This edition of weeknotes is late because I came back just yesterday from a long-awaited vacation.
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
1.
I celebrated my birthday last week with a quiet lunch with Amber. Much of the socialising around that already happened on the weekend, and my little treat for the day was chhena toast from Khoya.
2.
The next day we took a flight to Leh to visit Tanya and Mayank who live in a nearby village in Ladakh. Amber and I have wanted to make this trip for years, and this summer we finally did it. Of course the landscapes in the region are stunning, but I was equally thrilled to go see the beautiful life our friends have built in an unforgiving and tough (by my city living standards) environment. Sarthak and Noémie were also visiting, and we got to see them a little bit too.
Thankfully, we acclimatised to the altitude well, and so after a day of rest, we were able to take drives and walks around the area. We found ourselves in Ladakh during an uncharacteristic wet spell. On our second day, Mayank drove us to Sakti as rain fell in heaps and we chased dark clouds. We capped off the day at a café with sandwiches made with local Ladakhi bread, khambir. The next morning, we had an early start to go to Shey Holy Pond and Shey-Thiksey marshes for some birdwatching. It was Tanya and Mayank’s first time birding and we kept it very relaxed. We saw roughly twenty species, including Citrine and White Wagtails, Wood Sandpipers, Oriental Turtle Doves and Eurasian Hoopoes, and so many Eurasian Magpies that I might now be bored of a bird that I’d found fascinating once. We spotted lone members of a few species: Carrion Crow, Pond Heron and Little Egret. It was also my first time seeing the Common Rosefinch and the Mountain Chiffchaff.
We spent the rest of the day resting. Mayank whipped up a most heartwarming chicken stew for lunch and Tanya made hot chapatis. For dinner, we made pizzas from scratch. There was a newish oven to break in, and all of us had a lot to learn about high-altitude baking. We rounded off a quiet Saturday at home with a walk in the back lanes of Shey, and food at Chimath Tibetan Kitchen in Leh. Their fried chutagi and dry thenthuk were excellent. On Sunday, we took a picnic to Matho, and walked up to the glacier-fed stream in the upper village. Our last day was spent in Leh — eating, shopping and photographing some street lettering in the market. And just like that, it was time to fly back to Delhi.
I’m still very excited that I saw both the Milky Way and the Indus in Ladakh. And so, so grateful to have spent some unhurried time with our friends.