The weather has turned for the worse and my belly has as well. Ew. Up until this point of my trip I have been eating whatever I fancied and I have been just fine.... But a couple days ago the altitude and action and differences in the food has slowed me down. So what better to do on a sleepy, slow day, or few days, than take a drive? We found the monastery above in Sebo when we were looking for the Oracle/Sebo Lamo. Lamo means female teacher, Sebo: the village. I am terrible at Hindi, but I am trying.
We got a car from a local friend and took on some local monasteries, gompas and we even ventured to find the local Ladakh oracle. We will see her tomorrow for questions and prayer. The palace we saw was erected high on a hill top in 650 AD, the queen now lives there and it is beautiful. Located 8km outsie of Leh in Stok, the Palace became the home of the royal family in 1834. At the monasteries, the monks are most welcoming to tourists and very open to questions. We drove to Shey and Thiksay monasteries. Gorgeous, Shey monastery sits below an old crumbling fort. Thiksay is massive with a school, a hotel, restaurant, an ancient library, numerous temples and a 14m high Buddha. We are in the home of Buddhism here.
The country side has the most vivid colors, the trees as green as you could imagine on the back drop of the sandy brown and blue Himalaya.
The trips out of town are unbelievable: to get away from the honking and black smoking cars and the shouting and the staring. To experience a bit of the village life style invokes relaxes and grounds me. The people here have real problems and yet continue to smile; they are willing to help and share. Also seeing what life has been like here after the floods that came last year at this time, building and rebuilding with mud and clay bricks, piles of rocks and rubble and debris everywhere, sets your sense of reality a flame. I see it and still can't imagine the responsibility, the difficulty, the necessity.
These ponies walk through a remote village after a trek. All the animals work too.
The internet and power situation can be a bit dodgy here in Leh so posting can be troublesome at times. I will keep up as much as possible. Have a lovely day and maybe have some Indian food. I know I will! Tomorrow I will post about the food as I feel much better. Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment