Friday, June 30, 2006
June 29-30: Leh!
I am in Leh, the capital of old Ladakh. Ladakh is in the eastern part of Jammu & Kashmir, in northern India. This city has been here for probably a thousand years, and is a confluence of three major cultural groups:
Leh itself is a backpacker mecca. There are hordes of Israeli backpackers everywhere, and they all seem to dress like hippies. The Israelis in China certainly didn't seem to dress like this. I guess if you come to India to do drugs (and almost every Israeli backpacker openly claims to have this purpose) then you should dress the part, too.
Anyway, Leh is great. The old part of the city (aka "Old Leh"), where I've been spending all my time, is a hub of shops selling Tibetan antiques, pashmina shawls, rugs, jewellery, etc. There is a central mosque and a Buddhist temple right in the centre of town, perhaps 100m from each other. Over them, on a hill, is an old palace modeled after the Potala in Lhasa, although this palace is (I think) about 50 years older. There's also a gompa and a fort. We climbed up there today for some terrific views of the city and of Stok Kangri on the other side of the valley.
Speaking of Stok Kangri: I leave tomorrow. I've changed the plans a little bit, in that instead of going for 3 days I will be going for 4. This affords a margin of safety, and means that the climbing will be a bit more spaced out and therefore a bit less brutal on a daily basis. However, I still have to climb to the same elevation regardless of whether I do it in 3 days or 4, and there's no way to make a 6k peak "easy".
I should be back to Leh on the 4th of July, and hopefully have a summit party with Kim and whoever else is still in town at the time. I fly to Delhi on the 5th, where I will be picked up at the airport and whisked to Agra to see the Taj Mahal up-close & personal. After a night in Agra, I come back to Delhi for a night, and then back to Canada.
- Buddhist Ladakhis, who owe their culture largely to Tibet, although they speak a different language.
- Muslims from Kashmir, west of Ladakh
- Hindus from the rest of India (a very small minority).
Leh itself is a backpacker mecca. There are hordes of Israeli backpackers everywhere, and they all seem to dress like hippies. The Israelis in China certainly didn't seem to dress like this. I guess if you come to India to do drugs (and almost every Israeli backpacker openly claims to have this purpose) then you should dress the part, too.
Anyway, Leh is great. The old part of the city (aka "Old Leh"), where I've been spending all my time, is a hub of shops selling Tibetan antiques, pashmina shawls, rugs, jewellery, etc. There is a central mosque and a Buddhist temple right in the centre of town, perhaps 100m from each other. Over them, on a hill, is an old palace modeled after the Potala in Lhasa, although this palace is (I think) about 50 years older. There's also a gompa and a fort. We climbed up there today for some terrific views of the city and of Stok Kangri on the other side of the valley.
Speaking of Stok Kangri: I leave tomorrow. I've changed the plans a little bit, in that instead of going for 3 days I will be going for 4. This affords a margin of safety, and means that the climbing will be a bit more spaced out and therefore a bit less brutal on a daily basis. However, I still have to climb to the same elevation regardless of whether I do it in 3 days or 4, and there's no way to make a 6k peak "easy".
I should be back to Leh on the 4th of July, and hopefully have a summit party with Kim and whoever else is still in town at the time. I fly to Delhi on the 5th, where I will be picked up at the airport and whisked to Agra to see the Taj Mahal up-close & personal. After a night in Agra, I come back to Delhi for a night, and then back to Canada.
# posted by Alex Perel @ 7:25 AM 
