We recently did an amazing seven day trek with our eight year old in the Markha Valley in Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas. After sharing some photos and details of our rich discussions with the people we met, we had multiple questions from friends. How did you organize it? How did you communicate with the locals?
There are lots of stories online about how to do it without a guide. For this trip, with a little kid, and lacking Ladakhi in our modest suite of languages, we decided to go with a guide. Not everything has to be hard.
So here’s what we can share. It’s actually really easy to organise a trek like this.
Be clear: it’s still a difficult trek to do. It’s high altitude, it’s seven days of walking to cover 85 km (52 miles), there are river crossings and narrow gravelly paths on steep slopes. If you take your kid, you’ll have to carry their stuff on top of your own. Hauling a pack up some of those climbs – at altitude – takes effort. In my case, probably over-packed with cameras and stuff I didn’t strictly need, I think my pack was over 12kg (26lb). I could have skinnied that down to maybe 7kg (15 lb) which doesn’t sound much until you’re lugging it uphill at over 5,000 meters (16,400 feet).
So, it’s not easy to do. But it is easy to organize.
“Trekking with kid” contextual background: we have been taking our kid hiking since before she could walk. She’s used to being in the mountains, she likes camping, she is an adventurous eater and a good hiker. Like any kid, she’ll complain if she’s tired but walking ten kilometers in a day is not out of the ordinary for her.
This was our second trip to Ladakh. The first, pre-kid but pregnant, saw us do the shorter Sham Valley trek, and I also climbed a 6,137 meter (20,100ft) mountain called Stok Kangri. We liked it so much we agreed we’d come back when the kid was old enough to handle the altitude.
We did the Sham Valley trek again, before this one, just to make sure kiddo was going to be into it. She was.
The basics:
The Markha Valley is near the town of Leh, in the Indian region of Ladakh (a “union territory” roughly like a state or a province). Leh is at 3,500 meters (11,500 feet) elevation; the Valley is at least that or higher depending where you are. The route crosses a pass at 5,260 meters (over 17,000 feet) so it’s genuinely high altitude, just one hundred meters lower than Everest Base Camp in Nepal (5,364 meters or 17,598 ft).
Leh is full of competent local companies who can organize a trek for you. This will include accommodation in “home stays” – literally a spare room in a local’s house in a small village along the way, with food. They call these tea houses in Nepal. You will also get a guide who at the very least knows the route, and in the best case speaks English well, can tell you a lot about the places you’re seeing, and interpret for you so you can have meaningful discussions with the local people hosting you.
It’s EASY to organize. It might be hard to actually do the trek, depending on your fitness and confidence at altitude, but it’s EASY to organize.
Best of all, it’s easy to organize in Leh. There is zero reason to pay extra (a LOT extra) to some external company which will just sub-contract you to an outfit in Leh. Get there and organize it directly with the local company who will take you trekking (or if you really want to, organize it from abroad, but directly with that company).
Getting to Leh:
First things first. Fly from your home country to Delhi, the capital of India. Depending what passport you hold, you may need a tourist visa. Don’t pay a commercial service for that. Just apply online from the official Indian government portal for an “eVisa”. A 30 day tourist visa costs about US$10. You’ll need a scan of your passport data page and a photo that meets Indian visa requirements (passport photo places will know the specs). Within about 24 – 48 hours you will receive an email noting whether your visa status is “granted”. If it is, print that out and have it with you when you arrive in India. The immigration officer at the airport will stamp your passport with a visa. Boom! You’re in India.
Make a separate booking for the 90 minute flight from Delhi to Leh – budget airlines serve that route and you can buy tickets online generally cheaper than your travel agent can do. Book early! Tickets can get very expensive. Check your dates carefully! Changes can get very expensive. I booked my tickets through www.booking.com because I found the Indian airline websites and my Australian Visa card couldn’t see eye to eye. The price was the same as advertised on the airline websites. Vistara seems to be the nicest airline; IndiGo the most basic.
