From the time I saw the pictures in a friend's album of his journey to leh-ladakh tracing the eternal beauty of himalayas, I had made up my mind - come what may, i am going there! So this brief thought conceived into an idea, grew into an obsession over the last year, so much that every expense was calculated, budgeted, spent and some sacrificed (aww..those fancy boots, the long pending platinum ring, first anniversary bash etc) keeping in mind the cost of this trip - Leh, Ladakh.
The idea slowly converged into a plan with the help of friends and the vast info available on net; In June 2010, 4 friends decided that its time to turn this deep desire into reality. And yes, we decided.
A number of mails were written to ask permission for this long leave of absence. The road to leh is open only for about 4 months in a year. May-August is the best time to visit this Abode of Gods. It was too late for us to plan it anytime earlier than August. So after long discussions, the travel dates were finalised - 1st to 15th of August. I gave advance notice to my manager for this quite long leave of absence, included this in my signature template and the rest of the lot also made sure their availability. We started reading up a lot of info online - blogs, travel sites etc., which made us more and more excited and enthusiastic about going through this journey. I started dreaming and living this dream - Leh ladakh.
Let me spare you with the details of our preparations - packing, winter gear (we were going towards -4 deg celcius from 35 deg celcius) medicines, first aid kits, food etc., I am taking a leap and fast forwarding to the D Day - 1st Aug 2010.
The Sunday morning at dawn seemed a bit different - that's when I realised why! That was the first Sunday morning at dawn am seeing after I-dunno-how-long-but-really-long time. At 6 AM the city really looked beautiful. Far from the usual dusty roads and loud horns, the Anna Salai seemed pretty calm, serene, with a mild drizzle adding flavour to our already vibrant holiday mood.
Now is the time to tell you on a broad level about our itinerary. We started from Chennai on Aug 1st 2010. Our plan was to go to Leh through Delhi-Manali and then back from Leh through Delhi-Agra-Chennai. Agra because none of us have seen the Taj Mahal (I remember going to Agra once when I was very young -3rd standard i guess, but never went to Taj Mahal since some friend of mine said that its a cemetery...how lame!!) Anyways...
Chennai Meenambakkam Airport welcomed us with a smirk. Our friends (2 of them Rakesh and Deepak) were already waiting for me and Kaushik. We showed our IDs to the sleepy police guy at the entrance, who wouldnt care less if i had shown him a library card, and entered sheepishly apologising for being late. We were in low-cost mode, so our flight to Delhi was booked in Spice Jet which quite understandably, had a long queue waiting for luggage screening. Talking about luggage, me and Kaushik had a couple of backpacks and a trolley bag. Rakesh, known for travellin light just had his backpack - out of which half the space would be for his Canon Camera which is guarded more than his life; Deepak, on the contrary had a big red suitcase and its younger brother, a relatively smaller blue bag. Later we were given the privileged insider info that the big red suitcase had an elder brother and a grandfather which he intended bringing but thought it may be difficult to steer through for a ROAD trip! After joking enough about what all possibly he could have packed in that suitcase (our imagination also took a vacation), we boarded our flight to Delhi.
Delhi - 1st Aug 2010
Let me jump again and start from Delhi. On landing, our tummies started complaining that they are not on vacation and we better give them some work. So the ever-famous blue bag of Deepak which he had stocked with delicious Khakras, pickle, sandwiches, biscuits (did I tell you his last name is Bhandari!) was opened and we were rejoicing the weather of Delhi (a slight drizzle there again) and the tasty food. Our next destination was Manali - for which we had booked a HPSTRC
It was a nice place; the lighting matched the interiors which predominantly comprised of Hollywood posters including semi nude actresses (which kept the guys engaged for a while) and an allotted space for live bands to perform (we should have more live bands in Chennai too) and subtle cutlery. We killed time by talking more about the next few days, our itinerary, places to stay etc. If the journey to Leh Ladakh is claimed as exciting, for me planning for it was also equally exciting. We left the place around 3 PM (eventhough our bus was at 6, there wasnt much left to do there) and went directly to the pick-up address mentioned in our bus tickets. On reaching there, we met an American named Todd (not sure if this was his first or last name). He was also going to Manali. We thought he had come there to inquire but we were shocked to know that he was travelling. All he had was a small bag, which also was not full, and we sheepishly looked at our suitcases and again started taking Deepak's trip. Todd started talking about Chennai and I was pleasantly surprised that he knows more places here than me!! He came across as a cheerful guy, average height, must be in his late twenties I suppose, rugged yet carefree look, but the best smile I have seen in a long time. He became so friendly that when we told him about our itinerary he was also convinced that his journey should not stop with Manali but he should also make it to Leh. Waiting for our bus, it didnt harm us to enjoy his company, his sarci jokes (half the time would relate to something I say or do) and just when we were starting to feel bored, we were joined by a French lady - 'and this is the part I feel so guilty about' - whose name I cant remember!
