My journey starts from Mumbai, it was a fine Saturday morning which was planned before months to discover what solo travelling feels like, so here's my first solo trip story, follow along.
So after having reached the airport, I was for the first time in my life doing all the check-ins,board pass and everything all by myself . I reached Delhi airport a few hours earlier before departing, and after having met the team captain (Yes, I went with a travel group, a group of strangers though), we were set to leave Delhi at around 8 p.m, after having an introductory session, I found myself laughing ,talking and cracking jokes all the way long, I was able to make friends, and that was the best part. After a while, we halted near Haryana, had dinner and dozed off to wake up to the beautiful snow-caped hills of Himachal Pradesh.
After a quick refreshment, we went out to explore the beautiful town of Manali, the cafes, the vibe, the streets, all was so beautiful, I had a great meal by the side of Beas river (Cafe 1947), watching a bit of drizzle as it was July, the vibes were just next level pretty. Soon after that, me and my friend, we both went to explore the Hidimba Temple, the temple is dedicated to the Goddess Hidimba who was also the wife of the strongest of the Pandava brothers, Bhima. It's a must visit when one is in Manali. Also it happens to be in many of the bollywood movies (YJHD being one of them). The localites there may ask you to hold the fluffier rabbits ,and pose with them, you can pay them a little extra as that may be the only source of income they rely on.
See pictures below.
Soon after the evening fun, we went to have dinner and enjoy the live concert that was being played in one of the cafes, which also happens to be the most popular cafe of this town (The Lazy Dog). After a quick north Indian dinner, we were asked to sleep in, as the next day we were going to start our official Ladakh journey via Manali-Rohtang Pass.
After a quick breakfast, we started our journey , on the way we halted at the most wonderful Baralacha pass, which was covered with snow, and there were many other water bodies, on they way, small lakes with beautiful colors giving peaceful vibes.
Also not to miss the quirky sign boards of The BRO ( Border Road Organization), they made it super creative and fun for travelers.
We were supposed to halt at Sarchu, here's some information about this place, Sarchu is a major halt point with tented accommodation in the Himalayas on the Leh-Manali Highway, on the boundary between Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh in India. Also, one has to necessarily carry Diamox (Altitude sickness tablets and a lot of Energy drinks like Glucond, Tang etc) not to scare you but you may face a lot of AMS (Acute Mountain sickness here), When we reached the camp site by evening,it was quite cold, the temperature dripped below 10 degrees, and by then, a lot of them travelers had puked, fallen sick and were facing a lot of headache issues, it is highly recommended to take oxygen cylinders with you , as the oxygen level decreases .These are quite a common symptoms here as Sarchu lies at the height of 14,070 ft. So it's advisable to constantly stay hydrated, and just sink in the process, you may want to carry camphor tablets as well as the oxygen drops when you go on higher altitude, luckily I had the best team ever, they were constantly keeping a check on the health of their travelers.
After the most hectic day, the morning seemed quite fine, and most of them were just getting adapted to the mountains, so the sickness was just gone or let's just say it was getting better, we left Sarchu and were welcomed by the most mysterious Gata Loops aka the 21 hair pin bends, some of us literally counted all the 21 loops , and as you reach the last bend, the view is just so good, check the pictures below, well it is also said to be haunted, there's a story behind it, you can just google if you want. We reached Pang, and had our lunch, the lunch was a simple Rice and rajma chawal, most of us stuck ourselves to maggie , as it's quite an experience to have Maggie in the hills. Later we passed through Taglang La pass ,which stands at 5,328 metres, there were many beautiful rivers and streams that were not to be missed . We hit the Moore plains, it's a plateau on the Leh–Manali Highway. It occupies 40 km of the highway between Leh and Sarchu. It's probably the only straight road on this highway. And within less than 4 hours, we finally reached LEH. Yes, it took us two days from Manali but trust me, the journey is worthwhile, in fact, it's highly recommended you take this route to experience the real beauty of this wonderland. We reached Leh in the evening, and were welcomed by army camps, you automatically get a sense of respect for India seeing them there. It was late at night, we were dispersed in our rooms , we had our dinner (which was a north-indian thali type dinner) after which we were off to sleep.
