group tour to Ladakh and Kashmir (part 1)
So I moved back up from dorms-in-cheap-hostels mode to the luxury of a group tour, with private ensuite rooms, buffet breakfasts, private vehicles and guides – not to mention the mental relaxation of not needing to think where I would stay, how I would get there, etc. We met for lunch, then were taken to see a few sights of Delhi (the Humayun’s Tomb complex and the Parliament buildings), out to dinner, then an early night before our flight the next morning to the city of Lah – capital of Ladakh. The first place I’ve ever flown into where we all had to close our window blinds some time prior to landing, so as not to see (and record?) what was going on at the airport, part of which is for the armed forces! Once in Leh, however, everything felt fine, with no obvious security tensions. Surrounded by mountains and overlooked by a fort built in the 17th century, it is a stunning city. There are two mosques on the main street of the bazaar, a Sunni one you can see in the ...