How we got Leh'd... Day 4

We visit moonland!

One of the main things i clearly felt in the trip, we slept well. In fact so well, i got up at about 6 in morning.

After getting up at 6, first thing i did was, grabbed my cam (technically, third. First thing was i brushed my teeth. Dont ask second one!) and went out, thinking i would be able capture sun's ascend. But alas, the sun was very up in the sky already, its rays being yellowish white instead of red of the morning. After clicking few pics, i came back inside. The Guest house owner had seen me going out, and also my face while coming in. He told sunrise there happens at about 5:15. After that, i lost the hope to take an sunrise pic for rest of the trip. Later when i told this thing to the guys, one of them suggested me to take sunset pic and publish it as sunrise. 'Sunset ya sunrise, sun is orange that time. And who would be knowing which is east in the photo?' Those were his golden words...

Once i understood that my feeble try of photoshoot was vain, i went back to sleep. I thought i slept for 5 mins, but when i woke up, it was 7AM. One of the person was already ready to go. In the next few days we discovered that this was his nasty habit of getting ready before everyone has woken up. Anyway, driver was going to come pick us up at 8, so we got busy in getting ourselves ready.

Once the driver came, we got into the omni (maruti 1000, for those who dont know) There was a little quarrel over who would get to seat where. There is seat in omni which is literally back-to back with driver. The lucky ones with weak stomach got to ditch that seat. As i am kind of lucky with my tummy, i got unlucky with my seat.

During travel, i noticed one clear distinction. In whole journey, falling is closely related to the roads. Either you will fall for the roads, or you will fall on it, if you are not careful enough. Such beautiful contrast! Black tar in the gray/brown desert, surrounded by brown/white (snow covered) mountains, looked over by clear blue sky, decorated by pure white clouds! It was feast for towns person like me who hasnt got chance to look beyond 100-200 mtrs because of the structures blocking the view.

We reached a point called Magnetic hill. A sign there says, 'Park your vehicle in the marked area. Put it in neutral gear and watch your vehicle get pulled against Gravity' We didnt try that, our driver said something like 'this road's inclination has been increased. We wont be able to see the effect that board says.' Therefore, some more photoshoot followed.

From there, we left for what the driver said, 'the moonland'. This part of the road, was the part for which you would fall for. We saw a union of two rivers - Indus river and Zanskaar river.  Till that time we were way up on the hill and we were looking down to the river. Soon the road took us downstairs, almost to the level of the river. There we were, mountain on one side; river on the other. Beyond the river, more mountains. They stood there, as if guarding the river and the road. In some places, the road was cut through the mountains. There was enough space for truck to pass below the mountain. If there was someone foolish enough to stand on the truck, would be squashed to the mountain...

After a while, the road again took us up the hill. After crossing a mountain, (i am feeling like making new measurement unit for distance-mountain) we saw what is famously known as moonland. As usual, we were talking in between us, 'Moon pe aisa hi hota hai kya?' 'Pata nahi re, main kabhi gaya nahi' 'Arre aisehi hota hai, main last week jaake aaya' etc etc etc. Honestly speaking, i dont know whether it looked anyway like moon... Moon looks white! This one, it was clearly yellowish brown. Anyway, didnt want to discourage the driver, so kept all my doubts to myself.

On crossing one more mountains, we arrived at Lamayuru monastery. Like all the monasteries, this was also kind of secluded, silent. Only sound to be heard was made by visitors (includes humans, animals and birds) and wind. But this silence made me feel calm. This is one of those places where you know your place. How small, insignificant, you are in front of whole wide world.

After roaming around and in the monastery, we started from there back to Leh city. On the way back, we visited one more monastery at a place called Alchi. The special thing here, is that it has got 2 floorey tall buddha statues and century old paintings. No photos allowed here! This monastery has 2-3 temples also. While walking to one of the temple, we saw apricot tree. There were lot of unripe apricots, and it tasted bitter sweet n sour. Our kind driver got handful of them for our request, and on the way back to the car we each had almost 6-7. Being unripe, the seeds inside weren't ready, so we couldn't eat it. Near the parking, i saw a poster, having something written in Ladakhi. I asked one of the person about it, he told 'Do not throw garbage out, Keep area clean etc' is written on it. I jokingly said, if that was for tourists, shouldn't it be written in english? He straightened another poster, hanging with just one cell-o-tape holding at bottom corner, and showed me. That was english, 'These are made by school kids', he added.

On the way back for Leh city, we stopped at few good points (like nice bridge, nice curves of roads obviously, nice hills etc) clicked pics, chit-chatted- the usual trip stuff.
Once back in Leh, we told our driver to take us to bike rent shops. Found a shop, rented 3 Bullet Classics for 800/- per day. Then we went to a restaurant nearby, started discussing about the next day plan, had dinner, went back to guest house, played cards, listened music etc etc. And like the last day, i slept off thinking of clear blue sky and the mountains...

