Photos from Leh

And these are the last pictures from my India trip!

I spent quite some time in Leh, a big and very touristic city.

Main bazaar under construction. Besides from Buddhists, there is also quite a lot of Muslims, and so also some nice mosques.

Mysteriously, in the old palace there was an exhibition about Czech castles.

Lots of caravans used to pass through Leh in the past

An old temple above the city

This cow was very curious about the prayer wheel – or me :)

An incredible old building – full of stairways and corridors randomly going through it and generally leading nowhere

Traditional Ladakhi costumes

Shanti stupa

The nearby Thikse monastery

There are old texts like these in every monastery

A young monk

An innovative street lamp

Do you need some shoes made?

A muslim meat shop, just like this open on the street.

A much nicer muslim shop, a great bakery

A gang of dogs

My favourite restaurant – a small tibetan place with really great and cheap food, none of the pretentious nonsense for tourists

So many mountains around!

The views during the flight from Leh to Delhi were amazing

Pics from Delhi

(Parts of) Dilli are like a whole different world from the rest of India,

the supermodern metro line to the airport,

or lots of fancy air-condishioned shops at Connaught place, such as this bookshop.

But the main bazaar is as busy as always,

although they have widened it

and cut some building in the process.

I spent the last few days of my trip there.

It was quite nice, but very hot (around 38 degrees C)!

The Red Fort

A Jain temple

Almost every hotel has its own pile of bottles

Why are there all these gods (even from different religions) on this wall? (try to guess, answer is in the comments)

Making a dosa in my favorite roadside cafe

A sacred tree

The last morning

 

Photos from hikes

Besides from Stok Kangri, I went on two longer hikes – across Karnak and from Alchi to Lamayuru. Here are the pictures!

The endless Mare plains, elevation 4500 m

Wild horses

Near the deserted village Pogmar

Chhortens and a river, quite rare in this desert

Sangtha village

Inside one of the houses

The Indians are building a useless road and damaging this unique landscape

A herd of sheep crossing the road

Start of the second trek in Gyera, near Alchi

You have to use the “cablecar” to cross the Indus river

Mangyu

Innovative prayer wheels

The small Hibti village in the middle of dry mountains

A young donkey learning his job

The very tiring pass between Ursi and Tar. Depending on the direction in which you’re going, it’s either called Ursi La, or Tar La

I stayed in a homestay in this traditional house in Ursi

My room

This used to be a hotel, I think – before it had to give way to road building

Monastery in Wanla

Harvest near Wanla

In Prinkiti La, I was quite sick and tired this day

Finally in Lamayuru

As a birthday gift I got this double rainbow – and the upper part went all the way around and was a full circle!

 

Photos from Spiti

Here are some more photos, this time from Spiti and my hike up a 5200 meter hill.

The first village in Spiti

is Nako,

full of nice stone houses

and surrounded by beautiful mountains.

In an old temple above Nako

An old leather prayer wheel

Kids always want to have their photos taken

Sad goat kid

Meditation caves above Tabo

and the inside of a chhorten

In Kaza they have a “speed post office”!

And men playing this game, whose goal is to vehemently and loudly slam the wooden bowl on the wood in the center.

And playful small monks

And (just like everywhere else) barels with asphalt for building roads

Spiti valley near Kaza

Kibber monastery on the top of a hill

Monastery kitchen

Puja

An old monk – he first pretended to be shy of having his photo taken, but then seemed very proud and happy about it.

Taking the animals to pasture in Kibber

Yak

Horns are a popular thing to put on shrines such as this one

On the top of a 5200 meter hill

Seven-snowman!

More yaks

Some hikes

I had a GPS watch with me in India and I’ve saved parts of some hikes there if you’d like to have a look. (It looks best if you switch the map to satellite view; sometimes google is nicer, sometimes bing.)

Stok Kangri 6153 m

Tar La a really long climb, I started in Tar in 3200 m, went up over the pass (4950 m) and finished in Ursi (3400 m)

5200 m hill above Kibber

A small pass above Chitkul