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Travel to Leh : a lesser known and even lesser traveled place in India , Part -1
So finally after two years of dilly-dallying, me and my wife finally made it to Leh, Ladakh. The region of Ladakh is amongst the most elevated regions of the world , and at over 3500Mts ( 11500 feet ) is also perhaps the most serene abode in the lap of nature.
Ladakh or its better known capital Leh is synonymous with its virgin beauty, vast sandy deserts with golden granite dust, barren mountains, high altitude lakes, picture perfect scenic beauty, tough to climb monasteries and Lamas. It is one place where every photographer clicks a great picture , as my wife puts it “ You just can’t go wrong out here”.
Although Ladakh offers options for both adventure seekers and not so adventurous, us belonging to the later group opted for things that of course did not include any of trekking, rafting or biking. Nevertheless , we thoroughly enjoyed our touring via Jeep, including the fruits of having our own conveyance, stopping at will, wherever the call of photographer or the nature demanded .
Due to constraints in time and in response to earlier reviews from people about the arduous, time –consuming and a very uncomfortable journey via road to get to Leh, we decided to fly to Leh from
Delhi. An early morning , very economical Deccan Airways promotional budget flight got us to Leh . As a matter of fact even a normally booked fare in advance turns out cheaper than driving from Delhi to Leh.
A prepaid taxi for Rs.150 ( approx. $4) took us to our budget accommodation , Asia Guest House in Changspa area of Leh. The hotel/guest house was a pleasant surprise. Unlike lots of other hotels in this price range (Rs.600 per night for a room with attached bath and view) in North India, this one was definitely clean, had open spaces, a nice view and exhibited a certain character and ambience that is generally not found in hotels of this particular price range. You will be able to read more about this Hotel in the review section of Hotel details on our site .With just couple of hours past our settling down in our conveniently located guest house , we had the first experience of “Altitude Sickness”. Headaches, problems with breathing or in worst cases even hallucinations , we were quickly made abreast with all the consequences of not taking it easy on your first couple of days in Leh. We were told that lots of people enthusiastically did a lot more than what they should have and encounter such problems sometimes even in midst of their travel, even if they did not experience any sickness to begin with. Hence the advice “take it easy, rest the whole of first day at least and drinks lots of water”. In case of headaches pop in a couple of “Disprin” and for breathing problems have a “Deriphylin Retard” ( now don’t quote my spellings or my medical prowess on that , this is a general recommendation) .
Well once we mixed around with crowds at the guest House over breakfast we quickly drew out a plan for our travels in the region.
With the first day totally allocated to “complete bed-rest” and the
day -2 to moving around in the Jeep visiting Hotels in the area 9 part of my job with IdiscoverIndia.com ) we were quick to ascertain that the total remaining days at hand for the trip were left to 7. The travel plan was drawn out .Trekking tours were quickly eliminated . Places to visit were decided upon ,Jeep tours were assessed, itineraries were chalked down, some chopping of places to visit and the time to be spent , negotiations with the driver and Voila ! We were ready with our complete plan.
Day 3 - Gompas around Leh, Shey
Day 4 – Leh and Spituk
Day 5 - Lamayuru
Day 6 - Basgo,Alchi ,Likir
Day 7 – Khardungla Pass
Day 8 – Pangong Lake
Day 9- Return from Pangong Lake
In the hindsight , this was not a bad plan, barring not going all the way to Hundur in Nubra Valley and losing a day by planning out some Gompas and
Khardungla Pass on a separate occasion , this was a fairly comprehensive Ladakh travel plan.
Anyways, this brings to the end of the 1st of my 4 - part series on Leh. In the next 3 parts, I will reveal my travel experiences thru various terrains of the region and also share my impeccable photography skills. (Well this is one place which makes everyone look good, so I don’t want to loose that chance).
Till then Au Revoir! |
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