Ladakh Living

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