Day 5 & 6: Leh to Pangong and back...

Itinerary:

Day 1: Delhi – Manali (Volvo)
Day 2:  Manali– Jispa (Car)
Day 3: Jispa– Leh (Car)
Day 4: Local Sight Seeing (Car)

Day 5: Leh– Pangong (Car) + Day 6: Pangong – Leh (Car)

Day 7:  Leh – Nubra Valley (Car)
Day 8 & 9: Nubra Valley– Leh (Car) + Leh – Delhi (via flight)

First Glimpse of  TsoPangong 

Day 5: This way the day to feel the much talked about, TSO PANGONG. The route to Pangong was as exciting as the lake itself. By now we got acclimatize with the high altitudes and also we were sipping garlic water every now and then to prevent any kind of altitude sickness. So we happily crossed the zig-zag roads of the brown mountains and hopped from one to another mountain..

Zig-zag Roads to Chagla

On the way to Pangong

We crossed the 3^rd Highest Motor able Pass in the World -  The mighty ChangLa at the altitude of 17800 Ft. Lot of vehicles were parked there, we found few army men also. From Changla one route goes towards the Siachen glaciers, hence lot of defence people were around that area. Never the less the views were awesome!!

Aakash with Army Man @ Changla

 As we started the descending the tarmac and the scenery, started getting greener and better. We halted near a meadow just capture the serenity is our heart forever, and experience the un-interrupted views of nature.
Few miles away there was a herd of yaks roaming around the field, so we stopped again to capture these magnificent creatures.

Few miles ahead of Changla

Pet Yaks: this white one was really short tempered ..

After around 6 Hours there is the first glimpse of the serene lake. It just looks as if you are part of painting. It looks like very fine strokes of a painter on the huge canvas of nature.
As you approach the lake, you the get to realise the magnificence of the lake by the time you reach its shore. Turquoise blue water having huge mountains at its backdrop makes it tranquil. The lake is approximately 130 KM long. And goes all the way to China, in fact 2/3^rd lake is in China. If you move further along the lake after around 10 kms we reached our camp. Spent the evening by the lake side.  

We timed our visit to Tso pangong so that full moon night can be experienced, but our despair, entire night it was raining like cats and dogs. So much so that at once I felt that my tent will flown away with the blowing wind. Though our tents were very good, best tents I had ever stayed in.
The tents were cosy and warm and had attached toilet what more can you expect in the lap of serene nature and the Food was also above expectation. We were inside the tents soon as the weather was chilling.

Day 6: After few hours of thunderstorm there was a quite morning. The blue water of the pangong was bluer than ever. It was a bright sunny day with a clear blue sky giving its perfect reflection blue in the still waters of the Pangong Lake. We spent few hours just to admire the serenity of the Landscape. After spending few hours there we started our journey back to Leh.

Pangong in the morning

At the opposite side of the lake

Enroute to Changla we stopped on the roads for clicking photographs with the walls of snow and there the snowfall started.. It was the very first experience of snowfall for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After travelling kms, we again halted at Changla and played with fresh snow.

Lalit leaning against the snow

As usual we were accompanied by some awesome captions by the road side.

We reached Leh by the afternoon and had explored leh in the evening. We went to the Potala Palace and War memorial.


Enterance of the Palace

The Palace

View from the Palace

 The War memorial is full of the stories, pictures, maps and other artifacts of the Kargil War, War at Siachen Glacires and others.. And it brings out the patriotism hidden inside you and being an Indian one can easily be overwehlmed with the feeling of pride and honor just by reading the proceedings/ history of the wars and you feel like saluting to the matyrs, who devoted their lives for our Mother Land.

Proud Moment .. infront of the War Memorial

Rest of the journey will be published soon.. :)

Day4: Leh...

Day 1: Delhi – Manali (Volvo)

Day 2:  Manali– Jispa (Car)

Day 3: Jispa– Leh (Car)

Day 4: Local Sight Seeing (Car)

Day 5: Leh– Pangong (Car)
Day 6: Pangong – Leh (Car)
Day 7:  Leh – Nubra Valley (Car)
Day 8 & 9: Nubra Valley– Leh (Car) + Leh – Delhi (via flight)

Day4: This was a pretty relaxed day compared to the previous 3 days we had. We started our day at around 10 AM.

Landscape near leh

Moving out of the city Leh

This day we visited Alchi Monastery, Likhir Monastery, Confluence of Indus and Zanskar river. We handed a copy of identity proofs to our driver to get us the inner line permit for Pangong and Nubra, which is easily available.

Near Magnetic Hill

On the way to Alchi we halted at a place having magnetic hill phenomena. If you leave your car in neutral it will start climbing the hill, against the gravity. We actually experienced the phenomena.
  

Confluence of Indus and Zanskar

Then reached Alchi. There are huge prayer wheels outside the monastery and they are filled with prayers printed on paper. It is believed that more you turn the wheel, the more the prayers are recited and sent around the world. Let's turn the wheel for good-luck for our trip....



Alchi Monastery

At the entrance of Likir Gompa

Entrance

Views from the Monastery

Main structure of Alchi Monastery

Outer View of the Monastery

Spent our evening roaming in the local market of Leh.

