Ladakh: Travelling in memory through time and space ~ by Lesley Downer

The useful part

When does the present slide through a looking glass and emerge as 'history'? Kathmandu back in the last century (1971, to be precise), I felt as if I had travelled through time as well as space. Here is a story of a visit to Ladakh which felt like a journey through time.

How it works

• Ladakh's surreal landscape 1981 painted by me Ladakh 1981 In 1981 I travelled through Kashmir and across Zoji la, a Himalayan pass 11,575 feet (3528 metres) high, to Ladakh, on the back of a motorbike.
• The road was only wide enough for one vehicle so cars, trucks and buses went one way in the morning and vehicles going the other way had to wait till afternoon.
• We'd pull off the road when a line of vehicles approached and wait till they'd passed, then continue on our way.
• The journey can be done in two days but we took our time, clambering up cliffs to explore remote monasteries and camping in fields beside the rivers.

Details worth keeping

Once we woke to find water rising around us and had to pack up f...