LEH and the LADAKH
Unlike Srinagar, Leh is overrun by tourists. My guesthouse, (Barhat Guesthouse) managed by a Ladakhi family, (quite unusual); it is a little bit outside the city centre, in Fort Road, downhill. It is new, with huge bathrooms and window, beautiful tiles in matching colors (a rarity in the cheap places) and hot water. Even the room is large, and has two windows! The cost is 450 rupees, with breakfast included. Another detail not to be underestimated, in a cheap place, the smell of laundry detergent. In fact, in the following days, I will notice that they have a washing machine, they use it, and hang their laundry in the sun. Doing laundry in Leh is fantastic, the sun shines almost perennial in this season, the air is dry, the stuff dries quickly. My headaches does not go away (it will last 2 days), but at least I can eat well, and I do not suffer nausea nor vomiting, which instead plague many other newcomers. My host is an excellent chef, in the morning I reconciles myself with the world thanks to her fabulous apricot jam.
On the first day, however, just woken up I head into town to find an internet point and communicate to my parents that I’m fine. In front of the keyboard, I realize that I can hardly connect. At breakfast, I had trouble figuring out what other guests were saying to me in English, and I was not able to utter a meaningful sentence! I did not even remember the irregular verbs!!
The first thing that strikes me is the huge number of shops, markets, restaurants, small hotels, travel agencies. There is more than I could wish. As for souvenirs, Leh offers a rich choice. In outdoor markets, managed by Tibetan refugees, they sell beautiful jewelry and religious objects. The shops are mainly properties of Kashmiri people, who move here in summertime, and go back to Srinagar in the fall.. Among everything else, suede bags with fringe and typical embroidery stand out, they look very hippy, and then the famous pashminas. If not being an expert is always hard to see if you get a good deal or not. A Tibetan goat wool scarf, which passes through a ring, at least 1 meter wide, cost about 3000 rupees. After having shopped around, I finally decide to buy it in a shop run by a Ladakhi, located in the same complex where Air Deccan is. In a Fort Road shop, I was shown pashminas whose trade is prohibited..
There are a lot of women, even Italian, traveling alone. It is not difficult to find friends to spend time with. Once acclimated, considering the good weather, I stop in this area even more than prevented.
Many interesting people stay in my guesthouse. First and foremost a writer of American guides. A bit stuffy, but very cultured. Then a French lady residing in Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), she lives woking as a tour guide, convinced that she had found the life she was looking for.
Then, a couple, a little talkative German man, and his Mexican partner, quite the opposite. Her real name is Socorso, but now she chose to be called Prana (the meaning of the name is more or less “breath of life energy”). They go around India on a semi-crawler truck, stopping here and there and teaching yoga and various disciplines. Very funny conversations, with these characters 🙂
Those who arrive here from South tell us that here is not the real India. Maybe it’s true, but cows are here, and I have to slalom not to walk on their poos. There are many dogs around, the Tibetans believe that they are the reincarnation of their ancestors, who return to stay close to them. In the old town of Leh, the one perched below the fort around the mosque, houses are made of wood and stone. Instead of souvenir shops there are artisans who are expert in the most different trades. Many, of Kashmira ethnicity, are tailors. I take this opportunity to let me tailor, for 150 rupees, the shalwar cameez I mentioned earlier.
The first day I can survive to headache, I organize, alone, with a Tibetan taxi driver, for 1000 rupees all day, a trip to the farthest monasteries, Hemis, Shey, Thiksey. The driver proves to be a very valuable guide, very intelligent and profound person, and will reveal inexhaustible source of information about the Buddhist religion. The gompa are often perched on hilltops, and climbing up really leaves me breathless. The colors of the interior decorations are lively, and often I can attend to some pooja ceremonies with the monks, in a magical atmosphere
The taxi driver tells me that the Dalai Lama will be visiting Leh and surroundings in the next days. He will stay in a kind of Tibetan studies centre at Choglamsar, a few kms from the city. I had already met His Holiness in Turin at a press conference, but of course hearing him speaking in a completely different context, among his people, should be an occasion not to be missed.
In the following days, I take confidence and start to move by public transport. With other Italian girls I take a bus to the monastery of Spituk, 7 rupees. On the vehicle, stopped in the main square awaiting to leave, for the first time in my life I meet a leper. It’s a beggar. It seems cowardice, rather than rudeness, not being able to look at him, so my eyes meet his while I smile and put a few rupees on his stumps. It’s gone, I managed to survive what I feared perhaps the most, and which had kept me so far away from this country.
Traveling on my own with public transport, I reach even Lamayuru, absolutely not to be missed. The rickety bus, leaves at 4.30 near the polo field and arrives at destination at 10.30. The journey is an odyssey. The ticket costs 200 rupees. I do not know what I did to deserve this bad luck, but, if it happens that on any vehicle a person suffers from motion sickness and vomits, this must always necessarily happen close to me! We are sit packed like sardines, and there are also a lot of people standing. It ‘a real relief when I go out at the base of the village.
A minor detail: there is no public transportation which go back to Leh on the same day (my bus continues to Kargil, and the one from Kargil to Leh has just left) so, if I do not find a lift, I will stop here for the night (there are several gueshouses).
I must recognize the Indus valley is spectacular. From the bus it was difficult to look outside, because of the crowd. Wind, sun, clouds, high and rugged mountains. The immensity..
