Delhi, March 2, 2025

When last heard from we were stranded in Leh after the first major snow storm of the season. I write this in Delhi after our experiences of leaving Leh, which follow.

Yesterday March 1, our departure from Leh can best be described in classic military parlance as a case of ‘hurry up and wait’.

You need to know that the two previous days’ flights arriving and departing Leh had been cancelled by the snow and the airport was in chaos. We were told that we had been re-booked on a flight leaving sometime in the afternoon so should not worry about leaving for the airport, 15 minutes away, until we were given further instructions. Three of our group were scheduled on an early flight leaving at 7:30 but we relaxed with our books in our room and waited for more information.

We decided to have a bowl of soup before we left for the airport and wandered down to the lobby at about 11 only to met by a panicked representative yelling ‘why aren’t you ready, we need to leave for the airport now, now, now!’ on a rapidly rising inflection. Scurry we did, hauled our bags, loaded our car and at about 11:30 raced to the airport for a 1:15 flight, sans boarding passes or any flight documentation.

Our eco-camp in the Rumbak Valley

Wait one, arriving at the airport we were not allowed to enter past security since we had no flight documentation. We waited with our bags in the snow, slush and cold while our rep began some quiet but fierce negotiation on our behalf which ultimately succeeded in giving us entry to the building but still no documentation.

Wait two, on entry to the airport at about 12:15 we were told that there were no seats on the plane but that strings were being pulled and two members of the military on the flight were being bumped until tomorrow’s flights and we would be given their places. Our bags were taken and loaded on the belt at check-in while we could hear the flight that we were due to take beginning to be called… but no boarding passes. Much conversation and negotiation and we were told to find a seat and relax. V found a spot to sit but I had no intention of leaving so watched the process unfold in all its glory. After 20 minutes of continuous discussion and rapid computer keyboard typing I could finally see our precious boarding passes being printed. Our flight was still being called. I was now told that our bags were overweight but as I explained we were Star Alliance Gold members and we had a privilege that allowed an extra bag. More furious keyboard activity, more furious discussion. Another 20 minutes passed until I was told that our Star Alliance membership could not be verified. I explained that we were not Air India members but Air Canada and as both airlines are Star Alliance all privileges are honoured by all reciprocal airlines. The final boarding call had long since come and gone.

Leh hotel post blizzard

At this point all the joy had gone out of the process and I simply wanted to have it done and get on the plane so I said, ‘to hell with the membership business, what do I have to do so that we can get this finished?’ I could pay the overweight was the obvious answer so our precious boarding passes were given to a staffer who hurried me out of security to a dingy office where a little cashier was busy on his computer. Now, if the British Raj left any legacy in India it’s best represented by all aspects of Indian organizational and governmental culture being imbued with a deep, passionate and abiding love of bureaucracy in all its complexity with multitudinous forms all of which have to be completed in great detail and in multiple copies. In fact, the more inconsequential the act, the more forms that are required, this was no exception. I asked how long would it take to pay the overweight and I was told about 10 minutes?! Subsequently I could have wished that that was all it took.

Wait three. First we had to calculate the amount that would be charged for a 10k overage, then forms had to be completed supporting the computation. I was finally told that the cost would be 6500 rupees; I asked could I pay in US$? Sadly no, only rupees. Could I use a card? Of course. Do you accept Amex card? Of course sir, we accept all cards. Except that after multiple tries the system would decidedly NOT accept Amex cards. Would sir like to try a different card? Yes sir would, so sir scurried out of the little office, found V and grabbed all the cards she had and raced back to the office. I could hear the loudspeaker now calling V’s name and mine to come to the gate immediately. Thank god we had boarding passes, we were official!

Finally a Visa card was accepted, but the ordeal was still not over. He could not let me go without giving me a receipt but alas, his printer was broken. What to do, what to do? He finally accepted that I write down my email and he would assuredly send me the receipt. My fingers were twitching to get themselves on the boarding passes but it was still required that we go back to the check-in desk and finalize everything in the system. The loudspeakers were ominously quiet but I knew that now with official boarding passes the plane was unlikely to leave without us. On returning to the desk I was met by someone who introduced himself as the airport manager who was abject in apologies that we had had to pay the overweight but he assuredly knew that we were SA Gold members and could I accompany him back to the little office and receive a refund on the credit card for the overage charges? I descended into blind panic at that point since I could only image that creating a refund was likely to be orders of magnitude more complex that creating the original charge and I literally begged him to overlook it in this instance. He finally agreed that he would have the refund processed and using my email address, would email me the refund receipt. I don’t ever expect to see it but bless him for his enthusiasm.

Wait four. We still had one huge obstacle to overcome, we still had to go through final security, which since Leh airport is technically a military zone was likely to be fraught, as it was. Now the Indians have always, not just in the recent past but for as long as we have travelled there, had a single-minded obsession with batteries in whatever form they take. Not only can they not be included in checked bags, not unusual no airline allows them, but if in hand luggage they must absolutely be seen and minutely examined. I had carefully removed all batteries from my checked bags but as a photographer I have batteries for cameras, battery packs for charging phones etc, batteries for the monitor that I mount on my cameras, batteries for a travel router, the list goes on. In addition I have a laptop, a powered hub, the iPad that I’m writing this on, a bunch of small hard drives to download images and their backups and masses of cables, wires and equipment. I could see their eyes light up when my bags started to go through the scanner, the mother lode! I had three carry-on bags with all my equipment and cameras and lenses and the military had a field day, equipment scattered to the four winds, bits and pieces everywhere while they kept putting various perms and coms of bags with and without various bits through the scanners over and over while seeing how various things looked on the scanners screen and then rummaging some more like busy little pups who have discovered a pile of bones in the park. I suspect I will be the subject of tales in the mess for some time to come.

While all this was forwarding, the airport manager was trying to haul me by the arm and chivy me to the fully-loaded plane because it had been waiting on the tarmac, now 45 minutes past its departure time. But the military was not to be rushed. Finally the ordeal was over and V and I were shovelling bits and pieces of equipment into whatever bag was handy, desperate to get to our gate until we noticed that our three companions who had been due to leave on a 7:30am flight were still in the waiting room waiting for their flight! We were literally thrown onto a bus and trundled to the plane and as soon as we climbed the steps and clambered aboard the captain announced that now that boarding was completed, the plane would be leaving directly. We finally left at 2:30. It took us fully half of the 90 minutes flight to catch our collective breath and begin to relax, we were on our way! However, one of the chief solaces that sustained us through out our stress-filled afternoon at the airport was the thought that at the other end awaited the Oberoi hotel and a welcome G&T, a good dinner and a glass of wine. I think you can imagine our feelings when having arrived at the hotel and wandering down to the bar we were told that since there were local elections being held on Sunday, both Saturday and Sunday were dry days and no alcohol was allowed to be served, to the point that all alcohol had been removed from the mini bars in all the rooms! A quiet dinner and an early bed.

I had meant to write in this post a follow-on to my previous one and explain my reactions to our snow leopard experiences but events of the last day intruded. I will complete my snow leopard narrative in my next post.

More to come!

Flying over the Himalayas