The road to Ladakh

Trip Start Aug 20, 2007
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Trip End Feb 19, 2008


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Sunday, September 9, 2007

On leaving Srinagar, we headed to the remote mountain towns of Kargil, Padum and Leh. The journey was both hair raising and spectacular. As we drove through high mountain passes with sheer drops and no room for driver error. The scenery was breath taking - high alttitude desert and peaks reaching heights of 7000m. When we reached Padum in the dark, we were a little un nerved by the sight of a man guarding our hotel entrance with an AK47. Padum was an incredible place framed by ancient Buddhist stupas and Gompas (monastries) and desert mountain slopes.

We are currently in the capital of Ladakh - Leh. This city is cut off from the rest of the world for 8 months of the year. It has more in common with Tibet and China than India. We arrived at the time of the festival and have seen some real cultural things like folk dancing and music and a polo match!

This place is like no other in that the architecture is so unusual (flat roofs with winter storage on top) and Yak poo drying in the sun for fuel! The people are so friendly too.
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Comments

witcomb
witcomb on

Do you teach English by any chance,
Dave? Excellent description. Don't get sensory overload. In contrast I was at Royal Signals display, Blandford Camp! Did two laps of old race circuit, but rather slow due to road humps! Lots of love, dadxxx

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