Ladakh trip: The end (20-21 June)

Hey everyone. While I didn’t actually leave from Ladakh until the morning of the 21st, the trip itself was basically over as of June 20th.

For the most part I slept quite well, no doubt partially because I was very tired. However, many would have been unhappy as the mattress was made of extremely firm foam. If you’ve ever laid down on a wrestling mat, that’s pretty much what it was like. Although it was 2 degrees Celsius (36 F) outside, it was much warmer inside than with my luxury tent experience last night.

Yes there was of course more tea. Not pictured here was a matching porcelain lid which served to keep the drink warm before it was actually consumed.

Breakfast was a thin “omelet” served on plain sliced white bread. I thought Dawa’s mom must have snuck in some cream or maybe a bit of cheese, as it was much tastier than plain egg, but then when I asked, she insisted that it was just high quality local eggs. When I expressed disbelief, she made me another one as I watched, and sure enough, she cooked with just a tiny dab of butter, and then directly beat the egg with no seasoning before adding it to the pan. Who knew that plain egg could taste so good?

As it had snowed again the previous night, Dawa indicated that we shouldn’t leave until 9:00 AM so that the sun would have melted most of the ice. The original plan had just been for us to hang around the house before then, but I mentioned to Dawa that I had been surprised to have not found the school the previous evening. He said he would be happy to show me, and that I probably had just not recognised it from the street. Sure enough, he was correct.

Kids were outside gathering drinking water to take into the school. Unfortunately you can’t see the water source here, but they were clearly enjoying being the early ones who were making sure to gather water for the day.

This was actually the same school where Dawa had studied as a child. I had indeed passed it the day before, but due to the plain wall which went around it, I hadn’t recognised it.

The building to the left was the preschool building and that to the right, the actual primary school.

They let me look inside, but I didn’t take any pictures since the rooms were rather simple, and I was worried that it might be seen as too intrusive.

The kids were very funny and some tried out a bit of their English on me. Just outside the school, Dawa also pointed out some of the detailed carving on a couple of large boulders right next door. I had seen these previously but didn’t really take the time to look closely. Dawa explained that this area has lots of ancient carving on the boulders and had been rather extensively studied by different historians. I had assumed that any carvings were modern, but he pointed out different languages and petroglyphs which indicated that the rocks had served as sort of historical markers over the centuries. Near the top of one of the boulders appeared to be pre-historic petroglyphs, but there was also a large variety of different scripts, including ancient Mongolian.

The modern central engraving near the base had evidently been a source of controversy since in the process of doing it, a good deal of ancient engravings had been destroyed. However, as the rocks were not formally protected archeological objects, the new carving had still been allowed despite protests by many of the locals.

While there is a sign, there is no formal protection of the carvings.

The casual observer wouldn’t really recognise much unless there was someone along to point out the different scripts etc.

Looking at the boulders, I started thinking about how many archeological sites all across India are sort of just like this. With so many pressing daily needs, there just aren’t enough resources to fund proper investigation, much less preservation of so many sites. So much historical information is constantly being lost. I imagine it’s much the same in other parts of the world.

Then at about 9:50 AM Dawa indicated that we really needed to get going. At first the road was very smooth, but things rapidly started to get quite bumpy once again.

I was quite pleased but also retroactively alarmed when I saw a sign that said, “avalanche prone area has ended” but then 20 meters later there was a new sign “caution, avalanche prone area begins”. So I guess it was nice to know we had the twenty meters of relative safety?

From about 10:50 to 11:25 AM we were once more stuck in stand still traffic as we were going over the pass. This whole stretch out road “was adequate” but all dirt and potholes. The worst part though was when we were behind a truck or bus, as pollution/exhaust controls for larger vehicles seemed to be all but non-existent, and we would have to constantly roll up the windows, sometimes even stopping the air intake from the vents.

I got quite bored with this and ended up falling asleep for about 45 minutes but then woke up again just as we once more reached smooth paved roads. At about 12:50 PM. From there on out.

At 1:45 PM we stopped at Kharu for a quick Paratha. Dawa had asked if I would be interested in eating at a local place where he usually stopped. He was a bit nervous that I might find it too simple, but I told him I was happy to try. For the two of us, it was only 160 INR (2.05 USD) and also very tasty!

A prayer wheel and sleeping dogs outside where we are in Kharu

We both had a plate like the one pictured.

Finally by 2:40 PM we were back to Gangba homestay in Leh, and for the most part, my Ladakh adventure was over.

It was nice to catch up with Dorothée and Betsy over the next few hours and then early in the morning the next day we were off to the airport which was only about 15 minutes away by car.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever make it back to Ladakh, but I’m certainly grateful for the great experiences I had and the outstanding people I was able to share with as I explored different areas. A special thanks of course to Betsy, as it was she who first suggested the trip. Things went quite differently from what I had originally planned, but I can happily report that overall, the trip was a great success. Until my next travelling adventure, thanks for reading!