India 2026/P3 (Leh, Thiksey & Alchi)
Place: Leh, and what I have seen of Ladakh very much feels like a frontier region - building work everywhere, the sounds of shovels and labour mixed in with serious militarisation. A land & people in flux, both politically & environmentally, a culture pulled up from the glacial rubble that could so easily sink back in.
Ladakh is situated at the intersection of the disputed borders with both China and Pakistan, and has seen a massive influx of troops, heavy artillery and defensive infrastructure following the deadly 2020 border stand-offs. The establishment of military ‘buffer zones’ has restricted local access to historical grazing lands, heavily affecting traditional livelihoods like pashmina goat herding.
Travel notes: travelling at altitude was hard work, and I never expected to be hit on multiple occasions with AMS (acute mountain sickness). I expected the initial tiredness, breathlessness and irritability when I landed in Leh at 3500m - but days later and exhaustion, a complete lack of appetite, headaches, nausea along with an IBS flair-up conspired to make image-making almost impossible. Thankfully I was travelling with my partner, and we took turns with sharing our AMS symptoms, living on copious amounts of water, lassies, ginger tea and garlic soup!
Sleeping was a luxury as we had to sit upright to help with the breathing, and when somnolence eventually claimed us we had the most extraordinarily tippy dreams - clear, filmic and quite disturbing at times!
A cultural exchange project //
Images l/r
Leh from Leh Palace
Looking up to Leh Palace
On route to Stok Palace
Ancient stupas, Thiksey
View from Thiksey monastery
Peganum harmala (wild Rue) growing along the Keylong-Leh Road in Ladakh (the greening of Ladakh)
Alchi
On route to Chiling
Mountain View Restaurant, Srinagar-Ladakh Highway (NH-1D), a strategic 434 km mountain route connecting Srinagar to Leh
Willows taking root in the glacial rubble, Mountain View Restaurant, on route along the Srinagar-Ladakh Highway
Mountain View Restaurant, overlooking Ladakh Range
Cafe along the Srinagar-Ladakh Highway. They were bemused by my request to photograph them, so we had some ginger tea and noodles! We got chatting via our guide, and they invited us to see their kitchen, in which they rustled up their fab fresh fast food
The Cafe kitchen ...
Somewhere along the Srinagar-Ladakh Highway (NH-1D)
Somewhere along the Srinagar-Ladakh Highway, family portrait
Unknown location (off the NH-1D)
Fly-tipping has become a serious problem in this fragile landscape, from the both tourists and more industrial means
Ladakh is heavily militarised (signs often state that trespassers will be shot)
Near a military base (location un-recorded)
The selfie at the Khardung La pass at 5,602m
Khardung La pass (a military checkpoint)
Photography me photographing you ...
(BRO) at Khardung La pass
North Pullu is a checkpoint on the road that connects Leh with the Nubra Valley. It is located North of Khardung La, on the Nubra Valley side
Looking back up the valley towards Khardung La pass from North Pullu
North Pullu (behind the scenes)
North Pullu, refreshment shack
Looking down into The Shyok River valley, originating from the Rimo Glacier in the eastern Karakoram, is a 550km tributary of the Indus River