Blog entry: 4 days in Leh; days 3&4
Day 3 in Leh was basically spent on the meditation course and sightseeing around town. We had morning breakfast a little later and then headed off to the centre, entering the class about 20mins late. But it was supposed to be a relaxed trip anyway, so no rush! Class first moved into ‘how to sit long in meditation’ but the guru taught ‘vertebrae opening’ and I guess those exercises were meant to help the ‘Prana’ or ‘qi’ flow I think. Cos they treat the vertebrae as an important part of youth. If the backbone was young, said the guru, you will feel young. Profound stuff eh? Those exercises were accompanied by a breathing music which he had composed. Class was really quite interesting when you have all these modern elements coming in a class where things are supposed to be traditional.
Next part of the class was ‘Chakra healing and singing’. Now this was getting interesting as I had been reading a teeny weeny bit on Chakras and will be nice to see what this guy has to offer us! So basically, for each Chakra, there would be breathing exercise for 2mins and then singing a single note for another 2 mins. So we moved from one Chakra to the next, starting with the lowest and ending at the crown chakra which was at the top of the head. Whole thing lasted for about an hour and I could feel quite refreshed actually! But the skeptic in me tells me that it is the concentrated intake of oxygen that makes us more awake, but well, it was interesting to see how other people teach and view spirituality! The other people in the class were all caucasians and 3 of them were Italians.
After the class at 1:15pm, we paid the Rs300 fee (~SGD 10) and went off for lunch. This time I wanted to try the Korean restaurant, Amigo, which was off the main bazaar but was actually quite a far walk in and Mariana commented ‘that it better be worth it’ cos she did not really enjoy the previous korean meal at old Manali. So we went in and ordered a ham fried rice that turned out to be luncheon meat fried rice which was pretty good since I hadn’t had that for a good two months!! Then had a noodle dish which was fried vermicilli, another food that I had not eaten in a long time! Last was spring onion pancake which was good too! But this meal was more than the good food. While I was ordering the food, the Korean lady boss came out to tell me that kimchi dishes were not possible because the fermented kimchi had ran out and new unfermented kimchi were not sour enough. And this information she told me in Korean cos I had yellow skin and black hair. Haha. So funny when I told her that I am not Korean. Then she asked me where I was from and I told her Singapore and she was ‘Singapore! My friend who lives here is Singaporean too!’ she then ran out to the house and shouted ‘Florence!’ at the 2nd floor of the house. And soon, a head popped out and low and behold, a Singaporean! We said our hellos and she came down to our table. So nice! I could use singlish now! Haha. Naturally, we asked each other questions and I found out that she used to be an ex-A&E nurse at NUH, is single, parents had passed away already and had a sickly sister in Singapore. home in Singapore was at Choa chu kang (Westie!). What she was doing in Leh was owning and running a bakery neat Moti Market catering to the army camps and vegetarian Indians because her cakes and pastries are eggless. And because she supplies to an army camp, business is quite good! And her cake shop is called ‘The Secret Recipe’ which she only opens from june to October after which she flies back to Singapore because Leh is too cold in winter. On top of baking, she does some teaching at a music school in leh and freelances as a tour guide if she gets Singapore tourists. She has bought couples to places around Leh like visiting the nomadic tribes using the Ladakhi language which she learned in 6months from a local friend. On top of tourist trips, she also handled a trekking group who wanted to trek in December. She discouraged them but they insisted that they were professionals and could do it but in the end did not complete a simple trek according to her. She said she’d rather not do the business next time. Haha. So funny!
And we next asked her about some of the places of interest that Mariana can go during her 2 week stay in Leh and she knowledgeably rattled out all the place using the lonely planet guidebook. Soon after our pancake came and she took her leave to eat Kimbab (Korean Sushi) with the lady boss. That session was just like an episode of the Channel U info documentary “yi xiang ren” where they feature Singaporeans working in remote places like Africa. This meeting was totally random la. Haha. And towards the end of our meal, she came out again to introduce James to us, who runs a tour agency specialising in tours, trekking, buses and anything else that a normal Leh tour agency covers. We asked James what was good for us to sightsee in an afternoon and he gave us some pointers for the nearby sights as sights further away required a cab and advanced booking was required. Nice guy! We took his namecard to pass to Nacho if he wants to climb Stok Kangri. I wanted to buy my Manali bus ticket through him but his contact was busy so too bad!
