Wow
What time of year did you go?
How long did it take to get to Zanska?
Would love to know more, any advise for this area?
I’m captured by the remoteness and lack of tourists to this area. Everyone gravitates to the usual Nepal etc.
I think it was May-June. Nice and sunny during the day, then really cold at night.
It takes forever to get anywhere to be honest, there's buses connecting the main towns generally, but as soon as you get off the one or two main roads, you'll be rattling around inside old 4x4's along bumpy tracks. From Leh to Padum is basically two full days for example. I'm trying to remember exactly what we did...
I flew to Delhi, then took a bus to Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), then we travelled in a loop around to Manali, through Spiti Valley (Highly Recommend). Then from Manali to Leh in Ladakh, and from there went to Zanskar.
In Zhanskar we went to the Puktal Monastery, which is only accessible on foot, as part of a trek we did (the exact route escapes me now), which was one of the highlights. That area is very remote, you'll struggle with internet etc, we stayed in homestays were you get fed lentils and rice, or spinach and rice, or on special occasions lentils and spinach and rice.
I was with a friend of mine and we just organised everything ourselves. These areas are really laid back, it's all Buddhist, everyone's friendly and helpful generally, the only danger is the roads and natural disasters.
Kashmir is a different story, we were planning to go there, but it exploded just at the wrong time and all the roads got blockaded and was impossible to travel into the region. I think it can happen at any time, there's still real, genuine tension around there. I think as a tourist on both sides it's safe enough, as in you won't be targeted and people on both sides are genuinely friendly, but the danger is in getting caught in the middle of something, or getting stranded somewhere with the roads being cut off.
You'll still find a fair few tourists around, especially in Leh. But you're right it's nowhere near as much as Nepal. Personally i found the scenery more impressive in Nepal, but in India it's still stunning.
As for tips, i don't know, it's not a place you can be totally independent, you have to rely on the local people if you're organising it yourself or a guide if you go that way. Just as an example, if you're taking a bus the signs on the bus are in the local language - i.e. a load of squiggles, and the bus stations aren't organised in any way, so the only way to know which bus you need is to ask people, otherwise it's impossible. When asking for help, look for younger people, studenty looking types, they're more likely to have good English. But generally everyone speaks some English so you can get by easily enough.
https://www.indiamike.com/india/ladakh-and-zanskar-f31/ - good info on this site
