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Published: June 17th 2010
The internet gets a little sketchy above 3000m elevation. Not only the internet but so does electricity, food, air, and roads. We are in the city of Leh which is the kind of place that has signs on every building; "world's highest gas pump", "worlds highest bank ATM" etc. The mode of life is so different up here. The growing season is less than 4 months and this area is considered a desert as there is less than 15cm of precipitation a year. So its a desert but we are surrounded on all sides by snow capped mountains that peak out over 4000m. Everything needs to be shipped that cannot be produced but the road access is extremely limited. Right now there is one road open to Leh and it is a 20 hour drive to the next sizable city with lots of goods and services. What is funny is that its only 350Km away but with so many mountains in the way most of the time your average speed is less than 20kph and the roads turn into rocky icy paths that are washed out by glacial rivers at many points. The fact that there are even roads here is unbelievable and that they are used daily by transport trucks and military conveys boggles me even further. The road we plan to take out of here is still not open. It opens once a week then closes again whenever it rains because of how unsafe the switchback roads get up at 4500m. It should be safely open when we need to leave here and we can then make our way back to Delhi to catch our train to Kolkata where we will catch a flight to Malaysia.
As for the last week or so... it was interesting. I was pretty sick with a gastro-intestinal infection which we fixed up and i an fine now. The kashmir valley was absolutely beautiful and i wish i had not been so sick and made us miss alot of what was around to see. When we arrived in Srinagar (capital of kashmir valley) we did not know that the prime minister of india was visiting the next day. This meant that the local parties called a "hartal" or general strike. This meant that on our first full day in srinagar nothing was open until night time except a few places to get simple meals. I didn't mind as food and moving my body in general were not concepts i was capable of dealing with so i just laid in bed and watched movies. For jenna and some friends of ours it was a hastle and sort of a waste of a day.
The military has a massive presence here. I cannot remember ever seeing so many troops and vehicles around any place i have been. The ones we have spoken with have been very nice and helpful with directions. They reason they are here is IF anything goes wrong and there are no signs of issues with pakistan or china at the moment. All the borders up here are contested by both sides with pak and china and it would take a week to get any number of troops here so that is why they are stationed here permanently. It is weird but it is a reality of the landsacpe that we have to deal with.
The area of Jammu and Kashmir state that we are in is the most peaceful. When there have been wars with pakistan, ladahk has never had armed conflict whereas Kashmir gets a little rough and one would not want to be there. Leh is populated by a large ethnic mixture but there are tons of tibetans here and with them comes a warm social atmosphere and amazing food. There may be military around but everyone is all smiles from young kids to toothless old ladahki women slowly making their way uphill to their homes. Most homes here have sizable gardens with a little greenhouse and many have a donkey or a yak (or both. There is even a awesome little Donkey sanctuary for abused and neglected donkeys. We visited the donkeys and brought them carrots and played with them for an hour or so. They were all so nice and liked to nuzzle us and when we left they followed us to the gate and made sad sounds. This is a rather picturesque view into the traditional himalayan lifestyle and even though it is very cold here we love the community.
All of the internet is slow and very expensive so it is impossible to upload pictures. Whenever we are in a more central and larger city out of the mountains we will catch up. If any out there likes epic mountain scenery we have a feast for the eyes. Most of the views are so surreal that i am not sure i even saw them myself.
In a couple days we are taking a trip to one of worlds' highest altitude lakes, Tso Pangong, with some folks we met here. It is so remote we have to get a special permit to go there but apparently the landscape cannot disappoint anyone who visits.
I believe i shall make like the electricity here and disappear. Much love to all back home. We will try to keep in contact more once we are near civilization. As long as a Yak doesn't get me when i am not looking we shall talk to you all soon.
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Dean
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Mountain Life
Envy, envy, envy! Love to be in the mountains! I have yet to meet a mountain that I did not like but then I've not needed ropes to get up any of the ones I've been on. Looking forward to photos when you can send them out. Dn