7 Days in Ladakh - Day 2 - Manali to Keylong via Rohtang

The call from our reception at sharp 5:30 am announced the arrival our taxi and we had about an hour to check out and start for Rohtang, and to our surprise, we managed!
Our driver was a young Nepali (Sherpa) lad, who would later impress us with his grasp over the history, geography and even politics of Ladakh and Kashmir. Of course the fact that the Sherpas with their legendary immunity to severe cold and high altitudes (Nepal has the likes of Mt Everest in their backyard), are the best guides and drivers in such terrains did put us a bit at ease too.

It was a pleasant drive early in the morning, and in half an hour we reached the base of a mountain from where it was a constant steep climb to Rohtang, taking us from 7000 ft to 13000 ft in about 2 hours flat!

Soon we got stuck in a traffic jam (highest in the world?) as a car got stuck in the slush on the narrow highway, causing scores of tourist vehicles to queue up behind. Rohtang is an extremely popular spot tourists lining up to check out the snow which adorns it for almost 10 months round the year.

There was a huge contingent of tourists from a particular state (I won't say which!),whose sight was so hilarious it made me burst into peals of laughter - they were covered in like 10 layers of clothing causing them to walk like a robot - enough to embarrass an Eskimo, and we were not even near snow yet !

The view gradually changed from scenic to spectacular, as we left the pine tree forests and moved up above the tree line into rocky snow bound peaks.

Soon we reached RohtangLa top, our first pass as well as our first encounter with snow on the trip.

Rohtang, by the way, means - "The Pass of the heaps of corpses" in Tibetan - a deadly name for so beautiful a place. It also serves as a natural climate barrier between the fertile green valleys south to it, and the dry high altitude desert of Ladakh to the north.

This was my 4th visit to this Pass, the last being in 2005; still it felt as refreshing as the first time.
There was plenty of snow around and the locals were making good money by renting ski's to tourists who seemed content with walking 10 steps with the ski's on ( and falling down on 5 of them!)

We too trekked to a snow clad cliff and after frolicking in the snow for half an hour, we resumed our journey down the other side of the mountain towards Khoksar.

We could see the beautiful ChandraBhaga massif on the far opposite side, which was permafrost(PERMAnently FROzen for 12 months), and as it was shrouded in dark clouds our driver said it was snowing there right now, and if it snowed too heavily we may not be able to cross it the next day!

Descending on the other side of Rohtang, we could see the stark contrast in landscape, from green alpine meadows of the Pir Panjal range earlier, to the barren but majestic high peaks of the Great Himalayan chain, signaling our arrival in the tribal region of Lahaul.

We stopped for a cup of tea in the small village called Khoksar at the bottom of the mountain, where Mr. Driver quite "encouragingly" told us about him being stranded in this very village for a week, in 6 feet of snow just a month back. Charming!

As we continued further in the flat valley, we saw our first river of the trip, the enchanting emerald green waters of the Chandra(moon) river, coming down from the ChandraBhaga massif near BaralachaLa, and later we saw it's confluence with the Bhaga(Sun) river to form the ChandraBhaga or Chenab, as it's called in Kashmir and Pakistan.

The next stop was at a gas station to fill our tanks since a board proudly pronounced the fact that there was no gas station for the next 365 kms.... till Leh!

We reached the small town of Keylong(administrative center for Lahaul district) before sunset and checked into a small but strategically located hotel - our balcony gave us the best views I've ever had from anywhere - humongous snow capped peaks towering bang opposite forming a kind of semi circle around us(Video below). We had a cup of "High" tea sitting there, and just marveled at the beauty around for some time, though it was bitterly cold out there, and it still seemed to be snowing at the peaks around.

As we huddled into the restaurant later for some hot soup, we were informed that we were the only guests in the hotel, and also probably the town since it was off-season and they were about to shut down for winters in 2-3 days.

