A late start

Errh, ok, I'm still in Leh. My trekking got postponed a little. But tomorrow I'm finally starting for my first 20 kilometers on foot, from Lamayuru to the mountain village Wanla. Meanwhile I've seen lots of the stunning scenery around Leh, and a lot of monasteries. Ladakh is the country of impressing monasteries, huge palace-like buildings on the top of every minor hill around here.(Minor hill means in Ladakh everything from 4.000 meters up...). The hill around is everytime scattered with whitewashed houses, the homes for the monks, and each of these religious communities seems to accomodate several dozens of people. Around Leh alone, I've seen about seven monasteries!
Today I rented one of the mythical Royal Enfield motorbikes and went through the mountainside around Leh, visiting monasteries (what else) and trying to get up the Chang La pass to glimpse a view of the Changtang valley. It remained a try: At 5.150 meters, maybe 100 height meters below the actual pass, a river crossed the street and made the road impossible for a motorbike. There was nothing else to do than watching jealously the jeeps go through the rough stream, take some fake summit pictures (see the "Ladakh"-album on Picasa) and turn around. The views were overwhelming even so!
The weather is getting better every day, and Leh is filling up with foreigners by the minute: Two reasons to definitely go into the wild as soon as possible. The next one or two weeks you'll have to do without notice from Ladakh!