July 19, Tuesday, 4 p.m.
Leh
Sitting in bamboo chairs in front of the Kanglachen Hotel, having concluded a couple of losing gin games with Pascal, and listening with amusement to a bunch of English public school boys talking in very upper class accents. They came up in the plane with us, and will eventually climb a 21,000 foot peak near here. First major trip for most of them – it sounds amazingly ambitious.
We had a very nice Indian dinner [in Delhi] at “1911” last night. We were missing Loren, who was having a memorable dinner at the home of an Indian family – friends of friends. Had to get to bed fairly early, after packing – getting ready for a 2:45 a.m. wake-up call.
Left the Imperial at 3:30 and headed for the airport where we checked in for our 6:30 flight at the very small domestic terminal. Only about four gates, serving all domestic flights out of Delhi. We flew on a 737 with Jet Airlines, India’s largest domestic airline.
Leh is small, but full of an amazing number of small shops either selling souvenirs or catering to trekkers, and there were a fair number of trekkers wandering the streets. We were told to rest, because of the altitude, and ended up sleeping until lunch at 1:30. After lunch, explored town and watched Pascal make many purchases.
Back to the hotel for 4 p.m. tea out here on the lawn in front of the hotel, and here we are now.
The view of the Leh Palace on a crag above the city dominates the view from all parts of town. It also is the view from my bed as I stare out the window while propped up on my pillow. And in the other direction are snowy peaks, including the one the British boys plan to climb.
Sun’s dropping low. Birds chirping. Yard has poplar trees all around, shimmering in a slight breeze. The palace glows golden on its rocky cliffs. (Lydia’s just returned and has shown us the fortune’s worth of miniature paintings she has bought.)
July 20, Wed., 6 a.m.
Leh
I never tire of lying on the bed looking out the window at the monastery in the changing lights. Call from the mosque, at the foot of the Buddhist monastery, went on and on at about 4 a.m., but I enjoyed fully the exoticism.
After dinner last night, we just read for a while. Pascal caught up his diary, and went to sleep about 9:30. The Diamox is kicking in, and I got up a lot during the night and drank a lot of water. Slight headache, but not bad. Wake up call will come at 6:30, and then we go exploring monasteries in this area, including Thiksey which was featured in photos accompanying an article on snow leopards in a magazine I got just before leaving home.
July 20, Wed., 4:45 p.m.
Leh
Sitting in front of the hotel relaxing – we go to another monastery in about 15 minutes. (Ah! Someone walked by and served me a pot of tea – didn’t even have to ask!) Returned a short time ago from walking around with Pascal and Loren, watching Pascal’s interminable shopping. Also sent emails of greetings to Kathy and others in the family. Very warm day today. I gather they had cloudy weather in Leh until the day we arrived. It’s been beautiful since we’ve been here.
We visited three monasteries this morning, getting back in time for lunch at 1:30.
July 23, Sat., 6:15 p.m.
Kargil
Sitting on our third floor balcony waiting for late tea, with Loren sitting next to me – looking over the sunlit city of Kargil. Large green onion-shaped dome of a mosque immediately below. (Yay! The tea just arrived.) The Suru River winds noisily through the town. We began following it upstream today – leaving the Leh-Srinagar Highway – that 1½ lane strip of blacktop we’d been traveling on the last two days.
I’m way behind on my entries – sorry. Essentially, from Leh to Kargil we saw one gompa after another. I’ll describe in more detail at a later date, when I have more time, and have my itinerary containing place names to help me!
The first day … wait! Looking back at my last entry, I should mention that we had a great walk after I wrote that entry, up to a gompa overlooking Leh. Beautiful plaza surrounding a building, with many tourists watching the changing light on the city. We met our first American, a boy from Kentucky who had been away from the US for three years, first as an employee for some company in Vietnam, and then just traveling. He had come up the highway, hitchhiking by truck from Srinagar and had been in Leh for three weeks. Sounds like a hippie nomad, but he looked like the proverbial fresh-faced boy from next door, with a quiet sense of humor.
The first day leaving Leh, which was Thursday, we visited three monasteries. The most enjoyable to me was one that featured a Kashmiri style of art. More naturalistic and fewer bizarre “protective deities.” We stayed in a tented camp that night. Full of tourists, most of them seemed to be German or maybe Scandinavian. Pascal, Loren and I went out to a little gazebo overlooking the Indus River after dinner. Sat there a long time, talking and watching the full moon come up over the Indus, creating strange and beautiful shapes and shadows below in and around the river.
Yesterday (Friday) was a long driving day to Kargil. We visited a very picturesque gompa at Lamayuru, perched on a craggy rock jutting out of the landscape – much of which was a “moonscape” of eroded mud forms. Exploring the gompa meant going up and down many uneven steps. Stopped at a little town for lunch, where we ate across from a large carved-rock Buddha. People by now – this far west from Leh – were becoming more Moslem, and we watched a group of about six or seven boys energetically playing drums while one played an oboe-sounding instrument (Pascal reacts with immediate interest to any music with suggestions of “double reed-ness”).
Drove over a 13,000 foot pass before coming down to Kargil at about 9,000 feet. This is as low as we’ll be until we return to Delhi. Walked around downtown with Pascal, taking pictures of small kids, old people, and exotic street scenes. Everyone is very friendly. Ran into some marooned trekkers (would-be), who are having trouble arranging a trek from this city. Kargil has virtually no tourist infrastructure, such as travel agencies or guide services. They should have made their arrangements in Leh.
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