Mountains calling!!

Hey lovelies,

I’ve been MIA all this while, but I’m back at it talking to you all about my recent travel to the mountains 🙂

The penchant for dramatics and the ethos for the mysterious drew my attention to the Himalayan town of Leh, the crown jewel of the Indian subcontinent. After a long hiatus, I was ready to embark on the journey to the most sought after and exquisite landscape. After an extensive research spanning over a few days, which included several blogs and vlogs, I finally came to a consensus that the trip was going to be for nine days, in which we also included the beautiful Srinagar and the heavily populated Delhi. My emotions were all over the place as to how I wanted to travel to there, the sights I wanted to visit, the kind of precautions to be taken (Oh, yes they are a few) The thought of visiting Leh, made my heart beat at pace that was quick and peaceful at the same time, such was the effect!

The day had arrived, the day I had to finally make it to Leh, I asked myself what did I want from this place, and it shouted back with lush green flora, mountains traversing around the airport like waves in an ocean, calm, radiant. that was the very moment, when I set my feet there that I understood, Leh shouldn’t be rushed, every breath I take in this place, every step I walk on this land and every place I gorge my eyes upon should not be rushed, it should be experienced to fullest of my body, soul and mind’s capabilities.

As we landed, I already knew what this place was going to offer, although it was a little bit of a let down that the Leh airport was not well maintained. I could blindside that because for what it lacked there, it fully compensated in engaging my visual and olfactory senses, every whiff of the air there felt pure, and my eyes fully satiated upon the mammoth mountains on our way to the main Tuchka road, to fully engage in this visual and acoustic journey that I describe it is better to go by car, a prepaid cab service is available at the airport that was reasonable. The main Tuchka road, is a bustling and a very busy area, with a lot to offer from the luxurious hotels to the comfortable dormitories. We had a beautiful opportunity to stay at the Ree hotels handled and maintained by Raybo. Not only was the entire dorm that we had comfortable and cozy, it also had a beautiful porch, just perfect for that morning rendezvous surrounded by mist and a hot cup of caffeine, nevertheless all this was packaged under the nominal price of 800 INR per bed. A very special mention for the warm and welcoming people at Ree, their dedication to the way they treat their guests speaks volumes, thank you for hosting us! Thank you Ree Hotels, it was home with you guys!

The trip there has been nothing short of magnificent, for all those people bitten by wanderlust, just a piece of advice ditch the google maps, follow your heart in a literal sense, follow the local maps present there, look and discover, that is what we did there, not only did we see a lot of places, the interaction with the locals was priceless. One such person that we met was Mutuk our driver, he happens to be one among the warm crowd that we interacted there, not only was he kind enough to show us all around and put in special personal interest, he was also a responsible person who helped my friend on the rare occasion to the hospital, Remember the precautions I was talking about earlier, yeah those!

Mountain Sickness(Please Google before you plan our trip) happens to be a medical condition one should be aware off and it shouldn’t be taken lightly, I advise that you carry Diamox tablets in your first aid kit. My friend under the right medical care, was safe and healthy. Oxygen cylinders are present everywhere to be sold, for people at higher altitudes for around 500 INR. These are probably the preliminary things one would need to know about the place.

One of the most important things, is to find a mode of transport to travel across the place and let me tell you travel doesn’t come cheap here! It’s like they are charging you a permit fee to see the visual delicacy around you. One you could probably hire a SUV for a full day for 8k *deep breath* I know that is a little bit on the steeper side, My advice to all of you would be to choose the share taxi’s that are available there in the local areas for 400 bucks a head, cheap and quite comfortable I must say if you are not one to spend a butt load on travel alone.

The prime purpose of my trip, even if I wanted to I could never wrap it around with words, it is sensory journey, that reminds you of the presence of heaven on earth.

Like the staircase to heaven, Leh has to offer the Khardungla Pass, although around the region there they have some inaccuracy that it is around 5,600m, but speaking from my own research it is 5,359 m! It is a very hard drive on this road, because when has it been easy to go to heaven and the drive is beautiful albeit the difficulty one would face, it has to offer breathtaking views of mountains curving and of beautiful sunsets, so my personal advice if you have the time take a minute, stop relax, breathe it in, let your sensory organs go on a wild goose cheese, to see this sight because this not one should miss. Just a reminder that you have a lot of hospitals there and also cute little stores, that have to offer piping hot maggi, with some local chai don’t miss out on that lip smacking action. The Khardungla pass has a lot of tumultuous paths, hence it is advised to drive safely, It takes about 3 hours to reach here, and it was beautiful sight to my sore eyes, it was snowing although we wanted to stay there for a while we were advised to only be there 8-10 minutes, as the weather there can be very harsh.

From here we had taken off to Nubra valley, which is 4 hour ride from Khardungla pass, by the time we got here it was almost 6. There are several sights one could see here, like the sand dunes ,Zhanskar river rafting and if it is possible also go to the Indo-Pak border at Turtuk.

Nubra valley has it all the luscious green mountains, the sand dunes, flowing river ,big monasteries it’s a package

Luck was in our favour that night, we had a beautiful night, the warmth of the bonfire, the dancing, the culture there just seeped into my brain, like the succulent and decadent momo’s of the land! A must try for every foodie! Under the stars, dreamy sky we lay our camp to rest our body, but our soul still wasn’t. The next day we woke up, unfortunately from our slumber midst the nature and set our compass to travel back to Leh, we were done with the stressful bike rides, but the boys weren’t, we reached our destination by afternoon.

The next day begin with a ride to the Pangong Tso via the Changla pass, on our way to there we happened to encounter a lot of wild horses and squirrels, they were refereed to as Marmots. We arrived at our destination by afternoon, it was worth the drive, the water there was clear and beautiful nothing I have ever seen in my whole life, I still remember my friend saying “The water stares back at you, it is like the soul of a child, so innocent and pure” It is a must stop place people, also a cinema fact for all of you lovelies, This is the famous three- idiots lake, Don’t miss out on this location. Also there is an other lake called Tsomorori lake, we didn’t visit it but next time!

So there it is, my journey, my experience, and my soul all laid out here for you! Like the icing on the cake, let me just give you some quick tips before you plan to visit Leh!

You will miss out on a lot of work and be very stress free, if you apply for your permits online, print them out and carry them with you! Escape the line there, guys!

A lot of places there require a permit, precisely speaking one for Khardungla and one for Turtuk and we took two ,one for Changla and the other one for Pangong. Just a heads up, keep your paper work handy

Quick remainder on places to shop: Main market and the Tibetan refugee markets