A visual treat - Journey to Ladakh

Thanks to the amazing flora and fauna of Manali, magnificent hill tops of Kashmir, breathtaking sunrise and sunset in Pangong, a nearly heart stopping experience at Jozilla and a jaw dropping view from Patnitop - I felt contended by end of the trip.

My friends came to pick me up at midnight when I was still working and dropped my last email with fingers crossed. The feeling of no laptop for next 10 days was giving me more goosebumps than the trip itself. Thanks to my super hectic schedule during those days, I hadn't done any homework on the places I was going to see. My sister helped me in buying and packing all the essentials as was listed by one of the friends in the group.I really loved the way my friends jotted down the first aid kit.

First aid kit list

Travel Dates: 14th June 2016 to 25th June 2016
Group of 5 - I, Prerna, Ashutosh, Suneet and Arun

Manali

Chandigarh to Manali was around 300 Km drive and it took us around seven hours to reach our first destination. Long Cedar trees everywhere gave city a dark and heritage look, very much like just out of a novel of Murakami. It was my first visit to Manali and a bit of drizzling took away all the tiredness. 

We ended up spending our evening at a popular cafe - Lazy Dog in old manali. It was a perfect ambience to smoke up yourself on the nature.

After seeing the traffic at midnight hours on mall road, we planned to headstart our journey at early wee hours and crossed jam-packed rohtang pass before the breakfast time.

Lahaul & Spiti

Our first stop of the day was a small mud house in Khoksar where we sipped endless cuppas of morning tea with our trip stapled diet Maggi. It was raining when we crossed Lahaul Spiti and other than the view I absolutely enjoyed the rain. We passed various small villages like Gramphu, Sissu, Tandi, on our way before reaching our next stop for clicks at Baralachala Pass.

Baralachala Pass

Baralachala at 16040 ft provided us with the first glimpse of snow-cladded mountains. There were no tea joints unfortunately and we could just hault and click around a road sign.

There was an uncanny familiarity to the name  of this pass when I heard it first time on our journey. I realized later that I had read a story of haunted Sainik bhawan in Baralachala Pass during my brief research on haunted places in India. 

Read the whole story here:

http://vargiskhan.com/log/cannibal-haunted-baralacha-la/

Sarchu

We were advised to stay at Keylong but we were too exhausted by the time we reached Sarchu. The blow of wind here was the strongest. By midnight, AMS started kicking in and started troubling two of my friends and strangely I was fine (I am asthmatic otherwise). To be on the safer side, we took out oxygen cylinder kept in our our car's trunk and everyone took two to three puffs from it.

Morning was pleasant. We saw the sun rising through the naked mountains.. From this destination onwards, journey became really difficult as most of us were really tired and roads had become tree-less - snow-less and view of the valley became harsh.

It wasn't as green as it looks in pictures. Few of the mountains were charcoal black.

I felt lifeless without trees or green color and slept throughout the whole drive unless my friends woke me up for pictures. 

I was back to my self on seeing long lush green trees in the middle of desert but I was curious that how come trees here and I have still not got that answer. Well, that was our arrival to the city of Leh! 

Leh - We checked in to our hotel and dropped ourselves on the beds and slept for around 10-12 hours before seeing each other next day.In next two days we covered all the sightseeing places of Leh. 

Leh Museum

Leh Museum - Borders and human lives. Eyes go moist as you see-read-listen-watch the stories of soldiers.

Leh Palace

Leh Palace - Ruins of the palace looked like very famous for study of ancient architecture history. I kind of enjoyed the view of city from there.

Magnetic Hill

Sangam Point

Magnetic Hill - Board on left leads to momentarily stoppage of hundreds of vehicles to check if car moves up towards hill which is believed to have some magnetic forces. I read later that it is an optical illusion - the uphill is an illusion and hill is actually a downhill. Don't browse.
Go with magnetic forces theory, it's more interesting ;)




Sangam point - Confluence of two rivers. Find a corner and just enjoy the serenity. I am surely going to spend a whole day here next time.

