Friends – in Leh / part 1

15. + 16. September 2024

 

I have stress. I was already stressed before. How am I supposed to pack a Ladakh-Zanskar trip into just 3 weeks? And how am I supposed to fit the meetings with the people into just 4 days in Leh? Just get on with it…

 

Tundup, who is my agency-collegue and friend and who I’ve known since 2003, unfortunately only had 1-2 hours on the day of arrival because he was accompanying a family trip with 60 people the next day. So we met for lunch at my hotel – and I only took a silly but somewhat typical photo.

 

 

It’s often a bit difficult during the season because mobile phones ring or important messages beep. But that’s the way it is – and we spent all those other minutes chatting and felt the time was too short and hoped for a better opportunity somewhere else. Tundup always surprises you with his plans and what he puts into practice. In the office, he has finally managed to get people to take real responsibility and make decisions. I had always wished for that, but I also wondered why there was so little initiative among his employees. Maybe it was because it was comfortable working under Tundup, because he takes a lot off your shoulders and puts everything on his own shoulders. But now there seems to be a slightly different wind blowing. I’ve already noticed it with the person I work closest with. She’s really good and it’s a great pleasure. As always, it’s a pleasure to meet Tundup and we could actually talk about life for hours. Next time.

 

The next person I met was Arite. She was a participant on a women’s trip in 2015 – and came back the next year, where she went on a ‘special Nana trip’ with me. We trekked with only Horseman in the Changthang (which is very unusual) and I think by then at the latest she had also fallen in love with Ladakh and travelled here again several times. We never met – except this time.

 

 

She had the last few days of her trip – and I had my first. As she lives in Dresden, we see each other often anyway – but I always find it nice and a bit special to just meet people while travelling without actually travelling together.

 

We went together to fulfil my wish to buy a SIM card – and were unsuccessful. Or I was too impatient. It was Sunday and the shop was obviously staffed by sleep-deprived substitutes. 3 men, one of whom was behind the counter with a hood, just staring at his mobile phone and the other two were very slowly issuing SIM cards.

 

 

There were still 2 people ahead of me and I was getting too impatient and thought I’d better go on Monday, when the usual perky women would probably be on duty again. And that was the case.

 

 

Within a very short time I had my SIM card and can now happily receive my messages and communicate everywhere. It’s more convenient. I used the time to stroll around a bit. It is typical of India that you often have such contrasts side by side. This wasn’t quite true of Ladakh, it always seemed quite uniform to me. But time moves on with changes and I was amazed at the new simultaneous contrasts. There are still some old-established shops, pubs, guesthouses that are a little bit old-fashioned, and there are more and more smart, elegant houses, shops, etc. There are now so many huge, elegant hotel complexes that they don’t have that many occupied rooms (even mine doesn’t have many guests). Coffee shops offer the best coffee and fine cakes and cookies. You could be sitting in Berlin. Crammed, crumpled shops have everything – and if it’s hiding in the last corner, you’ll find it. Sloppy backpackers hang out with each other and travellers in perfectly expensive outdoor clothing stroll through the pedestrian zone. In between, there are huge Indian tour groups who travel around the sights in a well-organised way and Indian individualists who go on alternative discovery tours. Exciting!

 

And me in between, finding familiar things and marvelling at new things. And endeavouring to meet people. First, I met Arite again in a chic, very popular little coffee shop, where I drank tea and ate delicious Florentine biscuits.

 

 

Then we went together to Nawang, whom we both know well. Nawang is one of the greatest people I have ever met in my life. He was the first Ladakhi to sell cashmere wool shawls and is very active in further development. We had an intensive time together, where I learnt a lot about cashmere wool and its processing and sold his fantastic products. Unfortunately, I’m not a great salesperson and so I gave up on the scarves again. Despite the fact that I had sold quite a few to new owners. Now I just recommend his shop to everyone and find out what happens next. But even without the scarves, we have fortunately remained friends. Nawang is a great storyteller, always balanced and cheerful and intelligent and inquisitive and thoughtful and funny and loving. I also really like his wife Chorol, but she was at a party somewhere else. Nawang came into town with his three boys (he lives out of town) and we went out for lunch. What I also like so much about Nawang is his naturalness as a loving father. Here he is with his boys:

 

 

 

The son on the right is a premature baby and was born with some special features. He is mainly blind, which is not so easy in Ladakh. He started talking late and so far only says the bare minimum in short sentences. He loves to listen to music all the time, moving his head and arms and actually seems very content. I’m fascinated by how the family navigates through life and I’m always happy to get an insight. Next time, hopefully with a little more time.

 

And in the evening I met my friend Dolma with her husband and baby and without her first son, who had stayed at home. I’ve known Dolma since 2015 and we’ve led 3 trips with women’s groups together. Dolma is a great guide, but her heart lies even more in education. She studied education sciences and works in various jobs in this field. I was there when she got together with her husband. They are a great couple and what I like about him is that he encourages and supports his wife wherever he can. Or rather, he thinks it’s important that she goes exactly the way she wants to go. I don’t see that in quite so many marriages here.

 

 

The baby is not yet a year old and was probably one of the biggest and heaviest babies born in Ladakh. How did the petite Dolma manage that? Now he is the baby with the biggest hands I have ever seen on a baby. With Dolma, I am learning what it is like to be a mother and work in Ladakh. Not so easy – like everywhere else. You can (sometimes) take your children with you to some workplaces. That’s great.

 

Dolma is very involved in education in Changthang, the nomadic area, which is a bit isolated. They have now been given a new district and some committed people meet with government officials the following day. Nawang, who is also from the area, is the moderator and Dolma will give a speech. We had to discuss this because she would like to say critical things but knows that she will be criticised afterwards. Maybe she’d rather not speak after all? Oh no, Dolma will talk, she is like that and I think it’s great how she deals with it.

 

 

I actually wanted to put all my meetings in one blog post, but I realise that I’m telling you too much and it would be too long. So there will be a 2nd part.

 

This time I’m making a real effort to take photos of people or have someone take photos of us – I usually forget to do that. But I realise that I haven’t taken that many pictures that illustrate the impression of Leh that I described. There’s still some catching up to do.

 

But here is already something that caught my eye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are more meetings to come. I am looking forward to it!