Diary of an Internet Addict

Here we come to the motive of our trip to India – Jammu & Kashmir. Or to be precise, Leh, Ladakh.

And so day 2 – We left behind the dust of Delhi for the mountains of Ladakh.

We left our hotel in the wee hours of the morning to get ourselves checked in. By the time we were done with the security, we barely had time to get breakfast.

What we didn’t know though, was that Jet Airways provided meal for this short short trip (officially 1 hr 20 min), but discounting ascend and descend, we were only up in the cruising mode for about 40 min. Felt pretty much like Singapore to KL.

Shortly after our leftovers were collected, the pilot announced that we were third in the queue to descend, and we were to get ready for it. At this point of time, there were just mountain peaks below us. And when we started to descend into mountain peaks…well, needless to say it was pretty scary!

The airport kind of appeared out of nowhere. And then there we were, on the tarmac, photography strictly not allowed.

We climbed down onto the tarmac and were hit by the cool air. Temperature at this point was at 13 degrees, which was bearable with a jacket. We were taxied to the airport building by bus (for like 30 seconds).

At the entrance, this lady was giving out papers to some random people, whom I ignored and walked by. She stopped my travel companions to give them the papers. They were travel declaration forms for foreigners. Oops.

We filled up the forms and picked up our luggage, passing the forms to back as we exited.

Having booked our land tour from Singapore way before, our guide was already there, waiting for us. In retrospect, it was lucky that we had begun communicating with the agent way way before. There were many-day lapses in our communication, which left us very worried. Now we know it was lack of stable internet that was probably the cause of the problem.

We had an itinerary, but due to circumstances, we had to change it up a bit, and thus we did it the wrong way, but more on that later.

We checked into our guesthouse, a really comfy building called Glacier View Guest House (not to be mixed up with the camp in Iceland or the guesthouse in Alaska). On arriving, the owner, who was a lady who looked to be in her 40s, showed us our room and asked if we wanted breakfast (why did we ever eat at the airport. Seriously?) Having eaten two breakfast, we sadly had to decline this third. However, we did settle for tea – perfect for the cool climate.

We rested up a bit before we proceeded with our itinerary.

We managed to visit 3.1 places in total.

1. Shanti Stupa
2. Leh Palace
3. Hall of Fame (This is the 0.1. Since we it was closed, we could only take photos of it from the outside).
4. Leh Market

We had lunch at The Tibetan Kitchen first, where they served really delicious chips and honey lemon ginger drink.

Prices were alright, and one dish is like 2 people’s portion.

After that we proceeded to Hall of Fame, not really too far off. We found out that the museum was unfortunately closed. So here’s a photo of the exterior instead.

And for bonus, a pretty photo on the way to Shanti Stupa.

Shanti Stupa

You will be seeing a lot of “stupa” in the upcoming posts.

What is a Stupa?

A stupa (Sanskrit: m.,stūpa “heap”) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (śarīra – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns), and used as a place of meditation. – Wikipedia

About Shanti Stupa

I will let wikipedia do the talking.

Shanti Stupa is a Buddhist white-domed stupa (chorten) on a hilltop in Chanspa, Leh district, Ladakh, in the north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.^[1] It was built in 1991 by Japanese Buddhist Bhikshu, Gyomyo Nakamura and part of the Peace Pagoda mission. The Shanti Stupa holds the relics of the Buddha at its base, enshrined by the 14th Dalai Lama.^[2] The stupa has become a tourist attraction not only due to its religious significance but also due to its location which provides panoramic views of the surrounding landscape. – Wikipedia

Wikipedia also says this “The Shanti Stupa was built by both Japanese Buddhists and Ladakh Buddhists.” Now that kind of explains why I saw Japanese characters on the signboard while we drove up the hill. I thought I was hallucinating.

Panoramic view from Shanti Stupa

Leh Palace

Leh Palace is as touristy as it can get. There were a lot of tourists.

