Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Mendo enjoys a good perve. Not at women, as you may think but at any motorbike which bbbbrrrroooooooooms past or parked on the kerb. Late one night Mendo couldn't sleep - he was thinking about a large quote that we'd received that day to travel by jeep to Chumathang Hot Springs, Tso Moriri Lake and on to Manali. As I was sleeping peacefully, Mendo devised a plan to save us lots of $$$ and to give us more freedom. The next day we discussed it and after researching it thoroughly, hired a tent, sleeping mats and a motorbike for 4 days. We woke early (6:30am) to start our adventure and finally after a few set-backs (failing brakes and discovering that we needed a permit after driving for 2 hours), we were on our way at 2pm! Everyone smiled and waved at us and some yelled "Julley!" which is the Ladakh greeting for hello, goodbye and thankyou. The road was rough, unpredictable and windy, but Mendo handled it like a professional! At no time did I feel in danger or worried, I just sat on the back with my numb bum and held on...
We found Chumathang Hot Springs late in the afternoon and set up our tent whilst the howling, cold wind protested. After a meal of Daal and Chapati's, it was back to the tent for a long night of cold, interrupted sleep. I woke in the morning to the sound of many boots and as I peered out of the tent there were two company's (?) of Indian Military jogging past. As they saw me watching, 1 in the back waved and did a sommersault... Mendo slept in and I walked to the local 'restaurant' (used very loosely) to get a pile of Chapati's, which we then enjoyed as Vegemite Chapati's in bed - hooray for Vegemite tubes! There was some hot, dirty water bubbling from the ground in a few places, but having been spoilt by such places as Rotorua, we weren't very impressed...
We then set off to the beautiful lake of Tso Moriri by following the river. The scenery was spectacular: greens and blues of the river with yellos and purple flowers on the banks; brown, reds, purples and greyish blues of the jagged mountains towering above us. There were groups of people along the way, with minimal tools and embraced by the cold wind, they smashed rocks and mixed cement to improve the roads which we were driving on. As we drove past, my heart felt bad for their harsh lives, yet they still smiled and waved to us.
We arrived at the small lake before Tso Moriri (I think there's a photo of it?) and were awed by the incredible view. If this one was so beautiful, what would Tso Moriri be like? So onward we travelled. Tso Moriri village is under a lot of construction - we figured it was because the Winter was about to start so they wanted to get it all done before it froze. We found a Homestay with a cute room with a view of the Lake. It was beautiful, but we agreed that the first lake was prettier. After dumping our bags we went for a few hours walk. We made one of the funny little small pile of rocks which you see piled up everywhere here - we need to know the story behind these... We then had some curry and settled in for the night by playing cards. Next door, the local monastery serenaded us to sleep with their big horns - I'm sure they have a name but I don't know what it is. It sounded like they were practicing because they weren't too good, but trying to find the positive I said it was better they do it now than in the morning...
6am and there were the horns again! Actually that didn't wake me up... there was this dog which truly did not stop barking all night - I was thinking of looking for it to give it a Diflam or something because it's voice-box must have been sooooooo sore! There was also a donkey just outside our window which kept voiceing it's opinion throughout the night... Anyway so we were off fairly early thanks to the locals and on our way back to Thiksey Monastery. We'd met an Aussie guy a few days before who said that you could sleep in the Monastery and we thought that would be quite an experience. So following a not very detailed map and the not very convincing directions of the locals, we managed to get lost a few times all the while worrying that we may run out of petrol at any time. We travelled over the highest driveable pass (5300M) in the SNOW - as in it was snowing on us, freezing and hilarious! We drove through valleys and alongs cliffs, over little leaning bridges and through quiet dirty villages.
Finally we arrived at Thiksey Monastery at 5:30pm. Thiksey Monastery is like a whole village perched on the side of a mountain. It is quiet, spiritual, sobering, friendly, incredible. We asked the first Monk we met if we could stay there... he said no but there's a guesthouse in the town below. We later found out that he was the HEAD LAMA - only 1 step below the Dalai Lama... We continued on our self-tour of the Monastery and didn't give up, even though we read a sign which said "Under no circumstances can a woman sleep at the Monastery". Mendo asked a young monk in the canteen... he suggested that we continue the tour until 6pm, then go to see him again. At 6pm we returned and he showed us to his little flat: one bedroom, one living room and a kitchen. He said we could stay in his house the night because he was on Kitchen duty and would be sleeping in the kitchen that night!!! Wooohoooooooooooooooooo! At 7pm Thiksey Shepa brought us the same dinner which the monks were eating and we ate with him on the floor of this house overlooking the village. He then brought us Chai and we sat and talked with him and his uncle who was also a monk for hours. His uncle slept with Mendo in the living room and I slept in the bedroom. We woke early to experience the Pujar. It was INCREDIBLE! I'm almost getting a high just thinking about it. 2 hours of praying and chanting and tea and special spiritual moments. Apparently in September 1982 the Dalai Lama was in the village, so in September every year they celebrate by having an extravagant Pujar... Afterwards we had Chai with Shepa again and took our leave.
What a special 4 days...
- comments