travel issues in leh

The travel sector in leh/ladakh needs an overhaul I think. It predates to a system that smacks of monopolist culture; Dominated and run by the taxi union the only mode of transport available to any of the surrounding locations is a taxi and the costs are humungous for budget travelers like Abhi and me until we find willing partners to share the cost and that too is limited to a number of only five maybe six if you are lucky (which means on an average you land up spending per location per day travel costs of up to a thousand rupees minimum). The few buses that ply are totally unaccounted for; the system of accessing information is tired and squeaky and grating to one’s ears. Customer satisfaction is far down on my list of requirements I think a whole range of organizing and understanding the needs of the consumer has to be taken into account here.

Each interested traveler seems to land up knocking on almost all the doors that run travel agencies (there’s no centralized system for taxis’; one would have assumed that with such monopolist tendencies they would have at least catered to that) and so each morning and evening one takes a tour starting from the beginning of the market in the left and moving upto the end in the right asking if they have found us partners and since everyone seems to be knocking hence every travel agent worth his name has perhaps the same list of enquiries but all of the them unconfirmed. A centralized booking would have taken into account that if one is looking for shared taxis’ then those that need to travel on the same route can fit into one till there is a need to fill another. So no matter what the origin of the agency one would have not been so hard pushed to waste their time and day looking out for bargains.

Similarly permits need to be quicker. Almost all destinations need one; so without fail one should be advised to get one irrespective of the travel agency but the nexus seems to state that only if you are traveling with them can you get a permit; We of course learnt that the other option is to walk down to the DC’s office and get one made within a day yourself. All you need is a proof of identity such as a passport/driving license/voters Id card or some other significant identity.