leh festival

As I tossed and turned this morning I could hear the wind outside in the garden, but by the time I woke up it was sunny again. I walked around the town this morning, attempting to book a littile outing for tomorrow. The bike excursion I was interested in (for the sake of acclimatisation, of course) may or may not happen, they told me, so come back later. Over a cup of tea and some almonds, I officially booked my Markha Valley trek with Dreamland Trek and Tours. I had a mushroom omelette and a banana pancake for breakfast, which admittedly, is not very Indian, but it is on every menu in town so I have been thinking about it for a while. I walked to the polo grounds, basically like the town square, where the closing ceremony of the Leh Festival was being held. I got there 45 minutes late and the crowds were big, but they were still in the speech making phase of the ceremony. I struggled to see over all the heads for a while as men in traditional costume, the same as the ones we saw in the street last night, did dances with swords. I noticed that there was an unspoken rule for viewing the dances: children and women could go up closer and sit, but Westerners could walk up in front of everyone and sit in the shade in the very front. That felt a bit strange, to go past all the local people to watch their festival, but it meant I had a good view of the rest of the performances. As some women in long furs and caps danced, some men in uniform, the army, no doubt, came out with big dogs on leashes. Now no matter how safe everyone says this place is, this is still Jammu and Kashmir, so my immediate thoughts are not comfortable. But they were just their to show off the tricks the dogs can do, like jumping over hurdles and through firey hoops. The usual. The little boy dressed in the monk robes got scared when the dogs came out, especially the big attack dog, so he came and hid behind me until it was over. At the end, all the dancers (because there were people from different regions in different kinds of dress) came out together and the announcer welcomed all tourists (no local people) to join in on the dance. I needed a cool break in the shade after the sun and the crowds, so I ducked into a German Bakery (yes, there are many German bakeries here in Leh) for a tea. I ran into Martin later and we walked the city a bit as I enquired after my bike trip again. We heard various reasons why it (along with Martin's jeep trip to the Nubra Valley) might not happen tomorrow: the road is closed because of snow; the road is closed because the llama from the festival is going that way; the road is open but there aren't enough people; and also, the road is most definitely open. Basically, this means come back tomorrow and we will see. Zoe always said don't plan too much in India because something always happens to alter the plans. So tomorrow I will see. On another note, while writing an email to Carolyn I realized I had 5 different kinds of tea in the last 10 hours: masala tea with Javeed while booking the trek, a black tea with breakfast, a milk tea after the festival, and then a Tibetan herbal tea followed by a mint tea at the "Pure Veg Tibetan" restaurant I went to with Martin tonight. Also a banana lassi for dessert. There are no mango lassis this time of year, we have realized, so now we just ask anyway as a joke.