Well, today we had our own adventure. We left the hotel about 8:30 and after a
short drive through the valley...
we stopped at the Diskit Monastery, the oldest monastery in the valley.
The large Buddha was covered with scaffolding as they are preparing it for a visit from the Dali Lama later in the year.
The views of the valley from the monastery were great.
we stopped at the Diskit Monastery, the oldest monastery in the valley.
The large Buddha was covered with scaffolding as they are preparing it for a visit from the Dali Lama later in the year.
The views of the valley from the monastery were great.
Then we headed back along the Silk Road and up the mountain sides …
to the North Pullu
or Checkpoint where there was a major traffic jam.
Turns out the road was closed due to an overturned truck. We sat in one of the small “restaurants” and had hot water and buttered toast. We were so cold that the toast tasted like ambrosia. The restaurant had the advantage over the outside as it wasn’t snowing in the restaurant and there was no wind. Other than that it was just as cold as outside.
Turns out the road was closed due to an overturned truck. We sat in one of the small “restaurants” and had hot water and buttered toast. We were so cold that the toast tasted like ambrosia. The restaurant had the advantage over the outside as it wasn’t snowing in the restaurant and there was no wind. Other than that it was just as cold as outside.
After sitting in there and freezing for about three and a
half hours Tara came and got us and took us over to an Army Canteen. She had been checking around and had of
course befriended everyone there so they invited us over. Nothing ever felt as good as the heat from
the little heater in the middle of the room.
We were all able to eventually thaw out.
Five hours later the final story was that the truck and
been uprighted but because there had been heavy snows during the night the snow
plows needed to clear the road. In the
process they triggered some avalanches.
After those were cleared they started allowing cars to go
through. However, the cars triggered
additional avalanches and many of them were stuck. Apparently many people were suffering from
altitude sickness from the very high altitude and the rescuers were running out
of oxygen. Sounded pretty bad. The upshot was that they closed the pass so
we had to turn around head back to the valley.
While on the mountain Tara and the guide had been in
contact with the tour company who was booking us a room back in the valley in
case we didn’t make it through today. In
the course of the conversations they insisted that there were no rooms
available and that the only rooms in the valley that they could get for us were
a couple of tents at a camping facility.
Tara does NOT do tents unless that is all there is. She promptly called the hotel we had stayed
at and they were more than happy to put us up for the night. She also had a spirited discussion with the
tour company (in Hindi, so we don’t know exactly what was said but can sort of
guess from the tone). So we ended the
day exactly where we started…including the exact same rooms.
It remains to be seen if we will get back to Leh
tomorrow.
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