The last living settlement that we passed was Chokdo. The whole of Ladakh is dry, excepting small strips at the river banks and the small flowers that grow between the brown stones on the passes (the area on this picture is exceptionally blessed with grass and small trees). But when the water from the river is led by irrigation canals to the terraced barley fields, they shine in rich, bright green. It makes you start to think what life in Ladakh was (and in some places maybe still is) like without truckloads of goods coming up from Srinagar and Manali. Helena Norberg-Lodge: "Ancient Futures" is a good book about the old Ladakh and its changes.