Leh, Ladakh. Been for a short walk up a local 4000m hillock this morning, with a convenient start straight from the guest house. Am going well, though my calves are feeling it. Amazing views up the Indus valley, a fertile ribbon inset into the Ladakhi moonscape.

Incidentally, the guest house is known to the world as the Sur-Dung, and run by a Tibetan entrepreneur called Tenzing. Very comfy too, and cheap with it. Even has 2 types of cold shower, one from the hot tap and one from the cold.

In Leh it's been sunny and bright so far today, but the high hills are still shrouded in mist. All the high treks are affected, and there's new snow above 5000m. This has resulted in the usual valley-base festering that you get in mountain towns the world over, whether it be in Chamonix, Yosemite, Llanberis or Langdale. Restless folk sitting in bars poring over options and maps, and changing plans at the drop of a hat as soon as the weather looks slightly better than it did an hour ago.

Nevertheless, I've paid up for a 7-day trek to the south-east of here, and am off tomorrow. Tenzing has organised it, and my companions will be Mira the Danish Czeck, Luom from Quebec, a mystery Dutch woman, a guide, a cook, and a donkey. All for $30 per day. I hope the donkey has a cagoule. If it gets too glum there's a chance to bale out at the half-way stage.

Leh itself is escaping the worst of the weather, being in a rain shadow, so plenty to do around here. Yesterday I went to 3 gompas (monastaries), the best of which was at Thikse just 20 km down the road. It had a big gold buddha and loads of paintings on the walls, mostly of Buddhas and demons. The demons are pretty interesting - mostly they have been assimmilated from the Hinduism that was here first - and in the Stok gompa there was a one-monk band, chanting as fast as is humanly possible while simultaneously playing a drum and cymbal. At first I thought this was brilliant, but after 2 minutes I completely lost interest, even though he probably had hours more to go (a similar thing happens when I listen to classical music). Imagine doing that every day for 40 years.

It's possible that this supposed pure 'High Mahayana Buddhism' of Tibet and Ladakh is something of a PR job. I'm starting to think that if you've seen one gompa you've seen them all, but I once heard someone say that about stone circles, so maybe I'm missing something.

The world's highest motorable road crosses the Khardung Pass (5602m) is just up the road from here. You can hire a jeep to take you up, and a mountainbike to bring you down, for about 12 quid. That's the plan after all this hard trekking business is over.

No uploading of pics allowed here - makes the web too slow for everybody.