Leh and environs

"This is not India!" Chris exclaims several times as we walk the dusty streets of Leh, capital of the Ladakh autonomous region of the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Culturally and geographically, Leh is closer to Tibet (Buddhist) than to either Jammu (Hindu) or Kashmir (Muslim). The Indian Army is prominently present, though evidently benign. The Army is responsible for road and air connections to the rest of the country.
The region is extremely arid -- it is the only part of India untouched by monsoon rains. So the brown and gray desert coloring is predominant, except for the occasional oasis burst of green.
This is also a popular tourist destination -- we saw more Europeans here than anywhere else in India.
We walked around town, climbed up to the old fortress and monastery, wheezed in the altitude -- 3500 meters! Chris wanted to trek up to Mt. Stok Kangri, at 5900 meters; after several days of seeking a group, I finally nixed the idea, worried about the high altitude. Instead, we rented a motorcycle for a day and drove out west through the truly barren moonscape. Another day we took a rafting trip down the very swift and cold Zanskar River -- I say cold, because we flipped over, and spent the next hour shivering!
But it is certainly worth the effort to get here, and stay here, for a unique and memorable locale.