Sept. 22, 2008. Cable bridge to showers.

With heavy hearts, we packed up and walked an easy 2 hours downhill to the cable bridge across the Zanskar river, a few miles south of Chilling. St. and I walked together and shared a few jokes. In 2006 the bridge was at Chilling. At that time, the road up the Zanskar terminated at the village. Apparently there were some inter-village disagreements about bridge revenues and the cable was cut. The new bridge is an Indian government enterprise and, I think, free. The Zanskar was actually pretty low and the cable crossing was pretty sedate. We waited for the horses and gear to cross and piled into two jeeps. The road actually seemed safe by Himalayan standards. First we drove about 30 miles down the Zanskar to where it meets the Indus, and joined the main Srinagar-Leh highway. The later was in amazingly good shape. It was actual blacktop with a lane marker down the middle. Joel said that it was heavily damaged by August 2006 flooding and got a significant rebuild. Interestingly the Zanskar and Indus were the same color this time with the Zanskar having a higher water volume.

We pulled into the Hotel Sheynam in Leh by mid-afternoon. My room was in the old wing. Just like 2 years ago, the old wing rooms had TVs but dodgey hot water, while the new wing rooms were the opposite. The hot water was still fine for a bucket shower, don't get me wrong. It was fun to walk around the town again, and Joel was right, there were considerably fewer tourists than in July. In fact our timing was perfect; most of the tourist-oriented businesses were preparing to shut down but still open. It got cool in the evening but outdoor courtyard restaurants were still fine with a down jacket. The Karmapa was staying nearby after being helicopter evacucated from the Leh-Manali highway. There was a perpetual traffic jam as pilgrims and well-wishers swamped the building. L. ended up recieving the blessing, and several of our Indian staff went once or more also.

The group went to the Ibex for dinner...table for 15. Our guides (L.C., St., T.) and kitchen staff (T, N, P, ?) joined us also. I can't say much for the food but the company was great. I recited my carefully written out, overwrought goodbye speech in Hindi, but St. didn't laugh where he was supposed to. The dinner tab was Rs. 500 a trekker including drinks and the Indian staff: very reasonable. The reality is that each and every one of our Indian staff probably spoke better English than I spoke Hindi. Oh well. Afterwards a select few trekkers and staff retired to the Hotel Sheynam garden for the after-party.