India Part IV

Our final destination in India was to the high Himalayan region of Ladakh.
Also known as “Little Tibet” it sits only about 45 miles from the border of Tibet and is made up of mostly Ladakhis and Tibetan refugees. The capital city of Leh sits at 12,000 ft., which is a nice little shock coming from sea level and polluted air of Delhi. I found my self-gasping for air as if I was a 2 pack a day smoker half way through the Boston Marathon.
Ladakh itself is something else; there are beautiful thousand-year-old Monasteries perched on top of little cliffs all over the Indus valley, which Leh sits in. Being in Ladakh truly felt like being back in Tibet, with yak butter candles burning in the monasteries, beautiful blue skies and terrain that looks like Mars. The flight into Leh brings you over some huge sections of the Himalayas and has to be one of the most spectacular flights there is.
We did however go up there in Mid-April, thinking that it might be a little cold but clear skies, instead we were welcomed by a few inches of snow and temperatures in the mid 20’s. That also got a little frigid on our 150 km Vespa ride to Lamayuru over several 14,000 ft. passes. Claire and I let Matty talk us into the whole endeavor and it ended up being beautiful, cold, painful and cold. The ride itself was spectacular but freezing, my knock off North Face jacket was not doing much. We hired an “expert” mechanic to come with us incase of a serious problem but instead he pretty much created the only serious problem that we had. While riding home on our final day there was some freezing rain dropping and the guy decided to gun it on a piece of road that was transitioning from pavement to gravel. Needless to say, Claire who was riding on the back of his bike felt the brunt of it when she was thrown of the back and skid on the left knee for a good 10 yards. Luckily she wasn’t hurt too bad, but she may have a nice little scar to remind her of our lovely Vespa ride through the Himalayas.
Our last day was also the day that the Chinese torch was going to be ran through Delhi, the capital of all of India which also meant there were going to be some huge protests. The people of Leh had a huge Free Tibet rally which was moving to say the least. I have never been a part of something where so many people expressed so much passion and anger for the lose of their homeland, really inspiring.
All in all Ladakh was beautiful, again another place that I would have loved to have spent more time, but with the schedule that I set it’s just not possible. Maybe someday I’ll actually slow my trips down to a more human pace….. Nah.

Next stop… The Philippines!

India Part III

After leaving Nepal, we flew directly to the holy town of Varanasi. Varanasi is located on the Ganges River and is the most Holy place in all of India for Hindus. It is considered highly sacred and fortunate to have your ashes burned and sent afloat down the Ganges. We stayed at a hotel that was just two ghats away from the famous burning ghat, which is where 24 hours a day, bodies are brought out with their remaining loved ones, dipped in the Ganges and then set on fire. It takes about an hour for the bodies to burn, after which their ashes are sent down the Ganges. The remarkable thing is that it’s so holy that it’s great luck to bath in it, drink it and pretty much do everything in it. As you can see in one of the pictures below, the people whose families cannot afford for them to be cremated are just dumped in the river. So you will literally having people swimming and bathing while 10 yds. Away a dead bloated body floats by while birds pick at the rotting flesh. Ahhhhh, India. Varanasi was the most full blown feeling of pure Indian chaos that I have felt while here, I love the place but a few days is enough for me.
Amritsar, which is home to the Golden Palace, is the most sacred site for the Sikhs. This was another fascinating place, that had people bathing (in much cleaner water) at all hours of the day. We only had half of a day there so we made our pilgrimage at 4am and spent most of the morning there. I want to learn more about the Sikh religion, but from what I could tell there was a lot of swords, big turbines and even bigger people. The Sikhs are by far the largest people we saw in India.
Our next and final stop before heading high into the Himalayas was Dharmasala. Dharmasala is the home to the Tibetan government in exile and also a hot bed of activity since the start of the recent clashes between The Chinese and Tibetans. Everywhere you turn is another Free Tibet sign and more information about charities/causes/organizations/etc… It really felt good to be there during such an important time, after being to Tibet 3 years ago I feel like I really have somewhat of an idea of what these people are fighting to regain. Go figure, the Dalai Lama was in the Stated giving a speech, but there were still a lot of influential people in Dharmasala at the time and it was great enough to be in such a positive place.