Traveling is good
Part fantasy, part reality… Ladakh, is where, the forces of nature conspired to render a magical unrealistic landscape… a landscape of extremes… desert and blue waters… burning sun and freezing winds… glaciers and sand dunes. Ladakh is an authentic land, faithful to ancestral customs where life is characterized by intense spirituality. Rich traditions of Mahayana Buddhism still flourish in the purest form in this region, which has often been referred to as Little Tibet.
Leh is the capital of Ladakh and is famous for its monasteries, the Hemis Monastery being the largest. Nubra Valley, Tso Moriri Lake and Pangong Lake offer truly amazing landscapes high up in the Himalayas. Major attraction of Nubra valley is the highest motorable road Khardongla pass, majestic peaks and glaciers, enchanting valleys and villages. Chadar or Zanskar Trek, Parang La Trek and Kang Yatse Trek are great opportunities for Adventure tourism.
The only two roads into the area are the Zoji-La Pass from Srinagar (open June-October) and the high altitude Manali-Leh Highway from Himachal Pradesh(April December). Leh can be reached by air from Delhi.
Eco tourism in Ladakh encourages Homestays, a system where tourists who are trekking in Ladakh, instead of bringing tents and supplies that often has to be carried by horses or donkeys,stay with local families in the villages they pass. This is seen both as environmental since the pack animals can sometimes eat all the limited vegetation, and as socially responsible since it puts money directly into the local villages.
Best time to visit: June to October, January to mid- March for Chadar Trek
Languages spoken: Ladakhi
Climate: Pleasant summers and very cold winters with snowfall
Adventure tourism: River Rafting, Double humped Camel Safari, Zanskar Trek, Parang La Trek , Kang Yatse Trek
Natural Wonders: Diskit and Samstanling Gonpa, Panamik hot spring (Nubra Valley), Tso Moriri Lake, Pangong Lake, Sand dunes at Hunder
Holy Places: Hemis Monastery, Thiksey Monastery, Spituk Monastery, Stok monastery and Shey Monastery
There, in a single photo so many shades of blue! What happens over the next two three hours, I can’t explain in words. The route is just a track going by the lake side as she decides to change her color according to her changing moods! Many a times you’d feel like you would just drop into the lake but the mud holds its ground and let’s you pass.
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Almost 350 KMs out of 474 KMs long Leh – Manali Highway, does not have any civilization, although you would find some tented accommodations and tea stalls at every 30 to 40 KM. It is necessary to carry extra fuel because there is no petrol station from Leh till Tandi (around 365 KMs).
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Lamayuru is also place where we found famous Moon Land, these are soft craters, golden color land simply add charm to the beauty of Lamayuru. One can learn the science of mountain formation looking at moon land, which is neither a rock nor dust.
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Had a lunch/prayer break at world’s second coldest inhabited place Drass (after Siberia). Winters in Drass are cold with average lows around −22 °C and as low as −45 °C at the peak of winter. The lowest temperature was recorded around −60 °C during 2005. We were told by some locals that everybody in mountain keeps at least 4 to 6 months food stock for emergencies.
