OK, so the last time I wrote I explained how much I love Leh, focusing on food, shopping and the awesome views of the surrounding Himilayas.
Yup, still the same.
I decided I needed to do other things because if someone said that yogurt had more culture than me they would be right.....I hate it when I'm not right.
So Clauds and I have been having a great time with Carlos, a 56 year old Colombian who loves to laugh and travel. Works perfectly for us! We all travelled together at 6am one morning (DEATH!!) to go and see morning puja at Thiksay monastry. There were about 40 monks, mainly very old or very young, and we were able to witness them giving their morning offering. This was done through song silence, prayer and butter tea with sampa (tasty, a kind of ground grain that you mix into your tea).
Then it was onto appreciating the natural wonders within Ladakh. We travelled over the third highest pass in the world, (about 5200m) to reach I think the second highest lake in the world, Pangong. This lake is 25% in Ladakh and 75% in China. We had the good fortune to borrow tents and so we camped away from anything or anyone on a hill overlooking the lake. We chatted around a fire and looked up at the full moon.
STUN-NING I tell you. Who knew I would be so into nature?
We also camped at another Lake, Tso Moriri. Just as beautiful, just as fun. But my favourite place so far has been Dha Hanu. I heard whispers about this place back in Srinigar and I was dying to check out if the rumours were true. Carlos, Clauds and I hopped on a bus and travelled seven hours to this fabled place of Aryian Villages that nestled next to the Indus river a mere 20km from the Pakistani border. We had to get permits to be there as this area has only recently been opened up to tourists, and you can tell. Unspoiled nature with none of the usual tourist trappings. We were told to stay at Bema as this was the main place to stay to visit the surrounding areas. So I got off the bus and all I saw was one resturant in something the size of a garage.....and it was closed. "We're screwed" was the first thought in my head. We managed to find somewhere to stay and thank God for that because there was nowhere that we found in the surrounding 100km to eat, so our guest house was our resturant and our shelter from the natural elements. God it was beautiful though. We would go walking for hours and see mountains change colour in the setting sun, the river turning from a bright gold to a smouldering silver. I have never been one to be overwhelmed by nature but there was nothing else that I could do except be awed by it.
We stumbled across a village where we greeted by beautiful children with light honey skin and blue eyes, sandy hair and big smiles. So we finally meet the Arians I had heard so much about. They took us into the heart of their village and gave us chai and chang, (a light alcoholic drink made from fermented barley), and we entertained them with the novelty of our ipods. The next day we wanted to go right into the mountains to see the secluded villages. When we were stopped at a military check point we were informed that our permits did not allow us to go there. This was a tragedy for me. The whole reason I had come this far was because I wanted to ask a local if the rumours I had heard were true. Do German women come all the way her to have pure bred Arian babies?? How could this man in uniform deny me this answer? I don't know how it happened, really I dont, but we had a three person military escort through the several checkpoints and were waved on our way up into the mountains. We were through! We drove up into some of the most beautiful scenary I have ever seen. Lush green valleys between striking are orange mountains. Women with their local dress and flowers in their hair tending to the crops waved us in. It was like something out of a fairytale. We climbed into the village and were greeted with a friendly 'Hello'. It was the local school teacher and he welcomed us into his school of fourteen kids ranging from 2 years to twelve. They all spoke English fluently, as well as Hindi, also whatever their local language was, and a smattering or Urdu and God knows what else. I couldn't believe I was able to converse so easily with a community that to my primitive mind seemed to step straight out of a history book.
These people live in the most amazing location and live to most simple and happy of lives. I came away feeling strangely humbled by the whole thing. I was so distracted by my experience that I almost forgot to ask our local driver my all consuming question. So when we were sitting in his house and having chai I pounced.
"So I have a question and my intention is not to be rude but it is too fascinating for me not to ask it".
He looks at me politely and with some patience, but says nothing. I surge ahead....
"I heard a rumour that German women come here to 'be' the with local men so that they can have pure Arian race babies. True or False?"
He considers the question for a minute or two while I work on my sweat patches and imagine being chased out of the village by men and women brandishing farming implements.
"I remember two years back two German women came here. They were in their late thirties and they wanted to have children. We found out later they both were pregnant". This was a round about way of saying they did the nasty with some locals. SO IT WAS TRUE!!! I was ecstatic that in this modern world something that is such a myth in my mind was a reality. It's like finding out there is no Easter Bunny, but in reverse! He went on to explain that the culture is still reserved so they don't talk about it but it goes on. Women come, they make arrangments, sweaty actions take place and hey presto! Your very own Arian baby.
