Blissful experience in the Divine Land of Lama

It was a flawless masala chai with a perfect blend of myriad flavors, aroma, and just the way one cannot describe the taste of the tea, but can only enjoy it by drinking, this journey is an experience which is very hard to express. I think every person would run short of words to describe the exquisiteness of their trip to Leh-Ladakh and I have made my best attempt to pen it down.

Post multiple conversation and pondering, it was finally decided that we would hit the Manali route to reach Leh. Though we embarked our Leh expedition on June 24^th, we boarded the flight from Bangalore to Amritsar on June 22^nd.  A short stay of day & a half in Amritsar, we first headed towards the Attari – Wagah Border. The sentiments in the entire event of flag retreat session reminded me of the madness we have when India plays against Pakistan in any cricket tournament. Next day, early morning around 04:30 hours we were at the Golden temple and the view was delightful. Gold rays shimmering on the lake and the serenity around would make even an atheist bow down and utter “Wahe Guru Wahe Jiyo” (English translation: Great beyond description is the experience of God’s wisdom and experience of God blessing soul). Post this, we hopped into the Jallianwalah Bagh and the India Partition museum, a must visit as it has an insightful collection of the experience & struggle by the people during the partition.

Travel doesn’t end without shopping for the ladies and we roamed around the Amritsar streets, picking a lot of gifts for friends and families until we boarded our bus to Manali in the evening.

After a quick fresh-up and breakfast at Manali, we began our road trip to Leh. Since it was the holiday season, the roadblock till we crossed the Rohtang pass seemed like it would beat our Bangalore traffic jam. Being the first pass witnessed in this journey, we were awed with the beauty of Rohtang pass without any hint that the nature has lot more beautiful wonders and sights for us in the impending route.

The roads might be bumpy, broken, death-defying, but with the Bhaga River flowing along the roadside until Jispa, everything else is simply forgotten and the first day ended with our stay in Jispa.

By the time I settled from the haunted story of Sainik Bhawan, our car headed towards Killing Sarai. Another peculiar name, but, the roads are so awful and terrifying that I realized why it is called the Killing Sarai. The drive was no less than any roller coaster ride. We halted for lunch at Sarchu which is also one of the highly recommended camping site.

When I crossed a series of 21 hairpin bends on the way to Nakeela, the third high altitude pass of the journey, I witnessed water bottles being dumped in one of the bends and a small temple in the corner. It is believed that a truck broke down on that bend and when the conductor got down to place a stone behind, accidentally the driver crushed the conductor by rear wheels and with the fear, the driver just fled away though the conductor was asking for help and some water. Hence, the belief to serve water. Just the valleys are no short of beauty, it is no short of haunted stories as well.

With these travel stories, and the view of the majestic mountains, we touched two more breath-taking views – Nakeela at 15,547 feet and Lachung La at 16,616 feet.

 "Smooth, neat straight road
Red, brown, black peaks around
But there is a stunning twist
As I see the highland submerged with mist
And suddenly there is a bizarre affair
Since I see snowflakes everywhere
Making the Morre plains glow like a newly-wed in white gown
With these majestic mountains acting like the Bride’s crown"

When we drove down the Morre plains it was an eye-catching experience with the fresh snow coupled with colourful terrain. I managed to convince the driver to let me drive in this road which was a memorable experience.

We reached the Tanglang La at 17,582 feet and the view of the sky with the snow-capped mountains during the sunset was inexplicable. I was grateful for the two hurdles we faced due to snow fall and road clearing during the day, else I would have never experienced such a remarkable sunset view. It made me a bit philosophical, “Sometimes hurdles in life are good as the Almighty has something more beautiful in store for you“.

With a bag full of memories and experiences, we ended our Day 2 near Leh.

Day 3 was relaxing and a day to acclimatize ourselves with only sight-seeing in Leh. The small city has plenty to offer like the Leh Palace, Tsemo Castle, General Zorawar Fort, Jama Masjid, Basgo Palace, Stok Palace and many more monasteries but we shortlisted our visits to Rancho School (Remember 3 Idiots movie), Thikse Monastery, Shanti Stupa and Hall of Fame. No doubt, Leh is an amazing place with the cold winds, harsh sun, snowcapped peaks view all around, but it is worth every single breath to take the long road trip from Manali to Leh instead of a direct flight as I think the experiences and views are no less than the paradise.

