Ladakh - Part 2 - The journey to the paradise

Continued from ...

Day 4 (10 Aug 2014) - Patnitop - Sonmarg

Our planned target was Srinagar but we had other HVKayan, Arnold Joseph, the courageous driver solo driving from Mumbai to Leh in his XUV was about 3-4 hrs ahead of us. Chief asked him to stay at Sonmarg and wait for us so that we can do the rest of the journey together. As per our earlier plan we wanted to halt in Srinagar but we revised our target that day to Sonmarg! The road map was as follows:

Patanitop - Sonmarg

In the morning I opened the window and saw this mesmerizing view. Felt that, a stay for a day in here would have made it even wonderful. But with short span of vacation days, we had to cover lot many things, so longer stay was not possible.

From Patani Top Hotel Window

We checked out and loaded our luggage in the car. We decided to roam around the hotel property for few minutes before we hit the roads. Took few clicks of the lovely flora and fauna around and said good bye to Patni Top.

Flowers in Patani Top

Most of the roads hereon were very scenic. I gave up driving and was glued to the cameras now!! Gushing waters from the mountains with dark green background were asking for more photo breaks! We were traveling parallel to the Chinab river for quite a long distance.

Chinab River

Gushing Waters of Chinab

We stopped on the way to see these gushing waters and to hear the music it generates. As I bend down to see the water, I got to see many big birds and then the wildlife enthusiast in me was waken up. The lenses were changed to capture these big birds. In below photo you could see multiple birds, 1. Golden Eagles, 2 Egyptian Vultures with 2 juveniles, 1 Raven and 1 house crow. This was an amazing sighting. Waited there to take their individual and airborne snaps. I had seen many clips of the Golden Eagle, but have never seen it from so close. The mighty eagle is a superb predator who makes nests in the creeps of mountains and  feed on variety of migrating birds, animals and Fish. This bird hunts in pair and brings the bigger animals of the size of sheep down. Looking at its size, it is tough to believe but you can search on Youtube to see this bird hunting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz7FFlFy8eM

Birds of Himalayas

Egyptian Vultures

Golden Eagle

Jv. Egyptian Vulture

See my wing span guys

Golden Eagle

With this treat to our eyes we moved ahead, thereafter most of the photography was done from the moving car.

Army presence in the valley is making it a safe place to move around. These always alert and ready to help folks have one mission and one motto! Could not resist myself to take this photo with the big message!

India is One

The roads in the valley are beautiful. The Ghat region doesn't allow us to stop for photography but I could click some from the window.

Valley

Had a breakfast at Ramban and took some photos of the villagers. As we crossed multiple states, you could see the unique dress codes and lifestyle of the people across the country.

People of Kashmir

Pathan

We proceeded further and crossed Javahar tunnel. The photography in this region is prohibited. But that is a huge tunnel which connects the Indian plains to the Valley.  Before entering Srinangar, there is a place called Titanic view point. This is a nice point from where you can get the glimpse of the paradise for the first time. The lovely green meadows surrounded by the mountain ranges is a mesmerizing sight!!

Titanic View Point

Titanic View Point

Titanic View Point

Post the tunnel there is a little village called Quazigund. This is a famous place to buy the dry fruits from. Kashmir being the biggest producer of apples, we could see the variety of apples in fruit stalls. Other fruits were also very nice and tempting. More than fresh fruits, this is the biggest market for the dry fruits. Wall nuts, almonds and other dry fruits of all grades and sizes were available on the road side shops. We did some purchasing from here before heading to Srinagar.

Apples

Fresh Fruits Stall

Dry Fruits

The cricket bats made of Kashmir Willow are the attraction of the area. Lot of bat making factories are there in this area and there are factory outlets which sell the bats at cheaper rate. You can't miss to buy a bat from here if you have kids at home. As we finished the shopping from this section, I got to see the guy with hukka. Got his permission to click one for the blog!!