Side Note: Delhi transfer
You’re likely to need, or want, a night or two in Delhi after your long haul flight. This could be because you’re exhausted, because you want to look around Delhi, or because you get into Delhi after the last flight up to Leh. Use the pre-paid taxi service at Delhi arrivals (just outside the terminal) so you don’t have any hassles. Just tell them where you’re going – for example, your hotel name – pay the small fee and then take the ratty old taxis right by the stand. Delhi traffic is a shock for those who haven’t seen it before but don’t worry, you’ll get there. Be prepared – the taxi is likely to be a ratty old Suzuki minivan or a ratty old small Suzuki car. That’s ok, you’re on vacay. Enjoy the craziness. Delhi is fun when you just embrace the craziness. The first time I caught a cab from Delhi airport to downtown Delhi we got stuck behind an elephant. Ten minutes off the plane and it was already an adventure to remember!
Organizing the trek:
When you get to Leh, you’ll need three or four days doing pretty much nothing while you adjust to the altitude. Don’t underestimate the importance of proper acclimatization. You were in Delhi 90 minutes ago – just barely above sea level – and now you’ve landed at 3,500 meters (11,500 feet). You are entitled to feel lethargic, tired, short of breath and headachey. Let your body adjust. Drink plenty of water; take naps as needed; lay off the caffeine and alcohol. On day two or three, roam around slowly and scope out the trekking companies.
It helps if you know roughly what you want to do – in this case, the Markha Valley Trek. There are multiple options to consider – number of days, specific route, etc. There’s more detail on that further below. You also want to ask clear questions about what’s included in the price. Most places should be able to give you all that detail on a piece of paper. The price should include the guide, all the accommodation, the vehicle to and from the start and end point, and food. Food means breakfast and dinner at the homestay guesthouse and a “packed lunch” each day.
Apart from these details, get a vibe. Are your questions being answered clearly? If not, try rephrasing them first and remember English is not the first language of your average Ladakhi. If you’re still unclear, see how you feel about that. Remember, you’re not obliged to go with someone just because you’ve gotten into a detailed discussion. If you don’t like the person you’re dealing with, move next door and try the next one.
Guides work on an availability basis, so you won’t necessarily meet your guide until she or he picks you up on day one at your guest house. It’s a little bit luck of the draw, especially personality-wise. But you should have a basic sense of whether they can speak English reasonably well. You can also ask if they are Ladakhi or Nepali. Both are awesome, but of course a Ladakhi guide might have more to tell you about Ladakh and its history and customs. Our guides were Ladakhi and had grown up in mountain villages. They had lots of amazing stories.
Once you’re happy with the details of your trek, including your proposed route, the guide, and any other arrangements, you’re done. Pay your deposit; then pay the rest. On day one your guide will collect you at your guesthouse early in the morning (like 7 am). You’ll hop in a vehicle and set off for the starting point.
Easy.
Here are two companies to consider:
Ladakhi Women’s Travel Company – more expensive (by about 25 per cent) than others, though you can negotiate a bit. We chose this company based on our 2014 experience and because it was founded by a woman to provide independent income for other women in a time when female guides were almost unheard of. See the case study below.
Wandering Wisdom – cheaper and perhaps typical of the slicker local trekking companies. This was our back-up plan when things went a bit awry with the company we chose.
Case Study: On the morning of the Markha trek, our guide showed up wearing a mask and obviously sick. I could hear her coughing in the garden when I was standing in the hotel room. She had been caught out trekking in the rare rain that swept across Ladakh a few days prior. For her health, for ours, and to avoid the risk that she’d get sicker a few days into the trek, we insisted on a new guide. Being the morning of the trip, that was not exactly easy for the company to do. They offered Lamo, a porter and trainee guide who knew the Markha Valley route but barely spoke English. This wasn’t really satisfactory for us because we wanted to learn about the places we were seeing, and also we wanted to be able to communicate with our guide and through her with our homestay hosts. By luck, Rigzin, our guide from the short Sham Valley trek we had done a few days earlier, was available on no notice. She spoke English really well, but had never been to the Markha Valley.