She was going to Leh for the second time; the previous year she had flown there but had acclimatisation problems and after hearing a lot about the beauty of the road trip she also decided to go to leh by road this year. She was short, must be in her early forties or late thirties, a chef by profession who owns a small restaurant in France, had a very friendly aura - calm, a bit apprehensive but the most striking fact about her was her tone; She talks in a clear, not much european yet whispering tone that you can barely hear her according to Indian tone standards. A very nice lady which is why whenever I recollect a memory associated with her, I cannot but feel guily for not remembering her name. She was telling us about her Ladakh experience of the previous year; the hospitality of the people in leh, the inexplicable beauty of nature, snow capped mountains, the Dal-chawal she loves etc., Time just went past and our bus was ready for departure. The volvo, though a government owned, in contrast to my expectations was very well maintained and had fully-reclinable seats. I was comfortably tucked-in with loads of foot-space and that is when it really sank-in that "We are going to leh-ladakh".
That night the bus stopped for dinner in Punjab - at a modern day Dhaba. The yummy parathas, pickle, Dal Makhani and curd still makes me salivate at just the thought of it. My friends would kill me if I forget to narrate this.
Manali - 2nd Aug 2010
We walked around the mall road, lunched at this cute little Italian joint 'Il Ferno' (where me and Kaushik got super excited to see these labrador puppies and I was so tempted to smuggle one into my bag), got medicines to sustain altitude sickness etc, shopped around for leather gloves and warmers, had a quiet dinner at one of the Mall road restaurants and headed back to our heavenly hotel for a good night's sleep. We asked the hotel guys to do the least, which is, to change the bed spreads and the new one, quite as bad as the old one had fewer patches of white in the supposedly white bed spread.
3rd Aug 2010 - Manali to Sarchu (as per Itinerary)
On 3rd morning we got up to no power, some 10-15 deg celsius temperature at 3 AM. Our driver (more to come on him) told us to be ready by 4.30 PM since our first milestone was Rohtang pass; apparently vehicles get stuck here for 6-7 hours due to traffic, bad roads, weather conditions etc and we were warned enough about this; so when our driver asked us to leave at the earliest glimpse of dawn we were all up for it; but somehow when we tried to reach our driver at around 4.15 he said due to fog (it was just drizzling) we may have to leave by 5.30 AM only.
At this point let me tell you some critical facts about me (I don't want to speak for others since even-though our journey is the same the experiences were wayyy different!!) which you may already know. Being from Chennai I don't understand the practical impact in correlation to mountains, even-though I know the meaning, of the following terms (guys its so different abroad; have been to Swiss and the facilities make you sustain the hardships way better) :
(Himachal Pradesh State Transport Corporation) Volvo which leaves Delhi at 6 PM. We had more than 6 hours to kill and not really a place to go - in my husband Kaushik's words "adventure". So we inquired a couple of friends who had lived in Delhi about possible places to haunt until evening and we decided on CP - Connaught Place. There is this small restaurant-cum-pub called 'Blues' which was chosen as our interim lodge. We hailed a taxi from the airport and lauded the wide roads on Delhi, the CWG preparations, rash driving.. By mistake I called a car which had a siren as 'Ambulance' and became the topic of dicussion for the next 10 minutes. Reaching that place Blues was not difficult, but we didnt realise the paranoia of commercial establishments towards people with luggage until we reached there. The restaurant manager was more than willing to let us in, but wanted to keep our luggage out. Not that we had diamonds stuffed in our bags, yet considering the amount of time we were planning to spend there, it wasnt a good idea to leave our luggages outside the restaurant. Moments turned to minutes and after some arguments, we somehow convinced him that we are not there to bomb his place and we were invited in.
It was a nice place; the lighting matched the interiors which predominantly comprised of Hollywood posters including semi nude actresses (which kept the guys engaged for a while) and an allotted space for live bands to perform (we should have more live bands in Chennai too) and subtle cutlery. We killed time by talking more about the next few days, our itinerary, places to stay etc. If the journey to Leh Ladakh is claimed as exciting, for me planning for it was also equally exciting. We left the place around 3 PM (eventhough our bus was at 6, there wasnt much left to do there) and went directly to the pick-up address mentioned in our bus tickets. On reaching there, we met an American named Todd (not sure if this was his first or last name). He was also going to Manali. We thought he had come there to inquire but we were shocked to know that he was travelling. All he had was a small bag, which also was not full, and we sheepishly looked at our suitcases and again started taking Deepak's trip. Todd started talking about Chennai and I was pleasantly surprised that he knows more places here than me!! He came across as a cheerful guy, average height, must be in his late twenties I suppose, rugged yet carefree look, but the best smile I have seen in a long time. He became so friendly that when we told him about our itinerary he was also convinced that his journey should not stop with Manali but he should also make it to Leh. Waiting for our bus, it didnt harm us to enjoy his company, his sarci jokes (half the time would relate to something I say or do) and just when we were starting to feel bored, we were joined by a French lady - 'and this is the part I feel so guilty about' - whose name I cant remember!
