Ladakh, Indian Himalayas

...to her guest book from Ladakh, being at 3500 m above sea level, there's a sense of being closer to God. Or maybe that's the lack of oxygen! I'm not sure. But since we touched on God, the next thing to move on to is religion.

The religious mix of Ladakh is completely different from the rest of J&K and from India in general. It is the only region of the country where Buddhism is the majority religion (at 52%). There are also a large ...
.../> Once you get to Ladakh, nothing is very expensive. You can have a good lunch for just a pound or two. Dinner for £2-5. Beer is priced at only slightly less than UK levels and there is a fierce local brew called Godfather that could leave you waking up with a horse's head in your bed. The label states the alcohol content to be 'between 5% and 8.5%' but it tastes like it's on the high side. In Leh you can find any kind of cuisine you want - including ... more

Ladakh? Never heard of it
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If you always assumed that India was 'tigers, taj and tandooris' then Ladakh is not going to be what you expect. This review has been written to give you just a small taste of this region and hopefully persuade some of you that it might be worth a visit.

But before I start, a few comments on pronunciation. Feedback from the Ladakh hotel review I posted recently suggests that a lot of people wanted to know how to say these names.

Ladakh - La-dak with La pronounced like in French 'la'. Not Larrrr. Emphasis on the second syllable.
Leh - the main city of Ladakh - pronounced Lay - like what a chicken does.
Jammu - Jam-oo - jam, like the stuff you buy in jars, oo as in 'ooh, I fancy going there'
Kashmir- come on, you know this one, just the same as cashmere.

Enough of this - onto the review:

Where is Ladakh?
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The district of Ladakh is part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, or J&K as it's commonly abbreviated. For those who aren't very familiar with Indian geography, J&K is the bit that sticks up in the north - surrounded on three sides by Pakistan, China and Tibet. Never make the mistake (as an ex-boss of mine did) of making a comment to any Indians along the lines of 'I'd have thought it ought to be part of Pakistan'. You will get a stony silence at best and a diplomatic incident at worst.

Kashmir was once the summer playground of rich Indians and ex-pats. Cooler than the lowlands and renowned for its beauty, the mountains gave pleasant respite from the ravages of the Indian summer. Sadly today it's more likely to hit the news for conflict between the Indian and Pakistani military. It hardly sounds like a holiday paradise, does it? However, Ladakh is very different from other parts of J&K and, whilst it has seen military action in the valleys and passes back in the 1990s, today it's the kind of place where visitors will feel entirely unthreatened and will, for the most part, receive a warm and genuinely friendly welcome.

In the past Ladakh was just lumped in with the rest of J&K and locals will tell you that it was forgotten and ignored by the administration. Ladakh was right at the back of the line when the government was handing out any goodies. Whilst it's still not a state in its own right Ladakh today has greater autonomy in how it generates and spends money and is enjoying a bit of an economic boom - largely due to its popularity as a Himalayan trekking destination.

What does it look like?
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With even the valleys typically at 3500m altitude, Ladakh is a true mountain land. Indeed the name Ladakh means 'many passes'. It's not like our images of the Alps or other European mountain ranges - instead it's extraordinarily barren. The area is classified as 'high altitude desert' so once you are out of the rich green river valleys the overwhelming colour is brown with a bit of white snow on the tops of the mountains. This is not a 'Sound of Music' grass and edelweiss landscape. Beautiful Buddhist monasteries (called gompas) can be found clinging to the sides of the mountains often overlooking fish ponds that freeze in the winter and are used for ice-hockey, Ladakh's favourite winter sport.

It rains very rarely in Ladakh - I think I read somewhere that it's less than 6 inches a year - so you could be forgiven for thinking it won't be a great region for agriculture. However, you'd be wrong. The valleys are supplied with copious amounts of melting snow and ice water and locally developed irrigation techniques create lush fields up to a few hundred meters on either side of the rivers. Then when the irrigation channels stop, there's a sharp brown line and you are back in the arid land.

(BE WARNED after a day trekking you may arrive in your campsite and think that a wash in one of these rivers would be a refreshing way to get rid of the dust. The water is so cold it takes your breath away. I was as unlike the ecstatic girl in the Herbal Essences waterfall advert as it's possible to be.My screams were not screams of delight.)

Ladakh is sometimes referred to as 'Little Tibet' due to looking a lot like Tibet but unless you've been to Tibet that's probably not a very helpful analogy. Ladakh received a mass influx of Tibetan Buddhist refugees after China's invasion of Tibet. Even the Dalai Lama pops up to Ladakh every year or so to see his people and enjoy the landscape because it reminds him so much of the home he can't go back to. If it's good enough for him then it's good enough for me.

