Words, I must say, were simply not designed to describe the beauty of Ladakh completely. In this respect even photos fail to do a convincing job. The place has to be visited to understand how beautiful nature can be.
With this warning behind, I will attempt and describe Ladakh here.
We began our trip, as a group of 13, by flying to Srinagar. This is in the beautiful and green valley of Kashmir. The mountains were decked with pine trees and anyone's imagination of a hill town would be satisfied to a 'T.' Srinagar has two extremely beautiful gardens designed by the Mughal emperors, known as Shalimar Bagh and Nishad Bagh. These were the first places we visited. These gardens are exquisitely laid and were in good bloom. Flowers of various hues and sizes were on display. The lawns were also well maintained. It was the sort of place the poets of the romatic era would have absolutely loved. Wordsworth might as well have written Daffodils here.
The evening was spent on a shikara ride on the beautiful Dal lake. The shikaras in themselves were comfortable and very relaxing. All sort of economic activity happened on the lake via them as well. Photographers came and offered to take our photos in traditional kashmiri attire. There were people selling corn, tea, pakodas etc. There was a floating market where all sorts of handicrafts could be purchases.
After the ride we were dropped at our houseboats, where the night was spent.
Next morning we began our journey towards Ladakh. Our first stop was the meadow of Sonmarg. We had lunch there. Many people offered us a pony ride to the glacier above. We declined and moved on. The mountain pass separating the Kashmir valley from the ladakh region is called the Zojilla pass. La means mountain pass in ladakhi, and ladakh itself means the land of mountain passes, being surrounded by them. Zojilla was snow filled, but not particularly high compared to the other passes we would visit subsequently, but the first experience of snow for this trip was fun nonetheless.
Once the zojilla pass was corssed the typical ladakhi landscape began to emerge. Completely barren mountains, with the taller ones having their peaks covered in snow. A spot of white on top of brown! Till your eyes could see in all directions. And probably, except you, not another soul for miles on end. We did not see a single village between sonmarg and drass which must have been at least a 3.5 hours drive (about 90 kms). Drass is famous for being the second coldest inhabited place in the world with temperatures easily touching -45 C every year, and in 1995 it supposedly touched - 60 C. Drass was also the main theatre of war during 1999. The war memorial for operation Vijay is also located at the edge of this town. Just reading about the exploits of Capt. Vikram Batra, Lt. Manoj Pandey and all the other soldiers who fought in such harsh conditions made our spines shiver and our hearts proud. (We were hard pressed to climb 20 ft at one go. They had to climb 1000s of feet facing fire from above with hardly any place to take cover)
The physical features of the people also changed during this travel across one pass. From the distinctly Arabic in Kashmir to the Mongol looking people of Ladakh. Religion changed from Islam to Buddhism. But one thing was constant. The warmth and hospitality of the people.
The night was spent at Kargil, the biggest town in the Ladakh region.
The next morning we began our journey to Leh. On the way we stopped at Mulbekh. Here there was a small monastery with a huge Buddha carved on stone. Next stop was Lamaiyru, a 1000 year monastery. Within this monastery there was a small cave and a statue of the monk who first brought Buddhism to this region. After crossing Lamauru we caught a glimpse of a place known as "Moonland." This was a region straw yellow in colour with features that looked like a flat but huge anthill, or probably one could say a place with with many holes, from which the name moonland followed. The necessary quota of pictures taken we moved on. Again our only companion was nature, with a village, if at all, seen once in 30 odd kms. During a large part of this journey we meandered along the Indus river. At one point the bank was so extraordinarily beautiful that one would be forgiven to think that the place was in a dream. There were two huge boulders separated by 10 metres right at the bank with about 20 metres of bank behind them and then the road and the mountain. The opposite bank began the mountains. Nature - pure and undistilled. Thankfully it was in such isolated a place. If it was anywhere else someone would have put two tables and started selling lunch at 5000 a couple - stags not allowed.
We drove on. We reached a high plateau with long straight roads. I am certain we could see at least 10 kms of straight at that point. Night halt was in the town of Leh.
The next day was spent in local sight seeing. We first went to the magnetic hill. This place was absolutely brilliant. There was a point on the road marked with white bands. When vehicles were parked there (brought to a complete halt) and the vehicle left in neutral the vehicle would start moving and that too move uphill. I kid you not. I am not making this up. I will upload the video we took. Next we visited the Spituk monastery. To reach the highest point there was a climb of about 100 steps. (Arjun and me decided to check our fitness by running to the the top. Do not be stupid enough to emulate us. Its not fun to feel breathless right at the top. It took us about 5 minutes to reach normalcy. The air is extremely thin. In fact there was a warning at the hotel which said that if you fly directly to leh do nothing for the first 24 hours. this will help you acclimatise to the height and the lack of oxygen!) We also visited the hall of fame - a museum maintained by the ladakh scouts regiment, both about the history of wars in the region and also about local ladakhi tradition.
Next morning we stated on our trip to Pangong lake. The route to the lake was extraordinarily mesmerising and at the same time extraordinarily tough. On the way one had to cross the Chang La pass, which at 17568 ft is one of the highest motorable roads in the world. People who got off to visit the toilets maintained by the army started feeling dizzy due to the low oxygen levels. The roads being continually bettered by the elements were also in a pitiable condition. For those able to take the ride the frame of mind would be "Do not think why the roads are so bad, rather be greatful that roads exist in so beautiful a place." For those who cannot take the poor road conditions, especially on the back of already having travelled 8 hours a day for the last 3 days, the frame of mind would be, " Which corner of hell, albeit granted a beautiful corner, am I?"
