Land of Endless Discoveries - LADAKH
Some destinations though familiar to all, are difficult to mark one's feet because of harsh climate and untamed mountains. Ladakh, an UT in India is one such place. It borders with China and some places are in conflict zone which makes it even more difficult to travel. The Indian Army patrol in huge numbers and are always on alert. They say, its the Journey that's important rather than the destination. Ladakh truly stands to that and travel to each destination is a different terrain.
The destination was always in my TO-DO list and thanks to COVID, it took a backseat. I was reluctant to travel inter-state due to fluidity in the situation and ever changing covid rules in different states. Nature started to heal and things started normalising. Quarantine rules relaxed and so was the entry criteria for vaccinated folks. But I was astonished as no COVID related checks happened in the airports. Strange World. Anyway before digressing, I decided to travel with TravelJunky and booked flights to Delhi for onward journey and from Leh for return. From beginning I had plans to not travel directly to LEH so as to adapt before scaling higher altitudes. I took the Manali - LEH route and wish to do Srinagar - LEH some other time.
The high level itinerary was as below:
I reached Delhi in the morning and checked-in at Zostel to stay till evening Bus to Manali. In the free time at Delhi, went to Akshardham and returned with throbbing headache and sweaty shirt due to intense heat. Killed time until evening and left to ZingBus lounge where other travellers would join and head to Manali. Thanks to evening traffic, we exited city only by 8ish. We were running late already and due to road construction en-route, we were 4 hours behind the scheduled arrival time. Finally, we made it to Manali by noon and bottom was super bored, warming the seat for so long. Checked-in to hotel and rested for a while. In the evening went for Manali attractions like Hidimba Devi Temple, Mall Road. Some travellers partied while a monk like me gave it a miss and called it a day.
Next day, journey was short to Jispa. I forgot to mention, that we had options either to travel in TT or ride the until end of the tour. We could swap as well , like sit in TT for sometime and then ride for some time. Bikers got their bike tested and did a dry run. With all set, we embarked towards Jispa. We would be passing the great Atul Tunnel today. Its a marvellous construction by BRO. The tunnel distance is approx. 10 KM . Post existing, there is a deviation towards Leh route and Chenab rives starts accompanying us in the journey. We took a pit stop for lunch enroute and reached Jispa camps in the evening. The camps are next to Bhag river, one of the headwaters of Chenab river. The weather turned nasty and the temperature dropped. It started freezing. The mattress was stone cold and we had to sleep and make it warm. Quite an irony. People had a merry time infront of the camp fire and dinner followed it. It was simple but hot and tasty which was the need of the hour. All called it a day soon. No sound sleep due to cold and low temperature. Rain added to misery. It was one helluva experience.
The morning was a different sight at Jispa. The sun was bright and mountain shone due to early morning sun light. Picture perfect settings. None dared to take bath though. We had packed breakfast and started our journey towards Leh. We would be crossing many passes and some high altitude roads en-route. Some of the travellers took DIAMOX to avoid AMS. I didn and its not needed unless you have severe motion and altitude sickness. Initial travel was smooth and as we entered Baralacha pass, there was a huge vehicle pile-up due to landslides. We were stuck for close to 90 minutes. Slowly , BRO peeps cleared the landslides and allowed vehicles to cross. Loose stones are the culprits and it can create havoc. We reached Ladakh - Himachal border village called Sarachu and stopped here for lunch break. We took approx 4 hrs to cover 40 - 50 kms. The terrain was astonishingly beautiful yet deadly. We started again and then entered the mighty Gata Loops. It has 21 hair pin bends and ascend journey gives you spectacular vistas of the mountains and terrain. There is an interesting story about still Ghost haunting this place. If interested, can read here. People in our group had some bad time here and some started throwing up. We reached Pang and still we had to cover a lot of ground. The road from Pang to Leh is smooth as butter and bikers were in a different world. But, we had to scale one last pass, Tanglang la which is one of the second highest motorable pass in the world. It started snowing and bikers were in bad shape as they were waiting for the TT. Some took break in the TT and took shifts to drive. We reached Leh finally by around 11 PM and all were exhausted and famishing. We gorged whatever was available and crashed on the bed.
