Leh After The Cloudburst - Whether To Visit Or Not

(I open a new thread as a summary of half a dozen or more others, hope nobody minds)

Many people have asked whether they should come to Leh and Ladakh after what has happened. I just would like to give a short impression of what I have found in Leh...

Arriving at the bus terminal, one is stunned with the destruction in this part of town. People are working there hard to clean the area, but it will well take into next year, I think...

But the farther you walk away from this area, the more you realize that only a small part of town has been affected. The "tourist's" part of town has not been affected at all. Nor the market area close by.

If you ask someone, the general statement is: "it would encourage people here if tourists would come again as they always did. Life has to go on."

As a tourist you have to put up with a lot of dust, a not too regular water supply and power cuts. Means that if you don't need a hot shower twice a day, wou will get along easily. Internet connection is slow, but there are three working ATMs (Maybe more, I have seen only three).
I haven't heard one word about general food or water shortages.

Travel agencies organize trips where-ever it is possible (I didn't check on everything, but you definitely can get to many places and areas).

To get to Ladakh, you can either use the plane, they fly with absolute regularity. I myself took the bus from Srinagar. A rough trip, due to some road damages because of the heavy rains of the last weeks. But also a scenic trip, and only the first stretch to Kargil took about 6 hours more then normal (we were stopped at one spot and had to wait... 6 hours...). So the road is open and transitable.


To put it in one word, life in Leh goes almost it's normal way. I dare to say that maybe the first week after the cloudburst was (very) difficult, but since then life had recovered to a good extent it's normal pulse, and people wish to recover complete normality as soon as possible. Tourism is down and this will affect many people, and not only in Leh, but of course all over Ladakh.

In my opinion there's absolutely no reason to advise anyone to stay away from Ladakh, and there probably hasn't been one in the last one, or one and a half weeks.

I want to make it clear that this is said not out of disrespect for the dead, injured, or otherwise affected people in Leh and the neighboring villages, but rather out of respect for every person living there and trying by whatever means possible to recover the life they had before...

Tomorrow I'll be on my way to Lamayuru and the Zanskar trek. I'm pretty sure to find the same picture all along the way.

This means I will not be able to reply for a while...
But I think the Ladakhi people will appreciate any constructive input regarding the current situation...

Thank you for listening...
Micha

Many thanks for writing this, gives a very clear picture of your experiences.

Thaks Dear Many thanks for current Update. I m going there on 13th sept to 26th including Zansker. hope it will help me alot

If all of you going there, can give news when you'll come back, it would be very appreciated.
Thanks Micha. We will be at leh on september the 30th.

Thanks for the updates!

A copy of a message from another forum, not something special but just one more 'online' evidence sent on 23.8.2010:

We were planning to go to Leh and like everyone else thought of cancelling after hearing of the floods. However, after reading some positive reviews on the lonely planet forum and after realizing that everywhere else in india besides LEh is raining we decided to come anyway.

We flew in yesterday and all is great. The sun is shining , the tourists are still coming in (maybe a bit less) and its very beautifl. most of the roads are open - maybe some of the Treks are closed, not sure.

Unless you are looking for it, you cant really feel that the place suffered such a disaster only recently.

(end of quote)

Strangely, there are still no updates from anyone about the 'alternative road' from Manali, whether anything bigger than a motorbike can pass there and what's the minimum amount of days required...

Encouraging to hear on the situation in Leh , after all sadness. I had a low moment yesterday , when I realised that one of the slides must have hit a family where I used to stay on my first Ladakh visits. Please visit Tashis place ,they should be ok at least , and tell me they are doing fine .

As for the situation outside Leh I have a feeling that it has often been painted a lot in happy colors in media & forums . The main poster on the LP thread is a restaurant owner relaying info from her husband the travel agent : neither are in Ladakh right now , and the information from LAHDC , the local council has been .. somewhat different :

This was written two weeks ago , just before they managed to re-open both Srinagar-Leh and Manali-Leh. Obviously there has been huge amount of work done to open the main roads , like the reconstruction of the ninety feet Bailey bridge at Khaltse, but I would arm myself with patience when hitting any other road.

