Day 7: Diskit - Khardung La - Leh

Diskit - the only town with a gas station in the Nubra valley - is beautiful in its own way. As you enter the town, the highway stretches to a super straight path leading up to a mountain. In the distance is are snow-capped Himalayas. On either side of the highway is wet sand that stretches onto miles and miles. As you climb up the last 20 or so km to reach Diskit, you'll see what I suspect is the Shyok river basin. The geography is dramatically different than anything I've seen before.

Once I reached Diskit along with Ed - we waited for Abhi and Joe to join. Alan and Joan, the couple from Newzealand had already made it. I spent that evening mostly with them and listening to the many stories of Alan, a bearded 62 year old gentleman who's traveled to over 40 countries. Ed, a 45 year old man now lived in Bangkok and talked about his Thai girl friend and asked me how he might marry a Bollywood actress in Mumbai. It amused him endlessly that I had a hand sanitizer from CVS - I let him assume that CVS ships it to India and little did I tell him that I actually picked it up at some CVS store in New Jersey. We stayed at the Karakoram guest house - the owner, Skarma and his wife and children looked after us. His wife always had an aloof look. She made the best tasting rotis ever.

The next day, Alan and Joan went to Hunder to see the sand dunes and camels. Ed followed. Abhi, Joe and I started late because it started raining. In the seperation and confusion, we never found Alan and Joan and after a mini-search expedition headed back to Khardung La. With the rain, the temperature kept dipping and we wondered how cold it might be on K-Top.

The drive back was relatively less-difficult because I expected the problems with the terrain - the rocks, stones, rivers, potholes etc. My second time on K-Top, I realized that my cell phone worked and SMSed friends and family. I met a soldier on top who got me tea from the army post (I'm supposed to send him his pic but seemed to have lost the book where I wrote the address - tsk, tsk). This time I hung around k-top for longer - took some more pics, removed my jacket etc. and jumped around in the bitter cold right after the snaps. There was no Maggi noodles, there weren't even that many people. I met some of the Bulleteers I met in Darcha camp. I met a couple of guys from Bangalore whom I'd met while they were fixing a puncture on the way to Leh. It was nice and then I headed back.

We reached Leh and had a very satisfying late lunch (it was 5.30PM) at Lamayuru Restaurant - I ate my dinner there 2 nights before and had met a guy from Spain spending 5 months in India and a girl from Holland with a mole near her lip who decided at random to come to Leh (her first time). Finished lunch with Abhi, Joe - Ed joined later and we realized that Alan and Joan had not made it back yet. It struck horror - particularly for Abhi - I think he'd assumed responsibility for them - I learnt that they all stayed in the same guest house. Did they fall off? Did their Bullet have problems? Finally, late that night I ran into Abhi, Joe and the others again and Alan showed up - completely distraught. The chain-link lock broke right on top of Khardung La and they struggled to get it alright. Finally, a taxi driver suggested that they better get off the mountain and save their lives - the Bullet can always be collected later and that's what they did.

Earlier that night I took a quick swing to check the Ladakh festival - saw a song-dance demo of a Ladakhi marriage from one of the royal villages. The long, heavy dress made everybody look shorter than normal. The sound seemed very Tibetan from my unaccustomed ears. The dance steps are rythmic but seemed very elaborately simple. My mind kept drifting to my imminent journey to Kargil and I wanted to get some sleep.