July 25, 2006
After 4 days of essentially doing nothing except hanging out with Ori, Shir, Guy (Israelis) and Heike (German woman) in the Germany Bakery's rooftop cafe lounge area, playing "Shithead," (a new and decent card game I learned from the Israelis), eating nutella pancakes, and trying to get over existing in such high altitude with a bad sore throat, we decided to do something. We decided that we could not take one more day of ordering a "cold coffee" and waiting for them to brew it and then cool it off in the refrigerator for 70 minutes before serving it lukewarm was JUST too much. The next day, Ori and I determined, we'd go to Thiksey Tibetan Monastery.
We set out quite late in the day, having read that the monastery was only 17 km from Leh. After walking to the bus station and finding out which bus would get us there, we walked through the market nearby. A lady was selling green peas-- the kind you take the string off of, open, and eat the peas inside. The kind Dad used to grow in the garden and I used to eat raw when I was a kid. I'd been craving fresh foods, so I bought 20 rupees worth, which ended up being 2 kilos! She gave them to me wrapped up in newspaper, which was going to be difficult to carry in my backpack... Kids started surrounding us, pulling on my arms, so I gave them some peas... only to incur more begging. But I got some amazing shots of these kids, I hope they turn out well!
We sat in the front of the bus, me right next to the bus driver. The bus waited to be full, and then grumbled along the desert road at 40 km per hour, the bus driver talking to me about interesting sites around Leh, finally dropping us off in front of the monastery, a huge cluster of buildings built up one side of a steep desert hill. It was sunny and hot, very dry. So we climbed slowly, stopping frequently to drink water in the heat, take photos, and spin the Tibetan prayer wheels for the video. The top gave us a magnificent view of the area, with mountains looming in the distance, a river cutting the valley distinctly in half, with the lush green half on one side, the desert on the other. It's hard to believe that people can exist up here in this desert-like mountainous terrain that changes so quickly from hot scorching desert sun to cold, clear nights. We walked through the monastery, looking at meditation halls and old Buddhist paintings. We took photos of each other from the top, and lingered around in the peaceful environment. On the way down, we noticed a room we hadn't looked in, so I popped up to see what was inside. It was a huge Buddha, so we took off our shoes and went in. A large Buddha about 2 stories tall was gilded in gold, decorated all around its body with multiple colors all around it. I love visiting Buddha statues, they are probably the one type of thing I never get sick of seeing....
On the bus-ride back to Leh, we ran into a couple of English guys who we invited to share a taxi with us to the top of Leh Palace, looming over the city of Leh, for sunset. The view at the top was of the town, painted in streams of sunlight, streams of shadows, with the mountains a dark blue in the distance behind, Tibetan prayer flags fluttering in the foreground. The 4 of us payed $1 each to go inside the crumbling, run-down, empty rooms of the palace, climbing up rickety ladders and through dark stairs until we finally reached the top. Hands down the most un-impressive "palace" I've ever seen, but we all agreed that the view overlooking Leh was amazing.
The next day, several of us were walking into a small shop, when Ori and I saw one of those English guys talking to another girl....and he was talking about us. He said, "...On the bus we met this Israli guy and an American girl. She was kind of attractive, actually." And then he turned around and saw us, not knowing whether we had heard him or not....and the blank look on his face was precious....
I bought a Buddha statue today, brass and other metals with designs on the body and around the back, sitting on a decorative pedestal. Beautiful!
