25 May 07 -- COLD!

Wow! Up at three and to the airport to catch the flight to Leh, which was delayed until 7:30. No prob…I’d rather wait than have some nut trying a risky landing in the Himalayas. And it was a beautiful flight. Way above the clouds, I noticed the mountains in the distance, and the last part of the trip was directly above them, heading to the (slightly) lower plateau beyond. It was fantastic, seeing the abrupt, jagged peaks with rivers of snow and ice flowing off them…eventually leading to a trickle of glacial run-off which ran through a pure gray-brown landscape that, too, was rough and pointy. Spectacular, dramatic and wonderful. Golly!…this is the Himalayas. We circled a couple of times until a group of clouds blew away, and we landed, coming in so low over a ridge I felt like I could’ve put my hand out the window and touched them.

At the airport, there was a similarly striking view – brown all around with snowy peaks not so far away. Most of the valleys were similarly dry, but I’d notice that Leh itself was a set of green terraces in this arid environment. As were a couple of other villages. I got a very nice taxi driver at the airport, and we headed to the hotel I’d chosen. I had some apprehension about the day in Leh, but for now, it seems I might have overestimated one thing and underestimated another. OK….I’ll freely admit I was worried about the altitude. It’s 11,000 feet here, and I have nothing but bad – very bad – memories of altitude. Dizzy and almost passing out in Chavin, Peru; splitting headache and unable to walk or breath at Todos Santos, Mexico; dizzy, disoriented, weak and congested on Kilimanjaro. Why can’t the cool stuff to see come with oxygen? However, as things turned out, I just spent the first day sleeping a lot and, when I moved, moving slowly; so far, so good on the altitude front.

What I underestimated was the temperature. It is COLD, and I mean REALLY COLD! I thought I heard the pilot say six degrees Celsius….no conversion thing handy, but I think that’s low 40s. This is just unbelievable when, earlier today, I broke a sweat just making the six steps to the car. No sweater, no long sleeve shirt here – the baggage allowance was only 10 kg, and my camera and laptop were most of that. I think I’m the only person in the whole city with short sleeves. It’s time to buy a sweater…or a coat.

Had a pot of tea at the rooftop restaurant before I started my four-hour nap. My god…the views! On one side, the snow-capped Himalaya emerging and vanishing under clouds; on the other side, a perfect view of the Leh Palace, done the same style as the Potala Palace in Llosa, Tibet. Also had a chatty Nepalese server and listed to lots of drums and chanting in the distance. This is what I’d hoped Dharamsala would be like, I think. Small, very friendly people, not too overtouristed and definitely low-key. So far.

And the rest of the day was rest. After my four-hour nap, I read some, had dinner, and went to bed at 9 pm. I have great hopes for surviving the lack of oxygen.