Ladakh... Revisited (Read: Mind.. Rejuvenated) Part-2

Day 3 :

We started our journey early in the morning. The route to Pangong was tedious but beautiful (needless to say, every part of Ladakh is beautiful..)

 

We had already been to Pangong lake last year (a filmy connect : last scene of 3 Idiots was shot here and this place surely has much more than what we saw on screen) but this is such a serene place that we could not resist being there once again. And we were so right in coming back. Luckily!
 

Sunset at Pangong

Yes! Luckily. It was unplanned but like I mentioned last year also that this place makes plans for you and you just seem to follow them. When we reached Pangong, we witnessed something extremely divine, spiritual, magical. It turned out to be a full moon night. I, being a Reiki practitioner, am aware of the value of full moon powers, but being there in front of this vast lake (135 km long), witnessing this sheer magic of nature under that clear sky found myself spellbound. I felt myself blessed to be there. It is a feeling that can not be expressed, only felt. And all this was totally unplanned by us, may be planned somewhere else.

Night at Pangong- Pic clicked by Mohit

We got something to eat in the evening and clicked some pictures but it was our night stay that I can never forget. It was left unclicked, but still it will remain with me, forever. After taking dinner, we spent time near lake in the night.
It was pretty cold there but we took our blankets (provided by guest house at Pangong) and went by the lake side. It was getting colder and we were shivering like anything but we wanted to spend some more time there. But considering that we had to travel a lot, we returned back to our rooms.

We were tired like hell but no one was ready to sleep. After a great round of Dumb Charades (Of course! my team won ;-)  ), we forced ourselves to sleep. What a waste of such wonderful atmosphere. It was a wonderland for meditation, the perfect enviro.

Next morning, we woke up early. I was in such an awe of last night's experience that I did not want to miss the sunrise and again it was worth getting up early. The pictures may speak better:
 

A tourist capturing the sunrise @ Pangong

Peace in recluse

After breakfast, it was time to say good bye to Pangong and its magical effect. We reached Leh by 2:30 p.m. After some tea and snacks, we went to local market, purchased a few things and enjoyed every bit of our time.
We were returning to Reeyork House for dinner and suddenly we heard some music.. Saiyoneee... It was the music coming from nearby roof top restaurant Il Firno. We all looked at each other and everybody had already wished and agreed to dine there.Along with free wifi, nice live music we got good food and as a pleasant surprise, we found actor Rajkumar Yadav (Queen, Kaipoche fame) dining just next to us. We didnot get a photo clicked with him but this was the strongest filmy connect of my travels. We left the place by 10:30 and were thrilled to see Tso Mo Riri next day.

Tso Moriri, Day-4:

We had a cab booked for taking us to this magical place. Though, the place seems less beautiful than Pangong, it has a different magic. Our cabby Norba Ji told us that this lake freezes in one go in winters and also melts in one go. Thats the kind of purity it has! Amazing.
NOrba ji had an anecdote on the tip of his tongue for every moment. For Tso Moriri, he told that A Yakni (female Yak, called Riri in Ladakhi) thought that the lake is still frozen whereas it had melted in one go a few moments ago. Riri had no idea of this and it fell in lake (called Tso in ladakhi). From that day, people named it Tso Mo Riri (Yakni's lake). Sad one..

We reached there via Chumathang (we found hot water springs there and these lovely kids as well !!!) .

Kids in Chumathang

The floods and landslides last month had shattered most of the routes and this was one of them. Even the brave efforts of BRO and army could not restore the road fully. Most of the road was in bad shape. We would have stuck hard time had we opted for biking through this route (As per locals at Leh, the road is beautiful drive. It used to be, but not now)

Bad roads, but BRO never stops working

 After a lunch break at Chumathang, we moved ahead and reached there by 5:00 p.m. 

The beautiful way to Tsomoriri was increasing our anxiety. If path was so beautiful, destination had to be awsome. And it was... We lose words for the beauty of this place. Clear skies, fresh air, deep blue water... All colors of nature are so vibrant. For city folks its like a dream and we lived this dream.. again..
 

Way to Tso Moriri

Roadmates - On way to Tso Moriri

Tsomoriri is around 60 kms from there. After getting into a nice hotel (Rs. 2600 per room with dinner and breakfast), we went to Tsomoriri. Let this beautiful lake talk for itself.. You may think I had a great DSLR to click these shots. But no.. I just had my Microsoft phone and a passion for capturing beautiful moments and nature was ready to be my muse.

