Ladakh part 2 (Leh and the Donkey sanctuary)

After getting back from our wonderful time on Pangong Tso lake we decided to take a couple of days to relax and see the sights of Leh and then do another adventure with Bec and Drew (The couple from Canada and Australia). We put a notice up in the travel agents looking for more people to keep the costs low.

The next couple of days we had gotten over our altitude sickness and were ready to see some sights, we walked along the beautiful small roads of Leh that were filled with dogs, donkeys and cows. We came across this little hike that had a temple at the top so decided to venture up. Along the way we came across some houses and the owners were sticking their heads out the windows shouting hellos and waving. It was such a lovely experience and defines our entire stay in Ladakh perfectly. It was midday and since Leh is so high up, the sun feels so hot on your skin so we were sweating about half way up and that combined with the altitude meant we couldn't walk more than 15 minutes before panting. But we made it to the top and it was definitely worth it! The temple was so old and beautiful and was watched over by one monk. There was only one other tourist there, we hadn't seen anyone on the entire way up either which was great! At the top we had a beautiful view of the Leh Palace and the beautiful snow-capped mountains that surround Leh. It was so peaceful up there.

View of the palace from our hike.

Myself and Jason during our hike.

The temple.

…and again.

Leh city. So many beautiful stone buildings!

The monk at the temple.

Walking through the beautiful temple.

At the temple with an amazing backdrop.

After that we decided to venture down to the palace to take a look at it. From the outside the palace is absolutely beautiful, it is a sand formation that is jutting out of the mountain. Unfortunately at this time our camera battery decided to die so we don't have any photos from the inside but it was a nice activity to pass the day by. Afterwards we found a small little cafe to drink some tea in and pass the evening by. The next day we met up with Drew and Bec who said that they wanted to visit the local donkey shelter the next day. Both myself and Jason had seen some signs for it and were both eager to go so we organised to meet them the next day.

Leh palace.

The next morning unfortunately Jason wasn't feeling well so I went to meet Bec and Drew by myself. I was quite excited to see the donkey sanctuary as I had never really been close to a donkey before and actually didn't know much about them.

It took us about 30 minutes of walking around the amazing Leh countryside until we finally found the sanctuary. We walked in and instantly about 10 donkeys just came walking towards us. They were so sweet and all that they wanted was for us to pet them, I had no idea donkeys were so loving!!

The amazing walk to the donkey sanctuary.

…and again.

Some very cute pups that we met along the way.

The entry to the sanctuary.

I love the paintings that are all over the sanctuary.

A man came out to us and greeted us. He was the only person at the sanctuary and couldn't speak much English but had the nicest smile and seemed like such a caring person. He spent his days just with the donkeys, you could see how much they loved him as they would just follow him around all day. While we were there we helped him put ointment on the donkeys that had been attacked by dogs. This is a very common thing to happen to donkeys on the streets. At night time packs of dogs attack the donkeys and because they are such timid creatures they just stand there and take it. We saw some really badly bitten donkeys but they were finally at peace in this beautiful enclosed sanctuary. They never had to worry about dogs again and the sanctuary cares for the donkeys until they die.

Drew with the donkeys.

Mommy and baby donkey.

They were such beautiful and loving animals!

Petting baby and mommy.

Most donkeys end up on the streets because they become too old or sick to continue helping the farmers so they are simply released to fend for themselves. It's quite heartbreaking to think that they have given their lives and worked so hard for these people just to be abandoned when they are no longer useful.

We spent the day at the sanctuary giving each of the donkeys a turn to get petter and spending some time with the adorable baby donkey there.

Baby…he was ridiculously cute!

The man that worked at the shelter…he was such a kind man
that really seemed to love the donkeys.

That evening I got back to Jason who was feeling much better and we decided that we would all go back to the sanctuary the next day but this time with food (we thought that we would be able to buy food for them there but it wasn't possible) After the great day that we had there Jason was really excited to see it for himself. We got up early and headed to the market area in front of the fort and bought some carrots and parsnips for a ridiculously cheap price!

