Ladakh - Part 1 - The journey of changing Landscapes

Long back, in school days I read one stanza from Mahakavi Kalidas’ poem which  I still remember - 

अस्त्युत्तरस्यां दिशि देवतात्मा हिमालयो नाम नगाधिराजः।
पूर्वापरौ तोयनिधी विगाह्य स्थितः पृथिव्या इव मानदण्डः

अर्थात (Meaning) - On the northern frontier of this country that forms the heartland of gods, intercalating himself into eastern and western oceans like a measuring stick of earth, there stands the sovereign of snowy mountains renowned as Mt. Himalaya. Many of you might have heard this as a title song in the  Doordarshan serial called “The Discovery of India”.

One thing that can be noticed, all Indian mythological stories have the reference of Himalayas. Most of the authors and poets of that time believed that the Hindu Gods stayed in Himalayas. The reason is obvious. Himalaya being the biggest of the mountains with varying landscapes like the green tall mountains, snowy peaks, the huge water bodies, lakes, cold deserts etc. Being in India, you just can't ignore the beauty of this huge mountain. As you visit this region, every poem and stories that you have heard about Himalaya makes real sense and you would also say that. And you will surely say this to yourself धरती पर कही स्वर्ग है तो बस यही है, यही है, यही है...

I had visited the valley twice and have witnessed the beauty of this region. The farthest I had traveled, before, was till Sonmarg (In Srinagar). Till 2-3 years back, that was the northern most point where the tourists used to visit. But after Amir Khan's movie "3 Idiots”, Ladakh region has got added to all the travel enthusiast’s wish list.So was mine. I had planned to visit there 2 times before, but it never got materialized. This time I was on lookout to find the equally enthusiast folks to do a road trip to this region. The search was effortless as I found the colleagues from my office who were planning to go. That’s how the group was formed and the dates and logistics were finalized.

Generally the thanksgiving happens towards the end of the story, but for this voyage, the thanksgiving has to happen before as the travel to this region can’t happen without their cooperation and support. Let me pay my tribute to the Indian Army and Border Road Organization (BRO). It is the Indian Army who keeps the region calm and keeps the enemy and terrorists on back foot. At that high altitude, in adverse weather conditions, staying away from family the Indian soldiers stand tall to keep the tricolor flying high in the air in this region. Hats off to their dedication and the devotion towards the country! Army installations are the places which would help you in all the conditions. We saw the enthusiast travelers, trekkers, cyclists in this region falling sick due to AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness). Army doctors, do provide the medication and required support to all such fellows. BRO also has done a great job in making and maintaining the roads in this region. The place where few steps of walking is exhaustive, BRO teams do lot of manual work to break the mountain and create the roads. This region is prone for landslides. BRO teams are responsible for cleaning up the road and keeping it open all the time. Most of this work is manual in nature and is very tiresome! Only due to their hard work the tourist’s can think of visiting this place.Thanks a ton to them before even I start sharing my travel experience with you!!

Apart from Army and BRO, would like to say thanks to some individuals. HV Kumar (HVK) and CHD are the folks who virtually traveled with us. They provided us with the road maps and booked hotels for us as we moved along. The Road maps provided by HVK were so accurate that you won’t go wrong on it unless you use your own head. Which we actually didn’t!! Without their help the journey couldn’t have been so hassle-free. The other friend whom I would like to thanks is Rohit Bhogle. He is the motivator for everything that’s motorable!!

In this blog, I would like to share the journey of changing landscapes, seasons, weather, lifestyle and the people. I have photographed this terrain, people, food, and as always the wild life. This travelogue may not be the perfect guide to plan your trip to this region, but I will try my level best to motivate you to visit this unique creation of the God!!

The most important companions through this journey were

• Vehicle - Toyota Fortuner. This beast did not give us any surprise and was comrade from start to end.
• Cameras – Canon 50D, Canon 400D
• Lenses – Canon 100-400 L, Canon 17-40L
• Video - Go Pro Hero 3+ Black

Most of the time, the experienced and defensive drivers behind the wheel were Nilesh Patwardhan and Girish Deuskar. Obviously, I was driving 2 Canon guns from back seat by annoying the drivers for multiple photo stops!!

To start with, we did lot of planning and multiple calls with HVK, meetings with Rohit before we started our journey. We also met many friends who did this journey before, to understand their experiences. We carried 3 days of contingency food, water and a bag full of medicines. Even had multiple strips of Dimox tablets. (Many say that this is used for quick acclimatization at higher altitudes) Fortunately we brought back everything of it. Thanks to the weather, our luck, the strong vehicle and the strong individuals!!

