northest region of India. Between the Buddhist and muslim India

Hi ahimsa followers! We have survived to Himalaya's mountains and we are back!

We have been two weeks without a suitable internet connexion but now we are able to write our last two weeks trip in the northest state of India: Jammu and Kashmir.

After 2 relaxing days in Manali we took a minibus to Ladakh. We knew it would be a hard journey because of the road but we didn't know it would be than much difficult... If our bottom could explain how much pain they suffered during those 19 hours, it would be a long post. You can check in the video some part of our funny jumping trip. But not everything was suffering. In this route Manali- Leh we saw amazing view and we discovered how many hours one Indian driver can drive without any rest through the worst road in India. After this trip we become more believers... For sure something holy protected us to survive during this extreme road.

Once we arrived to Leh our ladaki family was waiting for us with a big smile and one hundred momos to feed our hungry and scared stomachs. They were hosting us during kalachakra ritual and they made us feel like in our own house. We can say we have a new family in the roof of the world.

During these two weeks we felt and lived many different experiences, emotions and sensations with our bodies and minds. Kalachakra is the most powerful and deep initiation of the Tibetan Buddhism but we couldn't understand everything they were doing due to our amateur level, so we tried to take at least the blessings that his holiness Dalai lama was giving during those two weeks. For us it was like a intensive course of Tibetan Buddhist and we could realised how much ladaki people respect dalai lama and how much they try to put in practice Buddhist values such a compassion, patient and respect for every creature. We also had the lucky chance to celebrate dalai lama's 79 birthday. We had a special party full of blessings and good wishes for a inner peace and world peace.

If we had to choose one sentence to define Dalai lama's teachings could be the following:

The best religion is kindness.

We really enjoy speaking and hanging out with local people, monks and Tibetan whom attempted this special Buddhist initiation. After our Ladakh experience we understand why this part of India is also known like a little Tibet.

Once we visited the Kalachakra sand mandala we realised that our time is Ladakh it was close to be over. What did it mean? We had to take another crazy vehicle to get out of the highest mountains in the world. Our button started to become nervous again..

This time our destination was Srinagar, the summer capital city of the Jammu and Kashmir region. Luckily our share taxi's driver was a non risky man and we could enjoy in a very calm mode the amazing sightseen of our journey. Dalai lama's blessing was starting to make effect...

Once we arrived to Srinagar we supposed to sleep and rest our tired bodies in a nice houseboat but the reality was quiet different... It was 11 pm and the owner of the houseboats that we had to sleep in, showed us a dark, scary room where we had to try to sleep for the next hours. This underground place was where we used for first time our mosquitera to protect ourselves from the insects, humidity and other strange beings which that night would share our lovely room ...

In the very early morning we woke up and we run to a couchsurfer house where we would live during the following days. Here we spend two great days living with a traditional Kashmir family and we realised how exciting life takes place in Dal lake every moment of the day. The father of our new family owned a sikara ( traditional boat) which we could enjoy a tour around this amazing lake looking the floating market, the fisherman houses, the huge variety of birds and the floating ecological orchards full of shining vegetables.

After we discovered buddhist India in Ladakh and Muslim India in Kashmir we were ready to discover Sikh India in Amritsar. But this will be in the next post.

Thanks to share with us these experiences.

Peace, love and compassion