Leh

This is the third time I've tried to write this blog, but I keep losing it because the power goes out. Three times is a charm!

The bus trips to and from Leh, Ladakh went over some of the highest mountain passes in the world. We crossed a few passes that were over 17,000 ft and one that was over 18,000 feet! They were narrow, windy roads that were full of pot holes. They weren't even paved in places and there were huge cliffs with no guard rails! At one point during the journey I saw another bus that was hanging halfway off of a cliff over a river! I felt so bad for the people on that bus. They were all just standing on the side of the road on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere in the freezing cold as we just cruised by. Scary! It definitely challenged my fear of heights at times, but it was so well worth it. I have never seen more beautiful scenery in my life! Words cannot even begin to describe how amazing it was!

I didn't even open my book the entire 2 days because every corner we turned offered an even more spectacular view! I tried to take some pictures out the window, but the don't even begin to capture massive scale of the mountains. We traversed up to the very top of the mountains. We were literally in the clouds! We passed through huge fields of glaciers that started melting into raging rivers. There were green valleys with goats and sheep grazing, and dry deserts where nothing grew but there were huge jagged rocky mountains everywhere. We were above tree line for the majority of the trip. We passed by huge cliff faces with little huts built right into the side of the mountain and people wrapped in thick blankets and shawls. We drove through the biggest canyon I have ever seen! We stopped in, Drass, the second coldest inhabited place in the world! The coldest is Siberia. We stopped for the night in Kragil a small little mountain town. We were only there long enough to eat and sleep a few hours before leaving again early the next morning. The mountains changed constantly. I saw glaciers and dry desert and everything in between. At one point there were huge walls of snow that were taller than the bus on either side of the road. In one canyon that we drove through I saw over 30 waterfalls! I've never seen so many waterfalls in my life! It was amazing!

We arrived in Leh late Saturday afternoon. I found a cute little guest house with a window overlooking a beautiful garden run by a cute elderly Tibetan couple. Leh is 11,500 feet. It was freezing there at night. I had to wear long underwear every night, and I had to buy a hat and gloves. It's in a very dry valley surrounded by mountain peaks, and little farming villages. There are temple ruins, ancient palaces, and monastaries everywhere in Ladakh. Leh is a magical, beautiful, and very spiritual place. Prayer flags are flying everywhere. Over the streets, bridges, and all of the homes. An ancient palace ruin sits on a mountain overlooking the town, and on the other side a huge white stupa towers over the town.

It's another Tibetan community full of Tibetan refugees. There aren't nearly as many monks here as there were in Dharamsala, but there are some. It's definitely a different culture here, so high in the mountains. Life is hard for these people who have to grow all of their food in the few short summer months for the entire year! In the winter electricity is fleeting and entire families huddle into one room of their tiny homes to conserve heat for the entire long winter! If it's this cold in June, I can't imagine how cold the winters are. The mountain passes to get to Leh are only open for 3-4 months a year, and even then they're extemely treacherous.

The first day I was here I walked up the huge flight of stairs to the top of the mountain where the huge stupa towers over the valley. The views at the top were spectacular. The stupa itself is spectacular. It's name is Shanti Stupa. You can walk up a huge staircase and walk around the entire stupa. It's covered in intricate, colorful paintings and 4 huge statues depicting the Buddha in several different stages of his life. I then went into the prayer chamber. The Buddhists certainly know how to surround themselves with beautiful things. All of their sacred paces and monastaries are covered with colorful tanka paintings, fabrics, cushions, and flags. They have beautiful alters and statues of deities. They keep candles and incense burning, and you can feel how sacred it is the second you walk in. Not one inch is uncovered.

After visiting Shanti Stupa, I met a German girl named Nina and we went on a walk down a dirt road through ancient ruins, and a little farm town to the top of another hill with another smaller stupa. The farm villages have stone walls lining all of the streets and separating the fields. Their homes are flat huts, made of stone. Every town has at least one huge prayer wheel. When I walk through these villages I feel like I'm going back in time. I spent all day walking through the villages and countryside surrounded by the mountains. At the end of the day I somehow lost Nina, so I walked back to town by myself.

The next day I hired a driver with a young couple from California who I met on the bus from Srinagar. We visited 2 monastaries, and a palace ruin on the outskirts of town. This is such a magical place. There are sacred places everywhere here. We went to Hemis that is a beautiful monestary covered in colorful painting and filled with sacred statues and prayer wheels. We visited a museum there that was full of ancient artifacts from Ladakh Buddhism. We saw clothing, locks, gem embedded golden statues, jewelery, weapons, instruments, paintings, books, tea pots, and much more. It was so cool and I could really imagine what life in this culture might have been like so many years ago.

We visited another monastary named Thiksey that sits on a mountain overlooking a beautiful valley with snow capped peaks surrounding it in every direction. Again it was beautiful, colorful, sacred, and intricitely decorated. One of these monastaries was built in the 1400s and the other was built in the 1600s. We spent a lot of time exploring all of the different rooms, bending down to get through the tiny doorways. We visited libraries, prayer halls, and a roof top with amazing views. We saw 2 Buddhas that were 3 stories high! We visited a crumbling palace ruin called Shey Palace. It sits on top of a mountain. We went to the very top. We had to climb a little bit in spots, but when we got up to the top we were the only ones up there. It was magical standing on top of those ancient palace ruins with beautiful views all around and prayer flags blowing in the wind.

The next day I visited 2 more monastaries by myself. The first one I visited was Spituk. It was an older and less preserved monastary. I was the only person there. The old monks who live there and are the caretakers were so cute. One of them invited me to sit down in one of the rooms with 21 statues of Tara. I sat on the floor and petted his cat. He made me tea and I sat while he chanted softly while watering plants and tidying up. He was so sweet! The next place I visited was Stok Palace. Again, I had the whole place to myself. Another monk took me on a tour through their smaller museum that was broken up into 4 different rooms. He smiled while trying to explain everything to me in broken English. I spent some time just sitting and soaking in the views before going back to town. Leh is amazing and I probably would have spent more time there if it wasn't so cold! I didn't want to buy a lot of warm clothes since I would be in much hotter places for the rest of my trip, so after 5 days I decided to move on, but it was a very special place and I had a beautiful time there!