up the first pass

ascending the first pass..



stephan (swiss) and marzena




Me, Christophe and Alex

campsite # 1

ours is the lovely neon green tent in the background... despite it's colour, it actually was probably the best tent - spacious and didn't leak!

note our beloved donkeys to the left. they were the only animals loyal enough to not try to make a break for freedom...

you'd think she was the canadian...

but no.. Alexandra is actually dutch! she did have the most stylish outfits of all of us, that's for sure

Christophe, the absolutely hilarious French man, and me, at the beginning of our trek

colourful field

apparently canola??

rumtse... the start of our trek

Marzana and I signed up for a 9 day trek - it turned out that one person would be joining our trek one day late, so we ended up spending the first day in Rumtse. A bit bizarre to be camped next to the main road.. but other than a drive by procession of a famous Buddhist lama, it was pretty quiet. we hiked up the opposite hill, and got hailed on. Climate change is definitely affecting ladakh - apparently you used to be able to count on blue skies in July and August, and we had ridiculously variable weather - snow, hail, rain, sun.. often all in one day.

More pics from our crazy bike ride..

More prayer flags, I don't think I'll ever get enough..



Painting a stupa, as we rode by


The view from the top of the monastery of the surrounding fields


Thikse gompa (monastery). Sadly overun with tourists since it is only 17 km from Leh (all downhill, should you choose to bike.. but give you bike to a restaurant to look after while you hike up the hill). This means that if you go to the early morning prayer session (puja) there may be more white people than monks, many of whom have horrible camera etiquette. Cameras are NOT allowed inside temples in Bhutan, so I did take the opportunity to grab a shot of this two story Buddha (this is the top story)