Leh: Day 3

This morning I went to the same Wildlife Office as before because there was a sign that said Ladakh Hill Development Council, which was whom I was going to try to meet with today. But I asked someone at the door, and they laughed and said no it wasn’t and then gave complicated instructions that I wasn’t sure were in English, so I found a phone to try to call Moses K, my contact in the office. I told him I was at the taxi stand and he said “oh, good!” my heart leapt! I was in the right part of town after all! Then he added “Take a taxi to our offices.” At first I thought I’d try to walk, because one of my crappy maps of Leh showed it not too far away. But I lost my confidence partway there, and went back to take a taxi.

There was no red carpet at the place and though there were several police asking my business, I think it was mostly to help me, since there were no metal detectors involved. I met with Moses, though he quickly got me audience with his boss, the chief executive council (woah) of the Ladakh Development Board. “You can stop wasting your time with me” said Moses. I had a brief meeting, which seems to be par for the course. I’ll try to remember to set up, or plan on these pre-interviews. We made an appointment for tomorrow morning at his house for the real interview. Then I ent back to Moses’s office for some tea. The was very nice, though the small talk was somewhat belabored. In the end, he asked me to email him If I needed any help, and to let him know all the places I’d be going so he could see if he could find me any help there. So nice of him! I saw some stupa-eyes, and we talked about religion some, so I asked if he was Buddhist. Surprisingly, he was Christian, and the stupa-eyes were a gift from Nepal. I guess I did only see those eyes on the stupas at Nepal. He got me a car back to the market, which was incredibly nice of him. The driver and his companion were very amenable, but I don’t think they spoke much English.

Next I went to see if Jigmet Dakpa was back in his office after yesterday’s emergency. I didn’t see him in there at first, but he was in the corner eating his lunch. He finished up quickly when he saw me, which might have made me feel bad, but everyone is so happy and friendly, it’s hard to feel bad about anything here.

He said he could do the interview now, but when I started to set up the camera, he balked, even though we’d talked about it. So I ended up not recording, but taking detailed notes, which I hope I can read later. I better type them up quickly while my memory is fresh. He was very kindly and seemed amused by the lacunae in my knowledge. A few times as he gave me a lesson, he would jovially command “Educate yourself!” he studied as a civil engineer then switched to forestry and studied the 2 ½ years at FRI! So we talked about little about Dehradun.

I then called the name I’d gotten from the CEC, at the PPD. He said to try to come by that day, but I only had ½ an hour to get to his place. I went back to the hotel to get some supplies, but it took longer than I thought to walk back from where I was, so I’ll have to see the guy tomorrow, which he said was OK.

Sarah and I had a long tea to kill time before meeting Lena, Catherine, Nadine, and whatever entourage they had picked up that day, for dinner. They’d picked up a couple of Aussies and a guy from Detroit, for their Sunday bike ride. Dinner was nice, though I was still full from my Nutella pancake.

We slept on the roof again, and watched the Watcher in the Woods, as well as the stars, which were amazing. I saw a few fall.