Agra and Leh

I have made numerous promises to myself on this journey to wake up early and catch a sunrise, but as of yet I have failed to make any of them. Sunday was no exception. However, I spent a couple of hours in the daytime at the Taj Mahal; a striking building.

The rest of the day was spent strolling around Agra, while the following day I took a train back to Delhi and an early night in preparation for my early morning flight to Leh.

Despite waking up at three in the morning, I didn't feel too tired in the airport and on the incredible flight over the Himalayas. However, as the plane swooped down between the nearby mountains to land at Leh airport, it was a little nerve racking to say the least; the mountains to the right of the plane looked close enough to touch.

Leh is over 3500 metres high, and flying into a height of this magnitude means one thing; altitude sickness. As I settled into my guesthouse the headaches and nausea began to kick in, and I started to become glad that the small amount of sleep I had had the previous night would help me doze through the difficult first day in Leh. As it turned out, I've never slept so much in my life, but every time I woke up I was introduced to a thumping headache and horrible nausea. To make matters worse, I also seemed to have picked up a new bug in Delhi or Agra.

When I awoke on Wednesday the headache was much milder, but it wasn't until Friday that I felt fit enough to begin to explore outside my guesthouse. After a walk around the main town I ventured up the hilltop palace and yet further to a gompa. At such a high altitude, it's incredible how quickly a small hike gets you seriously out of breath.

That evening I met some fellow travellers in the guesthouse restaurant, and on Saturday I joined them in a visit to the large and complex monastery at Tikse. I also discovered that some of the group were planning a Jeep trip down to Manali on Tuesday, and as this was in my vague plan anyway, I climbed aboard. Sunday was therefore spent organising the trip and climbing up to another gompa, and tomorrow we leave.

The road to Manali is the second highest in the world, so hopefully the mountain bends don't terrify me and altitude sickness doesn't grab me for a second time!