After some polite but firm negotiations, backed up by raising the possibility of taking our case for a refund to the local tourist police and using another company (Wandering Wisdom, listed above, which said it could put together the trek that morning for less), we ended up with both Rigzin and Lamo and we were on our way. This was a great combination and we ended up having a fantastic trip. From what we could tell, the two guides had a good time too and we all got along well.
The Route:
There are a few ways to tackle the Markha Valley Trek. Some people start at a town called Chiling and walk into the next village, called Skiu. We started on the other side of the mountain near Zingchen and Rumbuk, spent our first night at Yurutse, then over a high pass down to Shingdo. From there, we took lunch in Skiu and continued to Sara.
From Skiu the route is the same for everyone – there’s only one way down the Markha Valley. There are various places to stay but most people will overnight in Markha itself and then further along in Hankar. From there, it’s up to the tented camp at Nimaling. Most routes then go over the high pass and down the other side through the river gorge to Chogdo (where we were picked up) or a little further to Shang Sumdo for a vehicle back to Leh.
Personally I liked our route because it had a fairly high pass to test whether the kid could handle the really high one later, while we still had options to turn around.
What to expect on the trek:
You’re going to do some walking – that much is obvious. On the Markha Valley trek, a typical day will be 10-12 km (6-7.5 miles) but the longer days can be 20+ km (12.5 miles). Most days are relatively flat but there is at least one day with a lot of up then down (the last day when you climb, crest and descend the pass). The route we took had two high altitude passes – one on the second day and one on the last – so we had two of those up/down days.
You need to judge whether you, and especially your kid, can handle that. The longer day – 20km/12.5m – is flat but it is long and it was hot. The climbs up to the high passes feel relentless when you’re doing them. You need all the mental energy you can summon to keep you, and your kid, putting one step after the other.
But apart from the obvious – walking – what can you expect?
River Crossings:
There are plenty of these. Some are easy rock-hopping jobs like you probably do on any hike. A few are shoes-off wading through cold knee-deep water with a bit of flow, but nothing you can’t handle if you’re careful. Go across arm in arm or hand in hand with another hiker to steady yourself. Take it one step at a time and get your footing before taking another step. Not for nothing is there an old Chinese saying, which still has its actual meaning as well as its metaphorical one:
摸着石头过河 – cross the river by touching the stones
On the last day, there are some multiple more serious river crossings as you descend from the high pass. Knee-deep or thigh-deep in fast flowing water, these can be a bit nerve-wracking if you let them get to you but they, too, are manageable. The path winds its way down the narrow gorge and crosses the river multiple times. Because water levels rise through the day as the sun heats up the landscape these crossings get deeper the further down you go. By the end, we didn’t even bother taking off our boots. We just waded through. It’s the last day – assuming you have a spare pair of shoes waiting for you in Leh, you’re only going to have wet feet for a short time.
For all these crossings, rely on your guide but also yourself. Our guide Lamo was a human gazelle, leaping effortlessly from rock to rock. She sometimes picked crossings that were clearly not the easiest way to get across. We regularly chose our own spots based on what we knew we could jump safely.
Sun:
It’s generally pretty sunny in Ladakh and in high altitude where the air is thinner the atmosphere blocks way less ultra-violet (UV) light than down low. UV is the real culprit for sunburn. So you’re going to need to reapply sunscreen through the day (especially if you work up a sweat, which you will, because: walking). Sunglasses and a good hat are the other essentials. Remember to put sunscreen on the top of your hands – they sit there in the blazing sun all day long. Cover the back of the neck, top of the chest, and anywhere your skin is exposed.
