Leh - Totally recommended
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| Leh - A place worth visiting. |
Testimony / Leh Visit Review:
It’s actually a unique proposition, the region lies between Himalaya and Hindukush Mountain ranges, the region receives very little to no precipitation and hence a desert, and at this altitude it really becomes interesting to visit.....
- It is amazing to be there, calm and peaceful.
- Scenic natural beauty, near to nature, interesting for photographers.
- Interesting places to visit in and around town.
We all had a great time and enjoyed dose of adventure, riding bike on Himalayan Mountains.
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| Around Leh |
Places to see:
- In and around Town:
- Sindhu Ghat
- Monasteries
- Sangam (Zansar & Sindhu)
- Magnetic Hill
- Chang-la Pass
- Pangong-Tso Lake (1 day, return journey from Town)
- Khardung-la pass (Highest motorable pass in world)
- Nubra Valley (2 day, return journey from town)
High on adventures:
- Leh – Manali road trip
- Leh - Srinagar road trip
- Trekking
- Mountaineering
- River rafting in Zansar & Sindhu
- Cycling
Good time to visit Leh, ladakh:
Summer is the best time to visit Leh: May – Sep looks better to visit Leh.
However, flights are available round the year from New Delhi.
Where to stay:
Hotels: there are a lot of hotels all over the town.
Home stay: People rent out rooms in their house for tourists and also provide food on charge.
**** My pick is home stay.
What to eat:
It’s a town and one can have Veg. & Non- veg. food items. No problems.
How to reach Leh:
By Road (Not open during most of winter time due to snow on road and bad weather, check before you plan):
Route 1: Take highway from Jammu – Srinagar – Leh: A day or two, Scenic
Route 2: Take highway from Manali – Leh: 4 Days, This is adventurous route
By Air:
There are flights from New Delhi and Jammu to Leh.
Other important details:
To cover and see places in and around Leh it will take 5 days. It feels so soothing that one may want to extend the stay, no doubts on that.You can plan your trip as below:
- Day 1: Arrival and rest for the day (24 Hrs) for acclimatization.
- Day 2: Hire a taxi / bike (as per taste and weather) to see in and around town like Leh palace, Shey Gompa, Thiksey and other monasteries around, Sindhu Ghat, Sangam, Magnetic Hill.
- Day 3: Hire taxi / Bike to see Pangong-Tso lake, the route in trough Chang-la pass.
- Day 4 & 5: Hire a taxi / bike to visit Nubra Valley. The route is via Khardung-la pass, highest motorable pass in the world. Stay in the valley overnight and return the next day.
- Keep a day or two extra in the plan, just in case.
Precautions while visiting Leh:
- On the day of arrival take rest for at least 24 Hrs in your hotel room to get acclimatize to the altitude. This is very important else you may feel the altitude sickness and will spoil the trip.
- Mobile coverage is not reliable in Leh. Although one can use land line phones in town market.
- Avoid uncooked food (Salads) and un-boiled drinks (lemonade, Juices etc) during the visit.
- You have to carry your own water & food items for the route to Pangong-Tso or Nubra valley. You may get food items on the way but its better to rely on your own hygienic and reliable food / drinks.
- I always suggest carrying some chocolates and dry fruits with you all the time as emergency backup food supply. It will be handy if one is stuck because of snow or any other reason anywhere.
List of items to carry:
- Take warm clothes, extra pairs of shoes as weather may change swiftly without warning
- Camera (Still / VDO) / Charger / Memory Card / DVDs
- Medicines / small first aid kit / Crape Bandage/Spray
- Dry Fruits / Chocolates (in case, you need emergency food supply)
- Map printouts / Travel Plan
- Torch light
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| Leh - One of the Monasteries |
Trip Log
The plan: We were five friends from Pune, we all were very much in for adventure and one fine day I threw the idea that let’s go to Leh. All went ahead and said: It's a go! We were all in for a road trip all the way Pune to Leh. So we researched and planned, however, since the month chosen was April, to our disappointment all the roads from Srinagar and Manali to Leh were still under feet’s of snow and closed till summers. So we planned a road trip till New Delhi and went ahead with flight ticket bookings (New Delhi to Leh) and further research on net & planning for the trip. I remember it was fun time getting together sharing the info, group discussions and suggestions, all pure fun :-) . It all helped to build up the tempo for the trip.
