Hills

Sand Dunes of Nubra and Diskit Monastery

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Usually deserts occur in low altitude, such as the great Indian Thar Desert. But there is also one high altitude cold desert in India which occurs in the Hunder village of Nubra Valley…………..We arrived there. It was beyond our imaginations and dreams to see such a vast bed of silver sands with brown mountains at the backdrop…………The sand dune offers to its visitors the great Central Asian double-humped camel safari. While other visitors were busy in getting their turn first for the safari, I went close to the camels. They look the same normal camels except those two humps. For the first time I saw those camels.

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Road to Nubra Valley over Khardung La

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We were told that weather is very unpredictable and highly unstable and can change surprisingly fast at Khardung La.  It may leave travelers trapped for hours or even days, but nothing like that happened to us, except heavy downpour on our way back on the following day.

We started descending from Khardung La. By now ‘Rahman’, the driver of our car became familiar with me. As I pointed the camera, he stopped the car. I came out to click. A small lake surrounded by the mountains just below the Khardung La looked so beautiful.

We set off again. Soon we passed the village Khardung. It is a tiny green village surrounded by barren mountains.  A drive of another 40 minutes or so and we met the river Shyok, a tributary of river Indus. The water of river Shyok looked muddy. Our journey continued by the bank of river Shyok.

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Naukuchiatal – a comfortable weekend getaway with family

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While waiting for lunch, I walked around observing the tourists and what they were doing. While watching them, I was reminded of an old saying; When someone used to get sick or feeling “not well’, they used to be advised that “In ko Pahard per lay jao – AAB-O-HAWA badli karao” (Take them to the hills and give them a change of “Water & Air”)!

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Majestic Ladakh : Royal Palaces in Leh

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Like every other travelers in Ladakh, we too spent our second day in Leh. It is advisable to spend a day or two in Leh for acclimatization before going to any places of higher altitude like Khardung La or Pangong Lake. Leh has many great places to offer to its visitors including stunning landscape views, palaces, monasteries, stupas, war memorials and river Indus at Sindhu Ghat. We decided to visit the palaces and gompas on our second day in Leh and first to visit by us was the Leh Palace and Namgyal Tsemo Gompa.

Leh Palace of Namgyal Dynasty

The erstwhile royal residence of Leh locates around 2 Km from the main market place. Though the Palace locates on a hill top overlooking the Leh town it can be reached by car. As we reached the Palace we saw wandering young monks on bike!

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Shri Amarnath Yatra – travel to the holy cave

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He was a teenager boy, who lost his father recently. He with his elder brother helped their mother to run the family consisting of other brothers and sisters. In the absence of industrial activity or any regular job, people like them depend heavily on tourism, particularly Amarnath yatra. Starting from Sonmarg, the entire area used to go under heavy snowfall from November upto end of March. So they are left with no option but to make their livelihood during balance months of the year.

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Majestic Ladakh : Fotu La to Lamayuru, Alchi and Likir Monastery

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Long ago when I saw a photo of ‘Moonland’ I was very much impressed and keen to see the place. But where it is? Though “Moonland’ does not have any Indian postal code or a milestone but it locates none other than in the mystical land of Ladakh, a village called Lamayuru! The moonlike landscape of ‘Lamayuru’ is popularly referred to and called by the traveler as ‘Moonland’!

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Holy Muktinath And Beautiful Mustang- Part 2

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I came back to hotel and joined my friends for our journey to Muktinath. Today we would pass through the village Kagbeni to reach Muktinath. Jomsom and Kagbeni is the main gateway of Muktinath. We drove only a few minutes and reached the riverbed of Kali Gandaki. Around that place Mr. Bachchan’s film “Khuda Ghawa’ was shot and our driver was more interested in showing us the shooting spots. But we were more excited to the adventurous drive over the riverbed. I peeped outside the window and saw wheels of our vehicle were rolling inside the river water. We crossed the river Kali Gandaki and started ascending through the rocky mountain road.

The climate and landscape all around looked like a rain shadow region of Himalaya, very similar to those of Ladakh region. It’s Mustang! A lost kingdom in Himalayas! We stopped and looked around. Far on the foothills of Mt. Dhaulagiri the view of tiny town Jomsom was awesome.

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Kashmir – The crown of India

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Sindhu was flowing just behind the hotel. So the sound of the full flowing river was continuously available. We saw the setting sun in its full glory. Entire surrounding was magnificent with absolute calmness, except chirping of birds and roar of the

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Holy Muktinath And Beautiful Mustang

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It is not a star category hotel but undoubtedly the best of the lot. Hotel owner endeavoured to preserve the past glory by hanging photographs of Mr Bachchan with him and some film shots of ‘Khuda Gawah’ on the walls. Staying in this hotel was comfortable; it had 24 hours hot water facility and free wifi. The foods were nice but they cost too high.

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Gangtok-Namchi-Pelling-Darjeeling tour : Part 3

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By the time, we found a momo corner nearby and grabbed few of them to fill the stomach before our two hours ride, the toy train arrived at the station. DHR was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO as it was the first, and still the most outstanding example of a hill passenger Railway. There are various types of rides available on this track, so you can book ride based on your preferences and time availability.

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