Leh sits in a valley surrounded by hills. At 3500 m altitude it served as an acclimatisation stop for a couple of days before we headed still higher (Uley is at 4000 m). It’s easy to spend a couple of days based in Leh, as it is an interesting town with interesting surrounds. We were accommodated in the largest hotel in town, which has outlooks over the valley to the snow clad peaks on the other side. Alas we had a room with windows onto a concrete slab, a plant room and limited mountain views and some annoying noises from plant room/ventilation system. Happily they moved us on the second day to a new room with mountain views, which we greatly enjoyed.
Leh is a curious town. In a region where India has borders with both Pakistan and China, there is a degree of military tension. Huge areas are fenced off military bases. About half the resident population are military personnel. Rising up the slopes from the valley floor is a plethora of tourist accommodation, much still being constructed perhaps in preparation for the coming summer tourist season. Once the lowland temperatures start heading over 40°C I suspect the 20 degrees of adiabatic cooling is most welcome. Indrjit, our tour leader tells us that on one summer tour to a lowland national park they had daytime temperatures peaking at 52°C together with considerable humidity. It’s much more comfortable in Leh.
With an early start, we arrived before lunch and had the afternoon free. I had a little wander round the hotel and found a roof access door that gave me some views of the surrounding town and mountains. I noted long queues had formed in the courtyard of an adjacent building. I discovered this was a distribution point for fresh vegetables. These are flown in on a military transport once a week and locals can get a 3 kg bag of mixed vegies for the equivalent of $2 (67 cents per kg) vs about $3 per kg in the grocery stores. Through winter the 2 roads to Leh go through passes that are over 5000 m high and are closed by snow so for 6 months of the year the only access is by air. Even though it is coming on to summer now, the road is still closed. Fresh food is limited and people rely largely on preserved food. Similarly there are large stockpiles of fuel. Mains electricity supplies are unreliable, and small generators are a frequent sight.
Then Steven, V
lad and I took a leisurely walk up the road. We quickly noticed the thin air – even mild exertion made us huff and puff. The atmospheric pressure at this altitude is around 65% of our normal at near sea level. Steven had brought a tiny pulse oximeter which became an amusement passed around the table at meal times. Everyone had elevated pulse rates and reduced oxygen saturation (87-91% vs 97-99% at sea level atmospheric pressure). We got up to the centre of town (slowly) with cameras snapping regularly as we encountered interesting sights then gradually meandered down. With the help of the OSMand mapping program and a bit of trial and error we made it back. At one point we found that the “street” marked comprised a stroll along a narrow concrete wall top, across a bridge and then a tiny cobbled street about 1.2 m wide.
through back window of 16Leh emergency ambulance parked in street-note rubbish on floor, comfortable stretcher etc.
At the side of the street near the “CBD” we saw a van labelled Ambulance. I peered in the windows out of curiosity. There was a simple stretcher, a padded seat and old gloves and bandages on the floor. I’ll try not to use the local ambulance during my stay.
shopping bag
Given our experience with street kids in Khajuraho Steven and Vlad popped into a local corner store and purchased some sweets to be used to distract the swarms. The sweets were delivered in a bag made from old newspaper pages. In the event, we did not find swarms of kids in Ladakh.
Passing the local school I noticed a sign declaring that the sale of tobacco products within 100 m of an educational institution was prohibited with a financial penalty that had, alas, faded in the sun. Smoking in public places in India is prohibited following a high court decision here that recognised in 2008 that smoking is dangerous and in particular that passive smoking is a health hazard.
One of the things we noted as we walked was the abundance of shaggy street dogs. A somewhat different style to the usually short haired street dogs we had seen previously on our trip. It turns out that the military use dogs as watch dogs on remote patrols in the mountains. Many are released to become street dogs. The concept of neutering the dogs before release is clearly not a policy so they breed prolifically and they present a growing problem.
Next day, we were given a tour of a local Buddhist monastery where we were given a simple exposition of Buddhist belief systems. As I recall from this exposition
, there is a striving for enlightenment, which may come after thousands/millions/trillions of cycles of life, death and reincarnation. There were many gods. It quickly became too complicated, so sadly I retain very little of the symbolism of the colourful artworks I had photographed. They had a cabinet with hundreds of compartments each of which contained a book of scriptures.
Up on a local hilltop there is a huge stupa. This was built with funds from a Japanese Buddhist society, so has a rounded base distinct from the Ladakhi stupas that have square bases. There were spectacular views and a sign there pointed to the Khardungla pass, the highest motorable pass in the world at 18,380 ft (5600 m). I suspect that they need to tune the engines for that altitude. My lungs need retuning and we are only at 4000 m.
The local market area was fascinating. Lots of small stalls sold all manner of things. Some women had set up shop on the kerbside with piles of vegetables for sale. There were tinkers and tailors, food stores, tourist junk, the local variant of coffee shops, and so on. One caught my eye because of the storefront access – customers had to climb up a blocks of cement as the store was perched on a wall 2 metres above road level.
Our final destination for the day was up to Leh Palace, perched above the town on a precipitous rocky outcrop. We got some nice views of Leh and the architecture of the building, but access to the inside was not possible.
Next morning I headed up to the hotel roof to capture sunrise views. I discovered the emergency exit at the end of the corridor was blocked because someone had stored some large boxes on the landing outside the door. Health and safety issues are not front of mind here. I headed up to 3rd floor and took the external fire exit stairs (no balustrade) to the roof for some pleasant views over the lower reaches of Leh. It turns out the green(ish) patch surrounded by rocky outcrops just beyond the built up area is the military golf course. The civilian golf course is being constructed as I write, with plans to advertise it as the highest golf course in the world. Who knows, it may bring in even more tourists.
After breakfast we were driven down the road past a Buddhist monastery where we stopped to photograph the prayer wall (the inscriptions are apparently mostly variations on Om Mane Padme Om, which is meant to assist in elevating souls from Hell.
Next stop, a creek where we spied the rare solitary snipe. These birds have spectacular camouflage and were a challenge to see, but we eventually managed a sighting or two.
Further down the road we found Blue Sheep climbing with great agility along a slope. Although called a sheep, it appears to have a mix of sheep and goat characteristics, and current genetic data places it closer to goats than sheep.
Blue Sheep
Our next stop was a stream valley where we were meant to see a bird called the dipper. They were apparently there, though they disappeared quickly whenever I looked, hiding under the ice above the stream water. Still, the ice patterns were nice.
Last stop was to see the Tibetan Partridge, which we found in great numbers, invariably running away as fast as their legs would carry them.
Returning to Leh for lunch we got news that there was a snow leopard sighting at Uley, so we jumped in the cars and raced up there. We climbed to a small ridge (huff-puff-huff-puff in the thin air) and joined a bevy of other people, most with embarrassingly large lenses, aimed at the cliffs about 550 m across the valley. We joined the fray, where others of our group also dragged out huge lenses. But even with huge lenses, the snow leopards at that distance were small in the frame. Gusty, icy winds buffeted us and made photography challenging. After a couple of hours, somewhat chilled, we returned to the cars for the return to Leh, elated to have seen the cats, but disappointed that they were so far away. By our estimation they were 500- 600 m from our viewing spot on the ridge.
In the morning we packed and moved to Uley for our week’s stay. The snow leopards were still there, so we got another chance to see them. But they were hard to spot with just binoculars and even with powerful spotting scopes the view was not so clear. However, discussing with others it seems that these were good sightings, and often the distances are greater. But, as a bonus, we also have 3 animals, and mating, so we certainly did far better than most groups.
A gallery of images: https://photos.app.goo.gl/n7wPhMHuhBdB5FYo1