We left early morning to catch out 7.20 a.m. direct flight to Leh. In the last minute rush, Raju has left behind his sling bag containing his medicine and we had to turn back to retrieve it. Fortunately due to empty roads at that hour, we still reached well on time for our check in.
Flight took off on time and the 2.20 minutes flight was smooth. We had some Theplas carried by Raju and hot tea on the flight. As we neared Leh, we could see beautiful snow capped mountains welcoming us. The Leh Airport is run by defence personnel and photography is strictly prohibited here. We did manage to get a group picture inside the baggage hold area as well as outside the airport.
We were received by Mr. Wangyal, from our tour operator's team, who welcomed us with traditional & colourful Ladhaki neck scarfs. It is supposed to bring good luck to the visitors.
The temperature at Leh when we landed at 9.45 a.m. was 9°C which was quite a change from the 27°C at Mumbai when we departed at 7.20 a.m. We had to wear one layer of warm clothing at least to cope with this. Luckily it was sunny and bright bringing us some cheer in the cold weather.
Leh is situated at an altitude of nearly 12000 feet above sea level. It is one of the two capitals of the state of Ladhak. The other being Kargil which was part of our itinerary later during the trip. Leh has a population of roughly 3 lakhs which comprises of 45% Muslims, 40% Buddhists and the rest are from various religions.
We got into 3 Innovas and were driven to our hotel - Angkasa Ladhakh Resort. It was a short drive of about 25 minutes from the airport. The resort is located in the area of the model village Saboo. The property is well furnished and modern and yet has an old world charm in the form of cottages. It has a total of only 16 rooms and is only a year old.
We were received by the owner Mr. Dorge who also welcomed us with traditional Ladhaki good luck pure white neck scarves. He also gave us some advice on dos & don'ts for the first couple of days to help us acclimatize well.
After a cup of coffee at the reception, we went to our respective rooms and after some time assembled in a room to chat & decide on the plans for the day. Unfortunately, couple of our members faced health problems (nausea, breathlessness, headache etc.). So, we decided to take it easy on Day 1. We had a light lunch of Dal Kichadi, mix vegetables, plain rice, dahi and roast papads.
After that we spent some time chatting and in the evening four of us decided to go to the market area to look it up while the rest remained at the property to rest.
The market was nice. No vehicles allowed. Very few people in the streets as compared to the mass rush at Mumbai. We did quite a bit of window shopping in various shops selling local & Kashmiri artefacts. We were accompanied by Mr. Wangyal who acted like a local guide and answered all our questions while giving his own perspective of things. We also visited a monastery near the market where our guide gave us good insights into the Buddhist way of worship. Later, we had tea at a local nukkad shop before returning to our hotel.
In the night we had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel where the owner was celebrating his 2 year old son's birthday. We also were treated to the birthday cake. Dinner was skipped by the two group members (Raju & Lakshmi) who were resting.
After dinner we retired early as all of us were tired and wanted to catch up on our sleep. It was the end of a hectic and tiring first day of our Leh-Ladhak trip.
1 comment:
Good as usual makes one feel as though 9ne was in physical presence at the spot.
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