Top of the World - Ladakh !

Facts & Figures 

Route :- Bombay->Delhi->Jammu->Srinagar->Kargil->Leh->Manali->Delhi->Indore

Total Ground Distance covered :- 5200 kms

People :- Aaron, Neema, Nikunj, Singhi & Myself

Cumulative Amount spent :- Rs.87,500

Days :- 14

Day 1 - Onward journey to Jammu by train

Hell bent on keeping our travel budgets for the entire trip as low as possible we decided to undertake the 30 hour journey(longest train journey of our lives) in sleeper class. The mixed smell of sweat & human waste along with the blatant disregard for reservation amongst the regular travelers of the train made sure that we had an unforgettable experience. The journey ended with vows taken to ensure that any travel of more than 12 hours would not be done in sleeper from the next time.

The night was spent in a hired cab from Jammu to Srinagar with an ultra stud driver who fooled the army personnel to jump a queue of more than 100 cars waiting for their turn to enter a mountain tunnel saving us more than 2 hrs !

Day 2 - NH 1 < Srinagar to Kargil>

It takes 2 days by road to reach Leh from both Manali and Srinagar(450 kms). We chose to opt the Srinagar route while going which proved to be a wise decision. These journeys can never be uneventful. The roads are extremely high with breathtaking views, blind curves and horrible conditions due to repeated erosion by melted snow. Upon encountering the first stretch of these "pahadi raste" my first thoughts were life is really not so worthless to risk it like this ! Then one starts thinking the extra 3,000 Rupees asked by the more experienced driver was definitely value for money on these roads. And after that you just pray to god for a safe journey, turn the music really loud and avoid looking down.

We encountered our first big traffic jam enroute. I climbed a truck for the first time in order to get a bird's view of the whole thing. Apparently an army truck had run over an old village women and due to the delay in action against the army driver the village people got angry and blocked the road after Drass. This led to a 3 hour delay for us and we reached Kargil around 7 p.m.

However due to sindhu darshan junta who had booked ALL rooms in Kargil we were forced to sleep in the car. A first for all of us. On these roads always expect the unexpected. 3 days without a room led to two of our group members learning the art of open defecation. Teamwork was the key with one holding the torch while the other relieved himself amidst the cool breeze while the third helped in washing of hands ! Truly a day of firsts.

Day 3 - NH 1 <Kargil to Leh>

In and after Kargil there is a lot of army presence in the area. Military convoys , regiment bases and soldiers can be seen plentiful. Infact there is a section of highway which is covered on one side by a wall to prevent vehicle headlights from being seen at night across the LOC. This was built to avoid more shelling on this highway at the time of the Kargil war.

We visited our first Buddhist monastery at Lamayuru on the way. It was an auspicious time and we found the monks performing a dance called "bhak" for world peace. The ritual was captivating and so was the monastery. The prayer room where monks sit and pray had a strong spiritual feel to it. After a visit to the monastery we reached Leh in the evening and found an awesome guest house which was our resting place for the next 5 days. It was good to find a roof over our heads for a mere 300 bucks a night after 4 nights in vehicles.

Day 4 - Leh Sightseeing

It is often advised that one day be kept for acclimatisation to the high altitude especially if you arrive by air. Hence we decided to chill for the first day in and around leh without much exertion.

Leh the town

It is a typical tourist destination with a happening central market buzzing with tourists, travel agents, shopkeepers etc. Everything around here is the highest in the world right from the highest air force base to the highest souvenir shop. 4 out of 5 local girls are actually good and with all the European female adventure enthusiasts thrown in, it sure is a tourist's paradise !

One can see a lot of honeymoon couples amongst tourists. However it doesn't seem to be an ideal honeymoon destination. Most of the time is spent in car travel which is more than risky, (and you don't want the driver distracted on these roads by your making out!) besides luxury here is limited to a bucket of hot water. Internet in Leh is widely available although pretty costly at 1.5 Rs/minute. A lot of things here are priced for the foreign tourists. Desi junta can bargain to their satisfaction(Having a moodi services cg on our side definitely helped!)

The day was spent seeing Thiksey monastery, Leh palace, Shanti stupa and the royal family's current home.

Day 5 - Rafting and Hall of Fame Museum

The next day was reserved for river rafting. A desire to obtain maximum bang for our buck we chose the longest rafting route available i.e 28 kms. It was a level 3+ route which meant the 2nd toughest grade of routes available. It was on the zanskar river ending at the intersection of zanskar and indus. Rafting here is more technical than rafting at Rishikesh because of the high altitude and ice cold water.

Near death experience

Owing to a bit of over enthusiasm and the fact that i had done rafting once before i was thrust on the front seat of the raft which requires one to do more work and has somewhat less grip. Moreover as soon as our raft got in the middle of the river we came to know that the professional with us although a gold medalist was on his 3rd trip on the route ! Hence he was as tensed as us. On a strong rapid i found myself swept into the river by a high wave. Now with the life jacket on there is no fear of drowning and hence no real chance of dying. However with high velocity of the river and waves coming onto you, one gulps in a lot of water and looses all control. After being blinded underwater for a few seconds when i came up i saw myself pretty far from my raft. Also the cold water really gets to you and the numbness renders you helpless against the strong flow. But then i could hear people shouting from the raft and looking towards them i realized our professional had thrown the rope towards me and i got hold of it. After a good 2-3 minutes of action packed stint, i was pulled out of the water into the raft shivering badly. Needless to say everybody had a lot of content for the day's jokes after the incident.

