The Bazaar and Old Town
After spending a day acclimatizing and settling into your hotel, you are most likely to explore Leh soaking up the atmosphere of the bazaar. Sixty odd years ago, this bustling tree lined boulevard was the busiest market between Yarkhand and Kashmir. Merchants from Srinagar and the Punjab would gather to barter for Pashmina wool brought down by nomadic herdsmen from western Tibet, or for raw silk hauled across the Karakorams on Bactrian camels.These days, although the street is dotted with kitsch curio shops and handicraft emporiums, it retains a distinctly central Asian feel. Clean shaven Ladakhi Lamas in sneakers and shades rub shoulders with half bearded Baltis from the Karakoram and elderly Tibetan refugees whirring prayer wheels, while now and again, snatches of Chinese music can be heard from the shopkeeper’s transistor radios.
At the bottom of the bazaar, women from nearby villages, stovepipe hats perched jauntily on their heads, sit behind piles of vegetables, spinning wool and chatting as they appraise the passers by.
