Thy Majesty - The Mountains

Recently, I struck an important point off my bucket list. I visited the mystical lands of Leh-Ladakh which encompasses the north-most part of India. Off late this place has become a hot tourist destination. So much, that probably it is very fashionable to visit Ladakh these days. Or maybe, not.

I would like to share my experience with everyone so that they know what to expect and most importantly, what not to expect out of this place. We had an 8 day trip to Leh. We met many people on our way, forged new friendships and enjoyed our time there.We visited Leh in the end of May which is probably the beginning of summer( in other words: start of the peak season) in that place. Having said this, the weather was not very warm over there. Temperatures stayed low and you required your thermals, jackets et all. The sun rays beat down on us during the day. The open skies and elevated heights did not help much either. We witnessed a contrasting play of nature at work as the cold winds pressed your body, while the intense sun rays were capable of giving headaches. So  yes, sunglasses are a must as well. The nature in this part of the country is overpowering, mighty and intimidating. It is obviously even more remarkable and beautiful beyond words. But, when you roam in the mountains with barely few people in sight, you have this feeling that you are just born. Civilization hasn't seeped in yet and earth has just begun. You feel fresh, brand new and in awe of the beauty of our planet.

It is important to note that only postpaid sims work in Leh, that too only in the city I would say. BSNL is the only network that gets the most amazing range and worked in Nubra Valley as well. Sadly (or rather delightfully ;-) ) my vodafone sim never caught network outside of the main Leh city. As a precautionary measure people eat a medicine called Diamox which assists in breathing at high altitudes,when in Leh or before leaving for Leh. If you are young and fit, I would suggest simply carry it for safety. You mostly don't need to eat it and if Day 1 is spent well in acclimatizing, you should do just fine without any external assistance. You can also carry camphor, other meds and lots of dry snacks to eat on the long roads between two points.

We took a flight straight to Leh as opposed to the  Srinagar-Leh route via road . The view from the plane when you are approaching Leh, is phenomenal. The flight route I believe is better than the road route only because of the top view of the Himalayan ranges. And also because you are going to have an experience of the road trip once inside Ladakh, anyway.We stayed in a hotel named 'Mandala'. It is the in heart of Leh City, barely 15 minutes from the airport by car. It had nice rooms with heaters and all facilities in place.The people there were extremely sweet and helpful.We had a nice view from our room as well. Hot water would come early in the morning and yes, Leh is isolated from the world, so don't go there expecting any 5 star treatment. If the lights go off in the entire city it will most probably go off in  your hotel as well. No matter which suite you've booked. I believe Ladakh is beyond all these worldly pleasures anyway and be ready for an adventure ride when you reach there.

View from the plane

Day 1 was spent in acclimatizing which is essential by all means.The temperature may be bearable with all the layered clothing but the effect of altitude cannot be ignored. 'Walk and talk on your phone' is no longer a good 'idea' as it will soon leave you breathless. Try climbing a few stairs quickly and you will observe yourself getting tired earlier than usual. Nevertheless, there is nothing to worry. Just relax and go at your own pace. Walk peacefully, don't stress. After all, you are on a vacation right?

On Day 2 we had light sight seeing. We saw the Shanti Stupa, Leh Palace and the Sankar Gompa Monastery. We spent the rest of the day exploring the local market and tried local food.  Leh may disappoint you when you go out shopping as your options are only limited to Shawls, Tibetan Handicrafts and Jewellery. If there is anything that I found specific to Leh it was the prayer flags. You also get really nice T shirts with messages like "My friend was in Ladakh and all I got was this Bloody T-Shirt" or " Yak Yak Ladakh" and so on. I personally found these the best souvenirs to carry home as I am not a fan of handicrafts or jewellery. We ate at a place called Gesmo which happens to be a decent  food place. You get fast food, traditional cuisine, bakery items and drinks as well. One should visit it if in Leh. We even had the local butter chai which was hot and salty.

Carvings at Shanti Stupa

Yak Cheese Pizza at Gesmo

Day 3 we saw the rest of the places that need to be explored. We went to Alchi (an old village), Hall of Fame, Magnetic Hill, Gurudwara Pathar and the wonderful Sangam (confluence of the river Indus and Zanskar). These sites took up our entire day. The Hall of Fame makes you proud of the Indian Army whereas the Sangam is a spectacular sight.

Confluence of the Indus and Zankar

The next 4 days in Ladakh were the most exciting and most amazing experiences of my life. Our trip to Nubra Valley via Khardung La (Pass) and visit to Pangong Lake via Chang La (Pass) was what makes Ladakh, Ladakh.

