From Lamaryu, it was off to Dha Hanu, an area only 19 Kilometers from the Pakistani border. It doesn’t take much imagination to visualize the military presence in that area. Dha Hanu is in the Kargil region west of Leh. The people are of pure Indo-Aryan stock, perhaps descending from the army of Alexander of Macedonia. There are only about 2,000 people settled in five villages high above the river.

Once again, we made camp, this time in the midst of trees laden with ripe apricots. I got a major “fiber-fix” – picking apricots, eating apricots, for two days. They were SO delicious.

Then we walked up (of course) to one of the villages. The villages in Dha Hanu are extensively farmed: grains; tomatoes; vegetables; fruits (the yummy apricots); and flowers everywhere. The river supplies ample irrigation for their crops. But they still live a very poor existence – relying on what they grow for survival and under primative conditions. Even with all that, we were always greeted with courtesy, smiles and interest. View image

We also visited a very ancient “gompa” guarded by this wizened little lady…the keeper of the keys.

It’s the people that I (and hopefully, you) will remember, long after the trip is over. Keep in mind that this is the way the villagers DRESS ON A DAILY BASIS...they didn’t dress-up for us to take photos.

Despite that, it’s the old story – once you’ve seen one village…..so we cut one nite off our two-night scheduled stay and headed back to Leh to recoup before the next leg, the Nubra Valley.

Footloose’s, Leh operator was extremely laid-back and willing to adjust the itinerary to whatever we wanted. There was never a problem showing up expectedly in Leh and greeting him with…”we’re back”.