Its
Oh dear I just got carried away with the 7 days journey on the back of my mind. Let me relive the journey again and reiterate through the adventures, struggles and the efforts en route the journey to the mighty
I had never put in so much effort in managing a trip, Leh got to be unique. When the decision to go through a travel agent back fired, responsibility fell in my lap to organize the tour. Travel blogs and discussions on the forums helped me to great extent to frame an attractive itinerary.
July 2nd 2011 : Day 2
After an overnight journey (15 hours) we reached Manali. Except Tarun all three of us (Girish, Rahul and Anirudh) have already been there.
Hence we decided to do local sightseeing after getting an accommodation in Himalayan regency hotel. 
Anirudh gave it a shot to his photography during the day, while in the evening we hired a 2D 1N cab for Leh. We were supposed to leave early morning for Sarchu.
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| clouds on the rocks |
where clouds were giving illusion of snow in the sky.
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| Traffic can't get worse |
Rohtang pass as expected turned out to be the showstopper. Landslide due to overnight rain had blocked the route. People out there (including us) even pushed a truck to allow BRO machines to come down.
It took us 2.5 hours to get a passage.BRO did a fantastic job to clear the track.It was around 10:15 AM when we reached the first restaurant of the highway and had some parathas with curd.
We left the place at 11 AM .Our next stop was Tandi fuel station which was the only station for next 365 km where Tarun had his bit of medication(anti vomit tab).During this entire journey the picturesque view of the great Himalayan range and river Chandrabhaga were accompanying us.
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| Preparing Glucose solution |
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| It was for mere pose :P |
It took us 2.5 hours to get a passage.
We left the place at 11 AM .Our next stop was Tandi fuel station which was the only station for next 365 km where Tarun had his bit of medication(anti vomit tab).During this entire journey the picturesque view of the great Himalayan range and river Chandrabhaga were accompanying us.
Manali Leh highway has it, what all one could expect . |
| Fall we fell in love with |
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| picturesque load to Baralacha La |
Water fall drenching the so called highway, snow peeks, lakes, snow clad peeks, deserted mountains, serene yet vivacious river.
Two beautiful lakes fell in our way to Sarchu i.e. Deepak Taal and Suraj/Vishal Taal.
It was a dare to stand in the freezing cold water of the lakes, but sometimes you do that for a mere snap. Around
Morning sun rays kissed the mountain peaks to develop rare natural wallpaper and asked us a few question about the assaying night. That point in time we realized the terrain diversity the country called 
It is Monday morning but for a change no one has Monday blues. All four of us do heavy breakfast and get ready for a yet again day long journey. Barren elevations in the vicinity of camp are always inviting for the trekking. We as well didn't disappoint those and had a stretched trekking session before finally leaving for Leh.
It was always going to be a matter of few minutes before we could enter J&K with Sarchu being the last police check point of Himachal Pradesh. We were immediately welcomed by the zig zag paths and curvaceous turns of J&K roads. To our amusement, our driver told that, a place where a plenty of water bottles were accumulated, were actually piled up by the drivers passing by with the belief that some Mountain ghost drinks those at night. It’s exactly 15547 feet and we reach NakeeLa around 8:30 AM . La is the Tibet
The urge of riding the bike in the Himalayan range soared when I borrowed the bike from a group (travelling all the way fromRanchi
The urge of riding the bike in the Himalayan range soared when I borrowed the bike from a group (travelling all the way from
LachuLung La was our next stop @16616 feet. We had started feeling hungry by the time we crossed 
But the destiny had something adventurous in the store for us as the journey was not destined to be so simple. Engine of our car got detached from one of the two supports, it was hanging freely in the compartment and it became impossible to change the gear. Driver successfully tried to tie it with the rope. This helped us to travel some 20 odd Km before that rope gave up again. Thus it became a routine to repair the support after every 20 km in rough and about 40 km in plane conditions. Last hurdle to Leh was traffic jam near Upshi where
One is not suggested to stay there for long as prolonged exposure to the low pressure and high altitude might result in headache and nausea.
We reached Leh around 7:00 PM , where we already had 2 double occupancy rooms booked for us in the Shanti Guest House. It’s always a pleasure to take shower in cold water when the mercury is not flowing towards 0 C. Hence we had cool bath and an early dinner before retiring to bed.
First day in Leh had seen its dawn and we moved toward a restaurant to have our breakfast, since we had woken up early that day, there was no hastiness for getting ready.
