Ladakh (Leh) Reviews

Food, sight-seeing and shopping
Pangong Tso Lake - Don't do it in one day - the road is awful, the journey is long and its exhausting. Spend one night out. Nubra Valley - absolutely beautiful. We stayed in a camp and it was by far the best part of the trip. Stay for 2 nights. I believe the dunes at Hundar are fabulous but we did not want to drive for another 2 hours on awful roads so we skipped it. Pizze de hut is a sad looking restaurant but with very good food. Summer Palace has a good reputation but food was average. On the whole the food experience at Leh was very average. Mutton has a very strong smell so the non-veg momos are difficult. Veg Thukpa was very good.

Activities & things to do
River rafting on the Indus is lovely but if you have the time, try and do the Zanskar from Chilling. We did Fey to Nimu and it was fun but we were left begging for more. Ideally, do a longer trip and spend the night out in a camp and Ulu. To really enjoy the monasteries, try and go early in the morning when they are doing their morning pooja. The chanting is superb - a fantastic experience.

Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc.
Very very important to have your medicine bag kitted out. Do not rush Leh. Ideally, spend at least 10 days so that you are not dashing from one place to another and have time to soak in the spectacular scenery. Acclimatise for one full day - this is not a joke. If you fly in, do not do ANYTHING on day one. Take a dimox tablet everyday to deal with the high altitude. Keep Domstal handy to deal with the nausea on the long car journeys and the lack of oxygen. Headaches can probably be avoided if the Dimox is taken regularly. I think the government should have a travel advisory for Leh. The whole town is full of tourists who are suffering with headaches and nausea in varying degrees of severity. The hospital is very used to people coming in suffering from lack of oxygen. The Civil hospital is very good though. Consult your doctor before you go and ensure that you have enough medication to ensure that you are in a healthy frame of mind to enjoy the scenery. Do not stay longer than 5 minutes at Khardungla. It is quite a wretched place though the scenery on either side of the pass beautiful. I can't understand why the army or the government can't provide better toilets along the way. The scenery is so bare, its very hard for women to go out in the open. The army has toilets for which disgusting is a polite word. Considering the government is promoting it as a tourist destination, why they can't improve the toilets is inexplicable. They are really really bad but one has no choice but to use them. Ideally, one should drive to Leh to allow for the acclimatisation. All those who drove, had much fewer problems. If you find it hard to breathe, just go to the hospital and they will give you oxygen. They are quite used to gasping tourists with chest pain, headaches, nausea and blue fingers and toes coming in.