Sat, May 20: Pangong Lake to Leh, Ladakh, India

This the “hotel” staff came by at 6:20am with hot drinking water (very welcome), and then again at 7:30 with a bucket of hot water for bathing/clean-up. 

Neither of us slept well.  The hot water bottles helped and the bed was supplied with many layers of warm bedding.  However, it got down to about 2 or 3°C (less than 40°F) during the night so it was really cold. 

They had a full India breakfast buffet.  Both of us love Indian food but not for breakfast.  Fortunately they also had corn flakes and toast.  Milk for the cereal is hot, which isn’t at all what we are used to but it was welcome on such a cold morning and actually tasted very good.

After breakfast we all piled back into the van for the long return to Leh.  Of course we had to take a few more pictures of the lake on the way out.

It didn’t take as long as we didn’t make nearly as many photo stops.  It’s a good thing we did our photography yesterday when it was sunny as today we spent most of our time in the mountains driving through a cloud.  And we had a fairly good snow storm as well.  But of course we still were able to take too many pictures.

Once down on the flats we stopped for lunch and then drove to the Hemis Monastery, one of the largest in the Western Himalayas.  The monastery recently celebrated its 1000 year anniversary.  There are currently about 200 monks living there and is very well maintained.  

The main courtyard is very colorful.

They also have a very interesting museum in which was displayed many of their treasurers, including bronzes, fabrics, musical instruments, weapons, and all types of artwork. 

We also saw some women working on some construction of a new building in the complex.  They were laying the roof, which basically meant they were hauling up buckets of mud, laying it on the roofing structure and then walking all over it to tamp it down.  Some thing change slowly in this part of the world.

We then headed out for the 40 minute drive to Leh and our hotel.  Tara is trying a 2-3 star hotel this time…just to see what it is like.  Big problem was getting to the hotel as the entire length of the street on which the hotel is located is almost totally torn apart and not passable.  The driver took a detour and came out at the far end where we were just able to get to the hotel.  Unfortunately they did not have our reservations.  Tara was not a happy camper.  She called her tour group who insisted that they had confirmed the reservation.  Fortunately the hotel had two rooms so we are set for the night.

So regarding 2 – 3 star hotels…this one is just fine, the room is large as is the bathroom.  The bed is slightly (but only slightly) softer than the bed in the tent.  There is no heat but they do provide a space heater so we won’t freeze.  They have hot water only from 7:00 – 9:00 am and pm.  And they have walls, unlike a tent, so we are comfortable.

We took a long walk into downtown to a restaurant recommended by the guide.  Turns out is a restaurant/German Bakery.  We opted for western food tonight and enjoyed it thoroughly.  Then it was a long trek back to the hotel.  We didn’t get back in time for the hot water so it will be showers in the morning.