Trip to Ladakh :Part 1(Journey to Leh)

Photo Credits: Yashank,me,Rajesh,Sha

After months of planning and 2-3 months of hard work in the GYM the day had come to embark up on what turned out to be a trip of a life time for me and my friends.I was very excited since this  trip had many firsts for me. First trip to North India,first visit to an airport,first Flight, first trek in the Himalayas.

Even though i was not very happy about getting up at 4 AM and leaving to the airport the excitement for the trip kept my grumpiness at bay. I was very amazed to see how big the Bangalore International Airport was.

I had always imagined what it would be like to travel in a plane and here i was in front of the spice jet flight.

The flight turned out be rather ordinary except during the times of take off and landing. But the view from the window was nothing short of spectacular.

On seeing Delhi from the aeroplane window, JN in excited state gave the following Quote:

"Dude Look at the land Below!! It looks like a Analog circuit Layout"

People with kindles ,Nooks and books had found a way to pass time, but for others like me the only way to pass time was to sleep or read the Spice route magazine over and over again.I was so excited about the flight that i had not thought about what i would do during the flight.

Lesson Learnt:

"While on a domestic flight, food does not come for free, but boredom does"

The always excited yashank on seeing a kashmiri passenger: 

"Dude he looks like Ross from Friends, I desperately want to take his pic." 

The Srinagar airport was nothing like the Bangalore airport and understandably had a lot security personnel.We took a bus from the airport to the tourist reception center.The moment we stepped down at the TRC we were engulfed with hawkers who were ready to do anything from guiding us to a restaurant or booking a  hotel  or arranging a vehicle. One such guy made us walk about a km saying that the vegetarian restaurant was just around the corner.After many offers,counter-offers and negotiations, we managed to hire a budget  Tempo Traveler from Srinagar which would take us to Leh overnight. We had our lunch in a little known Vaishnodevi Dhaba and hit the road in noon.

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The TT driver Imtiaz was a very enthusiastic local Kashmiri. We quizzed him on a lot of things from local culture, cuisine, family , the secret behind the very fair complexion of Kashmiri girls etc etc  and he was very excited to chit chat with us.

The greenery on the highway was nothing like i had seen down south. The view which mainly consisted of beautiful  houses in between the lush green fields with green mountains in the background and an occasional river on the side made me think that i was in some sort of paradise.

We had actually planned to have an overnight journey to leh, But we had to halt at Sonmarg since the landslide that had occurred on the previous day was still being cleared and the route was still being cleared.We checked in to a normal hotel and  had a sumptuous dinner.

J N tried his hands at purchasing apples in a local shop and we were quite surprised that it cost only 40 bucks for a kg of apples. Later we were also suprised by the fact that the apple was bitter sweet and not the usual sweet apple we get in bangalore. Suru tried be over-smart and fed the bitter apples to a grazing horse nearby and had a showdown with the horse as a result.

The Bath room of the hotel was little weird as the Mirror inside doubled up as a see- through glass from outside the bathroom.This along with the decoration and ambiance of the room made us suspect that the room might be used for some other “special” purposes.   

Next Morning we woke up to the radiant sun rising in between the mountains and a nice cold wind blowing in the midst. we also spotted a couple of Shepards driving their herds along the valley.

Yep apples can be bitter Too……..

We started off towards Drass early in the morning with aim of having our breakfast there. The view on either side of the road was amazing with beautiful valleys having rivers flowing through them.

On reaching Drass we learned that it was the worlds second coldest inhabited place and as expected there were many profile pic requests with the board shown below.

We had a hearty breakfast at the Ali Dhaba.

Pav with butter and  local version of Mc Egg topped the charts.

   

We had to halt in between for about an hour as the landslide that occurred on the previous day was still being cleared

Later we stopped at a petrol bunk and boys found some innovative ways to pass time. The best one was where we would throw stones on the two poles at the other end of the road in order to see whose aim was best.

The Target

JN and BK seem to taking the contest very seriously. You can see the sparks flying.

The landscape started turning from green  to brown and rocky indicating that we were leaving Kashmir behind and entering Ladakh.

The view on the road was simply awe inspiring.There is not a single moment where you will get bored. One really needs to salute BRO(Border Roads Organisation) for building these smooth and beautiful roads in this mountainous terrain.

There was this interesting place called the Magnetic hill a few Km before Leh arrived. The legend here is that if you get your vehicle to the designated spot and switch of the engines , the car will be automatically pulled up the hill. We got to experience this feat first hand.

Finally we reached the city of Leh in the evening.As usual the boys played the “We are students.We don’t have much money” card and enlisted the services of our driver to find cheap accommodation at Firdos Guesthouse.

We spent the evening roaming around the bazaar and looking for a trekking company. After asking around we were directed to the iconic Changspa street.It is probably the most important place in leh. The number of trekking companies lined up next to each other is simply mind boggling.  

We finally decided to enlist the services of Himalayan voyages trekking agency run by Tenzin. Before embarking on the trip, our group was clearly divided in four.

1)The Supremely fit Royalty who would scale the Majestic Stok Kangri in the harshest conditions possible.(JN,Suhas,Sha,Yashank and Niel).

2) The Not so fit Commoners who would do an easy trek elsewhere.(me,suru,BK, Rajesh). 

3) Pandey the Joker who was slightly conflicted on which option to take.

4) The cool trio from sandisk who had come to tour ladakh.

But an impassioned speech by Tenzin Sama changed everything. The gist of the speech was something like Stok Kangri is a very easy trek, people aged around 50 and even kids aged around 15 have easily completed it before. The effect of the speech was so profound that everyone decided to do the Stok Kangri trek. The U-turn by the not so fit people was surprising considering that they had rejected the idea of trekking stok for months prior to the trip and even made fun of the supremely fit people for thinking about attempting it.

JN applying the final touches to the brainwashing session we had inside.

Now that the Decision was made, Boys played the “I am a student” card again to extract some discount.The not so fit commoners and the cool trio would realize the full implications  of their decision only during the trek which would unfold a lot adventures for the entire group.