Water:
The tea houses all have filtered water you can safely drink, so fill up your water bottles each morning. You need to keep hydrated, for all the usual reasons but also because at altitude you dehydrate faster. I got through several litres of water on the last day and I felt like I was drinking the bare minimum that was safe. If your pee is yellow or you’re not peeing at all, you need to drink more. Don’t wait until your mouth is dry and you’ve stopped sweating – chances are it’s too late. Just keep drinking throughout the day.
There are no reliable sources of drinkable water along the way, but there is plenty of water. Just about everywhere there are streams bubbling away. These often look clean and inviting …until you notice the dead yak killed by a wolf and decomposing by the stream, or you see all the animal poo all over the mountain.
At least three simple solutions are readily available: water purification tablets which you can get at pharmacies or outdoor shops; portable water filters (my choice, used on this trek, is the Katadyn filter); or the Lifestraw (which kiddo used). In each case, the idea is to counter the effect of waterborne bacteria and parasites. I like filters much more than tablets, because they also filter out dirt and other gunk and they don’t taste like…water purification tablets.
Whichever you choose, they can give you a steady supply of drinkable water from the streams you’ll pass along the way. To maximize the life and effectiveness of the filter, begin with the cleanest water you can find. This means clear little streams, not the big silty rivers.
With practice, the Katadyn filter can be set up in a minute, can pump a few litres of water in another few minutes, and packed away just as fast. You can fill three bottles from a stream in under ten minutes.
Food:
Hope you like chapatis? It helps to like boiled eggs and potatos, too. That’s your typical “packed lunch”, along with a small chocolate bar and a “fruity”, the local name for a small juice carton with a straw that kids often take to school. If you’re lucky you might score fried rice or some nice salty cooked greens to wrap your chapati around.
You probably won’t care what you’re missing in variety at lunchtime because you’ll be focused on scarfing it all down quickly to replace all the calories you’re burning. Usually you’ll also get a little foil package with some salt. Generally, of course, tons of salt is bad for you (something about heart disease?) but here you’ll welcome it and not just for the flavour it adds to a boiled potato. It helps replace some of the salts you sweated out and can also help with cramping. If cramping afflicts you, tip some salt on your hand and lick your palms. To paraphrase Ferris Bueller, it’s a little childish and stupid but then, so’s high school – and you probably did even less dignified things back then. So relax, and lick away.
Dinners are generally a lot better. Tea houses seem to like to serve an entree of soup, invariably Maggi packet soup. I’d normally never eat that but – apart from being polite to the generous hosts who are trying to make you comfortable – I craved that salty flavour after a long dehydrated day outside. Afterwards you will normally get large quantities of momos (Tibetan dumplings), and/or a big plate of chutaki (so-called Ladakhi pasta, little pasta shapes made of dough and served in a soupy vegetable sauce with potato and greens); variations of dhal (cooked lentils); or maybe fried rice.
Breakfast is based around chapatis which you eat with scrambled eggs, apricot jam, or peanut butter.
Note for kids: they’ll have to eat what’s on offer or starve. There’s no alternative food for picky eaters.
Milk tea:
Goodness. Milk tea. I *lived* for that stuff, especially on the longer days. There is nothing quite like arriving at a tea house you never thought you’d reach, dumping your pack, taking off your shoes, effusively responding to your host’s effusive welcome, then sitting down, exhausted, in a beautiful Ladakhi guest room and being offered a cup of milk tea.
To me, like Commander Krause and his coffee in the Good Shepherd, that first cup of piping hot milk tea was all the more pleasurable for the knowledge that it was followed by an entire thermos of piping hot milk tea. Sometimes it was sweet with too much sugar; sometimes it had none and there was a sugar bowl beside it; sometimes it was spicy “masala chai”. Every time, it was awesome.
There was usually also mint tea, with fragrant fresh mint leaves.
Warning: Himalayan nettles look, to my amateur eye, incredibly like mint. Fortunately for me our guide warned me not long before I was about to grab a leaf and put it in my mouth. If you dry the leaves you can cook them into a delicious Himalayan Nettle Soup.
