Moonland

Did I tell you that Dharamsala was my favourite place in India? Well, that was before I saw Ladakh! I'm officially in love with this place! It's a perfect place for Vio!

We arrived to Leh with Baska and were both immediately enchanted with the people there. They are amazingly soft, quiet and extremely kind. Their magic word for everything is "juley" (pronounced "joolay"). I can tell you, you feel like a queen of England when a lady on a street greets you with the most cheerful smile and "juley", like you just made her day by simply being in her way!
And of course the landscape! Endless mountain desert - sometimes only rocks, sometimes sand, sometimes some attempts of a greenery. The vast space that one gets there is humbling you to a little human being that should know his place on Earth and respect the Mother Nature. You can feel there the power of the giant mountains and the altitude, the weather that can change in some minutes, the power of water that destroys rocks, roads, floods the villages, the power of the sun that burns you painfully within quarter of an hour...
We are on the roof of the world! Leh, the biggest town, is at 3500m. My body sometimes felt like not my body - less oxygen made me tired, breathless or dizzy...but bloody happy to be there :-)

Buddhists everywhere. There is so much peace and kindness in the air... If the whole world could be like this :-) Although Buddhism had originated in India, Ladakh and Dharamsala are remaining oasis of this religion in India.
Ladakh used to be a kingdom. Going through different rulers and periods of better or less good prosperity, it was finally joined with India by the British in 1947. They still feel Ladakhi though, not Indian.
It's the most clean state in India I have ever seen. The eco conscious and self sustainability is very present for obvious reasons - for most of a year they are cut off from the rest of the world. Nevertheless, at the altitude above 3000m they have electricity (with frequent power cuts but what to do!), Internet!, little veg gardens by every household and efficient distribution of drinking water (to avoid plastic bottles).

I intended to trek here a lot but it happened otherwise, as often during travels. We hanged out with interesting people, having interesting discussions, went around to see old Buddhist temples, had meditation retreat out in one of the villages, learnt to ride a motorcycle! :-)

This a couple...of Ladakhi shousies... :-) 

I like Buddhist idea of locked door - the keys are hanging next to the door :-)













We needed to deserve to ride this bike - we walked for a loooooong time to any open and running gas pomp... Then only we had our fun :-)

A couple of days of trekking gave me a good taste for more! The ever changing landscapes from valley to valley, the vastness and emptiness, the roughness of nature here: hot sun, harsh mountains, fast streams, make it perfect place for Vio! I absolutely loved it!

My night at "million star hotel".
I slept outside like Ladakhi used to do in the summer. Now they don't 'cause don't want to be considered as "backward people" and villein...
Sad, as the climate is perfect for watching stars as you drift into a dreamland.
And that's the view when I opened my eyes in the morning :-)