Welcome to Ladakh

Leh Saturday 24 July 2010 10am
The flight to Leh is amazing. For over half an hour you fly over huge mountains, and being Northern hemisphere the most snow is on the northern slopes. The flight is across the line of the ranges not along them until reaching the Indus Valley. There is just one line after another and they are huge – peaks about 6000/7000m high. In the Indus Valley there seem to be army barracks everywhere. I knew there was a heavy army presence because of the border disputes with Pakistan and China but the number was way more than I expected.

The runway at Leh is fairly short an those not used to short runway landings were surprised at the pilot putting the plane down hard to ensure it didn’t bounce, and the immediate hard application of the reverse thrust.

It seems to be a day for things going wrong.
1) The hotel had booked a car for a local city trip after breakfast, not a trip to the airport at 4:30am.
2) The Hotel Mandakini Palace POS terminal was not working so I had to pay out Rs2000 in cash I wasn’t expecting.
3) I was asked to get off the plane and identify my baggage. It didn’t have a label any more.
4) The hotel at Leh has no booking for me but that is sorted now.

The guy who met me at the airport was from Mt View Travel who seem to run a lot of treks that are booked by other companies. I think the website is one of the ones I tried to book through.
The garden at the hotel looks very English (provided you ignore the buildings which are pretty typically Ladakhi). There are daisies, pansies and a few other flowers I’ve seen elsewhere but can’t recall the name. The trees are poplars. From the garden only a small portion of 1 peak on the Stok Range is visible.

Clearly I should have printed my itinerary as the tour company don’t seem to know what they agreed to and nor do I. I’m sure something will happen. It is very hot for 9am. I hope the trekking is mostly done in the morning as the afternoons will be very difficult.

Leh 9:15pm
I have had no contact from the trekking company since being dropped off at the hotel. I am feeling abandoned. I was asked by the hotel what time I wanted breakfast but how can I say when I don’t know what time the monastery trip is tomorrow.

I went for a walk through Leh and kept climbing up the road towards the Gompa (monastery) until nearly the last building in town. It took me much longer than normal. but then Leh is at 3500m. I got a headache on returning to the hotel so possibly I overdid it a little. Caroline, who is doing a different trek but was on the same plane was unwell at lunch and didn’t show for dinner. To tell the truth I’m lonely. I probably should have gone into town and found someone who speaks English as everyone else in the dining room is French or German.

There are a pack of dogs on the empty section behind the hotel and they are barking a lot. I hope they give it up soon so I can sleep.

I’m beginning to think India runs on chicken. There was chicken for lunch and chicken again for dinner. I stayed vegetarian at dinner since I was expecting Caroline to turn up and she is vegetarian.

Compared with Delhi, Leh is a clean town but it still seems normal for men to just stop and pee on a wall. There is a stream that flows through the middle of town and it looks clean. The hotel has Leh water in bottles so it may be that the tap water is safe to drink but I don’t intend to find out.

P.S. There was a power cut in Leh today.