Today is a rest day while the new bikes are being arranged and delivered. Woke up early still to get passports dropped of so they can also get our permits arranged and then went to have breakfast.
Spent some time on the internet then to catch up on things and post some stuff about the trip. I then did a bit of bag organizing and picked up my laundry which I dropped of yesterday which cost me 320 Indian Rupee to have cleaned. (Roughly $4.40).
I then decided to walk down to the market street again to meet a few of the others at the German bakery we had seen the night before (Bodhisattva Restaurant and German Bakery). Bought a piece of chocolate banana pie (140 Rupee/$1.85) and then walked over to the chemist shop with Mark and Andy as we all needed some kind of medicine.
I picked up a bottle of hand lotion as my hands were really dry and peeling, and starting to cause soreness along the finger nails due to the dry air and wearing the gloves all the time I am guessing. Also needed some kind of pain killer as I was about out of what I had brought with me. They had a type of aspirin so that is what I picked up. (99 Rupee/$1.30 for the lotion, and 11 Rupee/$0.15 for a dozen aspirin).
We then walked through the rest of the market place to see what else was there. We then crossed over to another market nearby that was just a narrow, dingy alleyway with lots of shops in it to see if it had anything interesting. (You could buy pretty much anything you can think of in either place).
 |
| Main city market street |
We came back around on another alley of that market and back down the main market street. The others wanted to stop again at the German bakery for a snack, but I was not really interested in that so kept looking around. Wandered around a book store for a bit, but nothing that grabbed my eye (and books are bulky and heavy, so best to avoid buying them on a motorbike trip!)
I eventually found my way back to the hotel and sat in a chair in the room and sort of took a nap for about an hour. When I woke up, took a few photos from the balcony and then went back down to the lobby where the internet worked best to see if it was working now (the power had been off for a bit earlier today, so of course no internet either).
 |
| Old Palace on nearby ridge |
While in the lobby one of the guys came in and said the new bikes were onsite now, so we all went out to check them out and lay our claim to one. A few even took a quick ride on them to see how they liked it.
After I grabbed the key to the bike I wanted, I came back into the hotel lobby and got onto the now working internet. I was trying to book my hotel for the 2 extra nights I would have in Delhi before my flight back to the USA. This ended up being a bit of a pain as the site I normally use for such things kept seeing my Indian IP address so kept asking me to provide all kinds of local ID information I of course did not have. I finally used a different site to book and had no issues there. Found a different hotel near the airport again and booked the 2 nights. (This one was a bit more expensive, but also nicer place).
Many of us were now in the lobby on our phones or laptops, so of course we started to talk about various things as well. Mark, Andy, Jerry and myself decided to go out to a nearby Italian restaurant (La Pizzaretta) for dinner tonight, a place the tour leader had recommended.
 |
| La Pizzaretta for dinner. |
The weather was starting to look a bit dreary and it was getting cold as well, but we walked the quarter mile to the place. The tables were ground level and you sat on the floor on rugs around the table in a covered patio space.
Great food and atmosphere, though they did have the music a bit loud. Definitely recommended place to eat at and reasonably priced as well.
While we were eating the wind actually picked up a bit for a few minutes and blew some stuff around the courtyard seating area, but did not last too long. Near the end of dinner it also started to rain very lightly, so we headed back to the hotel before it could get worse or colder.
Sat again in the lobby on the internet for a bit and then went up to my room to take care of my usual nightly tasks.
As my room mate (Dick was still sharing this room) was going to sleep (after being out drinking all day!!), I decided to come down to the lobby for a bit and also to see if I could get a bottle of water from the hotel and catch up on the journal.
Drank my water and wrote the journal, so thinking it is time to head up and get some sleep myself. We have an early start tomorrow again with 7:30 a.m. breakfast, then we will need to setup the new bikes with our bags and tie downs and cameras before we take off for the days ride.
We will be heading north to go over Khardungla pass, which until recently was the highest pass in the region open to the public (at close to 18,300 feet, though recent surveys have indicated it may only be around 17,600). I will try to get a reading on my GPS when we get there.
[NOTE: A new pass called Umlingla is now considered the highest, though for a long time was only open to official or military access, but believe they are allowing limited tourist access now. It sits at just over 19,000 feet, but is also just an up and back, you cannot go over the pass as it is along the Indian-Chinese border and no cross traffic is allowed (nor has the road been developed to allow it). Perhaps a future trip?]
We will go down and camp on the other side of the pass in the Nubra valley tomorrow night, then return back over the pass again to come back to Leh.
Good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment