Viswanathan K's Thoughts

During our trip to Ladakh, I found all varieties of cars running perfectly well even at the high altitudes of the Himalayan passes (17-18 thousand feet). The internal combustion engine works even with the lesser oxygen, I mused. The moment I thought that, I realized that the difference in oxygen level couldn’t be all that much, otherwise tourists like ourselves would be struggling for breath.   But I wasn’t totally wrong on the point either. Our driver told us most new vehicles are tested in Ladakh. If they can run with the slightly lower level of oxygen there, they can run anywhere.   Like all kids, my 12 yo daughter is a lover of high-end cars. Mercedes and BMW top the list, of course. Thankfully, she doesn’t see Ferraris in Bangalore but I guess things will change if we visit Dubai. Needling her, I pointed out that most of the cars in rugged Ladakh seemed to be Hyundai’s and good old Maruti’s. Don’t see any of the fancy, delicate BMW’s or Merc’s, I added for good me...

I learnt quite a few interesting things from our driver-cum-guide during our Ladakh vacation. About tourism in the place.   Until even recent times, the place had very tight restrictions. This had an amusing consequence when Ladakh, as part of J&K, was still a state. States, if you remember, have MLA’s. But for security reasons, even the MLA needed permission to visit parts of Ladakh right at the border! As often as not, permission would be denied even to the MLA.   But ever since the BJP came to power at the center in 2014, the emphasis and promotion of tourism right upto the border has increased. Why? Multiple reasons. One, it is a very public way of telling the other country (China, Pakistan) that this is our land. Two, if tourists come right to the border, the locals in those areas have an incentive to live there and not migrate inland. Three, if our people live/visit a place all the time, it is hard for the enemy to arbitrarily move the (border) line in the sa...

Next day, the driver took us to the Khardung La pass that connects the Indus valley to the Shyok valley. It’s at a height of over 17,982 feet. The roads are curvy and narrow, like the ones to Ooty. Except these go to a much, much higher altitude and you can see snow on the mountains. Even on these roads (and everywhere else we went), we saw large groups of bikers –it was impressive how long these guys could ride.   Along the way, we walked up a snowy slope, had some fun in the snow, and took photos. Like all tourist spots, the top of the pass has a shop that sells the T-shirts and other memorabilia. Except these are sold by the Army! My wife and I bought them for ourselves, but my 11 yo daughter wasn’t interested. I mocked her saying that she felt this was too cheesy, but the I Love NYC shirts aren’t. It had no effect. Oh well, her loss.   On the way down, we stopped at the 108 feet Maitreya Buddha . Buddhist structures are so tall, colorful and spacious.   ...

For our Himalayan vacation, we went to Ladakh . The view from the plane was great – on most flights, you see nothing below when there is a gap in the clouds. Here, the Himalayas were visible in almost every gap.   We landed in the afternoon at Leh , which is at a height of 11,500 feet (For comparison, both Srinagar and Vaishno Devi are at 5,200 feet, half the height). Our itinerary for that day? Do nothing, just rest and acclimatize to the lesser air and oxygen, our travel agency had told us (Here, you need permits for everything, so it’s best to go through a local agent). (In case you wondered, it’s the same concentration of oxygen – 21% - just that there’s less air at that altitude, and 21% of “lesser” translates to less oxygen)   The hotel we stayed in was very luxurious (the Zen Ladakh ) – it was one of the venues for the G20 summit. It was centrally heated, and to my 11 yo daughter’s immense relief, had free Wi-fi. That evening, we walked to and from the nea...