All stocked up, we headed to the sanctuary once again. This time unfortunately we weren't prepared for how food obsessed they can be. Poor Jason was carrying the carrots and all of the donkeys completely surrounded him. He got a bit scared and threw the bag away, at which point only one donkey made it to the back and would kick any others that tried to get near so one donkey got very well fed that day! After the food frenzy finished Jason got to relax and enjoy spending time with the donkeys.

Jason with baby.

The tent where the donkeys can get away from the sun and also eat their hay.

After our time with the donkeys it was time to get back on the road for another adventure. A girl from Latvia that now lives in California signed up to join us for our trip to the desert so we were all set to go the next day.

Getting there and away:

This is probably the toughest part about Ladakh is getting there. There is only 1 option for 9 months of the year and that is flying which can be quite expensive. During June, July and August the snow is cleared on the mountain passes which makes driving possible. It's a long journey that took us about 26 hours on our way home. We had heard that many jeeps take 2 days to do the journey which we would have preferred but there was nobody offering this option when we were trying to book our way out of Leh.

We flew up from Delhi and then drove back down.

Travel agent: 

For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the travel agent that we used to book our trips while in Ladakh. He was a really nice man and genuinely seemed interested in keeping costs down for us. His shop was on the main street and right by the delicious bakery/restaurant that everyone frequents while in Leh. (I hope that helps a little) He organized a jeep to and from the Nubra valley and Pangong Tso lake for us.

Where we stayed:

Oriental Guesthouse: We moved to here after leaving our ice box of a room at the previous guesthouse. We had seen that this place had excellent reviews on tripadvisor. We definitely weren't disappointed! For the same price as the other place we had a beautiful room that had the most wonderful views of the mountains. It was about 15 minutes walk away from the main area of Leh, but this walk was down wonderful small streets with beauty all around. I 100% recommend staying in this part of town, it was an amazing experience!
http://www.orientalguesthouse.com/

How to get to the donkey sanctuary:

We saw some signs around town about the sanctuary and they had arrows to follow, the more you get in to the countryside the less the signs are but the locals are very helpful in pointing you in the right direction. As I mentioned earlier there is nowhere near the sanctuary that you can buy food for the donkeys so buy some in town before leaving. We found a vegetable stall right outside the palace. You can also donate to the sanctuary and adopt a donkey for a year through their website: http://donkeysanctuary.in/appeal.html

Me and one of the sweet donkeys.

One of the donkeys with the amazing Leh backdrop.

All of the stones were painted too.

Standing on top of the mountain overlooking Leh…I love that place!

A message on the wall of the temple.

Prayer flags near the temple.

Taking in the incredible view.

…and Jason too :)

Incredible!

Ladakh Part 1 (Leh, Pangong Tso Lake)

Ah Ladakh, this was hands down both mine and Jason's favourite part of our travels. This post will probably be a long one as I recollect on a wonderful time. I'm going to have to split our time in Ladakh up in to about 4 different entries because we did so much while there!

Ladakh is in the Jammu and Kashmir region of India. That state has had many troubles and many times it is unsafe to travel there, but luckily Ladakh never really sees those troubles and is safe to travel to. Leh is the capital of the region and when our plane started descending into Leh I noticed how barren the area looked, it seemed like it was too high up for any plants to grow. It was a bit scary landing in Leh as there are many mountains around and it seemed like the airport was just surrounded by them.

One of the first things that we noticed about Leh was the lack of pushiness from the taxi drivers. When we exited the airport a man asked if we wanted a taxi and as we were used to the Indian way we declined and he just said okay. At that second we knew we were going to like it here! Ladakhi people are very friendly people and many of them came from Tibet for refuge.

Walking around the backstreets of Leh

We didn't have any accommodation booked and after spending a sleepless night at the airport we were both ready to have a much needed nap. We found a guesthouse that was a little expensive but right in the center of town so we took it for a night. Unfortunately the room that they gave us had a wall outside right up against the window so had never seen the light of day which meant that high up in the Himalayas this room was like an ice box. I went for a nap with all of my clothes on (including a hat and scarf) and all of the blankets that were available to us in the room and was still freezing cold. We both agreed that we should look for a new place after this first night. After our nap we decided to go for a little walk around the town. As we were only planning on staying a week (we ended up spending two because we loved it there so much) we wanted to try to book some trips around Ladakh.