Our plan for the day was to pay a visit to the local sights and monasteries.
Our plan for the day was to pay a visit to the local sights and monasteries.
Post breakfast we geared up for the trekking to the Shanti Stupa, located on the hilltop at Changspa, which was constructed in 1983 by the Japanese. Dalai Lama inaugurated the Shanti Stupa in the year 1985.A magnificent white-domed structure, the Shanti Stupa of Leh Ladakh offers spectacular views of the sunrise and sunset. The stupa looks best at night, when it is beautifully illuminated with glittering lights.
Our next destinations were Leh Palace Tsemo Castle Stok Palace Leh Palace
The palace is open to the public and the roof provides panoramic views of Leh and the surrounding areas. Themountain of Stok Kangri Indus valley to the south, with the Ladakh mountain range rising behind the palace to the north. All of us successfully reached Leh palace but
Rahul and Tarun virtually collapsed at the mere mention of steep trekking to the Tsemo Gompa. Anirudh and I managed to reach the top, completely exhausted and dehydrated. Once we reached down at Leh palace we drenched our throat with a lot of H2O. Rest of the time was spent in shopping and photography. I must say that Backyard of Shanti Guest house was as complete a place as it could be enriched with vegetation, apple orchid and pets we witnessed mini ecological system.
Dog clinging to our feet as if we were his long lost souls and cat transferring its kittens to the new shelter holding them in her mouth, surely we couldn't have asked for better first day of Leh.
The palace is open to the public and the roof provides panoramic views of Leh and the surrounding areas. The
Rahul and Tarun virtually collapsed at the mere mention of steep trekking to the Tsemo Gompa. Anirudh and I managed to reach the top, completely exhausted and dehydrated. Once we reached down at Leh palace we drenched our throat with a lot of H2O. Rest of the time was spent in shopping and photography. I must say that Backyard of Shanti Guest house was as complete a place as it could be enriched with vegetation, apple orchid and pets we witnessed mini ecological system.
Dog clinging to our feet as if we were his long lost souls and cat transferring its kittens to the new shelter holding them in her mouth, surely we couldn't have asked for better first day of Leh.
Pangong Tso (Tso in Ladakhi means Lake ) is almost 160 km from Leh and we had booked a Xylo for the purpose. We left the Shanti Guest house at 7:20 AM armed with SLR , GluconD + water and dry fruits. Our first halt was Karu and had our light breakfast there. Journey to Pangong was quite tiring as it had least of crowd and deserted peaks.
Attraction of the route was theChangla Pass Tangste Changla Pass Himalayas . The nomadic tribes of the region are collectively known as the Changpa or Chang-pa.
Attraction of the route was the
Pangong Tso was featured in the last scene of the 2010 movie, 3 Idiots. After the success of the movie, this beautiful natural location has attracted more tourists from all over the world. We shot a few videos and captured a lot of clicks of this tranquil place. After a couple of hours we left the lake having its mystic charm sketched in our Hippocampus forever. We returned home (Hospitality and warmth of Shanti Guest house people forced me use this term) @ 7:00 PM .
Having no definite plan for the last day in Leh we decided to do it our individual ways. Tarun and Rahul decided to explore Buddhism at 
At 9:00 AM in the morning we left for the Alchi village on our bike. Yes mate you read it right, there is no typo, just two of us with SLR in hands and 6.17 liter of petrol in fuel tank we were ready for the bike ride of our life. Somehow we missed the magnetic hill in the first half of the ride. We had our breakfast comprising momos at Nimmu, some 30 km from Leh. Around 11:32 AM we reached Alchi, which is 65 km from Leh on NH-1 and is also known as model village. A Dam is under construction there on the river Indus. After spending some time there we took U-turn towards our shelter. This time around we could spot Magnetic hill point well in time and stayed there for few minutes to admire the phenomenon which is mainly due to optical illusion.
For 3 days we had been trying meals in different restaurants, so on the last eve in Leh we had our supper in the Guest house only. It was time to pack up the things after dinner.
Early morning cab dropped us to the airport where we boarded our 7:35 flight to T3 Delhi. Interestingly it was raining when I had left for the Leh and when I returned situation was the same as heavy downpour welcomed us to the Capital, our home.
For complete snap collection
For complete snap collection
Videos from the trip are available at following
Fantabulous.......Loved it :-) :-)
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