The Ladakh Series: The last Pitstop

As they say it never gets enough. We decided to shorten our Ladakh trip and spend a pleasure day in Srinagar. This would possible if we could travel from Leh to Srinagar in a day. Seems quite impossible knowing that we had travelled in the same route while coming to Leh. And how could one not take into consideration the nature who actually decided your schedule in such terrains. We were lucky. We started our day at 4 am in the morning and by 6 pm, we were in Srinagar, strolling down the Dal lake.

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We spent the next day spoiling ourselves in one of the most elegant Guest houses on the Dal. A nice shikara ride, followed by sumptous lunch, followed by tea and moving on to some beer and dinner. A nice peaceful and refreshing day. The bill did move us the next day, but chaltha hain once in a time. Why am i earning the moolah, if i aint gonna spend it. Wattasay?

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As i write this blog, a month later to my visit to Ladakh, two things have immensely pained me. Srinagar and Leh. Catastrophe has striked both these beautiful valleys. One by People and another by Nature. I consider myself lucky enough to make a trip right in time. All i can pray is more a little of Peace, Calm and Blessings. Inshallah and Amen.

The Ladakh Series: The Bikers and BRO

I must admit that though i had a great Ladakh tour, i still felt an incomplete feeling about the trip. A feeling that i have missed on something very important. Two things strike me. One being trekking, because i luv walking. And point two being, that the beauty of ladakhi terrain can be felt only thru Biking.This coming from me who has never been very passionate biking. However a day out with the cruisers completely changed my viewpoint. A days bike lease (available in plenty in leh) cost Rs.600/-.So folks who cant make it from delhi can easily make it from Leh. Next time if i go to Ladakh, its gonna be one bike folks. Nothing less.

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Let me also take an opportunity to salute the BRO folks. They have not only build quality roads, but also made every turn on the road very interesting with intelligent and humourous quotes. My favourite of all being " Be delicate on my curves'. Move slow and smooth- is my addition to it.lol. You guys rock. Can we have a P(une)RO in Pune? With such an easy terrain this folks here cant get it right.Maybe they are never supossed to !!!
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"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end. "

The Ladakh Series: The People

A place is often characterised by its people and infact play a pivotal role in distinguishing between a good destination and an average one. The Ladhaki population like a secular base consist of Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and Christian community. On a professional front, the community is divided further into Mons and Dards, which predominantly have survived on Agriculture and cattle raising activities. However with passage of time, the local population has slowly grabbed on the opportunity of tourism and moved to restaurants, taxis and other tourism professions.

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Ladhak may have a harsh climate for 9 months of the year, but the people of Ladhak are genuinely soft, simple and kind hearted. I could see this through multiple instances, may it be Lotus –our taxi driver who would not argue on the taxi fare and agree with most of our demand or be it Phanchuk family, our host at the Pangong Lake who took great care of us. I infact felt genuinely touched when a father of our taxi driver-Dorgi, paid for our breakfast money, which is so unlikely in most situation.

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Maybe this is attributed to the religion they preach and practice, where any kind of negative vibes are not encouraged. This non commercial psychic behaviour can also be due to Ladhak not being open to the rest of the world until the mid 1970’s. In this harsh climate, people would need to remain cooperative and bonded as a community to survive rather than live in a status quo. However I can see a change in this behaviour with the younger generation being exposed to the tourism and slowly being non tolerant specifically to our ever demanding Indian tourist. I can just wish that Ladhaki people stay bonded to their roots and culture. Amen.

The Ladhak Series: Hemis festival 2010

I was lucky enough to have my Ladhak visit coinciding with the Hemis Festival on 21st and 22nd of June 2010. The Hemis monastery is the largest and the richest Gompa in Ladhak. The monastery is situated away 7 kms from the main road and goes very well with the actual meaning and purpose of a Gompa – meaning a Solitary place.

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The Hemis festival is conducted ever summer to commemorate the birth of Guru Padmassambhava, the founder of tantric Buddhism in Tibet. During the festival, the lamas perform the sacred dance wearing colourful robes and mask.

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Though the festival turned out to be a great opportunity to click some great photographs, I missed on the opportunity to derive the meaning of the actual dance. One could easily relate the dance drama to Good V/s Evil. However I did get different interpretations from various sources (book and locals), with each one of them deriving their own meaning out of this act, further adding to my confusion. Maybe that’s how it was designed to be seen. As they say, nothing is right and nothing is wrong. It’s only the way we see it.

The Ladhak Series: Palaces and Monasteries

What’s in a place, if it does not have a history to uncover? Ladhak does not disappoint you in any sense. The Palaces and the monasteries are two aspects of the state that can amaze and wow you, as well as help you understand the Ladhaki culture and history.

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Ladhak has predominantly 3 main palaces- The Leh palace, the Shey Palace and the Stok palace. And all of them are very much unlike the others palaces in grandeur from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. These Palaces are simple in terms of architecture and beauty. The only aspect that differentiates the palaces with the ordinary household in Ladakh is the size of the building, for example the Leh palace which is 9 storey large and still remains the largest structure in Ladakh.

