Tag: landscape

Bike ride. Leh to Pangong Tso.

That ride to Pangong Tso. Ocean of memories associated with it!

[Prologue: This is from my first trip to Ladakh. I was with three other friends and we did the Delhi – Srinagar – Ladakh – Manali circuit in a car. The Srinagar-Leh highway as well as Manali-Leh highway are both amazing for road trips with super awesome views, but more on that some other time.]

So the previous day we were in Leh and we were roaming around in the town trying to find bikes for a bike ride to Pangong lake. We initially planned to leave the car back in Leh and pick it up when we come back to the city. We went to every single bikes-on-rent shop and garages, many of them multiple times trying to find a bike which wasn’t booked. And even as the dizziness due to the high altitude of Leh was starting to wear us out, my determinism to do the bike ride refused to come down.

This is 2014 so one of my earliest travels in the remote mountains and was kind of a dream trip.

As the sun went down and Leh became darker, my friends decided that they’d all just go to Pangong in the car and forget the bike ride. But looking at my craze I did get a company to keep looking for “one” bike.

In the end, we found a Royal Enfield classic “Desertstorm” which is a 500cc beast. It just so happened that I am not the biggest fan of Royal Enfield and had actually never even rode ANY Enfield before! And here was a 500cc beast, apparently ready for this new rider.

As it was clear that there is no other bike available in the town, it was either this bike or no bike. Didn’t take a long time before a decision was made. 😉

So I brought the bike to the guesthouse and we all called it a day for the next day’s journey.

Early next morning, I, on the bike and the other three in the car started together and went to the fuel-station to load up the required ammo. The plan was that we’ll go together but somehow we got split up and couldn’t find each other on the whole route. And there is no phone network outside Leh.

So as I started moving out of Leh, I was getting a little better control of the bike which kept on improving during the long ride.

Come Chang La (5360m) and the really bad stretch of road along with the unbearable cold wind hitting directly against the chest made it a bit challenging. I wasn’t sure whether the others were ahead of me or behind so I took a break at the pass. Riding the troublesome past several kilometers making it here was a huge milestone, and even though I was hoping that I might see the others here, that didn’t happen.

I was hungry and the eatery here was closed but I did get some water to drink.

With a salute to the army folks standing near a bunker at the pass, I resumed my journey. The views from up here were nothing I had imagined. (The views throughout the route were a treat for the eyes and I didn’t bother taking the camera out of rucksack and as a result I don’t have any photos of the route except those from this break at Chang la).

I knew what Ladakh was going to be like but seeing the real thing and that too riding on two wheels, was an out of the world experience.

As the elevation dropped the breathing became easier and so did sensing of things around. After hours of endless no-man’s-land, I saw an army shooting range on my right and a small eatery on the left. Stopped for a while and ate maggie while listening to sounds of firing from the shooting range, arriving after bouncing off the opposite hill.

The energy boost did make the ride from here on, way more enjoyable and the last stretch to the lake was a real delight.

The first view of the huge Pangong Tso in the distance was nothing short of spectacular. As I made it to the lake I finally had a rendezvous with the gang with a huge, huge sigh of relief…

The gang. With the beautiful Pangong in the background! Look at the color of the lake! Yep, it’s real!

July 16, 2017
Winter Spiti – Photoblog from the Wonderland!

Surreal White Spiti

The statue of Buddha blessing the valley at Langza

Key monastery – the crown jewel of Winter Spiti

Key monastery – another view

Magical night sky at Kibber

April 28, 2017
Markha valley – the best teahouse trek in the Indian Himalayas

Markha valley is the closest you get to classic Annapurna circuit style tea-house trek in India. I hiked Markha valley in late September which is end of the season here. The video at the bottom of this post shows a glimpse of the whole experience.

The stark contrast of colors created by green fields along the Markha river bed with dry barren mountains on both sides and clearest blue skies makes for an incredible and unique landscape. Not to mention the warm hospitality of Markha people combined with you being in a complete disconnect from the outside world provides a chance for an amazingly immersive experience as you find yourself in an altogether different world.

Duration

Starting from Leh and ending the trek at Leh, it takes about 7-8 days depending on your speed and the number of rest days, if any, that you take along the way. Unless you’re an experienced hiker, I’d recommend planning for 10 days which gives you enough time to enjoy the trek. Count at-least one day of acclimatization in Leh before the trek. A shorter version of the trek saving two days is also possible as described later in the post.

Logistics

Markha valley makes for an amazing Do-It-Yourself (DIY) trek without a requirement of guide/porter and without needing to carry significant provisions of food, camps, etc., which would be needed for trails not having any villages en-route (like Pin-Parvati trek, Chadar trek, etc). The arrangement at homestays is such that some of the village homes double up as a (very basic) guesthouse allowing you to stay in the extra rooms they have. Mostly, the rooms are built of thick walls with a multi-layered roof of wooden logs and a top layer of mud. This keeps the inside naturally warm, with mattresses, blankets/quilts provided as well to fight the cold as it goes freezing outside. Meaning you also don’t really need a sleeping bag. The lighter the backpack, more enjoyable the trek! 😀

Very often, especially when it’s less crowded, you get to have dinner with the host family in the common dining room while getting to know about life in this high altitude region far away from the city life. When it gets crowded and the rooms are full, the dining rooms which are quite big, also serve as a place for many travelers to get a shelter and rest. You get dinner and breakfast at the homestay and packed lunch in the morning when you leave to continue the hike to next village. The villages are far from each other and very often the packed lunch is the only food you have during the whole day before you arrive at the next village.

