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Published: November 12th 2007
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Downtown LehAugust 2007 After the bone jarring bus ride up from Manali it was good to finally arrive in Leh.
Leh the capital of Ladakh lies in the Indus river valley between the zanskar and ladakh mountain ranges. It is about as far north as you can get in india, surrounded by pakistan, pakistan occupied kashmir and china. The whole area is timeless. Like traveling back a thousand years in a time machine. Roads open from manali about mid june after the snow melts and close as early as mid september so the season is very short unless you want to winter over. Trekkers from all over the planet come to use Leh as a base camp for some of the most amazing mountain trekking anywhere.
Leh has the worlds highest airport and the worlds highest motorable road. The altitude here in Leh is almost 11,000 feet. A good place to get acute mountain sickness from the altitude if you're not careful. I spent 10 days in Manali at 6000 feet acclimatising but the first night in Leh my heart was pounding like i had ran a marathon, this while in bed at night not moving. Took about 4 or 5 days
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Leh Old Town to acclimatise well. The air is bone dry and crystal clear with that deep blue mountain sky and a billion stars out at night. Most people here are Tibetan Buddhist although there are a couple mosques in town as well. Little Tibet here is not really like being in India at all. The people so friendly and peace loving, you here "Julay" (hello) from almost every soul. They are all dearly devoted to his holieness the Dahli Lama. I had the great privelage to see the Dahli Lama in Changspa just outside of Leh where he came to give his teachings for three days straight. I am told there was a crowd of 35,000 there and can well believe it. It was an amazing sight to see how many had come from so far and were so devoted to him. I sat in the foreigners section about 50 yards away from him while thousands of the faithful sat up to a kilometer away under the relentless sun, prayer wheels spinning, the never ending smiles on their faces. A truly moving experience, but somehow being given a front row seat felt unfair. These of course are Buddhists so one would not
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Cows on the roof expect anything else. The Dahli Lama is one cool dude. A great sense of humor, very self effacing and humble, dispersing his wisdom with great kindness and compassion for all. He is truly a great soul.
The Leh area has some of the oldest Ghompas anywhere, most perched high upon hilltops overlooking the valleys below. Generation of monks have lived, studied, meditated and died here. Some may even have attained Nibbana.
My opinion is Leh is a must see for anyone coming to India. The bus ride from hell was well worth the effort to be able to experience this remarkable land.
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