Smoking is injurious to health

As per the target, we reached Srinagar, at the lunch time. Had a nice lunch at Ahdoos (Highly recommended by HVK and Rohit) and had Kawa before we started for the Shankaracharya Temple.  Kawa is the Tea made with Saffron and dry fruits which are largely produced in this region. 

Ahdoos

 

Kawa

Shankaracharya Temple is located on a hill top from where you could see the whole Srinagar city. But that day being the Rakhi Pournima, the small road to the temple was totally blocked due to heavy traffic and we had hard time there. We almost lost couple of hours and could not even reach to the temple. We managed to take a U turn with great difficulties and came to the Boulevard Rd. This is a famous road of Srinagar, where all the hotels and street market is. Most of the people visiting the city book hotel on this road which has a great view of Dal Lake. The other option to stay near this place is to book the House Boat.

The Kashmir valley is gifted with enticing natural beauty of landscape and water bodies. Many blue lakes reflecting the Himalayan mountain ranges attract you. The most famous of them is Dal Lake. These water bodies are of great ecological and socio-economic importance. These lake with its numerous eco-system and richness has been captivating the national and international tourists from all across the world.

Dal Lake is one of the most bewildering water bodies of India and the second largest in the J&K state. Its three sides are enveloped by majestic mountains and numerous gardens and orchards, laid along the shores. Areas of the Dal Lake are grouped with slanting roofed houses on islands, while other parts seems lush green like well-planned gardens. Some of these are now converted into lodges and hotels.

Shikara ride in Dal Lake is the most famous tourist attraction. So we decided to take a small ride and do some photography. The lake is centrally located in the city and is the place where all the glacier water from the mountain ranges gets accumulated into. The lake is lifeline for the locals. Many of the businesses are on water and many people do the commute using their own boats.

By seeing the enchanting beauty of this place, I got reminded of the beautiful song by Kishore Kumar which describes Kashmir as -

हो ख़ुदा मुसव्वर खुद बना और बनाई वो तस्वीर

कुदरत के वो राग भरे कहे जिसे कश्मीर

And the song goes like -

जन्नत की ये वादी है हुस्न की शहजादी है

लोग यहाँ आते है तो फूलों सा मुस्काते है...

Words are too less to describe the beauty of this place. So I better post the pictures than trying to put those in words with my limited vocabulary..

Shikara

House Boats and Reflections

Reflections

House Boats in Dal Lake

Local Transport in Dal Lake

And then one can see beautiful birds and flowers around. Most of the birds were seen in the breeding plumage. Also the Lotus are seen here which are different from the water Lilly that we see in the western ghats.

Little Grebe in breeding plumage

Lotus

Long Tailed Shrike

Shankaracharya Temple from Dal Lake

It was almost evening, and we still had few kms to reach to Sonmarg. So, with that memorable Shikara ride, we said good bye to Srinagar. The drive from Srinager to Sonmarg was  also very nice. Lot of snowy peaks were seen while going though the ghat sections. It started getting dark and we could only see the road. By 9PM we reached Sonmarg and got to see Arnold waiting for us. While having dinner we discussed our next day plans. But Arnold had ample rest and was willing to start at 5AM and wanted to reach Leh all the way. Our plans were on the slower side. We decided to start by 7AM and plan was to reach to Kargil or may be Lamayuru, depending on how it goes. So with the promise to meet in Leh we said Good night to Arnold!

While just looking back what we did in last 2 days. We gained almost 9000 ft. That was awesome feeling.

Day 5 (11 Aug 2014) - Sonamrg - Lamayuru

Last day we had very little chance to explore the place. So we woke up a bit early to take a walk around the place before starting the most exciting part of our journey. This place is a scenic land of tranquil beauty. The last time I had been to this place, I had seen this place full of snow and there was a chilly weather. Due to the cold and the rains, we could not explore and appreciate this place. I wanted to see at least the sights around the hotel before we start from here. Just had a cup of tea and then pulled out my camera and tripod (tripod for first time) to take some shots.

