As part of the
tourist initiative for Leh, they built this beautiful gate at the
entrance to the town. It's built in a traditional Tibetan
Buddhist style, but I don't think it had any significance beyond
that. If it was built 400 years ago, that would be cool, but
building it so tourists will ooh and
ah and take
pictures (like
me) doesn't warrent
as much
credibility.
|
 |
One of the streets through the market
in
Leh
. I'm pretty sure the white domes in the
background are the mosque. I wanted to get pictures of it up close,
but kind of felt wierd doing so. It's currently the month of Ramadan
, so there's always someone around the mosque in some kind
of state of
worship.
|
 |
|
Our
cab got to this point and the traffic just stopped.
We were close enough to home, so we got out. These people were
selling all kinds of nuts along the
sidewalk. Through other parts of
town they were selling fresh vegtables on the
sidewalk.
|
 |
Another street in
town.
|
 |
There's a bike shop in Leh that actually has mt.
bikes. Many of the outfitters in Leh
advertise things like Mt. biking, rafting, trekking
and
mountaineering.
|
 |
After a quick
stroll through town, we walked back up to the the guest house. When
we got back, the couple that had gotten back from their 13 day trek
the day before were hanging out in the chairs out front. Amber went
to his room, but I sat down with them. Apparently I'm not the only
one having problems with the whole tip and rupees thing. We talked
for quite a while about what we thought was appropriate or not
and what effects it may have on the people serving us and the people
they may serve in the futue. Unfortunately we didn't come to
any real conclusions, but it was nice to know we were all
struggeling with this and had been tipping similarly (right or
wrong, I don't know). Dinner came and we all sat down with
Amber. It was really nice. They were visiting a few other places in
India before they went home. All of it coordinated by the same place
I'm using. We had a great time hanging out and talking. I really
didn't want it to end, but they all had an early flight and had to
retire to pack.
I went back to my room to read my book.
I read and read. I'm not sure if I was excited, wired or what, but I
couldn't sleep. I just kept reading. I guess it was 1 or 2am when I
finally tried to sleep. It didn't work very well. Not sure if it was
related, but my stomach started feeling really funny. Then it just
started to hurt. Up and to the bathroom, back to bed, back
to the bathroom was the routine for the next couple of hours.
Somewhere in the middle of that, I heard everyone get up and leave
for the airport, then I went back to bed. Finally around breakfast
time my stomach was feeling a little better. I felt like
crap. I was exhausted and weak, so I tried eating some toast to
get something back in me.
A drop off at the airport
usually means a pickup for the Snow View, but todays pickup was a
little different. David came back with a team of dentists and
optometrists. It's was probably 10 or so people. They belonged to
an organization that provides free dental and eye care to the
children of Leh twice a year. Only a few of them were
regulars. The majority were volunteers for this trip only. In
addition to the work they would do with the kids, they were all
going trekking in one capacity or another. Sounds great huh? I
thought so too, till I heard one of the women saying how important
it is for the little girls of Leh to have pretty smiles to get
married. I'm sorry. Maybe you didn't notice, but this is Leh. They
sell fresh vegtables on the sidewalk six inches from the gutter full
of animal feces and trash. A pretty smile is the last thing
kids in this town need to get married. A healthy smile is one thing,
but pretty is in the eye of the beholder. Between comments like
that (there were more) and the way I felt, I wanted nothing to
do with them. I went back to my room and promptly got sick some
more.
The rest of the morning I was either in the
bathroom or in bed. When I was in bed, I was fully clothed with
every blanket in the room piled on me. It was horrible. I don't
remember much of lunch. I may of had some tea. Renting a motorcycle
and driving up Khardung La was out of the question. At some point it
started pouring. The rain sounded nice on the roof of the guest
house.
Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon I got
tired of being an invalid and got up to go in town. I wanted to walk
around the shops more, possibly buy something and get some more
pictures. My head was in a fog, but I went
anyway.
|
 |
|
I wanted to get two
things from the market. I wanted pictures of the women wearing
the traditional Tibetan attire and I wanted to buy a couple of
these hats. The pictures just were'nt going to happen. As I
mentioned beforre, they really didn't like having their
pictures taken. You had ot be sneaky. I was in no condition to
successfully sneaky.
There were a few shops that had
the hats. Some of the them were originals (used) and
some were new. I finaly settled on a shop that had two hats I was
willing to by. Now it was time to try out my bartering skills.
I had been told all kinds of things from you should only 1/10th
to 1/50th the price they offer. The guy was offering the
hats for Rs.350 each. That's about $9 each. I should have been
happy with that and just bought them, but I wanted to try bartering.
They say to make your offer. The merchant will usually
refuse, so you say thank you and go to leave. At that point the
merchant is supposed to reconsider and take the the deal or
make a new one. I offered Rs.500 for both. Seemed fair to me.
He said no way and went into this whole thing about being end
of season and the hats were already discounted - blah, blah, blah. I
said ok and went to leave, at which point he counter
offered and asked what my best price was. I went the stubborn
route and repeated Rs. 500. He still didn't like that.
He started at Rs. 650 and worked his way down. I stuck to my
guns at Rs. 500. As I was stepping out the door, he offered Rs.
550. I should have taken it. That's only $1 over what I was asking.
Keep in mind we're bartering between $17 and $12. In
the States, it just wouldn't matter. I would have
bought them either way (that's 2 hats for under $20!). I didn't
take his offer. I left. I'm not sure if it was because I
was sick, or I'm really this dumb, but I should have bought the
hats for Rs. 550.
I didn't take this picture. I found it on
the internet for the sake of an
example
|
 |
After the shop incident I went back to my room
and went back to bed. I slept till dinner where I only ate a little
bit of rice. I was back in bed by 8pm. I woke up at 11pm
feeling like I'd gotten a full nights rest. Too bad I had six more
hours before I was supposed to get up. After waking up off and on
throughout the night, I finally got up at 5am to have some
coffee and catch my flight. I snapped this picture of the
dining room area before I left that morning.
Security at
the airport was crazy, but the flight was uneventful. I finally got
back to my apartment and prepared to go to work when I got a bloody
nose. The air in Leh was really dry. My nose, lips
and tongue were cracked and painful most of the
weekend. Back in the moist air of the
Delhi area, my nose decided
to let loose. The bathroom looked like a murder scene as I tried to
move back and forth between the sink and toilet paper.
|
 |
So that was Leh. Can't wait to go back and
actually do some Trekking. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
