All About Ladakh

amitdave

hi natasha, i guess you must have seen my posts on virtualtourist.com, iam a member there as well..regarding reassurance, well we die hard travel buffs sometime do need reassurance as many would try to dissuade us. same happened to me when p'pl said y in the world r u travelling in these monsoon months..i had hard time convincing them that ladakh has more than 300 days of sunshine...so dontu worry just go ,enjoy, have a blast. and even if u get stuck up somewhere try to see the positive side that you will get to spend an extra day or two there..just have some spare days with you..r you going by road both ways...
cheers
amit

vera

So, I am planning to go to Ladakh on Sept 15 and spend about 12 days on a Markha Valley trek. How about weather at that time, thoughts on physical preparation, any must-pack items and particulars on immunizations, medical kit contents and prescriptions?
Thanks so much!!!

kamikaze

this is a really good post. thanks mountain girl.

I'm planning to go in the first week of september. driving from srinagar to leh (with assorted stops along the way) and then flying to delhi.

ona

Kamikaze, you'll enjoy it. We went the same way in mid-June. The Srinagar-Leh road is also very spectacular and you'll see many locals with their sheep flocks etc. We first went to Sonamarg and camped there for one night before leaving for Leh. From Sonamarg we could only leave at 2pm as the army closes the pass on this side to let traffic coming from the Leh side through. By the time it's openened from the Srinagar side there usually are dozens of trucks lining up, but they first let the passenger vehicles through (thank goodness), but it still is a mad scramble to get to the front of the queue!

3 girls in the mount

Sounds great, what a shame I can't stay until summer. Having had much messaging about Leh in February (cold and inhospitable), I'm now thinking of postponing going to Ladakh until end March/beginning April with the girls and will go with work on my own first week of March and leave the kids in Mcleod or Chandrigarh (obviously not on their own next job is finding a willing babysitter).
I've read that the tourist season starts then and that hotels may have hot water etc. is that true?

Lovemax

Thats quite right !! You should have enough of resources by start of March to keep your spirits going on.

__________________
Photos from my world
"The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality.. - Samuel Johnson
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vistet

just a beginning :



The path marked , starting in the south, goes north to the end of the market street, past the SBI bank, up to Changspa. Royal Palace just outside upper right corner.

Other points :

Non-German Bakeries are a couple of hole in the wall outfits, best place to get some nice bread that´ll stay fresh at least two days, for the trek or bus.

Web wallahs : lots of other internet places in Leh. These two places also had Photoshop,on their ´puters, and made CD´s from the camera.

Tashi´s Diner : great budget place, one of the few that stay open in the winter. Web wallah upstairs.

Dzomsa, the womens coop : safe pressure boiled water (BYO bottle), apricot juice (Mmmm... chuli chu), dried fruits for the trail and more.

Public toilet : welcome news last year.

MeCasa

That is SO cool, an IndiaMike map, let everybody help and make it a sticky

vistet

The map was made using Google Earth, forgot to mention that.

keisar

this was amazing treck mount girl .iam making it by this september end iam worried whether the roads are open.

himadventures

Roads will be open-go ahead. A wild guess is that roads may open in late May this year but sept. is fine.

warmfish

Thanks a lot for this information.
Please advise would it possible to cycle from Leh to pangong Lake in middle of October.

Is it possible to have cycles on hire in leh? If yes what would be the charges?

Thanks in advance

hitanshu

Here's a helpful link:
http://www.bikenomads.com/wiki/index.php/Leh

Collated wisdom from our yahoogroup - feel free to add

aaaaag

Hello, I'm planning to do the YHAI biking trip ( http://www.yhaindia.org/MountainBikingLeh_Ladakh.htm ) in a few days. This will be my first time in that area. Does anyone have some info/advice/etc on the places we'll be going through - Nimo, Nurla and Lamayuru? What sort of terrain is it? What will the weather be like? What's the state of communications and transport (in case of an emergency)?

There is one rest day scheduled + day of arrival (I'll be flying in) - is this sufficient for acclimatization?

I was also wondering, how come acclimatization is such a big deal in Leh whereas with places like Hemkund/Valley of Flowers (about the same altitude, I think) there's no question of it?

Also, is anyone on this forum going for this trip?

Thanks.

anar

during my month in ladakh in june, 2001, a friend and i took a bus from leh to the nubra valley. this is an incredibly beautiful place, with wildflowers growing everywhere you looked and the friendliest people on earth. stayed in a small village called hundur - first two nights in 'moonland', a homestay of sorts - really too primitive for any comfort, but with very hospitable people running it, and then at 'snow leopard' where there were bathrooms that worked, beds with mattresses, basic but clean and comfortable, more of a hotel. i imagine there may be more choice of accommodation now but at the time, there wasn't anywhere else apart from the two we stayed in.

one day, we made an hour long trip on the backs of bactrian camels (god, did they stink!) which took us from hundur to diskit and back after a visit to the impossibly-situated monastery (diskit gompa) perched on the top of a hill. the climb was well worth the effort - the views across the valley to where the shyok and siachen rivers meet were stunning. the journey past the glacier-fed indus on one side and the high himalayas on the other was a memorable one.

the bus ride to nubra valley from leh and back was a hair-raising affair - on the way back, i had to stand all the way back, the bus was packed solid. a couple of days after our return to leh, we heard that a similarly packed bus had plunged down the mountainside with some fatalities and scores of seriously injured people. this was sobering news - there were dozens of times during the journey when the thought had crossed our minds - 'what if..?'. the alternative - of making the trip on camelback - is a smelly but less fraught-with-danger option, provided you have enough time on your hands and a well-padded bottom.