How we got Leh'd... Day 3

We all get down with oxygen deficiency, and find shelter in an unknown tablet

To be clear, this 'unknown' tablet, was as yet unknown only to me... Most of the mountaineers know about it.

When we booked cab in delhi, we had no idea that we would experience a trial take-off dash before getting into an actual plane. I swear to god, we hadnt told that cab driver that we need to reach the airport in shortest possible time. But we also forgot to tell him that we need to reach in minimal possible 'incidences' Anyway, we left in the cab; and believe me, it took about half an hour to travel that 22 km. That half an hour was enough to put us in wide-awake state for next 2 hrs.

We reached Delhi airport, and to my surprise, the guard didnt let us in... He said it was closed till 12AM. So we stayed out for about 15 mins. After what seemed like another half an hour (different than the previous half hour); we entered the airport. Thinking of checking in, and relaxing; went to the check-in counter. Alas...even that was closed. Two of my friends spread a bedsheet on the floor itself and slept off. One of friend, doubting over the strength of his digestive system, hadn't eaten in the roadside restaurant (well, big word for that place). He had some sandwich and coffee at airport, and had to feel full with that.

At 1, the check-in counter opened. As expected, we were first in the line, and first ones to check in. First mistake, we got all seats in one row. Well...we didnt realize this until we got into flight. After check in we thought we would do security check, and go in to sleep on more luxurious seats. We went in, saw those long seats usually you see on beaches, decorated by beautiful girls on it. I dont exactly know the name of it, but i remember it. We caught six of those, spread out on it. That was second mistake. The area where those seats were, was virtually unoccupied, except for 2-3 who were in stalls. Hence, too cold to occupy. We didnt feel the chill, till we settled in those chairs. Me, i slept off easily. But my other trip mates didnt do well. There was a TV in front of us, which had some weird 'Power Prash' advertisement going on continuously. This added on to their dismay.

Finally, our 4 hour wait came to an end. We boarded the flight. I, putting forward the reason of having camera got the window seat. Well, unluckily, got a wrong window. The sunset was visible from other side of flight. After about an hour of flight, captain announced that we are flying over himalayas and Rohtang Pass. This is where we realized our mistake of not taking all window seats. As soon as captain had the above announcement, almost all the passengers left their seats over to the window to get a peekaboo at the grand creation of the nature. For few seconds after that, i was just able to hear clicks of cam and gasps at the view.

After few ice laced himalayan peaks and few barren peaks we had an awesome view of the Leh city. A lush green patch right in the center of the barren lands - courtesy Indus river! From within the greenery, rose a long line of asphalt. That Single line of tar visible from way above made us realize that the aerial journey was about to end. Everyone went back to their seats. Then a surprise came in. The plane didnt just land on the run way, it encircled the mountain just behind it; then aligned it to runway and touched down. We just barely got time to appreciate excellent maneuver by the pilot, and we were stunned by the sheer simplicity of the small Leh airport on the backdrop of the magnificent mountains, clear blue sky and pure white clouds.

We came out of airport, booked a pre-paid taxi. We told the driver, Tashi, to take us to a Guest house. He did so, and to our pleasant surprise; this guest house changed whole definition of 'a Guest house' i had in mind coz of Delhi experience. In fact i felt many of the good hotels would lack the cleanliness and hospitality we received here. We kept all our luggage in the rooms allotted to us. By this time almost 2 hours had passed away after getting down at airport. Whatever reserved oxygen we had in us was used up, and we started feeling oxygen deficiency; more commonly known as altitude sickness. We were sitting idly and talking. My personal experience was difficulty in talking. Tongue became heavy, it was difficult to pronounce the words. God Promise, we weren't drunk!

This is when one of us took out from his bag, a tablet 'Diamox', scientifically known as Acetazolamide (courtesy Wiki). Each of us took in one tablet, and not liking this feeling drunk without being drinking state, slept off.

When i got up after about 2 hours, i was feeling fine. Except one of us, who kept on sleeping, all of us were feeling fine. We all termed Diamox as savior and went out of guest house into the garden. Sat there gazing at the nature, playing cards, waiting for the last guy to get up and get ready.

After he woke up, we left for the monuments in Leh city-Leh palace and Shanti Stupa. First, at Leh palace, which was right at the top of a mountain overlooking Leh city. The structure wasnt any special. Looked almost like those made by LKG-SKG kids by putting cubes together. We found out what special was, after we got onto the palace. (Onto = terrace...) A panoramic view of whole Leh city..right in the center of mountains..sun planning to disappear behind the mountain..clouds closing in onto the setting sun... Just perfect scene! But unfortunately we had to wrap up and leave for next point. Our driver told we need to go back before dark.

