Woke up today at 1:40 am – a bit before the 2 am wake up call, feeling not too bad. Headed to the airport for our 5:30 am flight. Had a Starbucks at the airport to try to avoid falling asleep on the short flight. Wasn’t lucky enough to get a window seat but managed to have people on each side of the plane take some photos. Got one of the sunrise and one of the sun hitting the mountains.
Arrived in Leh around 6:45 and got our transfer to the hotel. Had a second breakfast at the hotel and got our rooms. Took a bit of a nap to catch up on some sleep. Given that Leh is at about 3800 metres our guide wanted us to rest. Got up and had lunch in the hotel – some Indian buffet. After lunch lounged around for a bit and then we had a briefing on AMS (acute mountain sickness) and then went for an orientation walk around Leh. Leh is a small town, which is a based for hiking and other outdoor activities, similar to El Chalten in Argentina – lots of hikers and wanderers roaming about town.
Stopped for a latte near the main bazaar and went to a photo exhibition of photos of the Ladakh area, including some good snow leopard photos. Got some filtered water at a stand to reduce plastic bottles and then headed back to the hotel for a relax on the terrace before dinner. There were some threatening clouds and a couple of drops of rain but the weather managed to hold up. Definitely a lot drier and cooler than Delhi though.
Went to the room briefly to try and get some wifi but didn’t have any luck. Felt like I was going to fall asleep so went to the roof to take some photos and then headed to the lobby to sit. Chatted with our guide briefly and tried the wifi again before dinner. Had dinner in the hotel tonight as the guide wanted us to rest as much as possible. Was a pretty good Indian buffet.
After dinner headed back to the room to prepare for bed. Was a brief power outage but only for a minute. Feeling pretty tired after the early morning flight so I figure I should sleep well tonight. Tomorrow will be some sightseeing around Leh.