So...the last few days have been crazy... This road is simultaneously the most stunningly spectacular and thouroughly terrifying and painful trip of our lives...
Disclaimer: We have a flight back to Delhi so none of this will be repeated....
Tuesday
6am- woke up after only 5 hours of sleep to catch the local bus
8:30am- attempted to catch the first local bus but by the time we found it it was packed beyond overcrowding...people spilling out the doors and on the roof
10:30am- Tried to catch the second local bus...we were more prepared this time and chased it down as soon as it pulled into the bus depot but the mobs at the doors were too much to get through and we did not get on...a couple of foriegners did get on but they had literally no room to move and would be standing, crammed into one spot, for at least 8 hours...
11am- no more local buses today so we decided to take the tourist minibus that makes the trip in one 18ish hour journey...it doesn't leave until 2AM though...
11am-2am--try to find things to entertain ourselves...
Wednesday
2am--get on the 11 seater minibus and set off for the voyage
4am--pass over the first of three major mountain passes--this one 4300 meters...the road, if you can call it a road, was just a mud slick...we spent most of the morning slidding around trying to get over the pass...the road is barely 1.5 lanes but serves as the two lane road--passing is terrifying as we squeeze by buses and dumptrucks with no barrier and a sheer cliff to the side...
4am to noon--more crazy 'roads'...the potholes are ubiquitous and our bodies our bodies are battered and bruised...our hearts race everytime we pass someone, coming within inches of the side of a cliff...
1pm--get stuck in our first landslide--luckily, there is a bulldozer on the scene already so we only wait half an hour...brie pees on the road between two cars for shelter!
4pm--cross our second pass, at 5050 m, everyone starts to feel the symptoms of altitude sickness...
8pm--cross the third pass, at 5300m, it is three times the height of Golden Ears Mountain, our driver tells us it is the second highest mountain pass in the world...at this point, everyone has a headache from the altitude along with various other ailments such as motion sickness from the insanely bumpy ride...
11pm--we arrive in Leh, after 21 hours on the road, and more the 36 hours without sleep...we are exhausted, we are sore, we are thankful to be alive! The mountian views are like nothing I have ever seen and if there was a proper road I would recommend everyone take this voyage as it is just stunningly beautiful...but with the roads the way they are, I would not recommend anyone take this voyage...
Midnight--we finally find a hotel and fall into bed, exhausted...
Thursday
3am-- wake up and every muscle from my lower back up to the base of my skull is aching from the jarring ride...
10 am-- we wake up and are still exhausted...we are not used to the altitude and everything feels like a chore...getting changed we are out of breath...
10am-9pm--we spend most of the day in bed, resting, just getting up to eat...
Friday (today)
We are taking another rest day...our bodies haven't quite adjusted yet...hopefully tomorrow we will be able to get up and explore the town...
We are so thankful that we booked a flight back to Delhi...neither of us could do that trip again...that is definitly a once in a lifetime thing...
Hope everyone is doing well...
Maryam and Jason, we hope you had a wonderful trip! We had originally planned to trek here in Leh because it is a desert so the weather is great! It is the one place in India and Nepal that is spared the monsoon...but we are not sure if we will be able too--the altitude just drains everything out of you...
Bye for now,
Taylor and Brie
