Ladakh

Ladakh was beautiful. It is on the other side of the Tibetan plateau and has very similar culture and landscape to Tibet. There was tons and tons of military since it is part of Kashmir and smack between Pakistan and China. We went to the Tso Moriri lake, half of the lake is in India and half in China. (No photos allowed). I met an inspirational Belgium biker who cycled down from the Khardongla Pass, ( highest motorable pass in the world 5600 mts). I was dying to go with him, but the only bikes available to rent were the single speed cycles. I briefly did consider it, but instead we drove there and passed the magnetic mountain on the way up, a stretch of road called Magnetic Hill. The magnetic force is sooo strong that you slip the car into neutral and you get pulled up the hill (i am dead serious). I was so freaked out! if you pull out a magnetic compass it just spins in circles.

Ladakh was a great adventure. I had met Misch on my trek to Triund, just outside Dharmasala and Audra the morning of the blessing by the Dalai Lama's oracle in Mcleod Ganj in Feb. (They didn't know each other at the time). And then randomly ran into them in Ladakh, miles and miles away. It really is a small world. I got to Ladakh a little early, well before the peak tourist season. It was great, there were probably about 10 tourists in town, of which I more or less met all. I did some sight seeing with a Swiss, Brit and Swede. I met an American girl who was working at a school and was looking for volunteers. I volunteered in a class room of disabled children who for the most part couldn't walk or talk and ranged in age from 4 to 10. I felt really really really helpless! My sister in law told me to just smile at them, which I tried to do. At times my smile was trying to conceal my tears. I didn't last too long there. Rocky, I really admire the time with worked with disabled children in C-town. You had the double whammy of disablities and the C-town factor. It was overwhelming for me and made the volunteer work I did at the orphanage in Rishikesh seem like a treat. We visited some ancient monasteries (Alchi, Hemis, Leh Palace, Khalsi, SHey Palace), waterfalls and high passes before setting out on a 5 day trek with my other 2 Invisibles (Audra and Misch). We got directions and advice from some of the locals. They showed us the path to start on and told us what villages to stop at. We were slightly concerned about directions, but they just told us to "ask anyone if confused, just stay on the path-no problems, no problems. IF the altitude bothers you....take rest only". Yeah, might seem easy for them, but there were places to turn and we didn't see a soul all day. You wouldn't really call it a well travelled path. You trek all day on a dirt path, praying you are going the right way and arrive at a village (hopefully). No guest houses, no shops, no restaurants and you have to find a family to stay with. We got a recommendation for the first night and then each family gives you a name of who to find in the next town. The hospitality was amazing. You come to these villages after trekking all day and not seeing a soul, find your family and shack up with them for the night. You might get a few words of English, but that is about it. No electricity (yeah, my camera battery died on day 3 or so), no running water and a true compost outhouse/bathroom facility. One morning a goat busted in on Misch while he conducted his morning "motions". Sorry Misch, had to put it in. Indians love asking how your "motions" have been. It really is a riot. They are so open about everything and anything. Ladakhi families usually have about 3 generations living under one roof. Family life revolves around the kitchen, usually the only place with heat (from the clay oven). They cook for you, offer you a place to rest, feed you again in the morning and then send you off with vague directions to the next village. Nini and Tariq, it wasn't like the family we stayed with in Costa Rica, we didn't have to call them "Mama and Papa". We had no maps or anything and were lucky to make it to each village each day before sunset. The landscape is like a dry cold desert. Days are hot and sun is strong and nights are really cold. After 5 days you get to a village with a road and we had to hitch hike part of the way on a school bus and then got another bus (the one pictured below that broke down). There were tons and tons of military bases and from Leh, you would see fighter jets circling around in the morning, one after another. The passes from Sringagar and Manali weren't open yet, so no fresh fruit or veggies came into the area. Lots of dried apricots, nuts, raisins, momo's, tsampa porridge; all great, but i really missed fresh produce and after trekking got really excited to go to Nepal. Things had cleared up and I booked a flight to Kathmandu. I was sad to leave India, but my visa was about to expire, and there was more of the world to see. If not, I easily could have stayed in India......forever.