Sorry for the lack of updates, but, frankly, there has been very little to bring you all up to date. We've been in Leh, by which I largely mean our small hotel room, for the past few days, battling altitude sickness. Today, however, we're both feeling great, but woke to find it snowing outside, clouds obscuring the views of the valley we've been dying to climb up to. Hopefully it will clear up later today.
A brief recap of the past few days:
Mon got in to Delhi, which was a great relief and a joy to see her walking through the arrivals gate, and we spent the next day wandering the town by rickshaw, getting scammed, and overwhelmed by the shear volume of people in the town. Tuesday morning we boarded an early morning flight to Leh, a small town in the far north of India in the Himalayas, and got to see the sun rise over the awesome, jagged, raw peaks of the Himalayas, spreading outward to the horizon on both sides of the planes. It was an amazing flight.
We then came into Leh, in its powerful surrounding territory of mostly bare rocky hills, peaked by gompas and temples, with (we imagine, and hope to confirm soon) amazing views of the valley, and backed by snow capped mountains in the distance. The town itself, however, is anything but barren. Anywhere there is water, beautiful tall poplars (Monica conjectures) have grown up to blow in the wind, and our hostel has irrigated some water for a wonderful flower garden. The town center is charming, with very few hecklers, and a nicely relaxed atmoshpere (so, the exact opposite of Delhi), and a strong emphasis on sustainability--composting toilets, purified water refil stations, water conservation practices, and a women's center are in the town.
Overall there's too much to report on the tiny bit of Leh we have seen, and hopefully we'll have more to report on the grander aspects of the area soon. We joined a group heading out tomorrow to a Lake that boarders Tibet off to the East, and one of the members is a Kiwi who has been to Leh many times, seems to speak the language with fair fluency, and is all too eager to recommend where to go. Today we hike up to the beautiful palace overlooking the town, and the buddhist gompa perilously perched on the steep hill above that. We'll try to get some pictures up soon.
Dave and Mon
