Advertisement
Published: August 18th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Road to Leh
2nd highest motorable pass (5300m) There are two ways to get to Leh, the capital of Ladakh in northwest India. You can fly in or go by road. We chose the road option from Manali and a bus as our vehicle of choice. It’s about a twenty hour journey through the Indus Valley so we stopped overnight at a camp site in the desert. Unfortunately, the whole thing turned out to be somewhat of a scam. We had to be at the bus an hour and a half before it hit the road, then we stopped too often arriving at the camp site after dark where we were offered rooms at an extortionate rate. We staged a protest and climbed back on to the bus to hole up for the night until they lowered the rate to half of what they had been initially been asking. The scenery was fabulous the whole way and the weather was clear but the road was lacking in practicality for much of the journey and at times we seemed to be driving across sand dunes. We got knocked about a lot so sleeping and reading were out. Ash spent most of the journey hanging out the window snapping the desert
going by. We spotted a yak and some massive birds we guessed were one of eagles, hawks or vultures. Along the route we stopped at small tented villages to eat and water ourselves. Much to all the girls’ dismay there were no toilets at any of these stops with ‘Go outside’ being the mantra quoted by locals. This proved tricky as outside was a desert with no hills or anything to hide behind. We’ll spare you the gory details but use your imagination! On the second day we travelled for 11 hours from door to door (we’d travelled 15 the day before!) arriving road weary and dusty. Teaming up with a pair of Austrians we divided and conquered to find rooms and succeeded with a cheap and cheerful place (Malpak Guesthouse) only a two minute walk from the main street. Our room had a seating area outside from where we could star gaze at night at the millions of stars never visible from home.
Leh is 3,500 meters high and surrounded on all sides by huge peaks. It has a palace and castle perched on rocky peaks as its backdrop. Many of the restaurants have rooftop areas where gazing
all around can while away hours before you notice. It’s an adventure lover’s paradise with trekking, rafting and cycling on offer. We didn’t do anything too trying but we did take a jeep through the Nubra Valley to Hunder (organised by Virgo Adventures) to take a 15 minute camel trek with an Italian couple. The first camel Ade was told to mount, Dang Dang, snorted and snapped at him. This clearly was not ideal so after some protest he was allowed to mount a more suitable beast. When we returned he (Dang Dang, not Ade!) was tied to a bush away from the other camels in disgrace. Hilarious! The journey was 5 hours each way and we went over the highest motorable pass in the world en route, Khardung La, which was 5,602 mts. We spotted a herd of yaks, a minibus with a group of monks sitting on the roof, a mountain weasel and a marmot whilst on the road. We stopped at Diskit for lunch and checked out the monastery there. We were shown around the different temples by a tiny monk using cool ancient keys to unlock the old wooden doors. Most gompas (Buddhist monastery) are set
up high on hills and Diskit was one of these. The view from up there was spectacular, the valley is barren except for a large patch of green around the river which is Diskit. We passed the checkpoint for the line of control that separates India from Pakistan just outside Diskit, 80km from the actual LOC. It was suitably patrolled by the army with no tourists are allowed anywhere near it.
Back in Leh we hired a taxi for the day exploring the monasteries and palace to the southeast. First up was Hemis, which is the oldest in Ladakh and the furthest from Leh. Here we saw a huge statue of Buddha, a massive prayer flag and plenty of Buddhist paintings. The view of the valley from the roof was great. We had lunch in a small village and tasted local Ladakhi cuisine; Skui and Chutagi. Both were similar broth with vegetables with dumplings. A bit oily but tasty. Next we saw Thiksey gompa, our favourite of the day. It housed a library of old scrools wrapped in cloth and housed on shelves all brightly painted as well as a huge Buddha statue. The white washed walls and wooden
framed windows were beautiful and views from both below and on top of the gompa were amazing. The road to Shey and Stok Palace and was littered with chorten fields (Buddhist monuments) which look like abandoned bishop chess pieces. The museum at Stok housed some strange stuffed animals that caught our eye as well as a jewellery display, including a large head dress worn by the queen at special events. Apparently royalty still lives there.
There was an archery competition across road from hotel one day so Ade had a practice go and surprisingly his shot was on target. It didn't seem to be getting under way any time soon though so we left before the competing began. On our last day we hiked up to Leh Palace through the cobbled streets in the hot sun. Our efforts paid off as the view over Leh was brilliant.
Getting out of Leh proved tricky. The organisation at the airport was a shambles as usual but we got on to the plane in time and saw the Himalayas from the sky for the last time as we flew in to Delhi. We treated ourselves to a shot of Western culture;
McDonalds that morning and later Pizza Hut for the first time in 4 months before heading to the cinema to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Following a purchase of snackettes, Ade span the prize wheel and we won 4 Harry Potter masks. Oh the joys! On the way in we had to go through a security check and leave our camera and Ade’s cigarettes & lighter in a locker. Ash accidently dropped the security reclaim ticket into the popcorn and was chewing it for a minute before realising it wasn’t edible. Retrieving the items was somewhat embarrassing!
In Delhi we stayed in the tourist area close to New Delhi train station called Main Bazaar. We tried a few hotels always opting for air conditioning but none are fantastic and slightly pricey compared to elsewhere in India, which is to be expected. We took a rickshaw to the Red Fort and Jama Masjid (largest mosque in India), which are across the street from each other. They were both pretty impressive and we got to climb the south minaret of the mosque to look out over the whole city. The buildings sprawl out for as far as
Thiksey Monastery
& assorted buildings the eye can see in all 380 degrees. We decided to skip Agra on the grounds that our patience for the country was running too low and we will probably come back in twenty years to see if there are many changes and take in the golden triangle (Agra, Delhi and Rajasthan). We booked a flight to Bangkok for approx. GBP110 and flew out July 28th. The morning we left summed up all of our frustrations over the last few months from taxi being late, overcharging, skipping queues, inadequate and inefficient customer service not to mention a four hour flight delay. We left already seeing the farcical nature of the morning and looking forward to touching down in Bangkok.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.036s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 21; dbt: 0.0154s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
jezmond
non-member comment
wigan athletic...
3-0. top of the league