In and around Leh

It's been a week in the US now, and what I thought I would post in the first 2-3 days is still overdue. A new job, a new set of people to work with, new place to live, new roommates (well still searching for new roommates!!) - all have contributed to the delay. I need to utilize this weekend to clear up the backlog.

So having made the trip from Manali to Leh in the last post, it's time for in and around Leh. The city of Leh is like an oasis in the desert. After being on the road for 18-20 hours on empty and deserted roads, the city welcomes you with a buzzing life of a foreign tourist centre. Mind you, it's not noisy, and the traffic is also not bad either (though people were saying it's worsened over the last few years) ... but after the Manali to Leh roadtrip, which has only one "town" on the way, Leh seems like you're finally returning to civilization.

Day 1

On the first day, all I could do was sleep (on my stomach!!!!), and rest my butt. The guesthouse I was staying with Obi was excellent considering the amount of money we were paying for it - Rs 300 per night for a double room. It's amazing how all the hotels at the hillstations where Indian tourists throng are so expensive (check out Shimla or Manali), but the foreign tourist destinations are cheap (say for example Vashisht near Manali, and Leh!). The guesthouse owner in Leh (Ser-Dung guesthouse) was attributing it to the facilities that the Indian tourists demand - Air-conditioning, TV with all the cable channels, western style toilets etc. Compared to that, most guesthouses in Leh are pretty bare - the rooms are clean and tidy, but bare with respect to facilities. I didn't mind that coz in any case for most part of the day I was out of the room.

Anyways, in the evening on the first day, we (Obi and me) went to the Shanti Stupa, which was a newly built structure a couple of kilometres from the town centre, and it overlooks the city. The views were very nice especially as we went at sunset.

Day 2 and Day 3:

We spent the two days figuring out the logistics for planning out a trip to Nubra valley. We wanted to rent bikes and drive to the valley, which is around 120km from Leh. You need to have permits from the DC (Distric Commissioner) office because that area has restricted entry as it borders with China. Apparently, something that we thought should take us 1 hour, took us almost a day. There was some weird rule on how a foreign tourist cannot get the permit if in a party of less than 4 people. And like everything in India, the travel agencies have a way around it. We found a guy who runs a travel agency, and he had told us he would get us the permits for Rs 200 (they are free if you go directly to the DC office). What he did was - he had three fictitious passports and visas (fictitious as in they were real people, but had travelled to Leh probably 2 years back) - and he clubbed Obi's name with them to make it a party of four. So Obi got his permit with 3 other people who were probably in Europe, Australia or the US!

To add to the problems, we ran out of money. Well not exactly - what happened was that Obi's debit/ATM card didn't work at any of the outlets in Leh coz it wasn't a MasterCard or Visa. Both of us had to buy airtickets to fly out of Leh - so I converted all the cash that I had (around $200) and we pooled in all our money to buy the tickets. After we bought the tickets, we had a total of Rs 400 amongst the two of us!! In the meanwhile we had figured out a way to get Obi's money - he called up his gf, actually his ex-GF, to tranfer some NZ dollars via Western Union. But because the tranfer takes a day, we were left with Rs 400 for the day. By the evening, we were left with Rs 100 (after a few phone calls to NZ for getting the money transferred), and we were yet to have dinner! As luck would have it, we ran into Remi, the French guy - and we had to ask him to sponsor our dinner. He was gracious enough to oblige us after belittling us for a while :)

We did rent out bikes on the afternoon of the third day, and we went to see some monasteries around Leh. Some glimpses ..