The Unforgettable Laddakh: Itinerary

Road Trip to Laddakh
Itinerary:
Day 1: Delhi – Manali (Volvo)
Day 2:  Manali– Jispa (Car)
Day 3: Jispa– Leh (Car)
Day 4: Local Sight Seeing (Car)
Day 5: Leh– Pangong (Car)
Day 6: Pangong – Leh (Car)
Day 7:  Leh – Nubra Valley (Car)
Day 8 & 9: Nubra Valley– Leh (Car) + Leh – Delhi (via flight)

Tips for Altitude Sickness: 

• Drink a lot of water while crossing high passes to avoid de-hyderation. 
• If you are prone to altitude sickness, carry garlic soup (if possible)/ juices and keep on sipping time to time help
• If you not feeling well then try to halt at places of lower altitude for example I have heard many people falling sick while staying at Sarchu, other option might be to stay at Jispa 

Excursions: Villages either remote or well connected you enter, any hill you climb, each and every turning of the road will lead you to an excursion to the place full of beautiful landscapes, huge barren mountains, beautiful cloud formations at the deep blue canvas of sky.. 

Still Below are the most famous excursions as ladakh has become a very touristy location (big thanks to bollywood movies showcasing Pangong) you might find a lot of people around!!

TSO Morori, TSO Pangong, Nubra Valley (Hunder & Diskit), TSO Kar. Lamayuru (The moon Village)

Places to visit:

In Leh: Sanchi Stupa, Alchi Monastery, Likhir Monastery, Palace, Confluence of Indus and Zanskar, Local Market, War Museum...

What to eat:
Must try tibetiyan food.. Khotey Momos, Thupka, Thantuk, Tibetiyan Bread, Tigmo and the list to be continued..

The Unforgettable Laddakh: Day 3: Jispa to Leh via Sarchu, Pang, More Plains

Day 1: Delhi – Manali (Volvo)

Day 2:  Manali– Jispa (Car)

Day 3: Jispa– Leh (Car)

Day 3: Jispa– Leh (Car)
Day 4: Local Sight Seeing (Car)
Day 5: Leh– Pangong (Car)
Day 6: Pangong – Leh (Car)
Day 7:  Leh – Nubra Valley (Car)
Day 8 & 9: Nubra Valley– Leh (Car) + Leh – Delhi (via flight)

Day 3: On Monday we started at 8.AM towards Leh. The landscape was changing every 15 mins from the time we started. Our first halt was at a small lake, having clear still water to give perfect reflection of green mountains.

Deepak Tal around 20 Km from Jispa

As the altitude was changing very quickly, it was little difficult to acclimatize our self to atmosphere. The only saving grace was awesome and ever changing surrounding, I felt as if I have entered a different world. Life is so still that the only the moving the is your imagination, so quite that only noise you can hear is of your own heart beat, the only thing you see are those huge barren mountains, in different shapes, sizes and colours, creating breathtaking landscapes on the canvas of nature.

Suryatal @ 9.40 AM in Baralacha Ranges

Our Next stop was at Barachala Pass, the route passing through the snow patches. We were excited to see and play with snow at this point.

 @ Baralacha La

Our driver warned us to take baby steps and walk slowly to avoid breathlessness, so we followed his instructions. The barachala pass is a beautiful sight having snow on both the sides of the road and having loads of stone piles which are considered auspicious in Tibetiyan culture.  

Few miles ahead of Baralacha la

After spending sometime there we moved forward for our journey. Our next stopover was sarchu.. There stood huge barren mountains gazing at you from the height of few thousand meters and in its laps, a small establishment of camps ready to provide shelter to tired travellers. Though we couldn’t spend much time here due to our tight schedule. 

Landscape @ Sarchu

Sacrhu lies at the border for Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashimir. Once you cross sarchu you have entered the blissful land of Kashmir. The mud mountains, strange sand formation are common the only landscape available.

Camps at Sarchu



Mountains covered with beautiful clusters of clouds

The road we travelled

Sand Formations on the mountains

At the beginning we were excited with the tarmac but as we travelled further altitude sickness started taking over our heads. And we were all down by the time we reached pang. Pang has 3-4 small shops to help you acclimatize with high altitudes. We halted here to take some refreshments, the aunty who was running the shop was very helpful, she made tasty garlic soup for us, and believe me garlic soup is like an ultimate remedy for altitude sickness. We bought some munchies and juices from here and continued our journey further. 

Aunty who saved our lives ;) @ pang

Morre Plain is a desert mountain plateau, surrounded by the Nakee La Pass and the over 5000m high mountain Lachulung La. Its an amazing experience to drive through a 40 Km stretch of straight road at the altitude of around 4000 meters, while being accompanied by the breathtaking views of the valley on the one side of the road. 

By the time we reached here Two member (Sumi and Aakash) were totally down, they didn't get down from the car. Myself and lalit didn't wanna miss even smallest of the opportunity to embrace this beautiful landscape and here it was the Baap (father ;-)) of all opportunities.. 

Without a wasting even a Nano-second we jumped out of car, and started suddenly a thorn pierced my feet that's when I realised I was bare feet. Myself and Lalit spent some time in open.

I was awed with the magnificence of nature. I had never-ever witnessed something like that in my life didn't know how to vent my joy out so kept mum and just admired the nature with bare eyes and bare feet too.. 

More Plains:1

More Plains: 2

We resumed our eventful journey from here didn’t stop till Taglang La, this is the world second highest pass. We crossed it in the evening and the wind was on full blow at this our. Me and summi decided not to go out, but the other two guys went out to get the feel of chilled wind.

@Taglang la

Finally we got relived once we plateau by the river side and Leh was around 70 Kms from here, but the journey was much more relaxing as we were not going up and down on the mountains.

First Sight of Vegetation after a Looooooooong Day :)

We reached hotel at 8 PM had our Dinner, and were off to bed after a few gup-shup. This was the end of the most difficult and beautiful day of the tour.

Stay tuned for remaining journey....