Posts Tagged ‘Ladakh’

Ladakh Chronicles, Part 1 – Intro

April 5th, 2009

a land with soul

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.

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Tags: Ladakh, lake, Leh, mountains, Tso moriri
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Ladakh Chronicles, part 2 – Prologue

April 5th, 2009

From City to City, from City to Mountains

4^th July
Exciting morning. Finally I was going to Ladakh. After years of dreams and wishes, finally I was going there. I did not sleep in the night. I was counting hours, minutes and seconds. It was all so overwhelming that I couldn’t feel any excitement for the fact that I was flying for first time in my life. I’ve always been impulsive traveler. When I felt like going away, I would pack by bags and catch a closest train to my destination. No reservations, no booking and no planning. As Maggi was in-charge of our travelling arrangements (for that matter all other arrangements) we had booked plane tickets and everything. So this was my first time flying and for some reason I wasn’t feeling anything amazing about it. I had much bigger excitement in my heart.

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Tags: delhi, first flying, Hidimba, Himachal, Ladakh, Leh, manali, Mumbai
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Ladakh Chronicles, part 3 – Manali-Leh Journey

April 5th, 2009

Mountain Roads, Changing Nature and one incident of AMS

6^th July
Early morning 5′o clock. Cold atmostphere. Hot cup of coffee and Ashok’s warm good morning. Our journey started with only one little problem. The weather was rainy and clouds were covering most of the view. The road was wet and foggy, slowing down our vehicle. I usually like to photograph rainy season, but we all were hoping for bit clearer weather. Prateek said that we should get clearer weather past Keylong or at max Baralachla pass. We had nice filled breakfast before Rohtang pass, I relished on nice double omelet, while Maggi and Jaimin feasted on Parathas and Bhutta (Corn Cob)

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Tags: Acute Mountain Sickness, AMS, Baralachla, Bharatpur, clouds, Debring, Ghata loops, Jispa, Keylong, Khoksar, Ladakh, Leh, manali, Morey planes, mountains, Pang, rohtang, Sarchu, Suraj tal, Tanglangla, Zingzingbar
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Ladakh Chronicles, part 4 – Settling down in Leh

April 5th, 2009

New people, new place and new experience.

8^th July
After a long and lazy sleep, I got up at around 10:30. Jaimin was already awake, but still in bed lazing around. I freshened up and went to Maggi’s room. She too was up and already freshened up. Girls had already taken their breakfast, and went back to their room to rest. We had our breakfast and went around hotel, taking shots and exploring. After an hour we were really hungry and went back to hotel restaurant for lunch. All of us in group met each other and formal introductions were conducted. We have had some background info of each other prior via Prateek. Nupoor was practicing doctor while Neerja was doing her MBBS (She turned out be actually a 19 year old kiddo).

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Tags: Bharat guest house, Changspa lane, Ladakh, Leh, mountaineer, Shanti Stupa, smoking, Stok Kangri
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Ladakh Chronicles, part 5 – Nubra Valley

April 5th, 2009

Desert on the top of the word

9^th July
After a nice rest for two nights and a day, we didn’t find it difficult getting up early. In fact, we were ready and on our way by 7:30 in the morning. After all, we all had a reason to be excited… Nubra Valley. We were going to be in huge valley spanning across many mountains and all this at 10000 ft. But there was one more edge to the excitement… The amazing Khardungla pass. Yes, THE Khardungla pass, world’s highest moterable pass. Being able to drive at 18,380 ft above sea level is an amazing feat by itself. Have to praise the hands who built these roads. Before reaching Khardungla you pass this rock formation along the road, which locals call “Gateway of Khardungla”.

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Tags: Bactrian camels, camel riding, desert, Diskit, Gateway of Khardungla, gompa, highest motorable pass, hot springs, Hunder, Hunder fort, Khardung, Khardungla, Ladakh, Leh, monastery, Nubra valley, Panamik, Shyok river, Shyok valley, Snow Leopard resort, sulfur mountain, two-humped camels
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Ladakh Chronicles, part 6 – Pangong Tso

April 5th, 2009

A play of nature and disappointments amidst unexpected adventures.

11^th July

Although we stayed up till quite late in the night (fighting over song selection for the CD), we were up and fresh early. Unfortunately, it was Amjad (our driver) who was late that morning. For some reason, we were excited about Pangong lake. After all, it is one of biggest lake; even though most of it lies in China territory. Supposedly, on a clear day the lake looks it’s most beautiful, displaying at least four different colors on its vast water surface. Mixture of reflections, of sky, its surrounding mountains and part of shallow surfaces in between create a wonderful imagery of nature’s trickery. I said this supposedly a bit too early because… well…, you will find out in due course.

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Tags: bad weather, Changla, China, cloudy, Doodhgooling, fog, highest motorable pass, Ladakh, Leh, misadventures, Pangong Tso, rainstorm, Shaitan Nala, snow, snowfall, snowfight, sub-zero, Tangtse, Thaktok, yak
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Ladakh Chronicles, part 7 – Monasteries

April 5th, 2009

An abode of peace, monks and ancient haritage

13^th July
We woke up to a beautiful morning, as weather had returned to a normal state. Though there were quite few rain clouds in sight, sky was mostly clear, sunny and there was a familiar warmth in the air. This was a beautiful day… and we were going to visit some beautiful places. Plan was to leave early and visit three major monasteries around Leh, return back by late afternoon; so everyone can visit Leh market for shopping as the girls were leaving the next day.

