Day 7: Sickness Calls

8. Leh

“Heh, Bangalore is colder than Leh!” – O and SF on Leh, upon arrival

“Me in Leh, beautiful view” – Murderer

Leh. It’s something else. Words fail. But there’ll be an attempt.

As I think more about Leh, it ceases to be a geographical location in my mind. It has become more of a feeling or a state of mind (Stop grinning!). There’s a connection with this place that gets bonded the minute you arrive. The people of Ladakh are so friendly and trustworthy that, you know, 26 years and all that, nope, not in a single place of India have I seen nicer people. When you check out of the hotel that you stay, the hotel staff feels bad as if their family member is going away. Touching, moving and all “those” emotions come flowing.

For getting acclimatized to the height, we were given to understand, one were to sleep. Not for one hour or two, but at least 3 to 4. We being we slept not for 3 or 4, but about 10, with a lunch break in between. The weariness accumulated on all these days started showing up. We slept the whole day and went out only for dinner.

After visiting a monastery (Gompa) in Fort road, we headed to the terrace restaurant. A new form of energy kicked in and just like that, we hired a pulsar 180 and decided to go to Lamayuru the next day. Nazir helped us set everything up.

Nazir. We met him as soon as we landed in Leh and he made our lives so easy that we depended on him for everything. The next time you’re going to Leh, and if you would like to arrange stuff there before you go, just contact Nazir. He’ll take care of the arrangement part.

That was day 7, folks. Sickness called us.