So Ladakh left me breathless. Not so much the scenery (although them there Himalayas are pretty spectacular), more the altitude. Every other time I've been somewhere so high I've travelled by road so had some time to acclimatise, flying into high places makes the altitude thing a bit more pronounced. Climbing a flight of stairs leaves you puffed. With this in mind you're supposed to spend your first Leh day resting; I waited a full two hours before climbing the biggest hill in town.
Leh is kinda weird. It's real touristy, but not that in-your-face about it. And once you're off the main drag there are winding lanes full of local people doing local things: baking shirmal in underground ovens, or - in the case of the cynical sheep - being a cynical sheep.
I timed my visit wrong. I was a couple of months early. The passes connecting Leh to the rest of the world had only just opened (as I was leaving they were celebrating the arrival of the first onions of the season, fresh off the Srinigar lorry) so the tourist industry hadn't really kicked off - maybe that's why it wasn't so in-your-face.
On the second day I got out of town and had a bit of an explore of the Indus Valley. They love a monastery here. I went to monasteries at Hemis, tucked away in the mountains at the top of a ridiculously picturesque road, and Thiksey, a maze of Tibetan buildings sprawling across a big, old rock. Well prayerflag.
As an aside, what is it with German bakeries? There were at least three in Leh and I've seen one in most towns across India. I've no problem with them, I just didn't really appreciate that German bakeries were a thing. Maybe it's just that any time I've been to Germany I've only eaten pork and had no real need for pastry products.
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