Part 2- The Ladakh Story

Well, day one was all about sleep. Eat and then back to sleep again. The pain of getting out of home (sometimes the week before and after vacation can negate the whole thing!) was so great that we had no issues with sleeping it out. The reason: to avoid altitude sickness. Felt breathless in the middle of the night - like there was no oxygen, even the five stair stretch to the room would make us pant. Putting and taking off the heavy shoes, walking carrying the jackets (hot and cold - within minutes of each other!), all this was enough to tire us out.

Day two - the nice Mr. Tsering at Hotel Omasila allowed us to go out and explore without climbing. So we took off on a trip to Alchi - a three hour drive each way. Saw the mountains, Indus river as soon as we left Leh, amazing snow clad mountains, brown/green/rock all over. The 360 degree views were amazing. We drove off road to the confluence of the Zanskar and Indus rivers - the rivers stay distinct with their blue and green colours a mile after they merge. Touched the river, collected stones from there and continued on to Alchi.

We caught the place a week before tourist season. Heaven in that it was not very crowded, the downside being that a lot of the bakeries are not open, some shops are just opening up, et al. Our plans to take off on day 4 to Khardungla hit the brakes - the road was closed for elections (security? about 200 kms from Kargil) and only opened later. Also snow fall had made the roads tough to pass....remember this is 18,380 feet! And a one-way road. So one day it is all traffic going to Nubra Valley, over the pass and the other day is vehicular traffic coming back. They do allow the smaller vehicles to break this rule - so there are some traffic snarls because there is no space for two cars to pass up there!

They had declared Section 144 (mild curfew, I think with people more than 4 -5 in number not allowed to congregate or something like that) on election day - my birthday. We didn't really know this and took off after the hotel guys checked with the authorities...or so they said. When the driver saw the election commission cavalcade out to check on the booths, he rushed to park in a lot. Figured out that then it was not such a great idea to be out!

Went anyway to the Stok palace...the king and his family still live here. His family had been exiled to Stok some 200 years ago or something like that. The three room museum there was pretty cool - the queen in the 60's and 70's was quite the world traveller and hob nobber. Went around to Matho Gompa, closed for the elections. The picnic lunch was awesome. The kids had a ball trying to pick the few plastic covers out of the stream with 'fishing rods'. Nice day...back with headaches, yes, we had not slept our quota of 10 hours that day! :-D Nearly got used to that lifestyle!

Time to sleep my 6 hours today! G'night!