How do people in Ladakh live?
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Most Ladakhis outside the cities are farmers with smallholdings - a patch to grow vegetables, maybe a field or two, a cow, a few sheep or goats and some chickens. During the short summer they can grow enough food to store away and take them through the winter. The standard of the housing is quite high by Indian standards and most of the houses you'll see are quite large. Thankfully there are very few people to be seen sleeping on the streets or living in tin shacks.

You could be forgiven then for thinking 'They have nice houses, they have enough food and plenty of water - sounds like an easy life'. Life in Ladakh does indeed look attractive in the summer months but most of the year they are feet deep in snow. These really are very tough people. Electricity is in short supply and they are rationed to just five or six hours a day in the middle of winter - for use in the evening when it's dark. Using electricity for heating is forbidden so they burn wood and dried animal dung in the local version of a wood burning stove. Our guide took us to his parents' farm for lunch and told us that during the winter the whole family moves into the kitchen and sleeps there because it's the only warm room in the house.

Few locals have cars and most rely on the bus services or long hard walks. At one of our campsites half a dozen little kids in school uniform turned up in the morning to help break down the camp and load the support truck. In return they got a ride to the next village where their school was. The walking alternative was a two-hour hike up and down two mountain passes. The same kids had been spotted the evening before whilst we sat by the river. They were hitching a lift back from school in the 'scoop' of a road digger.

Religion and customs
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As one of my CoT commented when I sent a message to her guest book from Ladakh, being at 3500 m above sea level, there's a sense of being closer to God. Or maybe that's the lack of oxygen! I'm not sure. But since we touched on God, the next thing to move on to is religion.

The religious mix of Ladakh is completely different from the rest of J&K and from India in general. It is the only region of the country where Buddhism is the majority religion (at 52%). There are also a large number of Shi'a muslims who hail from Kashmir but these tend to live in the Kargil area in the west of Ladakh. For the most part, the religions live in harmony although we did meet an American couple who had spent a night in a small town where the Buddhists and Muslims were fighting like cats in a bag. They claimed their campsite was behind razor wire, had an open sewer running through the middle, and all night long they were disturbed by the locals showing off with their Kalashnikovs. As they always say at the end of Crimewatch, this sort of thing is very rare and you shouldn't let it worry you.

Within the Buddhist populations there are a number of different sects and the two we came across when visiting monasteries were the Red Hat Drukpa sect and the Yellow Hat sect. As you can guess, the colour and shape of the hats worn by their lamas distinguish them. The two sects apparently get on very well - in other parts of the world I'm sure decades of war could be started by wearing different hats, but this is Buddhism and they aren't looking for a fight.

Traditionally Ladakhi families would send a son or daughter to the monastery to become a monk or a nun. Today with the widespread use of birth control Ladaki families are smaller and there are fewer offspring to send to the monasteries. You will however see monks of all ages from small children of seven or eight years old up to elderly men. Unlike some countries where doing your 'monk-internship' is a bit like national service, most Ladakhis join the monastery for life and are celibate. I know that I may get criticised for saying this but many of the monks are extremely handsome. Perhaps it's due to peaceful meditation and not working out in the fields but there's something very serene and stressless about these men. Our tour leader took us to meet his Uncle (his sister's youngest brother) at the Thiksa monastery and we had 'butter tea' and a good chat. He'll be one of the photos if you check at the end.

I read on another website that Ladakhis traditionally practised polyandry - one wife with multiple husbands. This wasn't mentioned when we were there and we didn't see any evidence of this. I believe that the practice was introduced to protect the ownership of precious land - i.e. one woman might marry several brothers, keeping the land together and preventing the farm being broken down into smaller plots. Ladies, if this sounds like heaven, think of all socks we'd have to pick up - I'm sure it doesn't matter how many husbands you have, they still won't know how to change a toilet roll.

Racial Groups
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There are four key racial groups
- Changpas - originally from Tibet and forming the main population in central and eastern Ladakh. Traditionally these people were nomadic herdsmen
- Mons - these are a nomad group originally of Aryan origin who are very fair skinned with northern European features. They are mostly converts to Buddhism
- Droks - these live in the Gilgit area. They were originally Buddhists but converted to Islam in the 17th or 18th century.
- Baltis - no jokes about curry please - this group are of Central Asian origin and live in the Kargil area. I'm not sure of their religious affiliations

Language
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Despite having a population of little more than 200 000 inhabitants, Ladakh has its own language - Ladakhi. Geographic isolation and the challenges of gettting around within the country have led to the development of a number of different dialects which can be very different.

