Leh, Leh, silly Leh
We are stuck in Leh. The rainy day I mentioned in the prior post caused a snow storm up at the pass out and the road sort of got swept away or something (that is the rumor). We have been chilling, waiting for the pass to reopen and debating on whether to go north to Kashmir (yes, I know) and then south to Delhi via armed escort (yes, I really, really know) which is the only other way out. Right now we are opting for waiting. Airfare of course went way up and isn’t available until the 26th anyway, so that is not a real choice at this point. So there will be lots and lots of pictures of Leh when all is said and done.
Yesterday it did not rain but it was very cold and Kevin and I finally spent some of our money on winter clothing. We hiked up to the monastery and palace that overlooks the city for some amazing views. Funny Beckyism: So I was taking pictures with my camera, but whenever I turned it sideways to get a longer frame, the screen went really dark and I couldn’t see what I was taking a picture of. I thought maybe I had broken it or Kevin had hit some mysterious button when he was fiddling with all the settings earlier. And then Kevin pointed out that I was wearing polarized sunglasses. Yes, I am that stupid.
Today the weather was awesome! It only rained a little and the temperature did not require the winter clothes we bought. We took a bus out to Thiskey monastary and finally got to see the real people of this area. It was nice to get away from all the tourists and the hawkers in the main street here. The whole area is basically a dessert and the river that runs through the valley is irrigated into the surrounding fields. So basically you have a rather green strip running through what is otherwise a dessert valley with snowcapped mountains trapping it in.
Donkeys and cows make a lot of noise. And it really, really carries. It is strange to be startled by a donkey heehawing when you are on the roof of a monastery that is on a mountain way up from the field where the donkey is. And it is really nice to find soft serve icecream in town when you climbed a gazillion steps earlier in the afternoon to get to said monastery. That is it. Not very exciting I know, but hopefully we will get out of the valley soon and move on to slightly less cold places.
