Finally in Leh

Finally, our flight was called out and we were led into the airplane. I expected it to be very small but it was actually bigger than the one we had from Innsbruck to Frankfurt. The travel agency had booked seats on the left side only to guarantee us a great view. The sun started to rise at 5.30 am and when we took off, I could see Delhi from above.

We had breakfast on board which was good but included a lemon juice that was just awful. I can’t imagine that anybody could ever drink it!

I nearly fell asleep because I was really tired but the Himalayas woke me up again. At first there were just single mountain tops that rose out of the cloud ocean like small islands. Then the islands got bigger and we were right above the highest mountain rage on earth. Most summits were covered with snow and there were many glaciers. But in contrast to the alps, the lower altitudes were just brown or gray and there was no green at all. The rising sun painted long shadows between the mountains and many valleys looked as if they were huge lakes. But in reality it is all very dry and no sign of human influence could be seen until we reached the Indus valley where Leh is also located. Suddenly, green fields appeared in between the dusty mountain rages and the river Indus formed an oasis in the middle of a desert that is located on top of the world.

The landing was quite spectacular: the pilot made two turns before he came down to the airport. In the small welcome hall, we got our luggage back, filled out another sheet for foreigners and got a program for the Ladakh Festival that started today.

Two guides picked us up and drove us to our hotel. I sat in front – on the left side. It is really strange to drive through an unknown country with lots of new impressions and all of that on the wrong side of the street! To my surprise, there were really cows on the streets. I didn’t expect that because I thought that it was a stereotype that in India there are cows everywhere. I also noticed many stray dogs and lots of garbage at the sides of the street.

We arrived at the hotel, got a short briefing about the trip and had another breakfast. It was about 8am ladakhi time and I noticed that I was very tired. I had been awake for almost 24 hours! When we got our rooms, I didn’t care much about anything but the bed. Although I must have had a higher pulse and although I heard that you usually sleep bad in high altitude, I slept well until we had a very good lunch at 1 o’clock. After that we had free time and Annetraud and I decided to have a walk in town. It was hot and we did notice the 3,500 meters after all. We went slowly and finally had a mango juice in a small Café. As soon as we were back, I took another nap. I’m very lucky to be able to sleep without problems.

me at a prayer mill near our hotel

At 6pm, five of the seven group members left to have dinner. Before that we took another stroll to Leh and this time I found it easier to walk. We saw loads of open shops, restaurants and Internet Cafés, most of them had already put on their diesel generator. The official power system doesn’t seem to work very well. The Tibetan restaurant we had dinner at also had a generator which broke down several times. But nobody minds, that’s Leh.

Before going back, I went into a Internet Café to give a short update on my blog. I want everyone to know that we arrived savely. I payed 10 rupees for about 10 minutes which is close to nothing.

On the way back, I was happy that we had one headlamp – none of the streetlamps was working...

2. September 2011