Day 93, 94

I'm in Leh now. I spent twenty hours in a jeep getting here. There were ten of us in that jeep, including the driver, and it would have sat perhaps seven in some comfort. But no problem - I'm becoming a real pro when it comes to dealing with long automobile rides, and spending another twenty wasn't much of a problem.

Some of the passes we crossed were as high as 5000 meters, and it would seem that I'm now pretty good with high altitudes, also. Great stuff.

Leh is a part of Ladakh, which is a part of the province of Jammu and Kashmir, which has been at the hear of India and Pakistan's "cold war" (and occasional shooting war) for many decades. This is a mostly Buddhist place, and I think that is is rather sad that it is included in this longstanding Hindu/Muslim conflict. I've learned a lot, however, about India's multicultural character in the past few weeks, though I'm left wondering how the government here manages to "pull it off." Obviously there are a lot of economic problems and standard of living concerns in India and in the minority regions, but I wonder how decision making is done? Is there a cadre of Tibetan legislators in the Indian parliament?

The ride here included a lot of stops at military checkpoints along the highway, all because of the security situation. My passport is still back in Delhi getting renewed, a situation that caused a few questions to be asked of me, but every time I was able to continue on my way. My original plan was to turn around and go back to Delhi from Manali to pick up the new passport, but since every checkpoint officer so far has told me that continuing on to Srinagar is possible for me, I might just do that instead.

Leh is not only part of Kashmir, but it is also close to the border with China. Because China occupied a swath of Indian territory some years ago, the Indian military presence here is doubly strong. And along the sides of the road leading to Leh we saw literally HUNDREDS of fuel tankers.

The crowd here does not have as many dreadlocks as in Manali, and that makes me very happy. I think I should like to spend a few days here.