For the uninitiated, Khardungla is the Highest Motorable Pass in the world at 18380 feet. We headed out for Nubra Valley on Day 4. We passed Khardungla on the way to our destination. This is the first time I have ridden up a huge, majestic mountain( yeah, have done it many times for hill stations- but Mountains? NO) I believe not many of you may have done it either. The road seems fine as you begin and slowly on the elevation you see the city disappear. The landscape briskly changes and you find yourself surrounded by dusty mountain walls or steep valleys. It remains like this for sometime but soon you see yourself on a level with clouds. The dusty mountains have suddenly turned white and you still haven't reached the top. As your vehicle goes round the ranges, paths have been carved after clearing snow and the ride gets shaky.You are enroute to the top most part of the world with biting winds, snow and not even a bird in sight. If it weren't for the occasional army check points it is as good as you are alone in some adventure land with nowhere to go. No networks, no people. Into the wild. Believe me you can't feel more alive than this. This is when all your other troubles disappear. Your job or frivolous issues. It's  surreal. I experienced my first snowfall at Khardungla. It was a tough ride though I did not experience any major travel sickness. I did get a headache because of staring at snow throughout my ride. Yeah,100% sunlight reflection does that to you. Also, it was an experience out of nowhere. All my group mates were tired. Exhilarated yet happy that we were soon descending on the other end and leaving Khardungla.

Driving up the Khardung la

Reaching on top

Descending en route to Nubra Valley

After we moved out of the pass the journey hadn't ended yet. We still had 2 hours  to reach Nubra and the landscape was all Sandy now. Smooth Sandy hills, sand dunes , sand storms adorned the landscape and this was soon becoming the ride of a lifetime. It took us around 7 hours to reach from Leh city to Nubra Valley. We arrived at a remote hotel named Karma Inn. This hotel was brilliant. I would highly recommend it if in Nubra. They had beautiful balcony rooms with outstanding view, hot water 24x 7 and all necessary facilities in place. My phone network dint work here. But they had wifi at the reception. Nubra is at a lower elevation than Leh. So you feel pretty comfortable here after having braved all the other hardships on your way. It's a beautiful, scenic valley just like they talk about in books. As soon as we checked in and rested in our rooms we went out for a ride on the rare breed of double humped camels. The sand dunes here were amazing and soon we forgot all our tiredness. We spent the night in our hotel which was amidst trees. We stayed out late at night watching stars and had a bonfire as well. The sky here was very clear. I have never seen so many stars together at night. The sky was a thick blanket dotted with stars and we had bonfire, music, games friends. It was so perfect .

Sand dunes and double humped camel in Nubra

The next day we left for leh via the Khardungla pass again. This time the journey was easier as we were officially getting into Ladakhi skin now.  My face was turning red by the fifth day by the brutal cold winds. But I was enjoying it. On our way back we stopped near the Shyok river which was mesmerizing. I have never seen a river cleaner or clearer than this ever before.  One can even drink water from this river. It was splendid to sit beside this river and watch time fly. The rest of the journey was spent listening to songs, many of those I had never heard before. ( yes, I caught up with some Bollywood numbers here ) 

Shyok River

We reached Leh by evening and rested for the remaining day. We chose to collect all our dry snacks, wear maximum warm clothes that we could and spend the evening on the terrace of our hotel from where we could see the trees sway in peace and the white mountains fall asleep while three stars quietly opened their eyes in the sky at a distance, prodding their friends to join them.

Dusk at Leh

The next day we were heading towards Pangong Lake. Yes ! The moment everyone had been waiting for thanks to Bollywood. After 3 Idiots and Jab Tak Hain Jaan, Pangong has definitely become the must see sight on everyone's list. It takes 6 -7 hours to reach to Pangong from the city as well. So, its quite funny how in our movies it is shown as an easily accessible location. Kareena Kapoor reaches Pangong from the city on her scooty.  Yeah, bite me ! Anyway, Bollywood is always exaggerated and nothing can be done about that. Also, an important point I missed out on, both Pangong as well as  Khardungla require government permits. This has to be taken care of before you head out for these places. Also, the road signs in Ladakh are damn witty. They will keep you engaged on your long tiring road trips.

