Leh City. Review on Ladakh

Ladakh is a wonderful land of contrasts .It has an overt desert with sand dunes which have abundant bubbling rivulets flowing through them. It has bone chilling temperature but the sun burns you down during the day.

It has people living in very inclement conditions but they are warm hearted .The beauty of Ladakh lies in its barrenness but this barrenness is so very colorful!

We visited Ladakh at the end of August, which is nearing the end of peak season. Although Ladakh has visitors quite throughout the year – only April to September are fit for the non adventurous ones. The weather at this time was fabulous. It was warm during the day – we needed no sweaters; it was pleasantly cold during the night. It was cloudy at times – but did not rain during the day. There used to be snowfall over the mountains during the night.

Leh is the capital of Ladakh, and a base for all the tourist excursions. Although Manali to Leh road route is preferred by many because of its scenic treat and acclimatization benefit, we had less days in hand, so we flew from Delhi. The vivid panorama from the flight is appalling. The lush green fields in Haryana change to mountains in Himachal and then the never ending vista of absolutely uninhabited snow covered mountains which finally culminate into brown to beige barren mountains of Ladakh. .

Leh airport is very small and very poorly equipped .But we did not expect much from the airport as having an airport in such a difficult terrain in itself is a privilege. The day of our departure from Leh coincided with the Leh Festival .The airport had several traditionally dressed men and women in there exotic costumes greeting the guests with local music and songs. The prepaid taxi service outside the airport is efficient.

Leh is situated at an altitude of 3505 meters(10500feet) which is a little more than twice that of Srinagar the capital of Kashmir I was warned by many people about acute mountain sickness which I conveniently ignored as I am young , strong and used to rigorous exercise . But these personal attributes only partly helped me bear the very less oxygen in the air at Ladakh. . However, they have special wards in the hospitals and also services at all the higher altitude levels to treat acute mountain sickness. The best way to avoid acute mountain sickness is to go to Leh by road, rest for 2 full days after reaching there and drink abundant water. But I had very few days for this trip and I could not follow the simple rules.

We stayed at the Oriental Guest House in the Changspa suburb of Leh. I can recommend it as the best place to stay in Leh for several reasons. They have a vegetable garden of there own and the food is freshly cooked from the vegetables harvested from the garden. I It is a very clean hotel run by a Ladakhi family which is very hard working. The window has views of snow capped mountains, apple laden trees and variety of flowers in their own garden.

Leh is a small city. However it turned out to be a little bigger than what I had expected. It has no tall buildings – all the houses are one or two storied tall. The roads are narrow. The little traffic over the roads is mainly from the taxis and the jeeps which ply to the neighborhoods. The taxis are convenient but unusually high priced. If you are staying in the suburbs, you have to make a budget for taxis or you can walk around as the distances are not far. There are many places to stay in the centre of the town. They are cheaper and have the advantage of being near the market, but lack the comfort and the picturesque surroundings of suburbs like Changspa. Leh has a huge option when it comes to budget hotels to stay. No fear of whether you will find accommodation even in the peak season .The so called star facility hotels are very few.

The market has many offices of tour operators which book people for off- Leh excursions. These excursions are by Scorpios and are expensive .The taxi union has the rate cards and hence you won’t be over charged as these rate cards are strictly followed. But if you want, you can get company to share the expenses. The tour operator facilitate in finding groups to share the excursions. Very often, if you get along with like minded people to share with, on the first day, and a good driver, you can do the remaining excursions with the same people and the driver. This way it turns out cheaper and better – the drivers also offer a 10 % discount. We did the same and were happy about it.

Leh has little to offer to the shopaholics. The market has many curio shops, all selling essentially the same things like turquoise and semiprecious stone jewellery, shawls, sweaters and caps, mountaineering gear etc. It is difficult to authenticate what you are buying. We thought the J&K Union store bang in front of the Leh Vegetable Market a genuine place to buy good Pashmina shawls. A trinket shop adjacent to it was quite popular with the tourists. The Main Bazaar Road is a nice place to walk around in the evening. There are many traditional vegetable vendors who sit on the footpaths in the evening.

Leh has abundant eateries which offer a splendid variety to choose from. As Leh has tourists from all around the world, Leh offers a variety of cuisine. My personal favorites were – The Tibetan Kitchen, The Lamayuru Hotel in the main town and Jeevan in Changspa. The food at these places is clean and sumptuous.

Leh City has a Palace, a Gompa (monastery) and Shanti Stupa to offer to the tourists .ThePalace is reached by climbing through a maze of very narrow roads in the old town. On the way to the Palace you can see the local life of the Lehites closely. The Palace has very little to see. Shanti Stupa is a nice place to visit .It was built by Japanese people. It is built on the top of a small mountain in Changspa. It can be reached by jeep or by steps. It offers beautiful views of the Leh city from the top.

The excursions to Pangong Tso and Nubra valley require Inner Line Permits from the army. These can be obtained from the DC office in Leh or the hotel people can arrange them for you. We opted the later as we did not want to spend time on petty matters. Indians need no identity proof or photos. I request all the readers of this review to go on the comments section of this review where I have posted reviews on Pangong tso , Nubra Valley and Lamayuru trail