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September 20 - October 2, 2006
JU-LEH
Mission: Ladakh
Team: Chandrashekar Chube, Ramesh Rigzin, Manju Mangchook , Soni Shinge, Sudhir Songpa, Victoria Vangchuk and Nitin Namgyal
Nature – Culture - Adventure, Chalukyas wore the tag line.
20th Sep, Wednesday evening, Bangalore Airport checkin at Air Sahara counter.
10PM landing in Delhi.
Victoria received the Chalukyas and headed towards Gurgaon. Excitement followed by dinner, Chandru’s nonstop non sense and finally some sleep.
Having experienced the traffic situation in Bangalore, it was a pleasure driving down the wide roads of Delhi to the famous Akshardham temple. A quick tour of Akshardham and we were dropped of by Vic’s driver at Connaught place. Sarvana Bhavan had the pleasure to host the Chalukyas to a sumptuous SOUTH INDIAN meal. The delight on Manju’s face seeing rice, sambhar and curds was worth it.
The lot heard about Palika bazar proved to be a damp squib. Our much planned Delhi Shopping proved to be unfruitful. It was 6 PM and time to board the bus to Manali.
Sudhir and Victoria were stuck in the clogged Delhi Gurgaon highway, a good 45 min away. Rigzin and Mangchook did their best to convince the Jat driver to wait for 5mins (10 times) in their eloquent Hindi.
Finally they caught up with us near Gol market and we proceeded towards Manali in the Volvo (made in China I’m sure).
Kadak dinner at a Panjabi Dhaba near Panipat with ‘one of the bessst lassi ever had in my life’ ,as Chandru says. Early morning stop for Chai at a small village in Himachal was our first breath in the mist. We smelled the Himalayas and could not wait to reach Manali. In couple of hours passing through some beautiful landscapes along streams we reached Manali. After accommodating ourselves we acquainted our taste buds with some Tibetan flavor. Cold climate accompanied with hide n seek drizzle we walked towards the Hadimba temple which was 2 km away from Manali town. Amidst huge Pine trees it was a cave like temple and fortunately not very crowded. We had some pictures taken with the traditional Himachal attire sitting on Yaks. The feeling of being close to the Himalayas was slowly sinking in. We sipped chai, did some shopping in the Manali market and hit the sack.
Early in the morning it was Stanzin Ossal waiting for us with his Black Scorpio. Our journey to the land of Lamas began on the 23rd of September. It was cold and really cold. In couple of hours we stopped over at Rohtang Pass (52 kms from Manali, a popular tourist spot). Chan and Ramesh braved the cold to pose for a few bare chest photographs. Our journey continued with a break at Khoksar village (19 kms from Manali) for some hot parathas and garam chai. Resuming our journey through some small villages ( Sissue, Tandi, Keylong, Darcha ,Patsio) and the breathtaking mountains we reached Bharatpur.
It was indeed a very tiring journey as the roads were extremely bad and Scorpio suspensions did not prove to be the best for those kinds of roads. Bharatpur was the coldest place we had ever experienced. The oxygen level was very low and all of us experienced mountain sickness. No one made the effort to have food and just wanted to crash after a long tiresome journey. Not many of us could sleep sound at -5˚. It was a make shift camp and the cold winds through the gaps made the mattress and blankets moist. It was one terrible night we waited to pass over. Ammo a sweet young lady from Himachal was very hospitable and made us feel comfortable. Stanzin was well acquainted with Ammo had chose to lodge us here for obvious reasons. Both looked good as a couple and we had our own doubts.
With quick maggi noodles breakfast and mint tea we left Bharatpur. Exhaustion, dehydration and mountain sickness were telling. It was another 12 hrs we had to cover to reach Leh.
We had no idea that our journey to Leh would take such a toll. The roads were terrible and the terrains quite dangerous. To keep the journey going we had Chandru's one liners and Ramesh’s Hindi. Stanzin also gave us good company with some tit bits of his life. Proving our doubts right he did express his soft corner for Ammo. We advised and encouraged him to propose to Ammo before our hunk Ramesh planned to visit Bharatpur once again to have Maggi and Mint tea.
