still on the road

It's time for a new post after such a long time of absence. One of the reasons for my lat update were the very high charges for the use of the internet in Leh. However, what have I done the last few weeks??? After the Vipassana course I went on a 5-days homestay-trek from Spituk to Chilling, climbing a 4800m pass, with two guys from the Vipassana course, South-African Korver and Swedish Nadim. Jorrit headed down south, finally, after being my travelling-buddy for more than a month. Well, I'm used to saying goodbye in the meanwhile. However, the homestay trek was gorgeous. We trekked around 5 to 6 hours a day and stayed in little settlements in the mountains with private families. It gave me a very interesting insight into Ladakhi life. The trek was just perfect, not too hard and not too easy. On the trek we met Austrian Karlo and English Bec with whom we trekked the last two days until we reached our final target, Chilling. After returning to flooded Leh -it had rained for days like never before in the Ladakh- Karlo, Bec and me decided to do a meditation week-end retreat in Stok, close to Leh. But after spending the first night there in damp-wet tents the retreat was cancelled because Stok was going to be flooded as well - the rain had not stopped yet. However, we had to spend the following 4 or 5 days with doing dayly trips to the neighbouring villages, visiting countless gompas and doing small hikes. Bigger treks and other trips were impossible because of the floods which blocked various important connecting roads within the Ladakh. The following week the wheather calmed down a bit and we decided to do a motorbike tour to the Nubra Valley which is the most northern part of India, very close to the Pakistani and Chinese boarder. Well, about 30 km off the boarder line is military area and not accessible for tourists. However, I had never ridden a big motorbike before and it was quite a challenge because the road led over the highest motorable pass in the world, the Kardung La which is 5800 m/a/s. After a short introduction on riding a motorbike we - Bec, Karlo, Texan Mark and QQ (Quebecan Marc) and myself- headed up north. The road up to the pass was definitely a challenge because the road is very often not paved and partly washed away by streams or landslides. But we did it!! On the pass it started snowing and hailing. So we stopped at the first settlement down to the Nubra valley because we were all soaked and freezing. So we arrived in Kardung. The place consists of not more than 10 houses and some shabby tents the roadworkers use as their accomodation. And there was only ONE guesthouse which does not even deserve to be called so. The building seemed to have been under construction sometimes but in the meanwhile was abandoned. The ceilings were all leaking and the matresses were soaked. There was no restaurant but only a shabby tea stall where Maggi noodles were the only dish they sold. However, we survived and headed further to Diskit, the administrative center of the Nubra Valley. The ride became very nice and the valley revealed its famous sand-dunes. The views were stunning. The landscape is a mixture between snow-paeked-mountains, the Sahara desert and a green fertile belt of green vegetation with an icy stream flowing through. We also viewed some wild Camels living up there in this isolated valley. Alltogether we spent one week in Nubra and then returned back to Leh. The damages of the floods were still not repaired yet and there was only electricity every 2nd day for 3 hours in the evening between 8 and 11 pm. Indian efficiency:-) But after this long trip I felt that I was done with the Ladakh. It was time to continue my trip soon. Before leaving I still wanted to see the two salt-water lakes Tso Moriri and Tso Kar close to the Chinese boarder so Bec, Karlo and myself joined a Spanish couple renting a jeep and going on a 3 days trip to see these lakes. Tso Moriri was nice but not really mind-blowing but Tso Kar was stunning. Unfortunately the wheather was quite bad again. Back to Leh I decided to join Bec in going via Kashmere to Dharamsala and Mc Leod Ganj. Finally I left Leh and headed east. We stayed overnight in Lamayuru -another Gompa- and headed further to Kargil at the boarder from the region of Ladakh to the region of Kashmere. And again we got stucked because some landslides had blocked the road to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmere. So we had to spend three nights in Kargil, a quite poor but kind of exotic place in the Ladakh. The population is already muslim and ethnically and culturally they belong to the region of Baltistan which is now split up between Pakistan and India. Lots of local families have relatives in Pakistan. It already felt like Central Asia there and not like the Ladakh or India. However, the third night the bus finally left and we went on towards Srinagar. We arrived in the morning. Srinagar was not the way I have imagined it at all. From the media I figured up a quite negative picture of this region. Kashmere is more developped than most of the regions I have seen in India so far. Whether this is due to governemental support or the flow of money from exiled Kashmeris I cannot say. However, it does not really feel like India and the cultural ties to central Asia and the Persian roots of the population are obvious. The climate is comparable to the most southern part of Switzerland, the Ticino. The wheather is mild with a lot of sunny days, though not hot and the land is very fertile.
Bec and me did the traditional tourist attraction, we rented a houseboat. Houseboats were formerly introduced by the British colonialists and ever since exist and are rented out to tourists. Our houseboat was just great and since there are only few tourists right now in Kashmere, the prices were almost ridiculous. So we enjoyed a british-upper-class-sophisticated-colonial holiday on this gorgeous boat. after 5 days we eventually decided to leave. But again, we got stucked because the road to Jammu was closed because of landslides and floods. However, I was not too sad to stay since our accomodation was more than comfortable. After another four nights the bus finally left and we headed via Jammu to Dharamsala and Mc Leod Ganj where I am now. The place is nice, very Tibetan (biggest refugee community in India because the Dalai Lama lives here!!) but permanently enwrapped in a cloud. The monsoon has not left yet so the place is veeeery wet. However, that's the update for the las few weeks and I'll upload pics as soon as possible.
Cheers.
M.