Kathmandu

After being in India it is really pleasant to arrive in Nepal's capital Kathmandu (link). Less traffic, less pollution and less stressful people... This means people here accept a NO and don't annoy you for hours to sell you some bullshit you don't need at all.

My hotel was located  in the melting pot of Kathmandu called Thamel. In the streets of Thamel you could find a lt of outdoor shops, outdoor companies offering any kind of tours, bars, hotels, souvenir shops, .... so even I haven't been to Thailand so far, I assume it is somehow similar - but after almost one month in India very welcome ;-)

Yesterday I did just sightseeing in Kathmandu, which was quite interesting, even more than expected.

I took a bicycle to come around, which I could only recommend, if you feel comfortable in Katmandu's traffic. For me it was more than o.k. cause you are very fast, the distances are not too far and you can stop whenever you want.

The first and probably most interesting sight was Pashupati, which is like "small Varanassi" - here you could join traditional funerals and get an impression of the Hindu's circle of live, death and rebirth...

Here I spoke with a Sadhu, who was quite friendly. But don't expect too much friendliness of Sadhus, or Brahmas - especially not from these on touristic spots. Most of them just wasn't your money, which is from my point of view no holy behaviour at all. => This one was different, he just wanted to smoke Hash with me, what I declined, cause I had still some km's to do by bike in the traffic of Kathmandu.

If you want to give something to Sadhu's give them food, but no money!

Pashupati has also Ghat's where people are sitting, washing their sins away...

But not only people are enjoying the holy atmosphere of Pashupati...

These scenery you could also see in Varanassi, people meditating next to the holy river and opposite to the funeral Ghat.

Here they just lighted the body...

And finally an overview from Pashupati.

In Kathmandu is the biggest Buddha Stupa all over the world located => this one isn't it yet, that was a smaller one close to the big one ;-) but not less impressive... and spraying a much holier atmosphere.

The big stupa is surrounded by cafes, souvenir shops, ... and also holy Buddhist monks are begging for your money. If I see such things than I really regret the people from western countries who sacrify everything linked to Buddhism. I had the feeling that NO religion is really virgin and holy in their holy places - cause otherwise they would miss to earn a lot of money.

Anyhow the stupa is impressive and worth to visit, but I got angry by the naive tourists, who are sacrifying these places.

On the way from the stupa down to Patan Durbar Square I passed in the middle of Kathmandu a rather rural area. It was sad to have a closer look at the rivers, as they were polluted like hell...

Arrived in Patan Durbar Square I was really impressed by the beauty of the buildings, wood carvings, statues, ...

One sight which is similar to Patan Durbar Square, called Kathmandu durbar sqare, I skipped, cause I already spent almost 30 € entrance fees, that day and it did not promise new impressions beside Patan Durbar Square.

On my way to Swoyambhu (monkey temple) I saw another small, less known temple next to the road...

And unfortunately Buddha statue at Swoyambhu...

The stupa of Swoyambhu...

A monkey...

And a beautiful Nepalese girl with her smaller brother.

Next update of the bog will be only in 2-3 weeks, cause tmrw. I will start to the Annapurna Trek.

Leh => Srinagar + Gulmarg & summary of India

This time when moving between Leh and Srinagar I took some more time for taking pictures, than on the way before, even it took me this time only two days. => So for me it is getting really reasonable to return the motorbike after 2 weeks, cause otherwise it would get probably to dangerous... My friend Sebastian knows it, how it works, as soon you are used to the bike, the traffic and the streets you are immediately one of the fastest on the streets - which could be really dangerous as people and animals on the road are always behaving that way you don't expect it.

Anyhow, I returned to Srinagar safely and did even there some more trips with the bike and now I am sitting at Indira Ghandi Airport waiting for my flight towards Kathmandu.

Here we have a wonderful view to the Indus valley close to Leh...

Again the Indus between Leh and Lamayuru...

Some kms away from Lamayuru, the valley (I don't know the rivers name) is getting smaller but not less beautiful.

Here another impression of riding the bike some kms after Drass. => Obviously I could not drive so fast with the camera in my hand, especially when the roads were like this. Most of the time the roads were paved and in a good shape, so really nice to run a motor bike on it.

Very close to the in official border between Ladakh and Kashmir this pictures were taken.

I mentioned it already in one blog before, that right now double of army people are located in Ladakh than actual people are living there. In this short clip you can get an imagination how it could look there on the roads... I had the feeling that this day 1000 military trucks were moving eastern towards Ladakh region to protect this land from Chinese invader ship.

Kashmir is green and really beautiful and which is most perfect, there are only little tourists, cause they doubt the security situation there - which is totally bullshit from my experience. This picture was taken close to Sonmarg, where you should stay at least some days when you are in Kashmir.

The closer you are coming to Srinagar the more rice fields you can find next to the roads.

One of the many rivers around Srinagar.

The day after I did a two day trip towards Gulmarg, which is a very famous skiing resort in winter time. Even the road toward it was great, and again I was surprised why no foreign tourists at all were there. This might be caused from security issues and of course the most read guidebook all over the world: "lonely planet" => I personally think that lonely planet is totally useless bullshit, cause it did not mention Gulmarg, Sonmarg, ... the way how it should have been, lonely planet are more concentrating on partying, etc. Therefore I recommend you to download it for free as a ebook and don't spend one cent on it... here we go: http://www.filecrop.com

In Gulmarg there were some nice friends close to the roads...

I did there some hiking in a really amazing nature,

saw Kashmir sheep...

nice local people,

and small beautiful rivers.

