Arriving in Leh

Today began our week long trip to Leh, which is located in the Ladakh province, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Leh is located at 11,500 feet above sea level, which is higher than the base camp of Mount Everest, and is only about 140 km from the Chinese border. The entire state is currently in a period of turmoil, due to the fact that various regions in the state are disputed by various countries. The Ladakh province is currently a disputed territory, as both China and India believe that it is part of their country. So when we landed at the Ladakh airport, which can only take two or three planes, my father was about to take a picture of the beautiful mountain scenery (even in the summer the mountains were snow-capped), the soldier quickly came in front of the camera and said that pictures weren’t allowed. In fact, right after our plane landed, an Indian Air Force plane landed.
Leh, located 11,500 feet above sea level, also has a lower air pressure (and lower oxygen content) than Delhi, which is located at sea level. I could feel the lower oxygen content as soon as I stepped off of the plane. Immediately, my heart began to beat faster and the breaths that I took were shorter. Most tour guides in Leh advise that for the first day, you do nothing but rest. Which is exactly what we did when we reached the hotel. It was about a 20 minute drive from the airport to the hotel, climbing through the mountains and driving through local bazaars. The people here look like a mix of Indians and Chinese, although many people also look Tibetan (in fact, right outside our hotel there was a small stall that said, “Tibetan refugee market”). The local languages are Ladakhi and Tibetan, but because of the huge tourist economy, many people also know Hindi and English. When we reached the hotel, we slept for almost three hours. The waking up at 4:30 for a 6:30 flight, as well as the low oxygen level, took a lot of energy out of all of us. That being said, for the entire three hour nap, I was freezing! Yes, in India, without fans and air-conditioning, I was cold. My feet felt like they were going to fall off, and I was wearing three layers of shirts (the last one being a sweatshirt). The temperature in Leh was about 20ºC, which is 64ºF. After coming from over 100 degree whether, this was cold. After our nap came a simple, home-cooked meal at the hotel. While we were eating, a little girl (who we assumed to be the daughter of the hotel manager) came running in wearing a school uniform. She had bright red cheeks and looked Tibetan. Throughout the meal she would come in wearing different clothes, sometimes Indian clothes and sometimes the traditional Tibetan dress. Her behavior and attitude just reinforced the small-town, disconnected-from-the-rest-of-the-world feel of Leh. In Leh, none of our cell-phones worked, and we didn’t have Internet access-something unheard of in the 21st century. The lack of connectivity is due to security reasons, because satellite communication is very easy to break into and disable-which would cripple Jammu and Kashmir, and could create a security vacuum in the state. Yet the withdrawal symptoms I felt from being disconnected from the world wore off after a few hours. It was nice to not constantly be tweeting or texting. For the next seven days, it’s going to be sight-seeing and looking at the beautiful mountain scenery. I’m looking forward to this vacation.