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2003-07-18 - Bosco - Kargil (Day 94)

We make it to Kargil and the town is night and day from Ladakh. The influence of Islam had taken over from the Buddhist giving the town a feeling completely different from everywhere I have been over the last couple of months. All aspects of life have changed, the food, the clothing, architecture, everything that gives a place a feel and I feel somewhat disoriented as if I have just entered another country. For all intensive purposes, that is pretty much, what I've done.

As is becoming a matter of course on reaching a larger city, the pattern is find a hotel, dump the luggage then find the local Enfield mechanic and get the problems that have cropped up over the last part of the ride cleared up. Nothing major on my bike this time, brakes needed sandpapering out, chain tightened and greased, another spark plug etc. though of course even these small things tend to eat up an afternoon. Adrian had some more extensive problems and between the two of us, he afternoon was gone in grease and oil.

We checked into a hotel with clean white sheets, which was a distinct plus, especially as we had met another Englishman, Steve, in the parking lot who staying at the hotel next door was a pile of bed-bug bites. While still not having running hot water, which is becoming like oasis in the desert, there is still a lot to be said for not having dust rise in clouds when one lies down. Steve is also heading to Zanskar so we are now three bikes for the journey.

Surprisingly for a town that was of reasonable size, we could not find any reasonable restaurants. The mix of religions and limited diversity of local produce means that the selection of food is incredibly dull. With most places, one can simply ignore the menu as 50% or more of the dishes offered won't be available. This is even more lopsided for places that claim to have "western" or "continental" food where my hit ratio has been more like 10% if there is anything at all available. For all intensive purposes, these claims on the outside of the restaurant wall or on the sign just seem to be a ruse to get people in the door. Of course there is no beef, as with anywhere in India, but we also could not get chicken leaving the only thing actually available lamb and the repetitive salad of cucumber, onion, and tomato. The food is becoming monotonous to the point where even I am finding it a drag.

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