This was also the 1st time (not the last though!) that we were told in no uncertain terms that it was not worth risking our lives for some (mis)adventure since the weather was very unpredictable and heavy snowfall on the next 3 passes could trap us in 300 kms of 15,000 ft high freezing desert. Even the Army, having already cleared the highway 2 times in the last month and carrying out search and rescue operations for those stranded, had now declared that the highway would shut down after the next snowfall (would not be cleared).

We were "Shaken, not Stirred" on hearing all of this and decided not to give too much attention to the doomsayers. However, when we went out for a stroll in the small bazaar, a certain shopkeeper who seemed too keen to don the role of our guardian angel as he was hell bent on making us turn back! He said only a 4 wheel drive could get through the icy roads safely, and though the driver's risk was kind of an occupational hazard, we were risking it just for fun!

We returned to the hotel feeling a bit "stirred" now, and it was as if a pall of gloom had descended upon us - we mutually decided not to talk about it till next morning - and then take a call depending on the weather - whether or not to proceed !

7 Days in Ladakh - Day 1 - 19th Oct - Manali

We allowed ourselves the luxury(?) of waking up at 9 am and ordered a cup of bed tea to help us overcome the drowsiness and cold. As soon as we unfurled the curtains we saw the first view of Manali(we had reached at dark); Alpine meadows with snow clad peaks as a backdrop made it seem like a painting hung on the wall - too good to be true - an expression which was used almost regularly on this trip !

(Checking out the view from our window)
We thought of taking a morning walk up the Mall and have breakfast before coming back and taking a shower.
I just loved this aimless walk around the main bazaar on this really sunny Sunday morning. How I wished every Sunday to be the same!
Time seemed to stand still as we sat on a bench on the sidewalk gazing at the passers-by; few old wrinkled faces, some smoking a beedi and all wearing their round Himachali caps, groups of gypsy womenfolk dressed in the their traditional attire with heavy silver jewellery, a bunch of kids giggling away with the innocence that only a child could have.



Philosophical thoughts aside, we lazily dragged ourselves to the nearest restaurant for traditional Punjabi breakfast - Stuffed paranthas with white butter. I can't begin to express how delighted I was to savour these delicacies in Manali(it's proximity to the state ensured most tourists were Punjabis') , though Bangalore had it's fair share of Punjabi joints but there was simply no comparison with the real deal.

Next we went back to the hotel, freshened up, and went to our hotel's terrace for a photoshoot.



The view was breathtaking to say the least, and it motivated me enough to pose as if I was getting my portfolio done.




Finally we decided to go for some local sight-seeing - Hidimba temple was the main destination which almost every visitor to Manali was supposed to visit.
It was a good 4 kms of walk from the Mall, and as we reached the gates we saw a couple of Yak-wallas and women with rabbits, all to entice the enthu tourist for an interesting pic.
Not a bad idea actually, since I quite liked the pics anyway.







The temple was said to be about 500 years old and built by the local king in honour of Hidimba, who was the sister of the Demon Hidimb but attained the status of a Goddess by her penance; also the wife of Bheem and the mother of Ghatotkacha.



The location of the temple is ideal, amidst huge pine trees and green meadows.







We found some more beautiful places to shoot on the way back

By the time we reached back it was almost 4 pm, so we grabbed a quick bite and proceeded for some shopping in the Mall for the trip ahead: gloves, woollen socks,caps etc. all could be had for much lower prices(by Bglore standards)

Next we went to a travel agent to get our tickets for the Manali -Leh trip for the next day; we had 2 options- A) Get a full taxi for 6000 and B) Get a shared one for 1500 per seat, with of course the problem being we couldn't know if we would get the window seats (which was a MUST), and if by a stroke of ill luck(of which we have plenty) had we gotten the rear end seats then even God couldn't have saved us from motion sickness ( on top of mountain sickness)

So we mutually agreed on A) being the only practical option, and we haggled the price to 5000 and also managed to have the journey broken down in 2 days rather than roughing it out in 18 hours flat.(which they had originally suggested)

All done we went to the local Tibetan market to shop for some gifts for the family - I bought 2 shawls for my mom and a stole for my sis - As with most north Indian bazaars bargaining was the order of the day and the thumb rule was to quote 60% of whatever the seller quoted.


