Day 18: Checking Out The Scene
What a wonderful day I had in Leh. I woke up and joined my two new friends for breakfast on the roof. Following this, Joe and I set off to town to explore the Leh market. We boarded a crowded shuttle bus, which is always a good time, and explored the market. I bought some tiny prayer flags so I could put them on my bike and show everyone how much of a douchebag I am. I have no shame. Joe split off and I ventured towards the palace uphill. I took a series of winding narrow alleyways, what’s left of old Leh, and enjoyed the sight and sound of water flowing down underneath grates throughout the city, the old stone paths, dead rats and lounging dogs. I got my ticket, 300 rupees for foreigners and 25 for Indians. Love that. The palace was pretty underwhelming. It’s just a building. Also Indian tourists are really difficult to be around. While I’m standing there trying to read a little information on the history of Leh there are 5 different Indians reading it out loud shouting it to each other as if they were helping everyone out. Why must they behave this way? I actually called out an Indian for cutting in front of me in the ticket line in such an arrogant and brutish way that something needed to be said. He even skipped over a couple gentle Taiwanese tourists who were behind me too. Where does he get off? Is it not enough I’m paying 275 rupees more? He told me he thought I was still thinking about it? I’m thinking about getting into a scuffle with one of these dudes before my trip’s over is what I'm thinking about. Manners must be taught! Another funny thing about the museum was it absolutely deep throated the British. Everything was gushing with thanks to the British archaeological survey and all the brave British historians and photographers and anthropologists who fought to preserve and translate and archive the wealth of Indian history and artifacts. Honestly, kind of refreshing. The British get a lot of hate, but you know, they did a good thing here and there too. Just because they were extracting Indias resources and perhaps millions died in related events doesn’t mean they weren’t also digging in the dirt and putting things into glass boxes. You know? I was talking to Adam and he said if you were going to be colonized by anyone, wouldn’t you choose the British? Considering the alternatives, absolutely I would. Certainly not going to risk it with the Belgians. I don’t know what would be worse, getting my hands cut off for failing to retrieve diamonds or learning flemish. After this I hiked it further up to the monastery and soaked up the sight of the Leh valley. All very fine indeed. I skipped back down to town and checked out the Central Asian Museum. Highly overrated and didn’t learn much of anything. Most of the artifacts were from the 19th or 20th century. Great, in Philadelphia you can’t take a piss without hitting something hundreds of years older. So color me unimpressed. I wandered down to the bike shop. They didn’t have any seats but the owner told me the Zanskar route was doable so good to gather that bit of intel. In the central area of Leh there are a lot of white people, and they always look so strange and out of place! And that’s how I look! I hate seeing how I look. White people look so weird in Asia. Why?! We all look like shifty eyed sex tourists. Sometimes we acknowledge each other, but mostly it’s a cold indifferent nod or looking the other way, as if we weren’t there. It’s like we’re all at the gold rush trying to find our own little pocket to mine and uncomfortable at the sight of other miners. Ugh, you had the same idea? Same expensive outdoors gear? You also like to hike? Great, now I’m fucking unoriginal, why don’t I just fling myself off of a cliff and be done with it? I’m loving the food in Leh. Eating everything in sight. I bounced around from sweet shop to snack shop to tea shop and gorged myself and I damn well deserved it too. I went to the little bouldering wall in town and met some very friendly Germans. They made me green with envy telling me I missed a 2 week outdoors festival, where everything was apparently free and you could climb and kayak and bike and all that stuff. There were probably nightly orgies too with free lubes and condom raining down for all. Anyway I don’t typically love Germans but these fellows were alright. We played around trying to figure out a few different routes and had a grand old time. Their friend from the festival, an Indian woman from Mumbai, joined us later and we all went out for a delicious dinner. I walked the mile back home at night and found my hostel friends. We ended the night with a lively ping pong tourney. The dry air bothered me again at night, and my sleep wasn’t as sound as it could be, but so be it, a great day overall.
