Flight cancelled - Air India

After spending five hours at the airport this morning, our Indian Airlines flight from Leh to Delhi got cancelled. Though there are worse places to spend an extra day and night, this means we won't make our connecting flight from Delhi to Lyon tomorrow. Sigh... We've been trying to sort it out between Indian Airlines (who just gave us a crappy certificate and suck big time), Turkish Airlines (who passed the ball on to the agency we booked through) and the agent Vayama-Kayak (who wanted to charge us 615USD for a flight four days later).

The joys of connecting flights...

The spiritual side of our trek - the monasteries

Of course, no visit to India would be complete without also some spiritual aspects. For me, this was mostly limited to the visit of six monasteries, with beautiful paintings, the white stupas, the praying wheels and flags...

Trekking in Ladakh

Finally ready for our big hike in the Himalaya, we picked the Ladakhi Women Travel, an organisation run by women and with female guides, to organize our hike in the Sham Valley in Ladakh.


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We also tracked our trek with two apps, MyTrack and GPS-HD MotionX. According to this data, spread over two and a half days, we walked almost 30km in 12h15 at an average 3,6km. The hardest part though was the altitude (our walk stayed between 3,2km and 3,9km height). We kept going up and down, ascending in total 1,7km and descending 2,1km, with 30% gradients. According to my app, I burned 2,700 Calories.

Motorbiking to Lake Pangong

Not sure if we could already handle higher altitudes trekking, Annick and Thomas agreed to a suggestion of mine: we rented two motorbikes, got the permit and drove up to Lake Pangong for two days. This saline lake is at 4350m altitude, covering over 600km² and one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, with a deep blue color. Accidentally, it is also disputed territory between India and China.

Biking up is quite the challenge: the road crosses the villages of Shey and Gya and traverses the Changla pass  (the third highest motorable pass in the world at 5360m), where army sentries and a small teahouse greet visitors. The steep and dusty road down leads through Tangste and other smaller villages, until crossing a river called Pagal Naala or "The Crazy Stream". We anyway had to cross quite a number of small streams with our bikes, causing a bit of stress and wet feet. But after about seven hours of driving, we managed to catch the sunset at the lake and sleep in a tent by the shore.

Such a beautiful place that we were sad to only be able to spend 12h there. It would have been great to be able to hike around the area, but apparently (probably because it is disputed territory), this isn’t possible. Waking up at 5am to catch the sunrise, do some yoga and take some pictures, and then it was time to hit the road again.
Of course, a bit of motorbike problem is part of the adventure, and on the way back, we first had to deal with a flat tire and then with some unidentified mechanical issue, which prevented our bike from starting (despite valiant efforts from our and a group of Czech motor bikers to try and repair it). Luckily, we were already past the highest point, so I just led myself ride down for 25km, with the occasional push from Thomas on the second bike. Once back on the main highway, we dropped off the bike at a repair shop, phoned the agency to tell them where their bike was and drove back riding double.

Rafting on the Zangkhar

The symptoms of Altitude Sickness slowly abating, Thomas and me decided to risk going rafting. We went on the river Zangkar, a 3+ category as far as rafting goes, meaning it isn't slowly descending like putting, but neither is it too exciting or wild. We never capsized, which, considering the chilly water, was a very good thing. 

Before the departure

Guide, us two and two others (mother and son, maybe Chinese-American? 

Pretty muddy river, the Zanghkar

And after... Can you tell how the Indus meets the Zanghkar by the different colours?

Amazing landscapes and good fun, all in all. 

Allez à Leh

Leh was our basis in Ladakh, the place from which we organized our hikes and activities. It is a very nice and laid back place, though we had to change accommodation three times. Hotel Nalanda was nice and comfortable, but pricey and didn't have all dates available, Guesthouse Zikzik was a scam and we left very unhappy, and last, but not least, Kurja Guesthouse, which was very pleasant.

Flight from Delhi to Leh

Now that I've finished my three week field visits in India, with two weeks in Tamil Nadu (south) and one week in Mumbai and Delhi, working every single day and often evenings as well, high time for some holiday to recover. So I'm meeting up with Thomas and Annick in Leh, up north, to go mountain trekking.

It was without a doubt the most beautiful flight I have ever taken. Even if it meant I had to get up at 3.30 in the morning to catch the 5am flight from Delhi, we got to see the sunrise over the snow peaked mountains, with clouds as white blankets.

Words nor my pictures (and some I found on the web) do it justice...

Now checked into my hotel in Leh, Lahdak, awaiting Thomas and Annick who'll arrive tomorrow. And yes, as it is at an altitude of 3.500m, the first symptoms of altitude sickness are kicking in, headaches and a bit nauseous...