Tso Moriri - View of lake from our Hotel

Splendid..

Colors were never so... so...Picture perfect

Timeless

Even in September, it was pretty cold out there and the fear of catching cold brought us back to the hotel. With friends, the time flew by. We played nearly whole night. Next morning, we wouldn't be there and we made the most of our time.
After breakfast in the morning, we left at 8 in the morning.
The return journey felt easier and we reached Leh at 2:30p.m. This was our last day and the thought of ending this vacation saddened us. But we had already decided to enjoy as much as possible.

Way to Gompa

Downhill from Gompa to Palace

After evening tea, we went to see Leh palace (I missed it last time, this time I made up for that). The palace nowhere feels similar to forts and palaces I have seen and heard of. It was quite a simple yet elegant piece of architecture. Only our journey to Gompa and from Gompa to palace was not elegant. (I almost broke my leg while coming down hill)

Leh palace- The history

We paid Rs. 30 for Gompa and Rs. 5 for Leh palace. Foreign nationals have to pay higher (100 bucks for Leh palace).

Dinner at Neha Snacks

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit though, some may find it boring. (My friends felt so!)
After this tiring visit, we came back to Reeyork, had some lemon tea and then paid our last visit to Leh market. We had our last dinner at Neha Snacks, a nice place to dine. 
It is by far my favourite market among the places I have visited.

I once again fell in love with this beautiful land. And I feel special being born in country with such diverse culture, lands, people, cuisines and what not! I just love being a traveler here. Thank you Ladakh....

Our last evening @ Reeyork House, Leh

Ladakh... Revisited (Read: Mind.. Rejuvenated) Part-1

Once again I ended up visiting the land of souls... Ladakh.
Many people ask me why I revisit the same place again. I have no explanation except that I go to the place I feel drawn towards. Its not some kind of calculation to cover maximum number of places. It's just that I sometimes love to relive the best moments from the past. Like watching my favorite movie again or reading a great book twice.

March 23- A friend of mine told me about the scheme of economical tickets by Go Air. I checked at cleartrip and got dirt cheap return tickets to Leh (from Delhi) at Rs. 4507. I couldn't stop myself from planning my September vacation in March. Quite early but totally worth it.
Lat year was tough journey. But this time we kept it easy. We reached Leh on 26 August by air. Its a 1 hour journey from Delhi to Leh by flight. We had per-booked bike for 7 days but due to health issue of a group member, dropped the plan of riding. Instead we kept bike for 2 days ( For Nubra visit) and then returned them for a 50% return.
Then we got a cab booked for the rest of the days. It made our trip easy but the thrill and fun of moving on bike was missing. However, I must say that the routes to Pangong and Tso MoRiri are pretty bad. So, anyone not ready for a really tough journey should avoid biking even if you are pillion rider.

That was the gist of our journey. Now allow me take you to the enchanting tour of Ladakh.

Day 1:
This day actually started on 25 August, though 25 was not the date of journey theoretically, but practically it was. On 25th, we started getting prepared for altitude sickness, that we could face once we reach Leh. In the Morning and evening, we took half diamox. We packed everything that we took on our last trip. We had a flight at 5 in the morning which required us to reach at airport at 4a.m. We had to get up at 3 a.m. But the excitement kept us awake till midnight. We hardly got a sleep for 2 hrs. Bad start. We reached Leh at 6 and everybody in the group was hit by headache. It was hard to understand whether this was due to AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) or due to our hectic journey.

Reeyork House

Apple and Apricot trees

We had booked our rooms at Reeyork House, Leh. Its a nice guest house, not very luxurious but pretty good for 900 bucks. We got delicious organic veggies grown and cooked in house.

Reeyork's own organic garden

Staff at Reeyork House brought nice lemon tea at our arrival. we had some Pooris and Aalu Bhaji for breakfast and then we slept through the morning. It helped in acclimatization also. We had our lunch at Dreamland Restaurant and then we returned to the guest house. The way from Reeyork House to Leh market is through a narrow lane which is full of local bakeries. We had really good breads from there.
We kept our first day for rest mostly and had evening tea and dinner at guest house itself. Only we went for taking bikes for next day's journey to Nubra Valley. We took two Royal Enfield Classic (Petrol capacity: 12 litres.) and one Thunderbird (Petrol capacity: 16 litres.)

Day 2:

Breakfast time

We were scheduled to start early in the morning but after having fresh breads, donuts and coffee for breakfast at nearby German Bakery, we actually left at 8:30 am.