Shanti Stupa

Shanti Stupa - A very positive vibe'd place giving you a panoramic view of the city like Leh Palace. I loved shopping from the nearby Chanspa market

Thiksay Monastery - Land of highest passes also has the largest number of monastries outside Tibet. Thiksey is one of the oldest monasteries built in 15th century. If you want to sit in peace and enjoy and bask in the colors and flavour of peace - sit in the gompa and enjoy prayers. Twenty minutes drive from the main city and it a must visit sightseeing place which I happen to miss. That's another story for some other day!

Khardungla- The Encounter

I was feeling a little lost with the crowd at Khardungla (as I mentioned in previous post of Ladakh). The whole road was blocked. Two big military vehicles were passing through the road and no person wanted to give them way or move away from the signboard of Khardungla. Though I understood that we were at highest motorable road, I felt no sense of achievement like others around. It was the most frustrating moment seeing all those people trying to click around when he tapped at my shoulder from back. 

An army officer, the one leading the group approached..

"Miss, you are not allowed to click picture of the tank."
My eyes took a 180 degree view and saw every person around taking pictures with the vehicle.
I stared at him and he had this mischievous smile which made me wonder what he was upto and that uniform <3

"Miss, Can you delete that picture?"

"Sorry"

"Please delete pictures of tank"

His smile made me delete those pictures without any argument. I was done and he was still there and didn't move away.

"Can I check once?"
"Okay."
With a little mischievous smile, I added
"Can I have a picture with you?" 
That is what even he was looking for! 
"Don't click my badge!"
We locked our eyes for a moment when he saw an officer approaching us and he straightened himself and winked. 
"Don't click the pictures mam. Thank you"
 I was standing there a bit cheered up, looking at him as he walked away and realising that I had the highest and the sweetest moment on the highest motorable road with a complete stranger. Strange and completely hopeless I am! 

Pangong and the full moon 

Nothing can be described in words for this beauty.  The stillness, the moment, that first glimpse left me spellbound for a long time. 

We drove past the army camp, 3 idiots point and eating joints to stop at a secluded corner to view the sun set. I sat there with my feets dipped in water. Those were the most magical few minutes.I was happy. There are these brief moments in life when you are happy for no reason. I had this huge smile and insane thoughts in my head which I wished could have shared with someone. I don't know for how long I have been lost in myself when my friends called me for few pictures.  I clicked few random crazy shots with myself before joining them.

Our cottage.

We had a cook to ourselves but I still managed to get in the kitchen and made some masala papad to enjoy our drinks. 

Zozila Pass

Full moon was over, it was a dark night. 
Welcome to the drive through a hell called Zozi la which takes you to the so called heaven called Kashmir! 

It's a 9 km drive on a narrow road where only one vehicle can pass at a time but a line of trucks pass through it everyday. My heart literally popped out at every turn we took there. One mistake and it was all over! 
Trust me, at one point I wanted to walk back, leave my group and take another route but to miss this road!! 

Kashmir -
As we drove through the valley of Kashmir, I came back to my own self. I understood that why Kashmir is called heaven. Suddenly the war over valley between India and Pakistan started making sense. A colorful hut in between the green fields with a waterfall on one side was the mesmerising sight everywhere. 

We reached Srinagar and headed straight for the majestic Dal lake. Snacks were delivered to our shikara through another shikara. We were snacking in the mid of the lake listening to nothing but the waves. It was one of the finest moments of my life!
I was lost in some other world and sang two of my all time favorite melodies during the whole shikara experience

"Ye kashti wala, kya ga raha hai
koi ise bhi yaad aa raha hai"

"Socho ki jheelo ka shehar ho
lehro pe apna ek ghar ho"




Three places had touched the notes of my heart - Manali, Pangong and the drive from Kashmir. As if these three were not enough, Patnitop was an add on. There was no snow at patnitop too but I felt immensely satisfied.

When trip got over and we were back home, I said everybody that Ladakh trip is over-hyped. It was not at all, all about Ladakh but when I look back and think of it - I am very fond of all these memories. Somebody said it right that you never regret a trip taken to an unknown place!

Here goes a big thank you to my travel squad  :)

The one who made the plan

Coz a girl needs another girl to travel with guys ;)

The Squad!