Ladakh Trip, My First Time Experience

Ladakh is a land of high passes, located in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. We, a group of 4 people – me (Nicky), Noryang, Phat, and Tashi – went there for a study trip. It was fun and enjoyable. The view during the trip was the most beautiful scenery I’d ever seen.



There were thousands and thousands of people at HH Dalai Lama’s teaching. It was my first time seeing and attending such a big event. It was also my first time seeing His Holiness. He taught about unconditional love, interdependence and the Six Paramitas. It was a very good and touching teaching.


We went to the historical site of a Buddhist castle on top of the hill in Leh. It was quite sad that we found waste on the route. We could see garbage in almost every corner on the way up to the place. We can see the beauty and the flaws that colour the place.




From all of the experiences, our home stay in Likir was the best experience I had. It was my first time working in the fields for harvesting with the local people. We would sing one after another. After the male finished his verse, the female continued hers, and we sang all through our work. We had a break in the field sitting together and drank some milk tea and ate some Ladakhi bread.

We continued our work after the break. The host family was not the only one there; members of other families joined and helped the work and fun. After we finished pulling out the grass, we collected it and tied it all in bundles. They helped each other with the harvest, so for example after their relatives came to help them, the next day this family would be the one that helped the other family. The bond as family, bond as community, communication, togetherness and collaboration values were stronger among them. For me, as a city person, it was not a usual sight to see. These were values which I thought only existed in the old days.

After the grass was tied together, we carried the bundles which weighed about 4-5 kg on our backs to the house up the hills. We had to walk about 1.5 km uphill. It wasn’t really an easy job. We stopped many times for a rest. I went up and returned two times and it exhausted me already. But our host father, who was 70 years old, lead the line and went up and down 3 or 4 times. I was also amazed that the grannies, who were also quite old, did the same thing. I couldn’t believe how weak I was despite my young age.

We got all the ingredients for the dinner from their own garden and then we made our dinner together with the host family. I cannot cook and don’t have any experience preparing food and cooking. So it was also my first time doing it.


There was also more communication and exchange of information, which brought us closer like a family together, creating a warmer bond.

On our way back home, I saw snow for the first time, and finally we got stuck in the snow and had to spend a night in a tent. As a city person from a tropical country, the cold I had was awful, but luckily I managed to survive the weather.