India: Leh-Ladakh

Here we go. Finally a few more videos from India.
This round, just videos from Leh-Ladakh.
Often described as a moon-scape, Leh is the highest altitude desert in the world. The stark and barren landscape is dotted with mud-brick homes that blend into the sand-colored background.

We had some trouble adjusting to the altitude the first day. But that was planned into the trip to some extent. We just went to the hotel and slept for the first couple hours. I've never been to that kind of altitude before, so i didn't really know what to expect. Andreas has, so the side-effects of getting used to 3500 meters were at least somewhat familiar to him. The lower oxygen levels mostly meant I just tired much faster - climbing stairs, carrying bags, generally walking uphill...maybe not even really tired - we were both just a bit breathless. For those first four hours, it felt quite strange, I felt like I had to take an extra breath every view seconds to catch up somehow. Even when we were sleeping, it felt like I had to concentrate on remembering to breathe that extra breath.

The videos here are a mixed bag. We spent a day in Leh proper, and then went driving ...north west along the Indus river towards Pakistan. The following day we continued until we were within 10 kilometers or so of Pakistan (or the "line of control"). At that point, we were not allowed to continue driving. We visited a little village there called Dha, where we saw the descendants of an ancient Aryan tribe - who looked quite different from the Tibetan-heritage-looking people of Leh, both in terms of the facial features and in their traditional clothes.

We visited 3-4 monasteries, beautiful little fortresses of sorts built on hills, with HUGE golden Buddhas inside, that extended from the first story of the monasteries until the 3rd or 4th. Elaborate paintings covered the walls inside, something you'd never guess from the beige wastelands outside.

Leh-Ladakh - view from above, near a Japanese-built shtupa (spelling?)


Leh-Ladakh, walking around town, buddhist prayer ...cylinder (these were everywhere - and people would go up to them and spin them, as we understood, this was an act of prayer)


First night, eating dinner at a rooftop restaurant, Muslim call to prayer in the background.


Inside one of the monasteries



Also from inside one of the monasteries, looking out


Multi-colored mountains


Scary driving on the mountain roads

The Conference Bike

After the gym this morning, I was riding my bike home through the English garden (weather here is totally wonderful at the moment, so fears that summer wasn't going to really make it to Munich have abated somewhat...) and I came across this: the conference bike. I wish the six seats had been filled and the thing had been moving so I could have seen the concept in motion, but the 6 people who were using it had decided to take a break and have a drink at that moment.

Tracie...I think you'll like the concept. :-) We can add this to my collection of human-powered-vehicles-in-Munich blogs...

Crazy looking. Can you actually imagine having a little work outing on this thing?

India - a couple videos...more to come

Here we go, these take forever to process, but you can start to take a look. The project I started to try to edit these together is taking FOREVER. So I thought I should start to get a couple of the little phone cam videos up. Not bad quality really, for a phone. These are from my perspective...so...I am not in them, but will post photos as well in one of the next blogs.
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A rickshaw ride through old Delhi...
Felt very strange to have a human being pulling us around on the rickshaw - you get a bit of a sense of the look of the busy street in Old Delhi, pictures to come of the narrow alleys and stores. We were there on a Sunday, though, so quite a bit was closed.



The Oberoi Amar Villas Hotel - Poolside
Totally beautiful hotel where we stayed for two nights while we were visiting Agra. After we got there the first day (after a bumpy and jerky 5-hour car ride), we headed down to the pool to enjoy the weather (a comfortable 32 degrees or so) and the pool. The next morning at 6 am we went to visit the Taj Mahal. Again...photos to come.



Jaipur, the Amber Fort

Andreas got a touch of ...delhi belly (although in Agra) but was feeling somewhat better the second day in Jaipur. We visited the Amber Fort (a 360 degree view near the entry shown here.


Learning Indian Dance
Within the Jaipur Amber Fort, we came across a dance lesson with a bunch of kids. Was really fun to watch them. These are the younger girls, we got to see the older ones a few minutes later, but I didn't get them on video - and they were quite amazing.



Wind Palace
Also in Jaipur, the wind palace is actually just a facade. It was used by the palace women as a front from behind which to watch, without themselves being seen. Yes, that is Andreas saying "no thank you" to someone in the background...


Amarpal and Jinny's wedding vid 1
The ceremony lasted about 45 minutes, and during most of it, the guru simply chanted from the big book in front of him (the Sikh sacred text) and then towards the end, the bride and groom slowly circled him four different times...and then they were married. Yes, that is a sword in front of Amarpal. ;-)

EM: Germany vs. Croatia

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about India. I am working on something. Hopefully will have a post by Monday....

Meanwhile, we had a group showing of the Germany vs. Croatia game last night at work. Bunch of us gathered for pizza and beer and football....

I even took part in the betting: put 2 Euros down betting 3:2 Germany:Croatia.
Unfortunately, the Germans didn't play very well and well...lost....2:1...argh!

A few impressions...mini videos...from the evening:

That Kid Can Kick...


In which Ranjith totally avoids making a prediction...


Germans are quiet little mice when their team is not doing so well...

Back from India, Test Run Video Posting

We're back.
We had a wonderful time.
Will write long long post with lots of photos and videos over the weekend.
Here's a little test run on posting video...all mini videos were taken with my phone, which unfortunately dumped almost everything I captured for the first week, but was thankfully reliable thereafter...

As you will see by this video, we shared the road with a number of other vehicles and non-vehicles as we travelled from Delhi to Agra. :-)
Let's see what this looks like when it posts...
More soon.