Throw Back India: Ladakh (Part 1 – Leh)

The last trip we took as a family in India was to Ladakh in late August. Before we moved to India, I didn’t really know anything about Ladakh. I had heard about Jammu and Kashmir, India’s northernmost state, because it’s often in the news but somehow never about Ladakh, even though it’s part of Jammu and Kashmir. Once we got to India, Ladakh was often recommended as a cool travel destination. It’s up in the Himalayas just south of Tibet. Most of the people who live there are Ladakhi and are ethnically, culturally, and linguistically related to the people of Tibet.

You could drive from Delhi to Ladakh between June and September but it would be crazy take forever because of the rugged mountain terrain. The rest of the year, the passes into Ladakh are snowbound, so driving is out of the question. We went there in the summer but we didn’t have a lot of time, so we flew into Ladakh’s main city, Leh.

The Ladakh region is the only part of Jammu and Kashmir state, where we were allowed to go due to security concerns. Even in Ladakh, you need special permission from the Indian Government to go anywhere outside of Leh because Ladakh borders on both China and Pakistan and India has border disputes with both countries, so there is a heavy military presence in the area. If you are thinking about going there, your travel agent will help you get the required permissions.

 

The distance between Delhi and Leh is about 620 miles (1,000 km) and the flight takes a little over an hour, so it is very convenient and you fly over the Himalayas, which is pretty darn amazing. It looks like this:

Yup, those are glaciers alright. Did I mention this was in late August?!! But then again we are talking about the Himalayas...

Everyone knows the Himalayas are huge but it takes seeing them from above to actually grasp their enormity and to understand why the monsoon never makes it all the way to Ladakh and Tibet. We flew there during the monsoon season and could actually see the wet and rainy plains turn into wet and rainy mountains but the further north we flew, the drier the mountains got until we reached Ladakh, which is basically a high desert (you can also kinda see that on the second map above). The Himalayas are so freaking tall that they block the advance of the monsoon rains to the north.

Leh is at 11,500 ft (3,500 m) above sea level and that’s no joke if you’re new to high altitude. We were told that we should acclimate for a couple of days in Leh before going any higher. The problem was we we had 4 days total and our plan was to go up to Pangong lake on the Chinese border at 14,000 ft (4,300 m), so we got about a day of acclimation, which was not enough but more on that later.

In Leh we stayed at the Grand Himalaya hotel, which was OK. Friends had recommended the Grand Dragon but it was full.  The Grand Himalaya is not bad but our understanding is that the Grand Dragon is nicer. Both hotels are built in the Ladakhi architectural style with beautiful woodwork but the the Grand Himalaya had some strange “features” - misaligned marble slabs in the bathroom, windows and doors didn’t quite close, and occasional gasoline smell from the generator. The food was mostly Ladakhi, which is similar to Tibetan/Chinese with momos (fried or steamed dumplings with various fillings) figuring prominently. Our room was spacious and comfortable, the location was good (right below Leh Palace and a short walk from downtown) and the staff was friendly and helpful, so we couldn’t really complain. Here are a couple of pictures (the one to the left is from the hotel’s website):

We took it easy the first day because we needed to acclimate to the high altitude. We lounged about in the hotel before noon and then took a nap. In the afternoon, we had our driver take us to Leh Palace, which was perched on a hill above our hotel. The palace is an interesting multi-story structure (see picture below) but there is very little left inside – just a temple, empty rooms and terraces. 
The views from the palace however are really cool – you see the whole city, spread beneath you in an emerald-green river-fed valley surrounded by austere-looking treeless mountains.

After Leh palace, we went to Shanti (peace) Stupa, a Buddhist monument built by the Japanese on another hill at the outskirts of Leh for more breathtaking views of the valley, the surrounding mountains and the stupa itself.

 
On the way back from the Shanti Stupa we decided to take a walk downtown, so here are a few more scenes from Leh:

Unfortunately, there was some beautification project going on when we were there, so the downtown area looked like a war zone but you could see that it would be nice when finished because the streets were lined with shops and interesting old buildings. There was a lot of activity going on despite the construction and the mini dust storm, which came out of nowhere while we were walking around.

