Ladakh...a mystical land where majestic mountains and snowy peaks tower dramatically over desert sands. If you wish to be truly amazed-if you want to get away form it all and experience a place where commercial tourism hasn’t shorn the local charm-visit Ladakh.
Flights to Leh are fairly frequent and you could take the Delhi or the Chandigarh route. Now the airport is something out of a novel-a book set in Mexico or some such!Its tiny and wooden...and high security(although you really don’t see how this little shack could be!)...but they say it is.So accept that and move on-you will be frisked and your luggage checked every now and again-don’t panic-it happens to everyone-you are NOT a suspect!
Once you are here-take it easy for the first day or so-it isn’t as tough as it sounds-there’s plenty to do at a gentle pace as u acclamatize-read a book as you look out onot the gompas in the hills...or just take a deep breath of the pristine air-the likes of which you wouldn’t get anywhere else.If there’s one thing you wish you could take away with you from Ladakh-its the air!
Make some Ladakhi friends while you are here-the children are friendly and the adults are all smiles...most of them speak a bit of hindi-but delight them with a ’jooley’(the ladakhi greeting for hello/gdbye/how are you...somewhat like what Ciao! would do to an Italian!)
By evening you will be famished and there’s plenty on offer on the food front-but i’d reccomend a trip to Dreamland restaurant-homely and warm.They serve up the best kothay(momos) in town and when you order a pancake it will be like one you’ve never had before(i got a cake steamed in a pan!)...
Gur gur chai-a strange concoction that only the adventerous try!Its made with yak butter and salt and written much about...but do have your first cuppa before a visit to the local shops.That’s where they sell the yak butter-its stored in a rather ingenious manner-in the skull of the yak.Takes a bit away form your appetite for the stuff!In the monastaries its impolite to refuse a second cup once you have accepted your first round of gur gur chai(its acceptable to refuse the first though)...and you keep drinking till the teapot is empty!
Visit the monastaries and lakes that everyone writes so much about-but take some time out to dip in the river.This is the only place where you could get sunburn from the desert sun and frost bite from the cold at one go!Its fun even if you get neither!
And if you want a rush of patriotism or a stark awarness of being Indian this is the place to come to.You can’t help but feel small when you are surrounded by those towering peaks..and you can’t help but realise you are standing at the edge of your countries boundaries when you see the border in the distance.You realise how vast and how completely different this part of your country is from the rest...and that is awe inspiring-the sheer size of the nation!
This review isn’t meant to give you a load of facts-its just to tell you Ladkah is a place you could very easily fall in love with.Its like something out of the chronicles of narnya..magical and surreal.And we could all do with a little magic in our lives!
Useful sites for the where and how to’s! https://smarttravelasia.com/Ladakh.htm
https://pugmarks.com/d-india/ladakh.htm
https://ladakh-tourism.com/explore.html