Leh, India
The cute little calf was about a day old. It tried to eat out of Sarah's hand, then tried to eat her pants. Just about as cute and smart as it's ever going to be.
Our first few days were lying around acclimating to the altitude. I got started on my game design kick on this trip. This is "Julay!" the game. Of the various greetings we learned around the world, none were used as warmly and as often as the Ladakhis used Julay.
One of our fondest memories of the trip was this twenty minute walk from our guest house to town. The views were breathtaking, the air was thin and refreshing. The path followed a brook. Delightful!
Freshly planted, yak plowed fields.
From the smallest, most delicate flowers to the tallest white capped mountains in the world, Leh had wonders to behold. Both are featured in this picture, free! That's the internet for ya! Call your congressman and advocate for net neutrality or pictures of Leh will sadly be few and far between.
Every kilometer or so, we'd pass a prayer wheel/cylinder thing. Julay!
You can ring my beh..eh..ell...
Ring my bell.
Crazy as it was to see this bull open the gate and exit that courtyard on his own, seeing him get in and drive off in that white truck was certainly unique to Leh. Leh is miracles.
More often than not, sound advice.
No Jews around that we could see (nor anyone to win a spelling bee), but miracle that is Leh, there are even bagels.
I inquired into the identity of the celebrity appearing in the framed picture atop the voltage stabalizer (and again in the snapshot tacked to the wall). He's an employee on leave nursing a broken leg, so acutely missed by the proprietor and patrons that the snapshot needed to be supplemented with the framed picture to stave off all pining for his return to health and mongering.
Best massage in Asia. Won't find that in any spa magazines, but you found it here on the free neutral internet.
We paid silk prices for what are likely not silk rugs here. But Gulzar bought us dinner and threw in a toaster, so we feel pretty good about it, overall.
Polo exhibition for an important person who was sitting 3 chairs down from us. That cow got so excited by the presence of important personages that delusions of grandeur (horseness) got the better of it.
Long day, desperate for a bathroom, we climbed half way up a mountian for a rest stop at Leh Palace.
The toilet is on the sixth floor. We discovered where on the sixth floor by exploring the fifth floor.
Wedding present for Liz and Phil, as legitimately from half-way around the world as it was from the middle of nowhere.
...sold to us by Dr. Livingston himself.
Day Trip to the Indus River
The hike to the bus stop
The hike to the gompa
It was at a gompa like this where we first tried yak butter tea. Monks are pretty great at sand mandalas and throat singing, but I'd pass on any yak butter anything they offer you if you get a chance to visit them yourself.
This gompa was at the top of a mountain overlooking the Indus river (pretty close to the origin, we think).
prayer flags get pretty beat up in the wind up here at ~15,000 ft.
Sarah and the Indus
Aaron's Indus
The Nubra Valley
Majid hooked us up with a tour in the Nubra Valley. That's 18,380 feet.
From the pass, we could see the peaks of some 23,000 ft mountains, which are the highest mountains I've ever seen. Neat stuff!
Not too high for prayer flags!
There were a few buildings up here making up a sort of military presence. I asked them to unlock the bathroom for me. Sarah and I took the short walk up the hill in this picture. Maybe 15 minutes? I went to the bathroom again before continuing on to the Nubra Valley and it was like all of Delhi has been to the bathroom since. There was poo all around the hole and up and down the walls. So gross! I blame it on the altitude because nothing else in the Nubra Valley was so decorated.
The Nubra Valley was mostly desert but there were patches of unrivaled pristine arcadian verdancy.
...and lots of road goats. Cute!
These kids wanted a picture with Sarah. We got their address and sent the picture to them.
We visited a gompa in the Nubra Valley where they keep rooms aside for when the Dalai Lama visits. He doesn't like this practice, but I think he still uses this bathroom, for example.
...and this bed
...and this living room
...but not this bench. The only thing holier than his hoiliness, the 13th Dalai Lama, is a picture of his holiness, the reincarnation of Avalokitesvara, the bodisatva of compassion.
Get ready!
Bactrians
is that mange?
...or camelpattern baldness?
Wild camels
Wilder camels
No toilet here. Try around the corner?
...down these stairs. No thanks!
We spelled Petra out in rocks on this rock. Petra means rock and our friend Petra is a geologist. Hello!
Hang in there, Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. We promise not to take any more stupid pictures like this again. This is near the Pakistan, India border in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Writing in Gupta's journal will be the time of your life!
Drinking Godfather beer will not.
The only frog we saw in Northern India.
For a good time, call BEN LADEN. To destroy the infidel, however, call...
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