Had heard a lot about this heaven on earth, for which the plan was to visit during July 2010, but better late than never, the plan got executed towards end of August 2010, with my favorite adventure group these days, “Jungle Lore”. The whole trip was a little uncertain mid August, due to recent flash floods in some regions of Ladakh, which took approx a thousand lives. Few of us were determined to be there, with some cancellations on the cards, 16 of us ultimately turned up for the trip. We spent some 10 days of life in heaven and are back in time to face the grounds.
26th August 2010 was the day of execution. All of us headed in three different flights to reach Srinagar by afternoon and to stay in the “house boat” in Srinagar in a lake named as “Nagin Lake”. There was an utter silence in the air in this place due to recent unpleasant events; there appeared enough protection and police force on the streets. Evening of 26th we visited market area on “Shikaras” for about 3 hours. The market is also called as floating market, because of its very nature, as most of the stuff being sold in Shikaras or on shops which are built afloat. The climate in the evening gets really chilly across this lake. The day ended with lot of chit chats, lots of photographs and some spicy food from chef of the houseboat.
Leh to Srinagar
Morning of 27th we were on our way from Srinagar to reach Leh with majestic view all over on route.
During this trip, we spent a lot of time travelling in Innova. On 27th August, we visited Vijay Smarak (Kargil War Memorial) and got a magnificent sunset view of the “Tiger Hill”. We stayed overnight at hotel Siachen in Kargil, which is supposed to be the best hotel to stay in Kargil.
Morning 28th we proceeded to Srinagar via Fotula top (this is at a height of 13479 ft and is the highest point of Srinagar Leh road). We visited Mulbekh Monastery, Lamayuru Monastery which was apparently closed in the afternoon. From Lamayuru Monastery, one views the “Moon land”, the patch which resembles land on Moon and therefore the name. In the evening we got a majestic view of the confluence of Sindhu and Zanskar rivers. We visited the Magnetic hill, which is said to have magnetic properties. The magnetism, we observed with our eyes, when one of our drivers drove the Innova for like 50 mtrs without starting the car. Post this, we visited Pattharsahib Gurudwara (managed by the army force). We learnt that this place was almost drowned during the recent flash floods. The attendant (who also are the army men) at the Gurudwara told us their experience of the recent flash floods and the way they rescued the holy books “Guru Granth Sahib” from drowning in the water.
Leh, recent happenings and in & around the city
28th August, ended with the tiring journey of approx 450kms from Srinagar to Leh, reaching our base camp for the entire trip, Hotel Bijoo, which is located near Leh City market area.
Coming to the flash floods, it has done a good amount of damage to the region. Destruction could be seen while we travelled across various places. But the destruction, so to say is not as much as hyped by the media, so as to collapse the whole tourism industry in Ladakh. I cannot comment on the amount of damage caused by floods, since I had not seen this place ever before, but, to see a place like Pangong Lake, Nubra Valley, Tsomoriri, one has to travel 100s of kms, which are quite remote to the location of flood affected regions, which are still as beautiful as one could see by doing a image search on google. It is not an end of tourism in Ladakh, as one sees these days in the news channels and other medias, CRAP!! There is a strong urge to set up tourism industry back to its normalcy, since a major economic dependence of the people of Ladakh is on this industry. Beauty of this place is still intact, while some patches of the region and lives have been affected due to floods, which can be back with the pick of next tourism season. There has been a good amount of relief work being done as we could see, but apparently, I felt, a shortage of manpower to rebuild and rehabilitate the affected areas / people. We got to know from our driver that the affected people have been given tent accommodations to stay, and food has also been supplied by the government. Hopefully, things come back to normal for these parts of Ladakh.
Coming back to the trip, 29th August, was a day to relax and take a visit to the most adjacent places of the Leh Market. We visited the ancient Tibet Refugee market, which was located near our hotel. Post lunch, we visited the Leh Palace, Spituk Monastry, Hall of Fame Museum and Shanti Stupa. Spituk Monastry will remain in the memory for one of my camera lens which fell down and stopped working for a while, needing a repair now. At Shanti Stupa we also got a chance to attend the evening prayer by couple of Buddhist monks.
All these monasteries are filled with vibrant colours and awesome architecture. Prayer wheels and the Buddha statues are common across Leh and all the monasteries. The prayer wheels are of different sizes, vibrant colours and designs and are rotated clockwise by the devotee to pass on the message to the heavenly abode. All these monasteries are located at heights, on different mountains, which led these unaffected during the flash floods.
30th August was again a day which involved less travel and we visited Hemis Monastry, Thikse Monastry Shey Palace (at which photography is prohibited L ) and Sindhu Ghat.
Nubra Valley
31st August, was the day on which the real trip was to begin, when we were to proceed for Nubra Valley, a deserted area (cold desert as people call it) via Khardungla Pass, which is Worlds Highest Motor able Road and is at a height of 18360 ft. We experienced the double hump camel rides in the evening nearby our resort and some playful time at the sand dunes. Overnight stay was in comfortable tents at the Nubra Organic Retreat, which is a real organic place of it kinds. There are apple and apricot trees all over this hotel along with variety of vegetables. These are served in cooked and raw form to the visitors for lunch dinner deserts and breakfasts. On our return to the base camp, we visited the Diskit Monastry where we also got a chance to see a huge monument of “Maitreya Buddha” which has been put up at this place only a year back. We returned in the eve of 1st September to our base camp for taking a nap and look forward for some more fun for rest of the trip.
Pangong Lake
Next day, September 2nd, we were on our way to Pangong lake which is at a height of 14500 ft, acclaims to be the Highest Salt water lake and is considered most beautiful place across Ladakh region. Only 30% of this lake is said to be in the territory of India while the other part being in Tibet. As it is said, the lake is beautiful, peaceful, calm and soothing. Evening we returned back to base camp, Hotel Bijoo.
Tsomoriri
The next on agenda, was another beauty of Ladakh, Tsomoriri, which is at a height of 15080fts. The place is quite far from Leh, approx 220 kms drive from our base camp, with the most difficult and challenging roads with majestic beauty on both the sides of the road.
As we approached the lake, we saw this green, blue, white crystal clear water in the lake (for about 40-45 minutes drive across the Tsomoriri lake), which to me was the best moments of the entire trip. The view as we saw, is the one which I cannot describe but it’s just worth of an experience. Evening of September 3rd, we all reached the tents at Tsomoriri. This, was the most challenging destination of the entire trip. The evening we reached, a cool breeze was already there to welcome us. The temperature we learnt, would drop to approx 4-5 degrees midnight. While the night passed sleepless, we decided to do some photography at 4 in the night / morning, out we were and we had the magnificent view of the moon and thousands of stars.
Morning 4th September, around 10, we headed back for our base camp and by evening we returned back to the resort. The next day was the day of rafting and resting, while few of the group decided to go for rafting, few decided resting. Sunday, was the day to be in the market.
Next day, September 6th, the day a wonderful journey ends with wonderful memories for a life time!
Link to the Pics -