She was going to Leh for the second time; the previous year she had flown there but had acclimatisation problems and after hearing a lot about the beauty of the road trip she also decided to go to leh by road this year. She was short, must be in her early forties or late thirties, a chef by profession who owns a small restaurant in France, had a very friendly aura - calm, a bit apprehensive but the most striking fact about her was her tone; She talks in a clear, not much european yet whispering tone that you can barely hear her according to Indian tone standards. A very nice lady which is why whenever I recollect a memory associated with her, I cannot but feel guily for not remembering her name. She was telling us about her Ladakh experience of the previous year; the hospitality of the people in leh, the inexplicable beauty of nature, snow capped mountains, the Dal-chawal she loves etc., Time just went past and our bus was ready for departure. The volvo, though a government owned, in contrast to my expectations was very well maintained and had fully-reclinable seats. I was comfortably tucked-in with loads of foot-space and that is when it really sank-in that "We are going to leh-ladakh".
That night the bus stopped for dinner in Punjab - at a modern day Dhaba. The yummy parathas, pickle, Dal Makhani and curd still makes me salivate at just the thought of it. My friends would kill me if I forget to narrate this.
Its silly at the same time endearing that I slept with the last sight being highways in the plains of Punjab but woke up to gigantic, green mountains of Kulu-Manali the next morning. It was so refreshing and different to look down upon clouds while all your life you have looked up to it.
Manali - 2nd Aug 2010
Only after landing in the bus stop I realised what a disease we mankind are to God's creation. The glowing beauty of this Manu's land vanished for a moment when we were surrounded by taxi-drivers, auto-rickshaw guys preying for business. The dirty bus stand, unclean roads made more precarious by plastic bottles and garbage - you cant blame it all on tourists. It was difficult and close to impossible for us to find a garbage-bin anywhere from the mall road till our hotel. After getting out of the bus stand we took autos to this hotel which was recommended by a family member of Deepak who stayed there about 5 years back and found it really good. It was called 'The Whispering Valley' (the name sounded very exciting) and when we saw it from outside, it seemed decent with a very nice view of the flowing river. Deepak and Kaushik went in to check the room and they seemed pretty convinced when they came out. Me and Rakesh were waiting down. We agreed for a rate of 1000 INR for a room on twin sharing basis. Tired by the long bus journey, all I wanted was a nice bed and a good hot water bath. We walked up the stairs and when we entered the room we were convinced that it was a good room..oops..correction.. would have been a good room 5 years back, when our recommenders stayed. To my dismay, it was a bit dark, with not-even-close-to-clean bedding and everything in the room smelled stale! I reminded myself that this is an adventure trip and my counterparts in the journey had this (mis)understanding that anything that goes wrong should be taken in the spirit of ADVENTURE... I was always moored for not being adventurous and having to plan every single detail of the trip - apparently that qualifies for a control freak in some god-forsaken dictionary..
Any which way, I didn't complain much despite the fact that of the 18 hours we stayed the power supply was off for atleast 10 hours, the hot water came when we had to wash our face during the middle of the day but not when we had to take bath at 4AM, and the hotel manager took 250 more than the bargained rate of 1000 since he was not there when we checked in..etc..etc..
We walked around the mall road, lunched at this cute little Italian joint 'Il Ferno' (where me and Kaushik got super excited to see these labrador puppies and I was so tempted to smuggle one into my bag), got medicines to sustain altitude sickness etc, shopped around for leather gloves and warmers, had a quiet dinner at one of the Mall road restaurants and headed back to our heavenly hotel for a good night's sleep. We asked the hotel guys to do the least, which is, to change the bed spreads and the new one, quite as bad as the old one had fewer patches of white in the supposedly white bed spread.
3rd Aug 2010 - Manali to Sarchu (as per Itinerary)
On 3rd morning we got up to no power, some 10-15 deg celsius temperature at 3 AM. Our driver (more to come on him) told us to be ready by 4.30 PM since our first milestone was Rohtang pass; apparently vehicles get stuck here for 6-7 hours due to traffic, bad roads, weather conditions etc and we were warned enough about this; so when our driver asked us to leave at the earliest glimpse of dawn we were all up for it; but somehow when we tried to reach our driver at around 4.15 he said due to fog (it was just drizzling) we may have to leave by 5.30 AM only.
At this point let me tell you some critical facts about me (I don't want to speak for others since even-though our journey is the same the experiences were wayyy different!!) which you may already know. Being from Chennai I don't understand the practical impact in correlation to mountains, even-though I know the meaning, of the following terms (guys its so different abroad; have been to Swiss and the facilities make you sustain the hardships way better) :
a) Cold for me would be when the temperature dips below 16 deg c (after being used to 30s in Chennai); if it dips below 10, my brain stops working,
b) Fog - is supposed to be romantic, like in movies intro-scene of heroines; I haven't experienced the visibility issues it may bring along when you travel thru them
c) traffic - vehicles moving at a slow speed or standstill while in red; not complete standstill for 24 hours or navigating through cliff-ends on narrow and tricky points praying for life and dare not look down
d) Landslides - heard, never seen or least experienced;
e) Public Rest rooms - In malls, restaurants or hotels; Not behind rocks, amidst fog, in dhabas etc., eventhough they also qualify for the term!!!
