our destination. We had a really, really good lunch at the hotel and got our rooms that are more clean and nicer than those in Leh. But power seems to fail from time to time because we got a candle and matches too!

After a short rest, we met again to visit Alchi’s monastery. There are only four monks living here because when Likir was built, most moved there. But in this monastery there are some real treasures. There are statues of seven meters height and thousand year old paintings that cover all walls. One building resembles a 3D-mandala. Unfortunately, you aren’t allowed to take any pictures inside, so I can’t share this amazing place with you. The photograph I took is from the inside of a stupa that also has the mandala style.
We again learned loads about Buddhism and I find it very complicated to differ between all those gods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, arias and siddhas. And the problem is that the same person can be painted in over 20 ways!

So now we’re looking forward to some more excellent food for dinner and then I’ll write some post cards. Finally. :)

Mask Dance and Hemis Monastery

Have you ever seen a real Buddhist Mask Dance? I guess you haven’t because they are practiced very rarely and even more seldom for tourists. We were among the lucky ones to be part of the Chhams/Mask Dance that took place during the Ladakh Festival. We left the hotel at 10am to get sitting places in the courtyard of the Ladakh Buddhist Association.

The Tung players

Before the real event started, there were Tung players (Tung is a horn similar to the alphorn) who called everyone to come. A woman told the audience in English that the monks that were going to perform the dance came from another monastery and that the Festival was very thankful that they had agreed join the event.

The program included several different dance sequences. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand much of their meaning although our guide did his best to explain. There was one dance where four masked monks represented the protection gods which you can find at the entry of every monastery. Another dancer cut something, I think it was tsampa, to symbolize the destroying of bad energy.

An interesting fact for everyone who likes to clap their hands: It is not common to applaud after Buddhist performances. Although the speaker said that after the first applause, some people didn’t get it and clapped their hands every time...

I filmed some parts of the dance, maybe I can upload it.

In our lunch break we went to a restaurant called Penguin where I had my first Momos. Momo is a traditional Tibetan dish that is similar to German Teigtaschen or Austrian Schlutzkrapfen or Kärntner Kasnudeln. It was really good.

From the office of our travel agency, we started our jeep journey to Hemis. It was quite a long drive and I got really hot because the sun was beaming right through the window. We passed some villages and monasteries which we will visit later.

Hemis is known as the richest monastery in Ladakh. This is because it was built hidden in a valley and therefore has never been found by invaders. In addition, lots of land belongs to Hemis and the farmers who grow crops there give a part of their harvest back to the monastery.

The monks in Hemis belong to the Red Head School, which is one of the most popular schools in Buddhism.

Our guide explained a lot about the philosophy of Buddhism and I tried to keep as much as possible by taking notes but still it is difficult to understand. I’ll tell you some of the things he told us about the wheel of life. This painting can be found at the entrance to every prayer hall. Maybe you have seen it before.

The wheel of life in Hemis

The parts of the wheel represent the following (starting from above, going clockwise): the world of gods, the world of humans, the ghost world, hell, the animal world and the world of demigods. The upper three are the happy part while the lower three stand for suffering and problems.
In the middle you can see a snake, a hen and a pig. Those are symbols for the three poisons: the snake is anger, hatred and ill-will, the pig is desire, and the pig ignorance and delusion. If one overcomes those poisons, they can be enlightened and go to paradise which is called nirvana.

We had a look at the statues in the prayer room and at the most famous statue of Hemis: the Guru Rinpoche or Padmasambhava. He was a Lama who was invited to bring Buddhism to Tibet and who is said to have had supernatural powers.

After visiting the museum of Hemis where they show some of their valuable objects like old statues, paintings or prayer rolls, we walked down the valley and were picked up by the jeeps again. Before we left, some of us had a small snack. I wanted to offer a snack to another group member when an old man came over and wanted one too. I would have given him one of the two in my hand but he just took both and left! Never mind, I had a third one and he was quite happy with his. :)

The trip back was interesting because our guide explained a bit as we passed by some sights. For example we drove past the Dalai Lama’s residence in Ladakh.

So tomorrow we are leaving Leh and I guess that I won’t have any Internet connection until we come back in four days.

4. September 2011

First full day in Leh

Today was our first program day. After having a hot shower (it was hard to go out to the cold again!) and breakfast (toast, egg omelet and strawberry jam) in the morning, we went to town. Our first point of interest was the Buddhist center where we had a look at the prayer room and at a thanka exhibition that was set up for the Ladakh festival.

