Day 17-19 Preparing for the Indian Himalayas

We now enter Phase III of our Indian adventure - zigzagging again this time to the North, to Ladakh. Ladakh is in the Indian Himalayas, in the province of Jammu and Kashmir, and is where Buddhist (Tibetan), Hindu, and Muslim cultures meet.

Ladakh is a place so remote and so affected by extreme weather (in the summer the lows are below freezing and the highs are above 90 degrees) that the flights leave REALLY early in the morning, to avoid any bad weather. So we booked a night at the Airport Lounge hotel (free) and slept on the waiting area benches.



The seats were actually pretty nice to sleep on. So I tried to opine my feedback so the airport officials could know. (actually the machine didn't work, and we just thought the sign was really funny)



Our flight on June 5 took us to Leh, which is the world's highest airport at 3505 m above sea level (~14500 ft) in the HIMALAYAS.





Anticipating altitude sickness, we spent the first 2 days taking it very easy (10 hr sleep, daily naps) and getting ready for our two adventures:

1) climbing the Himalayas
2) exploring Tso Moriri, on the edge of Tibet, described by Lonely Planet as "a place where marmots outnumber humans 50 to 1" and a place of which "no navigable maps exist" inhabited only by the Khampa nomads.

Clearly this is an awesome idea, and we are psyched for the cap to our trip.

Especially with such awesome trekking gear (no joke):




Its amazing what 65 cents per day can rent you (orange paisley jackets).

Leh was such a great contrast to the rest of India. Predominantly Buddhist and very cool due to the high altitude, the area was more like Central Asia/Tibet/Mongolia than the rest of India.

Side note: they make really interesting bread here...