Transitions

Leh festival is in swing, its a fabulous celebration of Ladakhi culture, a procession just hooted its way down the main bazaar and we went to a polo match this afternoon, a mad dusty affair, with dogs and children wandering onto the pitch at random and a deathly ball hurtling past the heads of the crowd, good fun though. Its cold here now, and very much end of the season, very few tourists here still. Time has come to leave Spiritual Leh, 2 months after I arrived, many experiences have blessed my journey here in Ladakh, including all my children, and friends, and seeing such an inspirational culture in such intimate circumstances. Ama-Le (Mum) came for a wonderful holiday and loved Leh and sharing all of the delights that I have found here. After she left I suddenly was met by some more inspiration and signed up for a 5 day trek from Lamayuru to Chilling, lucky with my companions and guide and cook who were all absolutely top class lads, we were unlucky with the weather, and on the 3rd day we slept at 4100m and woke up to find that our tents were covered in snow, motivated by a breakfast of porridge we began the ascent to Kanzhin La 4900m in blizzard, and about 20 minutes from the top some pony men who had passed us turned back and told us that the pass was too dangerous to cross and 1 donkey had slipped off the path, so we turned back as our guides decided that it we could not take a risk, and even if we managed to pass our ponies may not and then we would be left without all of our stuff at the top of a freezing cold, snowy mountain. Disappointed but glad we were safe we descended again. We returned to Leh a day early. I really liked trekking though and it has given me a taster, I will go again, but the snow has come early in Ladakh this year, so the passes are dangerous. I met another traveller Gee-Gee from Italy who came to the hostel for my leaving party, he was so inspired by the children that he decided to make a film about the project and show it in Milan, and let more people know about it. I gave an interview saying that I thought it was beneficial to the children to be exposed to different cultures, and I emphasised that if people have skills in special education, then it is really useful, but that if anyone comes they should be sensitive to Ladakhi culture and try not to glorify western culture.