Trip to Leh - A feast to the eyes!

Trip to LEH - [A journey of a different kind]

“Juley!”…opps I mean, “Hello!”

“Juley” is the common word used to greet (in and around Leh) when you meet someone and also when leaving (something like Hey! and See you!) in their local language.

As I was browsing the Internet for some travel fares for my next trip, I thought why not write in a blog/snippet about my adventurous trip to Leh. I am sure that Leh is still not as much a sought after summer ‘run away’ spot, but let me tell you all, you are missing out on A LOT!
To begin with, let me give you a small geographical idea as to where this wonderful place is situated on our Indian map.

Leh is the capital city of Ladakh, which is a beautiful hilly place situated in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Holding its local people and the city together is the strong Tibetan and Buddhist culture (Buddhism). Leh stands at around 13,000+ feet above sea level. Frankly these numbers did not make sense to me until I got to know that our metro cities are at the height of around 1,000-1,600ft above MSL.
Ah! am sure now it makes sense!

Before this trip to Leh, Buddhism to me only meant the Bodhi tree where Lord Buddha got his enlightenment. This was the only knowledge I had about Buddhism. Buddhism as I figured later, is not a religion; unlike what lot of us believe it to be. It’s just a way of life giving direction to its followers.

Now lets get back to my main journey and I’ll share with you some interesting facts, figures, experiences, nightmares, embarrassing moments and much more.

As there is now a direct flight Delhi-Leh, it’s easy to reach Leh. Though you can still opt for the other options like driving down on your own or take a bus from Delhi. It depends what kinda ride you are set out forJ. Since I was a total novice to traveling, I took the safest way and flew directly. It was great!

Point 1: If you are flying Delhi-Leh, Please! Please! Try getting a ‘Window Seat’. Don’t worry if you and your family/friends are not sitting together on flight, trust me, you will not budge from the window view even if someone gave you a million $ (theoretically). The view is just magnificent/awesome. Not worth missing.

Me and my team spread onto different corners of the flight and had a blast…I could not even finish the delicious food served on flight, as I was too stunned by the snowy mountains, the subtle shades of blue and green spreading across the mountain range!

Until you land at Leh airport, you continue to be in awe of the vastness of land around. The untouched nature begins to humble you.

Point 2: No matter which month you travel to Leh, do keep a pair of warm jacket/pull-over/jumper handy, as you get off the flight. Just in case.

To our good luck, the transit bus was delayed and we had to wait after getting off the flight. It was the best ‘first impression’ of Leh that I saw. I was totally impressed. I over heard a foreign couple say, “Our Alps are much smaller compared to this”…I smiled, I was proud to be an Indian!

We all need to learn a lot about what we have around us. Not only about the places, but also about the people. We have far more treasures than we know and need to value and preserve it.

Soon the transit bus arrived and after collecting our luggage from the airport we headed off to our hotel ‘Omasila’ (10mins drive from main Leh market and 20 mins from Leh airport). One of the best hotels along with Mandala (near Leh airport).

Here I need to pause and share with you the most important point you need to keep in mind whenever you visit Leh or any place of ‘High Altitude’. Please follow this so to enjoy the rest of your journey.

Point 3: As soon as you reach the hotel/accommodation/room, settle down and take complete rest for the rest of the day. If you reach in the morning hrs, do not plan anything until the next day after lunch. If you reach in the latter half of the day, take the next whole day off and rest.
Attention: Rest means, lying down on your bed horizontal and better off if you can sleep it off. This is very important.
Reason: Every human body (not use to the high altitude) gets affected with change in altitude. AMS is not a regular kind of change. It can have drastic side effects if not taken seriously.
Remedy/Precaution:
Getting affected by change is normal. But we all feel, we are fit and nothing can happen to us. But anyone can get AMS.
Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) is nothing but a symptom/s to tell you that your body is not acclimatized to the current altitude [a reaction to the change in altitude], which most people face when they reach such heights. Unfortunately, no way has been found till date to predict who is likely to get sick at altitude. It is surprising how many people believe that a headache at altitude is "normal"; it is not.
The most common symptoms are:
- Headache
- Vomiting
- Lack of sleep
- Dizziness
- Lack of balance while walking

One needs to take the first day off with no ‘physical’ activity. Here I mean absolutely no physical activity. Means no movement, rather stay in bed and relax. Some people acclimatize quickly; others acclimatize slowly and have trouble adjusting.

Most of us would want to ‘venture’ out and get a ‘feel’ of the place. Its natural and its good, BUT NOT IN LEH. The main reason being that it does not depend on ones fitness level. Even the fittest of people fall victim to this. (Seen it myself). It’s just a way to get your body acclimatized to the altitude.
So why not help your body get fit and then you can stretch it the way you want!

