A holiday in Ladakh

It was a year ago, the need to do something different in my heart drove me to sign up with an adventure company to conquer the himalayas.

A year later with memories fresh in my mind, I write this blog as a tribute to ladakh. Truly a place which gave me no feel of being in India, except for the locals who spoke perfect hindi, yet looked like Tibetans.I met my holiday partners in Cp, Delhi while catching a bus to Manali. All of us city people had no clue what it would be like. The only education i had received was from this awesome old man who ran a shop in Dadar selling trekking gear. We spent two days in Manali, where we had a nice time visiting some hot water springs, walking to Hadimba temple and the night saw us in this pub which was quite quaint. Beware of Manali as my camera, phone and wallet got flicked the same night from my hotel room, while I was sleeping :(

The trip from Manali to Leh was something I would never forget...a mixture of lovely landscape, good conversation with strangers and altitude. We didnt realise while climbing except for a slight headache that we were actually being driven through 17000ft. The night we spent at Keylong where some holiday partners had a rather uninformed discussion about the gandhian philosophy...all heated...and fun. A special mention of Guru, James and Frank who made this a rather interesting drive
After a 2 day journey we finally reached this quaint little holiday hotspot called leh. Its amazing how so many people from all over the world visit Leh and Indians prefer to stop at Manali. The ratio people was 3:1 !!!!

Leh has a great feel about it. Lovely helpful locals, 5 german bakeries with yummy apple pie, lots of army walas and the shanti stupa. I would advise to go up there (read about 800ft..stairs made) in the evening and wait for the sun to go down. High up on the stupa with zillions of stars above you somehow is an exhilarating experience. We luckily bumped into James and Josh at night while strolling on the streets and trust Dj guru to have us all in splits.

After having discovered Leh, we started out for Nubra valley a day later where our guide had organised our trek. The famed Kharadungla pass was quite an experience with lots of people stopping to touch the snow..trust me you could stop just any where and pass the crowded pass. Strangers throwing snow balls at each other...the good thing is I discovered I am not a very snow person.
But, the sight of the clouds kissing the white mountains and road is pretty, very pretty. After camping for another two days at 13000-ft we started out for the pass at 18000ft that we were supposed to capture. Aah..that is an experience I would love to hate, but somehow cannot get the memory out of my mind. Every day we walked for 12km uphill for about 6-7 hrs. The first day was a rocky terrain beside a river, the next was on the wall of a gorge where if we had plummeted no one would have known. Day 3 was through villages and finally here I was hit by altitude. Our camp guide had to come back to where I rested for couple of hours and slowly we made our way to the camp site. All I can say dunno what hit me. The sight of the camp was most welcome and Rahul the cook made some great adrak chai which did wonders for my cold soul. This was 14000ft with cold winds blowing just all over.
The tents here are cooking tents and the horse mans tent. God save him...the guy comes to India from June - Aug and then sneaks through the china border right through the Himalayan ranges.

All rested (not really...as I just didnt get sleep up there in the cold), next morning we set out for the final base camp. The terrain was dry, rocky and there was no way. With the guides way ahead and the camp partners way behind, I wondered why did I have a guide anyways. However was an enchanting experience, as the sights along the way were really breathtaking.
We reached the base camp at 2.00pm, through thin air, the scorching UV rays of the sun beat down upon us mercilessly. Little did we know that at night we'd see temperatures going below zero. The next day we got up to see the stream beside our camp frozen!!!!
The final day walk was something I could never erase from my memory...again rockier terrain to begin with but to get through the pass we had to cross a kilometer of snow and ice...as seen on the pic. We reached the ice after a 4 hr walk at 18000ft and my first step on ice saw me slip and bruise my hands badly. Rauf the local guide literally had to pull me through for around 500mts. Seeing the top of the pass after that I got some mental strength in me and I eased my way up. My learning from this experience is that to give up or fail, you first have to do in the mind. And if you dont...there is a strong possibility that you might not fail. Reaching the top of the pass was more relieving then any feeling of accomplishment for me. However in retrospect feels great!

Another 5 hrs walk down to the base was easy and beautiful. With guru and me cribbing about our non helpful camp partners. He also got some villagers to give us some local fermented stuff which definitely gave us a boost and we ran down the rest of the mountain...lost our way and had to walk back to where the vehicle was waiting to take us back to leh (!!!!!) Our trek ended in some bad blood, where we engaged in a great fight which I do regret now, but something about that altitude people which makes you a little wonky.

The next day, coffee and apple pie at the german bakery in leh was to die for. We actually went into a cyber cafe and kissed the desktop (tch...tch...city virus). Our trip from Leh to Srinagar via Kargil was another eyeopener. The the grand Indian army and signs like " You are under enemy observation " or " Stay in the vehicle or you will get shot " (not really ;) but something similar) all over the place. The only mention of Srinagar that I can make maybe is about my amazement of how a whole city can be built on a lake. Srinagar was a disappointment after the truly majestic sights of Ladakh, but we did manage to see a kashmiri wedding and the shankaracharya and hazaratbal .....though nothing spectacular here.
The pic here is of the shikara ride we took to hazaratbal on the dal lake. We even managed to buy some souvenirs from the dal lake floating market and where I also discovered that there is a honey made by harvesting bees on poppy..which drugs you (!!!!) I got nicely ticked off by the dj to have kept this vital piece of information from him we came back to our houseboat honeyless :))). Srinagar, a city of past glory, truly has been dragged to its feet by the terrorism it has witnessed.
Gives you a helplessly sad feeling


Finally a tribute to the guys without whom we would not have accomplished anything...karma the horseman and his horses. God bless them!

I do recommend anyone with the love for the beauty of nature and the spirit of adventure to go to Ladakh and trek. Will I do it again?...lets just say I would love to walk up the beautiful well built mountain roads in Italy!!!!




A tribute to the spectacular beauty of the Himalayas. Am sure its effected me in a way I will only realize in the years to come.

*Pic credit - Guru, James and Prashant