This Visit -Of the Buds of May & Making Our Own Way

The pale poetry of the the apricot blossom

 This time we decided to fly to Leh. Driving up, I feel, is better though. The places enroute, both from the Srinagar & Manali side, have their own beauty & not to mention the acclimatization is taken care of. But time…oh dear! Its always such a fight..for time, against time!

We went early in the tourist season. At the beginning of May the passes hadn’t opened & the schools hadn’t shut in the north & so we managed to beat most of the crowd. Each month of the tourist season has something to offer. May has the pale beauty of the apricot blossoms & snow, July is a riot of colours with the wild flowers blooming & then there are the festivals spread over various months & with the accompanying hordes! Take your pick. We made trips to Dras, Batalik, the Nubra valley, Pangong Tso & Chumathang. Tso Moriri would have required more time & for some obscure reason Zanskar didn’t feature on the itinerary.

Life will bloom anywhere where it gets nourishment

So at the end of this visit I have worked out the itinerary for the next! Will begin with Tso Moriri & take it from there. I’ve heard so much about the Chadar trek too but the one piece I did read about it, ironically, was about why we should NOT be doing it. It made total sense & as it is for someone like me who can turn blue, even south of the Vindhyas in winter, I’ll pass & hope global warming doesn’t get to it before I do!

Read about two stunning places not to be missed south of the Vindhyas  in- An Ode to Ancient Life in Stone- The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ajanta &Ellora

The First Visit

Sun & shade add to the colours of the hills

Ladakh cannot be captured in words. The pictures rarely capture the essence no matter how stunning. It has to be experienced. Then again & again. It still will not be enough! A land like no other & if one can imagine a land untouched at its soul by time, its Ladakh.

On the road to Leh for the first time from Srinagar, in a state transport bus, on the second day when we were climbing towards Fotu La, time had lost its meaning. The landscape was stark, the mountains rolling endlessly into the horizon, barren. One could just imagine the drawn out twang of a guitar & the scene would be complete, right out of some artsy movie. Suddenly there was a donkey. Out of the blue! & then.. another. It broke the reverie & I excitedly thought I’d seen genuine wildlife – The Kiang! (Till I saw one finally on a recent trip & realized the only ass had been me…) I still wonder if I imagined them, lack of oxygen & all.

Read where the Kiangs were finally sighted in-Chushul-Chumathang – Hello Indus & Iridescent Colours!

Like a totem pole

It was all surreal, like much of the land. I vowed to come back again at the end of that trip. I did so again…at the end of this trip.

Read about the first trip to another landscape in-Mandu & Maheshwar in the Monsoon Mist