There is one word that you really need to know - Julay!
Julay means:
 Hello
 Welcome
 How are you?
 Thank you
 Goodbye
 Have a nice day/evening etc.

Now why can't all languages do that?

As you walk around everyone will talk to you. You say 'julay' and they chorus back 'julay, julay, julay' - typically three times. It's a very sunny little phrase. Everyone says hello and as you wander around and wave at people, they almost all smile and wave back. We tried this as an experiment when we got caught on the side of a road as a convoy of about 80 Indian army lorries went past. Even though they were driving big trucks on hairpin bends, every single soldier-driver waved back.

In the cities - Leh and Kargil, people involved in the tourist trade will understand English. Out in the villages a few of the younger ones may but you'll mostly get by with smiles and sign language.

Why would I choose Ladakh for a holiday?
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Trekking is undoubtedly the main attraction and the reason for most people to visit. Treks are available in a wide variety of lengths and grades - from the 4 day 'baby trek' we did, up to several weeks. Our trek never got more than a few hours from a road and was supported by a truck moving the tents each day and setting up camp before we arrive. Some of the tougher treks are supported by ponies and may see you cut off from contact with the rest of the world for days at a time. There should be a trek to suit everyone. You can arrange the trek in advance or take your chances when you arrive - get a made to measure trip or look around for other travellers who are seeking to make up numbers.

The summer season is relatively short - second half June to end September - and relates to the period when road access is least problematic. You can do winter trekking if you are really hard-core but it's a more specialised field.

Those interested in Buddhism and anthropology will also find lots to fascinate - at a tiny fraction of the cost of visiting countries like Bhutan. You can find 'cultural' (i.e. less energetic) tours of Ladakh but for visiting the Himalayas to look at temples and not go trekking would be like visiting the Maldives and not diving. You can do it - but you'd miss out on the main attraction.

** Other reasons to go
 You've already done the 'obvious' bits of India and want to see something completely different
 You'd like to go to India but can't face the noise and bustle of the cities
 You want to go to India but you can only go in the summer months when the lowlands are racked by extreme heat and monsoon conditions

** Don't go if:
 You don't like walking (and don't want to trek) or have health problems that will stop you being able to get up steps and walk on uneven ground (if you are considering a cultural trip)
 You have absolutely no interest in Buddhism
 You think a holiday isn't a holiday without a beach and a cocktail bar
 You can't live without a 5-star hotel
 You have a pathological fear of squat toilets (even very clean and not very smelly ones)
 You've had a bad past experience with altitude sickness
 You can't survive without pizza and chips every day (you know who you are!)

How do I get there?
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Getting to Ladakh is part of the adventure.

Most people will start by flying into Delhi. There is plenty of competition for flights on the London to Delhi route and this keeps the prices fair. Since the main season for Ladakh is not a popular time for tourists to go to Delhi or any other part of India for that matter (it's far too hot and there's the monsoon to contend with) you should be able to pick up a good deal. We flew with Virgin using Flying Club 'miles' but flights were available with good European airlines for around £500 including taxes.

From Delhi your options will depend on how much time you have and how much money you have.

** By Air
We flew - thank goodness - into the main Ladakhi city of Leh. The flight takes around an hour with Jet Airways from Delhi airport's domestic terminal. I believe that other airlines are also available - but not many. You can also fly in from Srinagar in Kashmir but as tourists, you are unlikely to be in Srinagar unless you have a death wish - or relatives.

The Delhi-Leh flight has spectacular views over the mountains so beg and plead with the check in staff and get yourself a window seat. There's no advantage to being on one side of the plane rather than the other - the mountains are so big that you really aren't at any risk of missing them and you should get an eyeful wherever you sit. I'm not a nervous flyer but even I was overwhelmed by quite how close we were to the mountains on the way in. On the way back to Delhi the plane flies too high over the mountains to get much of a view so it doesn't matter where you sit.

The flights from Delhi are expensive and I'm told they can get very busy in the peak season. The price marked on our tickets was around $360 which is very expensive for a one hour flight. Planes from Delhi only go early in the morning - it's something to do with the air over the mountains being more 'stable' and less turbulent first thing in the day before the mountains start to heat up. If there are any climatic issues at all the flights won't go because the airlines just won't risk it. For this reason, you shouldn't plan on flying straight back to Delhi and out again the same day as the chance of flights being interrupted is quite high.

