Days 8-11

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So we managed to reach the bus in the dark at 4am in Kargil and headed through the mountains again towards Leh. The road wasn't as bad as the first leg and we reached Leh, in Ladakh by 3pm that day.

We jumped in a taxi to the guest house along with 3 Dutch boys from our bus. The outside of the guesthouse was lovely and Yoda was waiting for us in the garden. We didn't learn his real name but he spoke like Yoda from Star Wars and had the most amazing laugh. Our room was amazing, nice big bed, nice view, proper toilet and SKY TV! We were very tired but happy after a long, stressful journey. We decided to go for a walk, and although Leh looked lovely we soon turned back after feeling very sick from our malaria tablets. They're not good on an empty stomach. After recovering, we had a look at a nice Buddhist temple and saw some monks preparing for an important visitor the next day. The rest of the day was spent wandering around peaceful Leh and eating lovely food.

The next day we had errands to run, and spent a good while in an internet cafe trying and trying to register to book train tickets online. It was mostly a waste of time and it would take us several more days to get anywhere with it. The men in the internet cafe were extremely helpful and friendly - like most people in Leh. Leh is a Buddhist town and there are a lot of Tibetan people there, so we looked around a Tibetan refugee market or two and watched people spin the prayer wheels.

Leh is even higher up in the mountains so we were still struggling a bit with the altitude the next day - especially after many trips to the German bakeries for pastries. So the walk up to Leh palace (lots of steps) was quite tough, but we took it slowly and made it eventually. We'd actually tried to do it on the first day but couldn't manage. The palace and temples up there were nice and the views of Leh were lovely. Material prayer flags were hung up through the streets like at a jubilee party. That night we went to a nice restaurant which was reccommended in the Lonely Planet - only to find out that all three of the Dutch guys had eaten there the night before and spent all of the next day in the bathroom. So we avoided the chicken. The food was lovely but Nikki wasn't impressed by the prawn crackers.

The following day was again spent mostly between internet cafes and bakeries, and sneaked her first of several naps. She blamed the altitude... The pastries were amazing and we were almost getting somewhere with the Indian Railways. Later in the afternoon we took a walk down to a Buddhist centre with the Dutch guys and did an hours meditation. The monk who ran the class was amazing, he had such a soft, funny voice and did a really good job of trying to explain the basics. Graeme struggled to concentrate because of his bad back and the horrible smell of his feet. Afterwards the 5 of us went to a nice little bar where we sat on cushions outside with a campfire in the middle and then the 2 of us went for another nice Ladakhi meal.

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