Shangri-Leh

We arrived yesterday afternoon after about 35 hours traveling. Leh is truly a beautiful place, with snow capped peaks and green, cultivated valleys. I don't know how to write about the trip, because it was extraordinary on so many counts. Many people make the same trip we did, basically 2 days from Manali to Leh. Relatively speaking, we were doing it in style, because we hired our own jeep. Many tourists share jeeps, six to the jeep, and many Indians, tourists or otherwise, pack in much more densly than that. Buses make the trip. We were told that we must try our a 24 hour Indian bus for the sake of the experience. In general, that is not how we are traveling.

We started out bright on day 1 through a beautiful "alpine" valley, with 5 waterfalls in view at one point. The road was blocked an hour out of Manali. We waited for 5, count em, 5 hours for the road to be cleared from a mudslide the night before. We were quite fresh at this point, and met many people at the (almost ubiquitous) roadside chai/ potato chip and food stands that dot this "touristic route," even in the most remote places. One Israeli woman said she had been waiting since 10 pm the night before for the road to be cleared, so we got some perspective on our situation and could only be grateful. When the bull dozer finally arrived NO ONE of the hundreds waiting CHEERED. My mother, cheerleader extradordinaire, would've been appalled. Don't worry mom, we clapped, and bowed (buddhist style bow).

What was so surprizing was that the mudslide that caused the 5 hour delay looked piddling compared to the many other road blockages that we encourtered, most've which were plowed right through by the 4 wheel drives, not so 4 wheel drives, decorated lorries STINKING up the roadsm buses, motorcycles and BICYCLES. Yes, we saw people biking over the Himalayas. THe switchbacks must make it concieveablem and there are approximatly as many downs as ups, BUT THE MUD. AND THE FUMES. How do they do it?

When the road is described in travel book as as the 2nd highest navigalbe pass in the world (17+ thou, higher than Mt. Blanc!) the writer failed to explain that the road is largely under construction. We had another hour-long stop for a bridge to be repaied, and another shorter stop for some earth (mud) to be moved. The road "surface" goes from macadam to MUD without rhyme or reason. Sometimes the good rood is near the top of a pass, and sometimes the dirt and rocks were at the top of the pass.

The most interesting parts to Delilah were that we were going to the sky and that she could touch the clouds.

I must say something about the widths (varying) and the drop-offs (undeniable). I initially felt the most anxiety about these "qualities", however it's amazing what one can get used to. There were soem momets when I was so grateful that no traffic was coming from the opposite direction because the road was so narrow, when somehow a vehicle would show up coming the opposite direction and the passing would be quite uneventful. The drivers were extraordinary.

Note the use of the word drivers, plural. Half way through our (billed as) brand new vehicle broke a major part of the steering assembly (this particular car part didn't translate easily from Tibetan). What was extraordinary is that within 5 minutes on THIS REMOTE ROAD, an empty jeep going to Leh appeared, and our driver and helper knew them! WIthin less than 10 minutes (not really enough time to be a drama) our luggage was tranferred, the new driver was paid, and we were on our way to Leh. Our parting words to driver and helper #1 were, "see you in Leh" (a city). And we did! Miraculously, as we were shopping, one of the drivers spotted MIles's (handsome) mug, and returned my camera. (That would've been a big bummer).

Tomorrw: to monasteries.

Love and stuff,

Leah, Miles and Delilah

Miles: will detail bowel report in next posting.