** By Road
The route into Leh from the south is along the Manali-Leh highway but this road is only open from July through to the end of September. I can't tell you how long it will take to get from Delhi up to Leh but apparently just the Manali-Leh section can take around two days. During those two days you will experience all manner of scary driving nightmares. Indian drivers are awful - no apologies, I can't dress it up nicely, they are really poor. And if your driver is one of the good ones, it won't make a lot of difference, because all the others are still useless.

Throughout India it's clearly considered manly to drive with your knees whilst holding two different mobile phones to your ears and gibbering. When you add in mountain roads with hairpin bends this becomes impressive but not amusing. People who have taken buses have suggested that whilst the first couple of hours on the mountain roads will fill them with awe and inspiration but after 20 hours or so they have lost the will to live and are riding with their eyes firmly closed.

There are a couple of advantages to driving. Firstly it's cheap and secondly you should be less overwhelmed by the altitude change when you arrive than if you fly in. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.

What else do I need to know?
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** Food and drink
Once you get to Ladakh, nothing is very expensive. You can have a good lunch for just a pound or two. Dinner for £2-5. Beer is priced at only slightly less than UK levels and there is a fierce local brew called Godfather that could leave you waking up with a horse's head in your bed. The label states the alcohol content to be 'between 5% and 8.5%' but it tastes like it's on the high side. In Leh you can find any kind of cuisine you want - including Israeli but you won't find too many non-Israelis lining up for that. Out on trek you'll find a high-carb diet is typical. You may get a tiny bit of meat at the beginning of your trek but all supplies are bought before you leave the city and have to be chosen for how well they will last. I don't eat meat and I didn't feel I missed out on more than two or three dishes during the 6 days that we camped.

**Health
Check with your doctor about what inoculations you will need and take advice on malaria tablets. Even though you may not need some jabs for Ladakh, you should bear in mind the advice for Delhi as well if you will be there before and after your visit.
Drink bottled or boiled water and follow the normal common sense about not eating salads that might have been washed in unclean water.
Watch out for the sun - the air is so thin that its affects can be fierce
Altitude sickness is a serious issue for even hardened and experience walkers. On arrival in Ladakh take a few days to acclimatise - drink lots of water (more than you can imagine you need) take everything very very slowly and lay off the booze.
It's a good idea to carry a bottle of antibacterial gel for hand washing after using local toilets or before eating anything.

** Temples
Dress respectfully - no bare shoulders, no shorts, no excessive flesh exposure. Some of the temples are quite cold so it's a good idea to wear socks as you have to remove your shoes or sandles.
Don't touch anything inside the temple and try not to disturb the monks. If they want to tell you very long dull stories in English so broken that you don't understand, be patient, nod and smile and put up with it. They are trying their best.
You cannot use flash photography inside any of the temples. This is to protect the paintings and out of respect for religious sites. You should also not smoke inside the temple grounds.
Always walk round stupas (religious monuments) or mani-walls (long low walls covered in carved mantra plaques) in a clockwise manner - if you can do so without danger or excessive inconvenience.
If you want to take photos of the monks, ask them politely - try not to be intrusive.

If you are an Italian tour group apparently you can do anything you like!

** And finally - shopping!
What can you buy in Ladakh? Admit it, some of you are wondering what goodies you can pick up. Most of the shops in Leh are run by Kashmiri shopkeepers - some of the most shrewd and professional businessmen in India. Many have shops down in Goa for the winter and then head to Ladakh for the summer when Goa is too expensive. Most of the market stalls are run by Tibetan émigrés. Almost all prices for curios, jewellery, clothes and rugs are negotiable and you can be pretty tough.

There are relatively few true Ladakhi items for sale - since the advent of tourism, many locals are making enough money to not have the same urge to site and weave rugs in the winter months. A lot of what you see is brought in from Tibet, Kashmir or lowland India. Buddhist Thankas (wall hangings) are quite popular as are small prayer wheels and other religious items. The local clothing is quite interesting if you like to stock your 'dressing up box' but I doubt you'll find much to wear back home.

Jewellery is great value - usually silver based with semi-precious stones. I picked up a lot of pendants in various stones as well as rough cut ruby beads (a string for about £12).

A day spent in the shops and markets of Leh should be plenty to give you a taste for what's on offer.

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So there you are - a little taste of Ladakh. We enjoyed ourselves enormously and intend to go back again - but maybe not until we've tried Sikkim, another region of the Indian Himalayas. If anyone would like any more detail, please drop a note in my guest book and I'll do my best to help.

Julay!
 

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