Leh, Nubra, Pangong

Ladakh - 2013 July 21 - 27

Ladakh…2013 July 21 –July 27.

Map Courtesy - Motor Tour Company

My impressions of most places that I visit for the first time fall under

Colour, People and  Feel Good Factors.

Ladakh is predominantly grey and brown with a reddish tinge. The mountains are majorly rock , with  a dusting of a kind of red gravel which comes off if you touch it. I was told that it was sand from the rivers..

In the far distance you can see snow covered peaks.
 If you happen to drive through Khadrungla Pass or The Changla Pass you can touch ,feel and walk on solid sheets of ice. You can slip and you can get frozen feet…And you realize the importance of headgear.

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     There is green too. ....Lots of Armed Forces...

 ...and the most beautiful, tall, graceful  poplar trees.

 Their branches grow upwards maintaining the vertical line.

LEH - REENAM HOTEL

ORGANIC FARM - NUBRA

Inspite of the green, you are enveloped in a beauty that is rugged, stern and shows no sympathy to the unfit.

The Ladakhis are a direct contrast to their terrain. They are pink cheeked ,friendly with smiling faces

In some parts of Delhi and in many of our UP, Bihar villages I have been stared, giggled and pointed at. In Ladakh, it is a "Julley"....good day....from the youngest to the oldest, from kids rushing out of school to the shoe maker on the street. Wonderful  courtesy.

I must make a special mention of the Ladakhi drivers. They are young, sturdy, cheerful and extremely disciplined.   The roads are treacherous; often there are landslides, but  they are good handlers.

The best for me was that I seemed to have escaped the population explosion of the rest of India. I felt space.

For some reason Ladakhi homes, buildings,express no individuality in their facades. They all look the same..Rectangular shapes , large windows framed by lacquered carved wood. A puzzle that I could not get unraveled for fear of offending.

The Feel Good Factors came from my visit to two Gurdawaras..Datun Sahib and Kala Pathar.

Both have wonderful stories that relate to how they came to be.

Datun Sahib had at a stones throw away from it a Masjid and a Hindu temple…and this is a Buddhist country.

Gurudawara  Datun Sahib

I continued to feel good at the Monasteries at Alchi,and at Diskit

….and at the amazing beauty of the Pangong Lake which goes from grey to sky blue to turquoise depending on the time  and weather of the day.

The double humped camels were a disappointment. Somehow I had imagined that I would see them walking single file in a visible distance or just grazing..but there were less than  a dozen  and all of them  were  being used for joy rides by a group of tourists…singing Hum Saath Saath Hain…
 I almost overlooked the gentle sand dunes.

Fact : The high altitude....Leh is 9000  feet ....requires  acclimitisation .

Fiction : Its all barren and stark. 
              There are apple and apricot trees and the fruit is delicious.