Below was the high level plan. We were targeting about 6500 km in 17 days.  

High Level Road Map

Day 1 (7 Aug 2014) – As planned we decided to start on 7 August. Plan was to reach Kishangarh which is 950km from Pune.  Road plan was as follows

Pune - Kishangarh - Day 1 Plan

We planned to start at 3AM IST but actually started on 5PM PST (Pune Standard time ;). Thanks to lot of luggage, loading and adjusting. Weather was blessed on us. It was raining heavily in and around Pune for more than a week. But we got some dry intervals to start our travel. We were already  tanked up. To avoid the halts, breakfast and lunch was packed for that day. We got good speed to begin with. SLR cameras were still packed so Mobile phones were used to click the sunrise shot which I always do in this kind of journeys.

Sun Rise on Day 1

We had some overcast weather thereafter but rains were at rest!!

Some Overcast Intervals

We reached Shirdi by 9AM but after that the roads were really in bad shape. We took our first break for a cup of Tea and started moving towards Dhule. It took 1hr for us to cross just 40Kms. But thereafter the roads were good and we got the momentum back. We could cross Dhule before afternoon and entered MP.

It was drizzling in MP, but not to reduce our speed by much. The roads were in best conditions and traffic also was on the lighter side as we were out of Maharashtra. MP was green and pleasant. The green and flat fields on both sides of the road was the landscape till we entered Rajasthan.

MP Roads at its best

We cruised all along to cross MP in the evening. But Rajasthan had huge showers earlier and there were water clogging near the border (About 50+ KM before Chittorgarh). The road construction work was also in progress and there was a huge traffic jam. We were in full energy till this point and our target still was Kishangarh. In this traffic Jam Nilesh did excellent driving and pulled us out of it in record time. But this exercise was tiring.

Water Clogging

We called up the chief (HVK) and told him to cut short today's target to Chittorgarh. CHD booked us a room in record time in Chittorgarh and we were checked in at 7PM. We called it a day with a nice dinner and decided to target Amritsar for the next day. 

Day 2 (8 Aug 2014) - As decided, we started early in the morning. The road plan hereon was as follows -

Chittorgarh - Amritsar

Started much before sunrise and cruised along the Rajasthan roads. Early morning travel saved us from the traffic. We reached last days target, Kishangarh, by the breakfast time.  The hotel where we wanted to stay a day prior, was now our breakfast hotel. This indeed is nice heritage hotel. It has lot of open space outside, ample parking space, good food and service. I could not resist myself and unpacked my SLR cameras and the photography started from hereon. Had a brunch here and moved ahead.

Heritage Hotel

Awesome Construction

Dhal Talwar

Copper glasses

Rajasthan also had the flat and green landscapes alike MP. But the people and the language differed. Stopped at a place to do some people photography. The turbans of the people were so different and attractive that the photographer in me requested a small break. We had some quick and funny conversations with the folks in there. Also got to meet some school children.

Turbaned Old man

Few More Rajasthani Folks

Best of the lots

School kids with some workers

Sitting idle with 2 cameras was a tough job. So I started some window photography. Considering our target for tonight, I did not request more breaks but had photographed some moving vehicles and some unique auto rickshaws.

Biker

Famous Rajasthani Auto

Wanted to ask for a lift..

As we were nearing the Tal chappar, a sanctuary located in the Churu district known for black bucks and variety of birds, a peacock crossed the road. Inspite of seeing this royal bird during my morning walks, it always tempts me to click when the camera is handy

Peacock

Soon near the water body I also spotted greater flamingos and other water birds. We had one more stop there to capture these beauties migrated in here from the destination we were traveling to.

Greater Flamingoes

Black Winged Stilt

I was expecting sighting of blackbucks but to our surprise we saw many Indian gazelle (Chinkara) as we moved along.

Chinkara

Soon we were in the deserts of Rajasthan and we started seeing the sand dunes, camels and shepherds with their cattle. Saw some Camel carts along the road.

Camel Cart

Smile Please

Very soon, we saw some sand dune. This was first time we saw a big sized one!

Sand Dunes

Sheep on dunes

By evening we entered Punjab. On the way we saw few Sikh devotees traveling in different sort of vehicles in their traditional attire!! This is a royal state with lot of strong and healthy people.

Sikh Devotees

Traditional Attire

From Sand dunes, now we were into the green and prosperous land. As the word Punjab means 5 rivers, water is not a problem in this area. Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas keep the state green. We could see large lands of wheat and rice farms. The lush green landscapes were mesmerizing..

