Leh - Day 1

We are in a Deccan converted Kingfisher flight. The seats inform us they will not recline, so please don’t use force. It is mostly empty, the emptiest flight I have ever boarded. But soon the landscape outside changes. There are mountains after mountains, covered in snow. More than thousands. It is a spectacle I have never seen before. Every person in the flight has diffused to take a window seat and experience for themselves, nature’s bounty. There is a foreigner who has flashed out his SLR camera; we are sticking to our digicams.

Just as we are about to land the pilot wishes us nice stay and off handedly drops the information that it is 4 degree Celsius outside. I have already put a pullover; S happily walks out, feels the cold breeze hit him, runs inside and puts on something woolen. When one steps out of the flight, it is sunny and pleasant but very cold, the breeze hits you like a bolt. And all I want is to run out in there inside the airport terminal, and feel warm.

We fill in a mandatory form which all Indian citizens need to fill in once they enter Leh, the foreigners need a license and it is a lengthy process. It might have something to with article 356. We step out and find our taxi; it is a Scorpio, which a friend has booked for us. We get in and pass through the lanes of Leh towards the NGO where we will be put up. A friend who is already in Leh for some project on renewable sources of energy has made all the booking for us. It is all very beautiful and stunning when one views Leh from an airplane, only when one is sitting in a taxi, and sees things from closer, that one realizes the poverty and the primitive conditions in which most of the people stay in Leh. The NGO where we are going to stay encourages the use of non renewable sources of energy like Solar panels and micro hydro power plants. With the topography that Leh enjoys, a standalone system cannot solve all the energy problems. Sometimes there is Sunlight sometimes there is none. The rivulets flow sometimes and at other times they remain frozen.

The reason that alternate sources need to be explored is because Leh is not connected to the National Grid, as most of the other parts of the country and hence power cannot be produced at one point and transmitted anywhere where there is demand, over transmission lines. The terrain obviously does not make it any easier to install transmission lines. I don’t know the exact math, but even if someone puts a transmission lines, the inclement weather would make failures a dally phenomena and defeat the whole purpose. At a certain level the problem is akin to what I have in my native place, they have electricity for about 6-10 hours a day normally and when the transformer blows up, it does quiet regularly, there is no power say for a month or so. The village is in some interior part of UP on the UP-MP border. Strangely the situation is exactly the opposite in those villages which are in MP. They have a pretty efficient power distribution system.

We reach our place of stay around 9:30 AM. We have normal Leh breakfast, I have forgotten the name, but it was something like a very thick puri, which we had with jam. Also boiled eggs with salt later on and finally tea or coffee depending on our preference. We went around the place; saw our small room met our friend and the owner of the NGO and the people who work there. We were advised at least 2 day bed rest to avoid any high altitude sickness, but we are Rambo’s descendants. I catch up some sleep have my lunch and watch Harsha Bhogle’s gyan to IIM C people, when he was there. The dude has some sense of humor; I don’t know why it doesn’t come out in his commentary. SS goes out along with the other guys to see the market and rent bikes. In late afternoon we start with 4 bikes and I guess 6-7 people. We have to head to a place where Indus meets…which was that river, wait let me go to Google maps, I couldn’t find it. Let’s call it Zanskar for now. It is one of the best roads that one gets to drive on, it is the same road for which the mtv junkies have their ad for the roadies reality no-show.

That drive amongst the mountain has to be experienced. Period. We went down near the place where the rivers embrace each other, there is a small and sweet bridge, since I have just seen bridges across Montana County by Eastwood some days back, and the camera is yet not stolen, I click my way to glory. I was a pillion rider and clicked random snaps sitting behind. One of the best snaps we took was a random snap. I touch the water and it is bone chilling cold. In Winter Zanskar usually solidifies and Zanskar trek is popular among people where one treks from Zanskar valley to this point. Leh is mostly desert, so a few places where there is vegetation and greenery, they are called valleys.

We came back, with people driving their bikes at above 100 speeds. I don’t drive a bike. We came back in the evening, had our dinner and went to sleep. Had we not been Rambo’s descendents this was sufficient for us to fall sick, but thanks to our ancestors we waited for nightfall. SS pukes in the night, I have a heavy head. I forget is this day 1 night or day 2 night.