Upon waking up on the first day in Leh
we were told that it was India’s independence day and we attempted
to find the local festivities for the national holiday. Unfortunately
however after working our way through the main streets of the bazaar
to the polo field, where we had heard the festivities would take
place, we discovered that the events had all but finished and the
main events and we had arrived just in time for the awards. After
leaving the field I wondered around the bazaar before having a
continental breakfast in a restaurant above the bazaar. The rest of
the day was spent just wondering around town, shopping and taking it
easy. Some of you may know I have been interested in obtaining a
wooden flute and I finally managed to find one giving me one more
thing to learn as I travel the world, I also thought it prudent to
purchase some clothes that would befit the country I am trying to
discover. After a spot of dinner down the road from our accommodation
I said my farewells to Dave as he was leaving very early in the
morning and had an early night.
On my second day in Leh I went for a
further exploration of the higher tiers of the city, working my way
up to the old gumpa that overlooks Leh. The weather was roasting and
the thin air made for a slow and arduous ascent, despite this the
view alone was worth the effort. The old gumpa was long deserted
however there were a few rooms that were still as they always have
been and were an interesting first taste of the religion the
dominates in the eastern provinces. The rest of the day I spent
taking it easy in some of the restaurants and coffee shops around the
central area of Leh.
Day three came around surprisingly
rapidly and we set off in the morning to organise our transit to
Manali and then set off to find the bus station in order to head out
from Leh towards a famous gumpa in Thiske. The bus trip was fairly
short with a good view of the surrounding countryside. Along the main
road were numerous stupas as are quite common throughout the region
some 20ft tall some only 5 all painted bone white. Thiske was easy to
spot as the bus made its way along the valley floor, it stands atop a
headland jutting into the valley with the same square structures that
are found at nearly all gumpas. The ascent took only a short time to
accomplish, the lower echelons of the hill temple were still
dilapidated however the donations and entry fees to the temple are
slowly leading to repairs of the rest of the complex. The view from
the top of the monastery was stunning giving a 360 view of the
surrounding valley. A tour of the upper reaches of the temple took us
around various temples and libraries. Thiske boasts one of the
largest statues of Buddha that's 12 meters tall and spanning 2
floors. After seeing the last temple we walked into the main
courtyard where the occupants of the temple were holding a ritual
which we stayed to observe for roughly 20 minutes and it was still
taking place when we reached the bottom of the temple about 30
minutes later. Once at the base of the monastery it was quite a long
wait for the next bus, while we waited we met some of the local kids.
The children were harmless enough, one of them had a stick and was
intent on seeing how much patience Arthur had. After waiting an hour
for the bus we made it back to Leh, we took our bags out of storage
and found a bar to wait in for out bus that would depart at one
o’Clock in the morning. Unfortunately in the north everything
closes at 11 at the latest so we had a couple of hours to kill with
nowhere to do so, we found the collection point and waited...
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