Sonmarg from hotel

Sunlight on mountain tops

Tripod in action

Lovely Sonmarg

The plan for today was to cross Kargil and stay pretty close to Leh so that next day would be relaxed and we can take rest in Leh. We decided to target Lamayuru. Road map as follows

Sonmarg - Lamayuru

As advised by doctors and experienced travelers, we started drinking lot of water from here. This prevents AMS. (Acute Mountain sickness). Many people do consume Dimox tablet to avoid AMS. Till now we had not faced any problems and decided not to consume those tablets even though we were carrying those along. Drinking water continuously does pretty much same thing as the tablets. So we filled 12 to 15 bottles of water in the car to consume through out today's journey. Many people do face breathing problem, uneasiness and many other problems as we cross altitudes above 10,000 ft. Thanks to our fit team!! We did not face any so far!!

In case you feel any such symptoms Army installation is the best place to get help from if no other medical help is easily available. They are ready to help at any time.

Sonmarg sits at the basement of Zoji La. In just 20 odd kilometers we were to gain 4000ft from here. In Ladakh region all the passes are called as La and all the lakes are called as Tso. In Himachal the Lakes are referred as Tal. When you enter the Ladakh region via Srinangar, Zoji La is the first high pass that you need to cross.

The roads are well maintained by BRO. Within hours time we were at Zoji La. This is amazing place. Now we crossed 11000 ft. Had one round of salty Tea here. This is another specialty of Kashmir. Its also called Noon Tea or Sheer Chai. Its generally served with a kind of bread. This was the first high pass we were crossing, so we did some photography in here. Had some celebration and moved towards Drass and Kargil.

Now my camera was tied up with 17-40mm lens. This was the new lens I purchased just for this trip. I wanted to test this now. This is paradigm shift for me. I have always used the telescopic lens to capture the wild life, birds etc. Landscape photography is a new learning for me. Most of the times, we were moving so I had to do all hand held photography. But I was happy with the results so far.

 

B&W experiments

Zoji La

On the edge

From Zoji La

Thanks to BRO

11649 ft

And small celebration!

Girish and Kedar at Zoji La

Army Convoy in Zoji La

On the way, did some more bird photography from the car. Black billed Magpie was the one which was seen all across on every place post Sonmarg. I have taken many photos of this bird. Few are posted on the blog wherever those are clicked.

ID?

Black Billed Magpie

Landing

 

While going through the Drass sector, got chance to take photographs of the children in school uniform.

Lovely School Days

The beauty of the region is beyond words. I could not resist myself clicking more and more photos on the way. Changed the cards multiple times. The clear blue skies, the green carpet on the mountains and the white snowy peaks made our day!!

En route Kargil

Welcome to Ladakh

We were welcomed by BRO here in the Ladakh region. Leh-Ladakh is the land of extreme natural beauty, Gompas and famous Buddhist Monasteries.

Ladakh  - a word which means "land of high passes". On this route we have 3 high passes to cross; One was Zojila which we already passed. Namik la and the Fotu la were yet to cross.

Till reaching to Kargil, I took snaps of the region for many different reasons.Most of the views were photogenic, and there were little chances of bad photos!! Sometimes the flowing water, turning roads, multicolored mountains, clear blue sky made me click again and again.

Drass

Drass

Lovely waterflow

Chilled Waters

Tents in Drass

Perfect Camping Spot

And some farms too

Dusty Roads

Water Crossing

Cattle Owners

By lunch time we were in Kargil. The Place where every true Indian feels proud of their forces. This is the place where the Kargil war was fought in 1999. We halted there to see the war memorial built in the memory of the Kargil war heroes. I am copying some of the details from Wikipedia here to remind those memories of the War.

Copied from Wikipedia - 

The Kargil War was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LOC). The conflict is also referred to as Operation Vijay ("Operation Victory") which was the name of the Indian operation to clear the Kargil sector.