It is advised to visit the Hall of Fame around 4 pm in the evening and spend 2-3 hours to get the glimpse of the events & documentaries placed in the museum. It is constructed and maintained by the Indian Army as an honour to our soldiers. The museum has a repository of the wars fought post-Independence with Pakistan & China including a brief overview on how our soldiers survive the extreme weather conditions of Siachen Glacier. It also has a memorial for all those jawans who laid their lives for our motherland. I ended my day attending Retreat Ceremony (Flag lowering) at 7 pm followed by a short video on the Kargil war.

Kargil is not a preferred place by everyone as there is just the war memorial at Dras, but I highly recommend a visit to this place, if you ever get an opportunity. When I listened to the briefing given by the officer at the memorial, it aroused goosebumps in me and when he directed towards the peaks – Tololing, Point 4875, Point 5060, Point 5100 and the snow-capped Tiger Hill which were re-captured by our brave soldiers, my heart silently saluted every single person involved in making Operation Vijay successful. Tiger hill was one of the toughest to be re-captured. They proved that if there is will and courage, nothing is impossible. It was a pride moment to walk up towards the Amar Jyoti Jawan with Indian flags on either side of the pavement.

The 20 minutes video played at the mini theater provides an overview of Kargil war, strategic importance of NH Delta 1, story of how the Indian army re-captured and highlights of army personnel who won gallantry awards. One might have to dedicate more than a day to visit Kargil, as the travel from Leh to Dras is around 280 kms , but I bet, when one sees these places, understand their life and our history, there will be no regrets visiting the war memorial. The words “Yeh Dil Maange More” by Late Captain Vikram Batra is still ringing in my head as I am writing here.

On the way to Kargil from Leh, we stopped at the Magnetic hill where the vehicle moves uphill even when the engine is in neutral mode. The fact is that because of the hill placement and the inability to see the horizon from this place, it creates an optical illusion, making the descending road look ascending.

A little further, I viewed the confluence of Indus & Zanskar rivers. Indus in crystal white and Zanskar in bottle green seemed to me like the long green carpet ending at the crystal reflected floor. There won’t be a single journey on any day in this road trip without crossing any pass and today I was standing at the highest point on the Leh – Srinagar highway, Fatu La Top at 13,478 feet. It was heavily stormy in the view point.

Day 5 was another long journey heading back to Leh from Kargil and we had 2 places in our plate to cover which was skipped in the interest of time while driving down to Kargil. Ladakh is a place which always surprises you with a unique sight pumping your energy levels despite the long routes and jerky roads. As I was enjoying the valley view, unexpectedly there were some broken mud cliffs and as I approached closer, it seemed like glittering golden formations. Thanks to the breeze, there are some naturally formed spectacular brilliant creations. The land resembles that of the Moon and hence the name “Moon Land” which is located near Lamayuru, 100 kms away from Leh. Yet another unique geographical feature which Ladakh has to offer. Just few kms away from Leh, we visited Pattar Saheb, a temple constructed and maintained by the Indian Army.

There is no end to the mountain passes I crossed in this valley and every single pass is exclusive and striking in its own way. One such pass we touched on the sixth day is the Chang La at 17,688 feet.  Located in the Nubra valley, this place has extreme cold and chilly winds blowing even at the mid-day.

The most difficult part to pen down is the beauty of Pangong Tso Lake. Located at 14,270 feet, the lake is around 134 kms long of which one third is in India and the rest in China. I could see multiple colour shades which made me re-think “Is water colourless?” (Check out the video at the end of this article!!). I was super-excited that we would be camping on the banks of the lake tonight.

Remember the 3 Idiots climax scene?? It was shot at this lake and it was beyond my imagination that the place could be so marvelous. For a moment, I was like “Am I in India?” The first view from the road, made my jaw drop, eagerly waiting for the car to halt. Within no time the car stopped, I ran towards the lake, it was more like the nature is calling me and I can’t further wait to embrace her. Now here while am writing, I cannot stop myself from personifying the blissful experience I had in this place.

The sun is shimmering all his love on her
Making her blush fashioning varied colour
The elegant touch of him made her shiver
Her graceful walk made him quiver
The sky & the mountains adding to the beauty
I laid back silently staring at their majesty.