Views from Kashmir
14.07
After some intense cooking and a freezing bath in the river (it is absolutely necessary to wash oneself even in the cold water – 4-5 degrees Celsius (39-40 Fahrenheit) where I almost got hypothermic) we are ready to start hitchhiking. We go to see the monastery for one last time and we find a room with some very old writings on the wall which up to now was always closed. Continue reading
Kanda La Pass – 5000 m. (16 405 feet)
04.07
We get up at six in the morning, boil 15 eggs, have breakfast and pack our things. The people from the guest house turn out to be really nice and don’t want to take our money for the yesterday’s breakfast. In addition we used their bathroom, took a hot shower everyday and laundered some clothes. The guesthouse is called Zal Guest House and if you pass by Leh and want to stay in authentic home-like atmosphere this is your place. Continue reading
View from the peak
25.06
Today we wake up at 5 a.m. again. This time it is because some people tell us that they will take us to Keylong – the capital city of Lahaul region. We get up and start packing. The people told us they will wait for 5 min. more to gather our tent but when we were almost ready they ran off. We decide not to go to bed but instead have a breakfast. Outside is raining and is quite cold so we decide to hitchhike in a new way. We sit on the couch and when we hear that a car is coming Mr. Shushtari runs out and tries to stop the car. We wait till 9 o’clock when a small truck full of rice takes us to Keylong.
Temple in Bajora
18.06
We get up in the morning, start hitchhiking and a milk delivery truck takes us to Bajora. We go to see an old Shiva temple (8-th century) and finally we sit to eat normal food – it is called parantha (fried pancake) with yoghurt and eggs.
Sadhu
09.06
We walked around the streets all day long until we saw everything we wanted to see. In the morning we had breakfast near the swimming pool at the Bhagsu temple. The pool was full of tourists mainly coming from Punjab. In the morning we visited the museum of the monastery which was not so pleasant because it showed what the Chinese did to Tibet and its culture. There are 160 000 refugees at Dharamsala who try to keep their culture alive but the situation is not looking good – if you are interested you can find more information in Internet. Continue reading
People from the Gurdwara
05.06
The people from the temple woke us up at 7:30 for breakfast. They were really nice and told us if we had any problem to contact them. We went to the main hall to prey and at they exit they gave us delicious halva.
The Golden Temple
31.05.
In the morning the manager of the hospital takes us with an ambulance to the border with India. Before we left the guy with the rickshaw brought us a bag full of halva-cigars (something like deep fried batters with semolina halva) and then accompanied us to the border to help us cross it. Our 45 day stay in Pakistan expired yesterday but nobody seemed to care and they let us in freely, though we had to wait for an hour because the electricity had stopped and the computers weren’t working. We had to pass hundreds of checks at the Indian border because they were very strict with the people who come from Pakistan.
The gate of the mosque in Lahore
29.05.
All the morning we read the Bible, watch some Christian channel on TV and do other stuff related to religion. At noon we get on a bike (5 adults and a baby!) and we go downtown. The traffic is very heavy and maybe because all of the stress we stop to feel the heat so acutely. We visited first the fort in Lahore – it has gigantic walls and doors. Then we went to the Badshahi Mosque which was built during 16 century and is one of the most impressive mosques we have ever seen.
Magic Kervan 