All Roads (High & Rough) Lead to Ladakh-Another Indian Adventure

[RB]

Leh
General advice seemed to indicate taking 2 days of acclimatising to high altitude and we found we really needed the quiet time - shortness of breath, balance issues, just not feeling right. The hotel advertises they are at an altitude of 11,562 ft (3,524m).
With this in mind we were booked into the The Grand Dragon Ladakh. Luxury Hotels in Leh & Ladakh - The Grand Dragon Ladakh . Promoted as 5 stars and we found it to be an excellent hotel. We were allocated a great room, the food offerings were good with generous serves & very well trained staff throughout the hotel.
There were conferences being held while we were there so occupancy rates were high but it had no impact on us. We dined a la carte on the advice of the staff - the dinner banquet was strongly aimed at the domestic population, who also represented the vast majority of the diners. We observed that the check-in & out times seemed to be pretty flexible to cope with the constant coming & going of people.
The travel industry is heavily regulated in Ledakh. We (along with all tourists) were required to use local tourist operators throughout our stay so Magan’s vehicle was parked up and he and Chandra joined us in the passenger seats.

A bit repetitious but an explanation Taxi, Bike & Private Car Regulations in Leh Ladakh - Discover Leh Ladakh



The wing we were in

Nice area to sit


View from room

 

[RB]

Some good Italian food available



A club sandwich was a simple choice on the 1st night






You were encouraged to tag if you took the photo


Next time I am in a lift in Aust I will see what average weight they use

 

[RB]

Around Leh

Leh - Wikipedia

Ladakh - Wikipedia

We had a street walk on 2nd day through the markets.-plenty of fresh produce on display-apples, apricots, dried fruits, potatoes, turnips, beans. Leh is such an isolated spot with the fuel trucked in and the locals find a lot of general items expensive because of the isolation factor. Apparently many trucks go back empty. There is a huge armed force presence with many bases- certainly helps to keep the town afloat. We found Leh very different to rest of India that we have visited. -the faces & clothes certainly reflect a more Central Asian/Tibetan presence.

A peek into a butcher shop with pig trotters at front












Quite a few of the towns had these signs

 

[RooFlyer]

Next time I am in a lift in Aust I will see what average weight they use

No more than 75kg !

 

[RB]

Out of Leh
With the correct permits in place, our next activity was 3 nights in the Nubra Valley, an area that played a critical part in the rich history of the Silk Route. There are more rough challenging roads through the Ladakh Range including our highest pass of the trip - Khardung Pass (5,602m). You are supposed to limit your time here because of the altitude, but there was a bit of a traffic jam so we walked the short distance past the lookout while the car caught up! There were other passes to be encountered, but also plenty of visual rewards in the stark, high altitude cold desert environment. Again, there are road workers toiling in terrible conditions - smoke, dust and altitude in mainly manual construction. There are sections of road that have a brick surface as that has shown to be most resilient - more back breaking work. Plenty of Yaks were free roaming as we share the roads with a lot of domestic travellers, motorbike adventure tours, and convoys of military vehicles. The lookout points & significant altitude makers are chaotic but it is somewhat more relaxed at the tea/coffee/ snack spots. We start to see mentions of the Siachen Warriors and that intrigue will be answered in later days. It was noted that from the 19th Century until 1994 tourists were barred from the valley, with military personnel being the only ones mingling with the people of Tibetan descent.
The Nubra & Shyok rivers zigzag through the valley with patches of green where the villages exist.
The popularity of the Nubra Valley has spawned roadside advertising of some attractions with many claiming to be “the World’s Highest” - a 3km long zipline ride, go karting, trekking, Bactrian camel riding, rafting quad biking, camping and bike riding (would be very brave & we didn’t see anyone participating). The Valley promotes sustainability & the area was certainly spotless & a marked contrast to many areas of India.

First rise out of Leh & road surface is good











Our first lookout stop

 

[RB]

A hard way to surface a road




Great spot for a chai tea


Really peeing into the wind here


Some beaut road surface in spots-drivers are generally more obedient here too!

 

[RB]

Just below centre & to left is a person on the 3km zipline ride. Ground surface there is sand & small rock rubble. We had just driven along the L shaped road




The area around Leh had a lot of road safety type signs