Ladakh: Mystic Land of High Mountain Passes
Many of my friends have visited Leh & the first thing I was told was altitude sickness...headache & vomitings. Mountain sickness, headaches, vomitings, insufficient air to breathe, restlessness, and fatigue are some of the harsh ways in which the mighty mountains can welcome you. The easiest but probably the worst & not as exciting way to reach Leh is to fly from Delhi.
Delhi-Manali-Leh-Kargil-Srinagar-Delhi road trip was a long-standing dream trip for me. Choosing to reach Leh by road than by flying, is a natural and gradual ascend to the mountains and it is a great way to beat the mountain sickness and get acclimatized were 9 persons with one Travera & one Innova in hand.
Day1, 09/08/08(Delhi-Manali, 585 kms.): We rolled out of Delhi on the early morning of Saturday 9th august to Manali. Trip was long, tiring & roads at places were very bad. Traveling along the banks of river Vyaas is very picturesque & an experience in itself. Although our stay in Manali was short yet we enjoyed the famous trout fish in our dinner.
Day2, 10/08/08(Manali-Jespa, 138 kms.): Started very early in the morning. Car tanks were filled. Rohtang pass (13051ft) without it's traditional snow & it's Delhi crowd looked very desolate & lonely. Himalayan Griffon vultures were often sighted along the way to Rohtang. Reached Keylong & had our simple lunch at ChandraBhaga hotel, named after the river in this beautiful town of Lahaul valley. Terrain here is completely changed from the green valley of Manali. Snow clad mountains are devoid of any greenery & are barren but very beautiful & any photographer's delight. It started giving first glimpses of the Buddhist culture in form of monasteries & gompas. It is a place where one can spend the whole weekend exploring Gurughantal & other famous monasteries. ChandraBhaga hotel is a decent place to stay as well. We can also make a day trip for Udaipur (of Lahaul valley) from Tandi, near Keylong. Our destination was Jespa, on not a very decent road. Fortunately borders roads organization (Border Roads Organization which is probably the best in the world & working under most adverse & trying conditions) is there to help out in case of frequent landslides. We reached Jespa at about 4.00pm & had enough time to hang around the riverside & enjoying the beautiful landscape. Locals are mostly potato & pea farmers & are a lovely lot. Ibex hotel is the only place to stay & was very comfortable with excellent food.
Day3, 11/08/09(Jespa-Sirchu, 77kms): Landscape along the route to Sirchu was beautiful & the sky was never so blue. On the way to Leh we pass through two small but very beautiful lakes Deepak Taal & Suraj Taal, both simply out of this world. Our first major milestone was a pass Baralacha La (16,500feet). Both rivers Chandra & Bhaga originate from this pass & become ChandraBhaga at Tandi & is renamed as Chenaab in Doda district of Jammu & Kashmir. Our destination was Sirchu (14075 ft) where we camped in tents in the fields on the lap of mighty mountains. It was freezing cold & very windy. Shepherds in the area were celebrating some occasion & we joined them. "Juley" was the greeting word with the local population It was great fun & a lovely experience sharing some locally made alcohol & non-vegetarian food with them. Camping conditions were just passable & very cold windy conditions made the condition a bit challenging. High altitude effects started their play on some of our group members.
Day4, 12/08/08(Sirchu-Leh, 283 kms): Route was very long so we started very early in the morning. Landscape was absolutely barren but unbelievably beautiful. It looked as if god has himself created wonderful architecture on the hills. Australians boast about 12 apostles near Melbourne, but here every hill has an apostle, beautifully carved to some lovely form by the Mother Nature. We passed two beautiful passes. First was Lachulung La (16,616feet) en route to Pang & then comes an incredible 45kms stretch of flat plain Moray plains. Highest pass on way to Leh is Taglang La at 17,582feet, which is the third highest motorable road on earth. It was very breezy & cold at these passes specially the Taglang La. Now our final passage to Leh had started. Landscape as everywhere was barren but very beautiful. Driving conditions were treacherous, we often had to look for the road or make our own passage out of the caravan tracks or the truck tyre marks. Miles upon miles road rises steeply & then falls into a serpentine beauty.
We got the first glimpse of River Indus around a small town Upshi. Young Indus has a reddish hue due to red colored stones in the area. It is a beautiful site to see white tributaries entering the reddish Indus.
