The Desert Valley- Ladakh Part 1

           It’s one of those days when I’m simply in a cranky mood because of all the noise and pollution around me. Also because I don’t know when is it next that I will be visiting a place as heavenly as Ladakh. It’s been exactly one month I’ve returned from that place. I do not precisely remember the chronology of all the events that took place in the 10 days that we were there. I would have turned to an itinerary to recollect which places we had visited and when, But we never had one. But we did not have an absolutely unplanned trip either. What we did have when we left from here was a local person’s contact number who would be driving us around the place for the 10 days and a hotel booking for the first 4 days in Leh, just so that we wouldn’t be roofless when we reached the place.

         I’m still struggling to summon up the exact things we did in Ladakh. So I thought the least I can do is sit with a cup of Kashmiri Kahwa tea that we bought from there (which tastes nothing like the one I had at Chang-La Pass; something probably went wrong in its preparation), hoping it would remind me at least of the freezing temperatures there. But that seems next to impossible. The October heat here will not allow me to do that. In another effort, I scroll through the 150-odd pictures clicked on my camera. That helps me remember that the day we reached, we’d only rested in our rooms for a while for “acclimatization” (as instructed on every website where we hoped we would find an itinerary) and later walked up to the market to have dinner. The memory of having lunch seems blurry though. The second day we probably visited the Hemis monastery, the Stok palace and the Shanti Stupa. The third day was the day for river rafting at Zanskar. The fourth day we left for Pangong, stayed overnight and returned the next morning in Leh. The sixth day we left for Nubra Valley, stayed overnight and returned the next morning. The eighth day we left for Tso-Moriri Lake, stayed overnight and returned the next morning. The tenth day was time for departure.

         That’s quite bland for a vibrant place like the Desert valley we’ve all wished to visit at some point of time. I have realized that listing the places we visited is certainly not the best idea. It wouldn’t be justice enough for describing a place like Ladakh; it’s rather the place that will make you fall short of words to describe its beauty. It’s the place which looks the same, no matter how far you go, what height you’re at or how many turns you’ve taken at the roads guarded by mountains on either of the sides. It’s a place which will make you feel that even a new sight is the same, mundane one. And yet, it’s a place which will hypnotise you into being awed by the beauty of the ordinary; it will make you greedy, for you will want to fill your eyesight with the same old landscape.  

       

So while this is certainly not the end of the account of Ladakh, I will certainly take time to gather words to explain the experiences, and not just the scenery.