Stuck in Leh

I should have left Leh and with this the region of Ladakh by now.
However, due to heavy snow fall, the passes which have to be crossed
are closed.
Imagine, the season in Leh just finished and all tourists here want
to go south but are stuck. Everyone is checking all possibilities
but in fact there are just two: wait or fly out. Oh, but the airport
was closed today cos of bad weather. So, everyone has to wait.
I still hope to I can leave tomorrow.
'They' free the road between Leh and Manali (my next destination) pretty fast since it is an important military route (remeber, I am in Kashmir).

I'm here for more than a week and have seen a lot. The first
days were basically relaxing, acclimiatization and exploring Leh.
After, I booked a three day trip to Nubra valley. Two Germans joined me.

To reach the valley, you have to cross the highest motorable pass in
the world, the Kardung La, with an altitude of 5602m. You can feel this hight pretty good. Every step is an effort of its own.

Not only we were traveling that day from Leh to the Nubra valley
but also the Karmapa Lama, the second highest Lama, ranked just after
the Dalai Lama. We met him (and his car caravane) on the way and drank
tea with him. (well, at least from the same pot. :) )
Many locals were standing along the road to greet him. Of course, all
were dressed up in their traditional clothes. A unique experience!

We headed towards the village Diskit where we stayed for the night.
Diskit has an impressive monestry build onto the rocks of a mountain.
Scenic! (see pics)

The next day we visited an other arm of the valley. This part was
less impressive. In the evening we hiked from Hundar back to Diskit
through a sand desert where we almost got lost due to a light sand
storm (sand wind?). On the third day we drove back to Leh.

In Leh, the rally for finding a suitable transportation to go south to
Manali started. I decided to join a group of two Canadians, an
Australian and a retired Canadian couple.
Since we couldn't start the trip yesterday, we went to visit the
monastery of Hemis. Not very impressive but if you hike for an hour
into the mountains, you reach another small monastery where a monk
invited us for tea. He lives there in his cave for the last three
years. Well, that's definitely nothing for me...

I hope to reach Manali soon and then I will go to Rajasthan

Pics from Leh

After getting used to this hight, I explored Leh today. This city is very fascinating. Have you seen the moviel "Kyte Runner"? Well it is very similar here.

Oh, and Indian Food is delicious! :)

3505 meters over sea level!

Here I am, on the moon! Well, almost, at least it looks similar.
I could enjoy the most scenic flight ever! Was stunning. Pics will follow later since internet their broadband connection (ISDN) is slooooooow as hell.

Call from India

Did I mention that I paid CHF80 for my flight to Leh? Well, I was (& am) a bit suspicious whether this offer is serious or not. If I had book the same flight on the companies web page, I would have paid three times more.

Today I received a call from the agency (travelocity.in). They told me that there has been some changes about my reservation. Unfortunately the name of the airplane company changed (was Air Deccan, now it is King Fisher Airlines) and that they do not offer free drinks anymore. They are very sorry about this inconvenience. On the same time, I received an E-Mail containing similar information. Wow! That's what I call 'Service' and this definitely is worth the money I paid more... i mean less. :P

10 days to go

India is covered quite often in the news nowadays, or maybe I'm just more sensitive than before. Unfortunately, these news are not really motivating. Two major issues caught my attention:
There is a flooding in Bihar, northern India. 600’000 people had to be rescued, many are suffering. It's devastating.
Then, there were tensions in Kashmir a few weeks back. Protests and violence in Jammu and Kashmir valley, wide curfews all over the region. It is calm now due to a contract someone signed.

Both places are quite close to areas I was planing to visit (though, not directly). I just hope it won't affect me. Right now, I try to collect relevant news sources which I can check during my time in India to keep me updated about everything. I also found some very very (very!!!) informative communities: www.indiamike.com and www.bcmtouring.com.

Meanwhile, I decided to visit Rajasthan after coming back from Ladakh.
Rajasthan features the sandy Thar Desert where you can do camel trekking. That would be cool, wouldn't it?

Oh, a question, Is it nerdy, if I say that I have my own wiki running where i kind of "paste bin" relevant information? Well, I don't mind. :P