Tomorrow a monastery tour is announced. Not quite cheap, but I will have a driver for myself all day long, and he will take me through the Indus Valley from one monastery to the next. And afterwards I want to do a trek, to start with the so-called „Baby-Treck“. It lasts three days, doesn't take me up to very high passes and is otherwise for ordinary people like me.
Baby Trek
Actually a bit insulting for accustomed mountaineering Swiss like me, but what's the point? A reputable address of a trekking agency might help me.
The really very serious looking manager looks at me in disbelief.
Baby trek? Why don't you go on your own? Yes why not. In his opinion, you simply cannot get lost (though he doesn't know that I manage to get lost on well-marked trails).
Well, that might be funny.
Thousand steps up to the stupa
I decide to climb up to the stupa on the opposite hill. From a distance it's just the right thing to boost the muscles and tendons that I' ll need on the trek.
But as you get closer, the way up does not turn out to be a comfortable path, but a vicious staircase with a thousand steps (not a single one at the same height so you have to be careful). And this time I really get panting, but I'm not the only one who has to take a break occasionally bending over one's knees.
The stupa
Then, having reached the top, at least a glorious view awaits me. All of Leh lies in the cloudy midday below us, surprisingly even showing some green spots.
But these are threatened. The tourist attractions are constantly being expanded for the benefit of the ever-increasing number of customers, which in turn means that the precious green spaces are becoming increasingly scarce.
On the opposite side of the valley, the hill with the royal palace is barely visible. It looks lonely and deserted, which it really is. A somehow sad scenery of past grandeur.
The Stupa shows all its dignity in the grey light. I'm almost alone up there, slowly circling it as if it belonged to me alone and enjoying the special atmosphere to the full.
Bob Marley
And there is a restaurant, of course deserted, but Bob Marley booms out of the boxes, which connects the young man behind the counter and me in no time. I tell him about the last concert in Zurich, when Marley was already terminally ill and died a year later. We listen through his tape cassette and sing along loudly.
His story is anything but funny, because he comes from Dharamsala, although of Nepalese descent, and has a part-time job here until the end of the season. Afterwards he will travel to his brother in Calcutta to try his luck. How lives are different. So close and yet so far off!
It is hot
Sometimes the sky gets threateningly overcast, even a few drops wet the hot asphalt. When the sun shines, the heat is somehow different from ours. It has the effect of radioactive rays, burning holes into the skin. You have to protect yourself, wear sunglasses protecting your eyes, lubricate your skin with Factor 50 or at least 30. Otherwise, a huge sunburn must be expected. And you are constantly changing your clothes. In the sun it is 30 degrees, in the shade next to it it is frosty cold.
I take a last look back and make the descent, which looks just as steep as from below.
Technical peculiarities
There is no mobile phone network available here and the hotel's own Wi-Fi is an insult to say the least, even if it is the only way to communicate. However, when I try to upload a post, I sweat blood and occasionally get disapproving looks when I loudly curse when another upload failure occurs.
Uploading pictures is simply impossible, but in three weeks everything will be getting better. But then I'll miss everything that pleases my heart here, and I'd gladly give all WiFis and Internet for free if I could experience these images again …
P.S. Matching Song: Halsey - I walk the line
And here the journey continues ...