The route in itself was breathtaking. At one point there was this extremely narrow valley, about 20 metres wide and a few kilometres long. In the middle of this narrow valley a small stream meandered by. Nothing else in sight!
Finally we reached the lake and with the first look that it presents, the lake breaks your heart with happiness. You absolutely cannot believe the place is for real. It is like you are in the middle of virtual reality. All the photos one take will not be able to give you the full picture. The guy who imagined Pandora could as well die of shame. As grander words, would anyway not do justice, the only way I could describe it is it is an extremely beautiful lake surrounded by snow capped peaks. It is probably the only place, even whose memories I feel so greedy about that I would rather not share. What if, what if, by sharing the memory, I somehow manage to lose it ! (The only other memory I cherish so much is that of monsoons in Mumbai. Sitting on a narrow ledge by the window, doing nothing but see the rains go pitter patter! Something that is happening as I write this piece. My view at present is of the Pipal tree getting soaked by the rains)
Half the group sat by the lake for the evening. Some people left, others came. I was at the banks throughout. The other half was too sick from the travel to venture out and enjoy the place for any considerable length of time.
The next morning the weather played foul and obscured the view of what would definitely have been a brilliant sunrise. Pangong Tso, I'll be back! You needn't have played such games with me to make me come again!
We returned to Leh as per schedule.
Anyway with all this travel, and more in store, four people of the group decided to head back back to Mumbai. My sincere suggestion, to anyone planning a trip and having by mistake chanced on my blog, avoid older and people who do not like to travel much, if visiting ladakh. If you wish they definitely accompany you take them only to leh and our next destination nubra valley.
The road to nubra valley is probably the best in the region though it passes through the highest motorable road in the world - Khardung La pass at 18350 feet. Khardung La being extremely narrow traffic is allowed in only one direction at a time. The days which direction will be given prefernce are known in advance. But due to some erroneous planning by the travel agency we ended up being at the road on the wrong day. So we had to wait for 5 hours at the base of the pass. While waiting I climbed about 150 feet of the mountain. It was tough. I had to stop 2 times to take my breath. But the ladakhi driver who was with me, was climbing as though he was strolling in a park. This disappoints you a bit, but nothing like when you see them climb down. They run don slopes which would be tilted 30 degrees with the vertical. You feel outright stunned when they do that.
After the wait we were on our way. At the La there are banners claiming the world record and also a souvenir shop. We took photos bought souvenirs and were on our way when 150 metres down the road I realised I had forgotten the camera at the shop. The ladakhi driver(Sevom) and me began running as taking a U turn was out of the question. I ran 100 metres. By then Sevom went the whole 150 metres and was back to the point I reached. It may not sound like much, but running 100 metres at 18000 feet is probably the toughest thing I have done till date!
Anyway onwards we proceeded and soon reached Nubra Valley. On the way we stopped at the coldest place of the trip for tea. This was the base of Khardung La on the Nubra side. A place called North Pullu. Tempaerature -10 C. This is their summer. The night was spent in cottages made of bamboo in the town of Sumer.
The next morning was spent going to places in Nubra valley. Nubra valley is like an oasis in the barren Ladakh region. The narrow valley was filled with trees, many of which flowered. The predominant colours of the flowers were pink and violet with a bit of yellow thrown in. Nubra is called the valley of flowers and from what I understand is in full bloom in July and August. In the valley we visited a hot water spring at Panamic and then went to a place called Hunter where there are sand dunes. We had a ride on double humped camels.
After this we began our return to Leh. The driver tried filling diesel at a pump on the way, but the pump was out of stock. Along the way he tried sourcing fuel via black marketers but again to no avail. We moved along anyway. And finally about 2 kms from the top fuel got over. No fuel, no other vehicle in sight and stranded at 18000 feet. No way we could push the vehicle up, and too far to go down. In case you are wondering what we were doing, we were laughing our guts out. And at the same, the older people who gone ahead in another vehicle and had about a 45 minute lead over us anyway were crying as they did not know what happened to us. They had passed through a blizzard earlier. We being late missed it. Anyway as we were waiting without fuel, we slowly saw a truck come uphill. He came and stopped behind us. If he had to proceed he better have extra fuel for us first. And he did have a spare can on him, which he sold us at market price. The truck had good luck written behind it and to us it was luck indeed!
This too may not be much, but again is one of the most adventurous thing that has happened to me!
Finally we were united with the other car, and then moved on our way to Leh. (Till they read this the older people do not know that in addition to being late because we had eaten our food slowly, which was the chief reason for our delay, we were also stranded without diesel for 5 minutes!)
Our plan was to move onwards to manali via the leh - manali highway the next day. But, this year being one of the harshest winters in that area, the highway hadn't yet opened. We took a call and decided to fly back directly to Mumbai. All the flights were fully booked and thus we were forced to fly back business class, entailing an additional cost of Rs. 20,000 per person.
This trip I must say would remain in my head a long time! One thing for certain though, is that Ladakh will be a place I would be visting time and again! There most definitely exists no other place that is so raw, so beautiful, and yet virgin and not damaged by commercial elements as Ladakh!
Note 1: Our drivers, Thinley, Angchok and Chozbel, you Rock. Especially you Thinley! Extraordinarily brilliant driving.
Note 2: Due to addditonal cost of returning business class out total cost was about Rs. 60,000 per person! The budge conscious, if he has time and weather in his favour, as of 2010, can do this trip ex mumbai at about Rs. 25,000 per person, flying one way and returning by train the other.
NOte 3; I will upload all the pictures on Picasa/ Faceebok soon. Will give you the link here once I have done that. Right now in the blog I have refrained from using pictures of known people.
