Ladakh

28.07.2008 to 13.08.2008

During our stay in Ladakh we visited Leh, Alchi, Thiksey, Shey and Spituk.

Ladakh means "land of high passes". It is a region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent. Ladakh is renowned for its remote mountain beauty and culture. It is sometimes called "Little Tibet" as it has been strongly influenced by Tibetan culture. In the past Ladakh gained importance from its strategic location at the crossroads of important trade routes, but since the Chinese authorities closed the borders with Tibet and Central Asia in the 1960s, international trade has dwindled except for tourism.

Leh

We found some difficulty in finding an accomodation when we arrived in Leh. Everywhere was either full, booked or not within our budget. At one point there was this monk who offered us a room for Rs300 and given we were in terrible need of a rest, we decided to stay in this guesthouse for the night. Immediately after we settled ourselves in the room we went to look for another accomodation. We found a room at Skyland Guesthouse for Rs200 and decided to move there the following day, especially because Janet fell in love with the hostess of the guesthouse.

Leh is the largest town in Ladakh and stands at an altitude of 3,500 metres. The religion is predominantly Buddhist. The place is beautiful and relatively quiet, though, one of the most touristic places we have been to in India so far. Most of the tourists here come for a short holiday and fly in from Europe, via Dehi. The main reason for their holiday would be trekking as the region is beautiful and offers various type of treks. All of this makes Leh quite an expensive place, compared to the rest of India. Western food, is found on every corner, and souvenir shops and the like, sell their stock at three times the price you would pay from other parts of India. Needless to say we did not purchase anything from here (apart from some nice wood sculptures, typical ladakhi... and cheap).

Leh is one of the places where we really felt at home. The credit has to be given to the owner of our guesthouse, Dol. She took care of us, gave us tea at any time of day for free, and even prepared us delicious ladakhi breakfast. She treated us like family. She was the one responsible for the guesthouse and her daughter Amo, helped her throughout the day. The girl was adorable... always with a beautiful smile on her face. She really worked hard throughout the day... washing dishes in the cold early mornings in order to be ready by the time she had to go to school. Dol also has two sons, a 12-year old and a 14-year old. She has lived in Leh all her life and we were the first Maltese citizens who stayed at her guesthouse (well this practically the case with the majority of the guesthouses we've been to).

In Leh we visited the famous Royal Palace. This was built by King Sengge Namgyal in the 17th century, but was later abandoned when Kashmiri forces besieged it in the mid-19th century. The climb to the palace is breathtaking... both with regards view as well as literally speaking... we were barely able to speak when we got at the top.

During our stay there we experienced two strikes, one due to the opening of the Olympics in China and the other due to elections which were going on in Jammu and Kashmir. In the latter all shops were closed, and had it not been for Dol, we would have "starved" that day. In the evening she made dinner for all the guesthouse which consisted of rice with daal and vegetable together with apple curd for dessert. Some of the best food we have eaten since we have been travelling!! We blessed the strike that day :)

On one of the day we were strolling in Changspa we met Stefan!!! As stated before... India can be so small. We joined him in the restaurant were he was having coffee with another friend of his... Wigi from Scotland. We spent a couple of hours with him and decided to meet in the evening for a drink in a local bar. While in Leh we spent quite some time with Stefan... going for nice walks and visiting Thiksey and Shey. We thoroughly enjoyed his company and hopefully we'll keep meeting him in our travels.

We also made friends with an Italian couple who were staying at our guesthouse... but this part you can read about further down...

Alchi

A few people had recommended us to visit this place so we decided to give it a go. We were at the bus stand two hours before the bus took off to find seats, and even so, the bus was nearly already full. What was most annoying was that there were a lot of places taken with boxes or bags on them. We decided to ignore them and set anyway. The road to Alchi took us four hours in total and we arrived there at eight o'clock in the evening, when it was already dark, We went straight to a guesthouse which was recommended to us by a Tibetan autorickshaw driver, Potala Guesthouse. At first they tried to charge us a staggering Rs800 for a room and we got that down to Rs250.

We spent three nights in Alchi... the guesthouse was quite nice and the village very quite. It is famous for one of the oldest monasteries in Ladakh, mainly known for its wall paintings of the 11th century. The monastery was built by the great translator "Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo". The wall paintings in Alchi Monastery are some of the oldest surviving paintings in Ladkah and reflect artistic and spiritual details of both Buddhism and Hindu kings of that time in Kashmir.

