       The road from Leh to Manali in early September, just before it was shut for the winter - it felt like I was in a monochrome world, everything was black and white.
Clouds from the plane into Leh.
A Buddhist spinning prayer wheels, something seen throughout Ladakh.
A monk in contemplation.
The disgusting pollution from trucks is even more obvious in such a beautiful environment.
A polo match, with none of the poshness.
Stupas (Buddhist monuments) against a cloudy background - whoever said it never rained in Leh lied!
The above show my trip to the Nubra Valley: My mountain bike enjoying the view near the top of Khardung La - the highest motorable road in the world at 5606m. Benjamin, Nik and I on camels. Looking back towards Leh from Khardung La. A view from a monastery.
These images show my time at teaching at SECMOL near the village of Phey. The Students Educational and Cultural Movement Of Ladakh (http://www.secmol.org) is an NGO and has a school near the village of Phey which accepts volunteer teachers - unlike many international volunteer opportunities which often demand big fees and advance planning, SECMOL welcomes volunteers without advance notice, and who pay only for food and lodging. I would thoroughly recommend it, and I am gutted that I could only be there for a week - most volunteers stay for far longer. They are particularly interesting for their very strong eco policy, and the ingenious ways that they achieve this. These photos show: Stanzin in a lesson. Some of the students live at SECMOL, but go to school in Leh. Their walk from the bus stop. Dorjay and me milking a cow - which I am incredibly bad at.
The above images show pictures from areas in Northern India. The wiring in the worst hotel I've ever stayed in in Amritsar. Long-exposure shots taken out of train windows. Amritsar is so colourful - sarees at the Golden Temple.
I would like this to be more of a photo-journal than a blog, but if you do want to read stories behind the images, I have uploaded the emails that I sent home to close friends and family. Click here for the first email I sent from Ladakh (includes SECMOL), and here for the second email (includes Nubra and Manali). Click here to read the email I sent from Nepal which includes Amritsar and Lucknow, and click here to read my final email which has a lot about Nepal and a bit about Delhi. Click here to view a page with all of my India/Nepal emails in chronological order.
chloe@chloekenward.com +44 7852 922 285
|        A girl looking out of the window of a bus. Leh airstrip from the air - it was not until this flight that I realised how hard it was to land a plane! An example of the ornate decoration in monasteries. At the Ladakh Festival, a man playing a traditional trumput-type-instrument. Soldiers at the Ladakh Festival - with no shortage of bullets. Ladakhi women at a festival in a monastery. The colour of Nik's Indian cough medecine, with no colour enhancement!     Me on a camel. Camel saddles in the sand of the Karakorum mountains. Swiss Nik and I - we both spent a month in Leh at the same hotel. Nik's photo of me cycling down Khardung La.      Me in the Indus River on 'washing day', where the students wash all the rugs and cloth in the school in the Indus which runs next to the campus. View of the Indus. View. Red mountains at sunset. Stobdul - an ex-student who goes to college in Jammu but couldn't return because of a valley-wide curfew imposed by the government after escalating violence in Kashmir.    2 Sikh men at the Golden Temple (Amritsar, Punjab), Long-exposure shots taken out of train windows. 2 kids in a village outside Manali, Himachal Pradesh. If you would like to buy poster prints of any of my photos, please contact me. These uploads have been scaled down hugely, but their original quality allows them to be printed very large. Prices depend on size, but as a guide, an A3 poster is approximately £15, or an A3 photograph is approximately £5. |        A praying monk. The feet of soldiers and dog drafted in from the rest of the Jammu and Kashmir state to maintain safety at the Ladakh Festival in late August. Mountain desert from the air. A colour-enhanced picture of a sunflower with mountain background. Leh Old Town view from the Palace. A dancer at a Ladahki Cultural Show.     Army trucks in one of the many convoys that patrol the volatile state - especially in the Nubra Valley as it is closer to the border of Pakistan. Dzo (a cross between a cow and a yak) on the road. Nik taking a photo. One of the two stretches of valley of Nubra.      Washing time A view of the Indus. Traditional Ladakhi composting toilets. The school has an eco policty at it's centre. One of the many ways that it is self sufficient is using these giant mirrors to reflect the suns heat onto pots to cook their food. Reflections of the students. Students Chospel and Stanzin    night street scene in Pahar Ganj, Delhi. Long-exposure shots taken out of train windows. A roundabout in Amritsar. These images were taken with a Canon G9 camera always on manual setting, and edited in Apple's Aperture. |