The homestays help making it easy to trek without the help of a guide/porter. Which is what I personally prefer. Don’t have anything against those folks but I just like the full freedom I get being completely on my own. By staying in the homestays you’re directly contributing to the local economy, if that is something you want to contribute to. The homestays in the villages throughout the trail provide a gem of an experience. In my opinion, the experience is even more authentic and closer to the local culture as compared to the hotel-ish teahouses of the more popular treks in Nepal.

Markha valley trek

The trek is usually done in counter-clockwise direction. It starts from Zingchen (3400m), where you can get a taxi drop from Leh. Zingchen is the first village with 4-5 houses in total with two also serving as homestays. Moving ahead from Zingchen you arrive at a trail diversion. The left one takes you to Rumbak and beyond to the Stok. The right one continues to Yurutse (4100m) with a single homestay which is often packed. Even at the end of the season, it was packed by the time we arrived and I had to find a sleeping place in the dining room.

After Yurutse starts the climb to Ganda la (4900m) and after a long hike you cross the pass and walk downhill with Shingo being the first village. Further down you reach the trail meeting the Markha river valley at Skiu (3400m). This is where you start hiking the actual Markha valley. Taking a left from here takes you up the Markha valley while towards the right is an exit via Chilling. Instead of starting at Zingchen, you can alternatively start the trek from Chilling. Chilling is connected with Leh by road, so you save about two days and skip the early pass crossing for even better acclimatization as you move up the valley.

After Skiu, the trail heads up to Markha (3700m) and Hunkar (4000m) and then to Nimaling (4800m). All the villages in the valley are really nice with awe-inspiring views. The valley falls under Hemis national park and occasionally you see herds of mountain deer and blue sheep, especially in the upper section of the valley. You’d need to be really lucky to spot the elusive snow leopard, though. Nimaling – also known as freezing nights pass – is literally the coldest I felt on the whole trail. There are no permanent houses here, it’s just a group of camps.

After Nimaling begins the hike up to Kongmaru la (5300m) from the top of which you get some incredible views on both sides of the pass. Crossing the pass you’re going down the other side reaching one of the villages on the way staying for a night or directly catching a taxi to Leh from somewhere near Shang sumdo.

Closing thoughts

Even being solo, you don’t really ever feel lonely on these treks as you keep meeting other travelers on the trail and even more so at the day’s end in the homestay. During my trek, I met people from different parts of the world all the time and surprisingly didn’t meet a single Indian traveler the whole time. Coincidentally, the same thing happened during my Annapurna circuit hike as well.

I think the best thing about such long treks isn’t getting a break from the usual, not even the amazing views you get to see, not the fact that you get to know yourself better. All those are there AND true. But the best thing has to be the new perspectives you come across during discussions with people from different cultures and countries. I find that enlightening. 🙂

Have any questions or feedback? Do let me know in the comments below.

December 4, 2016
Annapurna circuit – background and preparation

In March 2016, I finally did get to make one of my long awaited complete disconnect from everything back home. This post is to share some background and the preparation I did for the Annapurna circuit + Annapurna base camp treks in Nepal. I wanted to write a book on the whole Nepal experience but made 0 progress in 4 months so decided to go ahead with short specific posts starting with this.

The idea of taking a month long break from the usual life hit me first in the summer of 2013 when I returned from Kashmir valley. I didn’t have anything remotely looking like a plan back then and it was more of a vague idea. Ever since, I was preparing myself mentally and physically to make this dream a success. Fast forward to summer of 2015, discussed and got an approval for taking the break from my office in December 15 which I postponed to late winter – early spring for a better weather. Convincing parents turned out to be even easier as unhappy with my recent bike trips and my increasing interest in it, Mom herself jokingly asked me to instead go wherever I want to go for a month, on condition that I don’t go bike tripping. Wasn’t long when I told them I’m actually going to follow the advice. 😉

I got a lot of assistance in the research required for this by reading Lonely Planet’s amazing books on Nepal and trekking in the Nepal Himalaya both of which are available as free in the Kindle Unlimited program. Those have covered a lot of what’s relevant in extreme detail and I would have found it difficult without those guidebooks.

The baby steps in preparation would be all my trips with friends, including Kashmir valley, Laddakh, Spiti and Barot valley, and the solo ones to Dharamshala, Rann of Kutch and Pabbar valley. I had only gone for day treks such as Triund, Chandrashila, and micro hikes lasting not more than a couple of hours in Spiti valley, Kasauli and Manali. So yes, the month long trek WAS a BIG change from anything I had done in past. The fact that Annapurna circuit is a teahouse trek (meaning you do find basic lodges and places to eat every day along the route) definitely made things easier as compared to a real wilderness trek.