Washing and the toilet:
Some people will have more challenges than others with Ladakhi toilets. These are known as “long drop” toilets and they don’t involve water. Go up the steps into the dedicated toilet outhouse. Inside you’ll find a rectangular hole with a good few feet drop below it. Squat over that and get it done. Wipe up and toss the tissue (or whatever you end up using when you run out of tissue) in the separate bin that should be there. Don’t chuck it down the hole. Then look around for a little shovel and send some of the provided dirt down the hole to follow the little gift you just left for the local fertilizer supply.
Yes, you may find it a bit intimidating but see above about vacay, craziness and adventure. Actually, it seems like a more environmentally sustainable way to handle things than a toilet that uses ten litres of water every time you flush. Also, with the possible exception of the toilet at the Nimaling base camp before the high pass, it actually does not smell and is not objectively unpleasant. It’s just different.
Our kid didn’t bat an eyelid at the Ladakhi toilets (not even when I had to use my knife to cut up a cotton shopping bag for her after we ran out of toilet paper). Ladakhis don’t use toilet paper so bring your own.
To wash, ask or look around for the washing station. Typically it’s got a tank of water, in some cases connected to a solar water heater, and a little drainage area. Crouch down, grab the Ladakhi soap which is harsh on your skin, flip the tap, and wash your hands and face. Don’t leave the water running. You can brush your teeth here too.
One of our guesthouses had a pretty effective solar water heater and there was enough water for a bucket bath – fill up a big bucket with warm water and use the little bucket to splash yourself down. It’s kind of like a Japanese style bath except without any of the refinement. Perhaps it’s more like washing your car, where you are the car. But after five days hiking, it’s more than welcome.
Exploring:
Some days you’ll be too wasted to do anything but drink milk tea, wait for dinner, eat it and pass out. Other days you can explore the little village, walk up to a monastery (called a “gompa” in Ladakhi), or go down to the river.
Sleeping:
The homestay accommodation can be a mixed bag but it’s generally simple, clean, and comfortable. Typically, we slept together as a family in a small room on mattresses on the floor. There were ample warm blankets, although Yon and kiddo had sleeping bags. Some places were perhaps a bit dusty but all were dry and warm. These villages are very quiet places, and we got a lot of restful and recuperative sleep. If you’re lucky, you won’t have to get up in the middle of the night to pee.
Electricity and devices:
These places were off the grid long before that was a thing back home. Actually, a few have solar power for lighting, and once or twice in seven days there was a power socket where you can recharge your phone or camera. Don’t rely on that – have a back-up plan for recharging devices, or accept you won’t be able to. I brought my own solar panel and a big power cell. One day in the harsh Ladakhi sun recharged that power cell, which gave me enough juice to recharge two phones and Yon’s Garmin watch.
Me being me, I had a mechanical film camera in my pack, too. But in the end my stash of camera batteries was enough, and the powercell kept my phone alive.
Nimaling Tented Camp:
On the last night, before the high pass, you sleep at Nimaling in a “tented camp”. This is a base camp style set-up with fixed tents assigned on a first-in first-served basis. There’s a big dining tent and in every other way it’s like a homestay. Dinner, breakfast and a basic packed lunch are included, and there’s plenty of milk tea. The toilet is a bit rough, it’s true, but by the time you get here, you can handle anything.
Nimaling is high – over 4,800 meters (15,750 feet) – and a few people including me suffered some altitude affects there (mostly wicked headaches).
What else?
That’s pretty much it. Pick a trekking company. Then just eat, sleep, hike, repeat. Get into the rhythm. Enjoy the beauty. Marvel at what your body can do when you try. Chat with your guide about Ladakhi customs. Talk to your hosts about their lives.
You’ll have as amazing and memorable a time as we did.
You should publish. You write well. Thanks for sharing!