On the other two days we went strolling around the village for short walks, in one of which we were nearly ran over by two donkeys who were chasing each other (most probably for mating). During this short stay we had to change room. On our second night, due to electricity failure, the guesthouse management switched on the generator. Which was positioned underneath our window, which happened to have a broken glass. We leave the rest to your imagination... the room became like a gas chamber. On the whole our stay was a very pleasant one, especially our return back to Leh, where we had a lucky strike and managed to find transport at nearly the same price as the bus fare, but being the only two passengers in a very comfortable four wheeler :)

Thiksey and Shey

As said before we went to visit Thiksey and Shey with Stefan on the day when there was a total strike in Leh. The day proved to be a very pleasant one. Our first stop was Thiksey Monastery.

Built some 600 years ago, Thiksey Monastery consists of 12 levels ascending a hillside, culminating in an incarnate lama’s private abode at the summit. The Gonpa contains 10 temples, below the monastery itself are chapels and houses of monks stretching down the hillside. There are about 100 monks of the yellow- hat sect of Buddhism. After entering the main courtyard to the immediate right and up several steps is a new temple containing a large Buddha statue. The H.H. Dalai Lama constructed this Buddha, 15 meters tall, in 1980 to commemorate a visit to Thiksey.The statue was made under the guidance, supervision and direction of Kushok Nawang Chamba Stanzin, the present head Lama of Thiksey monastery. The statue is the largest Buddha figure in Ladakh which took four years to construct and is made of clay and covered with gold paint. 

It houses the sacred Kangyur and Stangyur texts. The statue was made entirely by the local craftsmen and represents Maitreya (compassion in Sanskrit) - the Buddha of future. The prophecy made of the future Buddha is that the world will be undergoing such chaos that the future Buddha will teach compassion to the people. Located directly above this temple is a small narrow room used as schoolroom for the local boys. Here the Lamas instruct the children and some are later selected to become lamas. Traditionally, Ladakhi families donated one son to become lamas, although this practise is gradually disappearing. Returning to the main courtyard and going up the steep steps directly across from the new temple, on the far wall will be murals of two Tibetan calendars, with wheel of life. To the right of these murals is man prayer room, which contain racks of books along the left wall. Many of these books are handwritten or painted. Recent addition is done in block printing. In a small room behind the main prayers room is large image of Sakyamuni (the historical Buddha) flanked by two smaller Bodhisattava images. On the left is the eleven- headed Avalokitashwara, a form of the Buddha. On the rooftop is Lamokhang temple where only men may enter. 

Also on top is Thiksey library, containing numerous volumes, including Kangyur and Stangyur.

The site of the monastery from a distance has a particular charm to it... at first sight the building looks quite run down, when in fact it is very well kept.

Our second stop was Shey. Once again we had a walk uphill to arrive at the main attraction... the largest Golden Buddha statue in Ladakh. Shey Palace was not at all impressive, nothing compared to what we saw in Thiksey. Yakof and Stefan opted to climb all the way up to the ruins of the old palace... Janet decided to give it a miss... she had had enough steep climbs for the day. While waiting for them she enjoyed looking at the locals washing and polishing the gold and silver ornaments of the temple. Our new friends

We mentioned before that we made friends with an Italian couple. Their names are Mirko and Giulia. We started chatting initially about their lost luggage. They had flown in Delhi from Italy and had to catch a flight to Leh. In between connections they lost one of their luggages which contained all their trekking equipment!! That left them stuck in Leh, unable to plan anything, for four days. During the same time they were telling their story, their backpack was delivered at the guesthouse safe and sound. We had long chats with them... obviously in Italian... which, helped to brush up our Italian quite a bit. Unluckily, during the time we were in Ladakh, Kashmir was not very safe for tourists, so we opted, half-heartedly, to give it a miss. Upon Stefan's advice, Mirko and Giulia cancelled their flight and managed to get half of their money back. They decided to come down to Manali with us. In the end they opted to go to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple, via Mc Leod Ganj, before heading back to Italy. It is amazing how much we clicked with them and enjoyed our time together. We really hope that we will manage to meet in the future.

So this is the end of our Ladakhi adventure... setting off again for our two-day trip back to Manali...