This world is fascinating
xoxo
Sim
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
I'm Alive
For all my loved ones who are freaking out I write to say I am alive and very very happy, so stop working on those stomach ulcers!!
Really, an update of all my adventures will be coming soon but as I have said many many times over the last three weeks I have stepped into the Bermuda Triangle here.
I'm dashing off so I won't write a big update now but I can't wait to share about camping at lakes in the Himalayas at altitudes of 5000m and my knowledge of where women come from all around the world to breed pure Aryan babies with men in remote mountain villages (no shit!!!)
Tantalizing, no?!
Sorry for the lack of photos but Leh doesn't allow any uploading and the connection here is cronically slow.
xoxo
Sim
Really, an update of all my adventures will be coming soon but as I have said many many times over the last three weeks I have stepped into the Bermuda Triangle here.
I'm dashing off so I won't write a big update now but I can't wait to share about camping at lakes in the Himalayas at altitudes of 5000m and my knowledge of where women come from all around the world to breed pure Aryan babies with men in remote mountain villages (no shit!!!)
Tantalizing, no?!
Sorry for the lack of photos but Leh doesn't allow any uploading and the connection here is cronically slow.
xoxo
Sim
Monday, June 2, 2008
Lazy in Leh
Back home when I was looking at the map of India I noticed that right up in the north there was a place called Ladakh. I instantly decided to go there, the irony being that I decided to go because it is the name of one of my favourite brands of clothing. You can laugh, but I'll have the last one cause it is brilliant here!
Clauds and I hired a jeep and enjoyed the comfort of having the whole thing to ourselves for the 13 hour journey. Our last atempt at a shared jeep was the two of us jammed in the front next to the driver. My knees pushed against the dashboard and every time the driver changed gears, (and you can imagine how often that was climbing steep hills) I was slammed in the thigh and developed a nice oval bruise. So we went to the other extreme of having a car where we stretched out and slept. The drive through was amazing, (but of course) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Our hotel owner from Srinigar said it was like going to the moon, he was right. Kashmir is beautiful and green, Ladakh is striking and bare. There was a point driving high into the hills where it became so cold that it started to snow, we were right on top of the mountains and I had to get out to register with the army men. I came back looking like a human snowman. This country man, I sweat my body weight down south but I freeze my tatas off in the north.
I made an arse of myself talking to Claudia the next day, "You know, we were so high up in the mountains and it was so bloody cold it was like crossing the Himalayas!"
She looks at me for a moment, "It was the Himalayas" she says blandly.
That's what you get for using a clothing brand as your travelling compass.
Anyway we arrived in Leh, the main place in the Ladakh area, and I experienced two things that I have not experinced for quite some time. The need to shop and the need to eat. OK wait, anyone who knows me knows that the latter is a lie, I always want to eat. But the food here is bloody good, the coffee, the cakes and a whole host of Tibeten cuisine such as momos (dumplings). It is a nice change from Indian food, I do still love it but there is so much butter and grease in their meals that it was time for a break. I celebrated by having four meals on the first day, then it was onto shopping!
In one of the first junk shops that we stepped into we ran into Matt, an American with a wicked sense of humour and a passion for movies and TV. Poor Clauds spent the first night listening patiently and Matt and I spent hours throwing quotes back and forth to each other. It wasn't until the end of the night that we looked around and realised that we had scared all the other patrons away. Then this brilliant man showed us to what became our Mecca, a resturant that shows movies on a big screen as you sit around a fire eating, drinking and looking up to the mountains and an obscene amount of stars. I have to say that this is what I did for four days, eat, drink and be merry. I also spend a large amount of time sitting in the cafe called Booklovers eating cake and tea, laughing with the owner. But the big draw card is that he has the whole collection of Tintin comics!!!
So after four fun days with Matt we had to say adios as he scooted off to Delhi, Clauds and I realised that we have done nothing cultural in Leh at all. This was quickly remedied by climbing the mountain to see Leh Palace, Gompa and castle. The altitude nearly killed us, every 20 seconds we had to stop for two minutes to catch our breath. We had to constantly remind ourselves that it was the altitude and not the fact that we were fatties eating cake for the last five days that caused us to be so out of breath. Unbeknownst to us it was Sunday and everything was closed, Murphys Law. As we were making our way up to the castle Claudia and I laughed about the OH&S issues of this climb, one slip could send you sliding down the mountain. As we were laughing I stopped short as I realised I was face to face with a sheer rock that made it impossible to continue. As I looked back to Claudi with a bewildered look on my face I noticed that we had missed the hidden stairs that would lead us to the castle and instead followed the path of what I can only presume was a goat looking for a place to do its business. The climb down was a little tense, wouldn't you be tense if you had to backtrack down a non-existant path in Pumas that were cool but with no grip whatsoever?? Well at least we savoured the view, which was spectacular.