 

By the time we got back to the hotel we were so tired we were ready to pass out, so we just ordered room service and went to bed. We were starting to feel the effects of the high altitude – we were all short of breath and some of us had headaches. We had a long trip ahead of us the next day and we were going higher, so we bought a bottle of oxygen, just in case.

Even though I was exhausted, I had a hard time falling asleep that night. Breathing was a struggle and I just couldn’t relax enough to fall asleep. I kept an eye on the kids, who were also having breathing difficulties. I was worried about the next day knowing we were going higher. I was starting to think that perhaps going to Ladakh with the kids, was not such a good idea after all but everything was already paid for. Plus, we still wanted to see Pangong Lake. They say high altitude makes you stupid because the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen and I have to say, I felt rather dumb and panicky that night (though not as dumb and panicky as I felt the following night).

Coming up: Ladakh Part 2 – Pangong Lake.

Throw Back India: Glimpses of Varanasi

A couple of days before we left India, I took a day-trip to Varanasi (a.k.a Benares or Banaras). It was a work-related trip and I, perhaps unwisely, had volunteered for it. But I had my reasons.

I had wanted to see the Ganges ever since I remember myself. When I was in pre-school, I, like most kids, loved fairy tales but had a special place in my heart for fairy tales from far away lands. My mother indulged me and got me translated fairy tales from various European countries, Japan and Africa which I thought were really cool. One day she brought home a beautifully illustrated book of what I thought were Indian fairy tales. I ran across the book recently and realized that it was actually stories from the Mahabharata (one of the great Indian epics, translated from French, no less). I loved that book so much that my mom eventually grew tired of reading it to me over and over, so she recorded herself reading the stories using a tape recorder. I couldn’t read yet but this way I could play the stories on demand without her needing to be right there. I thought that was the awesomest thing ever (even the parts where my mom was struggling with the super long Indian names). The stories in the book were about kings and queens and princes and princesses and gods and goddesses and demons and the like but they also talked a lot about the mighty Ganges and I naturally wanted to see this amazing river. I blame that book and my mother for my obsession fascination with India.

So, I couldn’t imagine leaving India without seeing the Ganges. It’s one of the largest rivers in the world and is enormously important to India (and Bangladesh). Varanasi is located in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, and millions of people (farmers, fishermen, traders, etc.) depend on the Ganges for their livelihoods. Many historically significant cities and towns, monuments and temples were built along the river.

The Ganges is the most sacred river to the Hindus and Varanasi is the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism. Hindus from all over the world flock to Varanasi because they believe that immersing themselves in the Ganges will wash their sins away. They also believe that dying in Varanasi will bring them salvation, so many Hindus go there to die while others take their loved ones’ remains there for cremation and immersion in the Ganges.

I had been plotting to take a trip to Varanasi the whole time we were in India but it is not a good place for those uncomfortable with death like our kids. Plus, the city is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world - crowded, bustling with activity and well, not pristine. The river, as sacred as it is, is very polluted by farming, industry, overpopulation and sewage. So while I wanted to go, I knew it was not a place we would enjoy as a family. So up until about a month before we left India, it looked like a trip to Varanasi was not happening.

Then it turned out that at work we needed an FSO go to Varanasi to visit an incarcerated U.S. citizen. I knew it was going to be only day-trip and just a couple of days before our departure from India, when I would have a million of other things to worry about but I volunteered for it because it was my last chance to see Varanasi.

I was accompanied by one of my Indian colleagues on the trip. We took a morning flight to Varanasi and got there about 10 a.m. We had to take care of business first, of course. The U.S. citizen we had to visit was actually held in a mental institution, so it was a hard and sad visit but I can’t talk more about it because I have to protect the person’s privacy.

By the time we finished the work visit, it was noon, so we went to have lunch at the Suria Hotel, which came recommended by another Indian colleague. The colleague who accompanied me on the trip had never been to Varanasi before either. We both wanted to go to the Ganges and just walk around but our driver had other plans. He knew a guide (they always do) and insisted that we use him, so we did.

We had only a couple of hours before we had to be at the airport for our flight back to Delhi, so in hindsight, having a guide was not a bad idea. We wouldn’t have seen as much without him but of course, like every guide, he had to insist that we go see his uncle’s sarees . He said the family owned a saree factory. The Benarsi sarees are famous, so we obliged but that cut into our already short sight-seeing time. Plus the uncle’s prices were really high, so we didn’t buy anything but it was neat to go to the guy’s home and look at beautiful sarees.