He left and we also went to pay our bill and before I left, I got the contact and name card of Florence. Who knows, this contact may come in useful in the future! Can go trekking with her in Leh. Haha. So the rest of the afternoon was to be spent touring the Leh Palace and the Tsemo Gompa. On the way to Jama Masjid, a mosque near the palace, we stopped by for a softee which turned out to be coconut flavour instead of the claimed ‘vanilla’ but it was good nonetheless in an unusually hot Leh afternoon. And soon after, guess who we met? The Australian couple Paul and Serena from our bus ride! They just came back from Thiksey visiting the Gompa there and were queueing up to withdraw money from the ATM! What a coincidence again! Haha. 2nd time we met them since we were in Leh. Talked to them a while, got some advice from them for the climb up to to Tsemo Gompa and we left to start our climb to Leh palace. Halfway through, we went in a temple which was guarded by a monk in sunglasses. He told us that the temple contained pictures of 1000 Buddhas so we went in to see and after 2 mins, he came up to us with an admission ticket booklet and said that there was an entrance fee of Rs20 per person. And I was like, I knew something was fishy the moment I saw the monk outside the temple. And I am not sure if they have mixed up business with their main or original intentions. But anyway, we paid and went around the small temple to see the murals of the 1000 Buddhas on the temple walls. Next stop: Leh Palace which was just a little higher and this time, admission was Rs100 per foreigner compared to Rs5 for locals. Crazy stuff. So I flashed my NGO letter and student card again and got it for half the price, Rs50. Which wasn’t too bad! The palace was nothing much to look at except for an exhibition of restoration of old relics in Ladakh and that was about it. Seriously felt cheated. Then got out of the palace to visit Tsemo Gompa, a temple 250m away- upslope mind you! Haha. Climb up was pretty tiring as there were no stairs and shade, only sand and sun. It was good exercise though! View from up there was pretty nice! This temple also required us to pay Rs20 but it was phrased nicely on the admission ticket that it would be used for restoration works and maintenance, unlike the first one which just said ‘admission ticket’ so lesson here: giving a reason is better than not giving any and it’s one of the principles to becoming a more persuasive person! Went to another room where the faces of the statues were covered by a cloth and the monk explained that they only open them during a certain festival in September if i remember correctly.
Some pictures of the temple and sights from there.
After the temple visit, we walked down to grab Yak cheese! Made from the milk of Yaks and this cheese could only be found in the north part of India. I had yak cheese sandwich with a glass of cold milk and it was really nice! Yak cheese had a certain taste twist from the normal cheese that we have (a little sour and pretty fragrant) and the combination with bread and veggies like tomatoes made it good! Mariana had yak cheese toast which i had a bite and was good too! Can fully taste the flavour of the cheese.
After this late afternoon snack, we walked back to our hotel area to use Internet and Mariana called her boyfriend Pedro. Alas, the wonders of love and what it can do to a person. Haha. But it’s nice to see such a loving couple so happy and communicating! Internet connection was pretty bad and hence Pedro had to call Mariana through her phone 10mins later. So went back to the hotel first to charge the batteries of her dying phone. We weren’t in a hurry for dinner anyway since we had a late snack.
After the call and my shower, we headed out for dinner at KC restaurant and I had a nice fruit salad to end the day off on a light note. Healthy living! Not eating anything too heavy too late. That was how I ended my 2nd last night in Leh.
4th and last day in Leh was started off with a jog around my guest house area at around 645 am. Had actually planned to go for a walk with the guest house owner and his dog at 6am but woke up a little late. But it’s good to go alone too cos got more freedom but no explanation about the area that’s all. Jogged around and stumbled upon an area which was more peaceful and had many restaurants and bakeries. Nice place! Came across Gomang stupa by chance too. The best part was stumbling upon the path leading to Shanti Stupa, which was a place that I had always seen from afar but didn’t know how to get there. Climbed the stairs up and the view up there was worth it! First visited the temple and then walked around the stupa which was initiated by a Japanese and supported by the Indian government through Indira Gandhi. Very nice seriously and saw 2 white girls learning yoga in front of the mountains. Great view, but I wonder how much they paid. Haha.
