Ibex Trail - Ladakh (Day 2)

Recce.

After a good night's sleep we had breakfast and left for the Ladakh Scouts Regiment headquarters, where the brand manager had a meeting with the Major General of the Indian Army. Sitting in Mumbai it's hard to imagine just how many army personnel there are in sensitive areas, and the discipline they live with to man our borders. 

The streets were buzzing with army activity, their cars careening down the hilly roads nonstop. Next we went to the market, spotted a cafe called Rabsal, which overlooked the market square. It had a Spaghetti Western theme. Did a lot of pending work, made some calls, had some coffee, shopped a bit, and came back to the resort. 

The market had a lot of tourists. 

After lunch we left for Stok Palace, situated about an hour's drive away in the centre of a vacant plot of land surrounded by hills and patches of green grass. Saw the museum, the king's chambers, the prayer room, the kitchen. It was kind of like a crash course in Ladakhi cuisine, culture, customs and traditions. 

The Buddhists seem like a spiritually evolved lot; in their kitchen there's a contraption that collects the ashes from burning coal, which they then use as compost for their number two. That mix then is used as fertiliser on their farms, which helps yield good produce. But someone also mentioned the kings were a ferocious lot, and the Tibetans slayed lots of innocents and captured China in the past. Going to have to do some research to confirm that. 

After the palace we went to a couple of guest houses around the area, saw some sprawling gardens, ate apricots off the ground and drank ginger-infused lemon tea. Kept getting colder through the evening, and on the drive back - in the sheer darkness of the barren lands - I could swear I was able to faintly spot at least a couple constellations. Don't know which ones, but the sky has never looked more beautiful.