About a year before we began this trip I was looking through a friends photos on Facebook. He had been to Ladakh and after seeing those photos, especially of Pangong Tso Lake, I vowed that I had to go there some day. So here we were now in Leh, looking around at various agents with trips to Pangong Tso leaving every day. I was so excited!

We found one travel agent that had a couple that wanted to leave within the next couple of days and wanted to find people to share a jeep with. After chatting to the man inside we decided to go with them as he seemed very genuine and friendly. We met the lovely Dutch couple and were excited for our upcoming trip. Unfortunately the weather was quite cloudy the first couple of days so we decided to wait a couple of more days, both for the sky to clear and to hopefully find two more people to join the trip and make it cheaper for all of us.

We got lucky on both counts as a couple of days later a couple from Australia and Canada joined us and the clouds cleared. We had planned on driving the six or so hours to the lake and then spend a night there as people say that the lake changes its look at the different times of the day.

That day before going to the lake we decided to change guesthouses and had a walk outside of town in a wonderful country area but only 20 minutes away from the center of town. We found The Oriental Guesthouse and were amazed at how wonderfully relaxing it was, the owners were so nice too that we ended up spending a couple of weeks there!

The Oriental Guesthouse

The views from our bedroom.

The next day we drove to Pangong Tso. The drive there was just out of this world! We passed beautiful Tibetian monasteries that have been carved in to mountains, beautiful scenery and so many mountains!

Tibetan monastery

Amazing views on the way to the lake!

Driving on one of the many mountain passes in Ladakh.

One of the sweet mountain dogs...Willy wouldn't last a day!

We finally got our first look at the lake and it really was other worldly. It was surrounded by these huge beautiful sand coloured mountains and the colour of the lake was just astounding!

Pangong Tso Lake.

We stopped at a place on the lake for lunch and saw one of the many crazy bathrooms that we would come across in Ladakh. This hole in the ground was hilarious because you could see down to the biggest pile of s*it I've ever seen in my life, the best part was that there was no smell at all, I'm guessing because of the cold temperatures.

But anyway enough talk of s*it, after a nice lunch together it was time to find our home for the night. Most people that go to Pangong Tso lake usually go on a day trip, we had read that the lakes colours constantly change during the different times of the day so decided to stay overnight. There wasn't a huge amount of accommodation but we found a place right on the shore line. It was a family home and quite old but they provided a lot of blankets for us (because we were up in the Himalayas it got pretty cold in the evenings).

Another photo of the beautiful lake

...and again, but Jason is in this one :)

Once we got settled in, our group took a little walk along the lake. It was so beautiful and the fact that some cows were wandering around also just made it even better! Strangely enough though right at the shoreline there was one area with about 15 toilets. They were out in the open and didn't seem to have any plumbing, we had no idea what they were doing there. After our stroll we were all feeling a bit cold so we found a yurt to go inside and have some nice warm hot chocolate. It was a really awesome experience as the family were preparing the dinner for that evening, we asked if it was possible to stay for dinner but they only had enough food prepared for the people staying at their guesthouse.

The random toilets and sinks next to the lake.

Some prayer stones by the lake.

Just to make us remember that we were still in India!

Drinking hot choco in the Yurt.

We decided to head back to our guesthouse and have a lovely dinner there in a covered tent area. It was so nice getting to know our fellow travelers better and it was great to be on this trip with people that we really got on well with. The rest of the night we relaxed, played some card games, watched the sunset and layered up our beds for a peaceful nights sleep.

Pangong Tso at sunset.

The next morning we got up early, had some breakfast and spent some time by the lake, getting some last photos and taking in the beauty of it and its surrounds. Then it was back in to the car for the long trip back to Leh.

Early morning Pangong Tso.

Me and the lake.

This was the amazing backdrop when you turned your back to the lake!

I'm so happy that I got to visit Pangong Tso lake, as I said it was the main reason for us travelling to India and specifically Ladakh. I definitely had one of those awe-inspiring moments while there realising that I really am living out my dreams.