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The Namgyal family which currently resides in the Stok palace, has been ruling the province of Ladakh since the 15th century and has played a vital role in spread of Buddhism in the region. There were Mughal and Sikh intrusions in the past, however with the passage of time the practice of preaching and following Buddhism has just grew stronger.

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The monastery or the Gompa mean Solitary place. The Gompa’s are the centre of worship where the lamas (monks) go about with their duties, presumably oblivious of the crowd of sightseers. The most famous of the monasteries are the Thiksey, Hemis, Lamayaru and Alchi. These Monasteries give you a sense of calm and I indeed felt so when I visited the Spituk Monastery.

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I have travelled across many destinations in the recent past and am making a genuine effort to know culture and history of the land. An easy way to do so it to read a book to relate what you have seen. I would suggest a book by Janet Rizvi – Ladakh: Crossroads of High Asia. A genuine effort to help us understand Ladhak in its entirety i.e. people, history and culture.

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I travelled across numerous lands in search of calm and peace, but eventually returned back home to find them both within.

The Ladakh Series: PangongSo Lake

My dear friend Murali has been really happy man these days. His last post on my blog has brought an unnoticed writer into limelight. So he insisted on writing another article, which seems to be the only way to Sucess. Lol. Kidding folks....

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Pangongso Lake By Murali rajan

After spending a day wandering around Leh, we started out for “the lake”… with Lotus bhai at the helm and Jitendra Singh Ji by his side, we left by 8, late by more than a hour… risking the cliché, the song for the day was from 3 idiots, which I believe, made land of numerous passes and the lake a must visit place… the terrain changed immediately on exiting leh, winding roads, slowly and steadily we climbed…
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en route to Pangong Tso lies the third highest motorable road in the world… The Chang La, standing tall at an astonishing 17,590 ft (5360m)… as we moved on towards the pass, the landscape changes from green fields and dusty hills to all white mountains demarcated by electric (or telephone) lines… thick blankets of snow adorning the sides of NH 1D welcomed us… a small temple, couple of army shacks, few loos, a yellow sign and lots of prayer flags, all beautifully framed in pure white… our defense personnel was extremely hospitable to all… serving hot tea (herbal as well)… a lifesaver for many in pretty cold locale… the temp it seems had touched 5 deg below zero early morning… that is cold… we had been warned not to stay up there for more than half an hour and to drink loads of water, as altitude and thin air could cause headache and nausea on the way down… lack of time explained why the shutterbugs were buzzing around… however, I felt that, for most travelers, the snow seemed to create the flutter rather than the pass… everyone was running around in the snow… throwing snow balls… somebody had made a snow man as well… very good one… complete with a red cap and a carrot nose… seemed to come right out of calvin & hobbes strip…
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we were soon on the way down through the town of dubruk… there seemed to be very few climbs after the biggy… the roads were great with amazing views to leave anyone dazed and dreamy… Tangtse was the next town and the only town in the way… lunch time… the hotel (unfortunately, none of us remember the name of the place, but there are very few places anyways to eat and stay) threw us a surprise… in the hallway were pictures of the hotel owner with the stars of 3 idiots… aamir, madhavan, sharman and saif (oh, he is not in the movie, but kareena is, but couldn’t find any pics of hers) all of them nicely framed… guess the star value rubbed off on the prices as well (only slightly more expensive than the eateries on the Jammu- Srinagar – Leh route)…
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the road takes us through many wildlife protected areas in ladakh… yaks and horses roamed freely, but the star of the day was marmots… cute little animals, belonging to the rodent family, they prefer high altitudes… found them chilling out in the sun…seems that these rodents hibernate through the entire winter… cool…
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finally, we laid eyes on the bluish green waters of the one of the world’s highest salt water lake… the colours seemed to change every time u looked at it… another 20 min and we were at the edge of the lake… it was a sight for sore eyes… the lake just did not seems to end… snow capped mountains on both sides… clear blue skies… and lots and lots of bar headed goose… but then the shutter bugs complained… there are only a few shots to take and that is it… ha ha… it didn’t matter… the silence is like music… gives u a high… damn good one ;-)
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we had not booked anyplace to stay… all the places were booked, but one tent owner did take us in for nights stay and food at his house… got just what we wanted, however some kind of training would be required to tackle the ladakhi toilets… there was one room for us with a lot of beds on the floor and some thick blankets… the room had glass windows and wooden roofing… once settled into the our new pad, we headed to the lake shore… the place was getting cold and we put on all the possible warm clothing that we could… the lake shore had other ideas… as warned our host, the winds started blowing, and suddenly cold was killing… the trip or rather trek back to the room was rather painful… nightfall and time for campfire… soaked up all the heat that we could under the starry skies… diamonds all around complemented by golden silence… probably only the cold kept us firmly rooted to the ground… our host cooked some wonderful food, hot hot food… seemed like icing on the cake on a marvelous day…