Hey, we're back- still in Manali right now but moving on to Dharmshala tomorrow. Unfortunately, I spent the last 4 days in bed here sick, one day Ede even got sick, too, but today we had a lovely day walking around town, sitting in cafes and playing chess on a river bank! Due to the illness, that's just about all we did in Manali, but it is a very beautiful place in a valley with a river running through it, surrounded by mountains and forest and with cute little streets with loads of shops and cafes.
The trip here from Leh took us 19 hours- we crossed the second highest motorable pass in the world (about 5500 m) and were able to witness an astonishing landscape ranging from forests over glaciers to almost desert-like wilderness. But I can tell you, even the most beautiful scenery loses some of it's charm after about 12 hours of bumpy "road" and no sleep!
But let me tell you about Leh, wich was quite an experience- very close to what I would imagine Tibet to be like.
On our first day there we climbed up to the old Leh Palace overlooking the town, which is not in use anymore, thus empty, but still posesses an incredible amount of spiritual energy! We felt so peaceful, no, at peace when we were sitting up there, surrounded by buddhist prayer flags...
The next day we just stayed in the town which is lovely by itself, doing some shopping (cheap and colourful clothes- paradise for me!!) and eating a lot of tibetan food which they also have there. On day three we decided, we needed to get out of the city as not to go crazy (happens to both of us after approximately three days at most), so we took a bus to Thiksey, about 20km away. There we looked at the Gompa, which actually turned out to be a whole city of houses, temples and balconies- very impressive and very beautiful! From there we walked about 4 km to Shey, passing a whole field of Stupas, in the middle of which we had a small picknick. Then we decided to not return to the road, but to climb up to Shey Palace from the back. We underestimated the altitude, the sun and also the immense amount of strength you need to wald uphill in the sand, but we finally managed to reach the old ruins of the palace (and were very proud of ourselves, too!). After a short rest we climbed down to the still intact part of the palace, and there we had our most amazing experience yet. We were able to witness a buddhist religious ceremony! At the back of the room was the Lama, who was reading from a book, and in front of him, women were sitting on the ground, chanting and repeating the words he was reading. This had such an overwhelming effect on us, that we were actually both close to tears and sat down on the ground next to them, listening in silence and feeling the energy. When the chanting was over, some monks sitting on the side began playing drums and trumpets and also reading lines from a book, all at once and all different, which resulted in a weird, hypnotizing mixture of sounds. At the same time, tea was being passed around to the women, and when a little girl came over to us and offered us a cup, too, we felt more happy than words could describe. The ceremony ended with the women receiving cookies and bread, and there too, we were included. We left the Palace in a sort of trance, with big smiles on our faces and everyone smiling back at us!
We tried to catch a bus back to Leh, but none came, so we tried stopping a private bus and succeeded- next thing we knew, we were in a bus full of veterinary medicine students, singing Greenday songs and taking pictures with them! Talk about a crazy but perfect day!!!
After this experience we decided, that we didn't need a lot more action for our last day in Leh and just looked at the nearby Shanti Stupa and played chess in a nice little cafe. At eleven in the evening we packed our things in the dark because of another power-out and left for Manali at around one in the morning. The rest of the story you know.
I'm now glad I packed all the meds that I've been carrying around uselessly for the last four and a half months and appreciating being healthy again! Sometimes you just need to feel miserable for a couple of days to be able to appreciate, how good you actually have it!! Looking forward to Dharmshala and McLeod Ganj which will be our final destination there and who knows- maybe we'll even get to see the Dalai Lama...?!
Love you all, peace!
The trip here from Leh took us 19 hours- we crossed the second highest motorable pass in the world (about 5500 m) and were able to witness an astonishing landscape ranging from forests over glaciers to almost desert-like wilderness. But I can tell you, even the most beautiful scenery loses some of it's charm after about 12 hours of bumpy "road" and no sleep!
But let me tell you about Leh, wich was quite an experience- very close to what I would imagine Tibet to be like.
On our first day there we climbed up to the old Leh Palace overlooking the town, which is not in use anymore, thus empty, but still posesses an incredible amount of spiritual energy! We felt so peaceful, no, at peace when we were sitting up there, surrounded by buddhist prayer flags...
The next day we just stayed in the town which is lovely by itself, doing some shopping (cheap and colourful clothes- paradise for me!!) and eating a lot of tibetan food which they also have there. On day three we decided, we needed to get out of the city as not to go crazy (happens to both of us after approximately three days at most), so we took a bus to Thiksey, about 20km away. There we looked at the Gompa, which actually turned out to be a whole city of houses, temples and balconies- very impressive and very beautiful! From there we walked about 4 km to Shey, passing a whole field of Stupas, in the middle of which we had a small picknick. Then we decided to not return to the road, but to climb up to Shey Palace from the back. We underestimated the altitude, the sun and also the immense amount of strength you need to wald uphill in the sand, but we finally managed to reach the old ruins of the palace (and were very proud of ourselves, too!). After a short rest we climbed down to the still intact part of the palace, and there we had our most amazing experience yet. We were able to witness a buddhist religious ceremony! At the back of the room was the Lama, who was reading from a book, and in front of him, women were sitting on the ground, chanting and repeating the words he was reading. This had such an overwhelming effect on us, that we were actually both close to tears and sat down on the ground next to them, listening in silence and feeling the energy. When the chanting was over, some monks sitting on the side began playing drums and trumpets and also reading lines from a book, all at once and all different, which resulted in a weird, hypnotizing mixture of sounds. At the same time, tea was being passed around to the women, and when a little girl came over to us and offered us a cup, too, we felt more happy than words could describe. The ceremony ended with the women receiving cookies and bread, and there too, we were included. We left the Palace in a sort of trance, with big smiles on our faces and everyone smiling back at us!
We tried to catch a bus back to Leh, but none came, so we tried stopping a private bus and succeeded- next thing we knew, we were in a bus full of veterinary medicine students, singing Greenday songs and taking pictures with them! Talk about a crazy but perfect day!!!
After this experience we decided, that we didn't need a lot more action for our last day in Leh and just looked at the nearby Shanti Stupa and played chess in a nice little cafe. At eleven in the evening we packed our things in the dark because of another power-out and left for Manali at around one in the morning. The rest of the story you know.
I'm now glad I packed all the meds that I've been carrying around uselessly for the last four and a half months and appreciating being healthy again! Sometimes you just need to feel miserable for a couple of days to be able to appreciate, how good you actually have it!! Looking forward to Dharmshala and McLeod Ganj which will be our final destination there and who knows- maybe we'll even get to see the Dalai Lama...?!
Love you all, peace!
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