Friends – in Leh / part 2

17. + 18. September 2024

 

 

Oh no, I haven’t been a social photographer again and didn’t take any pictures at a meeting. So there are only words. I finally did a bit of walking, downhill to the Overland Escape office. There I met oldies are goldies, i.e. long-serving employees, some of whom have been with the company for 15 years or so. Various heads were now showing strands of white hair – except for Phuntsok’s. She is colouring. I sat with Rinchen for a while – the person I’ve worked with most intensively over the last few months.

 

Rinchen used to work at Overland Escape and turned out to be an excellent employee. Then she got married, had a child and stayed at home for several years. Now, fortunately, she is back and mainly responsible for me. There are more other children with the staff and the others have grown (little Yangla is already 14!). We had a little chat and a delicious lunch from Phuntsok.

 

I wasn’t just there to say hello to Rinchen and the others, but also to borrow equipment for the trek. Unfortunately, I was brought sub-optimal equipment from the storage room and after a short consultation we decided that I would go there again with Nurphel. Nurphel is still considered a ‘newby’, although he’s been there since 2019. The storage room is in Chuchot – so I was able to drive out of the city a little and have a look. It’s crazy how full and fuller the Indus Valley is getting.

 

Unfortunately, we only found half of what we were looking for in the storage room, so I had to borrow the other half from somewhere else.

 

 

In return, I ‘had’ to have tea with Tundup’s mum, who lives next door. He has built his parents a little house there. Great view, but so far the neighbours are still a bit scarce. But more are sure to build there soon. There is a small garden where tomatoes were reddening and even a small watermelon was growing. I forgot to take a photo of it, but at least there’s a picture of her and me:

 

 

Then I had to rush terribly because I had another appointment at the centre. An ex-Kamerakid had contacted me and I was so pleased to meet Angbo! In general, every ex-Kamerakid meeting makes me happy because I’m so glad to see how well they’re all doing. He is studying in college in Jammu and earns his living by trekking. This year was his first season and he got a few tours right away. I can imagine him there very well, he is very friendly, his English is good and he also seems so hands-on. Here is a picture of him:

 

 

He told me a bit about the other ex-school children. There is no contact with some of them, but most of them are obviously doing well. However, he also told me something very sad, namely that a woman from Zanskar, whom I also know, suicided herself. Too much grief and problems.

 

Meanwhile, another date arrived: Reelika. I’ve been in very close contact with her since she was travelling alone in Zanskar in May and found a local guide through me. She enjoyed it so much that she’s now coming back here again. She’s also aiming for Zanskar again, but we definitely won’t be hiking together as she really wants to carry her own stuff. At least at the beginning, she wants to start all by herself this time. Quite the strong woman!

 

Shortly afterwards, we met up again on our own and had dinner and some great green Lemon Nana:

 

 

It’s funny when you’ve been exchanging messages quite intensively for months and we sometimes talk on the phone, too – and then you meet in real life. Somehow she seemed a little different, even though I’d seen her in lots of pictures. But as I thought from that time, we were a good match and it was nice to see each other and have a chat.

 

And when someone is infected with the ‘Indian Himalayan virus’, that can only be a good thing!

 

Since that morning, I had the feeling that I had arrived here finally and the work was slowly falling away from me. I didn’t have any appointments the following day, but I did have errands. The first was to go to a tailor because I needed to mend a hole in one of my T-shirts and something was wrong with my cap and he did a good job.

 

 

Then I went to the bus station, where the shared taxis to Zanskar would be leaving from. There were taxis with other destinations, and many enterprising people were standing around. There was nobody at the taxis to Zanskar. One did turn up, but he didn’t want to leave until a day later. But he wrote down my number and wanted to call me when he had a taxi for me. That wasn’t the result I had hoped for. Even though I know that everything always falls into place in the evening, I was still a bit nervous.

 

The lunch place had Dry Day – that means no alcohol and no meat. No problem.

 

 

Meanwhile, an ex-Kamerakid from Zanskar got in touch and wanted to help me. Or rather, he took me under his wing and started to get me a taxi seat. In the meantime, the gentleman from the taxi rank got in touch and wanted to take me earlier – and knew my hotel. Was it the same man that Rigchok had on hand? He gave me another telephone number – so I had 3 telephone numbers for 3 men and didn’t know whether they all wanted to drive me or just one of them. There were confusing messages and calls and at some point I was assured that only one of them would take me. But I had no idea which phone number belonged to him. However, he would call me in the late afternoon and tell me when he would pick me up.

 

He didn’t do that. I sent messages to everyone at around 18:00. No response. Now I was getting a bit nervous. But just before I wanted to switch Rigchok on again at around 19:00, the call came: 4:00 in the morning. However, Rigchok contacted me again independently of this: where I was planning to sleep in Zanskar. He had obviously appointed himself as my carer. Though I haven’t seen him since 2011. However, Reelika had met him on her previous trip and they realised that there was a connection and afterwards I chatted a bit with Rigchok and promised to meet him when I got to Zanskar. Well, I’ll probably be able to tell you more about him in a subsequent post. There were children back then who left a more intense impression on me. Rigchok was one of them and I’m quite curious to meet him.

 

If anyone reading here is not familiar with the Kamerakidz project and is interested, here is a link.

 

Then I was planning to go up the palace hill, but I remembered that I had met another friend and had promised her to come round for a bit more. So I did and spent a cosy chat with another Dolma:

 

 

Dolma has a shop with fashion for children and women and shows beautiful taste and an absolutely pleasant sales manner. The office where I used to sit used to be next door – so sometimes I just went over there. Dolma is Tibetan and splits her year between Ladakh and Goa. But her home (after Tibet) is actually in Karnataka, where she was during the coronavirus period. I was so happy to see that she is continueing again. She says they had saved so much back then that it was just enough for a modest lifestyle.

 

It got later and later and I was afraid I wouldn’t make it to the palace hill I had planned. But then I pulled myself together and set off. The light was fantastic.

 

 

 

 

Oh, I’ll just put up a picture gallery here with the ones I think are pretty:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 days in Leh were definitely too short to meet everyone I know, see familiar and new things and actually look around the area. Now in summer it’s a lot different than in winter – and also different than during the main travelling season. There are definitely too many places to stay and places to eat, it was often empty. Or maybe they are just enough for the main holiday season, but then I don’t really want to imagine how full it is then.

 

And now I’m going to Zanskar and not back to Leh.