Travelog for: Mandy Sheep

On wednesday we went to a very interesting exibition called "Fluxus in Germany" at The National Gallery Of Modern Art" with the famous artist Joseph Beuys.

It was some kind of weird, but I really liked it!

Later we visited some tombs, like the Humayun's Tomb, which again remind me a little bit of the Taj Mahal, although it is made of red sandstone instead of marble.

Today we saw the Red Fort in Delhi, but because of the security check at the entry, just Roderich and Carl, could slip in.

The Red Fort was built by the guy, who built the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan.
The sandstone walls of the Red Fort extend for 2 km and vary in height from 18m to 33m. Shah Jahan began construction of the massive fort in 1638 and it was completed in 1648. Shah Jahan never completly moved his capitel from Agra to his new city of Shahjahanabad in Delhi, because he was deposed and imprisoned in Agra Fort by his son, as I told you before.

Near the Fort there is a nice hindu temple, which is also made of the same red sandstone.

Later we walked thrue the market streets of Old Delhi...and.... mmmmh.... were a little surprised by some disgusting smell, till we saw the reason for it.....

To be honest, I felt a little sick after that....

On our way back to the hotel, we passed by New Delhi with it's goverment buildings, but the car wasn't allowed to stop there, so I took some pictures from out of the car for you.

After we did so much city hopping the last days, we today start off vor our trip into the himalayan mountains.

We took a very small plane to get there and I was allowed to sit next to my hosts, so I could see india's capital from above and I was totally amazed by the mountains, as we arrived in Manali.

First we checked in at the Ambassador Hotel and than we took a little walk into the town. The weather was just great and much less hot than in Delhi.

I guess, it's because of Manalis altitude of 2700 m above sea level.

Today was great.

We first went to a place, where Mona, Uli and Repa gone for a white-water-rafting.... Taht was nothing for me, but we watched them.

And I wondered about the smell, that lies over the valley...???
Than I found some plants, that grows there on every corner, like herbs.... Strange greens, don't you think?!

Later we visited some other places in Manali and, near by, the village of Vashisht.

In this area lives a lot of tibetan refugees, so you also find typicall tibetan houses and buddism temples. 

Oh, I love the area of Manali.
Everything is green, the weather is chilly and the people are friendly.

Today we first a cute, little castle with a beautifull view.

Naggar castle was capital of the Kullu Valley for nearly 1500 years and the castle was built by Raja Sidh Singh about 500 years ago in the classic Himachal wood ans stone blockwork style. The castle's courtyard contains a tiny Jagtipath Temple, which houses a slab of stone said to have been carried here by wild bees.... and a small museum.

About 2 km uphill past the castle is the Roerich Gallery, a fine old house displaying the artwork of eccentric Russian painter Nikolai Roerich, who died in Naggar 1947, and his son Svetoslav Roerich.

The distinctive Roerich style falls somewhere between surrealism and russian icon painting.

It was very interesting!

A five minute wark uphill from the gallery (which was extreme steeply), is the Urusvati Himalayan Folk & Art Museum, which houses a collection of embroidery and folk art.

Later we saw a nice waterfall, called the JANA WATERFALL, hide in the mountains.

We are on the road again and the first part of the route goes from Manali over the Rothang Pass, which is in an Altitude of about 4000 meters or 13050 ft, to Keylong.

Keylong is 115 km north of Manali and in about an elevation of 3500m.

Imagine, it took us 7 1/2 HOURS to drive 115km, just because the Leh-Manali-Road is partly so bad, and sometimes there are some streetworking in progress and you have to wait, till the way is free again.

Anyway, the landscape is breathtaking and I really enjoyed travelling, although we all were totally shaked and had a little head pain, because of the altitude.

Again, one day in the car. Today we drove the 140km from Keylong to Sarchu in about 7 hours.

Look at this landscape, it was just so amazing!!!

We also passed a frozen lake, I just love this photo....

Near Sarchu we slept at a small tent camp ( 5 tents), which was build in the middle of nothing..... just a elevated plattform between some mountains.

You had to walk real slow, because you run out of breath so extremely fast.... I think, this place lied in an elevation of about 4000m, and you heart beats like hell.... I felt a little sick...

As long as the sun was shining, it was quiete warm and the sky had the brightest color I've ever seen!

But as the sun went down, it started to freeze.
This night was sooooooooooooooooooooooo cold, you can't even imagine! brrrrrrrrr....... But this incredible view was all worth it!

And HEY, the best thing:

I met a real herd of sheeps and goats, who lives right here in the mountains with their shepherd and shepherd dog.
They didn't speak german or english, but I could feel, that they just enjoy their lifes up here.

I thought for a moment about, if I just stay with them for the rest of my life, but then I remembered how much fun it is for me to travel the world and I said "Good Bye" to the normal life of a himalaya mountains sheep,  I could be....

Today we took the last part of the roadtour, 245km from Sarchu to Leh in the region of Ladakh. That took us 10 hours this time.

