Kidar Guest House Leh

... to pick me back to Leh (along with the scooter!) tomorrow in the noon, when he comes back. 
There was nothing to do and it was getting cold, so I walked to the homestay house. The room was very Ladahi - big windows all around - it's going to be freezing there in the night! I stayed a little in the room reading, then decided to move to a more central location - the kitchen. At least it's not that cold there! There I met the whole family: a mother, two sons and a grandma. Only the ...

... it became colder, but in a pretty severe way. When I reached the check post - South Pullu - some Indian tourist was very surprised with me having no hat, and was very kind to give me one - called Monkey Hat (it just took it off the head of the the ladies in the car, which made her surprised as well :). So now equipped with the Monkey Hat, gloves, full helmet, thermic underwear, boots I was going to pass the Khardung La @5.6 km. This would be the highest point for me to visit ...

Today I left Leh after 11 days of complete happiness! It sounds perhaps a bit exaggerated, but Leh and the region Ladakh are very different from the rest of India. People are quite relaxed and I don't know, it is difficult to describe. So I will just tell you about all the things that I have been doing. The day after I arrived I started looking for a trek to see more of the landscape in Ladakh. One trek particularly interested me ...

... commencent à se rafraîchir. Nous pensons nous arrêter pour un thé à Zingral, dernier village avant le col. Quand nous y arrivons, nous réalisons que ce n’est pas un village, pas un hammeau non plus, mais une base militaire de l’armée indienne. A l’instant même il y avait un bus militaire qui s’est arrêté et ne nous sentons pas très à l’aise parmis tous ces hommes habillés en vert…Nous décidons de renoncer au thé et de ...

We were up at sunrise to get a quick cup of coffee and onto the bikes, ride over the Lachalung Pass (5065 m) then on to the Taglangla Pass (5328 m) and then descend to Leh.

I think I’ll rename this adventure to Riding over the highest roads in the world, and the worst roads in the world.

Apart from the last 60 km which was a good road, todays ride was about 50% bitumen, 49% dirt/gravel, & 1% bulldust (or whatever they may call it here in India). You ...

... ka mööda niisutuskanaleid. Jõuan teele tagasi. Majad on ilusad ja suured, aga ühelgi ei paista turiste meelitavaid silte. Esimene, mida lõpiks näen, kannab lausa nime "hotell". Välimuse järgi tundub kallis. Otsustan proovida. Lävel on vormis mees, kes kahtlustavalt mu mudaseid saapaid ja kasimata välimust kõõritab. Teatab, et on chief room, mis on väga kallis. Kui kallis, seda ei ütle. Ja vaatab ikka aegajalt saabaste poole. Mulle teeb asi nalja. Küsin mitte ...

... templit. Lähen majani, värav on kinni, selle taga lehmad. Ootan natuke, kuniks saabub naine, seljas korvitäis kollaseid lilli. Lilled on lehmadele. Söömiseks, mitte kaunistuseks.
Tuba on, maas kolm madratsit. Ühel magab keegi, kes üles ja ära aetakse. Saan termosetäie kuuma teed ja küpsiseid. Mõnus. Laual on lugemist küla ja Ladakhi kohta. Äsjaläbitud piirkond olevat hea lumeleopardi, ilvese, miskise metsiku koera, hundi, rebase ja kõiksugu sarviliste sõraliste ...

... which they produced antibiotics, rehydration sachets and glucose tablets. It's not easy at the best of times, trekking up a steep rocky mountainside to a pass at nearly 5,000 metres, gasping for oxygen in the thin air...doing it while sick was a feat of endurance. But I was on such a sugar high and so determined to get there that slowly but surely I gained height and reached ...

Anna: A choice of food was great after 9 days of rice and dhal. We went straight to Chopsticks Chinese restaurant and had really good dry roasted chilli mutton, spinach and mushrooms and beer! Manali didn't excite us - just a bustling big tourist town, dirty and all and not much charm, so only stayed two nights. It is however surrounded by beautiful pine covered mountains - which i'm sure would have some awesome walks. We ...

... pouring water into a pipe attached to a solar water heater,
while a bucket to the other end of the heater collected the warmed
output. Of the two main buildings within the compound, the façade of
one was made almost entirely of glass, stretching over its entire
length and its two storey height, as if the whole front was a series of
windows joined together. We later learned that this was a solar trombe
house, constructed to retain maximum sunlight during the day so ...