Coming back to where I left, the most awaited cab driver reached our glorious 'whispering valley' hotel at around 5.45 AM. With flash-lights, back-packs we traced our way to the cab and were greeted by the cab driver (a very curt one). He was a short man, trust me I am not able to guess his age (must be early thirties), bony but sturdy, had the roughness of mountains built into him over years; I tried striking some conversation with him, but his concentration was all in the road. Giving up, I drifted away in my own world.. the lushy green hills of manali started vanishing and huge dry mountains with rare vegetation creeped in. I studied the map; the route to manali was filled with 'passes'..
now this is an important term for this entire trip; wikipedia defines a Pass as "In a range of hills or, especially, of mountains,a pass is a path that allows the crossing of a mountain chain. It is usually a saddle point in between two areas of higher elevation. If following the lowest possible route through a range, a pass is locally the highest point on that route. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have always presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have been important since before recorded history, and have played a key role in trade, war and migration".
The Manali-Leh highway crosses some of the highest mountain passes in the world, including Rohtang La 3,978 m (13,051 ft), Baralacha La 4,892 m (16,050 ft), Lachulung La 5,059 m (16,598 ft) andTaglang La 5,325 m (17,470 ft). Here is the map..
As the journey along the road normally takes two days (ideally or more depending on road conditions), many tourists and travellers make overnight stops at Jispa and tented camps such as Sarchu. Alternately, overnight stops can be made at Keylong. Distance between Manali and Sarchu is 222 km (138 mi) in Himachal Pradesh state,[4] and distance from Sarchu to Leh is 257 km (160 mi), with total highway length of 479 km (298 mi).[5] Owing to the high altitudes and the low-oxygen air, many travelers experience mountain sickness or in some cases even acute mountain sickness.
So in the map the first of the passes listed was "Rohtang".. At a very later point in this trip I came to know the Tibetan translation of its name - pile of corpses.
We heard from recent travellers that this pass is the most unpredictable in the entire route. People were stuck for more than 7 hours in this pass owing to traffic and poor weather conditions and even worse condition of the roads. Due to the military significance of the pass and the number of tourists increasing in this route, the Indian govt began building the $320 million Rohtang Tunnel project in 2010 which promises to create a year-around link supposed to be safer and faster. We reached the foothills of this pass and our sensible driver (you will see the adjectives for this person increasing in due course) warned us that there is no way to predict how long it will take us to cross this pass, so better we stock up our tummies.
The first victim of mountain sickness was Deepak.. our sippers were filled with water and glucose. Hydrating your body is the best way to fight mountain sickness. When we start gaining altitude, due to the lack of oxygen we start developing headaches, breathlessness etc. We stopped at a dhaba and due to the wide research we did before the trip, we knew what best to eat. Bread and Jam with chai was our breakfast and our driver urged us to get in soon to beat the race against nature and also other tourists.. Rohtang pass was a horrifying experience in terms of roads (or should I say the non-existence of it).. we were prepared for the worst, but reality beat our imagination. 'Mushy' all the way, we realised what a awesome driver (a cross between superman, batman, spiderman and any other super hero there ever was) we had.. The scorpio listened to him like an obedient husband :) We started our Rohtang pass expedition at around 7 AM. By the time we crossed it was 12 PM.. We were lucky is what most people said.. including our driver.. (Luck :) God must have been smirking then; you will know why, keep reading)..
But needless to say, how-much-ever difficult it was, the rewarding aspect which - is the eternal beauty of snow covered peaks, clouds going past us (literally, sending a chill all over our body) compensated for the hardships. Little we realised, that the adventure just began..
Coming down from rohtang, we headed towards Keylong with the beauty of nature chasing us wherever our sight landed; we lunched at Keylong and headed towards sarchu. From Keylong it was a very nice and smooth drive through Jispa (lovely small-town), Darcha, Patseo and we came to Zing-zing bar at 4 PM on 3rd evening.
The name itself has a ring to it.. When our driver stopped the vehicle we were told that this place is the stop before Barlacha la (where we can see lots of fresh snow). Zing zing bar got its name from the restaurant (that's what they call it there..but you read as a 'make-shift tents' serving maggi, omlettes and filled with pot-smoking tourists). It is at an altitude of 14200 feet; When we reached there, we didn't realise that this is the turning point of our trip. You will know why :)
Now is the time to explain another critical term "Nala" - mountain streams caused either by melting of the snow or rain water gushing through (both are equally dangerous) causes landslides or extreme hindrances when this washes away the road. One such Nala broke the traffic with more than 200 vehicles on either side of it stuck (huge trucks and tourist vehicles). Most of these mountainous highways and passes are maintained by the Indian Army's Border Roads Organisation (BRO). The BRO equipment tried their level best but gave up in the evening leaving us no choice but to be stuck there, along-with about 100 travellers, 3 tents (makeshift) and a dropping temperature which we were told, goes down to 1 or 2 degrees in the night. To make it worse it started raining and water was dripping into the tents.
There is no one to blame (which eases the pain, at times :) ) and nature was testing our endurance; we 4 from the hot plains of the deccan region were facing mountain sickness, poor weather, accommodation challenges - all at the same time. We asked the Driver whether we can go back to Jispa but he was reluctant; anytime the pass opens, there will again be traffic jam and going back to Jispa would delay us further. No choice except for staying there overnight; But where?
The lady at the zing zing bar tent was serving every single traveller with a never-vanishing smile on her face; Maggi is the most popular and common dish available in all the dhabas from the time we crossed the Manali valley. I spoke to the lady about accomodation and she said she would give the 4 of us place in the already crowded tent for the night. We went into the tent and settled in a corner.
