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We only spent one night in Kargil, serving as a stop to break up our journey from Padum to Srinagar, where we were going to spend several days before returning to Dehli. Kargil, a predominantly Muslim area, is near the Pakistan-India border as well as the border between Ladakh and Kashmir. It is a small town with a rich history as major stop on the silk road that led into India. There… Read More
Finishing in Leh we headed out on a wonderful road trip through amazing scenery. It was so amazing that the majority of this post is going to be photos in an effort to convey how beautiful this part of the world is. We visited several more monasteries along the route, two that dated back to the 10th century and two relatively more modern- only a few hundred years old, but as I… Read More
Our first stop of the day was early, 7am, at Disket Monastery to observe the morning prayers. The monastery, founded in 1433 for the yellow hat sect, has five temples and over 50 monks living there although most were absent when we visited. The monks perform prayers twice daily, the morning session, which we were attending, and another in the evening. We arrived a bit early and spent some time wandering through… Read More
Our goal today was to explore the Nubra Valley, cut over the centuries by the Nubra River which originates from glacier and snow melt. The Nubra River merges with the Shyok River and the combined rivers continue until joining the Indus River. To get to the Nubra Valley we had to retrace our steps from yesterday back to the Shyok Valley to get to the bridge over the Shyok River. Once on… Read More
We headed out of Leh around 9am to climb through the Khardung La Pass, the second highest pass in the world at 18,380 feet (the highest is, of course, also in the Himalaya and nearby) to descend into the Nubra Valley to spend a couple of days exploring. I was a bit worried about the trip as I was still feeling the altitude— although my nausea was gone, my headache was still… Read More
Unfortunately, I did not feel better in the morning, having had a sleepless night due to a splitting headache. I was really bummed as altitude had never bothered me before (this was only 11,500 feet!) but, being cautious, I got a hold of some Diamox and started a regime in order to acclimatize more efficiently. Luckily our main activity today was to attend the Hemis Tsechu festival at the Hemis monastery near… Read More
Northern India, specifically the Ladakh Valley, has been an area I have long been wanting to visit. About a decade ago I explored treks in the area looking at routes designed to meander by many of the historical remote Buddhist monasteries that dot this area of the Himalayas. However, as I revisited possible trips to Ladakh this past year, I had to acknowledge that, at the moment, I was not in good… Read More
The traffic rule I derived from years of study of Moscow traffic, namely “nothing exists behind you” was also applicable to the traffic patterns I found in India. I visited India after already having spent several years adjusting to Moscow but the sheer diversity and number of people on the roads in India took me aback. As in Moscow, studying the traffic was highly entertaining and great for people watching, which luckily… Read More
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