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...
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...
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