על הוביטים בבני אדם

Today we will learn how not to take a bus to Leh, how not to aclematize to high altitude and more

Manali is fun, peacefull and green.
So much time I was waiting to escape the heat and humidity of the middle east who chased me up to Delhi, I was thrilled to meet the green fields and woods of chill mamali.

4 days there made me realize that the season to Leh is over and nobody will come with me for trekking from Darcha to Lamayuru.

time for plan B,go by bus.

me ,one guy from poland and 2 from Israel took a minibus (900 Rs) to Leh in a wild goose chase of 19 hours.

we left manali in 2 AM in the morning and imidiently afterwarth stopped by the police.

Our Polish friend had a ball of hashish in his pocket but the police didnt find it

after 20 minuts of searching they lets us go but our driver went somewhere for another 30 minuts.

only around 3 o'clock we depart and ascend the Rothang pass road.

I woke up around 5 oclock in the barren mountain land of Lahol where the road become badly maintained and big rocks thratens to fall on our head any minut so no sleeping time any more.

the bus jumped while driving and we felt like potato's in a sack. all jumping up and down without the ability to grip something solid.

we stopped to lunch around Darcha which is 4 wood huts made for serving Thali ( rice and lentil soup) for hungry travellers, bus and triuck drivers and such.

from that point the road ascend to Baralach la pass that was surounded by snowy mountains.

from there a hard descent to a wide pletue and up again to the yonder pass: lachlung la (5200 m altitude)

from there the road was more then terrible and we drove until pang (a few hutts for food and shalter 4000 m altitude)

from Pang, which is in a valley of some stream, we took a detour up the mountains and to a wide plain where there was no road. our driver chased 2 jeeps as if his life was depand of it. like a savana safari in Africa when the canibal tribe people chasing you ( or a pack of hungry lions).

at length, we start ascending on a beaten trail up to tanglangla pass (5400 m more or less) which was freezing cold and windy.

descending from there in to a stream that go dramatically down to the Indus valley where we reached Upchi.

welcome to ladakh. paved road again...

one hour ride from 8 to 9 in the evening we reached Leh andthe  3 of us dragged to a guest house by our collar in a villege called sankar, just 10 minets walk north then Leh city center.

Leh is 3500 m above sea level where oxigen level is low and the human body have to acclamitized to the altitude, while resting.

well,during the next 2 days I was running around Leh unlished and the panishment awaited nearby.

during my second night in Leh I heard my lungs girgling while lying down and I spit red thing while caughing....

wow, in 2 AM in the morning I walked to the hospital and got immidiently an oxigen mask for 5 hours.I also got injection of sulfe that drained liquids from my lungs and antibiotics to prevent lung infection.

During the next 4 days I was lying in my geust house doing nothing and all I had to do is to observe the rain that swept the Indus valley and the mountains encircling it.

My three campanions took a jeep to a remote valley which one have to cross a high pass (5600m)in order to get there from Leh.

 unluckily for them they crossed it back exactly in the time of the storm.

they almost died this night because the snow became ice and the trucks were sliding down dengerously.

eventually they took shalter in the army base in the pass and the soldiers gave them sleeping bags, heater and oxigen.

next day I myself who was staying in the comfort of Leh, felt better and visited 3 buddhist monesteries and really enjoyed the sunshine after 2 days of clouds and coldness

anyway,I hope you understood my english and enjoied reading.

bye from now and Juley from Ladakh