It was a very good morning, and we were soon headed to the local sight seeing , please note there are not much ATMs in Ladakh, so wherever you find one, you may want to withdraw your cash, also not many places have the facilities of digital payment,so cash is the only preferable option
On arriving, we first went to the most famous and worth seeing the Zanskar- Indus river , The Indus River is one of the longest rivers in Asia. Zanskar river is one of the major tributaries of the Indus river only. It meets the Indus river at Nimmu village in Ladakh, a place popularly known as Sangam, the Indus River can be seen as shiny blue while the Zanskar river is green. The confluence of these two magnificent rivers is not a sight to be missed when you are in Ladakh. In the winter season, the Zanskar River temperature goes below freezing point, and the river complete freezes to form a thick ice sheet called Chadar. Yes, the famous Chadar trek that's the one! I sat there for the longest time clicking pictures and contemplating,just looking at the flow of the river.
We visited the Magnetic Hill, right after this one, another beautiful place to just sit on the road with the beautiful mountains behind and by your side, the layout of the area and surrounding slopes create the optical illusion of a hill. The hill road is actually a downhill road. Objects and cars on the hill road may appear to roll uphill in defiance of gravity when they are, in fact, rolling downhill. Personally, I didn't experience it, as i was merely enjoying the beauty of this place and clicking picture. Right after which, it was lunch time and what better than the Gurudwara Langar (Gurudwara food/prashad),so we headed to the Gurudwara Pathar Sahib, the area is known majorly for Buddhism but Gurudwara Pathar Sahib is equally worshipped by anyone who visits this place. It is maintained by the Indian Army. After the divine lunch, we headed to the Hall of Fame museum,here, you can see the various kinds of weapons used in the Kargil war, along with the various arms and ammunition captured by the Indian Army during the war. On the same floor, in yet another section, various kinds of apparel and amenities used by the Indian Army in the Siachen region have also been displayed. Some of these show the pictures of army posts on the glacier, living accommodation of the troops and the training process of the troops on ice walls, besides others. There are various sections to get mesmerized by the great work Indian Army has done, and feel proud for the same.
Soon after, we went to Shanti Stupa, it's a Buddhist white-domed stupa (chorten) on a hilltop in Chanspa, Leh district, there are prayer flags, which you may purchase which has "Om mani padme hum" written over it in Sanskrit ,and also English, if you want to deeper dive into this topic, you may want to Google it, the meaning of it is too beautiful and personally it's my favorite mantra, we would constantly ask our local driver to play this one , and trust me this mantra just stays with you, it give you some good vibes, also the locals here greet each other with Julley (or Joolay) it's a common word in Ladakh which means Namaste, Hello, Hi, beautiful isn't it?!
It was almost evening, we had our evening snacks which was the MOMOS, the Tibet momos in the land of Tibetans just tastes beautiful, we saw the sun set at the Stupa and headed back to our hotel, had our dinner and slept off, as there was going to be some travelling the next day.
We headed to Pangong right after the breakfast, Connected via road, the ride takes one over the Chang La Pass (5,360 m), again like I said , there are many passes along the way you can just halt by and enjoy the view or take pictures. After the 5 hours journey, we reached Pangong Tso, and OH MY GOD! words really won't do the right justice to what this place is, you have to eye-witness it!!! The blue heaven lake that stretches for about 134 km between India and China, it is one of the most mesmerizing sights, you cannot just not be here! I have just visited it once, but would go there a million times, at the drop of a hat. The famous 3-idiots movie was shot here, also Jab tak hai jaan, there are the Kareena yellow scooters, you may want to sit on and take pretty pictures, the view behind is just in-explainable, the way the shades change trough out the day can't be missed, this lake changes colour 4-5 times a day, not less than a MAGIC, isn't it? Its colour changes from shades of blue to green to red. It is one of the highest altitude lakes in the world that is filled with saline water. It is located at an altitude of 4350 m above the sea level. The water is quite cold, and you may want to pick up a few stones from there as a souvenir,(just a free tip, 'cause I missed it). There are yaks if you want to take pictures or you can just contemplate over how beautiful this place is. Soon, after enjoying this sight, we were headed to our Swiss Tents, I mean it was no less than a dream to have a tent right in front of this beauty and who would not want to wake up to it!! I just felt so much gratitude for being there !