Hall of Fame Museum

Badly tired after rafting we had planned to see a museum built by Indian Army 2 kms outside Leh. The museum was a total surprise package. It was by far the best and the most inspiring museum i have ever seen. It contains a comprehensive account of how our soldiers fought the Kargil war, some of the bravest stories during the war and even weapon exhibits. The most moving thing was a letter from a soldier to his parents before going on a sure death mission . Also included is a lot of gyaan about the Siachen Glacier battlefield and the strategic importance of defending it. Apart from all these lot of information about how DRDO is actually doing a lot of research to make lives of people living at such high altitudes better. Lame it may sound, but we ditched our plans of an aurvedic massage after rafting not feeling like indulging ourselves into such luxury after seeing the museum.

Day 6 - Pangong Lake 

Pangong lake is must visit in Leh and is about 120 kms away from it. 2/3rd of the lake is in China. The journey to the lake turned out to be very happening. We encountered heavy snowfall while going there, most of us experiencing it for the first time. Visibility was almost zero and the driver was badly tensed that we might get stuck on the way not being able to make it in time to return on the same day from Pangong lake. But we insisted on a halt to satisfy our craving for the snow and played and clicked to our satisfaction with the fresh snow. After the freezing snow, we halted at a place which offered freshly prepared Maggi, Butter Toast and Tea at 17,000 feet. Maggi will never taste so good again !

Finally we could see stretches of Pangong lake and realized all the hype surrounding it was definitely worth it. Vast expanse of perfect blue water with huge mountains surrounding it. The water changed color to a more beautiful blue whenever sunlight fell on it. Perfect place to get high. One can keep sitting beside the lake for hours together and still want more of it.

Day 7,8- Nubra Valley

It is about 140 kms from Leh.To reach Nubra valley, one has to cross the highest motorable road in the world. At Khardung La, which is the highest point on the road there are again shops offering noodles, maggi and Kahwa (Kashmiri Chai). Snow is present here year round.

 After seeing mountains, rivers, snowfields, forests, green plains we reached Nubra Valley to see a desert. The sand dunes seemed to attractive to miss and hence we stopped the car and went right into them to walk across the sand dunes in order to reach the point where the famous Camel Safari takes place. These double humped camels about to get extinct are golden goose for the locals as a minute of ride on them costs Rs.10. The camel safari was a nice and tiring experience after which we chilled besides a water stream for a few hours.

Our stud driver found us an even more stud place in the middle of nowhere to stay for the night. This place had a vegetable garden of it's own and hence boasted of fresh organic food. The caretakers were extremely hospitable and polite. This seemed to be the case with everyone in Leh. Untouched by the materialistic world people here are still very friendly and straight forward. After a tiring day we got to eat paneer,onion and mix pakodas with hot tea. Our hosts prepared a bonfire for us to combat the freezing cold in the night !  Trying to keep the bonfire lighted and getting creative at Fire photography we killed time.

Day 9,10- Leh to Manali

Our return was planned through the manali route. The road between leh and manali is really bad. More because of the fact that it is maintained by the government.The srinagar Leh road is taken care by army's BRO. An interesting conversation between Neema and the driver:-

Neema- Bhaiya , yeh road par landslides bhi hoti hai ??

Driver- Haan bilkul !

Neema- Toh apni car par landslide ho ya patthar gir jaye toh ?

Driver- Ab bhaiya yeh toh kismat kismat ki baat hai !!

More dangerous the road more awesome the views ! Seeing the breathtaking landscapes we had coined the statement "Travel is part of the trip". During night there is a 70 km stretch of plain flat desert land with no road and no lights. Only you, your car and the stars. There is an entry point and an exit point the rest has to be figured out amidst utter darkness with the help of tyre tracks and car's headlights.

Horror Story

We were supposed to take a night halt at Shirchu but due to a horror story we had to night halt at a riverside camp in Phang. According to our driver the story goes like this-Around 15 years back an oil contractor and a driver were traveling by a truck and it got stuck on a hilly road. The contractor got down and kept stones behind the tyres to prevent them from rolling down. The driver attempted to start the truck but unfortunately the tyres rolled over the contractor's hands and they got cut. The driver got scared and fled leaving the poor contractor alone screaming with pain in the freezing night. It is said that he died a painful death and the truck drivers can feel someone talking to them when they cross that stretch of the road in the night. They offer anything they can, bottles, cigarettes, chocolates at the place of the incident. No one dares to cross the stretch in the night alone and hence our driver decided to do it in the morning!

The rest of the trip was spent in Manali and Delhi. Delhi was a hogging destination where we had 11 out of the 25 type of parathas in paratha galli. Non Veg junta went to the original Karim's near Jama Masjid to satisfy their taste buds.After that we bid adieu to each other in Delhi.

Credits

To,

Ali the driver- Who was so enthu that he drove alongside the river to click our pics as we were rafting !

Prof.Vandana Bhatt- Who set Aaron's reexamination paper on time(although after lot of convincing!)

Ameek (mi 2011 cg)- Who was kind enough to give us his DSLR camera resulting in the amazing pics

Prraney Surana(mi 2011 oc)- Who kept pestering the acad office to give my provisional degree while i was away!