Prateek had to finish some work, and make arrangements for travelling back to Mumbai as some urgent matter required him back home. He wasn’t going to join us for Tso moriri camp as previously decided. In fact, many plans were made and changed in last 24 hours. Earlier, Nupoor and Neerja weren’t booked for Tso-moriri and Rafting trips. After some brainwashing from us Neerja decided to extend her trip for Tso-moriri and Rafting; Nupoor couldn’t do so as she had to resume back on work. So Neerja canceled her tickets and re-booked accordingly. But afterwards again changed her plans as she had to return home due to family reasons. Prateek declared that he wouldn’t be accompanying us as he had to return to Mumbai as some urgent matter required his presence. Neerja couldn’t get booking for next morning’s flight, so she decided to leave by road in night with Prateek and catch relevant flight from Delhi next evening while Nupoor was leaving early in the morning. Had to say we all were bit disappointed, as in one night our group was getting reduced to half. Well, to look at it practically… not much was changed on paper (except Prateek, whose departure came unexpected), as this was how it was going to be previously. But then we all had so much fun in past few days, it did seem like a big change happening. When you warm up to certain group, changes like these do make impact on one’s experience.

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Tags: Chamkhang, clerestory, congregation hall, dancers, deities, Dhayni Buddha, Dukhang, Dukhang Chemo, festival, flash photography, gompa, Gonkhang, Guru Rimpoche, Hemis, Ladakh, Leh, Leh Palace, lotus, Maitreya Buddha, monastery, monks, prayer chamber, Sakyamuni Buddha, sculptures, Shey palace, Soma Gompa, Thikse, Tsechu, Tsongkhapa, yab-yum, Yamantaka
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Ladakh Chronicles, part 8 – Tso Moriri

April 5th, 2009

God’s mirror in the mountain

14^th July
We got up early and got ready. As the drive to Tso Moriri was a long one, we were to leave early. We left our guesthouse at around 9:30. As Prateek wasn’t there, Qayyum (from Plan Himalayas) was going to be with us on the Tso Moriri camping trip. Though, three of our members had gone, our vehicle was full. Besides Amjad (driver) and Qayyum, there was our cook and bags of food supply. We had kind of a lazy start till Upshi, as the weather was a bit dull… both outside and inside our vehicle. We really hoped that this drive and Tso Moriri, to be really good to sucker us back into that traveler’s mood.

We took a small halt at Upshi, as Qayyum and Amjad had left without breakfast. While they were having breakfast we also decided to have another round of tea. A nice hot herbal tea was a good idea indeed, as it helped a bit to awaken our senses.

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Tags: Bramhini ducks, Changspa, Chumathang, Hymia, Indus, Janchat Stampa, Kiang, Kiari, Korzak, Ladakh, Leh, Likche, Morey planes, Pashmina goat, Purple mountains, Rebo, salt lake, sulfur mountain, Tanglangla, Tiri, Tso Kar, Tso Kiagar, Tso moriri, Upshi, Yak wool
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Ladakh Chronicles, part 9 – Rafting in Indus

April 5th, 2009

A new experience in the rapid waters

16^th July
As decided earlier, we got ready for our last adventure in the land of mountains. We were going to finally experience the Indus river, which had so gracefully welcomed us to Leh. The rafting guys came on time to pick us up, and we moved to pick-up the other co-passengers. Our would-be rafting partners were, let’s say a rather international couple. A German girl ‘Anne’ and an Israeli guy ‘Moshe’. Anne was a nurse by profession while Moshe was an engineer. They were visiting India for their honeymoon and had a quite an adventurous trip planned. Rafting was the first activity on their itinerary while it was our last on this trip.

As we reached our destination, i.e. starting point for our rafting trip, it turned out that there was a mix-up of plans for them. Apparently, they had signed up for rafting on Zanskar stream which is bit more higher and for intermediate level rafting. Zanskar is rated as 4+ grade rapids, while the one we were doing was 2+ to 3 grade rapids (starter level). So after clearing up the issue with the rafting organizers they had to shift their plan, on the later hour of the day, while we were put on with bunch of Hyderabadi guys. I was thinking, this is going to be a drag… “why do I never get a group of girls on my trip? All guys, I mean, come on”. But eventually, we all got acquainted to each other well and this bunch turned out to be quite an entertaining and a sporting group. They introduced themselves as Bharat, Tanmoy, Ravi, Karthick.

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Tags: Indus, Ladakh, Leh, magnetic hill, Rafting, rapids, Zanskar
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Ladakh Chronicles, part 10 – Epilogue

April 5th, 2009

A time to return home

18^th July
Even though we got up on time, it was just strange. Our feet were heavy and hands were slow as we made our preparations to leave for the airport. Our pickup van was right on time, and uncle Mr. Tsering (owner of the guest house) and Zombie (Sunil, housekeeper at guest house) helped us with the luggage. Sitting in the van, there was only one thought running through our mind, “why the hell are we leaving?” Maggi was the first to break the silence and cry, “I don’t want to go home, let’s stay here only”.

All we could do was just chuckle and murmur, “yeh, I wish”.

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Tags: delhi, Ladakh, Leh, Mumbai
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