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| Leh - On the way to Chang La! |
The D day: We all were waiting eagerly for the day and finally we reach the date. The day came and in accordance with the Murphy's law we met one urgent situation, at one of the gang members home front. The guy just went and said that if may not be possible for him to join the gang for the trip. Well, we all tried to convince him but he had his own valid reasons.
So we improvised the plan! The decision was taken that 3 guys will take road trip Delhi and that will give us 2 days for our guy. The decision paid off, after a day 3 guys were still on the way to Delhi and the situation for our man improved. So went ahead for air ticket to meet the remaining 3 guys at Delhi Airport on 17th Apr in New Delhi.
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| Leh - Pangong Tso (Lake) |
In Delhi: We all finally met at the New Delhi airport. Our flight departure was from T3 terminal, early morning 18th Apr. We witnessed a funny incident. One of our guys was talking to his female friend. He was so much into the discussion that he didn't realize he walked into the female toilet with her. :-) ... Later he told us that when he went in, all the girls started giving him looks then only he realized and ran for the door... :-D
In Leh: So early morning on 18th Apr we left for Leh. Arrival in Leh was little surprising. The entire Leh airport itself is really small... like a small hall. We got out of the airport one guy with small van caught hold of us and suggested to take us to town. We called our guy for home stay and got reply back that his place is under maintenance :-( ….. the van guy said no worries there are number of hotels to stay and since its not even peak season you will get the place.
We looked at a hotel but as we were more into home stay. So we finally saw a place, accommodation was two rooms on first floor of a local family house, we happily agreed for it.
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| Leh - Home stay |
As we knew about the altitude sickness thing, we were well advised about spending 24Hrs in the hotel room just relax. However, towards the evening we were itching to go out and see the town down the lane. We took off by 4:00 pm and roaming down the street looking at the shops, eateries and asking people for details.
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| Leh - View from town |
It was for the first time when we looked at the mountains surrounding the town, snow cover peaks and felt the wind chill.
Day 2 in Leh: We rented three bikes, we also asked for one guide to roam around Leh. We got up early in the morning and ready to rock. We went to the Leh football ground and tried some football kicks there. We were five and one guide so we were good on 3 bikes. first thing we covered was the bazaar and town. Its a typical Himalayan town. The shops right on the road, lots of tours n travel shops in bazaar, Internet cafe shops where net speed is real slow (we faced some issues coz of that) and a big section of bazaar where they sell jackets, bags, boots and other winter gear. Winter gear you see here is usually not found in other parts of India (Plains). We bought some bags, jackets and souvenirs from these shops.
Then we headed for Sindhu Ghat. It is a nice place and its not that far from the town.
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| Leh - Sindhu Ghat |
After Sindhu Ghat we headed for the monasteries near Leh, monks were taking care of these monasteries. We were not that much into monasteries so it really didn’t look impressive to us, to be honest. Anyways, it was lunchtime so we had our lunch and planned for rest of the day.
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| Leh - Inviting for Bike ride |
For second half of the day we went towards the other side of town. There was no one else on the road and we get to cross himalayan mountains on bike, first time for me. At times we could see the road for kilometers and there was no one else on it. It was an amazing bike ride. We saw Magnetic hill, a Sikh temple and Sangam during this part of bike ride.
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| Leh - Bike ride |
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| Leh - Way to Pangong Tso, Lake |
On the way to Pangong Tso, lake there is a pass known as Chang-La, pass. The pass is maintained by ITBP and people stop here to see the ice / snow. ITBP guys provide tea here for the tourists, one can also buy souvenirs from Chang-la like T- Shirts, Cups and caps. It is the highest point in the journey towards Pangong Tso. One of our guys fell prey to altitude sickness here, his face got swelt and nausea. We hurried to make move and soon we were at lower altitude, much better.
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| Chang La Pass |
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| Leh - Chang La Pass |
Pangong Tso is vast, since it was month of April it was still frozen. It looked beautiful and soothing. We spend some good time there. There is nothing around the lake, no structures. To our rescue there was a small makeshift hut, he was selling maggi (noodles), Tea and coffee. We had, probably the best maggi ever right on the banks of frozen Pangong lake, awesome!
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| Pangong Tso - Frozen Lake |
Day 4, in Leh: It was a town day again for us. We roamed around the town, bought the souvenirs, visited eateries and took pictures. We had already covered most of items we had in mind for the trip and enjoyed as well. Took care of things for our journey back the next day and next day morning we left for New Delhi. And of course a road trip to Pune :-).
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| Leh! |
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