A flavour of the Orient
Rai & Stephie in Asia

Gladly leaving behind the semi naked sadhus and the glued to the terrace israeli and french pot smokers in Vashisht village close to Manali, we started the two day adventure that would take us 485km north to the town of Leh in Ladakh. The journey across the 2nd highest motorable pass in the world (5360m) is only possible during the summer and even in summer the road is frequently cut off by landslides and broken down lorries.

So off we went, rai , steph , a happy guitar and a very very brave and good driver with a very good jeep. The first challenge came shortly after departure as we climbed towards the Rohtang pass (3978m) which apparently means "piles of dead bodies"....the moonson rains had created an extremely muddy road. By 6am a huge traffic jam of lorries, jeeps and royal enfields was in full force. Just to complicate things a long convoy of kashmir army lorries were travelling in the opposite direction creating a very big mountain mess. Korean tourists wearing FLIP FLOPS were forced out of their cars to help push their car further up the hill. We took 5 funny hours to drive the 18km to the top of the pass...not bad considering our driver once took 3 days to do the same journey.

Leaving the nice mud behind we drove past some breathtaking scenery...beautiful mountain peaks, hanging glaciers, huge meandering rivers, narrow canyons. The camera was going off non-stop....it was really that good. To avoid altitude sickness we drank water bottle after water bottle ....we probably broke the world record for the number of pee stops in one single day...! After a fantastic night stop in a cute village (Jispa, 3300m) we drove on passing more impressive mountain peaks stripped of vegetation. Jeremy johnson, geologist extraordinaire would have given us a 1hr boring geology chat had he been with us! At the highest pass (5360 m) and with the head starting to feel heavy we made our way down towards Leh.

Apart from the scenery the Indian road signs kept us alert with laughter: 

Are you going to party, why drive so dirty?
Drinking whisky, after risky
Drive on horse power, not rum power
Peep, peep Don't sleep
Safety on road is "safeTEA" at home

Travelling is all about having brilliant ideas and instead of ending up in Leh we had a wise idea to cut the journey short by 20km and sleep in a stunning monastery (Tikse gompa). With our bloodshot eyes and feeling the altitude we chilled out on the roof terrace of the monastery. It was bliss...the perfect end to a fantastic journey.

Http://www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com