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... :)

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!

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!

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?