We went on through the small streets of Leh and came to a ladakhi bakery. They put the dough onto the walls of their oven and the result is delicious. We saw the oldest tree of Ladakh and the main market of old Leh.

A café was our next stop and after enjoying a nice view over Leh, we went to the same restaurant as we were yesterday to have lunch.

At 3pm we met again. Two cars brought us to Tsemo, a hill above Leh. There we visited Gonkhang and Chamba-Lhathang, a monastery and a shrine. Our guide explained to us what the paintings on the walls meant and that the big statue represents the Buddha of the future who is going to come when the Buddhist knowledge is fading out. That will be in about 2500 years.

We walked down the hill and were picked up again by the two jeeps. The next visiting point was a monastery called Sankar. It was rather big in comparison to the other one and had lots of beautiful statues. Again, we learned a lot about the meaning of the statues and paintings. I’ll add the stories to the pictures when I have more time.

We got into the cars another time and our way led us uphill to the Shanti-Stupa which was newly built and is just huge. From the hill it is located at, we also had a very nice view to Leh and its surroundings. We could also see the big military base from above. Our guide told us that they are about 30 000 soldiers in Ladakh because of the Chinese border. Every family has at least one member who is or was in the army!

Me in front of the Shanti-Stupa in Leh

Dinner was good today, we had rice, beans, tofu, chicken and bread. After eating, Annetraud and I walked up to one of the Cybercafes and now I am using the WiFi they're having. I uploaded all the blogs I wrote in the past days and now I'll have a look whether I can add some pictures too. It is so beautiful here, you have to see it! :)

Finally in Leh

Finally, our flight was called out and we were led into the airplane. I expected it to be very small but it was actually bigger than the one we had from Innsbruck to Frankfurt. The travel agency had booked seats on the left side only to guarantee us a great view. The sun started to rise at 5.30 am and when we took off, I could see Delhi from above.

We had breakfast on board which was good but included a lemon juice that was just awful. I can’t imagine that anybody could ever drink it!

I nearly fell asleep because I was really tired but the Himalayas woke me up again. At first there were just single mountain tops that rose out of the cloud ocean like small islands. Then the islands got bigger and we were right above the highest mountain rage on earth. Most summits were covered with snow and there were many glaciers. But in contrast to the alps, the lower altitudes were just brown or gray and there was no green at all. The rising sun painted long shadows between the mountains and many valleys looked as if they were huge lakes. But in reality it is all very dry and no sign of human influence could be seen until we reached the Indus valley where Leh is also located. Suddenly, green fields appeared in between the dusty mountain rages and the river Indus formed an oasis in the middle of a desert that is located on top of the world.

The landing was quite spectacular: the pilot made two turns before he came down to the airport. In the small welcome hall, we got our luggage back, filled out another sheet for foreigners and got a program for the Ladakh Festival that started today.

Two guides picked us up and drove us to our hotel. I sat in front – on the left side. It is really strange to drive through an unknown country with lots of new impressions and all of that on the wrong side of the street! To my surprise, there were really cows on the streets. I didn’t expect that because I thought that it was a stereotype that in India there are cows everywhere. I also noticed many stray dogs and lots of garbage at the sides of the street.

We arrived at the hotel, got a short briefing about the trip and had another breakfast. It was about 8am ladakhi time and I noticed that I was very tired. I had been awake for almost 24 hours! When we got our rooms, I didn’t care much about anything but the bed. Although I must have had a higher pulse and although I heard that you usually sleep bad in high altitude, I slept well until we had a very good lunch at 1 o’clock. After that we had free time and Annetraud and I decided to have a walk in town. It was hot and we did notice the 3,500 meters after all. We went slowly and finally had a mango juice in a small Café. As soon as we were back, I took another nap. I’m very lucky to be able to sleep without problems.

me at a prayer mill near our hotel

At 6pm, five of the seven group members left to have dinner. Before that we took another stroll to Leh and this time I found it easier to walk. We saw loads of open shops, restaurants and Internet Cafés, most of them had already put on their diesel generator. The official power system doesn’t seem to work very well. The Tibetan restaurant we had dinner at also had a generator which broke down several times. But nobody minds, that’s Leh.

Before going back, I went into a Internet Café to give a short update on my blog. I want everyone to know that we arrived savely. I payed 10 rupees for about 10 minutes which is close to nothing.

On the way back, I was happy that we had one headlamp – none of the streetlamps was working...

2. September 2011