Our flight from Delhi to Srinagar was a little under an hour and a half. Srinagar wasn't anything too special, just a rather dingy town (or more like city) with some cheapo dankish hotels. We got a prepaid taxi from the airport and our irritating taxi driver kept wanting to take us to the houseboats. Finally we had to demand that he took us to the Tourist Reception Center and we got there with a few detours by the houseboats.
On our drive from Delhi to Agra my Dad's knee started getting sore and by the time we were in Srinagar it was very inflamed and painful. So once in Srinagar we decided to go the the hospital right near our hotel. The doctor suggested it was sprained and he should keep it elevated and give it lots of rest.
The following day we got on the bus to Leh with an overnight stop in Kargil. Luckily the whole front of the bus was like a flat padded platform, so my dad got to sit up there with his leg up, with the driver and the conductor. The drive was absolutely gorgeous! The mountains were so ginormous and amazing, it's really hard to describe. Even pictures can't do those things justice! The drive to Kargil wasn't really high up but we were on the edge of a cliff almost the whole time so it was pretty sketchy. It was still really high up, but not as high as the other ones we were yet to go on in Northern India. That evening we got to Kargil and found a decent hotel quite quickly. In order to get some sleep for our early rise the next morning. After a bit of confusion with the taxi drivers we made it to the bus station by 4:30 in the morning, just in time to get on the bus to Leh. That stretch of the drive was equally beautiful, getting a bit higher and dryer with less greenery and more barrenness.
By the time we were nearing Leh, we were fully immersed into the Great Himalayas. The town of Leh itself, was very beautiful at 3500m above sea level. There were prayer flags strung across the street and plenty of little souvenir shops to poke your head in. Leh was really quite a nice place to wander around. We stayed in Leh for about 4 days. One of which my mom and I ventured up the monastery. It really wasn't that far to hike up the the monastery, but it was a lot of work. My mom and I were both getting headaches, a symptom of altitude sickness and there was zero shade on the way up. It was very beautiful at the top. The view of Leh was gorgeous and there were many prayer flags blowing in the wind. I love prayer flags, they are so picturesque, strung across Himalayan mountain peaks. I just had to buy some to put in my room!
Once my mom and I were finished at the monastery we headed back down to Leh and to our favourite little Tibetan restaurant. Tashi Tibetan Restaurant was amazing! The food was great and the prices were dirt cheap. You could get a really good bowl of veggie soup for a dollar! Oh and the cinnamon cardamom tea was some of the best tea I have ever had and it was only 25 cents! For breakfast we would have a piece of naan bread topped with jam for 35 cents. The food in India is the second cheapest we have had, with Myanmar in the lead. Hotels in India are cheap also, only about $20 for a decent triple room-we have had some trouble with cleanliness though.
We were debating whether to go to Nubra Valley but in the end we decided that we would. Nubra Valley is an area outside of Leh famed for scenic landscape. But most of Nubra's pride and glory comes from the road to get there. Or even more specifically, the pass-Khardung La Pass. Khardung La is the highest motorable pass/road in the whole world. So pretty much when you are at Khardung La Pass, you are as high up on the world as any vehicle can go. That's a pretty big feat, so I bought a plaque at the little souvenir shop on the top. We posed for a few photos by the sign before getting back on our way to Nubra. Ooops! I forgot to mention the most important part...the height! Khardung La is a whopping 18,380 feet (around 5,602 meters) above sea level. The drive to Nubra was great, the towering mountains peering down at you as you drive by. The best part was the variety- you would be in a lush green forest, then all of a sudden in the arid desert and then drive alongside a raging river. We bunked down in a small town called Diskit and then went up to see the giant Buddha statue nearby. The next morning we headed back over Khardung La and continued on back to Leh.
We arrived back in Leh just in time to do some last minute shopping. The next morning we rose early to catch the bus to Manali.
On our drive from Delhi to Agra my Dad's knee started getting sore and by the time we were in Srinagar it was very inflamed and painful. So once in Srinagar we decided to go the the hospital right near our hotel. The doctor suggested it was sprained and he should keep it elevated and give it lots of rest.
The following day we got on the bus to Leh with an overnight stop in Kargil. Luckily the whole front of the bus was like a flat padded platform, so my dad got to sit up there with his leg up, with the driver and the conductor. The drive was absolutely gorgeous! The mountains were so ginormous and amazing, it's really hard to describe. Even pictures can't do those things justice! The drive to Kargil wasn't really high up but we were on the edge of a cliff almost the whole time so it was pretty sketchy. It was still really high up, but not as high as the other ones we were yet to go on in Northern India. That evening we got to Kargil and found a decent hotel quite quickly. In order to get some sleep for our early rise the next morning. After a bit of confusion with the taxi drivers we made it to the bus station by 4:30 in the morning, just in time to get on the bus to Leh. That stretch of the drive was equally beautiful, getting a bit higher and dryer with less greenery and more barrenness.
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