If you missed Day 1, you can read it here.
Hey everyone, before I start on day 2, I should probably clarify what has already become obvious. For a trekking trip, there doesn’t yet seem to be much trekking going on. But hey, just hang in there for a couple more days. I mean you don’t want me to collapse from altitude sickness, right? If you silently answered that you DID want me to collapse, let’s just keep that to yourself. Although, I do suppose it would make for potentially more interesting reading.
Anyways, as planned, today was just about strolling around Ladakh. There were however still some interesting highlights. As soon as we were away from the immediate area of the homestay, we could definitely start to get better pictures and also to get a better feel for the type of architecture which is common to the area.
Our first scheduled stop was to go by the Ladakh Women’s Travel Company where we paid the balance of our tour fees and found out some more details of the trip. As an unexpected surprise, our guide for the trekking portion of the trip, Thinlas, was in the office, and she was happy to show us the route and also to answer some questions about minor details. We all agreed it was a big plus to meet her in person ahead of time. I for one was very happy to learn that we would always be relatively close to a road, so if anything were to go wrong or any of us were to feel a need to tap out along the way, it will be easy to get assistance. Some might see that as not being committed, but as this is my first trekking trip, for me it’s a great comfort and it relieved a lot of anxiety.
We then continued our walk into town. Certainly, this is one of the cleanest, if not the cleanest city I’ve seen in India, but the population is only around 30,000 so that might not be a fair comparison. I did however quickly confirm that the purported ban on single use plastics apparently does not extend to water bottles, even though several people had told me it would be impossible to buy plastic bottles of water in Leh. Somewhat ironically I saw a large display of plastic bottled water outside the “Ecological Organic Store”, but hey, I suppose we are all full of inconsistencies. Regardless, it’s a really beautiful, distinct looking small city.
Other personal highlights of the day were: (1) I suddenly became paranoid that my current athletic hiking shoes will be inadequate for the trek, so I went around trying to find new ones. Unsurprisingly, only one shop had large enough shoes (11.5 USA size) and both rubbed my ankle wrong so I gave up. Worst case scenario, If my present shoes don’t work, there’s always the aforementioned escape route. (2) Had some nice local food, including a fresh garlic and butter trout from Summer Harvest Restaurant, a restaurant which I highly recommend. (3) We took some obnoxious “I love Leh/Ladakh” photos because well come on, do you really need an explanation?
Tomorrow will be our last rest day before heading out on the trek, but as of now we only have the most tentative of plans. High on the list as I sit here with obviously chapped lips, is to try to find some lip balm or chap stick. Significantly lower on the list is to possibly do either a sunrise (yeah we all know that’s not happening) or a sunset visit to nearby Shanti Stupppa. There is also a possibility of doing a guided trip of Old Town, something which would probably be far more interesting than it sounds. For now however, we are playing it by ear and making the most of our remaining rest time.
Anyways, if you have made it through day 2, it means either you really like me as a person, or you actually think I may have something interesting to say as long as you hang in there. Either way, I greatly appreciate it and hope to keep you at least mildly entertained. I suspect once the actual trek gets started I won’t be able to keep up with daily posts, but I guess that’s something we will discover along the way. Thanks for reading and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or comments. Until next time, stay safe and be happy!
Travels with Jay 