How I Traveled Ladakh, India.

Niroj Bade
Aug 8, 2017 · 5 min read

I had to make a swift decision, whether to travel or not to India with my beloved, an admired soul mate from America, within thirty minutes because her flight was leaving in less than two hours from Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal. After my final ‘YES’ for agreeing to travel with her, we were happy and got a ticket for me. I must say that one hour, before we sat on the very last seats of the spice jet airbus, was the most harried hour of my life. We finally flew to Delhi after that strained and unnerved hour at 12:00 pm and landed at 1:30 pm. Being an avid traveler, I was steamed up by an unplanned chance of travelling to India, even though it was my second time in India and even more thrilled when I knew we were heading towards the marvelous place, Ladakh and Kashmir.

After all those rush we went through, after we departed from the Delhi Airport, we finally found Kashmiri Gate, the place where we could find the bus for Manali. We rested, had food since the bus was leaving at 5:00 pm that evening and we approached to Manali, after prolonged bus ride of about 570 Kms for the whole night, at around 8:00 am next morning. Manali is a hill station situated in the mountains of the Himanchal State with an altitude of 2050 meters.

We were intended to stay overnight in Manali But the slight change in the plan, made us to catch another bus from Kullu, heading towards Keylong, 3080 meters and about 120 Kms from Manali. Crossing the Rhotang pass, Gramphu, Kokhsa and Tandi, we approached Keylong around 5 in the evening. Keylong is also a town, smaller than Manali, with the splendid glimpse of the snowcapped mountains. We rested our bones there in a small guest house with numbers of Nepali workers. Having Daal Bhat with Nepali people,it felt like home that evening. An excitement of getting to Leh city the next day and drained long drive made us sleep quite early.

We had to wake up at 4 in the morning to catch the van that goes to Leh city from Keylong. We got the van reserved with the help of the owner of the hotel we stayed. The driver of the van was a Nepali, so amazed to meet another nepali again. Later I knew there were numbers of Nepali people working in Himanchal and Jammu Kashmir state. We headed towards Leh city which is about 360 Kms far from Keylong, at 6 in the morning. Crossing Jispa, Darcha, we had a tea break at Zingzingbar, a small road building camp and the tea houses built below the snowcapped mountains with an altitude of around 4270 meters.

We had the breakfast in Sarchu, a major pause with the tented accommodations with an altitude of 4300 meters, after crossing the Baralacha La pass at 5030 meters and Bharatpur. The alluring Moorey plains were welcoming us as we passed Tanglang La pass, the world second highest Pass as written, at 5327 meters high on our slippers since we didn’t had a good pair of shoes. We approached to Upshi, a small ladakhi village and a road junction which also leads to Tibet towards the east. The gigantic monasteries in Shey and Thikshey made a warm greet to the amazing place Ladakh, a synonym to Tibet. We finally approached to Leh city, surrounded by the yellowish barreled majestic mountains at 3524 meters high at around 4 pm that day. We stayed with the fine family based in the upper changspa. We cooked together and ate together.

Ladakhi people are very generous and easygoing, as they greets with ‘Jullay’, a greeting word in Ladakh like ‘Namaste’ in Nepal. Finding the way in Leh is quite tricky. Old houses built have very narrow way which is very confusing indeed. We lost our way twice while roaming around the city. We lived with the family for 6 days roaming the city. The ruined royal palace is an important attraction, styled like the Potala palace from Tibet. Exploring the city was amazing. Upper changspa has more greenery with trees than the other part of Leh. Being an art student, sketching and drawing around the city area were a treasure for me. We went to few of the enormous monasteries around. Yaks and Donkeys are commonly seen.

Apples, Apricots, and Punjabi foods are famous in the city; however we ate ladakhi food most of the times. Potatoes and Breads are main course of food among Ladakhi people. The numbers of army camps are found in the most of the place in Ladakh, for the roads were built for the army. Ladakh is clean and fresh, although the most populated area like the bus stand or bazar area were bit messy. The panoramic view of leh city is stunting from the royal palace. The houses are very Ladakhi styled, white in color, with black borders and orange color bordered glass windows with prayers flags on the top of the house. Ladakh seems to be Buddhist place but it also has the mosque in the city which is the symbol of the religious harmony like in Nepal.

Hitchhiking around leh was quite difficult for me but was easy for my soul mate. After we lived in the Leh city for 6 days, we hitchhiked to Likir village, about 62 Kms west from Leh. This spectacular monastery, which is said to be founded in 1065 AD, is about 2 Kms north from the highway. Unbelievably large statue of Maitreya Buddha, as written, was installed in the monastery. The monastery has the Buddhist school in which we stayed for about a week teaching the young monks English, art and yoga. One day in likir, I went hiking all the way to the top of the mountains and that was very folly of me. I almost have died there, not having a drop of water and no food at all for almost 6 hours, and the mountain was extremely steep which made very scary while climbing down. I slipped my leg and almost fell from that high. The time we spent with the young monks was notably the great happiness. Two of the monks were from Nepal as well. Sangay Tamang was one of those two monks. ‘Life is give and take’ was what I learned in likir village.

‘Life is the river, let it flow’. Thanks to those people we found, while hitchhiking in the highway, for giving us ride to Srinagar, Kashmir. After we lived about 10 days in that splendid place likir village, we fled to Srinagar, Kashmir……….

Niroj Bade

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