There was a reason for the low cost: the route to get there was a bit circuitous and very inconvenient. We left Bangalore at 1630 on Sunday, September 11th... Yes, I actually got on a plane with my wife and two young children on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and flew to a low level war zone near Pakistan. I digress. So, we left Bangalore behind us at 1630 on Sunday and flew to Chennai. Chennai is due east of Bangalore. The Himalaya are due north. We had a short layover in Chennai, thankfully. The Chennai airport is a hot, sticky, small and dirty airport with way too many people in it. Chennai is a big city by US standards, small by India's. It sits right on the Bay of Bengal and is notoriously hot and humid. It lived up to its reputation. I think the heat and humidity was causing everyone to forget their manners. Several times while in line to get through security young men tried to cut in front of us. I either said something which, culturally, is not popular and makes people take heed. Or I would give them a look that I was not to be messed with. In all cases the jackasses trying to get ahead backed off. When I got to the xray machine and was the next person in line, I was waiting for a little plastic bin to put my laptop. A guard handed one my way and I heard someone behind me yell that they needed one. I, being next in line, grabbed it. I thought it was only logical. The young man began yelling at me asking me who did I think I was and what gave me the right to take his bin. I calmly told him I was next in line, and I need it. He kept going. Anyone who knows me is keenly aware of my penchant for becoming a total asshole when someone confronts me and yells. After 4 years in the military I no longer abide being yelled at. However, I like to think that I have become more nuanced now that I am in my mid-40s. I certainly know that while I travel it is best to hold back. There are cultural idiosynchracies that I cannot fathom and it best to let some scenarios play out. Nevertheless, I have also learned that when I am right that is is OK to stand my ground. This time I got right up next to his face, spoke through clenched teeth, squared my shoulders and said "I was next in line and it is mine. Accept it." He backed down.
Our next stop was Delhi. It would have been nice to fly direct from Bangalore to Delhi, but that was not part of the package. We got their around midnight and prepared for a 6 hour layover. We checked into a 1st class lounge, got some snacks and drinks and bedded down for the night. The kids were jazzed up but finally fell asleep around 1:00am. The Delhi airport is very nice, as far as airports go. New, modern and HUGE! We boarded our plane for the 75 minute flight to Leh. Once above the clouds the kids fell back to sleep and I marvelled at the mountains below. The Karakoram Range stretched on for what seemed ever. Glaciers licked the through the valleys and nearly touched many of the peaks. Leh, Ladakh sits in a valley between the Karakoram Mountains and the Himalaya. I was enthralled!
The Most Dangerous Airport in the World
Leh airport is known to be the most dangerous airport to land a plane due to the thin air (11,505 feet in elevation), proximity to high mountain peaks and laying at the bottom of the Indus River Valley which has a tendency to flood. We were in a Boeing 737-300 which is not a big plane by passenger airline standards but I could not imagine anything larger landing there. The approach to the runway was port-side banking spiral between the hills until BAM! we hit the runway. Hard.
We were warned to take no photographs out the windows or of any part of the airport. Leh is a big military town and the airport doubles as an airbase. While taxiing I could see concrete reinforced earthen mounds open on both sides with fighter jet nose cones peeking out.
A shuttle bus brought us to the terminal and luggage was already on the conveyor; except ours wasn't. A very polite young lady from Jet Airways helped us, and via a 2-way radio she spoke with someone, somewhere. She exlpained that our luggage would be on a Kingfisher Airlies flight and she would have it delivered to our hotel at 11:30 that morning. I had zero faith in that statement. Nancy, Court, Effie and I walked outside to find our pre-arranged taxi provided by the hotel. It wasn't there. Here we were, already feeling the adverse affects of the altitude creeping into our skulls, dead tired from lack of sleep, no luggage, no taxi to our hotel and nobody who spoke English around to help. I called the hotel and the young man who answered spoke no real English. I hung up and called again and convinced the same guy to find someone who did. When I got someone on the line who spoke English, he explained that we had been expected the day before. Nevertheless, he told me to get into any taxi and they woud pay for the ride. 10 minutes later we were in the lobby. We quickly checked into our room, had a quick breakfast and all 4 of us promptly fell asleep. At 11:30 the phone rang and we were told our luggage was in the lobby. I went down to get it and the young lady from Jet Airways was there. She took one look at me and apologized for waking me up. I must have looked like hell. Finally, something went right. Over the next few days things would go right and things would go wrong. Nonetheless, this one little thing, luggage, gave me a sense of relief. I looked around and soaked up the atmosphere of that amazing place: the sun was up high, the sky was the most amazing color blue I have ever seen, it was warm, I was surrounded by snow-capped mountains and the hotel was quaint and inviting.
