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!

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. :)

Polo match in Leh

The polo match was really interesting. We had good places to see the whole ground. At first we had to wait for quite a long time because some minister was arriving late and everyone waited for him. As soon as he was there, the game could start. Polo is actually very similar to soccer. The six players and one referee are riding, the ball is smaller and there is no outline at the sides, but you still have to score goals, you have line referees and a goal keeper. After a goal, the sides are changed immediately and the team that scored is allowed to take the ball until the middle line and start playing again. One game lasts two times 20 minutes and we left after the first half to have dinner.

After eating, Annetraud and I went into the Cybercafe and I uploaded all the blogs from the last days and checked the nearly 80 mails I got. The connection sometimes broke down and it took ages until I was finished and I hadn’t even started with the pictures yet...

Walking on an old caravan highway and driving back to Leh

Guess who woke me up this morning. Yes, it was the flies that were still in our room. Luckily, they stole me only five minutes of my sleep because we had breakfast at seven anyway. Yesterday afternoon there were many clouds in the sky and in the evening and at night it rained. The garden was still wet, so we had breakfast in the dining hall.
We left Tingmosgang as soon as possible and after a short drive, we were left by the drivers at the edge of a little village called Ang. We started walking on an old caravan highway that was used before the road was built, and although the sun was not shining directly on our heads, it was still very hot. At least it felt hot, my thermometer showed something like 24°C...

our shadows are hiking upwards

One and a half hours later we arrived at our first pass for today. It was 3880 meters high and again marked by prayer flags.
But now only half of our tour was done: we had to walk down into a valley and up again on the other side. I liked that I didn’t have any problems with the altitude. I just walked like I would at home. And the way down was short because I kept talking with a guy from our group and suddenly we were at the bottom. Going up was harder but not long at all.
We reached the second pass with 3815 meters altitude.

3815 meters above sealevel! :)

I was a bit astonished when I reached it because after you go up a steep slope, you don’t expect the pass to be more or less flat on the other side! After having a snack and taking some pictures, we walked down to Hemis Shukpachan, a village that is well known for its juniper trees. There, we walked through green grass and stepped over many little streams. Hemis Shukpachan is an oasis in the middle of a huge mountain desert that has hardly any water. We got lunch boxes and sat in the green to eat them. The things we didn’t want to eat we gave to a small boy who then was happy as a child is on Christmas.

Hemis Shukpachan is a green spot between gray mountains

In total, the four hour-tour was very nice, especially because the weather was not too hot and therefore good for hiking. I didn’t feel completely tired when we arrived and this is a good sign because today we were higher than at the last pass.

What awaited us now was a very long drive back to Leh. The drivers did a really great job because the roads often couldn’t be called roads. In addition to the bad street conditions, we had to wait at a building site. Traffic in India is easy. Nobody obeys the rules and the one with the biggest authority or loudest horn or whatever, wins. Our driver blows the horn at every opportunity: when he doesn’t see around a bend, when there are people on or by the street, when he overtakes and even when he wants to greet somebody. But this is necessary because nobody looks back when overtaking and blinkers aren’t used either...

We safely arrived in Leh and got rooms in our old hotel. Some got the same, we got another which looks the same as our old room. In the afternoon we are going to see a polo match that is set up because of the Ladakh Festival. I never saw a polo match before so this is going to be interesting...

******
I changed the commentary option, if it doesn't work now, I have no idea what to do next.
You can see the picture books now, I had a wrong option there too...
Good night from Leh!

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

Arrival in India

Just a short notice that we arrived safely. After I was nearly 24 hours awake, I could finally fall into my bed in Leh. Everything is great here, the hotel is clean and calm, our guide is very nice and the city is interesting too. What I don't like is the rubbish that is lying everywhere on the street and that is eaten by the cows and dogs that are running free here.

More update tomorrow, I'll bring my laptop then and upload the text I've already written during the voyage.