We made a 8 Night/7 Days trip end of May which was just the onset of summer and yet there were some snowfalls just before we reached. The best way to get there is to take a flight from Delhi to Leh, which is in the early morning and gives a breathtaking view from the top. It's truly a heaven on earth, with white snowclad mountains creating a mystical view! We stayed at the Eco Poplar Resorts in the Leh town, very close to the main Leh market area. The resort was beautiful, nothing luxurious...just a room with basic facilities but in a lovely environment of green tall Poplar trees. The first day was spent just resting and acclimatizing as Leh is at 11,000 ft and it takes time for the body to get used to the low levels of oxygen, especially if you are taking a flight.
Day 2 & 3 were spent touring the Leh city - the land of the 'Gompas' (Monsatries). Am sure if you count you will find more than 50 monastries there! A couple of them were extremely beautiful like the Spituk & Thiksey monastry but frankly I had an overdose of seeing them and got bored the second day. Over these 2 days we also visited
- Magnetic Hill, Gurdwara of Patthar Sahib,
- Hall of Fame, Shey Palace
- Sangam , Shanti Stupa
- Sindhu Ghaat
- The Leh Palace
Day 4 was a journey to Nubra Valley (140kms from Leh, about 5-6 hrs) via the highest motorable road - Khardungla Pass at 18,000ft. Quite a difficult journey on those small mountain roads with snow on the path. Khardungla was full of snow and staying there for about 20 minutes gave a dizzy feeling due to the low levels of oxygen. Feels like being on top of the world, literally! It's definitely worth the experience!! We reached Nubra by late afternoon and stayed at one of the camps. The rest of day was spent resting.
Day 5 was in Nubra valley where we visited the white sand dunes at Hunder, where you can find the double humped camel to take a ride. Enroute we also visited the Diskit monastry but skipped the hot springs as all of us were dead tired by end of the day.
Day 6 was again driving back to Leh from Nubra via Khardungla pass of course! So we got more time to spend at Khardungla this time and eat more hot maggi at 18,000ft and play in the snow :-) If you truly want to realize the importance of oxygen in your life then you *have* to visit this place! The journey was extremely tiring as we reached Leh by late evening.
Day 7 was the round trip to Pangong Lake via ChangLa pass (at 17,000ft). We did plan on camping at the lake overnight but it was snowing there and extremely windy, so staying was not a good idea. Pangong is about 140kms from Leh (at the Indo-China border ), so the round trip was 280kms. Travelling 11 hours on the same day was screwing! So it's actually a good idea to spend the night at the lake and get back the next day. We spent about 2-3 hours at the lake and in those couple of hours, it snowed, it rained and it was bright & sunny. Such drastic weather changes!! So it's good to be well prepared and wear layered clothing :)
Day 8 was at Leh again. We visited the Leh market and did a lot of shopping. You get good wollen clothing, handicrafts, pashminas, handmade wall decoratives, gemstones and jewellery and lots more! You have to bargain well as it's a touristy place and prices are marked up.
Regarding food, Leh has a quite a few restaurants in the market area, so its a good idea to stay nearby. You get regular Indian food and tibetan cuisine...not to miss the steamed momos!The important things to carry for the trip include - lot of moisturiser, layered clothing (wollen clothes are a must even if it is summer), cap, sunscreen, shades, lip balm, good pair of shoes and Diamox tablets (for acute mountain sickness). Good time to travel would be between May and September, which is summer time.
It's one of the most memorable trips that I have made so far! If it's not on your list then you definitely should consider visiting this land of mountains.
6 comments:
Enjoyed this e-visit...hope to make it to this wondrous place one day soon.
@molarbear - Deepa, I am surprised that you have toured the world but havent visited Ladakh :) It's a must see place!!!
Hi did you go through a tour operator?
@Renu - We planned a package through Makemytrip. Going there in a group is advisable as they are very remote places and not too many people around.
Thanks, was it well planned by them? And how many people are there typically in a group?
The bookings, travel etc are all individual. It's just that when you go around the places there, you might travel together with other people depending on how many of you are there. It's not like a usual group tour. Planning was ok. You can customize the trip yourself and see where you want to spend more time
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