On our way to Pangong, we stopped at Shey Palace. We also stopped to see Thiksey monastery and had lunch at a traditional home. The road to Pangong went through another pass in the mountains - this time the Changla. Chang La is a few meters lower than Khardungla and is touted to be the third highest motorable pass that there is. We sailed smoothly through Changla and experienced snowfall again. We made a snowman and had chai and maggi at a lone cafe when we reached the top of the pass. The journey to Pangong was enjoyable and while we neared the lake the landscape changed to greener pastures, rivulets flowing and ponies as well as yaks grazing amongst them. As the roads meandered endlessly, a sign read " first view of the Pangong Lake ". All eyes darted towards the horizon where the valley between two mountains gave way to a glimpse of a blue shining water body. Yes, that was it. One of the best sights I have seen in life. Pangong. There it lay between India and China. At the east most extreme of Jammu and Kashmir. Devoid of any inhabitants and far away from the life we have been conditioned to live in.

En route to Pangong

The lake is approx 134 km long and the LOC passes through it.  Everyone jumped to life the moment we reached here. We chose to go straight to the edge of the lake instead of debunking at our tents which were at a distance from the lake. The temperature here was very low to our surprise. We were expecting Pangong to be the most pleasant site of all. Instead, it was freezing cold and the brutal winds had me cover my face completely. Nonetheless, none of this dampened our spirits or diminished the beauty of the lake. The water looked deep blue, to sea blue to a lighter shade in layers. Never before have I seen such a spectacular display of colors together in a water body. After having spent ample of time by the lake, we retired to our tents. Night had fallen  and the temperature had dropped to 5 degrees by now. I have never experienced such a temperature before and needless to say we were shivering like crazy.  We were staying in cloth tents with no heaters so there was little respite around. I wore 5 layers of clothing, two gloves, and three socks just to feel okay. All the youngsters gathered outside to play games at night as usual. The climate was difficult yet an experience of a lifetime. These are memories I'll never forget. We played dumb charades, Contact 123, Mafia and a hand game whose name I don't remember. Sitting under the sky, meeting new friends and chatting away is one of the moments I'm never going to forget.

Pangong Tso Lake

At night, we had to take 5 blankets and seek assistance from hot water bags to try and fall asleep. No one wanted to miss the sunrise at Pangong, and we were up by 5 am.  The sun was already up by then and we couldn't stand for more than 15 minutes by the lake. It was very cold. Yes. It was. We fell asleep again. This time for real. When we woke up it was time to leave back for Leh. But not before spending more time on the lake. We packed our stuff and went back near the lake. Photos were clicked aplenty in the daylight and we soaked in all the beauty before we could finally leave. On our way back we stopped at the Hemis Monastery. This is by far the biggest Monastery at Ladakh and should definitely not be missed. It has a museum and a souvenir shop as well. After exploring Hemis we also visited Rancho's School. This school received a  boost in funds and popularity post 3 idiots. There was a souvenir shop here as well where all the proceeds would go to the development of the school. A lady asked us to line up and follow her as she guided us around the school. It was made of stones and beautiful indeed. They had inbuilt hostels for boys and girls. We were asked to refrain from clicking pictures of the students there who were busy playing in the field. The school has education upto 10th standard and is beautifully structured. Took us back in time to our own school days.

Hemis Monastery

Post this we headed straight back to our hotel with no more sites left to visit. Me and my friend realized we had under-shopped and got down at the market to buy more stuff. We visited Gesmo one last time again with our friends and could not believe this journey had come to an end. Once, back in the hotel we packed our  bags and prepared to catch a flight back to Mumbai the next morning. No, we did not want to leave. The entire trip had been so exciting and fulfilling. We could not imagine returning back to our daily lives in the city. That night was spent exchanging numbers with newly made friends and promises and plans of meeting elsewhere again. The entire night was spent playing a final round of games and being involved in friendly banter. More memories were created to counter the moment of parting and sadness of leaving such a surreal place behind. 

We took an early morning flight back to Mumbai. To the city we call home. Refreshed and Rejuvenated we welcomed it with our arms and were ready to take on to the world again.
I need to mention our wonderful guide Karma, our hotel in -charge Yaasin and our vehicle driver Naamjal for making our trip as well as stay enjoyable. I would also point out Cox and Kings here as we had our trip planned by them and though initially I was apprehensive to go through a tour ( have always travelled on my own and never relied on tour agencies :P), the entire trip was executed amazingly and I am surely impressed by their service.

Needless to say, my trip to Ladakh was not just another vacation. It was a journey of a lifetime which will be reminisced for years to come. I would surely, 101 % recommend this place to anyone who is willing to go. You won't come back with any regrets :)