Around and about the Indus Valley

Juley Juley all.

Happy holidays to you all...

We have returned from 10 days riding & walking around the Indus valley amongst its gompas and rivers... We spent the nights in simple guest houses/family homes in small villages of only a few families. We started in Hemis (where we slept in the monastery itself) and made our way through Thiksey, Shey (the old capitol of Ladakh) & Stok before returning to Leh visiting a local Wedding and then setting out to the western side of the valley to Lamayuru (the oldest gompa in Ladakh), Likir, Yuktung, Alchi & Basgo.

After all the questions about food - we ate mostly vegetables (potato, leaves, cabbage carrot), rice & lentils which was an amazing delight especially for Uri who enjoyed a big bowl of boiled broccoli leaves (not the actual broccoli itself) and even held it down till the morning :) though cursed the day he was born.... how can we phrase it... simple food... but we endured and kept traveling to bring you these lovely sights... we are sorry we could not convey the taste through the photos ;)

Hemis gompa and its village



and the way down to the road


Thiksey gompa sitting on a lovely hill

morning shower at the gompa


the monks starting work on a Sand mandala (wikipedia)


we forgot the name of this one :) it was a drive by shoot on the bus but its still nice


on the top of Shey palace with a view of the valley and of Hila :)


Stok village

Back at Leh at the Ladakhi wedding with one of the local grandmas in full costume


Hila at Lamayuru (a bit chilly that night)
the locals ladies having afternoon tea


Likir gompa with its big sitting buddha outside

The view from Yuktung in the evening

and they trek down back to the indus valley


the road to Alchi with the Indus river and Saspol village in view


back towards Leh - a view over the valley


Well thats it... we have covered Ladakh resonably well.. seen many of its gompas... climbed around its mountains and valleys... ate the enticing local food and even went to a wedding :)

We had a lovely time in this remote dry barren cold region and would like to thank the ladakhis for their hospitality and hope they find a good use for our tent :)

We will be flying tommorow to a more warm, green, wet & sunny place near the south side of Goa - Gokarna and its hopefully lovely beaches, we just hope to get there before the hordes of israeli ex armi children get there... Our sources tell us they are still stuck in Pushkar - we hope they are...

So see you next time with photos of the sea and palm trees...

Hila & Morphhh Sleazy.