We spent our first few days in Leh trying to breath at an altitude of over 11,000 feet – ex-Marine always has trouble with altitude sickness, even with “Diamox” (a prescription drug for altitude) – resting as much as possible.

Leh is situated on a plateau formed by the Indus river and was founded in the 14th century by a king who built over 108 chortens (or stupas).

Buddhism is the major religion in Ladakh which emerged in the third century BC, and we did a lot of day-tripping to different “gompas” (monasteries). Almost every “gompa” is built UP on a hill in some remote destination. The reason was that seclusion is the essence of Buddhism. Therefore, gompas were built high on the mountains because the higher their faith was, the closer they would be to the diety.

We wandered around Leh, walking to and from the Deskit Villa along fields and irrigation paths – past many quiet guesthouses. The only Americans we ever saw in Leh, were usually 40 years younger than us, backpacking their way around the world.

One day, our tour operator arranged a day hike on the route to Stok Glacier, just to get our legs moving, and acclimatize a little more before our “Sham Trek”. We met many persons that day who had finished, or were going to, trek to the top. They had to make camp some distance below the Glacier to ascend early the next morning – high and very cold…not for me!

It also gave me a chance to try out my new toy, a little Garmin Foretrex GPS. Almost every other country is on the metric system, and compulsive me got very tired of trying to convert meters to feet. Now I have a GPS on my wrist. This is my own personal navigator, however, I don’t navigate,or enter “waypoints”, just hike along, compulsively looking at my wrist…telling ex-Marine…”Hey, we’re at 11,210 feet…now we’re at 11,350 feet, now we’re at 11,500 feet”, “we’ve done 1/2 mile”, etc.,, until he starts screaming profanities at me, basically telling me to “shut up already.”

More tomorrow….