|| leh \\ security

This has got to be one of my favorite places in the world. It's so beautiful it should be illegal. I'm staring at a mountain that's one of the lowest 8000m peaks. I need to look up what it is specifically called at some point but I'm  writing this without internet. How humbling is that! Such power mountains have. Leh is not exactly at sea level, it's over 11,000 feet, around 3500m. So walking uphill today is a little bit of a struggle. Will is currently napping off an altitude headache. Traditionally I haven't got many issues adjusting to altitude besides slowing down activity. I drink a tom of water, yak butter tea helps and so does chomping on coffee leaves (according to Will. I haven't tried this.). Yak butter tea is very salty and the butter is raw, so beware if you ever try it. It's drank a lot in the winter by natives because there isn't a lot of food come true winter season, sometimes 6-8 cups with a good amount of butter in it. My kind of drink! Anyway, Leh is awesome and I will one day return and go Pangong Tso and the highest road in the world that sits at about 23k feet, 7000m. Plus I plan on mountain biking while I'm here. Right now it's a bit cold where they drop you at 5600m to so that, close to freezing. Who wants to join me for a few jeep rides and mountain bike descents? Let me help you with a few recent pictures. 

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I've been taking notes on airports and flights on this trip. Here's my entry about Srinagar airport in Kashmir. 

SXR - High security. Must fill out customs forms upon arrival if not Indian native. Know where you are staying first, will make things easier. Government checks on hostel and hotel registers vs customs forms and can fine or take license from them if they don't match. Departures, if possible schedule flight morning so you can get through security before 9:00. After that, I'm told it gets very busy. The first security checkpoint is 1km from airport. Frisk, wand, x-ray. Next is before you get into airport. They check your flight so have it printed out. Bags go through another x-ray at airport entry by airline. After checking bags and ticketing, one more security. Frisk, wand, x-ray. If you check a bag, you must ID it officially so they can move it into the bins for the planes. Hand bags must then be checked by guards and then stamp tags. One more security check before boarding, just a frisk and check of hand bag tags. Then you are allowed to board. A big hassle. Will try to avoid this airport in the future.