Why you should not go to Ladakh by Road?

"Snow covered mountains, fresh air, and a journey to heaven"

A dream. An illusion. I spent thirty minutes getting up a hill to separate myself from the maddening crowd but still felt shallow observing poses and selfies down there. 

Will there be Snow?

I texted my friends for the third time.



They shared few pictures of Rohtang pass and other places from the itinerary all covered in snow and it cheered me up. My only motivation to go on such a long road trip was weather. I loved the idea of winters and rains and my feet drenched in snow.

Road trip to Ladakh has become quite a fad lately. It is on top of the bucket list for all the new couples on the block or the so called travel junkies. Facebook and Instagram accounts are flooded with the pictures of passes on the way to Leh or the winning pose at Khardungla.

I couldn’t resist the temptation myself when added in a group of friends planning for Ladakh and so the journey began and then ended with a lot of unexpected twists and turns and a bundle of joy (pen drive) with full of memories.

Kashmir at one end and Manali on the other, we covered the whole circle around the land of clean blue lakes.

Surrounded by tall Cedar trees, beauty of Manali was exquisite. Kashmir was love at first sight. We didn't get to stay at Kashmir but even just the drive through Kashmir made me realize that why two countries have been fighting over a piece of land. It was like I knew I am returning back to these two cities, someday, One day.
I wish I could say the same for Ladakh!!




I did get to see the most beautiful roads and picturesque sceneries; the most enticing experience of travel to look back for forever but the whole trip was disillusioning and I felt betrayed and disheartened at times.

Nature didn’t betray me; it was my lack of interest and time in planning the trip that distorted the memories of the trip. I learnt a lesson that one needs to be very careful in planning itinerary according to their preferences on such long trips instead of blindly relying on the group you are travelling with as their choices might be different from yours. You get all of nature at one place - Snow, Green, Sea, Barren lands (with crows ready to take a bite on you). You need to be very careful of your itinerary.

One side of the city is totally commercialized - full of tourists and other is a secluded one. Even with fourteen days in hand, I wasn't able to cover 50% of the places as most of the time we were hopping in and out of the car during the entire trip.

Unlike the very lovey-dovey posts on Ladakh - I will start with those pieces of my trip that went wrong:

Weather - I got Sun and sweat throughout my trip unlike my expectations of Snow and too cold to survive moments

Pollution - For most of the trip, we were trying to overtake trucks that were exhaling black smoke. We couldn't close windows as even the best of cars got stuck while picking up at such a rocky terrain with AC - hence all the smoke at your face.

Crowd - It was peak time of the season and I guess the crowd at Khardungla was approximately close to the crowd I see in Cyber hub at lunch hours on weekdays :/ I never felt so shallow as I did at that time looking at all those artificial smiling faces and crowd posing and clicking just to post on social media.

Every single person wanted to click near the yellow board..

Never mind, I went uphill to find my peace. Can you find me in this photo below?

I was sitting at 10 o'clock from the Om sign. How can I not mention what happened after twenty minutes?

Yes, it got crowded there as well. While I am not an anti-social person but I absolutely detest the idea of not finding 'me' time on a trip. I was handed over phones at that very secluded 10 o'clock area also by some random strangers to click while they posed (Holy Shit!!)

The very sort after Ladakh, bedazzled me only when I sat at the banks of Pangong watching the different shades of sun settling in between water and mountains whilst the most silent cool breeze whispered through my ears.

That stillness of water comforted me unlike the rocky mountains which scared and scarred my journey. It was a full moon night and I knew I wanted to sit there for long – alone. Nothingness was engulfing me. I knew that this is the place where I am going to come back again, sooner or later.

It is not possible to share whole of the trip in one post – so here I take a pause and will come later with 'cherished' memories of Ladakh. 

See you laters!