Leh: 10 small things I liked

Okay. So Leh did not quite do it for me. Saying this is somewhat unfair as I did have the best potato and cheese momo soup ever (60 rs) at Tenzin Dickey Tibetan, was looked remarkably well after at the Julay guesthouse (200 rs, hot shower), visited some pretty cool sights and all in all actually had a pleasant, hassle free stay. So what was wrong?

It could be that Leh is really touristy. The whole of the city center is filled with souvenir shops, travel agents and over priced restaurants serving pizza and banana pancakes. To the credit of Leh's tourism industry it has to mentioned though that the people in the field are astonishingly unpushy.

It could be that riding the jeep here from Srinagar took some of the awesomeness of the sweeping views away. After 15 hours on a Jeep it was not new anymore.

It could be that coming from Srinagar, which I just adored, Leh felt a little lame. I was warned about this by the Northern India connoisseur Toxic Waste man a.k.a Aleksi, an early contributor to this blog.

It could be that I could not organise a trek that would have suited my wallet. As it is the end of season here, getting a group together was too hard. And going on my own would just have been to expensive (I was offered to do a two day trek with a guide for 7000 rupees, which is more than a hundred euros).

It could be that my expectations were too high. I had wanted to come here for years and unlike Hampi last April, Leh just did not live up to them.

Here's what I liked in Leh.

1. Visiting the Tibetan monastery at Thicksey and talking to the 10-12 years old monks, who told me about their life in the

monastery. Basically they pray and study and get to visit their homes a couple of times a year. I cought them playing a game which involved throwing rocks but then an older monk came and told the boys to quit.

The monastery itself dates back to the 16th century and is truly beautiful in all its ruggedness. You won't see this in Thailand.

2. Riding the 20 rupee public bus back to town from Thicksey was interesting. I had to stand most of the way and I can tell you the bus was not made to measure Wessies, not even women. I kept bumping my head to the ceiling, which for some reason I thought was funny. A taxi would have cost about 800 rupees there and back.

3. The people. Most friendly.

4. Getting the potato and cheese momo soup recipe from Tenzin Dickey Tibetan and visiting their family run kitchen to see how the soup is done. I'm so gonna try the recipe when I get home.

5. Watching the film Ancient Futures at the Women's alliance even though it made me feel guilty of coming to Leh and thus contributing to the further decay of local culture.

6. Some of the souvenir shops actually had pretty cool trinklets. I particularly liked the leather wrapped Buddha pendulums.

7. The semi-dried apricots. Delicious. The ladakhis seem to make everything out of apricots, including juice, cream, oil, tea and nuts, which actually are the bitter tasting seeds.

8. The view from Leh Palace to the town. Few can compete with that one.

9. Having a cup of java at the Booklovers Retreat in the village of Changspa. The place is basically like Starbucks but with a Himalayan setting, and no relation to any chain. Oddly enough it was rather inexpensive as well. And has Wi-Fi! And Tin Tin cartoons to read!

10. The local juice made from seabuckthorn, a berry that grows in the Himalayas. Possibly the best juice in the world.