AMS (acute mountain sickness) is a real risk which affects lots of people and that is something one must be aware of, and take precautions for, while visiting any high altitude region. Luckily for me, natural acclimatization worked and I did ok while crossing the 5400m high Thorungla without taking any rest day or the AMS medicines before the pass. I like to believe my past experiences with the mountains helped me though I’m not sure if the body actually works like that.

Preparation and lessons from running half marathon in Nov 15 also helped a bit in strengthening the lower body as well as lungs, which is going to be very important in any long trek. Brisk walking everyday, calf muscles strengthening exercises along with basic warm up exercises are what I did for several weeks preceding the d-day.

From physical preparation perspective, in retrospect, I definitely could have used more of it, and that would have definitely helped enjoying the walks even more. For instance, my knees did hurt real bad for several days after the long descent of Thorung la. But that’s not something I really regret. I believe the quote from the movie Ender’s game – “You’re never ready. You go when you’re ready enough” is spot on.

Looking back, being part of an early stage startup, which is kind of a roller-coaster ride bringing new challenges everyday, mentally prepared me taking this month long adventure, I think. Both are a lot similar in so many ways (more on that some other day)!

Till the next post, here is a short video i compiled from one of the most beautiful places on Earth:

July 23, 2016
Barot valley – a gem in Himachal

Last weekend, visited Barot valley in Himachal Pradesh. Barot is a small town away from the hustle bustle of other touristy “hill stations” in Himachal. There isn’t much mention of this place over the internet and based on the handful of posts I could find about this, it was clear that this was a place to spend the weekend at.

On sharing my weekend plan with the colleagues in office, the trip which was originally supposed to be a solo trip quickly turned into a group trip and we decided to just rent a taxi instead of using public transport owing to no direct bus connectivity between Delhi and Barot.

To reach Barot valley, one can follow Delhi-Manali route till Mandi. From Mandi take the road to Joginder Nagar. About 20 kms before JoginderNagar there is a place called Ghatasani where you turn right to Barot. Barot itself is part of the Mandi district. It took us 14-15 hours to reach Barot from Delhi/NCR but some of the delay during the night was because of the dense fog we encountered at several places, the densest being near Ambala.

Nestled between the Dhauladhar ranges, along the river Uhl, Barot valley is a picturesque one.

Lamba dug which is a tributary of the river Uhl, joins Uhl at Barot. This makes Barot a good base for trekking activities around. Following Uhl upstream takes you to Kothi Kohr and Badgarm. There is a good road till Badgarm. After Badgarm there is a trekking route which takes you to Thamsar glacier. This route, after crossing thamsar glacier takes you to Bada bhangal. In the other side of the valley from Barot, moving along lamba dug one can trek to Luhardi and further up.

Depending on the time of year you visit Barot, the weather could vary a lot. On the first day of our two day visit (the time was first week of Feb), the weather was pleasant. Sunny during the day, getting chilly at night. First day we just relaxed walking through the town, sitting on the boulders at river bank and collecting local info to plan next day.

On the second day, it started raining in Barot. This was expected as per the weather report and we weren’t sure whether Barot would receive any snowfall. We talked to the locals and looked like our best bet was to take the car (Innova) to Bada gram which is at much higher elevation. As we started gaining height the rain magically started falling slower and slower. The transition from rain to snowfall as you gain height is so gradual that if you haven’t seen this before it would definitely surprise you in a good way 🙂

As the snow layer on road started getting thicker we parked the car at a safe place on that narrow road. Beyond this point we started trekking to badgarm. We went higher and the snow flakes became bigger. It was a dream come true for all of us. I had previously seen such a rain to snow transition while riding bike from Manali to Rohtang, and had trekked in a thick layer of snow at Chopta-Chandrashila, but this – trekking in snowfall – was a different experience altogether.

The whole place was covered in a thick layer of snow. We saw a tea stall on the road side at Kothi Kohr and sipped hot tea which was much-needed after the long walks. We had stocked dozens of chocolates which being a good source of quick energy, replenished some of our lost energy.

After Barot, Kothi Kohr is where you’re again at the river level and the snow cover had made the views surreal. Spending sometime idling at the river bank, playing with snow, we started getting a bit tired and taking into consideration that we wanted to move out of the Barot valley before sunset (the road is really narrow in the valley and we could notice the driver being uncomfortable at times here), we walked back to where we had the car parked. Reached Barot, had a sumptuous meal and it was time to bid goodbye to the mountains for now, and head back home.

February 14, 2016
Incredible Spiti – photo blog

Last week, went to a road trip to Spiti valley. Spiti – meaning “the middle land” between India and the Tibet – is much like Laddakh in so many ways yet different in so many other ways. Will find some time to write a detailed post some other day. For now, let me show some photos. 🙂

The map of the journey

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July 12, 2015
Photoblog – Laddakh trip

Recently I went on a 10 days Road trip to Laddakh and below are some of my attempts to capture the natural beauty with a (borrowed point & shoot) Sony HX100V. (except the last one which is from Sony RX100 taken by my friend.) If you like the photos, please drop a line in comments below to encourage me learning photography.

Patnitop

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September 6, 2014