Rakesh (did I mention he was an amateur but really good at photography) was saying he would prefer sleeping in the car, rather than sleeping inside because of the crowded and smelly tent. There were more foreigners than Indians and anyone who knows about Leh Ladakh would know that its more of an international tourist attraction and there are very few Indian tourists (mostly riders and young adventurers and few exceptions like me) who would tread this route. I saw people on a trek, cyclists, riders and some more tourists (mostly firangis) trying to find accomodation. The corner in the tent we had, was shared with - a couple of tourists (a travel writer and a photo journalist), a gang of friends from Bangalore, one more firangi guy (no clue who he was; was sleeping when we arrived and was still sleeping when we left the next morning)..
Oxygen at that altitude was low and worse, was shared by so many people in such a small tent. My head was pounding and Deepak had already thrown-up, Kaushik found it best to sleep and beat the sickness so he was drowsy 90% of the time (coming to think about it, he took the avatar of a polar bear - eternally hibernating, through-out this trip); Rakesh was out talking to other similarly stranded people (which included nice-looking women) and giving us updates; rather giving me updates, since both Kaushik and Deepak were in a delirious state.
That night, is the most immemorable night of my life. The lady, as promised gave us place to sleep but we noticed later that she had promised a lot of other people too. So in a place where only 4 can sleep we had about 10 people cramping up for the night. It was raining outside; Some people who came in tempo travellers were sleeping inside their vehicle but our scorpio already stuffed with our luggage could accomodate only our driver, Vicky (this was the first time I came to know his name). So, let me put the experience in a single sentence as descriptive as possible. "Rain drops trickling into the tent, a single candle lit in one corner over a damp carton, temperature dipping rapidly, on a wet ground, covered with wet blankets, protected meekly by our winter gear (which was not adequate) there we were - four friends from namma Chennai slept in one corner of the tent living the dream trip that we planned for 4 months". Next morning our tent-mate firangi told us that the candle caught fire last night and he had to put-out a mini fire last night, much to my delight ;)
4th August 2010 as per Itinerary it should have been (Sarchu to Leh..lol) but in reality it was Zing Zing Bar to.. well we didnt know!
Dawn always brings new hope; but to my dismay the standstill traffic and the villainous Nala did not vanish as if it were a dream. Our driver said the 'Army vehicles are working on it'. After holding-up Kaushik's head while he threw up the 'nothing' that he ate, gazing for hours at the only sight around me (needless to say mountains and snow) for a while, sipping water in intervals (fearing the after-effects ;) ) I was praying to God to pull us out of this predicament. Our driver said that we better get on the pass as close to the point where the Nala had halted the traffic so that the moment it clears we can go ahead; which means there is no way of coming back for food since we will be stuck in traffic uphill. Braving it we got into the car and slowly other vehicles also started moving. We were waiting for about 4 hours after which due to mad stranded tourists and non-cooperating vehicles the BRO guys gave-up and left (Rakesh was witnessing the fight while I was praying in the car); that is when the locals started taking control and slowly helped vehicles to go past the Nala. Experienced drivers could go past, but most of them got stuck; people in those vehicles along with the locals got down and tried pushing the vehicle their feet immersed in ice cold water that could make the nerves go numb -Adventure in every sense. After about 6 hours of thrilling sights, we crossed this Nala (look at the pics below).
After crossing the Nala two minutes down the road, we saw that - There was NO ROAD! (Thanks to Landslide) The army bull dozer had made way through the rubbles up a steep slope which reaches the point from where the road was visible again. Our god-sent driver advised us to get out of the car and trek upto that point (and despite all this hardships the guys were able to joke that it was my weight that drove this decision but seeing other vehicles also do the same I was able to retort! :)).. Anyway, where breathing was difficult, with people gasping for breaths while walking up, I put up a brave face and started telling myself that if I can do this, I can do ANYTHING! (well, not ANYTHING, but at that point it did motivate me)
I will have to tell you the biggest surprise I had through-out these two days. Of the four of us deepak and kaushik were already hit by the mountain sickness. But my body took all these experiences much lightly than my mind. Thanks to the kriya lessons at Art of Living, my breathing pattern helped me fight the altitude relatively well. But except for mountain sickness I had all the other symptoms - fatigue, dehydration, etc., being a lady, bladder control is worse than the mountain sickness..but...
it was all worth it..
Yes, that was the first thought which struck me when we crossed Barlacha la.. snow capped mountains (closest point in the whole trip), slight drizzle, lakes at the top of mountains.. it was nature's beauty at its best. Here are some samples:
It is very difficult for me to pen down the relief I felt when we reached our campsite at Sarchu. Sarchu, a tented camp-site in the Himalayas on the Leh-Manali Highway, on the boundary between Himachal Pradesh andLadakh (Jammu and Kashmir) in India. It is situated between Baralacha La to the south and Lachulung La to the north, at an altitude of 14100 feet. This was our night stay. We were one day behind in our itinerary with almost an army of tourists trying to find accomodation and some braving a continuous journey to Leh. One thing we all decided when we started our trip is "never to travel in the night, after 7 PM". Our driver offerred us an option to take us to Leh over-night since we were one day behind and the charges were per-day basis, we insisted on staying over at sarchu for three reasons:
a) We were flying back to Delhi from Leh and the sights and scenery of road trip would be missed if we travel in dark
b) We were petrified seeing the tricky and challenging terrain - sharp turns where if you miss, you will not be alive to regret; we also know that there are even tricker Gata loops for a long stretch after sarchu en route to Tang lang la (Gata loops are the himalayan version of hair pin bends, much worse and dangerous)
c) Simple - we were tired to death; No food, no proper accommodation and 48 hours on the road till then.
