Sonam's Guest House, Hanle

[narender]

where did you stay master ji ?, does that means there is only one guest house there, the one run by the lady owning the grocery store/pco. But sonam dorjee was also the caretaker of the hanle observatory GH wasnt it ?

Yes.
I stayed in the Homestay run by this lady.

 

[Alpha]

That means the toilet in Sonam's guest house remained incomplete

 

[zack2137]

Whe I was at Hanle in June this year,I asked about Sonam Guest House.
The villager told me ,it is no more and owner of GH has moved to Leh for business...

We stayed at the home stay in May itself. The rooms were brand new and built to last. The toilet was about to finish too. Sonam was working at the observatory. Quite strange that he moved to Leh all of a sudden. He was quite settled in Hanle and was looking to build upon his home stay.

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Maybe he was transferred to Leh?

 

[tsk1979]

I spoke to Sonam about his guest house plans when we went to Kyun Tso.
.He had big plans, which included a room with attached toilet. However, he said that due to Chushul restrictions, tourist rush as come down a lot, due to which he is not sure if he can sustain this business. There was one other villager in Punguk(Village behind Hanle) who abandoned his plan due to chushul restrictions.
Add to that the Loma no camera business, and tourist rush is going down further.
Very soon, there may be no guest house in Hanle!

 

[nishchaya]

This is sad, till last year his preparations were on full swing. Just that the attached toilet wasn't there and was suppose to get completed in two months time.

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

I spoke to Sonam about his guest house plans when we went to Kyun Tso.
.He had big plans, which included a room with attached toilet. However, he said that due to Chushul restrictions, tourist rush as come down a lot, due to which he is not sure if he can sustain this business. There was one other villager in Punguk(Village behind Hanle) who abandoned his plan due to chushul restrictions.
Add to that the Loma no camera business, and tourist rush is going down further.
Very soon, there may be no guest house in Hanle!

That’s too bad. I guess this year too has been quite bad for tourism in Ladakh as well, so it is little wonder that Hanle is even more impacted.

 

[kidrock]

This is indeed bad, wonder why they need to have restrictions. As it is very few people went there.
Sonam's family was so courteous when we went in Feb. Hopefully it opens again.
We are planning another Leh trip in December, any ideas if the permits for Chushul are being issued?

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Permit is an off and on thing, and even if you get the permit, army might stop you at Chushul.

 

[zack2137]

Re: Ladakh in May'13

But even until May, Sonam was quite upbeat about it. While Loma check post has gone bonkers, taxis have started taking people to Kyun Tsos more often. Hanle is the obvious choice for night stay if one is going to Kyun Tso.