After about half an hour's drive we reached Shanti stupa. As the name tells, it was complete silence there. Only sound was that of the whispers of travelers and sound of the wind. A nice big statue of Buddha stood at the center of the wall in front of entrance. The circular wall was covered with pictures and some letters (chinese/buddhist/ladakhi). After taking a round around the stupa, we got down the stairs. Just before leaving, i just turned and gasped. Whole thing was lighted up. It was looking pretty on the onset of the setting sun's darkness..

Just out of Stupa, there is a cafe. We went there, had Lemon tea/Ginger lemon honey tea etc etc. From there we came back to pavilion and had delicious dinner made in the guest house next door. Went back to bed while thinking of altogether how many mountains i saw today. They say counting sheeps helps you to sleep. In my case, it was mountains that helped me... :D

How we got Leh'd.... Day 2

We get a gift from the nature in Delhi...


Second day started a bit late n lazy in the train. We got up at about 9, and i thanked god that i did so. The morning essentials took very less time as there was not much queue there. One of my trip mate has a nasty habit of getting up early (before 6AM-everything gets classified early); he got caught up in the queue that time...


The problem with travel in the train is, the night travel passes quickly. And the day travel creeps, as if to compensate the accelerated time of night travel. On top of it, we didnt have any means of timepass in ourselves. Finally one of us brilliant minds got down at a station and got a deck of cards. This at lease made the time passable in day travel.


Well.. Finally the train journey ended. We had thought that we will keep our luggage in Cloak room and roam around in the city. When we reached the cloak room, we learned from the guy sitting there that we need to put locks on each of our bags. So, two of us went to buy locks, and 4 remained behind to fill the form. We had just 15 mins window, as the cloak room was gonna close down from 5 to 6 for tea break. Again owing to Murphy's law; the guys who had gone hunting for locks didnt come back withing 15 mins. So there we were, with 6 new locks, filled form thinking whether to wait for an hour. Obviously everyone was against it, so we went out and found a guest house to put our bags.


After keeping bags there and locking it, we went to nearest Metro station-Indraprastha. At Rajiv chowk (another metro station), we changed the line from Yello to Blue, and got down at Chandani chowk. From there we went on foot to Lal Killa. Nice place to view, specially during evening, in the orangish hue of the sunrays... Due to lack of the time, we left from there after just a visit in the outer garden of killa.
From there we went to Jamia masjid, but as most of us were wearing shorts, thanks to weather of delhi; we couldnt enter the masjid. But from outside also, it looked magnificent! Visibly similar to the lal killa, stone structure..Made from similar red stone, this one also looked even better in the evening rays.
With little time left to spare, we had to leave for the next place in line. This time we got an auto to India Gate. Problem: had to take 2 auto. Even bigger problem, driver of the auto in which i was sitting seemed a li'l pissed off. Honking and hailing he took us to the India gate. We got down, only to find the other auto going ahead of us. When asked about it, our driver said this side entrance is closer. Our local guide was in other auto, so we had no other choice but to trust him and start walking.


After a few steps, got a glimpse of this structure. Bathing in the halogen lights, this one stood tall, demanding for attention. All three of us took out whatever camera we had with us (phone/camera) and clicked it. A funny thing happened, just as my friend was clicking with phone, he got call from other guys, and he couldnt take the capture.. :D


By this time, we had started thinking, thank gods that we wore shorts. It was really hot, even at about 8PM. Hearing this thought, he decided to play trick on us, and rain poured down... There was a huge uproar in the crowd near India gate. Being a mumbaikar, my first reaction was to take cover. After taking cover, i noticed that the uproar in the public was a collective sigh of joy from everyone. And unlike me, almost all delhites were running towards the rain.

After few calls back and forth, we finally caught up with the other group. We neared the India gate and noticed one other thing. Rain on our side of gate was much less than on the other side. Believe me, it wasnt 'Grass is greener on other side' thing. Much of the rain was bouncing off the gate. That was the time when 'size' of India gate dawned on me. Felt tiny in front of it!

One of my friend, Gaurav, mentioned about this (obviously on fb) "Roaming around in the sweaty by-lanes of Old Delhi, you wish the climate should have been better. And then when you reach India Gate, it starts to rain. The ambience kicks up your mood and then the anticipation of what's coming up sets in. You can't possibly wish for more Gaurav."

The rains didnt show any intentions of stopping or even slowing down. We put every electronic item in a plastic bag and started back for our guest house. Back at guest house, got freshen up, and got out for dinner. Statuary warning: If you are worried about hygiene, never ever go to eat in hotel near Nizamuddin railway station. Well, if you dont give a damn about the hygiene, you are welcome to eat anywhere. So, praying to strengthen my digestive system, i finished the dinner, and went out to book a cab to go to airport. Our flight was at 5AM, so we decided that instead of staying in the guest house, we will stake out the night at airport itself. So we booked the cab and went back to the guest to pack bags.

Unlike yesterday, second day went on pretty smoothly. Or rather we were getting used to accept whatever he throws at us. Still thinking what remaining 10 days will bring to us, we packed the bags...