The remains of the day were spent sitting in the hotel's yard, reading and relaxing except for a quick jaunt into Leh for some shopping. The hotel has its own garden and the yard was filled with wild flowers. A cow mooed just behind a stone wall. It was amazing! That night we skipped dinned and fell asleep early, just after 7pm.
Acute Mountain Sickness
I rolled over at 7:00am on the 13th and saw Nancy sitting up in bed. Nancy only sits up in bed if there is a book in her hands. I knew there was trouble. She was sick from the altitude. She was dizzy and nauseated with a splitting headache. I had a headache, but it was minor. I felt a little out of sorts and had a hard time concentrating; in other words, a typical day for me. Nancy, on the other hand, was not OK. I gave her something for her headache and she fell back to sleep. I took some Excederin and felt 90% better 30 minutes later. After a while we all got up. Courtland was very dizzy began vomiting. Effie stood up and immediately became dizzy and sat back down. Effie got back up again and felt OK. She and I headed to the dining hall at the hotel and got breakfast. The staff at the hotel, The Hotel Caravan Centre, were amazing. They brought an omelette and tea to our room for Nancy and Courtland. They treated us like long lost family and truly seemed concerned. It did not feel like it was a thin veneer of concern as with most places I have visited.
After lunch Nancy & Court were feeling better. Nan was doing really well and Court was OK, but not great. He looked awful. Nevertheless, we decided to go sightseeing. We hired a driver and SUV to take us to some local monasteries. The drive to was amazing. We meandered the Indus Valley through several small villages. The very bottom of the valley is filled trees and gardens. The rest of area looks like pictures of Mars. We crossed the Indus River and headed up. And up.
The first Monastery was Hemis. It is set in the hills and is over 500 years old. There were monks milling about the grounds offering polite smiles. There were only a few visitors besides us. There were so many stairs. Stairs are nobody's friend at this altitude. I believe my daughter Effie is part mountain goat. She was running up and down the stairs. Poor Courtland! He could not even fake a smile for a family photo. A polite man from Japan offered to take our picture:
The next monastery was Thiksay. By this time Court was feeling worse did not want to walk any more stairs, so Nan, Effie and he found a bench near the parking lot to rest. I headed up alone and began exploring. Minutes later the other 3 followed. Thiksay is beautiful and had in its shrine a 10 metre tall statue of Buddha. It's hard to gauge the grandeur of this shrine from a photo. It was amazing.
It was getting late and we decided to skip the final monastery on our itinerary and we headed back to Leh for dinner. We went for pizza at Pizza De Hutt. No joke. It wasn't half bad, actually. I have had much worse pizza in Boston or San Francisco. We sat on the 2nd floor (what is referred to as the 1st floor in India. What the US considers as the 1st floor India calls it floor zero) on an outdoor patio and watched the people and traffic go by. There is a large and ancient fort built into the hill which towers over the city. It was magical!
As we got back to the hotel Court had developed a nasty cough. During the night he was up several times. He developed a fever, too. In the morning the hotel arranged for a doctor to make a house call. The doctor was very good. He explained everything to us in non-medical terms and explained that Court had AMS, acute mountain sickness and an upper respirtatory infection. Nancy was feeling rather ill again and my headache had returned. The doc gave Court an injection in the butt for the nausea. This was a traumatic event for him; I'll spare you the details. The doc also prescribed antibiotics for Court. Unlike the US, India does not have liquid meds for children. Court vomited the pills within seconds of swallowing them. I am not 100% certain why there was a pail in the shower, but there was. I was able to get it moments before calamity struck. The doc gave Nancy & I pills to help us adapt to the altitude. For me, they worked perfectly. Nan still had some effects, but they helped her too. The bill for the pills and the house call by the doctor was $22.00
Effie and I had another breakfast together that morning and again, the staff brought food to Nancy and Court in our room. After breakfast I walked into Leh and took several photos.
Leh is a small city of 28,000 people. It is fair to say that 1 out of 10 people in the city that day were Indian Army in uniform. Leh was filled with foreigners from all over the world heading out or returning from treks to the high peaks. One observation of mine that I found odd is this: these young trekkers are incredibly rude! They seem too good for everyone else. I tried smiling and saying hello. Never once did anyone acknowledge my gesture. On the other hand, the locals were very friendly. I like to smile at people when I venture out in to the areas where the people live and the tourists avoid. Invariably, when I smiled the locals would return with a warm smile and a hello, usually followed by a giggle. One thing to note, the rudeness of the foreigners was limited to the 30 and below crowd. The older folks were very friendly.
I headed back to the hotel and watched Court & Ef while Nancy went into town shopping. Money certainly changed hands. Nancy bought some beautiful pashmina shawls and various other decorations that are beautiful and unique to the Kashimir region. I cannot wait to hang them on our walls back in NY.