We came along some of the highest motorable passes of the world.

Nakeela Pass at 15547 ft, which is 4738 meters,
Lachulunga at 16616 ft, which is 5065 meters,
and Taglamgla at 17592 ft, the second highest motorable pass in the world, which is 5362 meters.

In this high there is growing nothing anymore, no trees, no plants, no grass..... So the sourrounding look some kind of surealistic to me.... a lot of stones and rocks and of course snow....

We all felt sooooo sick, especially at Taglamgla Pass, because of the high elevation. Our hearts beated like crazy and you breathed very fast..... Although the landscape again was so beautiful, we didn't want to crawl out the car to take some pictures.... We just wanted to go down as fast as possible again and we were so happy as we arrived in Leh..... pfew....

Yesterday we were really lazy, We haven't done anything but lying in bed, reading a little bit and eating some soup....

We were just so exhausted from the journey and our bodies were stressed out by the high altitudes we passed, that we decided NOT to go to the world's highest motorable road, which lies in an elevation of 5700 meters near by Leh..... That would have been just to much for us, I guess....

And today we took a little walk around the villiage of Leh.

In the first picture you see our Hotel, "The grand Dragon".

In the second it is a little mosque and in the backround at the hill you see the Leh Palace, that was built in the 17th century and it is sometimes called "the mini Potala", for the palace in Tibet that it resembles.

We also saw a nice budism monastary near by the mosque.

Leh itself nestles in a side valley north of the Indus river. Until 1947 it had close trading realtions with Central Asia and yak trains would set off over Karakoram La to Yarkand and Kashgar.

Today Leh has massive millitary presence and is a reminder of India's sensitive borders with Pakistan and China, because it is in the state of Kashmire.

The old town, at the base of Namgyal Hill, is a labytinth of alleyways and houses stacked with dry wood and dung, collected to use as fuel to withstand the long winter months.

In fact, the tourist saison just lasts 3 month a year, from June to August, because it is just too cold in the other months and many roads are closed then.

The last day of our vacations in the north of india passed by today.......

And it stood completly under the sign of Buddha!
(Accept the German Bakery, I found... that just reminded me of home.....  )

We visited several gompas, monastarys, temples and stupas, as like the Klu-kkhyil Gompa ("klu-kkhyil" means "water spirits")in Likir, which was founded in the 11th century and was the first in Ladakh known to have been built by Tibetan monks.

Unusual for Ladakhi gompas, is the external 25m- high Maitreya statue, that dominates its setting.

This trip was very interessting, we saw a lot of the old tibetan culture... and we learnt about praying wheels and this prayer flags, you saw a lot in my pictures before.

On these colorfull flags there are prayers written and the colors symbolizes the elements. The wind shall carry the prayers around the world, that's why you often find these flags in high elevations, like the gompas and monastarys.

We had some very nice views about the valleys of the Ladakh area and the Indus River.

It was a loooong day, but we didn't want to miss the first game of Germany in the European Football Championship (okeeee, Uli and Mona didn't want to miss it!) so we went to bed very late.

I am happy, but also a little sad.....
My time in India is over and it was an amazing journey....

I met so many nice tvs and I wonder, if i'll meet one of them again one fine day?! We'll see....

Right now, I am on my way to Hong Kong and I am so much looking forward it.....

See you over there, mommy.........

Mandy Sheep has finally arrived on HKG!!!
We're planning to go for a day camp today but the weather is getting so worse!!!
AMBER RAINSTORM WARNING SIGNAL & THUNDERSTORM WARNING
have just been issused!

Yuen Long Main Road...Here I come!!! 



Yuen Long Plaza~
There you can see the LRT (Light Rail Train)platform!
It travels through Yuen Long, Tuen Mun and Tin Shui Wai.






Yuen Long Main Road Rest Garden That's a place that we always pass by ...



What a nice traditional pavilion 

Victoria Harbour is one of the world's busiest and most impressive natural harbours.




The Hong Kong Cultural Centre and Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower at night.
The Hong Kong Cultural Centre is a multipurpose performance facility
in Tsim Sha Tsui of Hong Kong.
It is a place for a wide variety of cultural performances.



The Clock Tower is a landmark in Hong Kong.
It is located on the southern shore of Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.
It is the only remnant of the original site of the former Kowloon Station on the Kowloon-Canton Railway.



The Avenue of Stars, modelled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
is located along the Victoria Harbour waterfront
in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.
It honours celebrities of the Hong Kong film industry.



The five Olympics rings



The Olympics torch

Hi everyone!!!
I'm arriving in Thailand safely
The weather is hot and humid. My host told me that it is rainny season here in Thailand and it rains almost everyday. I think it may took a while for me to be able to go out because my host wants me to have beautiful and clear photo

Well, I have to take rest now after the long trip from Hong Kong. Until the sun shines again I'll let you know where I have visitted. Bye for now!