On several nights you sleep in converted Ladakhi houses so can see village life in even more detail. One particularly attractive village is Nimoo, situated 20 miles west of Leh along the Indus valley at the confluence of the Zanskar and Indus rivers. The village is surrounded by picturesque mountain scenery, lush green fields and apricot, apple, and walnut orchards. As the terrain in Ladakh is also very different to that on other Himalayan treks, journeys between these houses here will be on foot, but also by other means such as rafting.

Elsewhere, the village of Chilling is a settlement that is home to metalsmiths and is the village that has provided copper, bronze, tin, silver and iron work to Leh through the centuries.