A mile's hike up the road brought us to the tin huts of the army road-building camp, where we dried our boots over an engineer's barrel stove and waited for the jeeps we had arranged to bring us the last 15 miles to Padum, Zanskar's main town.
But after hours of trekking along army roads, he is glad to descend to fields and villages again and "the welcome elbow of the particular".
The political crisis in Egypt has prompted an upsurge of violence in the Sinai Peninsula, with various jihadist militias - made up, experts believe, of local Bedouin with a sprinkling of foreign fighters -attacking Egyptian army road-blocks and other government positions.
Embassies, armies and road networks are all likely to cost less per head in populous countries.
"With the army come roads and then police, and that will be a hardship on everyone," Mr. Gul said.
Here in Wana, with its army base, roads are paved, electrical power lines run through town and a handful of factories can be seen.
Those not in the army build roads, dams or hospitals; teach in schools; or work in government-owned businesses as part of Eritrea's own "Great Leap Forward".
Instead, with an eye to rewards in future elections, leaders of the Salafists' Nour party publicly blame the Brothers for wrecking the Islamist project.The government is meanwhile steaming ahead with an army-drawn "road map" back to democracy.
The temporary leadership is tasked with ruling the country under an army-backed "road map" to restore civilian rule.