Green Farms of Punjab

Roads in Punjab were single lane without the divider. The speed breakers on the roads reduced our speed. Amritsar was still too far to reach. But as it started getting darker, the cameras were off. We reached Amritsar by 9PM. Going to Amritsar and not visiting the Golden Temple was a foul. So we just dumped some of the required luggage in our hotel and took a rickshaw to the Golden temple. We were hungry as well, so the driver told us to have the dinner in the most famous dhaba called Kesar Da Dhaba. The auto driver told us that the dhaba was established even before he was born. They serve vegetarian food with great taste. We had a feast time with the buttery food and a glass of lassi!! Not only Indians but we saw many foreigner visitors also in this Punjabi Dhaba!!
 

Palak Panner and Kulcha

Kesar Da Dhaba

It was almost midnight when we left the dhaba and auto driver dropped us at the main gate of Golden temple. Even with 2000km of road journey in last 2 days this was a peaceful sight even at mid night thats the beauty of this place. The temple has a marble flooring, great ambiance and a huge pond with the golden glittering temple in the middle. We spent more than an hour to see and photograph this beautiful temple. One of my dream destinations was explored!! It was almost 1AM when we left the temple and hit the bed as we reached hotel!!

Everything that glitters is Gold

Golden Temple at Midnight

Day 3 (9 Aug 2014) - Target Patanitop

We had a long day yesterday so we decided to start after the breakfast. In Punjab you can not think of a better breakfast than the Buttery Alu da Paratha and Lassi! 

Alu da Paratha

We knew that the real fun would start from today. We had crossed 3 states so far - Maharashtra, MP and Rajasthan. Today we would be entering into the destination state of Jammu and Kashmir. We were knowing that we would start gaining the altitude and the travel is going to be more and more scenic. The wildlife around was also to change and it was time to deploy the Go-Pro camera on the car!

Go-Pro Installed

Green Punjab

We started heading towards Pathankot from Amritsar. The green fields in early morning were giving us the best wishes for the journey ahead. The roads in Punjab were not too great to start with but soon when we hit the National highway 1 we got the needed speed to cruise ahead. Work for adding extra lanes to this road is going on and some tall bridges are getting built in here. Not much photography was done till we crossed the J&K border.

Welcome to J&K

Jammu was the first time when we got to see the green mountains. We crossed the mighty Tavi river and started gaining the height via the lovely ghats of the region.



The traffic was heavy and long due to which I got chance to click only few photographs on the way.
At one of the places, I saw 2 mighty birds hovering above in the bright blue skies. I could catch them in one of the shots where we can compare the size difference between Himalayan Griffon and the Egyptian Vulture. The bigger one is Himalayan Griffon and has a wing span of as long as 5+ feet.

Himalayan Griffon Vs Egyptian Vulture

Due to the heavy breakfast, we skipped the lunch and traveled ahead towards Patanitop. As we took the turn from the Srinagar highway to the Patanitop, we got some mesmerizing sights of the lovely nature of the valley. I clicked few pics in here. Very soon we were traveling through the clouds, the real use of Go Pro had begun! 

As we reached Patanitop, it was almost evening and we knew that we wont have a lot of time to explore this place. Many of the local horse owners requested us to take a horse ride to explore this area. But due to time crunch we decided against it. The place which resembles this is Pehelgaum near Srinagar. It has a large green meadow surrounded by the green ranges of Himalayas. With some clouds resting near the peaks of the mountains and full moon showing up, made our day!

Patnitop is a hilltop tourist location in Udhampur district in Jammu and Kashmir. Situated on a plateau in the Shiwalik belt of the Himalayas, Patnitop sits at an altitude of 2,024 m (6,640 ft). The river Chenab flows in close proximity to this location.

The name 'Patnitop' is a distortion of the original name of the place, "Patan Da Talab" meaning "Pond of the Princess". In olden times a pond existed in the meadows and a certain princess often used to bathe here. Some part of the pond still exists.

Patnitop offers beautiful picnic spots, peaceful walks and breathtaking views of the mountainscape of the Chenab basin. In winter, the resort is generally covered with a thick mantle of snow thus providing opportunities for various snow games including skiing.

Immersed in clouds

Playing hide and seek with clouds

Kids of Kashmir Valley

Clouds resting on the ranges of Himalayas

Patnitop

Perfect setting in full Moon

An Evening at Patnitop

Sunset at Patnitop

As the sun set on Patnitop, we decided to check-in. We stayed in the JKTDC property there. When we reached the hotel, the roads and the whole hotel premise was in fog cover. The visibility was low and it was pleasantly cold. The rooms and food was OK, but the location of the property was just too good! We had early dinner and called it a day to get ready for more beauty to witness on next day.

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