There is a big monastery and surrounding village of Lamayuru in about hundred kilometers from Leh.
Local guest houses look rather like a sand hole in the ground but if one manages to overcome the fear and enter inside then one can see absolutely decent rooms with beds covered by red carpets. Seeing you for the first time the guest house mistress is sticking out her tongue every second according to an old tibetan custom. She shows that the tongue is pink which means that its owner is not a demon. Read more »
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Everything starts when the guesthouse owner opens before you the door of the room where you are going to live, and you see apples and buddhist flags.
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In the LonelyPlanet guide this place is reffered to as a citadel. The word used is not "fort" or "fortress" which are more common, it’s specifically citadel, synonymous to a stronghold.
And here I can totally agree with the guide’s editors.
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What does a settlement start from in Ladakh? As it usually is, from a big and beautiful gate.
This gate is almost not decorated, one can spot much more impressive ones which are no inferior to painted entrances to big monasteries. But this one has three stupas on it: blue, white and yellow. This set of three coloured stupas can be seen in Ladakh everywhere, all sizes. The azure ones are especially impressive.
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I’ve been travelling constantly since summer 2005. And from that time onwards all my belongings never took much more space than one backpack. Gradually its size became much smaller than in the beginning and contents were tested live: now I’m carrying almost nothing I would not use, and I have most things that are really needed.
Note: Article is dated september 2007, new version would come in april 2009 once I buy new bag as the one pictured is almost broken now.
Some time ago I was astonished by fact that actual buddhist monks could own only 7 things. It’s clear that in less hospitable climate than indian it will be hard to get along with only one piece of cloth as a dress. Also possibility of working and properly keeping in touch with the world would require even more devices with a paper notebook on top of the list and a laptop and mobile phone at its end. It’s also understood that the minimal set for plain survival and minimal set for comfortable life will be dramatically different, and here it’s very important to keep balance between what can really lighten your life on the road and what only makes your bag heavier.
Also, as you can imagine, set of things for Iran can be quite different from Goa’s set. What you possibly could not survive without in Russia would be of no use in Tibet. And some of the necessary things do not have to be carried along all the time as you can buy them upon arrival.
This photograph shows the content of my bag on the way from Europe to Asia: what I would call optimum set of belongings for travelling in all those not quite rich and clean asian countries.
And, of course, boy backpackers can replace some items with whatever would be useful for men.
1.Backpack
It’s extremely important to have a high quality backpack. Its solidity, capaciousness and handiness influences a lot in your travels. Simply imagine how many times during your trip you will have to pack and unpack it and you will understand everything. Clothes and sleeping bag go into lower part, laptop goes into special pocket by back, everything else goes as it fits. After a number of shifts you will most probably develop most convenient order of placing things. But please remember that no matter how few things you have and how big your bag is it will be anyway totally full. Knowing it choose the bag of the size that you can carry easily. The things that would not fit into it will give you one more occasion to review what you really need and what not.
2.Small bag
Your backpack stays in the hotel and you go for a walk in the city. Accordingly your second bag should be big enough to accomodate a purse, camera, warm jacket or shawl, possibly a vacuum flask with some tea and sometimes laptop if you still don’t get internet from your mobile phone and have to go for sending mails and uploading pictures into the nearest cyber-cafe. Read more »
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March 20, 2009 1:41 pm | 
