Bhagsu Summer-Camp

After a rather disastrous 14-hour bus journey from Manali to Dharamshala, squeezed in the cabin of the bus with 8 other people including a very angry 50-something woman, we finally arrived. Making 3 new buddies on the bus: Dominique, Britt and Gaby, we all decided to stay together in Bhagsu. Bhagsu has many delights to offer including my personal favourite, Hello to the King, which we found on the very first night. Hello to the King is comprised of warm bananas, crushed cookies, ice-cream, nutella and of course bhagsu cake. It is a delight that was enjoyed by all of us blanket-people and here is a photo of it, feed your eyes:

And here's some girls i know endulging:

Hi From Manali

Snapshots Around Ladakh

Pangong Tso

Pang-Gong Lake is situated in Ladakh and stretches over India and China, 60% of the lake actually falls in China. After obtaining our Inner Line Permits we headed off in a jeep to check out the lake. It takes 5 hours from Leh over rather dramatic, tough terrain at very high altitude to reach Pangong Lake. Passing as high as the Chngla Pass (17,590 ft) we had a few episodes of altitude induced madness: ordering 10 breakfasts for 6 of us, spotting an "invisible" monastery and giggling a lot for no reason, hopefully due to oxygen starvation to the brain and not the onset of insanity.

Pangong Lake is beautiful and I think the photographs speak for themselves:

White-Water Rafting

An early morning start for Alok's birthday, we were picked up in a Jeep and headed to the River Indus to do some white-water rafting. When we arrived there were 2 rafts that still had to be blown up, so Camille had fun "pretending" to strangle Charles as we all took photos, haha.

Another jeep turned up and 6 Israelis got out, 5 boys and 1 girl. We were all given a health and safety chat for 10 minutes, such a contrast to the UK, it would probably last a day. We then signed a sheet to say if we died they wouldn't be held responsible and we were off.

We went first, closely followed by the Israelis, smoking a chillum as they went, much to the annoyance of their instructor. "Ji, Lama Caha????"

It was good fun paddling down the river with the morning sun. The scenery around the river Indus is beautiful and we took a stop just to take it in. After a short rest, we continued and hit some grade 3+ currents. At this point the right side of the boat went down and we lost Oliver "MAN OVER-BOARD!!" Thankfully the raft didn't capsize and with the knowledge of the 10 minute safety chat Oliver knew exactly what he had to do to get back in the raft safely.

With the Indian sun above the clouds and paddling ferociously for 2 hours we were all tired and after Suhas, Charles and Alok had a short dip we reached The Confluence, our end-point.

The last 10 minutes of paddling were rough on the body, but we could see lunch set out for us so we continued. Tired and hot, but all in all a great day and to top it all off we had a party for Alok, one small cake with a large candle.

Shopping In Leh

The Tibetan Markets in Leh contain many "ANTIQUES", coming in "all different colours and sizes ma'am". The same antiques can even be found in many different shops in Leh and a man from one of these markets boasts that "All the antiques in India are kept in Leh" - WOW!!! Okay, so obviously the artefacts in these markets are not antiques, but there are very interesting objects to be seen. Prayer wheels, singing bowls and turqouise teapots being my personal favourites.

As you take a stroll around amongst the prayer flags there are peaceful Tibetan songs playing adding to the experience.

I finally bought a singing bowl and here's a little video of me playing it, yay!!!

Tse-Tan's Guest House in Leh

After wandering around for hours in the dark, turned away from many guesthouses that were full, we came across the most wonderful guest house. More like a home-stay, this family run Guest-house is named after the owners only son, Tse-Tan. The guest-house is wonderful and the family make you feel like a member of their family and there is a constant flow of complimentary mint-tea all grown on-site and all at a very reasonable price.

This is a photo taken just before leaving with our scarves that Dee-dee had given us to keep us safe on the rest of our journey and bring us luck:

I have since heard since returning from Leh that when the flash-floods struck the guesthouse wasn't affected and we are all hoping everyone is safe.