The cause of the war was the infiltration of Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants into positions on the Indian side of the LOC, which serves as the de facto border between the two states. During the initial stages of the war, Pakistan blamed the fighting entirely on independent Kashmiri insurgents, but documents left behind by casualties and later statements by Pakistan's Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff showed involvement of Pakistani paramilitary forces. The Indian Army, later on supported by the Indian Air Force, recaptured a majority of the positions on the Indian side of the LOC infiltrated by the Pakistani troops and militants. With international diplomatic opposition, the Pakistani forces withdrew from the remaining Indian positions along the LOC.

Initially, these incursions were not detected for a number of reasons: Indian patrols were not sent into some of the areas infiltrated by the Pakistani forces and heavy artillery fire by Pakistan in some areas provided cover for the infiltrators. But by the second week of May, the ambushing of an Indian patrol team led by Capt Saurabh Kalia, who acted on a tip-off by a local shepherd in the Batalik sector, led to the exposure of the infiltration. Initially, with little knowledge of the nature or extent of the infiltration, the Indian troops in the area assumed that the infiltrators were jihadis and claimed that they would evict them within a few days. Subsequent discovery of infiltration elsewhere along the LOC, and the difference in tactics employed by the infiltrators, caused the Indian army to realize that the plan of attack was on a much bigger scale. The total area seized by the ingress is generally accepted to between 130 km² – 200 km²;

The Government of India responded with Operation Vijay, a mobilisation of 200,000 Indian troops. However, because of the nature of the terrain, division and corps operations could not be mounted; subsequent fighting was conducted mostly at the regimental or battalion level. In effect, two divisions of the Indian Army, numbering 20,000, plus several thousand from the Paramilitary forces of India and the air force were deployed in the conflict zone. The total number of Indian soldiers that were involved in the military operation on the Kargil-Drass sector was thus close to 30,000. The number of infiltrators, including those providing logistical backup, has been put at approximately 5,000 at the height of the conflict. This figure includes troops from Pakistan-administered Kashmir who provided additional artillery support.

The Indian Air Force launched Operation Safed Sagar in support of the mobilization of Indian land forces, but its effectiveness during the war was limited by the high altitude and weather conditions, which in turn limited bomb loads and the number of airstrips that could be used.

The Indian Navy also prepared to blockade the Pakistani ports (primarily the Karachi port) to cut off supply routes under Operation Talwar. The Indian Navy's western and eastern fleets joined in the North Arabian Sea and began aggressive patrols and threatened to cut Pakistan’s sea trade. Later, the then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif disclosed that Pakistan was left with just six days of fuel to sustain itself if a full-scale war had broken out.

Following the outbreak of armed fighting, Pakistan sought American help in de-escalating the conflict. Bruce Riedel, who was then an aide to President Bill Clinton, reported that U.S. intelligence had imaged Pakistani movements of nuclear weapons to forward deployments for fear of the Kargil hostilities escalating into a wider conflict. However, President Clinton refused to intervene until Pakistan had removed all forces from the Indian side of the Line of Control. Following the Washington accord of July 4, 1999, when Sharif agreed to withdraw Pakistani troops, most of the fighting came to a gradual halt, but some Pakistani forces remained in positions on the Indian side of the LOC. In addition, the United Jihad Council (an umbrella for extremist groups) rejected Pakistan's plan for a climb-down, instead deciding to fight on.

The Indian army launched its final attacks in the last week of July; as soon as the Drass subsector had been cleared of Pakistani forces, the fighting ceased on July 26. The day has since been marked as Kargil Vijay Diwas (Kargil Victory Day) in India. 

