My trip to Kashmir and Ladakh

(by ortho158)

I recently uploaded quite a number of pics from an old trip in India, and I decided to write the story behind it. Here it is.

Foreword: we made the trip to Kashmir and Ladakh in 1981, and many things have changed in 25 years. I don't think that Ladakh is very different today, because it is very remote and difficult to access. But Kashmir has definitely become a dangerous place. And that's a pity.

Srinagar is not a colorful city, and certainly not at this period of the year (July). This is monsoon time in most of India and it influences the weather here. Sightseeing is rather limited, but we don't care, as we like to walk in the streets and see how people live.

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Our hotel is a houseboat, on the Dal lake. And it compensates very largely for the drabness of Srinagar. The lake itself is very beautiful and peaceful. The houseboat, made of sandalwood, is luxurious. It's more a house than a boat: there are four bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and the quarters for the personnel. No, there is no swimming pool. The drawback is that it sits right in the middle of the lake, and that there is a huge queue of shikaras (gondola-like boats) with vendors trying to sell their wares (fruit,drugs, carpets, ...).

One of them is a tailor with furcoats. We try to tell him that we have no rupees, but it's not a good excuse: he also accepts dollars, Belgian francs, credit cards, traveller's checks, Eurocheques, ... He even proposes to give us the coat, and that we send him the money when we are back home.

Now, he looks for a glint of interest in the eyes of the ladies.The first one to succumb is Josette, although she hates people wearing fur; but he just explained that he also makes coats in sheep- and rabbit-skin. She chooses the type of coat she likes, and she tries it on. It does not fit well, but this is not important as he will make a brand new one for her, which will be ready when we come back here in a week.

Now the price. He asks 600$. I offer 200. He said that I must be joking, and then he screams and weeps: how can he support his family of many wives (he is Muslim) and children with such a low price .... After 20 minutes of haggling, we settle for 270$, plus the cheap, plastic digital watch of Josette. We are all happy, and then he turns to one of the other ladies, who had watched the whole scene. She shows her favorite coat, and asks the price. It's 600$! And it starts all over again.

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We leave for Ladakh. There are two ways to get there: either by plane, or by road. The weather conditions in Ladakh being very unpredictable, it's generally impossible, or not advisable, to fly there. So, we take the road: a dirt road, 400 km long, very narrow, full of hairpin bends. So narrow that it is only possible to pass a vehicle coming from the opposite direction, in the bends. Our bus itself is very short: otherwise, it would be impossible to manoeuvre.

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The road goes through two passes, which are under meters of snow, except during the summer months. It is also used by the Indian army to bring supplies, during these 3 months, to cover the rest of the year, to their thousands of soldiers stationed in Ladakh (because of their conflicts with the neighbouring Pakistan and China).It takes two days to arrive in Ladakh, but it's worthwile: the scenery is incredible. There are very few villages: Drass (which is said to be the coldest inhabited place on earth, because it is surrounded by glaciers) and Kargil. We spend a memorabe night here: the fleas must be very happy to taste European blood. The highest point on the road is the Fotula pass, 4107 m high. When the bus stops, I run out to take pictures; but I am very quickly out of breath, because of the lack of oxygen here.

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There is a striking contrast between Kashmir and Ladakh. Kashmir is very fertile; Ladakh is a desert. With the exception of a narrow band of land along the Indus river, there are no trees, no grass, only rocks. Kashmir is predominantly Muslim, and Ladakh is Buddhist. Muslims pratice polygamy, and Ladakhi pratice polyandry: a woman marries all the brothers of a single family. This is for economical reasons: this way, they don't have to divide the land belonging to the family.

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Leh is the main city of Ladakh. It is dominated by a palace, now abandoned. Apart from a generator running two hours a day, there is no electricity. And there is no drinking water (but we knew that, and we brought sanitizing tablets which we put in water coming right from the Indus).

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Our hotel, which looks like a motel, has reasonable comfort. Although there is no running water, we have a shower. Hotel personnel fetch water from the Indus nearby, and pour it in tanks on the roof. It is very unwise to take a shower at noon: Leh being situated at 3500m above sea level, the sunrays heat the water surprisingly quickly, and you would be badly burned. The food is OK, but it's better not be be too difficult: the first night, we had soup with some very small pieces of meat: 1 per person; we also had a nice lunch with noodles and fried flies ...

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There are a lot of monasteries (gompas) to visit in Ladakh. Some are really huge, but they are inhabited by very few monks. Buddhism here is a mix of religion, magic, sorcery and superstition.

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Back to Srinagar, where our tailor found us, despite the fact the we had now another houseboat. We ended our visit by boat trip on the Dal lake and the Jellum river, which made us retrospectively happy that we did not swim in the lake: there are apparently no sewers in Srinagar ...