From personal experience I can say, every minute of rest is worth it.
Unfortunately on my trip, my gang - we are the ‘lets check out the place’ kinda people and so, on the same day we trotted out to visit the near by Shanti Stupa. It’s a tough climb up-hill i.e. if done on the same day as you reach Leh.
Result – That night was the worst night ever. Other than me, the rest developed severe headaches, followed by vomiting and some had their BP rising to 100/150. It’s very very dangerous. I could not believe my eyes. All that I had read was true. I had researched and collected a lot of information on AMS prior to this trip and was aware of the kind of symptoms and medicines required.
Medicines to keep handy are: [Consume ONLY, post professional approval]
- Diamox (for AMS and BP)
- Avomine (for motion sickness, vomiting)

Follow this ritual and it will help - As soon as you reach any new place, find out where the nearest medical store/clinic/hospital is located. Keep the telephone numbers handy. You might need help even in the late night hrs. The hotel staff will be able to help you with that. People in Leh are very helpful and nice.

Other kinds of illness related to high altitude are:
HACE – Persons with this illness are often confused, and may not recognize that they are ill.
HAPE – Like AMS but more severe and symptoms include
- Extreme fatigue
- Breathlessness at rest
- Blue or gray lips or fingernails
- Chest tightness.
- Loss of direction and identity

My intention here is to inform and help, not scare people. There is nothing to be scared as long as you take rest. Now, that is an easy solution to all the above problems, isn’t it?
So just take GOOD REST and you’ll enjoy every minute of your stay in Leh (Ladakh)

Extract from an article I read:

Question: “How to tell if a headache is due to altitude”?
Answer: Follow the 3 Golden Rules:
- If you feel unwell at altitude it is altitude illness until proven otherwise.
- Never travel higher with symptoms of AMS. It can be fatal.
- If you are getting worse (or have HACE or HAPE), go down at once.

Leh and around:

From Leh one can go to:
Leh market – the best you will find in and around Ladakh. Buy all you can here, its well developed and has good quality items too.
Shanti Stupa – A must visit. Try getting a guide explaining the pictorial depictions on the walls around the stupa. It’s worth the hearing.
Rumtsey valley – A beautiful representation of what Leh is about. The shapes and different textures of the mountains, which are naturally formed, will surprise you.
Alchi - A relief from the chilly climate of Leh. This is a typical village, where you can experience the quiet village atmosphere. Also visit the oldest monastery here.
Numbra Valley - Across the mountians on the other side of Leh, lies this valley worth seeing, for its mountains formed out of age-old riverbeds. As you pass through this valley, one wonders what it would have looked like ages back. The land is a replica of an ocean bed and thus we can surely say that this entire land was once a big ocean or water body which through time and events of nature, created mountains, leaving the rest of the land for man to explore.

Other attractions in Numbra Valley are:
- Double-humped camels (only of their kind in India)
- Sand Dunes (Totally recommend this as the view is just spectacular)
- Hot water springs (more like a small trek up the hill to see boiling water in freezing temperatures)

The only challenge to reach Numbra valley is to cross Khardung-la pass. This pass is the highest motorway road in the world spiraling the mountains. It’s at 18,380 feet above sea level. It’s covered with snow, dense snow and crossing it, is a challenge in itself.
Here I pause again to share a few more precautions to be taken and also an embarrassing moment and few nightmares that I promised to share with you!

The drive to reach the ‘check post’ – ‘The Indian Army base’ that lies before the actual pass, is itself a memorable journey. One sees the initial bits of snow along the way and can feel the chill air grow even chillier as we drive up.
The check post opens at a certain fixed time (10am from Numbra and 2pm from Leh) in order to manage the traffic flow from both ends of the mountain.

Point 4: The pass being at 18,340 ft, holds low oxygen level. This is the main reason one must not stay in the pass for more than 30mins. It can be dangerous and the sad part is that you will not know when the altitude syndrome hits you. There are no warning symptoms other than AMS.

It takes around 3hrs to reach the pass from the check post. It is a very steep roadway. Only experienced mountain drivers can manage to drive there like local ladakh people.
From my own experience I’d like to share this horrifying incident, which is now engraved in my mind (and all of us present there) for life.

