Well, sort of. Our half of the group is in Ladakh, which is at around 10,000 ft. elevation. The four of us agree that this is one of the coolest, most amazing places we’ve ever been to, hands down.
To get here we took an overnight bus from McLeod Ganj to Delhi, which wasn’t exactly fun, but was actually more comfortable than some (much longer and less nice) trips I’ve taken on the Greyhound bus. We got to Delhi and our favorite hotel, the Shelton, in early morning, took naps, and set out for our day. We went to the Baha’i Lotus Temple, which was pretty spectacular. It’s designed by the same person who designed the Sidney Opera House in Australia, and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, and the acoustics inside were mind-blowing! We sat inside the Lotus for a bit, heard some prayers and a woman singing this amazing song that seemed to reverberate all through the temple. After the temple, we went to go see a movie (Monsters Vs. Aliens) which was hilariously ridiculous, and ate at Ruby Tuesday’s, which I would not recommend doing in India!
The next morning we got up super early for our flight to Leh, the main city in Ladakh. It was short, but one of the most beautiful flights ever! Looking out the window, once we got out of the smog of Delhi and up over the mountains, there were high, defined snow-covered peaks as far as the eye could see. It was a pretty awesome experience flying over the Himalayas!
After our arrival we spent the first two days exploring the city of Leh. It’s super quiet and clean, and there are awesome trees. The people are so friendly. It is really like nowhere else in the world, at all. I don’t know if words would do it justice. Ladakh was an isolated place, with almost no contact from civilization until recently (maybe within the last fifty years or something? I watched a video about it seven years ago, can’t really remember the specifics), and is in the northernmost Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. The elevation makes it pretty cold at night, but warm and toasty during the day. It’s now a heavily touristed place, but we are here before all of that begins for the year, which is pretty nice.
Yesterday, we went with two other travelers we’ve met (one from France and one from Israel) to Pangong Lake. To get there we drove through a snow-covered pass on the third highest motorable road in the entire world. It was breath-taking, driving through soooo many mountains like that. As Karen put it, it felt like we were driving through a painting. And the elevation was insane. We were at 17,586 ft! We stopped for a bathroom break, and the bathroom was actually covered in frozen pee! This was at an Indian army stop, and they had tea and (disgusting, supposedly boiled) water for us to fill up on. We drove through lots of checkpoints and made our way to lower ground to the lake, which was pretty deserted, and still a bit frosty at some parts. The lake is right on the border of Tibet, as in a quarter of the lake actually belongs to Tibet, and so we walked/drove to the point, also called the Line of Actual Control, which was pretty much deserted and uneventful. It was cool to know we were that close to Tibet, that now makes two borders we’ve been super close to.
We headed back on a wild ride through the same snowy passes and back down to Leh, at which point 10,000 ft felt like nothing. On the way back we had some English pronunciation lessons with our Israeli friend which I can’t repeat on this blog but which Karen caught on video. Never-ending laughs.
When we arrived back in Leh, we watched a parade for Tenzin Gyatso, the fifteenth Llama, as it was his birthday.
Today we’re going to a palace that’s up in the mountains and possibly to a monastery as well, and might visit the Tibetan Medical and Astrology Center where our friend Norbu’s sister’s husband works. I can’t wait to check it out!
Tomorrow we are headed to the Nubra Valley for a few days and nights. To get there we will be on THE highest motorable road in the entire world! It’s going to be an adventure. While there we’re going to do some trekking and camping. Desmond still has his cast on, so he and I might ride horses instead of hike so we can keep up. Oh, and my glasses got broken while being tossed around in the back of the jeep on the ride yesterday, so that is a bummer, but we’re going to see if we can make them last a few more days.
Our homestay is awesome, in beautiful rooms with an awesome family, who cooks us delicious Ladakhi meals and makes some of the best tea we’ve had in India. We’ve only felt really minor altitude affects (minor headaches and lightheadedness) and really wish the other half of our group was with us to be experiencing this most amazing place. All of us have talked about wanting to come back someday.
That’s all for now, I’m sure we’ll have more to report about our adventures after we return from the Nubra Valley.
~Chrysanthemum
