Day 69 - Leh - Chillout day and prepare to leave

Stomach was feeling good today. Absolutely magnificent morning. Headed into town for some food. After having the Delhi belly you end up with “the fear”. You end up being that bit more cautious of were you eat. I finally found somewhere that seemed a little more upmarket and clean than the others. It was a Tibetan Cafe on the second floor and I had a delicious breakfast. Straight afterwards I went into the Airtel office and was informed that the mobile phones didn't work for security reasons. I jumped into a taxi to the bus stand again. This time thankfully the bus stand was open. The fare to Manali, an 18 hour journey in a shared jeep, with eight other people was 1500rps. I paid for the middle seat in the back row and headed back to town in the taxi.

Most of the remainder of the day I spent surrounded by those beautiful big yellow sunflowers in my little hideaway restaurant, reading my book. My stomach seemed to have improved, so I ordered a selection of light foods. Over the past five years I have really come to enjoy my own company enormously. I sat there for ten hours, so relaxed to be in my own company, reading and observing the other customers and their interactions with each other. Nothing like a bit of voyeurism to pass the time.

Around five I headed back into town to use Skye again and book a taxi to bring me to the bus stand later on in the morning. After this I headed to the guest house. There was no one there when I arrived so I sat outside reading my book and admiring the view. As I sat htere I remembered I had wanted to climb to the pagoda on the distant hill, so thats what I did. I found a shortcut that I had wondered about the previous day and fond myself on the higher raoad. The walk to the base of the pagoda was only 15 mins and required you to cross a partially destroyed road that looked like it had being hit by a small missile. I looked up at the steep hill and numerous steps infront of me and began my ascent. Afer only 40 steps I had to stop to catch my breath. it felt like I had just run up a mountain. Any form of physical activity at this altitude is hilarious. Te rest of the climb took around 20 mins with every step being harder than the next. I normal conditions you'd climb it in ten minutes. The views from the top were worth every bead of sweat. The white pagoda temple overlooked the whole of Leh and its environs. Its quite a pretty sight. Numerous other groups stood around taking funny photos and sitting watching the views. I stayed until the sun hid behind the imposing mountain range and the city lights sparkled across the barren desert type floor. The climb down was slow in the failing light. I dropped back to my guest house. Picked up my laptop, paid my bill and headed into town. After calling Jojo agann I went back to spend the rest of the evening, as you can probably guess, in La Pizzeria, reading my book and chilling. Sometimes this is the best healer for all ailes. At 12.30 I met my sleeping taxi driver. He awoke and drove me bleary eyed to the guest house to pick up my bags. 20 minutes later we arrived at the bus stand and I went to awaiting jeeps to figure out which one was going to be taking me to Manali.