After a heavy dinner we bought some eatables and vodka for the trip, put an alarm for 5 am and slept by 12 am.

7 Days in Ladakh - Planning and Day 0

(Morning lights of The Tribune-Chandigarh- taken at slow shutter speed)

Ever since i'd heard the adventurous tales of wild enfield riders to the utterly remote and seemigly forbidden heights of Ladakh in my school years, i'd nurtured a deep desire to take the same route on my bike some day. However, being located in Bangalore and having regular bouts of neck pain for some time had made it an impracticle one to fulfill anytime soon now.

And yet the urge had to be satiated somehow, and finally, on 8th Sep 2008, the day of my birth, I made an impulsive decision to do it within the coming month.

Since I was to go home for Diwali anyways, I decided to take another week off and take off for Ladakh before visiting home.

Quick emails were dispathed to a few friends to get more travel mates, but ultimately only my colleague Hari responded and a plan was hatched.

We decided to take the road from Manali to Leh (If snowfall didn't shut it down for the season), and take the return flight from Leh to Delhi.

The status of the road, though, kept us on our tenterhooks literally till the last moment, since on 17th Oct, the day we were to fly to Delhi, we came to know the highway had closed down due to heavy snowfall, but also that the Army would clear it within the next 1-2 days.

We decided to take our chances and stuck to the original plan, reaching Delhi at 12 am midnight.

After having a quick dinner outside the airport we took the next available taxi for Chandigarh and reached my home at 5 am.

I was as usual ecstatic on meeting my parents after this long interval, and after introducing Hari to them and having a quick breakfast we both decided to catch a few hours of sleep.

On waking up at 12 noon, we had a scrumptious home-made lunch, bade our farewells and took the next Deluxe bus from Chandigarh to Manali(320 kms/10 hours drive) , and thus began the actual journey.

It took us through the Golden-Green fields of Punjab

which were quite amusing for Hari( He's a Keralite and this was his first trip to North).

Soon we entered the lower hills of Himalayas marking our entry into Himachal Pradesh.

One thing which we noticed during a chai break was that our bus driver(pic below) was actually more smartly dressed up than some senior most gentlemen in our company's management !

Yet another interesting incident which startled us during the trip was the entry of a Caucasian male in the bus, who when chased by hawkers retorted in chaste Hindi "Nahi main Gora hoon sirf isliye tum mujhe double rate bata rahey ho! "

- "You're charging me double the rate just because i'm White"

Soon the bus became virtually empty and it was just Me, Hari and Mr. Gora left, who came closer to our seat to start some chitchat.(Apparently he realised we were tourists)

We got to know he was an Austrian who was so impressed with the Asian culture that he's married a Thai woman and settled down in Manali! He was working as a tour operator in Manali which explained why he learnt Hindi too.

So the remaining journey was spent discussing the finer differences in the Orient and the Occident, and why he chose the former over the latter; while millions of Indians choose the other way around every year.

According to him the Western society had become too individualistic in their pursuit of wealth and thus had drifted away from the basic family structure which was ingrained in

the whole social fabric of the East. He said he hadn't got a word from his siblings for more than a decade now, and so he wanted at least his own children to grow up in an environment where they could know what having a family meant.

It's not for nothing that they say travelling makes you wiser - it does show you new ways of looking at things - this incident in particular did leave me with a lot of thoughts running across my mind - but to dwell on them would require a seperate post!

Anyways we reached Manali at 10 pm at night when the shops at the Mall were about to close for the day - luckily there was a restaurant open and we treated ourself to some lip smacking Punjabi fare - my evergreen Shahi Paneer as usual holding that oh-so-special place in the menu.

It was quite cold here since though we were at an altitude of 6,500 ft, we were in the lap of snow clad mountains around us - still the cold was Nothing compared to what we would encounter further down the trip!

We found the hotel my dad had made a reservation for us in( he had some friends here) very close to the Mall, checked in and took a well deserved sleep !