More on Manali to Leh

Now that I have about 1 month's worth of perspective, not to mention a few photos that I've downloaded and grabbed from the web, I'm going to write again.

Kelsang Wandu, our driver, is on the right. Changspa (MIles thought Changspal), his helper, our translator (who I developed a crush on) is on the left. We met them at about 6:30 in the morn. I was unhappy to see that the car had no right mirror, and the left mirror was turned in, and our luggage blocked the rear-view mirror. Beyond imagining the dynamics of driving on the right side of the road for us Americanos, driving in the mountains is a very active sport, because of how many various speeds the vehicles are traveling over the narrow roads. Kelsang seemed incredibly comfortable with this handicap of no mirrors. Eventually I felt comfortable with it too. He's a good driver.

They introduced themselves by saying "hi, we're Buddhists." Dashboard alter:

I had a sense as we headed to Rothang that as soon as we went over the pass, we wouldn't see anymore green; that the landscape would change drastically, and that I had to appreciate it (green wet stuff) while I could.

The change was more gradual than I anticipated. It remained green and wetter than I would have liked when we were so high. Though on one hand we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, every so often, and at some passes, roadside chai-noodle-cracker-curry-chapati stands would pop up under tarp tents.

The changes were gradual, but there were many distinct landscapes that we passed through. The American west came to mind. The Grand Canyon came to mind. I had been taken with the name "Keylong" on a map. It was a town in a gorge on the side of a river valley cut like a gorge itself. I was happy to get through it into a "view". We fell short of our first night destination of Sarchu. We holed up in Darcha, which was a bend in the road with some rock foundation, tarp tents set up. Quite cozy. I think the proprietors of this one gave up their beds for the night for us. I later met a woman who had been on a month-long trek with Darcha as the ending point. It was hard for me to imagine Darcha as a dstination, since we were only passing through and all. Notables: we learned the custom of asking where the toilet is, though sometimes there is no toilet, the idea is that the villagers go in the same general location, near the donkeys or down by the river.

tarp-tent ceiling panel:

One of hundreds of very funny road signs on the Indian highways that kept us paying attention and laughing. This one says: Peep, peep, don't sleep

Very soon after we left Darcha we ran into our steering-column mishap (see earlier blog entry: http://leahkreger.travellerspoint.com/7/) and became temporarily separated from our camera. Hence I surfed the web for these. This is not my photo. This is not my motorcycle. However, these are the landscapes which we drove through. Generalization: motorcyclists take the best photos. Thanks to them.

Graph of altitudes of the road from Manali to Leh. For clarification: There were 5 passes, 2 of which were coupled together.

Photos don't do it justice.