The next morning, me and my friend woke up quite early as we both decided to get our pictures clicked in bright clothes, (pro- tip , do carry bright clothes , it will just beautify your pictures, like the ones below). After the great photo-session and the morning Chai (tea) in front of this view, we headed to Nubra Valley, which was also going to be our last spot of Ladakh , we were accompanied by the Great Shyok river.It is advisable that, If you are on motorcycles take the Agham Shyok road. The ascent is at least not that steep; and with motorcycles you can always make way even on bad roads; which is not the case with a four wheeler. The Shyok River a tributary of the Indus River that flows through northern Ladakh and Gilgit–Baltistan in India, spanning some 550 km. This river is a beautiful clean green river, but again the roads are tough, also we were encountered by The Khardung La pass, highest motorable road in the world, on the Ladakh Range which is on the north of the town of Leh, the gateway to the Shyok Valley. The local pronunciation is "Khardong La" or "Khardzong La" stands at 17,582 ft high and it's not quite advisable for the travelers to be there for more than 15mins,as the oxygen level drops again and it gets colder.
We halted for lunch at a local cafe, we had the local chowmein and Momos and also had a good chat with the cafe owner, they had a beautiful little daughter and we had quite a lot of fun there. By afternoon, we reached Nubra Valley, it's an wide, open expanses of desert. It is the beautiful colored vistas on the drive which makes for so many Ladakh road trip photos. It is untouched villages, tremendous stretches of sand and lakes. It is also know an "COLD DESERT" , We were accommodated in our rooms, and GOD they were beautiful with the best views from our windows, it was almost like watching a painting. We had a quick nap and soon headed to HUNDAR - Hundar is surrounded by massive sand dunes – and the camel safari here is one the famous things to do in Nubra Valley. The safari, which is done on Bactrian double humped camels, gives one an eerie feeling of a desert at such a height, at almost 10,000 feet. Quite an experience, isn't it? Nubra Valley, is also considered as a gateway to the Siachen Glacier. Also, the landscape the the ever changing color of the skies is a delight to watch, one cannot just miss this place. I took a great shot of the setting sun (image below) and saw it's color change from darker shade of blue to brighter shade of orange, and I just didn't want to move anywhere after that, but sadly after all the fun, we had to head back to our hotels, and the next day we had to be back in Leh.
It was kind of hard to not leave this town behind, but on our way back, we went to the Diskit Monastery also known as Deskit Gompa or Diskit Gompa is the oldest and largest Buddhist monastery in the Nubra Valley of Ladakh, northern India. In one side you can find a huge Maitrey Buddha statue which signifies peace and protection. And the other part is the stairs towards the old temple and monastery one can find huge drums , some illuminated oil lamps, meditation halls, posters and wall paintings and a very peaceful environment. After bidding goodbye to the beautiful Nubra Valley, we landed back in Leh town, and as it was our last day, it was the shopping day, we got refreshed and headed to the Local Leh Market, which is also known as the Main Market of Leh, the colorful skies just give you a vibe that's undefinable , also there are many local Tibetan shops which sell a lot of small miniatures, handicrafts, wollen clothes, winter clothes, I bought myself a pair of hand gloves, also I couldn't somehow find the local Apricort lip balm , although I searched for it, I ended up taking some souvenirs for my colleagues and friend back home. We ended up having dinner in one of the local cafes with a good Bollywood music. Also, after getting back to our hotel, our team leaders who was also a musician and a singer played beautiful songs for us around the bonfire, ending our day on a beautiful note.
It was quite hard to say goodbye to this beautiful little wonderland that I had discovered in 5-6 days, and I just still felt that was so much more to explore, you can never really get enough of this place! So, after the breakfast we headed back to Jispa,it's a village in Lahaul, in the Himachal Pradesh. Jispa is located 20 km north of Keylong and 7 km south of Darcha, along the Manali-Leh Highway where were going to halt for the night, it was a long journey, after the long tiring day and the dinner, and, with the coldness of the night, I decided to sleep a bit early. It was a tent stay and the following day we were going to be back in Manali where we had kept our extra luggage.
Right after bidding goodbye to Jispa, we checked-in our hotels, only to collect our luggage and have a quick meal, the same day we were going to leave for Delhi in the evening.
We got into our buses at around 8 p.m and reached Delhi early morning around 10 a.m thus bringing this memorable and a beautiful trip to a halt.
Although this was a solo trip, I planned it myself, did all the bookings, traveled from Mumbai to Delhi and back, I just realized that I could make so many wonderful friends and bring back the all the happy memories with me and keep them etched in my heart forever.