Leh Palace is a former royal palace overlooking the Ladakhi Himalayan town of Leh. Modelled on the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, the palace was built by King Sengge Namgyal in the 17th century. It is nine storeys high; the upper floors accommodated the royal family, while the lower floors held stables and store rooms.

The palace was abandoned when Dogra forces took control of Ladakh in the mid 19th century, and the royal family moved to Stok Palace.- Wikipedia

Enough from Wikipedia for the moment.

We stepped through the doorway. Hands trailing on the rough stone wall, we climbed up the high steps, careful to avoid the dog seeking shelter in the darkness just another doorway away.

I imagined the palace, so long ago. How many people lived here? How was this palace furnished? Was it bustling with people? What do they do here?

We ducked under a long-ish low doorway (hit my head, broke my sunglasses. Ouch.) to a room where some exhibits had been put up.

I shook my head at the mini-balcony, giving it as wide a berth as I could.

We climbed another flight of stairs, upwards, and exited through another doorway out to a large balcony of sorts. It offered a beautiful of the maze-like town beneath it.

Leh Market

Sorry, no photos. I was so absorbed experiencing it that I forgot to take any photos. We bought our essentials like winter pants and all here. There were several markets around the area actually. For this day, we visited the main street, got lost once. Found the gem of an organic apricot shop and planned what we were going to buy on our last day. #Fail

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Ladakh itinerary

All together, we would be in Ladakh for 10 days. Prior to the trip, we made a customised booking with a land tour agent, Yak Trail. If you’re wondering, 10 days is barely enough. I must stress, it is bare minimum. We spent around 450SGD for the land tour – this includes boarding and the vehicle and the guide (well, the guide is the one driving the vehicle).

Leh would be our base, and we would visit the various monasteries from there. There would be a total of three nights which we would go on overnight trips.

Our final itinerary as below:

Day 1

• Shanti Stupa
• Leh Palace
• Hall of fame (it was closed for renovations)
• Evening visit to Leh Market

 

Day 2
Visited monastries at

• Thiksey
• Hemis
• Shey
• Stok Palace (skipped)

 

Day 3

• Diskit monastry
• Hunder in Nubra Valley
• (through) Khardung La (Pass)
• Bactrian camel safari

 

Day 4

• Pangong Tso

 

Day 5

• Back to Leh, free and easy

 

Day 6

• Chumathang Hot Sulphur Spring Water
• Tsomoriri (Lake)

 

Day 7

• Tsokar (Lake)
• Back to Leh, free and easy

 

Day 8

• Rafting
• Magnetic Hill
• Back to Leh, free and easy

 

Day 9

• Leh, free and easy

 

Day 10

• Morning flight back to Delhi

 

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Tips:

1. Bring your jacket. You might not need the inner thermals for now, although I wore mine just in case.
2. In case you missed this point in my previous post, no prepaid mobile line will work here. Post-paid Indian line would be able to. Your post-paid mobile provider would have to be able to hook up with Airtel or BSNL. Not sure if prepaid card from other countries would work.
3. Seems like wi-fi is freely available at guesthouse and/or hotels. Whether they actually work, well…
4. …Therefore, make sure if you need to book agent or lodgings, try to book way beforehand. WAY beforehand.
5. The guesthouse might not have heater, so be sure to sufficiently prepare yourself for night time temperatures of 10 degrees and below. They do supply woolen blankets, but keep your head and feet warm. And if you have sensitive skin or if your skin tend to itch when it’s dry, you might need to bring lots of moisturiser to keep  it moist. Coconut oil did not work for me. I might try argan oil or avocado oil next time I guess.

That thing we should not have done

If you are an islander (or low lying land), you MUST let yourself acclimatise to the height. Even with having taken altitude signal medicine, you might fall ill. So –

6.  Plonk your butt down for one day, doing nothing, before traveling around. Also, make sure your doctor prescribes you altitude medication.