I was apprehesive if our accomodation would still be available. In anywhere else in India, they would refuse if we dont show up on the day of reservation. Our tents almost got allotted to another gang and our hosts Golddrop Camp were a blessing in disguise and gave us our accommodation. 2 tents (much bigger, cleaner and so much better) with a rest room attached got us back to sanity. Hot masala tea and biscuits brought back my faith in God :)
The hospitality of the people in Ladakh and throughout this entire route make us believe in almost extinct niceness to strangers. It was beyond the commercial aspects of life. Om (name of the guy who was hosting in the dinner tent) was able to understand the misery we went through and went out of the way to keep us comfortable. In that land, these people were gods. The lady at zing zing bar charged us 100 rupees for the tent; but in retrospective even if she had asked 1000 bucks we had no option but to pay; but she didnt.
That is when I realised the tests of nature goes beyond rich and poor; the people here (mostly lama followers, Buddhists) are the main reason that Leh is such an international tourist attraction. We met a French family, the guy is taking his son and his niece on this road trip and they were going back to Manali from Leh and were halting in Sarchu. The cab that was supposed to pick them up a day before had not arrived at Sarchu yet. He told us that he has travelled to Leh-Ladakh 25 times over the last 25 years and every year he comes back. He said the hospitality of the people and the peace that prevails in the Ladakh valley is worth every bit of the struggle people go through to reach Leh. The french lady we met earlier also quoted similar experiences. The dinner at the sarchu camp site was splendid. Dal chawal, roti, corn soup made a very light meal. They had less salt and less spices in the food keeping in mind the atmosphere. Everything about these campsites was environment friendly. No electricity, re-cycled water, solar powered equipments, so on and so forth.
That night after a long time we slept peacefully (remember this and read along). It got freaking cold in the night and next morning we were told that it was minus 4 deg celsius that night. It was raining throughout and we didnt know how the route ahead. But, when I got up next morning at 6 AM, got out of the tent... there...the best moment of the entire trip beholds me..
5th August 2010 - We stopped caring about Itinerary. It was just destination - Leh.
It was misty, but clear.. soft gentle breeze brushed past me, bringing a shiver down my spine.. there in the sarchu plains, surrounded by gigantic mountains on all 4 sides, dawn - in all its beauty smiling, luscious grassy terrain of the campsite, line-up of cute tents, a never-ending skyline bordering the outlines of those mountains; that moment my soul bowed in humility - at the Great Himalayas. No wonder the name has a mystic feeling - its height symbolizes its closeness to the heavens, the abode of Gods. And that moment, all the traces of our past, negative energies in our soul vanishes and that one brief moment we find oneness with the creator.
Our driver had told us the previous day that we had covered only half the journey. 250 odd kms was yet to be covered. So he had asked us to be ready by 7 AM (none of us had taken bath for 2 days but its pretty much the same with all the travelers). After tea and a light breakfast (read as Bread toast) we got into the car.. I looked at Kaushik and he was in a very bad condition - the cold got to him and all he did was.. sleep. The weather became better and we saw sunlight after a long time. The parting glimpses of sarchu is here for you to see..
The next 4 hours was a pleasant drive - we crossed the famous gata loops (see pic below), the second last pass lachung la (16,598 ft) and were headed towards Tang lang la (the highest pass in our route). The climatic conditions were so instable that all of a sudden it started drizzling. By now I was a nervous wreck because there is no way we can afford to get stranded since our rations were less and the altitude is so high with no human help anywhere. But the beauty of the scenery outside, made me forget the discomfort inside; We reached Pang - 184 kms from Leh. There were some vehicles stranded before us; By now it became a routine for us - to get stuck!
Our driver as usual got out to investigate - his predictions are 100% accurate. So much he knows the route and these mountains. He predicted accurately how long we will be stranded at Rohtang, Barlacha la looking at the conditions (traffic and road). So we trusted him blindly and there was no choice either. Rakesh and Deepak followed him after a while and I was baby-sitting Kaushik :) First to come back was Rakesh and Deepak. I saw them coming towards the car expressionless. I was dreading how long that we would have to wait here (psst.. by that time I had cried a couple of times, just out of frustration). I asked them "how long"? They said "This is a big one".. and they have no idea.
When Vicky, our driver, came back - he said 'roads have been washed away and buried partially by landslide for 4 kms; it will take 2 days after the army arrives for which it may take equivalent time in these conditions'.. I almost fainted; Behind us are the unmotorable roads which we crossed with so much difficulty, ahead of us is well..dead-end.. Our driver said the best way is for us to trek for 13 kms and we would get some transport coming from Leh which will have to go back. I laughed in my head at the idea. With loads of luggage, minimal strength in our body and NO idea of the route we were in no mood to take such a big risk.