Now we are off to climb another hill to a Stupa, all this pain and exertion in the name of culture! It seems that Claud has picked up where Dave has left off, whenever we have to do excercise (which I never am too keen on) Clauds exclaims in her upbeat voice, "Well, at least it's good excercise!"
I waut till she looks away before I give her my death stare.
xoxo
Sim
Clauds and I hired a jeep and enjoyed the comfort of having the whole thing to ourselves for the 13 hour journey. Our last atempt at a shared jeep was the two of us jammed in the front next to the driver. My knees pushed against the dashboard and every time the driver changed gears, (and you can imagine how often that was climbing steep hills) I was slammed in the thigh and developed a nice oval bruise. So we went to the other extreme of having a car where we stretched out and slept. The drive through was amazing, (but of course) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Our hotel owner from Srinigar said it was like going to the moon, he was right. Kashmir is beautiful and green, Ladakh is striking and bare. There was a point driving high into the hills where it became so cold that it started to snow, we were right on top of the mountains and I had to get out to register with the army men. I came back looking like a human snowman. This country man, I sweat my body weight down south but I freeze my tatas off in the north.
I made an arse of myself talking to Claudia the next day, "You know, we were so high up in the mountains and it was so bloody cold it was like crossing the Himalayas!"
She looks at me for a moment, "It was the Himalayas" she says blandly.
That's what you get for using a clothing brand as your travelling compass.
Anyway we arrived in Leh, the main place in the Ladakh area, and I experienced two things that I have not experinced for quite some time. The need to shop and the need to eat. OK wait, anyone who knows me knows that the latter is a lie, I always want to eat. But the food here is bloody good, the coffee, the cakes and a whole host of Tibeten cuisine such as momos (dumplings). It is a nice change from Indian food, I do still love it but there is so much butter and grease in their meals that it was time for a break. I celebrated by having four meals on the first day, then it was onto shopping!
In one of the first junk shops that we stepped into we ran into Matt, an American with a wicked sense of humour and a passion for movies and TV. Poor Clauds spent the first night listening patiently and Matt and I spent hours throwing quotes back and forth to each other. It wasn't until the end of the night that we looked around and realised that we had scared all the other patrons away. Then this brilliant man showed us to what became our Mecca, a resturant that shows movies on a big screen as you sit around a fire eating, drinking and looking up to the mountains and an obscene amount of stars. I have to say that this is what I did for four days, eat, drink and be merry. I also spend a large amount of time sitting in the cafe called Booklovers eating cake and tea, laughing with the owner. But the big draw card is that he has the whole collection of Tintin comics!!!
So after four fun days with Matt we had to say adios as he scooted off to Delhi, Clauds and I realised that we have done nothing cultural in Leh at all. This was quickly remedied by climbing the mountain to see Leh Palace, Gompa and castle. The altitude nearly killed us, every 20 seconds we had to stop for two minutes to catch our breath. We had to constantly remind ourselves that it was the altitude and not the fact that we were fatties eating cake for the last five days that caused us to be so out of breath. Unbeknownst to us it was Sunday and everything was closed, Murphys Law. As we were making our way up to the castle Claudia and I laughed about the OH&S issues of this climb, one slip could send you sliding down the mountain. As we were laughing I stopped short as I realised I was face to face with a sheer rock that made it impossible to continue. As I looked back to Claudi with a bewildered look on my face I noticed that we had missed the hidden stairs that would lead us to the castle and instead followed the path of what I can only presume was a goat looking for a place to do its business. The climb down was a little tense, wouldn't you be tense if you had to backtrack down a non-existant path in Pumas that were cool but with no grip whatsoever?? Well at least we savoured the view, which was spectacular.
Now we are off to climb another hill to a Stupa, all this pain and exertion in the name of culture! It seems that Claud has picked up where Dave has left off, whenever we have to do excercise (which I never am too keen on) Clauds exclaims in her upbeat voice, "Well, at least it's good excercise!"
I waut till she looks away before I give her my death stare.
xoxo
Sim
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