yak yak yak... ladakh!

ju-leh from the land of broken moon....

that's welcome/hello/goodbye/goodnight/any other greeting one can think of to the non-ladakhi speaking folk out there.

we are currently in nothern india in a little town called leh. it's approximately 3500 metres above sea level and we are constantly being reminded of this as we gasp for breath after walking up the slightest of inclines.... it's pretty sad how out of shape i feel.

we got here this past sunday and spent the ENTIRE first day in bed sleeping as our hotel manager who abducted us from the airport was very adamant that we do nothing but that. it was really hard to say no but somehow we all managed to sleep for about 24 hours straight. it was fantastic. the only time we got up was to go find dinner and buy warm clothes cos it was damn cold! mini and i bought toques! in india! who knew? oh and dinner, don't even get me started on how fantastic the food here is, we found this cool garden restaurant that has avocadoes on the menu! i don't think anyone back home (minus sarah and a few others) knows how much we love our guac and anything else containing these lovely mushy green veggies but take our word that we were in seventh heaven over the discovery, and vowed not to eat anywhere else during our week in leh. we suceeded and the staff knew us by name and our orders by heart by the end of it.

by the second day we were feeling slightly more acclimatised and managed to venture out to see the local markets and hilltop castle and gompa (monestary). now, i don't know why but in a place that is already so high up, why do they need to put all the coolests sights up on the top of reallllly high and steep mountains so that all the visitors are forced to die several times over just to get up to see them. fair enough, the views from the top are spectacular and the gompas are worth the climb, but still... mountain goats we are not and many a "picture stop" was taken in order to catch our collective breaths without lookin like it was necessary. (a pretty see-through facade i'm sure)

angelee and joanna arrived the next day and the rest of our week was spent exploring the surrounding countryside, gompas, watching military convoys, picking up hitchhiking monks who look the the dalai lama, getting chauffered around by tashi, our fantastic ladakhi driver whom joanna may or may not have had a huge crush on, eating avocadoes (and in eugene's case drinking avocado lassis.... :S), and shopping to our hearts content in the tibetan markets all over town. i think we went a wee bit overboard.. there is officially no more room in my backpack.. it's time to purge/mail stuff home. ((slight prob mom and dad... what address should/can i send stuff to?)) unfortunately we did not get the opportunity to ride yaks around the glacier lake that bordered tibet , so that will have to wait for my next trip to leh. we've all promised to return again as tehre was just not enough time to see all the amazingly desolate landscape and culture in one week.

oh and for all y'all haters out there who are worried that i'm in kashmir: i am and i'm not. leh is a city in ladakh. ladakh is a region in eastern jammu and kashmir state, right next to the border with tibet. kashmir is also a region in that state but it is much further west on the border of pakistan. we are completely safe in leh. there are more tourists here than we've seen in the rest of india combined, so put your minds at rest, all is well and my life is not in peril. my bank account however....

anyhoo from here we will fly back to delhi and head up to amritsar for a day or so to see the golden temple and watch some border ballet... so until then, ju-leh.