Till here - Copied from Wikipedia -

With all these stories known or read earlier, we wanted to pay tribute to our soldiers who laid their lives in this war. As we were experiencing that the walking on the War Museum's well built floor it was tough due to higher altitudes. We got tired just walking few steps there, imagine how our soldiers might have fought this war. During this war, we were glued to TV channels, had seen Barkha Datt visiting the bunkers, met Lt. Vikram Batra and troops. Visiting to that place and remembering those videos, gave us very proud feeling about our soldiers!!

Preparation for the 15th August flag hosting was underway and we were very lucky to witness the rehearsal.

Vija Diwas

Gurkha Regiment Jawan with traditional Kukri

Mig 21 used in Kargil War

Head On

My flag flying high

High 5 to the Soldiers

Tiger Hill

Tololing

Amar Jawan

With all that patriotic atmosphere we could not control the tears from our eyes to read

शहीदों की मज़ारों पर लगेंगे हर बरस मेले

वतन पर मिटने वालों का यही बाकि निशा होगा

After saluting all those brave hearts who laid their life for the country and those who are staying alert and keeping the boundaries safe from the enemy, we decided to move on to see the ladakh region. 

Thanks to BRO

Those lovely roads, clear blue sky and some clouds throwing their shadows on the mountains make the wonderful land scape shots.

Streams through deserted mountains

Most of the small villages and towns are situated near the foothill of Himalayan ranges. All the melted water from the snowy peaks come down in the platoons where we could see some greenery and human establishments.

Human establishments

When the streams flow through the mountain ranges it has created unique patters.

Landscapes

Mountain Patterns

Bridges

Kids of the region

Ladakh region has unique architecture. May it be small old houses or may it be the monasteries, it is awesome artwork to see. Lot of wood is being used. Big large windows with lot of carvings.

Old Architecture

Classic skies on small towns

National Highway 1-D

This region is prone to lot of land slides. When it rains or due to snow falls, the roads do get blocked due to the land slides. The picture below shows the building blocks of the Himalayan mountain ranges. This is the reason, the foundation is not so solid and can collapse with  small changes in weather conditions.

Building blocks of the Himalayas

Some of the hills have unique patterns. The sizes and patterns do change as we move though the region.

Hill patterns

Landscape

Curves

As we moved ahead we crossed one more high pass called as Namika La. Near all the passes, people of the region has offered prayers and the prayer flags are stringed around it.

Namika La

Lovely Clouds

Maruti 800 - Age old SUV of the region

Patterns

Villages of the region

Clouds and shades

Buddhist praying wheels make the pattern breakers in the whole landscape.

En route Lamayuru

Some Greenery

Ladakh Architecture

Mountain Patterns

The last high pass that we had to cross before reaching Leh was the Fatu La. This is the highest point on Srinagar to Leh highway.

फाटूलाला आम्ही फोटूला थांबलो .. :)

Highest point on Srinagar - Leh road

Roads here onwards in those lovely mountain ranges were very spectacular.

Ranges

B&W Experiments

The Roads in Ladakh

By evening we reached Lamayuru. Nice small town on the way of Leh. There is a famous Lamayuru Monastry. Monastries are called Gompa in this region. Lamayuru is one of the largest and oldest gompas in Ladakh. We decided to see the gompa before checking-in to our hotel. Most of the Gompas are built on the top of the mountains. Its very nicely built with a great view from the top

Lamayuru Village

Lamayuru Gompa

Patterns

Young Monk

Praying Lamps

Golden Light from the Gompa

Lamayuru Buildings

With the great sightings, we decided to check in. The hotel was also nice with some apple trees around. This is the first time I hand plucked the apple from the tree and ate it.

Pick me, pick me

Planning next day!

Day 6 (12 Aug 2014) - Lamayuru - Leh 

Plan was to reach Leh by lunch and have rest for the rest of the day to get acclimatized. Distance was not much, but the journey was going to be amazing with more and more photography breaks. We anyway wanted to take day rest in Leh so we took it easy.

Started our day from Lamayuru in the morning. We were welcomed by the full moon instead of the the rising sun. 

Full Moon in Early Morning

Also the birds started singing in the riped apricot trees.

