Back in Leh

I arrived back in Leh late Tuesday afternoon and spent today wandering around town. Since I'll be up early tomorrow to see some ancient monasteries here's just a couple of pics to start with.





It was nice to get back into 'real' life after having been at the meditation camp for a couple of days.

I did a lot of walking and climbing all day, to see the local sights of Leh. Something that impressed me most was a movie called 'Ancient Futures', I saw at the Women's Association of Laddhak, which was portraing how the opening of Laddhak to Tourism back in the 70s, as well as general progress have adversely affected the society. 30 years back, there was literally no garbage. Imgaine the problem today with the number of tourist coming in - just in terms of water bottles. Luckily there's been a lot of movements (ban of plastic bags, refill facilities for plastic bottles, etc.) to stop or at least minimise the negative effect.

I also met a German guy who had spent the past 25 years or so in India, who was very much into meditation, so that I could further discuss the experiences gathered over the weekend. If anybody is interested in doing a mountain bike tour at the border of India and Nepal - I'll pass his website on to you.