I've been remiss in posting anything in the past week. Now that our trip is slowly coming to an end, we're rushing around trying to see and do everything! We just arrived in Delhi this morning after another long bus trip (16.5 hours.) Usually after such a long trip we compare cankles on arrival. This morning I won.
We had an incredible journey through all of Kashmir. After leaving the western Islamic area, we took a 20 hour jeep ride on one of the most remarkable roads I've traveled. It crossed two mountain ranges and passed along the border of Pakistan and slowly entered the peaceful Buddhist region of Ladakh.
We stayed in the capital of Ladakh called Leh, which is 11,500 feet above sea level. It was so cold that Lori wore a heavy wool blanket whenever we left our room (much to my dismay.) We went up to the Nubra Valley and crossed over the highest motorable pass in the world at 18,500 ft. The next day we crossed it again, and the following day we headed south and crossed the 2nd highest motorable road at 17,500 ft. It's a strange feeling when 16,000 feet feels just about normal and you have no problems with shortness of breath.
After leaving the Kashmir region, we travelled to Manali, which is famous for Israelis who travel there after leaving the military to smoke the famous Manali 'charas.' I've never seen so much pot growing wild in my life. It was all over the hills and everywhere you looked. The best thing about the influx of Israelis was the delicious food that all the restaurants served in order to get their business!
From Manali, Lori and I hopped on a bus and arrived Dehli this morning. It is pushing 108 degrees here and it's a hard adjustment after the freezing weather up north. (I know I have no sympathy from my Phoenix relatives.) Lori and couldn't take it at one point today and had to find a bar that sold cold beer and had A/C. Tomorrow we take the train to Rajastan, where it's even hotter. We changed our plane tickets to fly back two weeks later. There is just so much to see and so little time to see it.
I'll write more from Rajastan. I've posted more photos to the right.
Love K
