Little Tibet, that’s what my next destination is called like. Leh is the biggest city of Ladakh, which is the Buddhist part of the Indian province of Jammu and Kashmir. With only 22.000 inhabitants this town is smaller than my hometown in Belgium and capital of the high altitude area. Leh lies at a height of 3500 meter inside the Himalayas.
After being awake all night at Delhi Airport I got rewarded by the one hour scenic flight to Leh. Because of the high altitude of the mountains it was as if the plane was flying between the mountains, you could see snowy mountains as far as Pakistan, China an Nepal. Without a doubt the most beautiful flight of my life. Temperature in the morning was a pleasant 18°C with a clear blue sky. They call ladakh a moonland because it’s so dry nothing can grow apart from where the Indus river flows and farmers irrigate their fields. Leh lies on the bank of the Indus river, that carries the melting water from the Himalayas trough Pakistan into the Indian Ocean. The height difference has apart from the pleasant temperatures also a downside effect: the thin air. They tell me that I shouldn’t do large efforts, or climb hills the first two days because my body isn’t yet adapted to the lack of oxygen. In two day’s this will be ok and I can start with all the activities possible here and there is a lot do to, these two days of acclimatization will enable me to prepare treks in the mountains, consider visiting lakes, remote villages, go rafting /kayaking on the Indus or Zanskar river etc.
Ladakh had a Buddhist majority and that’s immediately visible looking at the people, they look more Tibetan than Indian. My first impression is that people here are friendlier than in busy Delhi. The sudden silence of the mountains is a relief after five days of chaos. Everything is very laid back and people take their time to do things. I stay in a small guest house where I am chouchsurfing with an Indian girl working for a French NGO to help develop the area in various fields of renewable energy. There are other foreigners staying in the guest house (mainly French people) that work for the NGO. They have been here for 2 months or even for a year so they can help me a lot to figure out what’s interesting to do.
Because Leh is such a remote and empty area there is no connection for cell phones with a sim card belonging to another state of India (like mine), also my internet stick isn’t working here so I’ll have to use the internet café here (éh mama!).
On arrival we went for a breakfast with a group of 5 and the atmosphere is really relaxed, I like it a lot! I went to sleep and am ready to go visit this little city. No effects of mountain sickness yet so I guess I’m doing fine. The fast internet is not available for some days now cause of a break down and the 10’s of internet cafés use a very slow satellite connection that just allows for the basic things. The 2nd day in Leh I was ready to climb up the hill and visit Leh palace and a stupa (kind of praying temple for Buddhists with a Buddha statue) these lay some 200 meters higher than leh. Every day I go eating with the group of people that is a mix of French engineers in their late 20’s, Indians from other parts of India and the locals. We eat together at the evening, have conversations about how they can live here a whole year (they say life is simple here and you don’t feel you are working)… The food here ranges from pizza, spaghetti to Indian, Chinese and Tibetan food! I never know what to ast, but try always something new.
After 4 days I already know the good restaurants where you can get the best buttered chicken, nutella pancakes, indian nasi choreng for less than 4 euro. I went rafting on the Zanskar river, a very new experience of getting wet and trying not to fall out of the boat in the fast streaming Zanskar river. In 2 hours we managed to raft a distance of 30 km with lots of wild water and paddle fights with other raft boats.
The day after I went with Gitanjali my couchsurf host for a two-day trek in the mountains. We started in a village (Stok) at an altitude of 3500m and had to climb 1400 meter untill 4900 meter where it began hailing and thundering (temperatures dropped to 10°C). We were a little scare to get down to our destination of the day at 4100 m (the 10 houses small village without any road Rumbak). My knee didn’t support the descent well but finally we arrived and stayed for 7 euro in a traditional Ladakhi home where, which included dinner and breakfast.
The next 4 days i’ll be spending in Nubra valley close to the border with China. I arranged a permit to get there and my bus will leave tomorrow at 6 in the morning
