We left Dharamsala at night on a long and winding bus ride through the mountains in order to reach Manali to the East. Manali is a beautiful, small mountain town nestled in a valley with a strong river passing through, which makes it a fantastic destination for snow skiing but also white water rafting.

We only spent a few days in Manali on our way to another Himalayan region called Ladakh, but we had an exhilarating time braving the cold glacier rivers for rafting and also trying a crazy new extreme sport called zorbing. Zorbing was developed in New Zealand and seems akin to the people that considered it fun to ride in barrels over waterfalls. However, the venue for this sport is not a waterfall, but instead these people turn a grassy ski slope into a gigantic roller derby. After strapping myself into a gigantic 10 foot inflated ball I discovered what I hope to be the closest I will ever come to knowing what it feels like to be a boulder tumbling uncontrollable down a mountain in an avalanche. The slow, first few tumbles were a fun sensation because you go round and round with the ball and know what it feels like roll like a ball, but as the ball picked up momentum a sense of vertigo set in, and you could not tell if you were facing up or down or know in which direction you were headed. Luckily, the ball rolled down fairly straight, and as I re-gathered my senses I emerged from the ball to see that we had nearly ran over an Indian family having a picnic who were staring up at me as though I was an alien emerging from my inflatable spaceship that came raging down from the top of the mountain!

Adrenaline rushes satisfied, we decided to leave Manali and cross an extremely high road over the Himalaya range to the Buddhist Region of Ladakh. Some of these mountain passes exceed 17-18,000 feet, and the trip is a grueling and teeth chattering, 18 hour ride over rocks, through small rivers and streams, and across sky-high desolate deserts. However, the desert valleys contrasting with the snow-capped mountains and glaciers made for a dramatic rugged landscape.

We stayed in the capitol of the Ladakh called Leh. This capitol is one of the highest inhabited places on earth and only has a few thousand people that live there because it is isolated for about nine months out of the year due to snow and ice, which make the roads impassable and the airport rather dangerous. The Indus River runs through Leh and the Ladakhi Valley, which make it possible to live here but the landscape is much different than Manali being that it is mostly desert with a few tall thin trees that resemble birch. The most striking difference, however, are the many Buddhist monasteries, stupas (shrines), and abandoned palaces that sit precariously on the cliffs and mountain peaks.

While trekking is very popular here, we spent our time learning about the culture and enrolled in yoga classes, tried meditation, celebrated the Dalai Lama's birthday at his residence with hundreds of locals, enrolled in a class on the "essence of Buddhism," and climbed high up to the largest of the monasteries (Thiksey) in order to observe the monks perform their daily "puja" or chanting service early in the morning. Sitting in a monastery that is several hundred years old watching this service of chanting, banging drums, loud horns, and serving of butter tea and barely was surreal knowing that this same service has been taking place every day continuously for the past several hundred years.

We felt that it was important for us to learn more about the Buddhist faith and culture since we will be visiting many more places that are primarily Buddhist, but I personally find that I understand my own faith better and become more tolerant by studying other faiths. Anyway, we are now leaving Leh along with a Belgian friend named, Geoffrey, that we met in Leh for Srinagar in the Kashmir region. This region has been marred in the past by hostilities between Pakistan and India as well as Muslim militants, but the area has settled lately, and it seems from the news that all the militants left Kashmir to cross Pakistan and cause trouble in Afghanistan. While travelers, locals, and the authorities say it is safe, we will still be on high alert, and I will look forward to reporting good news. Till next time, cheers.