In Thursday Court was still not feeling well and Nancy convinced me to strkie out on my own. I took my little mountain goat Effie with me. This time we headed west of Leh 65 km to visit more monasteries. We only made it to one, but it was far from a wasted trip. The ride was awesome! If you have ever seen a show where drivers in trucks are traversing narrow unpaved or at best, semi-paved mountain roads with washouts, swtich backs and absolutely no guardrails, this was it! The road goes easily 1000+ feet above the Indus River at some places. It was harrowing. I loved it and so did Effie.
Effie and I arrived at Likir Buddhist Monastery 2 hours after leaving Leh. We were far away from any towns. The monastery is, of course, perched on top of a hill. There is the obligatory statue of Buddha which was beautiful and inspiring overlooking the valley and the path to reach its base. It was somehow comforting to me. Effie posed for a few photos and explored the monastery with me. We headed back to the truck that ferried us there and ate some crackers and peanut butter. Effie said she had had enough and wanted to go back to the hotel.
That night we all went out for dinner in Leh and did more shopping. The restaurant was a hoot! It was calle Leh Garden Restaurant and was outdoors covered with tarps. The floor was nothing but dirt. The food was amazing! I had murgh makhani, better known as butter chicken accompanied by some naan bread. Nancy had chicken tikka. I hate to admit this, but my dish was better than the same one served at the Leela Palace Hotel, a true 5 star establishment with top notch chefs in Bangalore. It was also 1 fifth the price of the Leela's. As soon as we got our bill it began to rain. This would not have been a big deal if we had brought our gore tex jackets that were sitting in our hotel. We had to walk roughly 0.5 kn to the taxi stand in a downpour. We were soaked through and through.
Going Home
That night we arranged for an airport transfer for our 0645 flight out of Leh. We arrived at the airport at 5:30 and went through the layers and layers of security just to get in the front door. When we walked through the main entrance I scanned my surroundings and looked for Nancy and the kids. Effie was missing! A man with a AK-47 was grabbing me by the shirt pulling me through the throng of people surrounding the doorway. I wriggled myself free and headed back to the doorway figuring she got separated from us and was still outside. I saw her almost immediately; she was being marvelled at by a bunch of soldiers who all wanted to touch her. This is not unusual, by the way. Our children are celebrities where ever we go in India. Effie is too damned cute, and Courtland is handsome with that flaxen hair which is, obviously, rare in these parts. Many people want to touch them and have their photos taken with them. Many older women will surreptitiously touch Court's hair. Back to Effie in the doorway: she was standing there with a look of utter horror with tears weeling in her eyes. I guess (hope) she'll never have a thing for men in uniform! At least I hope she won't. I am a veteran and know firsthand what goes on...
Anyhow, in the terminal Court vomits again. There was fog and the flight before us was delayed. 20 minutes before our flight was to take off the fog lifted and snow covered mountains appeared. Much more snow than the day before. On the shuttle to the plane Court vomited again. Poor guy. I knew that he would feel better as soon as we got into the pressurized airplane. Even if the atmosphere in them equates to roughly 6000 feet, that is 5500 feet lower than where we were. We lifted off on time and it worked. Court was almost instantly 50% better. He fell asleep.
Our 90 minute layover in Delhi was stressful. Our bags were not checked through Bangalore so we had to recover them from baggage claim and switch airlines. We did so, and then had to re-check in with a new airline. Do you recall that I wrote about the fact that Delhi airport is HUGE? This does not help when on a tight schedule. After getting wrong, or at a bare minimum confusing advice, we were bumped to the head of the line at check-in, raced through security and made it to our gate 10 minutes before the plane lifted off.
What did I learn?
Good question, I suppose. It would have been a much more satisfying vacation if everyone was in good health. I reinforced my opinion that anything worthwhile requires risk. I knew there was a high likelihood that one or all of us would get AMS. Flying on 9/11 was probably not the wisest choice. Many of you know that I am atheist, which might bring into question why I would visit Buddhist monasteries. Short answer is this: they are beautiful. So are the cathedrals of Europe and mosques of the Middle East. I have seen my fair share of them in each place. I try to learn as much as possible about the world's religions and beliefs that fall outside the religious sphere to better understand what makes people tick. And why do they do, at times, such awful things purportedly with agency from their modality of belief. I feel fortunate that I could share this with Nancy, Courtland and Effie. I learned that I should have prepared better for mountain sickness and that I should carry my rain jacket while in the mountains at all times. Mostly, I learned that this world is a beautiful place and that most people are just trying to get by meagerly, and that a smile and a thank you go a long way.
