Day 11 3 May A return to the state capital Leh

Photo above - struggling to find any photos today as we were in the car all day doing a route we had done before, but here is a picture of my barber in Leh!

The trouble it takes to get a beer

Generally speaking, people do not drink alcohol in this area, extravagant wedding ceremonies being an exception. There is a homebrew called Chang though, and some wine is produced locally. There is a strong lager from this area which is effectively exported to other parts of the country, and which we were able to get in the first hotel we stayed in at the state capital Leh. As we were expressed a liking for this, our guide has made sure we had a can at each nights accommodation, although it now turns out that he has been going through all sorts of trouble to get hold of it as it is illegal to sell it here, and hotels outside Leh don't have beer. 

In Leh there used to be a shop licensed to sell it, but no longer. Any stocks of it around are quickly diminishing. One day he went to a little store in a mountain village who said they did not have any, but they called someone in another village, and the guide drove several miles over there. At first they said they did not have any, then he said they could sell him one can, then finally agreed to two! We didn't realise all this was going on every day!

Road trip back to Leh

After breakfast of buckwheat tea, buckwheat pancakes, butter tea, almonds and eggs, we set off to drive the 75 miles on the NH1 back to Leh where our road trip begun. At the town of Khaltsi we stopped for a few supplies. At about half way we stopped to take a few photos at Basgo where we had visited on the way out a few days ago. The poplar trees that were bare, have now all burst into leaf.

A quick haircut 

Shortly after this we passed another massive army convoy going in the opposite direction towards Kashmir. We reached Leh and stopped in a small street on the outskirts so that I could have a quick haircut. Afterwards we drove up to our hotel and checked in. Then went down to the town centre to get a snack for lunch. It started spitting with rain though, so we decided to go back to the hotel and chill, and catch up on some emails etc that we missed over the last few days due to lack of internet.

Tomorrow we have a long drive south east to Tso Moriri, a huge lake and remote area, where we hope we might see a bit more wild life. We have been warned it may be cold though.

Basgo Monastery 

Lorry struggles up mountain pass

Blow horn is painted on the back of most lorries as an instruction for you to let them know you are overtaking

Our car on the mountain pass

Stupas in the hills above Basgo