We saw vehicles turning back. Most of the tourists had lost their patience. Our driver said in the 20 years he had been plying in this route not once he had gone back with the passengers without reaching Leh. We told him to go back to Manali. At that moment all of us were in no mental frame to think - Disappointment, frustration and for me more than these two it was the fear to go back through that same route (what a comedy!?) haunting me. I told Vicky, 'somehow get us back to Manali'.. He gave his usual quiet smile!
But to come back through the same route is the worst that can happen. We never thought we would endure this rough terrain, in all its strength and magnitude - TWICE! He drove the car like a race-car since the clouds were looking strangely scary. We crossed Lachung La (again) and when we were nearing Sarchu it started raining very hard. Our driver deserves a Nobel Prize cause he is undoubtedly THE BEST and we all thought so unanimously. We crossed Sarchu (again) and by noon we reached Barlacha La. We had lunch (maggi) before crossing Barlacha La. The same bad roads, the same Nalas, better traffic (thanks to our driver, chasing the vehicle in God speed) and we Crossed Barlacha La. Its so wierd that the same place where we were stuck for 24 hours we crossed in less than 12. With heavy hearts and no mood to talk, it was a solemn journey.
By evening there was no improvement in the weather; the driver himself was worried about Rohtang la. If it was so difficult to cross during the day, there is very little hope left to cross it during the night.
The most thrilling part of this journey undoubtedly was Rohtang La while coming back. Due to consitent rains the non-existent roads became even more mushy and vehicles were going in 20 km/ph speed. One place we get stuck (we saw some vehicles abandoned coz they were stuck) and we have to spend the night in the car (cant even get out) and no clue of rescue. There was zero visibility since mist/ clouds blocked our view. Some trucks were going ahead and doing more damage to the already bad roads.
Vicky was not our driver; to me he was an angel in disguise (no pun intended). The way he drove us through Rohtang through those misty and mushy soil, he took such a big risk (he could have easily said 'no'). Our scorpio hit some rocks, stopped a couple of times and at 1 AM we reached Manali. Through-out I was chanting prayers, with little hope but when we reached Manali - I was drained. All of us were - emotionally, physically and the fact that we paid such a huge sum but could not make it to Leh looming large in our heads.
We found accommodation in Hotel Kalinga (much-much better than whispering valley, but same price). I ordered for some tea through room service, took bath (I have to say this because it brought back the life I thought I had lost :) ) and we all went to bed appreciating the roof above our heads and the warmth of clean bed spreads).
We bid adieu to Vicky thanking him as much as we could through words and our broken Hindi!
6th August 2010 - Itinerary yet to be decided
That morning, after eating a normal breakfast, Kaushik and Rakesh went to check the flight schedules from Delhi to Leh. We were two days behind our original plan but still wanted to make it to leh. But there was no availability. We had to come up with a plan B. Eventhough I was tired I somehow wanted this vacation to happen. A casual conversation while going to leh that - next year we have to see Amritsar, Wagah border etc., gave us the idea; We planned to take a cab to chandigarh and from there go to Amritsar, Wagah border and go back to Delhi to our original plan - to go to Agra.
We had a nice lunch at an Italian joint and were all set and ready for the next leg of the trip. It was difficult (for others, but not so much for me) to part with the idea of going to Leh. But the guys vowed that they would do this trip again (needless to say, that I was quiet :) )!
We roamed around the mall road and there we met the French man who was coming back from Leh (the one we met in Sarchu)! He was glad (more than glad) to meet us and he told us that the there was news of heavy rains in Leh and a lot of damage to life and property. We didnt know about this and we took-in the information and consoled ourselves that it was good we came back.
We found an innova near the govt booking office and for 6000 rupees he agreed to take us to Chandigarh. Little did I know that this will be the most memorable ride of my life (as much as the manali-pang).. The driver was a localite but spoke lots - about himself. It was irritating after a point but what was more worrying for me was his rash driving. If there was a thesaurus for rash driving Oxford should add his name against that. i warned him a couple of times, but it went in vain. So in less than two hours from the time we started, we met with an accident. No injuries, but since this guy took over another vehicle just before a turn and stopped just after the turn to let a vehicle pass, the guy behind with no judgement came and banged the vehicle behind us and that jeep in impact - hit us. Deepak was sitting in the front, Rakesh was beside me and Kaushik was lying down at the backseat. This was my first accident experience. The force with which we were hit thankfully was taken by the vehicle behind. Our driver who is a joker, started his fight which lasted for more than an hour. In the middle of the mountains, sunlight vanishing, unpredictable climate behind and with total strangers (all men) peering into the vehicle, touching & moving the vehicle, the helpless situation and consistent experiences like this for the last 4 days all hit me together - I started crying (not out loud, ofcourse .. :)). I don't know how much of you can understand when you read this (coz the guys could not, may be not their fault) but when you (you could be you if You can relate to this, or it is just ME) see your loved one almost missing something catastrophic (had the vehicle hit us directly, Kaushik was in the back seat) all sense and sensibility in you goes for a toss and you lose your cool.