For the last 4 days we were anxious to know about conditions in Srinagar valley & here we got the worst reports by truck drivers who were going to Manali from Srinagar. It dampened our spirits a bit but the lovely road leading to Leh excited us all again. We reached Leh around 4.00pm. Our hotel "The Kaal" was beautifully located with great scenic beauty all around. "Juley," smiling Sonam, the owner welcomed us. Rooms were good, staff very friendly & co-operative & food was excellent. It was time to take some rest & recuperate our energies. Some of us explored the local market. Downtown Leh was full of foreign tourists & it seems every shop was made to cater to foreign visitors. There is only 1 ATM machine in Leh & there is always a long queue of tourists waiting for some currency.
Day 5, 13/08/08(Leh): We were at an easy pace. Saw the local places of interest in & around Leh. Started westwards, with visiting a gurudwara "Pather Saheb". Prasada served here was delicious & I couldn't resist myself from asking for a third serve. Very near to it is Phyang monastery of Drikung Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, founded in 15th century. Next was Spituk Monastery, established in 11th century AD & is also called as Gelugpa (yellow hat) monastery. This gives a beautiful view of the city & it gives a child like excitement to see aircrafts taking off in the background of barren brown & snowy hills. Coming back towards Leh city & moving southeast, along the majestic Indus, are the monasteries of Shey, Thiksey, Hemis & Stok. Shey was the ancient capitol of Leh. Monastery has a very large statue of Buddha dating back to 15th century. There is a temple within the palace enclosure possessing some beautiful old paintings. There is a shop manned by two very interesting ladies selling junk jewellery. Ladies in our group had a great time bargaining & after hours of haggling they bought nothing.
Very near to Shey is huge Thiksey monastery. It is built on a whole hill, on the pattern of Potala Palace in Tibet. It is well maintained & has many murals & paintings. Maitreya Buddha is housed here.
Crossing the Indus at Karu, driving up a steep height we reach the Hemis Gompa, the largest monastery of Ladakh. Matho monastery is 26 kms from Leh off the main Hemis-Stok road. Stakna is a small Gompa on an isolated hill. It gives great all-round view of the valley, along the Upshi-Leh highway.
Royal family of Ladakh lives in Stok Palace, ousted by Zorawar Singh during Dogra invasion. It is a 77-room palace housing a museum with fascinating collection of artifacts from the royal collection.
Our day ended with a visit the Leh palace built on Namgyal Tsemo hill. Greatest king of Namgyal dynasty Sengye built the nine-storied Leh palace, an imitation of great Potala Palace of Tibet. Now this palace is in a pathetic state, not properly maintained. It houses few interesting artifacts & paintings. Our lunch was a classic Tibetan lunch of momos & thukpa. In the evening we lazed around the market, & ladies doing some customary shopping (very costly bargains).
Day 6, 14/08/08(Leh-Khardungla-Nubra Valley-Hunder-Diskit-Leh 240 kms.): Khardungla (18380 feet) pass is the famous highest motorable road in India. Anybody who visits Leh visits Khardungla. It is to the north east of Leh. Road is generally good except for few kilometers around the pass. Group was overjoyed to see the fresh snowfall. Thin air & low oxygen had diminishes a bit of our activities & enthusiasm. Indian army jawans were there on duty & tea served by them was a pleasant surprise. It was a moment of great pleasure meeting these brave hearts. Nubra valley is between Saltoro & Karakoram ranges & is in two parts. Northwest runs along Shayyok River & the main valley down north has Nubra River, which ends at Siachin base camp. Sand dunes present re-emphasized our presence in a desert although the cold desert. Double-humped Bactrian camels on white sands were a treat to watch. There are various small villages on the way. Samtsemling monastery is the prominent structure in Sumur village. Panamik has hot springs & wild roses. Yarub Tso Lake lies beautifully in the middle of hot sandy riverbed & Rocky Mountains. Diskit has a beautiful monastery. Hunder is the last visit-able village, as other places have Army restrictions. I wanted to spend some more time here to have a look & photograph Ladakh Urials, but was unfortunate. Our Travera was showing some signs of poor health so we came back to Leh by the evening. It was time for some rest & some fine tunings of our vehicles.
Day7&8, 15/08/08& 16/08/08: Leh-Chang La -Pangong Tso-Leh 350kms):
Every tourist coming to Leh has a plan to visit Pangong but nobody knows what to expect. As always we had to start early. We were told that at places road is very bad & one place is even called as "Khooni naala". Initially there is steep climb to Chanlg La pass (18,152 ft), the second highest motorable road. We felt very emotional & patriotic to see Indian Tricolor flying on Chanlg La, on our independence day. Place also has a Shiva temple. We had to cross the Khooni naala before mid noon as water overflow makes it impossible to cross in the afternoon. We reached Pangong Lake around afternoon & the first glimpse left us mesmerized. The blue green beauty stunned us. It is salt-water 40 kilometers lake & three fourth of it is inaccessible, as it lies across the border in China.
