This fabulous old fella is the father of the guy who’s guest house and restaurant we camped at about 50 meters from the lake. He is wearing the traditional Ladakhi coat and stove pipe hat, and he smiles a lot.
Pangong Lake, at 4250m (13900 ft) the air is decidedly thinner than in Leh 700m below. The lake is part in India and part in Tibet, it is 134 km (83.3 mi) long and slightly salty apparently though I didn’t taste it.
I love these prayer flags. These are from the Chang La.
This was on the way to Pangong Lake and at an elevation of 5425m (thats 17,800 ft for all those non metric people). Almost all of the high passes round here are coverer ed with prayer flags. This one had a Lama living up here and he blessed tea that was available for free.
Incidentally I passed over the second highest road pass on my journey from Leh to Manali.(Taglang La at 5280 m/17324ft) and my MP3 player went loopy over both passes, in fact it seems to malfunction at anything over 4500m roughly)
I’m not sure what this is called, It was on the way to Pangong Tao (Lake) where I headed for a night camping with the South African girls. This turned out surprisingly well as it was taken from a moving jeep from the middle seat at the back.
Many Tibetan monasteries and temples have a library which contains, sometimes wrapped in cloth, the Tibetan Buddhist texts, in the beautiful Tibetan Script. Incidentally the Ladakhi language and Tibetan language script is the same although the languages are different, but related.
The best bit about Leh Palace are the panoramic views from the rooftop. They are restoring it, very slowly. There was one room with photographs and items of interest but otherwise the palace is a maze of often dark rooms. But its fun to get lost in these winding corridors but if you ever go there, bring a torch.
There are a few of these scattered around the old city in Leh. Most westerners have to stoop a bit to go under them as they are about 5′6″high roughly.
These traditional Ladakhi houses are very similar in design and purpose to Tibetan (according to two friends who have been too both). They main purpose is to stay warm in the very cold winters. As there is very little rainfall here keeping dry is of minor importance.
I love taking photographs of flowers. If anybody wants to know what to get me for xmas, a macro lens for my camera would be cool ;)
These where growing on many of the lanes between Leh and the village north (Changspa)
