Tuesday, August 20, 2019 -
Up early back to the airport and headed to Leh in the new union territory just created
in August 2019.
We were now at 10,000 feet so we were told to take it easy and acclimate to the
high elevation. This picture is of the mountains of the Himalayas from the
deck of our hotel. We relaxed with ice cold lemonade.
We were bored acclimating so we asked our guide if we could go into the market and just
walk around - no strenuous activity.
This is the central market - a rather new wide boulevard with shops on both sides and a
nice open area in the middle. The Ladakh mountain range in the background.
There were various vendors selling vegetables and fruit along the market sidewalk. This
woman is selling peaches - tiny ones - the same as the apples - they were
also small.
Small bags of seeds being sold by an elderly man.
Nice collection of vegetables plus a couple pairs of locally made hand stitched shoes - which seem pretty
warm.
The Leh Palace, which we will visit when we can climb stairs, looms over town.
A small and very cramped cafe in the ancient part of Leh.
Nicely painted cart in an alley in the old part of Leh - we saw few of these.
Lion decorating a stupa (a commemorative monument housing relics from Buddha). We will see
many of these in our adventures.
A temple in the old part of Leh
A man making bread - there was a small section of the street where there were several
bakeries. Each seemed to have a bread type speciality. But all were using the
same technique of flattening out a ball of dough and sticking it to the inside of the oven
wall.
Getting the bread in seemed easy - getting it out was an art.
A man spinning a hand held prayer wheel in the market.
We had a short but interesting walk through downtown. We seemed to be doing fine
in the high altitude. When we returned to the hotel there was a young (teens) man on a
lobby sofa on oxygen!!! We would have slight headaches overnight but for the rest of the trip
we were fine.