Final place in Kashmir has been Leh in Ledakh and just like Srinigar it has been amazing. I honestly have never been anywhere this amazing in my entire life- and remember I am incredibly worldly and well traveled. Anyway, Leh is the first place in all of India where we have seen more than 3-4 whiteys ever. And now there are tons of them! Leh is a huge hub of outdoor activities like trekking, fishing, rafting as well as volunteering (lots of Tibetan refugees) as well as yoga and mediation. So pretty much its got it all and the people that are here are all interesting and not just looking for the next party (Thailand and all the 18 year olds). The town is nice and small with tons of awesome food and good shopping (too much good shopping). The altitude here is 3500 meters and thinking I was super tough and cool I did not expect it to effect me. Boy was I wrong as I spent the first two days here being dizzy and nauseous (I may have thrown up once). So our first two days were pretty mild as we got adjusted, mostly just cruising around town and eating delicious Tibetan food (see facebook for some photos of momos, Tibetan dumplings that were amazing). It is also way colder here than we expected so we had to buy some warm clothes- especially Danielle.
On our third day we were able to have an activity day! We didn't have enough time to do a full trek but instead we hired a jeep to take us up to the highest motorable pass in the WORLD! It was 34 km north of Leh and it took us about two and half hours to get up. The road was pretty much single lane with tons of crazy switchbacks. I have seen some pretty big mountains before but nothing compares to the mountains here. We went from a green valley, through desert mountains all the way to full on snowstorm! The last 10 km took us the longest as the road is pretty miserable but we got to get out a bunch and Danielle got to play (fall) in the snow. The top was at 18,380 feet and even being up there for only about an hour made me super dizzy. When we reached the top the weather was beautiful but about 15 min later a storm blew in and we were in a total white out snow storm! Luckily we had an excellent driver that didn't speak a word of English and we made it down nice and safely. Once we got below the storm the sun was beautiful and we had amazing views all around us. I have never seen such incredible scenery.
Today we had quite the shopping day as there is an amazing Tibetan Refugee market with lots of cool trinkets and whatnot. Tonight we get to hop in a jeep around midnight for a 22 hour drive through the mountains down to Manali. We are going to stock up on some delicious yak cheese to make the journey less painful. We will be passing through the Himalayas for the second time so that should be exciting.
So once again I have taken hours of my time and tons of rupees to upload some photos to facebook. Mother, may I suggest you visit your darling god daughter and have Elaine show them to you?
On our third day we were able to have an activity day! We didn't have enough time to do a full trek but instead we hired a jeep to take us up to the highest motorable pass in the WORLD! It was 34 km north of Leh and it took us about two and half hours to get up. The road was pretty much single lane with tons of crazy switchbacks. I have seen some pretty big mountains before but nothing compares to the mountains here. We went from a green valley, through desert mountains all the way to full on snowstorm! The last 10 km took us the longest as the road is pretty miserable but we got to get out a bunch and Danielle got to play (fall) in the snow. The top was at 18,380 feet and even being up there for only about an hour made me super dizzy. When we reached the top the weather was beautiful but about 15 min later a storm blew in and we were in a total white out snow storm! Luckily we had an excellent driver that didn't speak a word of English and we made it down nice and safely. Once we got below the storm the sun was beautiful and we had amazing views all around us. I have never seen such incredible scenery.
Today we had quite the shopping day as there is an amazing Tibetan Refugee market with lots of cool trinkets and whatnot. Tonight we get to hop in a jeep around midnight for a 22 hour drive through the mountains down to Manali. We are going to stock up on some delicious yak cheese to make the journey less painful. We will be passing through the Himalayas for the second time so that should be exciting.
So once again I have taken hours of my time and tons of rupees to upload some photos to facebook. Mother, may I suggest you visit your darling god daughter and have Elaine show them to you?
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