It’s eleven in the morning and already I’m having one of the most incredible days of my life. I’m currently sitting on my mattress here in our hostel in Leh, looking at blue skies for the first time in weeks, surrounded on all four sides by the Himalayas, which are just… breathtaking.
The flight over was incredible. We did all the usual airport stuff, checked in, waited around for a bit, got the flight… Leaving Delhi was tremendously exciting. I didn’t even really see it when we were up in the air, we just flew straight off. Once we were at a certain altitude, it got to the point where the land was almost completely hidden under a smothering blanket of smog. You know, normally when you get a flight, and you look out to the horizon, it’s a lovely band of white and then the blue of the sky begins. Over Delhi that band was smoke grey, and we could hardly see the ground. That’s the air we’ve been breathing in for the last couple of months. It seems to have been rather a destructive process.
We were flying for maybe half of our hour-and-a-half journey when suddenly the land below us sprang up and we were flying over one of the biggest an most incredible mountain ranges in the world. I saw snow! You can’t imagine just how bizarre that was – seeing snow – SNOW! – after ten weeks of blistering Delhi heat! The mountains are just fantastic – there’s nothing green or luscious about them. Below the snowy peaks, it’s all hard rock; layers of red-brown rock that spikes up in jagged peaks. It’s beautiful and hostile. It’s just so different from anything I’ve ever seen – after the initial wall of the Himalayas, after a while it sort of flattened out a bit and you can just see plains of rock, stretching out for miles underneath you, the sun clear enough that you can see the plane’s shadow on the ground. We passed over one big green patch that looked like an oasis, but it was so bizarre-looking in the middle of all this hard, dry rock… Even though you’re flying over a mountain range, if you look away for just a minute or two and look back, it’ll have changed completely. I saw snowy peaks, flat, dry plains, rivers, valleys, glaciers… It’s an incredible landscape. You really forget where you are.
Landing was a rather complicated process; I think you’d have to be a fairly competent pilot to land a plane up here. To get into Leh, which looks so bizarre from the air – half-formed, sort of, spread out and very, very alone – we had to fly right over the runway, over two ridges of rock and then circle back around to get the angle right. You see the hills float into view on either side of you and you can’t help but wonder if they should be that close. I was keeping a very keen eye on our downward wing when we were turning; I trusted that the pilot knew what he was doing but still, you can’t help but wonder…
Getting off the plane was another incredible experience in itself. It was 15 degrees Celsius when we landed – practically a Delhi winter. It felt so weird I just laughed, and couldn’t stop! It’s so perfect! the air is thinner and you can feel your heart beating harder to compensate for the lack of oxygen because we’re about three and a half thousand metres about sea level, but the temperature is beautiful. I’ve waited ten weeks for this; it certainly didn’t disappoint.
The other shocking thing was the lack of noise. You know that room somewhere I can’t remember that’s supposed to absorb noise and is at minus nine decibels or something like that? I feel like that’s where we are. It’s so quiet. I can hear myself breathe; I can hear my heart beat; I can hear stuff that’s probably going on right at the other side of Leh. I even have some of that foggy ringing in my ears like you get after leaving a club – after Delhi, I guess that’s not surprising. It’s such a stark contrast.
The airport was the most unofficial airport I’ve ever seen – tiny, with traditionally decorated pillars, and about a fifteen-second walk wide. Our driver picked us up and drove us to our guesthouse – the Old Ladakh Guesthouse – and we caught sight of some of the buildings and the locals going about their business. We cannot decide if they look Indian or Tibetan. Some of them have those slanted eyes, and others could be Delhi natives. I reckon the spread is about half and half. Many were wearing brightly-coloured clothes and selling shoes, wallets, jewellery, bags and clothes on the side of the street, or leading around cattle, or running shops that bizarrely look a lot more official than the ones in Delhi. There’s definitely a much more Tibetan feel to this place – even the ornamentation on the buildings is more oriental. We’ve been here so short a time, it’s hard to know what to make of it. The other thing is that we’ve to stay inside for today – we have a room between the five of us, which is covered in wall hangings and huge fans with Chinese-style depictions of gardens and waterfalls – and we’re staying here until our bodies have adjusted to the altitude. You do feel the difference – the air is infinitely cleaner but there’s less of it; you get quite lightheaded and even sitting here for the first half hour as we discussed how great it all was I was so giddy – everything seemed funny (or maybe that’s just whatever was in the mango juice on the plane). Settling in for a good snooze now; I’ll let you know how the rest of the day goes!
It’s almost ten now and we’re back in the room. We slept until maybe three and then tried to keep ourselves occupied but God, it’s hard to be shut up in a room, waiting for your red blood cells to multiply and start carrying around that precious oxygen. Even climbing up the stairs to our room was tough – we were so out of breath! I feel very unfit up here, even though the altitude is making that worse. Altitude sickness is something we’ve been warned about time and time again, and we’ve paid it heed. It’s doing weird things to us. My head’s a bit sore, and I know it’s not dehydration. I think my brain must be puffed up like a balloon from the pressure – one of the girls just took out an unopened bag of wipes and it looks like it’s about to explode! Otherwise we’re doing OK though.
I haven’t managed it yet because internet access is sos sparse up here and I’ve only managed to post the recent blogs in an internet cafe here in Leh, but I do hope to have some photos for you soon. It doesn’t take a professional photographer to make this place look amazing; I think you’ll be pretty amazed when you see exactly where I am!
Hitting the sack now, stick with me for my travels high in the Himalayas!
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Bantz 