HOLY COW!: Ladakh, Day Two

I don't like to deal in absolutes and I know that what I've been saying the last two has a very proximate place in my mind, but I think I am safe in saying that this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen.

I woke up during the third leg of our trip (Bangalore to Bombay to Delhi to Leh) to Avi's elbow. I guess it was about 6 in the morning, still cruising altitude in our plane. The view from the window was incredible, like nothing I'd ever seen before. As high as we were, the land below us was all towering mountains.

We landed in this little airfield surrounded by the tallest mountains I'd ever seen. I've been to the Rockies, driving to Yellowstone with my family when I was a kid (Yellowstone still ranks high, without a doubt). On that drive, I remember how the Rockies kept getting bigger and bigger until hours and hours later we were at their base looking up.

It's different here. The city we're in, Leh, is in a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains the size of the Rockies. It's hot during the day, at least when the sun is out, but I can't stop staring at the tallest of the peaks in the distance, still snow-capped and clearly affecting the clouds.

Yesterday we just hung out. It's very hard to catch you breath here - I can only bang out about 50% of the push ups I usually do in the morning. Today we visited three Buddhist monasteries, and saw the mouth of the Indus river - not much to look at here but it grows to become one of the major rivers in this area of the world. I could go on and on about this place but I will limit it to this post and a few pictures. There are Internet cafes all over the place here, so I should be able to get back on here soon. Suffice to say we're all loving it here. It's amazing in more ways than one.

It took us about 45 minutes, maybe 5 stops, to make it to the top of this. Felt like my heart was going to explode (because of the lack of oxygen at this altitude).