I was told not to over-react and I just lost it! Once the fight got over (our driver initially asked the other driver guy to compensate 1200 rupees (which he refused) but after all the arguments got 2000 rupees out of him, so you can imagine his persona)..
With no patience left and clear instructions for him to drive better (which he never listened anyways...lol) he stopped some 10 times for smoke breaks. Rakesh who was updating his facebook, stumbled upon a news about the Cloud-burst in Leh. When he read-out the extent of damage and loss of lives, people missing (most of whom, may have travelled with us) all of us were spell-bound. All the hardships we faced, the hindrances that we were cursing became divine interventions. The night we slept peacefully in Sarchu had it not been for that stay-over, we would have been right in the middle of all the destruction and havoc. Had we stuck to our itinerary and reached Leh or if we had not halted in Sarchu, who knows whether I would be alive to write this blog. My body could not take it anymore and I was falling sick by the minute. I could not use a rest room since the time we started in Manali 7 hours earlier. Finally at around 11 we got past the mountains and landed in the PLAINS...
We entered Punjab - crossed towns like Ropar (in the banks of river Satluj) and at around 12 AM he stopped again for a break, in a highway. This time he said he had to pay tax and never came back for about half hour. But we knew that he did not pay tax and just took another smoke break - again. We did not talk much to him since all we wanted was to reach Chandigarh and were famished. Just like you would have predicted by now, our vehicle was caught by the police who were patrolling. When asked to produce the road tax receipt he started arguing with the Policemen. He bribed the guy and we proceeded towards Chandigarh and reached at 2 AM.
I would love to spare the hardships and talk about the good parts - but its important I tell you the entire story. Since we did not have a hotel reserved (we didnt know we would reach so late, rather that this guy would delay so much) we had no choice but to ask him to take us to a hotel; The ones he took us, trust me were so hideous that I lost my sanity again. Before he could take us to the hotels we suggested, the driver started complaining that we were taking him all around the city. We gave a last chance to a hotel Rakesh found through his GPRS - Hotel Park view.
Once we reached there (it was certainly way better than the ones the $%&* driver took us to) we cursed him enough (not loud :) ) paid him off and sent him. Kaushik and Deepak went to the reception to take a room. At that hour the hotel staff were throwing attitude asking us to pay up the full amount. We were short of cash and had to swipe our card. Got into the rooms and it was not the best of accommodation but at that hour I could not care more. When we ordered food, the room service staff said we have to pay-up by cash when we asked him to add it to our room bill - like we were going to run before dawn.
7th August 2010- suspense ..Read it yourself!
The previous night I came to know that the cab driver was smoking no ordinary cigarette (if you know what I mean). When Kaushik told this to me, I was petrified. That was the moment I felt 'I want to go back'; My body was sick all over and my mind refused to heal. The next morning I got up and switched on the TV - that is when the real disaster hit me. The images of the cloud-burst on TV, my mind playing the images of the co-travellers like Todd, the French lady and many more who started trekking from Pang (most of them may have been stuck or hit) drained any energy that was left in me, that morning.
I wanted to come back - I told this to Kaushik and he did not take it very well. understandably, since he wanted to go ahead and so did others; i saw news reports from manali that the route we crossed while coming to chandigarh also was under danger-levels due to the flooding of the river Chandra-bagha. Call me crazy, loser, superstitious.. but to me it was simple - this was supposed to be a vacation and this clearly was not. I did not want to risk it anymore! This decision was not very well received but I was in the least bit of mind frame to make anyone understand. People back home were worried and whats the point of a vacation if it becomes more stressful than routine?
Me and Kaushik caught a flight from Delhi back to chennai and the 4 hours by cab from chandigarh to Delhi tested the strength of our relationship :)
Today, exactly 2 months after this trip am finishing this blog. Writing this was equally hard as the trip (I started writing from Aug 10th) but equally rewarding because the feeling I get reading this account of memorable experiences, nature's beauty and fury, the good and the bad driver(s), I still am able to appreciate the lessons this trip has taught me. To me this trip is a testimony to all the prayers of our loved ones around us since all the hindrances that were placed through-out this trip ended up (well, to be dramatic, for the last time) - saving our life. So just like the header of this blog, it was a journey, memorable in every sense, but without a destination.
After-blogs:
a) Deepak and Rakesh continued their trip to Amritsar, Wagah Border and Taj Mahal
b) This trip made us better in games like Antakshari, 20 questions etc
c) Vicky gave us a lot of gyan on Dalai Lama and how a disciple of his holiness, a regular customer of his, gave him gyan about 2012 - which spooked me out completely :)
d) the driver (nice but wierd guy) who took me and Kaushik from Chandigarh to Delhi kept calling us everyday for the entire week after we came back (I gave Kaushik's number when he asked)..
e) Kaushik, being the adorable husbee he is, understood my point half hour after we got into our flight back to Chennai and was ok with coming back!
f) I reported back to work only on 16th August 2010 eventhough Kaushik resumed by 10th. The additional one week was spent blissfully in Chennai.
g) Some of the pics above were taken by Rakesh, his copyright :)
h) All is well THAT ends Well....so here are some more pics, of the smiling moments :)
