Himalayan
Hideaway" -- By Michael Fathers. Time Magazine,
Travel Watch, November 27, 2000.
Well his niece isn't officially the queen because royal titles aren't allowed
in India anymore. But she is married to the man who would otherwise be king of
Ladakh, the tiny Buddhist state at the northern tip of the mountains and glaciers
between China and Pakistan.
Ladakh is that sort of place. There are,
after all, only 20,000 people in Leh, the capital, and not many more outside it.
Phunchok Wangchuk, the uncle of the "queen" runs a cozy family hotel, the Shambha-La
set in an apple orchard 1 kim outside Leh.
Pangong Tso Lake
Ladakh is a silent, blissful place of thin air and magical geological shapes,
its landscape marked by soft, burned colors and purple shadows. Curiously, it
boasts an intimacy that belies the rugged 4,000-m to 6,500-m peaks that surround
the former kingdom. Even the mighty Indus River, which cuts across the high valleys
and through the mountain gorges, can look almost like a stream when viewed from
the hilltop monasteries. The brochures call Ladakh "Little Tibet". The two alpine
regions are much the same, from the monasteries on the hills to the people's common
features. But Ladakh is preferable in many ways. Tibet is much larger and can
be so stiff and regimented. One feels at ease in Ladakh. The atmosphere is casual
and friendly, and the people set their own pace.
September is the best
month to visit. By harvest time, most tourists have come and gone. Hotels that
were chock a block in July and August are empty come fall, and discounts are easy
to find. The sky is an electric blue. The days are warm, the nights cool. In the
river valleys, as if in some tableau from a willow-pattern plate, farmers carry
ricks and winnow grain among trees laden with ripe fruit, simple plank bridges
and quaint houses with flat roofs stacked with hay.
From October the
high mountain passes into this once isolated land are snowed over, and the hotels
put up their shutters. Those residents who can afford it have moved to the lower,
more hospitable hills or to the plains of India. Those left behind hunker down
until spring, when the tourists begin to return.
Most visitors fly to
Ladakh from New Delhi, only 80 min. away and remain in Leh for a couple of days
to adjust to the altitude. Adventurers can buy second hand Enfield motorbikes
for around $ 800 and cruise to Leh from Manali, the backpackers junction in the
Himalayan foothills, in three days. Sharp travelers will fly to Srinagar in Kashmir
first and spend a few days on a houseboat relaxing amid the lotus gardens watching
kingfishers flit from stem to stem. It is a bucolic experience, as long as you
are not fearful of the insurgency that rumbles in Kashmir. You should be aware
of possible danger, but the pleasure of being on a houseboat on a pristine lake
far outweighs the fear. From Srinagar it is a 45-min. flight to Leh over some
of the finest mountain scenery in the world - but there is only one flight a week,
on Sunday.
