[anilp]

Call this sweet irony if you will. If flights to Leh get cancelled as this report tries to imply, a lot of the taxi drivers are up for a huge disappointment.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/47858043.cms

[phamilyman]

Ladies and gents, calm the hell down. Turn off your engines. Take a deep breath.

The ladakh taxi union is NOT Ladakhis - but a subset.
The ngawang woman who posted on BCMTouring is only one person from there, though with a potentially "my" version of the truth with half the details only.

The fact is, Ladakhis in general are very nice and awesome people. Yes there's far more commercialization creeping in - the loud mouths are taking over the discourse.

Just as any in any religion / place / group you would not form an opinion about it because of its most violent / extreme adherents, right? Similarly please don't talk disrespectfully about Ladakh and Ladakhis in general. The ratio of jerks to the total population may potentially not be much higher than say Gurgaon, so chill! (though it may be manifold compared to a decade back!)

[honeybee]

Goodbye Ladakh!

I had dreamt of driving my Nano there someday, but my Nano is too precious to me. There are enough other places to visit than Ladakh.

Going by the way the local taxi union is running things, and the inaction of the local and state authorities, I think we all need to stay away from the region for a few years. Maybe then things on the ground might change.

@Phamilyman, what the local taxi mafia is trying is illegal, reckless, dangerous and unconstitutional. The local Ladakhis, however nice and peaceful, haven't said or done anything to stop this mafia. Will you risk the safety of your car and family to find that nice hospitality? I doubt so.

The protesters and their supporters are digging their own graves with the excavators by working overtime. I don't want to drive to Ladakh in the near future in this tense, surcharged atmosphere, risking the lives of us and our XUV 500. Let the tempers of protesters cool down along with the ambient temperature in the coming winter and sanity prevail in Ladakh so as to reconsider the matter in 2016 or later. Till then, it is - Jullay. Adios. Ciao! Au revoir. Sayonara!

[ashlil]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

The other POV :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheH...3471390450775/

Doesn't sound convincing on the facts of the attack.

I read through this post as well as the post on the BMC touring. Both of these posts feature a "Us Vs Them" argument (e.g. "they" don't care for ecology etc etc). Once I spot this "Us Vs Them", I stop looking at the logic, simply because this type of argument is always wrong. The British used it, the slavery advocates used it and the Nazis used it. Never did any good. Never will.

[Acharya]

I am just wondering, even if the facebook version of Fortuner incident is true and someone allegedly drove irrationally, caused injury and had to face mob justice, how does this whole episode justify banning all private and self-drive vehicles?

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

.......
The ladakh taxi union is NOT Ladakhis - but a subset.......

Agree with you, and we need the calmer, saner voices of Ladakh to speak up before this actually turns into a real Us Vs. Them situation.

If they let the loudmouths of the community speak on behalf of everyone long enough, the whole community will (unfairly) get tarred with the same brush. Unfair to both the peaceful local majority, and the nature-loving tourists who only want to enjoy their momentary slice of heaven on earth in peace.

[MSC]

The easiest way out is completely avoid going there. Just one single bleak tourist season will get these idiots on their knees.
All they want is money and even more money. It is very much obvious that after establishment of monopoly on vehicles, the next thing will be doubling or tripling or may be even more hike in taxi fares.
Until and unless the state government and district administration wakes up, I don't see much breakthrough in this logjam situation.

[Shivanshu]

I am sure this is going to take some turn. Now when the Taxi Association bans all personal cars, then number of tourist will drop which is for sure. Even the tour operators from different corner of our country will not be able to vouch for the safe passage of their tourists until a Local Tour Operator is involved. This would mean that the restaurants and the shop which completely depends on the tourist inflow in Leh will get severely affected. Now people who follow the touring forums and our forum are definately going to to give Leh a miss, specially after watching the video on youtube about the attack. So I am sure that this season is done for the people out there in Leh just because of a bunch of people who thought they are doing a very smart thing. I feel sorry for the people out there in Leh as they depend heavily to earn in these 4 to 5 months bracket in peak season. I hope things will get better and improved in next season.

[r.praveen]

Just now saw the video of the attack posted in Facebook - "the Himalayan club". Its brutal. And to think the tourists imagined a calm driving holiday to be presented with this outrageous vandalism makes me even more angry. We can only hope better sense prevails over Leh's people. I am not counting on the Government to do anything. Let us face it. The party wants votes and to retain the constituency in the next election. Supporting the tourists over the local people is not going to garner any votes for them. (Just my opinion and advance apologies just in case the MP there is intent on bringing this to a sane closure)

[Shivanshu]

Just came through this - http://www.reachladakh.com/leh-witne...ntal/2945.html

[phamilyman]

Folks,

If you will STILL want to drive to Ladakh amidst the current chaos - please remove any TeamBHP stickers you have on your car - almost every other social/media post from folks defending the taxi driver hooligans, references team-bhp. Social media is all-pervasive!

You DONT want to have someone vandalize your car because a drunkard returnin home late at night takes his ire against TBHP out on your car.

[sdp1975]

Posting a news article from FB

Interestingly, the post on FB presenting the "other side" of the story - starting with the words "Dear Domestic (Indian) Tourist" has disappeared from FB !

[phamilyman]

More anti-local propoganda:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...2381114&type=1

I wonder what Mr Tsewang will say if all the dashcam owning Ladakh veterans put up videos of their local taxis? Picking up five images across the years from LAKHS of tourists who visit annually, is pointless.

I was ambivalent earlier about my plans to ride to Leh in 2016. Now I'm certain I'm not going there until the harassment ends. My money will go elsewhere.

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Posting a news article from FB

Interestingly, the post on FB presenting the "other side" of the story - starting with the words "Dear Domestic (Indian) Tourist" has disappeared from FB !

https://www.facebook.com/nubra.valle...11878032403567 still there.

[phamilyman]

Another point to ponder. Ladakh's homestays / camps in multiple villages (excl Leh) have bloomed ONLY because of self-drive/ride traffic.

The day they go the Sikkim way, the non-Leh mid-range hotels WILL close. Here's my experience (2008) - in Sikkim you had to either spend 20k for a dedicated Scorpio or 2400 bucks for a seat in a mahindra marshal/suchlike rickety as hell cab.

yes the 2400 was good value - it gave us breakfast (not sure of dinner) all days and stays in some very shitty hotels. Because of the polarization of costs - you either had piss-poor facilities or really swanky hotels charging top of the line rates. Nothing in between. Only Gangtok's hotel industry was super-vibrant.

Transposing to Ladakh, that will mean that mid-range hotels will suffer in all areas except Leh, where its already quite substantial. So the overall pie will only shrink for all players and not increase.