Almost Disconnected

A little story from my recent trip to Ladakh ...

Our driver, Tashi, who we thought should be a model instead

We said our temporary goodbye’s to Tashi, our 27 year old, lean and tall driver, who dropped us off at the home-stay in Likhir and drove away. The plan was that he would pick us up from the same village in 2 days, after we were done with our trek and take us back to Leh, where we would spend the night and head out to Nubra Valley the next morning. 

Except that the original plan of us trekking to Yangthang, spending the night at a home-stay and then doing the same route back the day after, didn’t make sense any longer. Our guide, Norbu rightly suggested that instead we should trek to Hemis on the second day, a different trail which will make the walk more interesting, and get picked up from there. 

The challenge at this point was to inform Tashi of our change in plans. With no connectivity in Likhir our only hope was that Yangthang would be more cellular friendly. 

Our super warm hosts in Likhir

After a breakfast of Khambir, which is a Ladakhi bread, freshly made by our host, spread generously with butter and jam, we were all set for our 5 hour mountain trek. Tashi teased us about it being a ‘baby trek’ and watching Norbu, it felt like he was taking a stroll in the park. On the other hand Naresh, my friend, and I were huffing and puffing within no time, the thin mountain air at about 11,000 feet not helping and the climbs starting to feel like we were reaching for Mount Everest. 

Took only a couple of pictures during the trek
when we were in flat lands

“I have to go back and get fitter,” was a thought I had many, many times. After a particularly long ascend of about 40 minutes, with a couple of stops on the way, we reached a point where we simply had to take a longer break. The place was scenic, just like most places in Ladakh are, and as I sat myself down on a large rock, unstrapped my water bottle and reached out to get a packet of biscuits, I heard a series of familiar tones. At that exact spot, in the middle of nowhere, not a soul or a home in sight, our phones had found a way to connect us to the world! 

As I took the phone out of my pocket, there were Sms notifications, Whatsapp messages, Facebook comment notifications and a couple of missed calls. 

“Let’s call Tashi!” I said excitedly. 

A couple of minutes later we had informed him about our change in plans and life was good once again. Temporarily, as a few minutes later we were back to our disconnected status. Except that it didn’t matter any longer. Who needs a phone when you have the mountains for company?

The joy of connectivity when you really need it

Yangthang, a very pretty village, with a stream running across it, sparsely populated and greener than anyplace we had been to so far, was exactly what we needed. Our rooms, situated on the rooftop, had large windows and comfortable beds. At one corner of the roof was a mobile phone hanging from a bamboo pole. We found out later that it was the only spot where they were sometimes able to get a phone signal! ‘Rarely’ is probably a more appropriate word than ‘sometimes’ because the entire time that we were in the village, there were no bars on that phone and Norbu found out later that, just like Likhir, there was no way to call from Yangthang either.

Fields of green and yellow at Yangthang

So in a nutshell, if we hadn’t stopped at that exact spot to catch our breath, there would have been no way to inform Tashi of our change in plans. In which case, we would have had to trek back to Likhir instead of Hemis. In which case I would have no story to write about. In which case you and I wouldn’t be connected at this very moment.