Apricots - Ready to eat

Turtle dove could not miss my eyes even though it gave a guest performance in the rooftop of the building in front of my hotel

Turtle Dove

 Post having a cup of tea, we started our journey thought the deserts of Ladakh towards Leh. Some phenomenal roads and sights caught my camera's attention

Enroute Leh

Classic Curves on road

Slopes Redefined

Thanks BRO - Work in progress

Straight like an Arrow

 Nimmu is the place where the roads pass through the lovely landscapes of Ladakh and are stright like an arrow. I took one selfie in the mirror..

Selfie

 As we move towards Leh, I clicked the school children as I have done through out the journey

School Days

Local

 There are many places where not adequate information is mentioned, But 3 km before Nimmu, there is a confluence of 2 rivers Zanskar and Indus (Sindhu). This is an awesome sight, and I suspect if anyone decide not to stop here for a photo break.

The confluence of the Zanskar River (from top) and the Indus (bottom)

The Road over Zanskar river

Way to Leh

Thereafter comes a magical place called Magnetic Hill. I found this as an optical illusion than the magnetic effect. But its and interesting point. Nilesh took the vehicle off road to check out if there are any magnetic forces moving car uphill without accelerations and he did not find any. But as many say and believe, I may be wrong. We also took a clip of the car movement. But scientist in me is still hesitant to accept this fact.

Off-roading on Magnetic Hill

Magnetic hill

 As we reached the Leh Mr. President were finishing his function in Leh and was moving out of the time. The traffic was halted just before entering Leh to give the way to his convoy. The city had welcomed the new Prime Minister prior to welcoming us.

Welcoming Mr Prime Minister in Leh

Welcome Modi

Leh is a small city with lot of tourism activities. Lot of shops, traveling related businesses all around. The roads are small and traffic is expanding as across the world. There I found these Budhist ladies in their traditional attire.

Local costumes

 Exchanged few dialogs with the young friends of mine before checking in to our lovely hotel.

Leh kids

As we reached our hotel, we were amazed to see the farms of Alu and Gobi (Potato and Cabbage) right behind the hotel) Our hotel owner made a quick lunch with this Alu Gobi for us. With hungry stomachs it was the heavenly food!!

Organic Alu farm in hotel premises

Hotel Garden

Magpie with its food

As we reached Leh, we wanted to clear the air filter of the car as the dust of Rajasthan and the Ladakh might have blocked the air filter. The pick-up was hampered and we wanted to be very sure before heading towards the tougher roads from tomorrow. We visited the Toyota center of Leh. The support and staff was so helpful that they checked our car immediately. There was a small noise in our car's front suspensions. But they checked our car and gave us green signal for the rest of the journey. The service with smile and no labor charge was icing on the cake. Toyota Leh rocks!!

Nilesh with Toyota Staff

We decided to get the car washed for the further journey. The Tata service enter provided the service for us!

Car Wash

Leh in Night

Post doing all the car washing we decide to take a walk in the city. Nilesh had some contacts in the city who gave us the oxygen cylinder in case of emergency. Obviously we did not used it at all. We took the city walk and did some window shopping that evening. The city has lot of shops which sell the shirts, overcoats and the pashmina sweaters. Even bought some Tshirts for kids. The best part happened post our walk in the city.  We requested the guy from contact we had, to take us to the higher altitude to see the moon rise. I checked the mobile app to confirm that the moon was going to rise at 8 PM. He was very excited and took us to the near by hill. The thing we learned there was, you can't see Sun / Moon  rise / set from this region as horizon has tall mountains everywhere you go. Bad luck about the Moon rise. But what we saw was the Leh city in lights and the late night skies of Ladakh. These were equally amazing though...

Come out Moon

With the late night return and dinner we forgot that we were supposed to be relaxing today!! The plan for tomorrow was already on the cards. It was visit and stay yo Turtuk...

Click here for part 3