Jul 3, 2012 - Leh

7-3 Early risers, Hee Dong and Jieun are up and out of the room before 6am with the bright sunshine again highlighting a spectacular scene out our window. The crisp air is accompanied once again by a chilly breeze that encourages me to stay under my blanket and write in my journal, ha! Trip back was uneventful tho we tried to get the driver to stop at several monasteries along the way. He did stop at Thak Thok monastery and Shey palace but otherwise, was decidedly uncooperative. We bid a sad farewell to our fellow travellers, Hee Dong,...

Jun 28, 2012 - Leh

6-28 I slept so well that I almost overslept, awaking at 5:35 and proceeding to hurriedly dress and head out since we were told that to get a seat on the bus back to Diskit, you have to be at the bus stop before 6. On the way out ahead of Bon so as to attempt a seat, I met Sîddharth and Atul and Attaullah Khan who said they would not accept any $$$ but explained their project here at Turtuk Holiday. I encourage anyone interested in learning more to, go to their website Karmabhoomi...www.karmabhoomi.org! They are attempting to help the local...

Jun 22, 2012 - Leh

Wiki Info Leh Wiki Info Ladakh Wiki Info Stupa - See Photo 6-22 Woke to the competing calls to morning prayer in this last Muslim town before prayer flag waving Buddhist Ladakh its 3:45am and walking to bus...on the way met couple from Czech Rep. .They hitched a ride from Sonamarg, and at the bus all the same passengers showed up incl 2 French guys and 2 gals from Austin TX. They got a room above a guides office for 1000 rupees for 4 of them! The 3 Indians got a room with the bus drivers friend so all had found someplace which suited their...

Jul 7, 2010 - Leh

We rode into Leh the morning of July 1 and have been hanging out for the last seven days. We have been enjoying pizza, beer and fresh baked pastries and other luxury foods like Nuttela. We've also been taking naps in the afternoon. We're getting fat and lazy, so it's time to get back on the bikes. Tomorrow we will head east of Leh to Pangong Tso, a huge lake that borders both India and Tibet, and then we'll head back north west over Wari La pass to the Nubra Valley. From Nubra Valley we'll head over Kardung La pass (5600m), supposedly the...

Sep 28, 2009 - Leh - Rawan Hindu Religeous Festival at the Polo Ground

The attached photos show a Hindu religeous festival at the Leh Polo Ground. The festival is Rawan, and although I need to do some research you can see from the photos that the large men (and a house) are basically being offered up by fire. You can see the crowd and the children covering their ears - there were large numbers of fireworks and mortars being set off. A pyromaniac's dream......

Sep 27, 2009 - Manali to Leh

Today I passed through the Himalayas. I’ve read about the Himalayas since I was a boy – climbing stories like John Hunt’s Ascent of Everest, Joe Tasker and Pete Boardman’s Shining Mountain, Chris Bonington’s expeditions, K2 stories of tradegy, the list is long. So to actually come here and see the mountains is a long held dream come true. The Himalaya range starts in Pakistan (K2) and extends eastwards through India, Tibet, Nepal and eastern India – Assam and Nagaland. I wanted to visit Pakistan and see the mountains there - together with...

Aug 19, 2009 - No Power Stinks!

So I was writing a nice long blog post about what we've been up to the past few days, and once I'd finshed and was reading it over, the whole town lost power (a rather regular occurance) and I lost the whole thing. As unfortunate as it was, I'll try and recreate it now before I forget what I wrote. Part of it was ironically about how things operate so differently here - like the lack of power! Or how today when we wanted to take out some money we had to go to the only bank in the area and wait in line for about half an hour just to use the...

Aug 17, 2009 - Our Zen Experience

So today was day 3 up here in Leh and I think we're both starting to get acclimatized. On the first day we couldn't even do 10 stairs without being winded and today we did over 500 to climb up to this Buddhist peace pagoda thing above town called the Shanti Stupa. This has definitely been the coolest thing we've done here/the only cool thing we've really done here. We hiked up the 500 stairs, obviously with a bunch of photo ops in the middle (ie time to catch our breath), and once we got to the top we just sat there enjoying the view for...

Aug 15, 2009 - Happy Indian Independence Day!

Happy Indian Independence Day! We arrived in Leh earlier this morning - and boy the Himalayas are beautiful! We've rented a room in a guesthouse here for 300 Rs (about $3 each per night), and the view is incredible! We can see the mountains right out of our window (pictures to come soon)! Leh is about 12,000 ft. above sea level, and you can really feel the altitude. We have to spend the next 48 hours resting (they say you shouldn't exert yourself more than walking to a restaurant to eat), so we're really happy to have such a beautiful...

Aug 12, 2009 - Day off in Leh

Today is a rest day (from riding) and a chance to explore the winding, narrow streets and famous sites of Leh. The bed in the guest house was better but only one sheet, so used light-weight sleeping bag as a top sheet - worked great. My back is not so great and nose and lips are bone dry - some nose bleeding happening. I'm sure the heat and humidity in Delhi will cure that. Went to the ATM really early - 6am - no lineup - and managed to get 10,000 Rupees (about $250 Cdn). Back to the guest house for breakfast at 7am and a meeting at 8. Four...

Jul 17, 2009 - Leh

In Leh, Pascal and Sameer went rafting while Jean stayed at the hotel to rest. Rafting in the Himalayas was unbelievable. Mountains were purple and green, it was very surreal. The rafting itself was easier than expected, Quebec rafting is more difficult but the experience was for sure worth it. We also visited some monasteries were monks live. Jean visted the Leh Palace and Gomand Stupa.

Jul 16, 2009 - Jeep Safari to Tso Kar Lake

We left Tsomoriri Lake this morning at around 8 a.m. to begin the long drive back to Leh, albeit via a different route which would take us past Tso Kar Lake. Tso Kar Lake is a much smaller lake in Ladakh, and in my view, one whose scenery pales in comparison to the visually stunning Tsomoriri Lake. As we neared Tso Kar Lake, our jeep got stuck in the sand upon taking a detour along the side of the road as a road crew was doing construction on the main stretch of road. Our jeep proved no match for the soft sands on the side of the road, and...