Ladakh's Markha Valley: Arduous, but unequivocally gratifying paradise

As we settle into our tents, there is a hailstorm followed by pelting rain. Ladakh is becoming less desert like

Ladakh possesses enduring mystique as a thriving centre of Tibetan culture but it also has a long history as a trading zone lying astride the caravan routes, which linked India with Central Asia, China and Tibet. If the architecture of its numerous and famous monasteries is unmistakably Tibetan, the frescoes and the wall paintings inside display the more subdued Kashmiri style and idiom, and many of the sacred bronze images, imported from Nepal, reflect  its more exuberant Newari art.
 
I was in Leh last month preparing for a brief trek in the valley of Markha, a tributary of the