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2003-06-27 / 07-01 - Leh (Day 73-77)

Leh is a comfortable little town and the days start slipping by pretty quick. Paul had found me in the mall which makes up the center of the little town and I moved hotels over to the Dreamland where they were. As these things happen, the first hotel which promised a shower didn't have running water in reality so I had to make due with the bucket system but even so, getting the grime off was simply wonderful. My face was black! I should have washed just half of it and then taken a picture, the effect probably would have been close to Al Jolsen.

Walking into town today I start seeing military guys hanging around in every corner, and knowing something is up, wasn't too surprised to find a huge motorcade going through the center of town as I enter the market. With what must have been a hundred cars in the motorcade, I have stumbled upon a tour by the President of India! I don't find it surprising at all that he's decided to take a tour of the mountain villages with the heat being so outrageous in Delhi. All of the school kids in their uniforms have come out to wave Indian flags as the president rolls by and the whole town is lined up cheering the motorcade on.

The town is filled with shops selling Tibetan art which makes for a wonderful day of window shopping - though its hard to stay at the window as one look in will bring the proprietor out with the inevitable, "Hello friend! What country are you from? Come in have a look...." Should be fun picking something for the giveaway though and I'm very tempted to send a box home even though things are relatively expensive in Leh.

The 28th is spent reading the book on Ladakh which I highly recommend (Check out the excerpt) and chatting with Matt & Helen Roth, two academics from Singapore who are setting off on a 21 day trek back the way I came to Kinnaur. I'm a bit jealous as they describe their trek plan as it simply sounds so wonderful to be in some of the most beautiful mountains in the world trekking. Their original plan was Nepal but due to SARS, they came to India and don't seem to regret the change of venue in the slightest.

On the 29th I rode back to Tiksey monastery and spent a couple of hours hanging out with the monks there. The majority of the monastery had gone into town to do Puja (ceremonial devotions) leaving just a handful of monks to watch over the monastery. With the cat away as it were, they were a bunch of fun with one monk I had to name Mr. Cool giving me Crouching Tiger / Hidden Dragon poses. With his dark sunglasses, monk's outfit and looking over the valley far below the monastery it was a bit surreal but very cool.

The last item of note is I continue to see incredible rudeness from the Israelis who are the majority of the tourists towards the Indians. Seemingly just rude for the sake of being rude, I am starting to understand the negativity that was felt toward Americans in East Asia in the 1960's and 1970's... to be sure, "The Ugly American" type traveler is still around, but now he's carrying an Israeli passport.

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