Gulf Today - Panorama

LIVING THEEDGE ON

INDIA’S COLD DESERT LADAKH IS PERCHED BETWEEN LOFTY MOUNTAIN RANGES AND OFFERS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, FROM BACKPACKIN­G TRAILS TO LUXURY HOTELS

- By Martin Symington

My journey into Ladakh took two days on a decrepit green-andchrome bus that honked and gasped its way over death-defying passes. I arrived in this land of scorched desert and brilliant-white monasterie­s — locked high in the Himalayas between Tibet, Pakistan and Kashmir — too knackered to know where I was.

That was more than two decades ago, in the days when the only travellers in Ladakh were backpacker­s.

This time it was an hour-long hop from monsoon-soaked Delhi, flying over freshly minted peaks and glaciers before the clouds petered out and the mountains turned brown and dusty.

Everything about this far-north region of India is extreme. The heart-pounding altitude; the startlingl­y intense light; the world’s highest roads; the zeal for Tibetan-style Buddhism. And the fact that there is now a smattering of heritage hotels and ultra-luxury camps that can set you back a crazy £250 a night.

Is there a middle way between backpacker basic and bonkers? To find out, I forged a 12-day itinerary with travel company Exodus. I would glory in the cultural and scenic highlights, staying mostly at mid-range hotels and guesthouse­s. These, I was to find, are now largely the preserve of Ladakh’s new tourists: Indians from all over the subcontine­nt.

From Ladakh’s largest town, Leh, my erudite and fun-loving Ladakhi guide Norbu took me first up the wide Indus valley to Thikse Gompa. The multi-storey monastery stands commanding­ly on a crag like a smaller version of Lhasa’s Potala palace. From a rooftop fluttering with prayer flags, I gazed over the valley to swaying fields of barley irrigated from the milkyblue river.

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