We woke up from a dreamy sleep to spend a leisure day in dreamy Leh :) Leh is the biggest city in the Ladakh region..Connected by roads to Srinagar via NH1D and Manali through high passes and treacherous plateau, intermittently opened from June-September..Minimum two days journey is needed via both ways..I strongly suggest that one has to go there..Travel books/internet will take you there in minutes/seconds, which otherwise takes days by cars, weeks on bicycles (:p), months on weary legs ;) Instead of just looking into travel books or awing at the photos clicked by somebody on internet, reaching out there to experience in reality, though through tortuous but the splendid roads is a lifetime experience that one should not miss because both roads to this heaven are equally spectacular in different ways..Leh can also be accessed by air from New Delhi and Srinagar..Temperature ranges 30 degrees in Summer to -30 degrees in winter..In the winter, literally Leh comes to halt..Many people do shift to other places for winter season..Man is the most adaptable of all animals!
Leh is situated at a height of about 11500 ft in the Indus river valley..So High altitude sickness is very common..High altitude sickness happens because of lack of enough oxygen at high altitudes..It may result in dizziness, headaches, vomiting..It takes a while to get acclimated with such high altitude environment..So we decided to have a kind of a rest day at Leh..So no traveling again immediately..We got up little bit late in the morning..We had plans for Pangong lake and Nubra Valley for coming days..To enter the both places, one needs to get Inner Line Permit (ILP) from Leh..So the agenda for the day was to get ILP and look around Leh..
Old Leh is mainly composed of mud brick houses and narrow lanes..Leh can easily be explored on foot..And for the first day, we chose this option..After heavy breakfast, we set off on Leh tour on foot..Remember to keep a water bottle always with you..Leh is a place, in fact, almost whole Ladakh, where one can get sunstroke & simultaneously have frost-bite :) (seriously :p).
We found an agent to do the procedures of ILPs..We heard that ILPs could be obtained easily and very cheaply..But we didn't want to go doing those things and agent said Rs.50 per head..We asked him a permit for 3 days (1 day at Pangong lake + 2 days at Nubra valley)..Then we started to take a stroll in the main bazaar..Leh is a town where you will find numerous travelers and tourists..There was a lot of hustle bustle with travel agencies, backpackers getting ready for mountain trails..One can find a lot of package tours, trekking, rafting expeditions..You will find a lot of single backpackers searching for partners for different expeditions..In fact, you see very frequently white boards, displaying "Trekking partners are needed for this and that trek"..If you are interested in corresponding adventure, contact respective person..One thing will not escape your attention surely, doesn't matter how least keen your eyes are, is roaring engine of hundreds of Royal Enfield & Pulsar..Literally hundreds!! Then those may belong to actually Leh town or they might have come from distant places, many times from New Delhi! People love to ride the bikes to and in Ladakh and we were also going to do that (well that will come in the next part :))..
After a little chit chat and information collection, we decided to cover only Leh palace for that day..Just to near Leh, situated is Shanti Stupa..But we left it for the other days..So we began our way to Leh palace through narrow lanes amidst compact mud brick houses..Leh palace is a nine storeys palace which is in ruin now, overlooking Leh town, who immediately captures the attention of people with its majestic setting on a hill..The roof of the palace offers a panoramic view of the Leh and Indus valley..One has to climb a little bit to reach there if you are going by foot..Even that little climbing made some of us slight victim of high altitude sickness..We spent about an hour just exploring the whole palace..Then climbed to castle Tsemo situated at more elevation than that of the Leh palace..We reached on the top and the panoramic view from there was just petrifying..It offered us a view that was embedded with deserted mountains all over with ice-caps, amidst those was a Indus valley which had Leh town spread over miles in her laps and somewhere, at distant, was Shanti Stupa..It is a picture of nature worth of spending your very peaceful time..
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| Lost somewhere?? Searching a way to Leh Palace :) |
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| Ancient Leh palace.. |
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| Ruins are beautiful..People make them :) |
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| A Panoramic view from Leh Palace /m\ |
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| Shani Stupa from Leh Palace.. |
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| !! from top of the hill.. |
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| Fun time never ends if you want it not to ;) |
We had a lot of fun..It was almost 2 PM and everyone was started getting hungry..We started climbing down and then that looked really steep and slippery (Now when I think of that steepness, I feel it was not that steep, it's just the fear inside making it difficult for us to climb down :p)..Finally, we got down very carefully..Had our lunch and went to get our permits..Now there was a real deal..Agent asked Rs. 900 for 6 permits..He said it was Rs. 50 per person PER DAY and not "per person" :-o We had no option other than to pay 900 bucks as we wanted to leave the next day for Nubra valley and new permits would not have been obtained until next day..We were duped because of our little lackadaisical behavior..That was a lesson.."Do your deals carefully and damn clearly!!"..We left cursing agent and ourselves :p However, we had permits in our hands and we were ready for Nubra valley on the next day!..The Northiest part of Ladakh..We started looking for a taxi and we soon found it..The best thing about taxis in Leh is that their rates are fixed..You take any vehicle, rate is fixed..That really avoids unnecessary haggling..At that time, it was Rs.5000 for Nubra valley for two days..We booked it and decided to leave very early morning for Nubra valley..
Evening was pleasant..Temperature was on a little lower side, but was quite manageable..We had become very well acclimated with high altitude till then..We roamed again a little bit in the town revisiting night life, full of people, continental restaurants, various shops..Had some shopping also and moved into the hotel to have some games of cards, revising the first day at the Capital of heaven and to get ready to enter Nubra valley on the next day, the road to which, makes its way through a pass, boasting the highest motorable road in the world, named Khardungla..
Good night!!
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