We took the Indigo flight to Leh from Delhi on a warm pleasant morning, after checking in and at the gate, I observed that most of the tourists waiting for the Leh flight were youngsters, some obviously on their honeymoon trip as evidenced by their lovey dovey body language!
We had a smooth flight, I was lost in thoughts about our trip and was blissfully observing the fluffy white clouds carpeting and floating by, suddenly our pilot announced that we were now flying over the Ladakh mountain ranges
Indeed I could see the mighty mountains looking like small hillocks, some were snow tipped and some had snowy rivulets trickling down and in some places I could see small groups of houses snugly nested in these mighty mountains
The Ladakh range is composed of granite rocks of the batholith, bound by the Shyok suture zone to the north and the Indus suture zone to the south.
The climate is semiarid, with maximum summer temperatures exceeding 30 °C along the lower slopes and mean monthly temperatures in winter well below 0 °C at elevations above 13,000 feet.
The Deosai mountains, located southwest of the Indus River in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, are sometimes considered part of the range.
In no time we were approaching the Leh Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport named after 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, an Indian statesman and monk, whose Spituk Monastery is very close by to the airfield.
We could see the town and houses, roads and river clearly, our pilot announced that the airport was managed by the Indian Army so photography of the airport was strictly prohibited unless we wanted to face the hassle of our camera or cell phone being seized and spend our precious time giving feeble explanations
Due to the presence of mountain winds in the afternoon, all flights take off and land in the morning or mid afternoon
Our flight took a U turn, we had the sensation of falling down gently and landed. We got down from the flight and were taken in small rickety old buses to the airport where we waited for our check in luggage to arrive. I could sense the excitement on most of the faces and observed their cautious breaths
We were asked to show our vaccination status at the exit gate and some tourists who couldn’t produce them were asked to wait and get their RT PCR tests done, the airport had simple elegance and had Buddhist scriptures and statues all over
Maybe it was a psychological feeling but after getting down from the flight, I started feeling a little breathless and covertly attempted to see my oxygen saturation on my smart watch, my ever practical and clinical hubby stopped me and said “ wait for a while ! don’t wish the mountain sickness on yourself, you can withstand the lowered oxygen pressure, just start walking slowly and not rush around as you usually do ” ,true to his words my distress decreased and I could breathe quite normally, I thought all my literature search about the care to be taken in high altitude areas like Ladakh had definitely set my panic button buzzing
We came out of the airport with our luggage and only then I dared to cautiously take out my cell phone to take pics
We were greeted outside by the cab driver arranged by our resort, The Zen Ladakh
As we settled down in the car my first impression was that though oxygen could have been at low pressure, the air we breathed in was superbly pure, we were surrounded by the majestic hills, the milky clouds in clear blue sky were merrily peeping in and welcoming us with a cheerful hello
As we were moving slowly through the town I noticed that houses in Leh were mostly made of wood, mud and stone.
Wood for Ladakh houses is used from Willow or Poplar trees brought by truck from Srinagar nowadays and previously from the hills by mules
Our driver told us that the ceiling of houses which was flat is made from wood as it keeps the house warm in winter. It is used for storing ample animal fodder to be used in winter
Depending on the family members, a house can be of two or three floors and walls are built of stone which are coated with mud and lime
I noticed that almost all houses had balconies called rapsal made of wooden latticework reminiscent of the Ottoman architecture, these are used as observation post for visitors by the family members.
Ground floors usually have no windows and are used for storing animals & house hold articles and wooden steps are built to go to other floors
There were also red decorations on the wall, triangles, lines of dots and sometimes swastikas, these are very reminiscent of our village dwellings
The head of an ibex- a goat or any other animal favored by the owner, was used as a decoration above the door
Houses are frequently rebuilt and 30 - 40 years is an average lifespan for a house.
As we travelled further I noticed that Leh appeared very dry and white
Majority of the soils in Leh and Kargil district are sandy to sandy loam in texture and medium to medium-high in organic matter with poor water holding capacity.
Leh as it is tucked in between the huge mountains gets very scanty rainfall, probably because of the extreme dryness, there was sparse vegetation in the area. There were scanty patches of grass and shrubs for animals to graze.
During the summers, trees of fruits such as apples, apricots, and walnuts bloom and we could indeed see the trees loaded with fruit
These trees can easily be grown because they suit the climatic conditions required for growing such trees, like everywhere else these are useful for oxygen and can control air pollution.
Ladakh is a small town and we reached our destination the Zen Ladakh resort which sat prettily on an elevation within a very short time
We were met warmly at the reception by the staff there, given a welcome drink and were presented with a thin white ceremonial scarf around our neck called a khata or khatag in Tibetan Buddhism
We were given a room in the old wing of the resort, there was a new wing but we liked our spacious room with big French windows, a dressing room and a huge bath room with Jacuzzi facility and in built music system and a French window in the bathroom too, we even had our own massage chair to our delight, which I was regularly using at the end of the tiring days.
To our surprise our rooms had fans and no A/C but the corridors outside had them throughout their stretch.
On opening the huge windows we got delightful and breath taking views of the Stok Kangri trans Himalayan mountain range, I could see that some of them had snow caps, all through our stay in Ladakh we could see that the all the mountains which had very scanty green cover were changing colors remarkably when the sun and the moon rays fell on them or the blue clouds passed by
After a simple lunch which was indeed very tasty, though advised to take rest that day we decided to initially take a tour of our resort. It had luxurious facilities like an indoor centrally heated swimming pool with a steam bath, conference hall, gymnasium, health club, beauty parlor and a souvenir shop, there were also laundry/dry cleaning services, car on hire, doctor on call and a spacious car park area.
It is my experience that during our travels we get to stay sometimes in beautiful resorts and hotels with swimming pools and gym facilities but we never use them much because we are anxious to see the places and rush around , as a result by evening we are very tired, maybe it is the plight of most of us who are budget conscious and want to cover as many places as we can before it is too late to travel
From our room we could see the gardens, as we went closer we could smell the beautiful fragrance
The flowers were lovely and colorful, I noticed suddenly small trees loaded with ripe and raw apples, some had even fallen on the ground, some of the staff of the resort were munching on them for dessert, though small they tasted delicious and were free for all in the resort.
Whenever we go to such serene places on a visit I keep telling my hubby locals are so blessed to live in such peace and beauty and how I wished I could live there for ever and promptly my hubby reminds me that “ I would thoroughly get bored after few days, how cruel of him to jolt me out of my dreams” I tell him
The reception desk people were very helpful and friendly, Mr Thinles took extra care of us and gave us personal attention. He guided us with our itinerary and advised on few shopping spots and the local food
We then took the permits needed for our travels in Ladakh as we needed them for the next day tour
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