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... :)

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!