Day 15 7 May Another (unscheduled) day in Ladakh

Photo above - Me when I found out my flight to Delhi had been cancelled! More to follow

Airport closed, flights cancelled, stuck in Ladakh

The plan today was to fly from Leh in Ladakh, to Delhi to get a connection to Dubai. However, woke up at 5.30am to see the news that there had been some skirmishes between India and Pakistan, and that all flights from Leh have been cancelled and air space closed.

As it takes two days from Leh to Delhi by road at least, it seemed that I needed to try and reschedule my flights. Easier said than done as it had to be done by phone and I did not have any network. We decided on local advice to go down to the airport which is in the town, being a very small domestic only one. When we got there we found it to be under army control and closed. Luckily, we had called out our guide, who we had previously said our farewells to, and he had agreed to meet us there.

With some negotiation and some showing of passports and tickets, we got through the army barriers and on to airport grounds. We walked to the departure gate, basically a concrete single level room, and round the side found a few Air India staff who were answering customer enquiries. Essentially they said we can rebook for tomorrow, but it is 50/50 whether air space will be open again. So armed with a ticket for the 8th, we walked back out passed the strong army presence, and went back to the hotel for a 7.30 breakfast. Luckily the hotel had spare rooms, and probably they will be losing customers anyway who cannot fly in to Leh from elsewhere. There seems to be a lot of confusion as to how long the airport will be shut for, but fingers crossed we can get out tomorrow.

More cancellations 

After a nice relaxing morning walk up to a nearby stupa with great views over Leh, we caught a cab down to the town and had a snack in a local cafe. We got a cab back up to the hotel, then I checked my emails to find tomorrow's flight has been cancelled and there will be no flights out of Leh until at least the next 3 days. I have to be in Azerbaijan by 10th so the next challenge was, how to get to Delhi to get a flight out of India!

As my phone does not work for calls here, and the only way to reschedule or cancel and get refunds is to call the Air India call centre, I asked the hotel if we could use their phone. They said that the best option would be to go to the Air India office down in the town, which we did not know was there. We went down there and found it was a travel agent but he was really helpful and called the call centre on our behalf. So I now have a rescheduled flight for 9th May from Delhi, if I can get there in time by road and if things dont escalate politically and they close Delhi airport as well!

The only way out is by road

So tomorrow a road trip to Delhi starts at 3am!! With a drive south through the Zanskar and Pir Panjal mountain ranges in the Himalayas!! What could possibly go wrong!

Shanti stupa above Leh

Shanti Stupa above Leh

View of Leh from the stupa