Leh is a
major city located in the most northern state of India Kashmir and Jamul. This state
borders both Pakistan and China and has been subject to many battles both for sovereignty
and control.
Leh has a
civil population of 70,000 people and an army population of 700,000.
Geographically it is important; somebody told me that LEH stood for Life Ends Here. Leh is situated in the Himalayas it is one
of the world’s highest cities located above 3500 meters. When we arrived at the airport I noticed a
sign on the wall which was talking about altitude sickness which was possible
for people above 10,000 feet, Leh is about 11,200 feet above sea level.
We got out
of the airport and were met by a group of guys who were touting for business, I
walked past them but Sandrine got caught in conversation with one and we ended
up getting in his minivan type taxi to go to the hostel that I had booked for
one night, on the way he introduced himself as Dowji, I thought he was not too
dodgy but still the name was quite close. DJ was explaining that we could stay
in a guest house of his or one of his cousins for 5-600 rupees a night, our
hostel was costing 700 so I was interested.
When we got to our hostel he looked at it and said why did you book
here, very far from anything and old and sometimes people here sometimes not… I
looked at him then the place and I agreed… I said DJ show me one of your guest
houses… five minutes later I was standing in a clean room with double bed and
on suite bathroom with a small well-kept garden and views of mountains from the
bedroom and bathroom windows, we settled on 600 rupees a night and said thanks
to DJ. That’s when my headache started.
Altitude
sickness does not affect everyone but is quite common none the less, for me it was
a chronic migraine type headache which lasted for nearly 24 hours and kept me
in bed for the same time. In fact
everyone is requested to rest for the first 24-36 hours once arriving at
altitude. One of the other guests
staying in the house was a French couple they had some pills for altitude
sickness, one type from France in a white box and instructions and the other
type in a brown bag from a local monk. I
took the brown bag! I took the brown
balls that resembled rabbit droppings and crushed them into hot water and drunk
the brew. The taste was rather earthy
but not unpleasant; however 5 minutes later I was running for the toilet and losing
my stomach! Whether or not they had any
effect I have no idea but by morning I was feeling better. Walking at altitude takes a little getting
used to as there is less oxygen your body suffers. Lili also caught a bug and was sick alongside
me and then continued for several days after.
Of course we want her to get well but she is so calm when she is ill it
is like having a little peace and relaxation that we normally do not get with
her…
In Leh the
people speak Ladachi and the most common word that you hear means hello,
goodbye and thank you, this word is Jullay, what a great word it is!! We spent the first week getting Lili better
and just resting ourselves with short walks into town and early nights. Leh is a small town mostly supported by
tourism, the highlight of the week was the final day of the festival, this
involved some speaking from politicians and dancing from locals dressed in
traditional clothes… the clothes and dancing were great, the speeches were a
little strange…
We had
dinner in the house of DJ, with his sister, bother in law and nephew, Lili was
looking quite weak and ill, so the boys took her and Sandrine off to the
hospital, the doctor confirmed that there were plenty of people at the moment
with this bug, gave us some medication and recommended to keep her hydrated
with mineral salts and water, Lili refused to take her medication nor would she
drink the salty water!! A couple of days later it was my turn to take her to
the hospital as she still was suffering and we wanted to see the pediatrician. I got to the hospital waited in line paid 2
rupees was given a piece of paper then stood outside the appropriate office with 10-15 other parents, we all gave
our slips of paper to a nurse, I waited 10 minutes under the curious scrutiny
from all the other mothers and guess whose name they called first…mine…
sometimes it helps to be a foreigner in India, I said sorry to the other
parents as many were obviously in line before me, but hurried in past them no
matter… I hate queuing!! Doctor gave me
a prescription for antibiotics but thought she was fine; Lili refused the
medicine again… Next day we took a day
trip to Shay and a small village next to it where there was a Buddhist temple the
monk gave us some medicine and asked us to return the next day which we did…
Lili was almost back to normal, the monk told us not to worry she was fine… and
she was… playing with the young boys who were staying at the temple and training
as monks.
With Lili
feeling better, we also started to enjoy Leh and enjoy the natural beauty of
the place; the mountains are very dry and basically desert like. Leh is very
remote and suffered from many power cuts which was fine but meant that you
needed to carry a torch with you everywhere.
In Leh
there was the Santi Stupa overlooking our house which is a Buddhist monument
with pictures describing Buddha’s life, it also gave a great view of Leh and
over to Leh temple which in its time was the highest building in the world!
I kept asking the price of getting to Manali
and how long it would take. Manali appeared to be the only way to get out of
Leh before the potential of snow arrived… 16-18 hours on a minibus on a non-tarmacked
road did not seem that much fun, but what were our options?
We went
down to breakfast and found that the internet café that served breakfast as
well was without power so we decided to venture a bit further into town and
came across another place which seemed cute, we went inside sat down but were
unhappy of the small of diesel from the generator so went outside and sat at
one of the tables there. There were some French people talking to a German
lady, they heard Sandrine talking with Lili and Prunelle in French and soon
started chatting, the conversation soon went onto what everyone was doing next
and how we were getting there. They it
seemed were going to Kashmir in their own car a mere journey of 13 hours on a
better road than to Manali… yes!!! They invited us to j
We said
goodbyes to our host family that night who we had spent several dinners with
and some good time learning about the region religion and languages. Sandrine had cooked one of the meals she had
learnt in Turkey; unfortunately I think she needs a little more practice...
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