Here are some scenes I captured in a hurry during my very short time in Varanasi:

A typical intersection

A heavy load

Delivery guy

 

Lotus sellers

At the flower market

Sarees

  The fabric dye shop – those places will match any color in about 10 minutes

The wedding invitation wala (guy) – weddings are a huge business in India and so are wedding invitations. Some of them are really elaborate and expensive. They can be up in the hundreds of dollars each for the really posh weddings.

The paan wala (guy selling betel leaf)

Neighborhood market

   Sacred cows

Kids at a temple 

Our guide’s uncle’s haveli – a typical Indian family home built around a private courtyard where usually several related families and generations live.

The guide’s uncle showing off sarees made in his factory – the silks were gorgeous but the prices, way out of line.

Shy but curious

The Ganges at the Nepali Temple, one of the thousands of temples in Varanasi. I was there in late August, during the rainy season, so the river was really high. See those umbrellas – they look like they are 2/3 under water.

  The Nepali Temple in Varanasi

A lone devotee at the Ganges

The wood used for the funeral pyres at the cremation grounds.

Our guide told us photography was not allowed beyond this point at the ghats (the areas of the river bank where the cremation grounds are) out of respect for the dead. He also told us that the cremation grounds had been closed for several days because of the heavy rains. The water had been so high that the areas where the cremations take place had been under water. The water had gone down enough on the day of our visit for the cremation grounds to reopen, so there were many funeral pyres burning at the ghats and many more families waiting for their turn to cremate loved ones. Our guide took us to the structure behind the fire wood, which he said was a shelter for dying people who have nowhere else to go. It is maintained by charitable donations and doesn’t really have anything inside – no beds or any other furniture but I guess it protects the destitute from the elements until it’s their time.  We watched the burning pyres from there for a while. It was sad and sobering to see the people in there and the burning pyres but it’s very much part of daily life in Varanasi. Then it was time to go back.

In a way, Varanasi seemed like the essence of India. Pretty much everything you have heard about India, including some unbelievable and crazy things, is there but magnified. The smells, the sights and the emotions they generate are intense. Being there is a sensory overload. It’s like an India concentrate or India on steroids, if you will. Either that or I was just emotional about leaving India and that made everything in Varanasi feel so intense to me. In any case, a couple of hours was entirely not enough (though it’s definitely better than none) and I look forward to going back and spending more time in Varanasi. One day…

Throw Back India: Ravanas, Ravanas Everywhere

It’s holiday season in India. People are celebrating Dussehra, one of the most important Hindu festivals, honoring the victory of Lord Rama over the 12-headed Demon King Ravana. You can read more about the holiday here but one of the most fascinating things related to Dussehra in my opinion are these Ravana effigies people make and then burn to celebrate the victory of good over evil. I didn’t have a chance to blog about the Ravana effigies while we were in India but found them fascinating.

Last year, we went to Janakpuri, the part of Delhi, where people make the effigies and took a bunch of pictures. I thought I’d share some of them with you today. I apologize for the poor quality of the picture – they were taken with my cell phone.

The Ravana effigies are made out of paper, scrap fabric and sticks. In the beginning they look like this:

Then their creators put colored paper on top of the brown paper and yes they do go to crazy with the mustaches:

Then they add elaborate decorations on the faces:

Finally, they assemble the Ravanas and each one gets a body kinda like the one in the picture above (at the right) and 12 heads. They look really impressive. As you can see, all of this is done on the side of the road in a regular neighborhood. The effigies are made over a couple of weeks leading up to the Dussehra.

On Dussehra, Indians set hundreds and hundreds of Ravana effigies on fire. I never went out at night to see them burning (we are asked to stay away from the burning celebrations as they can and often do get out of hand and there’s a lot of other craziness going on) but here is a picture from Hindustan Times, which should give you an idea of what a burning Ravana effigy looks like. Of course, there are hundreds of them all over town, so it’s really something to behold.

Also kinda Halloween-y, no?

Image credit: Hindustan Times