It is one of the most beautiful structures we had ever seen. Scenario changes every few minutes. Clouds & sun playing hide & seek bring out different blues of the lake water & the browns of surrounding hills changes it's shades every few minutes giving a different color in reflections. Crowning glory was a complete rainbow over the lake. I am sure if there is something like heaven, it cannot be more beautiful than what we saw. I spent most of my time photographing the beauty of the lake at every time, evening, night & early morning. There is nothing to beat that experience.
We passed our night at a makeshift small camp. It was chilly cold, food was good under the conditions & some local alcohol & meat provided some warmth. Visited the last village Spangmik & met some families. It is hard to imagine their very tough life. Pashmina goat is the lifeline here. It provides them with Pashmina wool as well as meat to eat. Locals crossover to Chinese Tibet for their purchases & most of their belongings were from Chinese Tibet.
Way back to Leh was very interesting. Beautiful landscapes, wild assess, wild horses, , families of local LARGE rats called as Manmot Yaks & Tibetans selling Yak milk. There were lot many of these Manmot playing around with no fear of any cat around. I am sure our city cat will run away seeing them. Valley was full of shepherds & their herds. It was nice interacting with them.
Our group was very confused this evening. Conditions had not improved in Srinagar & it was risky to go there. Still the excitement of traveling through Kargil & Drass propelled us towards Srinagar route.
Day9, 17/08/08: Leh-Kargil 164kms: Started early again. Hotel staff wished us all the luck as they had heard about conditions in Srinagar. First thing of interest that came on Leh Kargil highway was Magnetic Hill. Here your stationary car will move towards up curve on slope. Very soon we were in Alchi monastery on the banks of Indus, 68 kilometers from Leh. It is built on the flat ground & not on a hilltop. It has a massive Buddha statue. There is a village around the monastery with many foreigners living in there. On the way to Kargil many kids were selling delicious fresh apples.
Roads were reasonably good as lot of army movement takes on these roads. Landscape was spectacular. Brown & shiny yellow colored barren mountains here are called Moon rocks, as probably they are similar to moon rock structures. Amazing natural shapes & structures were formed on these hills.
Lamayuru is probably the last typically Ladhakhi Gompa built on a hilltop with moon rocks all around it. Next comes the Fatu la (13479 ft.) the highest pass on Srinagar-Leh highway. Mulbekh is the major village on the way with two Gompas on the hillside. Villagers were having some ceremony & everybody was dancing & celebrating. People were in their typical beautiful Ladhakhi dresses. Some ladies did agree to get photographed with the promise that I will send them the prints. Crossing Mulbekh, population now is mainly Muslim.
Kargil is small town with very strong army presence. It was surprising to see many posters praising Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. It was sad to see Indus leaving India & going to Pakistan here. Kargil is a transit point for people going to Leh or Srinagar. It was brimming with foreign tourists who were going to various trekking trips in Zanskar Valley. Local population in Kargil is very conservative, orthodox Muslims. Ladies were exceptionally beautiful. We had a comfortable night in hotel D'Zozila.
Day10, 18/08/08: Kargil-Drass-Srinagar-Patnitop 378kms: - It turned out to be the most adventurous, exciting & dangerous day of our tour. First stop was Drass, famous for Tololing hills of Kargil war with Pakistan. Army has made a Victory Memorial in Drass. Seeing it was very emotional. We offered our prayers for our war heroes.
Soon we were at Zoji La pass (12,500 ft), the gateway to Kashmir valley. Roads are very bad & narrow. Landscape dramatically changes as we reach towards Sonmarg. Now it is green & not barren as earlier. We reached Patnitop in the evening. JK tourism offers a lovely place to stay here.
Day 11, 19/08/08: Patnitop-Jammu-Delhi585kms: -
After the fantastic Manali-Srinagar route, this journey was long and a bit monotonous. Jammu was under curfew with army all around. We reached our homes around midnight.
It was a dream tip, a trip to heaven, which went as per the decided details except that the conditions in Kashmir valley spoiling a bit of fun in the end This was probably the most enriching experience of my life. From the point of view of photography it was more than brilliant. Though I regret missing out on some beautiful wildlife like the Ibex, Blue sheep, Bharal, Black necked crane and many more exciting & exotic species in this area. Snow leopard is rarely seen & I was obviously not lucky. It has not been seen even by most of the locals.
The people of Ladakh impressed me a lot. Living in such harsh & demanding condition is certainly not easy. Even then they always greet you with a wonderful smile and never forget to say "Juley". They welcome you with open arms quite like mountains of Leh. Our soldiers humbled me the most. Sitting in the warmth of our homes, it is difficult to imagine what difficulties to