Nearing Leh we were indeed driving in a desert surrounded by mountains. Miles together it was barren land with brown snow covered mountains. The journey seemed never ending as we were waiting to reach Leh. Our journey had been delayed earlier by a bridge collapse en route and planning to take a short cut, our Scorpio got stuck in a mud slush waiting to comfortably sleep on the ground. We just hoped we dint get stuck in the middle of no where as it was dark and no help anywhere in sight for miles together. 5 well built guys with biceps to boast were exhausted to get the vehicle out on road. We had no other way but to spend every bit of energy we had to get back on seats. Just 10 kms away from Leh we had a flat tyre resulting further delay. Finally we reached Hotel Chube by 8 30 PM for a warm welcome from Rigzin Chube and his family. It was obvious that we decided to cut short our 4 day ambitious trek to 2 days as we were not in the best of shape to start trekking the next day itself. We definitely needed a day to acclimatize. After a hot well served dinner we were straight to bed.
Next morning after breakfast we had another Rigzin, a retired Army personnel waiting in a Scorpio to take us to a few monasteries around Leh. He shared his experiences of fighting the Pakistani army in the Kargil terrains. We visited Hemis, Shey and Thiksey monasteries. It was a peaceful and different experience visiting those age old monasteries which even had centuries old Buddhist manuscripts preserved carefully. Driving around Leh was itself an experience. The stream, mountains, trees, the nature in entirety was picture perfect and it took us a while to believe that we were experiencing Ladakh. The pictures we took looked like paintings and calendar pictures which always looked imaginary but here we were in the middle of one of the most beautiful and breath taking places of world braving the cold and relishing the beauty. At some stretches the mountains mirrored like the monuments of Egypt. The clean tarred roads lined up with trees and mountains’ adorning the entire land in a sunny cold climate was like a drive in Paradise.
After the morning sight seeing of Leh, we were back at Chube to have a sumptuous meal of dal, roti and sabzee. A good appetite meant that Leh was getting friendlier with us and we were almost acclimatized to the mountains.
It was such a mixed feeling as we were still sinking in the fact that we were in Ladakh, one of the far most places from down South in Bangalore. It was a dream come true and on the other hand we thought that we had just 4 days to experience this beautiful land of peace and tranquility. We did not want to waste any time and hit off to the Leh market to shop for some warm clothing for our trek which was to begin the next day morning. It was quite difficult even to imagine that we would be trekking the very next day as we had just recovered from altitude sickness. Meanwhile we picked up some real good jackets and sweaters for nothing more than 200 Indian rupees.
A very impressive note about Leh town was its ban on plastic carry bags and people used paper bags or cloth bags to carry stuff. They really do care about maintaining the town and hopefully it remains the same. With more and more Indian tourists visiting the place we only hope that the beauty of this wonderful land is not tampered with.
Hotel Chube is a real cozy place with warm hospitality and the cook Munna, a native of Jharkand and Sujan from Himachal served us very well. We had a pleasant dinner and retired for the day. There was a mini cab with Gurmit, our guide waiting for us to be transported to Saboo village, the starting point of our trek. 8 ponies waited there for us to carry our baggage and we started the trek by 9:30 in the morning.
Here began our saga of the great Himalayan trek. It was not as easy as trekking down south as the oxygen levels were constantly low and the cold winds were adding to our difficulties. The first sight of a beautiful stream which was frozen at many corners welcomed us to the terrain ahead. The mountains were huge and never seemed to end. The feeling to be surrounded by the Himalayas on all sides was a great feeling in itself.
The trek was getting difficult and Gurmit's expectations of the experienced trekkers was falling low. It was the exhaustion of the journey, altitude sickness and a not so good diet over the days were all the factors doing us in.
To add to our woes we had Chandrashekar Narsimaiah attempting a great (mis)adventure in trying to reach the base camp through a shorter route and trekking the mountains on the wrong side with Ramesh, his dutiful Bro following his foot steps. Trudging along the rocky cold mountains of Himalayas the trail never seems to end for the adventurous twosome. No other Chalukya was in sight for them. We continued the trek hoping the duo would catch up with us sooner or later but it was during our break for lunch when the two were sighted at a distance. They had exhausted all their energy required for the day.
Not to mention they had lagged behind for the rest of the trek and finally when we reached the Saboo la base camp it was close to 6 PM. There was not much calories left in us to do anything but crash in the tents which were fortunately set up by Gurmit and team. 2 ponies were sent back to fetch Chan and Bro who with great difficulty had covered the distance.