Way to Khardung-la pass – We reached the check post and found that there had been heavy snow fall on the pass and that couple of vehicles coming from the opposite side (Numbra Valley) have got stuck. It was around 1.30pm then. Unfortunately we were stuck there till 5.30pm in the growing cold. It was getting dark and fear of having to travel at that height in the dark, kept worrying all of us. As we started from the check post and began going up the mountain, we saw the snow increasing on the roads. At points the tyres of the cars in front of us slipped on the snow on the road and we had to stop, help them recover and start back. There were around 12 cars that evening traveling together, which let me tell you were the ONLY reason we all are alive today. No jokes, as we would have most likely been in the news, featuring a big calamity in the Khardung-la pass.
By now we had traveled for an hour, slowly and carefully driven by our super expert driver, Regzien. We were really blessed to have him, as he did a fabulous job and we owe him all our gratitude. As we got around 4 kms left for reaching the pass, we faced our first ‘wet snow’ skid.
As the dynamics go, fresh snow is the toughest to handle. It is very slippery and extremely unpredictable. It can lead you into the valley of death in secs, since the road is Just sufficient for one vehicle. Though thankfully, we were able to cross this first hurdle with fair amount of ease. Then came the mother of all hurdles!
The snowfall had increased. Now we were totally surrounded by snow, to that extent that we could not even see the roads beneath. Worst…,it was getting VERY dark!! All we could see were the backlights of the two cars in front of us. We had a big problem ahead.

Two cars had skid and were stuck. The 12 drivers were helpless as the snow covered every inch of their path ahead. The only solution was to dig out fresh mud from the sides of the roadway (beneath the snow) and spread it on the wet areas on the road so that the wet snow is hidden giving a dry surface to drive on.

That temperature at that time was far more than the one in our refrigerator deep freeze boxes, trust me. It was freezing like hell. Forget digging mud out, it was impossible to even stand out in that temperature. And remember, if god forbid and ‘nature calls’ at this time…. oh gosh…there is not a single thing anyone can do. Only solution is, freeze it out!
I was a victim of that. To my bad luck, I had to wait until I got to top of the pass. I was the only soul to get off the car (in biting cold) and hunt for a place at that height. Its so tough to walk cause in just few steps you get breathless and dizzy. It is truly an unforgettable memory.

In short, we were stranded in that dense snow for around 3hrs (where more than 1 hour can be dangerous), went through 4 breath taking skidding moments and all through, we chanted all the possible chants and remembered all the gods we could remember!

Words are truly not enough to explain the relief when we crossed the pass and reached the other side of the mountain, where the challenge of total darkness awaited us. It was far better than wet snow + total darkness. Here we had dry and bumpy roads (which is normal in the mountains), which seemed like heaven compared to the earlier.

We went on to travel to Srinagar (around 10hrs drive from Leh) after staying a night at Kargil on the way. As you drive across the Zoji-la pass (between Kargil and Srinagar), one sees the scenic transition from bare mountains to lush green mountains and sparkling rivers. Both are enchanting in their own way and both are nature’s way of showing how majestic and every fresh it is.

Srinagar is a total contrast to Leh. Be it people, culture, flora n fauna, everything. The Climate possibly is all that they share in common. Srinagar is not what it use to be though and the charm of the Dal and Nageen lake is slowly going down. Though there is still the water market where one travels in the ‘Shikara’ (boat) around the Dal Lake market, where the shops are also floating on water. Hopping in and out of the ‘Shikara’ is fun! Worth experiencing. Remember the recent time movie where Priety Zinta n Hrithik in ‘Mission Kashmir’ singing the ‘Socho key Jheelo ka shehar ho’…Its shot in Dal lake, Srinagar.
The houseboats are also nice…depends which one you pick. One day is good enough to experience the life of a local houseboat owner, as that’s their home and their vehicle the ‘Shikara’. It’s a treat to see them get out of their homes (on water) and into the shikara (parked behind the house).

Srinagar is quite safe, unlike the rumors flying around. Yes you need to be in your limits as there is army at every 2kms and one sees army vans patrolling the city all the time. Security is at its best and so nothing to worry. We stayed for 3days and enjoyed our stay completely.
Places and things to see in Srinagar:
- The 3 gardens
- Shiv ling temple (around 145+ steps to climb, but a 100% must visit). Do not rush it; plan this with time in hand.
- One can visit Gulmarg (3hrs from Srinagar)
- Have lunch in the local ‘Dhaba’ at Srinagar. (It’s the only way to get the right feel of the place)
- Water market on Dal Lake. (Check out some traditional Kashmiri dress pieces, they are lovely)
- Definitely get your picture taken wearing the Kashmiri dress (gown). (I was forced into it, but the results were worth it!;)

To sum it all up, Leh is a must visit. Don’t forget to buy a pair of sunglasses (Sunrays reflected from the snow are quite harmful) and a good warm woolen cap (covering your ears). You will need it even more than your toothbrush:)

If anyone needs any information regarding traveling to Leh or Srinagar and if u think I can help, feel free to contact me at
avantim2000@yahoo.com

Juley!