‘ello ‘ello this is your captain ben speaking, we are crousing in life at about 11,000 feet and will be arriving in heaven in approximately…NOW !!! let me just start off by letting you of you reading this know that, well you are all beautiful people, but that we are in ladakh and it is heaven on earth people! I only have one wish in my life right now, that is that everyone has a chance to see what all of us are seeing, pure and utter beauty that has been here for…well a long time. we are seriously missing our other half, it is like being the headless horsemen, you have a seriously sweet horse to ride on, but you can’t see where you are going (i am not sure if that made sense, im rollin with it though). anyway miss crissy left you all off with us going to nubra valley and yes she was right we did go on the highest morotable road on the planet, i know i know calm down i will tell you all about it. it is approximately 4 to 5 hour journey from leh to nubra. starting off on an amazing road going up into the mountains, breathtaking views of the himalayas that slap you in the face they’re so gorgeous (nothing you could capture on a camera, but we tried) stopping about every 30 minutes to snap a quick photo and take a wizz, at 11,000 ft+ the water you drink goes right through you…literally, trust me. we finally get to the top of the pass (yes 18,380 feet i’ll say it again) and stop for another satisfying release and to check out the souvenier shop and take some snaps wish each other next to the world famous sign. anyway it was then a long trek down (trust me with plenty to look at out the window) and about 3 hours later…are we there yet!? we arrive in a small (and i mean small) town called hundar. we stay the night at the snow leopard guest house, after some rigorous haggling with the owner, getting a elegant dinner at a army camp cafe (sarcasm there folks, we ate this stuff called maggie noodles, roman but not as good, and some very very mediocre dosa and samosas). f.y.i. nubra valley is absolultely littered with military presence, army trucks here and there, army camps here and there, you caqn’t escape the madness! no no it wasn’t that bad, just the food they eat blagh, if i had to eat that every day i would honestly just walk across the border of pakistan and let nature take its course. but that is neither here nor there, back to the goods. so we woke up in hundar and had a very expensive 150 rupee (about 3 u.s. dollars) breakfast which consisted of bread, eggs, and butter, oh oh almost forgot the tea, thats what must have made it so expensive, aaaaaaaacha. after that we lightened the mood with possible the highlight of my trip. we hiked up to the gompa in hundar which was about an hour, which desmond (a.k.a. cruch-and-stuff) with me, no offense dizzy. and we walked around the top and just had an amzingly wowing moment staring face to face with one of the most beautiful scenes i have ever seen, its good, goooooooood. ohh almost forgot dizzy removed his cast (all u know he had broken his foot in sikkim) on the first day in hundar right after we got there, let me tell you the thing stunk! ohh it was bad! but it is cool to see him pretty much learn to walk again, he is slowly developing an even stride and, news flash, he hiked in the himlayas the day after he was free of the little devil. it was like seeing a 6 year old eat chocolate, just the look on his face as he says, “holy crap i can bend BOTH of my legs now. i haven’t done that for six weeks”, ohh good stuff. so after our magical hike chris and amber, the french girl we went to pangong with (she also came with us to nubra) went to ride camels! pretty sweet, ohh yeah hundar is pretty much surrounded by sand dunes so there are camels there, funny looking animal if you ask me. but after the camel ride we went all the way around nubra to a small town called sumor, stopping for dinner along the way, and ended up just getting into a guest house, that was actually quite nice. the next day we had breakfast (bread, butter, and tea) and went to panamik, the town that is closest to the boarder of pakistan, for tourists at least (still 100 kilometers from the actual boarder). in panamik there is pretty much only one thing to see, and that is hot springs, yes yes i said it hot springs. these springs are about 100 degrees and smell like sulfur, actually pretty magical and awesome when you are in the middle of nowhere and used to taking cold showers. we dilly dallied around the spring for a while and then went over tot he bathing section. here are the showers (i use that term very lightly) and we all got a chance to bathe, defanitally the most memorable shower i took in india. when i say shower this is whats goin on, you walk from outisde into one of two rooms, these rooms have about a 3 foot boarder and then a pit that is about a cubic meter. stpes lead down to the pit and near the top of the pit, about waist height is a pipe. constantly pouring out of this pipe is 100 degree sufur hot springs water, magic was in the air. a bar of soap was conveniently waiting there for us, no need to prepare. and after you were done bathing, me at least, just went directly outside and dried off in the sun (keep in mind what you are looking at is the himalayas) pretty much one of the best feelings i have had in this country. so after that we started to head back to sumor, and on our way stopped for a small, 15 minute, hike to a lake in the middle of a mountain, kinda. it is hard to explain but it was pretty sweet, green water and surrounded by hills, you wonder how and why that is there. starving we jumped back in the jeep and headed back. we got a good lunch, rice dal and chapati, at a little restaurant in sumor (the best and most filling food we had had in days) and then headed back. some went for a walk to the gompa while others chillin and read and caught up on rest at the guest house. we had an amzing dinner at our guest house and then went off to bed, very nice sleep. the next day (today) we got up early, ate the standard bread butter and tea, then jumped in the jeep for the ride back to leh.. once again the most amazing landscape in the world in the other direction, and it didn’t stop even when we arrived in leh. it is nice to be back and settled, even though we are flying out tomorow and going to delhi, train to aggra to see the taj, then trasin back the next day. its all good in the neighborhood and we are stoked to meet up with the head of the horsemen tomorow. wow, i just wrote an insanely long blog all by myself, im a big boy mommy! sorry if i bored you, if you could see this (*and i hope all of you do some day) you would truly and will truly know. peace easy for now, hope you all enjoyed my rant. i am sure all of you will hear the great details in a couple of days in person as we only have 4 days left in india, wowzuz!!
