  When I wrote last time, I said I might go whitewater rafting for four days. I did indeed do that and returned three days ago. Tomorrow I am going to Diskit in the Nubra Valley, about 120 km north of Leh to see and listen to the Dalai Lama talk on the 7th and 8th. Somehow, I don’t think he’s going to come up to me and say hi. So if I figured if I’m going to check this off my “things to do before I die” list, I had better go where I have to to see him. I’m sharing a jeep with 5 others and leaving at noon tomorrow.
  My camera, which has suffered innumerable indignities over the past year, is in the shop. The guy thinks he can fix it, but I won’t get it back till after I return to Leh on the 9th. The good news is I was turned on to a guy’s blogsite where he posted his story about how he and his friends motorcycled from Delhi to Diskit. You MUST go there, www.yogeshsarkar.com/trips/ladakh05. He’s got lots of pictures and a video at the end. Click on Day 1 and the rest is self explanatory. As I said, my camera is in the shop, so there won’t be pictures on my website unless I can bum some from my fellow travellers.
  So, on to the rafting, it wasn’t sure to come off till a couple of days before the hoped for departure date. At first, I was the only one to sign up. $200 is beyond many backpackers’ budget, especially if they’ve already paid through the nose for a hiking trek with one of the tour agencies. The airline crowd isn’t usually that adventurous. Also, rafting hasn’t totally caught on. We were the sixth group to ever have been taken on this trip by any tour agency, and the last one last week ended badly. They overturned and by the time one guy was fished out of the freezing water, he was so hypothermic that with ensuing complications he spent three days in the hospital. Finally, however, a group was patched together. Tourists frequently take a one day trip from Chilling to Nimmu where the Zanskar flows into the Indus River. Beatrice and I walked/rode alongside that route. A Spanish couple, a British guy and a couple of Indian guys went on that leg. The Indian guys liked it so much they signed on for the next three days. Then we picked up an American woman, so five of us and three raft guys took the Indus to the Pakistani border north of Kaltse. It was 150 km in all.
  My camera was in extremis, so there are only two decent pictures. These are taken along a quiet stretch of the Zanskar on that first day.
 
   In my opinion, this trip was just about perfect. It was thrilling at times without being too scary. The rapids became progressively rougher, so we had time to adjust. As they got rougher, we got to have new adrenaline rushes instead of getting bored. The Zanskar had maybe one or two level 3 rapids. Day 2 had for sure a couple level 3’s. Early on Day 3 we practiced capsizing, figuring out which way was up and finding the surface, turning the raft back over and helping each other get back in. This was a good thing, so we would be less likely to freak out if we went over or went overboard in the middle of some seething rapid. I won’t say I was looking forward to going swimming, but it would have been exhilarating to look down one of those troughs at the wall of water over our heads, slam into it and wind up riding that out feet forward in the drink. Days 3 and 4 had a few level 4’s and lots of other fun parts.
   I know, it’d be good to do that in one of those pedal boats which are so popular of ponds and lakes here. I like the one’s shaped like swans. Problem might be winding up with that swan’s head and neck up your wazoo. Anybody see Bill Murray in What About Bob? “I’m flying. I’m flyyyiiing.”
  It’s getting wierd in here. I better take a break.
  … That beer helped.
  How did we sleep and eat? There are roads along side the rivers the whole length of the way. A truck with some more guys and all our stuff and supplies basically followed us the whole way. At the confuance of the Zanskar and Indus is a proper camp with permanent tents. We stayed there the first night. On nights two and three, we just pulled up on the bank and slept there. There were small villages with terraced areas flat enough to put out sleeping bags. the guys from the truck cooked for us. It was simple fare, but plenty god enough.
  So, that’s the story, morning glory. After so much of the last month and a half in Nowheresville, being in Leh his something of a culture shock. I have a few pictures of Main Street uploaded. My earlier blogs had the picturesque pics. Here are the two sides of Main Street. Note that the palace and old monastery are just behind the left side of the street and the new monastery is behind the buildings on the right side of the street.
  And here is one of the queue at the milk truck when it pulled up. Don’t anybody worry. Everybody boils the milk before they serve it.
  That’s going to do it for now. As always, I hope you are all well. Talk to you in a few days
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