The rest of the evening was spent inside the tents as it was extremely cold outside. We were again at around 10000ft height. The kitchen tent kept us warm for some time till we had dinner. Chan and bro were even more tired as they did the extra distance. By now it was already decided that we will be heading back the same way as it was not advisable to scale the mountains even higher in those conditions. Gurmit also suggested the same as it was not the best of the seasons to trek unless we were experienced trekking at high altitudes. The night spent was quite uncomfortable for us as we were completely exhausted and the weather was no way favouring us.
By 9 in the morning we sipped the tea with some fire side by and prepared ourselves to hit back. The trek back was not so arduous and we reached Saboo village by afternoon. Spent some time along the stream side and it was one of the most peaceful moments to sit beside a stream midst the Himalayas. Chandru’s spirit was high once again and he was the first one to reach Saboo. The bus was waiting for us already. After spending some time near the stream we travelled back to Leh. Chube was disappointed that we could not complete the trek as scheduled. We rested for a while to recuperate from the ordeal faced the precious day. It was a relief of sorts to get back to Leh under bearable conditions.
It was obvious that we hit the Leh market to do some shopping which was long pending. Proved to be a good place to shop for warm clothing. Good quality sweaters and Jackets are sold at very cheap prices. All of us picked up more than a few. Then it was some souvenir shopping. Though not a very big place to go shopping, some shops did have some interesting things, mostly Buddhist articles. The Army camouflage sweaters also caught our fancy and few of us bought them.
Then we decided to wind up for the day with a relaxed dinner at the guest house. We laughed at ourselves for our over ambitious adventure plans and Chandru and Ramesh putting in more efforts to tire themselves out. The 2 days had just flown past and we had just another day in Leh. Nevertheless we enjoyed every bit our stay. Next morning we visited the Shanti Stupa, which overlooked the entire town of Leh and much more. It was indeed a very peaceful place. Shanti Stupa sits on a raised platform above Leh. An image of the Buddha is embedded in the wall of Shanti Stupa and there is a small Buddhist temple at the entrance where prayers were held when we visited. It is located at Changspa, on the hilltop, and was inaugurated by Dalai Lama in 1985. The stupa is connected by a motorable road and a steep flight of stairs. It was a great feeling to have a panoramic view of the chain of mountains and the peaceful little village of Changspa with typical Ladakhi houses built along a gushing stream, and the towering Namgyal Tsemo in the distance.
We didn’t have much time left as we had to make arrangements for our return journey. None of us were willing to return on the same roads we travelled. The other options were to fly back to Delhi or to take the Kargil-Srinagar highway. It was quite obvious that adventure was in our tag line and we did chose to travel in the forbidden territory. Though at that time there was no perceived threat of any terrorist activities, it was a totally unpredictable region. It was some kind of a calling from Mata Vaishno Devi who I guess wanted us to visit her which was never there in our itenary.
After some last minute shopping we were back to have lunch and pack our bags. We decided to leave Leh at 7 PM and reach Srinagar by early morning.
We were lucky to find [driver name] who drove us till Srinagar in a new Scorpio very safely. Most of us could not sleep as we were very anxious as we were to pass Kargil, Drass sector, Tiger hills which would send some cold shivers down anybody's spine. We had never imagined we would anytime pass through these places which were only synonymous with bullets and firing. Chandru was at his humorous best and there was no question of him sleeping when [driver name] played some super hit songs of Himesh Reshammiya. Chan kept us entertained with his Hindi and silly conversations with [driver name].
We also discussed Manju's plans of having a Yak farm in Leh and marrying a Ladakhi so that we could visit Leh often. Ramesh was quite disappointed as he could not spot as many cute looking Ladakhi girls as he expected. He was made to brave the extreme temperatures and the only beauty he got to admire was that of the Himalayas.
The journey continued through some dangerous bends and curves and we too kept chatting so that [driver name] didn't fall asleep. We had a brief halt at Kargil just to touch the ground where our brave soldiers laid down their life for this beautiful country. It was saddening to see the bullet marks and some structures destroyed in the firing. There were memorials of the martyrs along the way and constant patrolling was in place. We wondered how fearful life in this part of the country would be. It was ironical that a few hours back we felt so peaceful at Shanti stupa and now we were close to Indo-Pak border
To be contd..
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