Ladakh – Keylong: We are full..!
The first hotel we looked up on arriving at Keylong did not have any rooms available. So did the second, third and the fourth. The one hotel which could take us in was the most expensive in town. I must have spent a good thirty minutes without much luck, searching through all the hotels near Mall Road. It is not the best feeling – having arrived in some remote town in the middle of the mountains, faraway from everything, only to find out that there is no place to stay. A supposedly nice guesthouse recommended by a friend was closed for good, rented out to house the offices of a government body. The options left, it seemed, were the most expensive and the least expensive. The latter was a bunch of grubby dorms near the bus-stand, mostly used by passengers who take the Delhi-Leh bus that halts for the night in Keylong.
A House on the Slopes of Keylong
It helped making some inquiries at the mall road before resigning to the expensive place. A recommendation by a friendly man (who worked at one of the hotels that was full) lead us towards the old bus stand, along the mall road for a quarter kilometer and then a steep climb through long series of steps. The heavy backpack weighing a dozen kilogram, along with the thin mountain air made it all seem like work. But the place we stumbled into was just how we would like it – clean rooms and loo with wide windows opening up to views of the mountains and the Bhaga Valley. The place was good enough to keep us stay put for four days.
Slopes of Keylong
Of the four days in Keylong, the first was spent visiting the ancient temple filled with fine wood carvings in Udaipur village. Another day was spent gallivanting in Keylong, and the day after that was a festival in Shashur monastery. On the third day we realized we were running out of money! We had forgotten to draw cash at Manali, the last place to find an ATM on the way. So the evening and the next day have to be spent trying to find ways to get to Leh with whatever money was left. The Delhi-Leh bus, discomfort at its best, was the cheapest option, but even that was completely booked. After running around for sometime in search of all possible options, a kind travel agent let us book a shared taxi, accepting only part of the money in advance. The rest was to be paid once we got to Leh, drawing money at one of the ATMs in the market. We were to find out later that it was not as simple as it seemed. And being penniless meant we had to travel direct to Leh, without stopping anywhere on the way. The plan to break the journey at Sarchu, Pang and any other place we wished to on the way, was not to happen.