Abdullah Alam
23 Sep 2020
Ladakh is breathtaking. If there is one word that can concisely capture the experience of visiting this place, that would be it. Situated at 11,500 ft above sea level, in the middle of Himalayan mountains, this beautiful place is bound to take your breath away.
Sometimes, quite literally.
Visiting Ladakh is not easy. At such high altitudes (and even higher, if you visit some of the noteworthy places), the oxygen in the air dwindles. Unless you accilimatize yourself first, acute mountain sickness will kick in, leaving you short of breath within minutes.
The mountains surrounding leh
Our flight was around sunrise, and we got to watch the first rays of the sun just hit the mountain peaks.
Leh, the capital of Ladakh, is a quaint little town, nestled unassumingly in the lap of the mountains that surround it. With stark, imposing peaks all around, the juxtaposition of a bustling day-to-day life set against the backdrop of million-year old, unmoving mountains, is surreal.
The view from our hotel room.
The place has a peaceful air about it. Buddhism is practiced predominantly, and the positive effect of Buddhist culture on the daily lives of the people, is quite apparent. The place is surrounded by various Buddhist monasteries, and the winds that blow through the valleys carry spirituality, bringing an air of calmness with them.
When you visit Leh, be sure not to engage in any kind of tiring activities during the first few days. Our bodies take 2-3 days to adjust to the thin air, and if you don't accilimatize first, it will ruin your trip.
Shanti Stupa, in the village Stok. Built in 1991. Holds relics of Buddha, enshrined by the 14th Dalai Lama.
If there's one thing Ladakh is famous for, it's the roads. Long, winding, often risky roads cutting impossibly through vast barren landscapes. The experience leaves quite an impression. Here is a compilation of video clips of travelling on the roads of Ladakh.
There are several rivers that flow around this place. Cutting through the mountains over hundreds of thousands of years, the sheer size of the valleys give your sense of perspective (both literal and metaphysical) a solid reality-check. These rivers flow from country to country, almost as if mocking the boundaries that we've built. Splitting, forking, crashing, calming; flowing after monsoons and freezing through the winters, they remind you of the perpetuity that comes with adaptability.
River Zanskar. The Chadar trek is done during winters on this river when it freezes to ice.
Would any Ladakh blog be complete without Pangong Tso? Not much can be said about it that hasn't been already. Even then, knowing exactly what to expect, the tso leaves you spellbound. Unusually blue water, glimmering ever so softly in the sun among the mountains, is truly a unique sight to see.
Compared to the popularity of Leh, there is a place nearby that doesn't get the attention it deserves. Nubra Valley.
Situated around 150km from Leh, it is a quiet little place to chill out for a while. Not much happens here. It is also at a lower altitude compared to Leh, meaning it literally lets you breathe easier.
Driving to Nubra valley, you can see the browns turn to greens.
Diskit Monastery.
Interestingly, in the middle of the mountains near Nubra, there is a desert! Witnessing sand dunes with camels, and snow-clad peaks, in one place at the same is a rare, delightful sight, like something out of a whacky dream.
The camels in this desert are Bactrian Camels, which are smaller in size.
Ladakh is a place I would like to keep visiting. This trip was made in the month of September, when monsoons had just ended, it hadn’t quite begun snowing yet (though we did catch a mild snowstorm at Khardung Pass), the winters hadn’t kicked in yet, and the tourists had only just begun coming in. We decided upon this specific time of the year after reading online that it is the best time to visit. The Internet was right afterall.
However, I wish to experience more seasons.
I'd like to visit during the monsoons, with no way in or out of the area. I'd like to visit the place in spring, experiencing what most tourists do. I'd like to come here during the winter and trek over the frozen river.
I wish there was a way of feeling what visiting this alien-like world for the first time felt like, again.
About The Authors
Abdullah Alam
I like to go places, take pictures, and build things. It doesn't need to be more complicated than that.
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