Micha wonderful post - you have answered many peoples thoughts and queris related to ladhak visit.

I feel the Title of this thread does not do justice to the information provided.

Please contact the Mod team to place a better title like -
" Ladhak - Should I visit or Not - Answered"

Micha, that is very encouraging,I am planning a trip on the 3rd Sept'10. I did speak to a couple of hotel owners and they seem to be more than welcoming, Would want more information on the road situation to make travel arrangements there?

I left Leh on the 28th. I thought I'd let people know what the situation is there with regards to tourism/trekking after the flood. Most of the business and restaurants especially on changspa have given up on the year and closed up. It feels like late October except the weather is still warm and sunny. Power comes on around 7-11pm daily and once for about 2 hours before dawn (for Ramadan). Leh is running on a generator now since the hydro-projects are silted up and it will take a long time to repair them. Buses are running to Srinagar (800 INR) though not every day and it depends on demand. Manali only jeeps and private minibusses are going via Tso Kar charging between 2000 and 3000 per person. I have heard from someone who walked the Rumtse Upshi stretch after the flood (to get out of Rumtse) that it is in bad shape completely washed away in some places, in his words there were stretches where they had to walk in the river because there was just cliff and water and there was no sign of the road. Moral of the story don't hold you breath waiting for this road to open sounds like it will have to be rebuilt from scratch.

Its still possible to visit Nubra, Pangang, Tso Moriri, as well as the monasteries around Leh. As far as trekking goes. It seems the the villages and towns along the southern slopes of mountains fared the worst. The Markha valley was hard hit obviously and I wouldn't try to do this trek until you knew the trail had been fixed (I did see an agency that was going to try to do it on the 27th). Mostly the agencies that were still open were running treks on the front (Leh) side of the Stok Range. Zingchen to Stok or Matho, or Hemis (Sumdo). Stok Kangri is also possible. There were several bridges out between Zingchen and Rumste which made for 3 tricky river crossings. But The Zingchen-Rumste-Stok trek can still be done and done with a homestay in Rumste. To go on to Matho or Sumdo you will need a tent and supplies. The Cham Valley (Baby trek) is also possible again I heard 2nd hand. Routes in to Nubra may be problamitic a travel agent friend tried to take a group in via a newly opened route via Taya at the end of the Cham Valley but had to turn back because of bridges that were out and high rivers this may also be a problem with the Phyang-Nubra route so I wouldn't try unless you know for sure or are willing to turn back. Tso Kar to Tso Moriri should be possible but starting from Rumste would be difficult because of getting there. I did not see anyone running the treks to Zanskar. I noticed the road to Wanla was closed when I was headed to Srinagar. I suspect that the trail/road through gorge to Hanapatna is in bad shape as well. I talked to a Russian who was going to try to hike into Zanskar from Sachu but had to turn back because the trail was completely washed out in his words.

Moral of the story there are still things you can do in Leh/Ladakh the trekking options are limited and if you are going with an agency you may have a hard time finding people to make a group.

Vistet, I was in Leh until 3 days after the slides. The whole area around the Main Bazar is unharmed. Did the family live near the bus station? That's where the trouble's at. But I can imagine you want to be sure.

I also worry about all the nice families we met at the Markha Valley trek just a few days prior. Anybody has any information about them?

thanks for the info.........

Thanks for the update! Does it mean that jeeps from Leh go the following route (as my Lonely Planet map shows): Upshi->South_East_along_the_Indus->Chumathang->Raldong->Mahe->Puga->Thukse/Tso_Kar->Pang, and vice versa from Manali, and don't pass via Taglang La?

Does this route down to Manali take two days or three days?

Are the Rumtse-Upshi stretches you talk about part of the new reroute, or they are part of the previous route which is inaccessible now? I presume the latter is true, but in case the former is true how is this stretch passable by jeeps?

You are correct. They are doing the route down to Manali in 2 long days not sure where they stop. Charging between 2000 to 3000 per person.

The Rumtse-Upshi stretch was the normal main road before the flood, now inaccessible.

Thanks!

Is this route good enough/safe for the mini-buses?