Better to be Mr. Late than the Late Mr...

Spent the past few days visiting the incredibly beautiful and dramatic mountains, canyons and gompas of the Nubra Valley, northeast of Ladakh toward the Tibetan frontier. My companions were a gujarati couple who were both accountants for US companies, and a professor who was actually from the university of siberia. And, our idiotic 16 year old driver, who was lazy and careless, not my favorite qualities on one lane cliffside himalayan roads. So up we went, (bollywood soundtrack the whole way) winding over Leh into the mountains, up to Khardung-La, which is the highest point of the highest road in the world, at 18,380 ft. Nothing much there but a little army checkpoint, (we were constantly having to show our permits and passports), and with a crashed plane, a bunch of army trucks and soldiers, and prayer flags flying. And a sign reading "Khardung La - Highest Motorable Road in World - 18380 ft. - NO PARKING." Amazing views in all directions over mountains, valleys, and glaciers, and after parking for a few mintues, we descended into the valley. Unfortunately, we were caugfht in the middle of a 20 deep army convoy, and our driver insisted on passing these guys on our one lane road all the way down the valley until we hit another checkpoint, where we could just as easily have passed them then. Oh well.

Deeper into the valley until we stopped at Hunder- the end of the line for westerners, beyond the heavily guarded little river and bridge lay no man's land, then Tibet. There was a great Gompa that the Russian and I hiked up to, with more amazing views. I was hoping to see K2 in the distance, but other mountains blocked my view.

Stopped briefly by a camel farm, where the Gujaratis wanted to take a ride on the two-hump camels apparently descended from the silk road days. Our idiot driver howver, splashed his way through a stream and mucked up the engine, which meant a much longer time watching the Indian couple prance around on camelback than expected. There were also some nice yaks and montain goats to look at by the time the car got giong again. We then moved slightly back upstream to another charming town with another charming Gompa, called Diskit. It seemed to have apricots on every tree that wasnt a pin-straight poplar, public stupas everywhere, charming little stone walls with brambles on top, yaks wandering about and a prayer wheel on every corner. Mountain streams with little wooden bridges were everywhere, and when you walked over a bridge you could literally feel a drop in the air temperature of a few degrees from the frigid himalayan water.

Awoke VERY early this morning in the hopes of hearing the monks at morning prayers in the Diskit Gompa. We succeeded, but there were not too many monks around. Still, it was very interesting to listen, and the monks offered us some yak butter tea, which I choked down to be polite in spite of its mouth-curdling saltiness. But there was not much else to look at in Diskit, so we moved on to the next town, Sumur, where we looked at another, more modern Gompa. Do you want to hear any more about Gompas? Don't worry, I won't bore you... Heres a picture. And next time I'll add some interior shots as well...

The drive back was uneventful, save for seeing a truck that had recently fallen off the cliff and the halted army convoy below scavenging the wreckage. It was a certainly unnerving to be ther in the immediate aftermath. Happy to be safely back in Leh, and soon at a very safe meditation retreat...