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Ladakh is a land like no other, hundreds of mountain passes and monasteries, cold rugged deserts and the coldest inhabited place on earth after Siberia. Bounded by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Great Himalayas and the Karakoram, it lies athwart two other, the Ladakh range and the Zanskar range. Not quite in the popular tourist circuit like the Kashmir Valley, its a land of stark, rugged landscapes. A group of school friends getting together after 25 years, we travelled to Ladakh in August last year (2007), flying in to Leh from Delhi.

The first part of any tourist's itinerary in Ladakh, is allocated for "acclimatization" so that tourists get used to the rarefied air of Ladakh before they undertake any strenuous activities like walking! Many discussions, scares and advice from people who had travelled to Ladakh (and lot more from people who had not travelled there!) advised us complete rest from 24 to 96 hours before we did anything! As soon as you land at Leh airport, oxygen cylinders are seen in the arrival area, making you involuntarily feel your pulse, heart rate and check if you are still breathing. After we had checked into the guest house, we thought the need for acclimatization was a bit exaggerated and mentioned this to the guest house owner, who warned us to stay indoors and sleep! We understood why as soon as we had finished our chai and headed up a flight of 10 stairs to get to our room, panting. We later learnt that Ladakhi people have special lungs to survive this rarefied air and so do their horses! After a days rest, we were OK and all set to explore Ladakh.

As you approach the region of Ladakh, the aerial view is one of huge contrasts. The stark granite

of the mountains, very high heaps of loose gravel and the only greenery that can be seen is in the narrow valleys. Geologically, the Ladakhi Himalayas have risen up from the sea, when the Indian Ocean tectonic plate and the southern end of the Eurasian plate collided 10 millions

years ago. The sands of the sea was carried up to the summit of the mountains to create a combination of sandy deserts, moonscapes and hard granite backdrops.

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