Archive for October, 2008
French Thomas is Back
By Thomas on October 20, 2008 | No Comments »
Guess who we ran into in Leh. You might remember French Thomas, who we met last year in Sichuan. (I’m probably Thomas allemand in his world.) In the spirit of recalling good times, these pictures are from last year and show him at the Hadi nunnery, a 3-hour walk from Dargye Gompa, one of our favorite places in China.
The Buddhist nuns at Hadi Gompa were obsessed with French Thomas. Being jewelery-starved women, nuns or not, they all wanted his silver rings. That day, he almost lost a finger when the nuns » Continue reading this post »
Sophisticated Isolation
By Thomas on October 18, 2008 | No Comments »
Leh is not exactly what we were expecting. Considering the 2-day odyssey to get here, we were completely taken by surprise to find a booming tourist town nestled in a sea of military development at a breathless 3,500 meters above sea level. The valley is not the unspoiled Himalayan kingdom portrayed in tourist brochures and travelogues, but rather a » Continue reading this post »
Road to Leh
By Thomas on October 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
After being thrown into the hustle and bustle of Manali, we were ready to head up to Buddhist dominated Ladakh in the northernmost state of Jammu & Kashmir. This was as far north as we could go in India without crossing over the border into China or Pakistan.
Since all the bus companies in Manali were convinced that only one driver was needed for the 22 hour drive to Leh, we decided to hire a jeep with three other travelers and split up the journey into two days. We just weren’t in the mood for our driver to fall asleep, not to mention » Continue reading this post »
A Note about our Posting Delay
By Tony on October 15, 2008 | No Comments »
As we have mentioned before, from time to time when we are in remote regions away from Internet access for extended periods of time, we delay postings to cover our absence. We do this because we do not want the blog to go weeks without any updates. This was necessary while traveling in Tibet and also while trekking in Nepal. Once again we have allowed the gap to increase to cover extended treks in Ladakh and Zanskar.
For this reason, it is necessary to realize that the date the posting appears in the blog is not the date the posting was written or, of course, the date the activity took place. We do not want our blog postings to cause confusion for people who are planning their own trip to the Ladakh region. The season for travel to Ladakh is June to early October.
Indian Subtlety
By Tony on October 14, 2008 | No Comments »