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आये इस सुचना के साथ कि सुरक्षा कारणों से आम जन के लिए नुब्रा वैली कुछ दिनों के लिए बंद है अत:खार्दुन्गला से वापस आना होगा।
ऊपर जाकर या रास्ते में कुछ भी नही मिलता भोजन के लिए तो पहले लंच किया और फिर थोड़ी हताशा के साथ चल पड़े विश्व की सबसे ऊँचे सड़क मार्ग पर जो की 18380 फुट (5602मी) की ऊंचाई पर स्थित है,बेहद संकरी उबड़ खाबड़ रोड जो लेह से 40 किमी दूर है, भूरे निर्जन वनस्पति शून्य इस मार्ग पर चार पहिया वाहन कम और दो पहिया ज्यादा होते है,मोटरसाइकिल और साइकिल चालको की ये प्रिय सड़क है और हमें अपनी गाडी इनसे बचते हुए चलानी थी,लेह से किराये पे मिलते है ये वाहन।
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इस सब जगहों का वर्णन शब्दों में संभव नही है,ये आप इस यात्रा के दौरान अनुभव करके ही जान सकते है।विमान से 4 दिन में लद्दाख भ्रमण आपको जगह देख लेने का संतोष तो दे सकता है किन्तु वास्तविक खूबसूरती का आनंद लेना हो तो सड़क मार्ग से ही जाईये।
केलोंग से धीरे धीरे सरचु पहुचे रास्ते पर और दिन काफी बचा था तो सोचा रात्रि विश्राम पांग में करेंगे,आगे विभिन्न रंग के पहाड़ हरे ,नीले ,पीले,भूरे ,लाल सभी रंगों में रंगे, अवर्णनीय सुन्दरता चारो और बिखरी पड़ी है और देखने वाले गिने चुने यात्री बस।
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First thing first – True’s care! Our RE Team Leader Aakash had announced last evening that the bikes should get serviced, if needed, early on this day. True was cruising all fine and needed no service. However, eight days of grime, dirt and dips in water forced True to take a bath! So, I initiated the hunt for a bike/car wash center nearby. However, it being Sunday, Leh was largely shut and I had to drive 8kms on Manali Highway, all the way to the hamlet of Chogalmasar Jamba, where across the bridge exists an old acquaintance’s garage; a person whom was meeting after good six years! But, just like all other people from the hills, he was extremely warm and forthcoming. So, True was given special preference in queue.
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Other Other famous cuisines include: Kahwah (GreenTea) and Noon Chai. Kashmiris are heavy tea drinkers. Over 20 varieties of Kahwah are prepared in different households. One must taste the unheard “Kamal Kakri ke Pakore” near Nishat Gardens in Srinagar. Kashmir offers a vast variety of Kebabs. Non-Vegetarians must enjoy the mouth watering Chiken,Kebabs etc. But then, Nothing can beat the very own Lucknawi Kebabs! (Seriously),
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The unbelievable part of this road trip was to be driving at 120kmph at 16000 feet above sea level at More plains. You just could see the road laid in front till the eyes could see. After this there’s a steep climb to Tanglang-La at 17,500 feet where I started feeling dizzy again. Susheel said lets take 30 mins rest here at the Pass and I had to tell him like a crazy panicking person that we need to rush down to feel better. Also it’s here I discovered Susheel wasn’t driving in the wrong lane due to bad driving habit learnt in the cities but deliberately to avoid the (view of the) steep fall on the valleys side, I was splitting my sides laughing and offered to drive but he wouldn’t let me, saying I was a crazy driver to be driving on that side and he didn’t want to die. Hahaha, still makes me go when I remember how we met unsuspecting drivers from the other direction in their rightful lanes honking at us. But we did have a taxi following us in the wrong lane and driving equally slow refusing to overtake. If you saw the views from Tanglang-La you could perhaps be forgiven to be driving like that. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any good pictures as he didn’t want to stop and catch an accidental glimpse of the abyss.
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The last leg of our journey to the mystical and majestic Ladakh was ‘Pangong Tso’! In local language Lake is called Tso. Pangong Lake falls in the disputed territory with China. So the whole lake does not belong to India. While China occupies two-third part of this magnificent high altitude lake, India remains satisfied with mere one-third part of it.
These days the Lake is a favourite tourist place among the domestic tourists much credit for which goes to the bollywood movie ‘3idiots’! …….
How incredible it was to see the tranquil lake and its azure blue waters! Pangong Tso is one of the largest saline lakes in Asia. On the Lake shore we walked and saw the effects of changing colours of the lake, aqua green to indigo blue! The saline water of the lake plays with the sunlight and produces different colours. We were told that during winter the lake freezes and become a solid surface to walk over it. Well, walking over a frozen lake! You need to check certainly the best season to visit there!
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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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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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