Ladakh Chronicles, Part 1 – Intro

April 5th, 2009

a land with soul

Tso Moriri

When you have a dream, a desire, a wish for something; you are driven by it, you want to achieve it, get it. You do everything you can to make it come true, and when it does… that’s when it happens. You did it, you got it, you made it; now what? When the desire is fulfilled, when goal is achieved, do you get this unsettling feeling? I’ve been having this feeling ever since I came back from Ladakh.

I love to travel and it’s been my dream to visit Ladakh ever since I discovered the joy of travelling. Now that I have been there, I couldn’t get over it. I did what I wanted to do, but now I don’t know what to do.

I will go again there. I know I will. 14 days are not enough in this beautiful place. This is the place where streets have no name… for a fact. (For the record, I love this song. It expresses exactly what I feel and lot more). So when I was in the Ladakh, you can say that I was living this song. I had decided that when I get back I would write a long travelogue. It’s impossible to do that. I mean one can write as much as he/she can about Ladakh, but trust me on this my friends… you cannot capture the beauty of this place neither in words nor pictures. You will find thousands of pictures of Ladakh on internet. You will find thousands of books. But you can never find the feeling of being there.

What is it that is so special about this place? I’ll tell you. Let me share something I found.
In the movie “The Bucket List”, Morgan Freeman shares something he read with another character sitting in bar. It was about a man who climbed Everest. The conversation goes like this….

Morgan Freeman:
I read an account of a man who made it to the summit…
…and standing there at the top of the world he experienced this profound silence.
It was like all sound just fell away. And that’s when he heard it.

Rowena King:
What?

Morgan Freeman:
The sound of the mountain.
He said it was like he heard the voice of God.

I probably won’t make it to the top the Everest, but I guarantee you that you will find this “sound” in Ladakh. It doesn’t have to be mountain top; you stand alone in middle of dessert of Hunder or you walk along the shores of Tso Moriri Lake and you will hear it. You will find out what Silence sounds like. If you’re like me you will not feel alone, standing in the middle of nowhere, without anyone being around you. This land is alive and it talks to you, if you can listen. This is the land with a soul.

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Posted in Travel | Comments (5)

5 Responses to “Ladakh Chronicles, Part 1 – Intro”

  1. Maggi Says:
    April 5th, 2009 at 04:07 AM

    Dude m so glad n happy that u finally hv it up !!! After days n days of pestering me, it was fun to relive all those moments and put them into the words. But one thing m not gonna forgive u is that u didn’t give me a credit for this intro piece written here !!! gggrrr :) But well i let u have the cherry on the cake… coz the feelings of going back to this place are alike. Well !! i hope ur writing spree dosen’t stop here ! Great going !!!!


  2. Neerja Says:
    April 5th, 2009 at 11:14 AM

    oye, u finally did it!! but seriously, i totally agree..there’s so much of it still left to explore..it makes u want to come back again..it really amazes me tht something so beautiful does exist. Keep writing the good stuff..it’ll help me relive the memories. :)


  3. Ravi Says:
    April 6th, 2009 at 03:25 PM

    I totally agree with Neerja….. and there is nothing much to add to it. May be if you all* are planning again then do keep me posted about it….. :)


  4. Pradeep Bakshi Says:
    June 6th, 2009 at 08:34 AM

    This is awesome…. very nice pictures. Like you all, me and my wife are Ladakh fans, too. We went there in 05/2007 and then again in 09/2008. In 2008, we stayed on Pangong for 3 nights and got both, bright sunshine and snowfall. We were very lucky. Our favourite place is Kiagar Tso. Now we want to do it again in Jan10 or Jan11, to WALK on Indus and on Pangong. Any takers??!! If you like to see some pictures, write me an email and I will send a link. Take care…. Pradeep.


  5. nik Says:
    November 22nd, 2009 at 11:29 PM

    Awesome snap dude



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