Everywhere, on the streets, there are chortens, conical shape votive monuments, with typical flags blowing in the wind
The monastery itself is no so beautiful, the interiors are simpler and less colorful than Thiksey, for example, but the view enjoyed from the terraces is unrivaled, and in one of the rooms the monks are praying all together, someone play trumpets and rolls drums.
After some meditation, I go down till a big mid-luxury hotel built practically leaning against the gompa. There are several jeeps with wealthy tourists. I ask for a ride, they do not want to give it for free, so I bargain with the driver. I get a 500 rupees, which is a lot, but for sure it’s more comfortable than the bus, and nobody is puking…
Let’s say that the excellence of my stay in Ladakh, and perhaps of the whole holiday is the 2 nights/3 days excursion in the Nubra valley. I book with one of the single Italian ladies, 1500 rupees which only include transportation and permissions. The Nubra Valley actually is part of the territories included in the inner line, a border area with China (Tibet). All foreigners must be registered and provided with permission. We must pay apart meals and hotel. We will go through the infamous Kardhung La, at 5600 meters high, and the Dalai Lama will come to Diskit to speak in public.
About the Kardhung La I can only remember I had a terrible headache, I was out of breath even to make 2 steps, and there were no toilets!!
The road, as always, is magnificent. Once in Diskit we have troubles in finding a place to sleep. The only option is a 500 rupees room at the Olthang Hotel, and for one night only. Everything else has no vacancy, all rooms have been already booked for weeks, because of the visit of the Dalai Lama. In any case, other travelers propose to Giovanna and I to share their room with us, in case we do not find anything for the second night. Eventually, we manage to find something for same price, at the Thatchung guesthouse. While we are negotiating the price of the room, we forget to close the gate, and a cow slips inside to eat all the flowers of the garden!
The next day, early in the morning, we transfer our belongings to Thatchung. Here there is no toilet and no hot water, we are in a typical Ladakhi house, with flat roof covered with straw, the room is not very clean, but it is full of windows, carpets, and even a rocking chair, which gives a cozy atmosphere. At 10.00 our driver first takes us to the sand dunes in Hunder, where, it is possible to make the classic camel desert ride. But we just wallow in the sand. At about 12.00 we return to Diskit and we head to the main road, where the Dalai Lama procession, scheduled for 13.30, will pass. We are amazed. The roadsides are thronged with hundreds of people, some standing, some sitting on the ground, dressed in traditional costumes and jeweled
Many monks, of every age. The predominant colors are purple tunics and yellow / orange flower 
The pilgrims arrives crammed in wagons trucks, or on the buses roofs. Incense is burned in the street, many recite the Tibetan rosary, or spin the wheel of prayers
Obviously all tourists, as crazy, start shooting thousands of pictures. But they are not the only ones. As a confirmation and witness of the extraordinary event, the security service soldiers, who come from distant regions, are caught by our own same raptus, and, just a little more prim, they as well slam their camera lens on the face of the elegant ladies studded with turquoise, silver and coral headgear 
Others have funny felt top hats
Men wear the traditional white scarves around their heads 
The Dalai Lama is late, but no one cares, there is so much to see around there. It becomes like a frenzy, I want to document everything, just in case one day I lose my memory!
At 15.30 the Dalai Lama’s jeep is preceded by two trucks of monks, chanting loudly, shouting, playing trumpets and drums.
I see His Holiness for one moment through the reflection of the car window, but the thing that impresses me most is the wave. At the car passage, in fact, everybody bows in succession, creating a kind of wave. In that precise moment, amid the smoke of incense, I can grasp at full power, even if only for a second, the more mystical and religious aspect of India
In the evening, big party in our luxurious room at Thatchung guesthouse.
The next morning, the owner kicks us out very early from our room. Very elegant in his indigo-colored tunic, scented and clean-shaven, he goes to the Dalai Lama conference. It’s our same program so we follow him to the esplanade where the conference will take place. Foreigners are given a kind of privileged zone, pretty close to the stage. The speech is in two translation, Tibetan / Hindi / English, speakers are crackling but that’s also fine, without understanding a damn, just enjoying the atmosphere
We are therefore very cheerful when we go back to Leh, after a brief stop at the hot springs of Panamik.
The latest adventure happened in Ladakh, before my departure, is a visit to hospital after an acquaintance of mine, a lady of the Nubra Valley group, got bitten by a dog, for reasons I still do not understand now, meaning she did nothing to provoke it. I admit that I remain quite shocked by the hygiene conditions. I also have to buy in the drugstore across the street two syringes (one for tetanus, one for rabies) because they say they don’t have any. I already visited a Cambodian hospital, but I have to say this is much worse and above all much more dirty.
I want to recommend, before finishing the chapter, some good eateries. The first is Dzomsa, an ecological laundry which also sells typical food products and excellent fruit juices. Here it is possible to buy drinking water recycling plastic bottles, saving and protecting the environment. The cost is 7 rupees, against 15 rupees or more of a new bottle. The second is a Tibetan restaurant, whose name I forgot, which is located on the main square, on the same sidewalk of Dzomsa, in the Planet Himalaya area. It’s very simple, it does not have any terrace but only a room on the ground floor, not very enlightened, the menu is written on the wall. And it is runs by an elderly very sweet lady, frequented by that kind of Western people who live in India for years, and the first thing they do is changing their name. Momo and excellent sweet rice pudding with cinnamon. The third is a vegetarian restaurant, the Lamayuru, reasonably priced which serves typical Indian cuisine. It faces the Happy World restaurant, which, also, repeatedly has delighted me with its dishes (much more western style)