Getting there and away:

This is probably the toughest part about Ladakh is getting there. There is only 1 option for 9 months of the year and that is flying which can be quite expensive. During June, July and August the snow is cleared on the mountain passes which makes driving possible. It's a long journey that took us about 26 hours on our way home. We had heard that many jeeps take 2 days to do the journey which we would have preferred but there was nobody offering this option when we were trying to book our way out of Leh.

We flew up from Delhi and then drove back down.

Travel agent: 

For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the travel agent that we used to book our trips while in Ladakh. He was a really nice man and genuinely seemed interested in keeping costs down for us. His shop was on the main street and right by the delicious bakery/restaurant that everyone frequents while in Leh. (I hope that helps a little) He organized a jeep to and from the Nubra valley and Pangong Tso lake for us.

Where we stayed:

Oriental Guesthouse: We moved to here after leaving our ice box of a room at the previous guesthouse. We had seen that this place had excellent reviews on tripadvisor. We definitely weren't disappointed! For the same price as the other place we had a beautiful room that had the most wonderful views of the mountains. It was about 15 minutes walk away from the main area of Leh, but this walk was down wonderful small streets with beauty all around. I 100% recommend staying in this part of town, it was an amazing experience!
http://www.orientalguesthouse.com/

More views from our guesthouse.

The incredible drive

Jason napping during the drive.

Twas a bit windy during the day!

Yaks!

The second half of 2013 in review.

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I updated this blog, actually I have two posts ready and waiting to go but photos need to be added and unfortunately both of my external hard drives have crashed so I need to steal the photos from Jason (and find a better way to store our stuff!)

Anyway, I realize that the last 6 months I've been busy blogging about our travels that I have failed to mention anything about our lives since our travels. Well that ends now…

I arrived back from India way back in June (I can't believe how long ago it was) Myself and Willy were going to be homeless for a month but luckily a wonderful American girl that had never even met us agreed to let us stay with her. The best thing about that time is that I now have a new person to call a friend!

Jason came back from America in August and we moved in to our new apartment together. This was going to be our first time living together so we were both a bit nervous but it's been way better than either of us ever expected. Of course we have some arguments about who's turn it is to do the dishes and who left the banana peels on the counter. But its been amazing living together. Willy has just been thriving since we've been back and has loved having all three of us living together. We also got to do a little visa trip over to Fukukoa in Japan for a couple of days and that was great fun…we found out just how amazing Japanese photo booths can be!

Unfortunately the rest of August and all of September were what I like to call the "dark days". We had spent all of our money on our travels and we thought we had enough savings to tie us over until our first pay checks but we didn't. Add to that the fact that it was the hottest summer in Korea and we had no air-con. It meant that we were pretty miserable! But things soon got better once we had money coming in again!

Also when I got back I noticed that Willy wasn't able to walk as long as before and it seemed like he was in pain after about 10 minutes of walking. Once we had money again we brought him to a specialist surgeon in Busan and found out that our poor pup was in a considerable amount of pain when he walked because his joints had become severely arthritic. After talking with the surgeon we realised that the best thing to do was to give Willy a surgery which would remove his joints and straighten his legs. This would mean that he would no longer be in pain and could still run around.

He just had his second surgery last week and so far things seem to have gone well. One of his legs has swollen and we have to try to keep him off his feet as much as possible. Here's hoping that everything is successful and our pup will be hiking up the mountains again in no time.

Christmas then came upon us and I have to admit that I have always hated Christmas in Korea. But this year was an exception because Jason proposed to me on that day and we had the most wonderful day celebrating, getting drunk, chatting to friends around the world and eating a delicious leg of lamb. That was definitely one Christmas that I won't forget!

After Christmas we got to go to Ireland for a couple of weeks as my sister had won a return flight from Korea to Ireland for me in a competition. This was the best surprise in the world as because Willys surgery would be costing us a lot of money we had decided that it would be best to skip Ireland, but now that the flight was free I was able to go!

But more on our trip to Ireland in a future post. Now back to our travels in my next blog post which is about our time in Pushkar in India!

Happy new year everyone and I promise I'll be a better blogger now that normalcy has returned.

Pushkar.

The town of Pushkar

After being in the crazy heat of India for a couple of weeks we were both ready to find a place with a swimming pool and relax in that place for a while. We decided that Pushkar would be the perfect place to do it, especially since we found a guesthouse with a swimming pool for a good price!