Fresh breads baked in wood oven

 As there is no Petrol pump in the route or in Nubra Valley, we carried around 12 litres of petrol for 3 bikes. We went only to Nubra and returned. If you plan to visit nearby villages, then you must carry more petrol.(Check the distances via google and plan accordingly).We went through a fine stretch of 24 kms till Southpullu and then the road was nowhere.

 Next 15 kms upto Khardung la were quite tough. As it was our first day, we were not accustomed to the bikes and environment, it took us nearly 4 hours to reach Khardung La top. But reaching there filled us with a sense of achievement.

Khardung La top

Then someone reminded us of our remaining journey and we moved ahead and only to face worst roads. Actually, the GoI or BRO have nothing to do with the road conditions. They, in fact, work day and night to maintain these roads but the high altitude, melting snow and frequent landslides make it impossible to maintain proper roads near passes. But once we crossed around 15 km on both sides of the passes, roads became much better. After Khardung La top, around 12 km stretch caused us pain. But as soon as we approached Northpullu, we were on nice roads. After that we covered distances quickly. From there we had to cover around 75 km.

Khalsar Village

The roads were great and we took a halt at Khalsar for lunch. Khalsar is a villlage from where Nubra valley region starts. Also. a no smoking zone starts there but tourists still do not follow any rules and can be seen smoking there.
This village got completely destroyed in rains during July 2015. Only one or two hotels were open.
After lunch at around 4 in the evening, we did not take any halt and reached Hunder at around 6 in the evening. 

Guest house at Hunder

Guest house at Hunder

We got rooms at Sand dunes view resort at 600 bucks per room. It was a decent guest house but was quite far from sand dunes or camel ride site. 
Earlier people at Hunder used to have camels in their houses but now they leave camels in the forest area at night and bring them back in morning for camel ride.

 

Evening at Nubra Valley

Night at Nubra Valley

It was the loveliest morning I had woken up to... You don't agree? See for your self in the images taken by Ankush..

Hunder

Sunrise@ Nubra Valley

  In the morning, we went for camel ride. The beauty of this place engulfed our minds and we were so lost in it that we lost count of time. We had to leave at 8:00. 

 

But were enjoying it so much that we waited happily for the camel ride which had to start at 9:00. But it actually started at around 9:30. It costed us INR 200 for a 15 minute ride. Although I went for the ride but I felt bad for the way camels were treated by locals. But in this extreme corner of the country, people do whatever they have to do for their survival. This was negligible as compared to the tough life in the cold desert of Ladakh.

 

Lost in the sand..

 Difficult to reach distances, tough climatic conditions, proximity to Indo-China border, scarcity of modern resources like electricity, communication, transport, petrol etc. make life quite tough here. The only relief comes from army set ups at every few kilometers.

River turned into mirror.. Never seen such clear water before!

After having breakfast from Army canteen, we left for Leh. This time, we gained momentum and reached Leh at 5 in the evening. 

Usually we are disturbed by lack of cleanliness and sanitation at tourist places but in Ladakh, we usually find clean areas. But tourists now a days are increasing filth at such delicate ecosystems. People can be seen dropping polybags, bottles etc. When we love to visit clean places, we should consider it our responsibility to maintain the sanctity of the place.
While returning back we rested at a beautiful place .This is one of cleanest places I have seen. I actually sat on road without getting myself dirty. We clicked some quick pics. Here are a few:

Serene Ladakh

My favourite

I got paid for this one ;-)

Most of us had previously been to Ladakh on motorbikes. But one member in our group was new and she succumbed to the conditions and we changed our plan from bikes to Cab. In the evening, we returned our bikes and got 50% refund (And lost 50% :-(((  ). We booked our cab with Mr. Norba, an ex serviceman. We got a decent deal at 15000 INR for Leh to Pangong and Tso MoRiRi. Mr. Norba was a delight to have on our tour. He shared so many stories that we could never be aware of had we continued with bikes. (Everything happens for a reason, I guess :-)  ). We stayed back at Reeyork for the night and dined at Leh market. Leh market can offer great things to buy. I was really confused as I literally wanted to buy everything.
We found one organic store in the main market area and the moisturizers they sale seem to be the only saviours from dry air of Ladakh. The air is so dry that even after applying moisturizers and lip balms after every hour, skin became dry and lips chapped. But that seems to be a small price for being at such a wonderful place..