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