The bus from Jaipur to Pushkar was only about 30 minutes but it was unbelievably full that people were hanging out of every space imaginable. After that quick ride we decided to get a rickshaw to the guesthouse that we were planning on staying at. Our hearts absolutely dropped when we arrived and found that the pool was...empty!! They said that it was being cleaned and that we would be able to use it the next day. We decided to take the risk and stay there.

They lied...it took a total of 5 days for the pool to get halfway full so we only got to use the pool once during our time there. This right here is what we found Pushkar was like, just a series of disappointments.

We had never intended on going to Pushkar but so many people had told us that it was their favourite place in India so we decided to check it out for ourselves. Indeed it is a beautiful town. There is a lake in the middle and all around the lake are beautiful white washed buildings and behind them are beautiful hills just waiting to be climbed. Indeed we would have climbed up these hills if we weren't there at the wrong time of the year and we may have fallen in love with the town then.

Pushkar

I guess the main reason that we didn't fall in love with Pushkar and ended up resenting it is because this is where we got ripped off big time! Before I continue, I know you will probably be thinking, I'd never let this happen to me, why didn't they just walk away! and yes I would be thinking the same and while I'm writing this I'm thinking "why didn't I just walk away?!" To be honest when you are there you are feeling vulnerable, you are surrounded by people who do this for a living and you are completely out of your comfort zone.
When we went to take a look at the lake we were told that we couldn't go in until we made an offering. Then we were suddenly surrounded by men, lots of men and we were seperated. I was sat down and made the offering which meant throwing some flower petals into the lake, getting a tikka on my forehead and saying a prayer. After this they would not let me leave until I gave them money (after spending the whole time telling me they weren't looking for money) When I tried to get up and leave they would stand in my way and not allow me to go, finally I gave them money and it was not enough, they wanted more! It was an awful situation and I'm still asking myself why didn't I just leave the money with them and go, but no, I ended up giving them more money and then finally just walking away. I finally found Jason and luckily he was stronger than me and didn't give them as much money but he felt quite threatened by the situation.

My "I just got scammed" look.

...and Jasons "I just got scammed" look.

Because this had happened on our first day in Pushkar it had left a bitter taste in our mouths that was hard to get rid of.
The town itself though is beautiful. There are lots of little alleyways that lead down to the lake, many little cafes and restaurants that look on to it and it really is a beautiful town just to walk around in. We spent the rest of our time there just relaxing in our guesthouse and walking around the town.

Pushkar, it really is beautiful!

Our plan was to go to Amritsar from Pushkar as we had seen that there was a train that went there directly but after trying to book a train we had found that they were completely booked up for the next seven days. We had to change our plans so began looking up flights from Delhi to Leh, luckily we found one cheap flight at 6am so booked it and then booked a train to Delhi. We would arrive in to Delhi at about 9pm, get a bus to the airport and then spend the night in the airport waiting for our flight the next morning.

All went according to plan, our daytime train was pretty great. We found that we were constantly eating as our ticked included a big meal and snacks. When we arrived in Delhi it was dark and there were so many people around the train station. We ended up getting a bit lost while looking for a bus stop to get us to the sirport but luckily some very friendly rickshaw drivers helped us out and stayed chatting with us until the bus came.

The airport was quite an interesting experience. When we arrived we noticed that there were people dressed in all black with a couple of guns each and helmets with cameras on top. Then we turn around and find a man pointing a gun at us from across the room. It was a bit startling as we had no idea what was going on. There must have been about 30 men all just ducking and sneaking along the terminal. We were getting pretty excited that something big was going to happen, especially when a bomb robot started rolling into the terminal. But we soon found out that it was just a training exercise. It was interesting to see though.
After a sleepless night in the airport we were bound for Ladakh. I was sleeping on the short hour long flight when Jason woke me and told me to look out the window. When I looked out I realised that we were flying right above the Himalayas. The view was pretty spectacular, just snow capped mountains as far as the eye could see. It was crazy to think that we would be driving back from Leh through this terrain! (unfortunately I was too tired to take photos of the views)

I was so excited for this next part of the trip. Ladakh was the reason that we had decided to come to India in the first place and it definitely didn't disappoint!