My travel to Leh

Into The Top of the World

Although I had shown a rosy picture to my wife, I wasn’t very sure about our prospects on a journey to LEH with our three year old kid. Especially few words like altitude sickness problem look scary when you Google to plan for a family holiday. As advised by fellow holidayers, our plan was to reach Leh-via-Srinagar- Leh route giving sufficient time to our bodies to get acclimatized with gradually lowing oxygen levels. So Kashmir came to our itinerary by default, although it was not the right time to visit Kashmir in its full splendor.

It was early October, when our afternoon flight landed at Srinagar airport. Exhausted after our long journey from Bongaigaon, it was quite a relief to reach the hotel room.  However, we were quick to freshen up and get ready for a visit to DAL-LAKE: the one we have been seeing in numerous bollywood flicks, post cards, analog photo albums, FB posts all our lives. Its beauty has to be felt by being there to appreciate this creation of god through all your senses. A SIKARA ride with the setting sun gave me one of my best shots of the journey on the very first day.

We did a trip to Sonmarg valley in a hurry the next day to spend the evening at what was turning out to be our favorite hangout spot at Srinagar: The DAL-LAKE. Shopping for souvenirs from the roadside vendors, walking besides its shore line or just sitting in the pavements relishing its beauty at night, hours were passed.

Our next day’s itinerary took us on a local tour to the Medieval Gardens, lakes, Shrines and market places in and around Srinagar.  Driving along the boulevard encompassing the DAL-LAKE, our first stop was Mugal-Gardens. Built on a hill facing the
lake, an artificial terrace of water cascade through its heart with an array of flora lined up along its banks. Besides DAL-LAKE the other lake of prominence in Srinagar is the NAGEEN-Lake. Relatively untouched by the littering Indian tourist whose sense of a water body is nothing better than that of a trash can, this lake still boast of a serene floating lotus garden.

We spent our last night of Srinagar in one of the numerous house boats that dot the far end of DAL-LAKE.  These houseboats are normally attached to the houses of the local villagers like a part of their extended home. It feels very welcoming to sit along with the owner’s family in neatly laid kashmiri carpets and have your dinner.

We hired a cab next morning to our final distination-Leh. As we went up, the green Kashmir valley gave away to dry rocky desert of Ladakh. Vegetation was thinning down and wildlife was practically non-existent.  Human habitation was limited to few small hamlets beside rivulets with long stretches of total emptiness. By 10 o’ clock we had crossed Zojila pass. Dotted with several war cemeteries, Zojila was the battlefield of 1948 Indo-Pak war. By noon we had reached DRASS - recognized as the second coldest inhibited place on earth. Standing tall next to 
the town is the infamous “TIGER-HILL”.  Scars of shelling during the Kargil war were still evident in and around Drass, prominent being the shattered meter wide firewall erected to guard the NH-1. As we crossed Drass, we could observe an increase in human habitation, probably more because of government’s efforts than hospitability of the terrain. We were exhausted by the time we reached Kargil, a small town beside the river Sindh. After resting for the night, we started off early the next morning. The stretch from Kargil to Leh seemed wider and better maintained allowing us to relax and enjoy the scenic view. Fifteen hours into our road trip and I was still marveling at the sheer vastness and charm of the landscape. My camera kept rolling at each new peak and turn trying to capture the myriad colors, shapes and projections at varied angles. I never saw sky that blue, rocks so full of colors.

As we crossed Fantula (highest pass in the Srinagar-Leh highway at 13878ft) we suddenly came across a vast rocky plain that looked familiar. My wife was quick to point out about the various ads being shot at this location. We reached Leh by 4:30pm after traveling over 400 miles through the Himalayan battlefields after 

20 hours journey. The next few days were spent scaling the landscapes and wandering into some of the loneliest places on earth, battling low oxygen levels and unforgiving terrain. The climax of our journey was definitely the visit to Pangong Lake located at 14000ft, whose expanse and beauty would take anyone by awe and surprise. There were times when we had pushed our bodies beyond our endurance limits (Khardungla pass- highest point on the way to Siachin base camp) making us seek medical attention for altitude sickness. However, that didn’t deter us from discovering some of the most beautiful places on earth and capturing them through my lenses. Every experience teaches you a new lesson and this one made my family stronger to fight life’s challenges as a unit.