Next day was Leh sightseeing in and around and all took at ease. It was a lazy breakfast and left to sightseeing late. We first went to Sangam place, confluence of Indus and Zanskar rivers. There are options to do rafting here, but rapids are non-existent. We then went to Magnetic Hill and Gurudwara pathar sahib temple. Had lunch at langar there and proceeded towards Shanti Stupa. Then we went to Leh market and we had some time to ourself to explore . We reached hotel and supper was ready. Some partied, while some slept like babies.
We would be visiting majestic, pristine , bluish Pangong Lake today. The route passes through Changla Pass, which is one of the second highest motorable pass in the world. Fortunately, there were no road hiccups today and stopped at durbuk for lunch before proceeding towards the Lake. The evening weather was not good to witness the bluish shade and it was super windy and cold. We could see snowing in the higher mountain ranges. We had few photo moments and reached our camps stay. Again here, the camps were at a stone's throw from the lake and as expected, night would be chilly and windy. Since resources are limited here, we were told, lights will be on only till 10 PM and dinner would get over by 9ish. The camps folks were super accommodative and were eager to assist us with a grin face always. Hot drinking water, extra blankets , refreshment's were offered. They did put on campfire and we could see the starry nights as there was absolutely no light noise.
Next day, I got up early and when I came out of the camp, the lake had metamorphosed completely. It was so blue , that it was so soothing to the eyes to witness the calm waters. The brown mountains in the background , blueish sky and the waters was picture perfect.
There was plans to leave as driver anticipated high incoming traffic from Nubra Valley. We left almost 2 hrs late and boy driver was not joking. Army people had stopped the traffic towards the Nubra valley as Army truck had met with an incident and they were clearing it. The road to Nubra was again a different terrain as we would be entering the desert plains. Shyok river was with us always until Nubra. We had lunch en-route and stopped at ATV ride place. There was 1 hour wait due to crowd and it was a different experience to ride ATV at world's highest sand dunes place. There was also camel ride which only couples in the group were interested. The other travellers went to Camps and here camps were luxury types. It was nice and cozy and interestingly, hot water was available. We ranted for sometime and had early dinner . Again campfire and people narrated their ghost experiences/stories. I didn have anything to share.
Next day, we would be back to Leh and travellers who were heading to Pangong started on a bad note. There was heavy landslides in the Nubra - Pangong route and so Army had stopped the entire route. It was a huge pile-up and we thanked our stars for having avoided that. We will be passing the mighty Khardungla pass which is highest motorable road in the world. There is Umingla Pass which is at higher altitude than khardungla pass, but not many dare to go. Some day may be. We stopped at khardungla pass and people were fighting to take photo in front of the board. We reached leh in the late noon and today lunch was sponsored by the tour operator. We went to Lamayuru restaurant and gorged like there is no tomorrow. We then spent some time in the market and went to the hotel.
I had decided to stay extra day at Leh and fly to Bangalore directly instead of going to Delhi again. I had booked stay at Zostel and while I bid goodbye to other travellers who left to Jispa, I booked a private taxi and went to Hall of Fame. The Army explains how they won Kargil war and there are many exhibits here. There is also a Souvenir shop here. I checked into zostel and went to market as there are many restaurants there. Had local food like Khambir bread, Thukpa and returned to hostel.
I had late morning flight next day and hostel folks helped me get the taxi. Finished the formalities and waited for the flight announcement. The Zanskar ranges look spectacular from the flight and bid goodbye for the final time before entering the urban jungle.
Epilogue:
- Only Postpaid SIM's work in LADAKH. Airtel , JIO coverage is better I felt
- In Pangong Lake, no network but for satellite phone works.
- Drones are a big NO NO. Army can shoot them down. No MERCY
- Riding bikes in Ladakh does not equate to riding bikes in city or even inter city travel. The terrain in harsh and ruthless
- As the vegetation is minimal, its good to hydrate often.
Some Photos Below:
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