That night I slept at Gulmarg Meadows link, an very expensive camp. I did it that way, that I only payed 1000 Rupies and gave the same amount as a tip to the staff. So I always tried to support the staff and not the investors in the background.

In the last clip you can see monkeys playing and searching for food in the litter... Yeah this is real India, even it looks most of the time so clean on my pictures, you could find really a lot of litter, suffering animals, dying animals, amazingly traffic jams etc. on the roads and next to it. 

I see often parallels to China and other poor countries, so western countries are selling cars, Coca-Cola, etc. to these countries and after a while people couldn't move anymore in there streets, cause they are stuck in traffic, or the forests are looking like hell caused by empty Coke bottles and other litter. 

I am also tending all the time to say, are these people crazy, why don't they change anything in terms of traffic, smog and litter? But on the other hand they are so happy to have a car or Coca Cola...

But now a short summary: If you are doing Ladakh, which is definitely worth to do, get to Srinagar as well by motor bike, you will love it! There are organized tours, if you don't want to do it alone. Stay not longer than max one night in Srinagar (horrible place like Delhi), but do some of the places around, like Sonmarg (go there for hiking), Naranag (also perfect for hiking), Gulmarg (just to relax or also to hike) and many many more...

If you are staying in Delhi, stay close to the airport in Mahipalpur, it's much better and cleaner than at the main market and you also find hotels for around 1000 rupies. I stayed in this one, which was really ok. => http://www.hotelmayank-newdelhi.com/

Indians love to ask you where you are from to start a conversation... You'd make good in telling them you're from Italy, cause then they estimate you have less mony than e.g. people from Germany nad they also think you are having a similar menthality like them => so they might cheat you less ;-)

Around Leh

From Leh to Diskit (Nubra Valley)

There are several options to visit Nubra Valley from Leh, you can either take public buses, or take a guided tour or do it by yourself. As I had and I am still having a motorbike I did it with it. You should be very careful with the petrol cause you couldn't get any beside Leh, so rather take a canister with you ;-)

Going to Diskit you have to pass the 5600m high Khardung La pass, where most motorbikes are really suffering... Somehow mine did it, which was great ;-)

 

The first km's after Khardung La, the scenery was not so different to the valley of Leh, except there are hardly any villages.

After a while it was getting greener and I was able to discover really nice scenery's. => From my point of view it would be really great to stay in the Nubra Valley a bit longer for hiking and discovering it by your own. Especially the huge canyons were amazing and I am pretty sure you could get somehow at the bottom of them.

As it was really cold and I didn't have proper clothes nor a rope with me I decided to stay one night in Diskit before returning to Leh.

My new favorite animals the donkeys are almost everywhere present on Ladakhs roads.

Shey Climbing Area

One km before Shey on the left side when coming from Leh you will find around 15 granite pitches. Some of them are multi pitches. I went to this plae with Gabor from Budapest, whom I met at the Bouldering Cafe called "Gravit" in Leh. In this cafe you could hang around, speak to local climbers, get the latest news about pitches and rent equipment. Topos are not available, but who doesn't love on sight climbing?

As mentioned before the rocks are granite and therefore you can hardly find good cracks or holes, if you find something than it is super crimpy, but most of the time you have really nothing so it is pure fraction climbing... what I really hate ;-)

Anyhow it was great, to stay at least one day with a nice person on the rocks and doing some exercises.

 

Here you can see at least one Video while riding the bike. Garbor was riding it and I was sitting behind him, therefore I had the possibility to take this clip.

Monasteries around Leh

Eastern of Leh there are some monasteries, like the one in Thikse...

and the other one is Shey Monastery close to the climbing spot.

Pangong Lake

Pangong Lake is Asia's biggest salt water lake located between India and China. The trip to Pangong Lake let me pass a nice monastery located in Chemre and really amazing scenery as you can see in the following...

The pass I had to climb called Chang La was on an altitude of 5300m. It was there much colder than on the 300m higher pass Khardung La...

Just when I climbed Chang La problems with my bike aroused... I could not start the engine anymore - after trying to clean the spark plug it did still not start, I decided to let the bike roll downhills, which worked fine ;-)

Arrived at a military checkpoint at the very bottom of the street the soldiers tried their best to help me, but unfortunately without success, that's why they stopped a military truck, which took me to Tangtse, where a mechanic solved my problem on a Sunday for just 200 Rupies.

Some statistics in Ladakh region there are living around 300.000 people, but there are more than 600.000 military persons. My friend Khan told me, that India increased the forces, cause China occupied Ladakh region within this year for 5 times.

Tangtse itself is a wonderful place, very quiet with many friendly people living there. I especially liked the small river running to the village.

And of course Tangtse also has a monastery...

The next day I headed towards the Pangong Lake, where I passed nice Karl May scenery's,

I mentioned already before, that I am no motor biker, but I really enjoyed it to be on such roads alone with the bike, even I would have preferred it to take a bicycle, cause sitting for hours on a motorbike without any movement is fu.. cold when the temperatures are just below 0°C.

Some Yaks...

The Pangong Lake... It was obvious, that there must have happened another issue with my bike just when I reached the lake ;-) So the clutch wire broke, that's why I decided not to go further east, and returned immediately towards Leh.

Best Restaurant at the lake ;-)

Even there was now an issue with the bike that made it interesting to switch into 1st gear, I took some pictures, which should express the beauty of Ladakhs nature.

Some friendly marmots, very close to the road. This one bite me in the finger, when I was giving it my hand (I didn't feed it, which is by the way not allowed) - but nothing serious happened to my finger.

View from Chang La towards Sakti...