4 days. That's all I had - 4 days. Well, technically I had 5 days before I needed to be back in office, but that last 1 day was for flying back and resting up. So... 4 days.
4 days, is not enough for Leh-Ladakh... hell, 4 days is not enough for anywhere, I believe. But, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, that's all I had - 4 days.
So, without wasting any more time, I and my endearing wife - Bhavna - took the earliest flight possible from Bangalore, on Friday, 25th August, 2017. After a quick hop over Delhi, we finally sat on a smaller flight to Leh, at 6:40am.
It was chilly inside the flight, mostly due to how early it was... and a little due to the flight being less than half-full. But as the flight kept getting closer and closer, the chillier it became. I was happy, 'coz I loved feeling chilly... and that I realized bringing my leather jacket wasn't going to be a waste.
After about an hour, Bhavna shouted in a mix of excitement & nervousness, attracting my attention towards the window. I looked out... and oh, what a sight it was! Out there, down below, wherever I saw, were these endless ranges of raw brown brute mountains. They were quite far down, but they felt so close... we felt like one of these could just give a friendly poke anytime now. It looked dangerously beautiful... and beautifully dangerous.
We reached the small cosy Leh airport around 8am, excited and waiting for our day to start. We had booked a package with TravelTriangle (they offer great package comparisons by the way, and easily manageable payment process - love them), who arrived to pick us up in no time. And there we were, in the small unassuming town of Leh, sifting through morning traffic.
The town of Leh had a rustic feel, putting me in the right groove, stating from the military bases amongst hilly desert near the airport, to the colony of shops over grey Leh soil, and to the posh-er and more residential part of the city, full of resorts & home-stays - finally landing us in our little cosy den for the trip - Gongma Guest House. The landlady welcomed us with ethnic white stoles and showed us around. We were given a nice room in the 2nd floor, right below the roof, which had an awesome view of the faraway mountain ranges, somewhat hidden behind the giant Poplar trees.
The 1st day in Ladakh is always supposed to be a relaxing stroll-around kind of day, to get acclimatized to the comparatively lighter air of Leh, and our trip was planned in the package accordingly. Small drives towards outer Leh, a few sight-seeing pit stops near the neighbouring Zanskar River; that's all we had drafted for us.
So, we got some quick breakfast, freshened up, and hit the road, not wanting to waste the cosy sunny day ahead. We were assigned a local friendly driver, who welcomed us to our vehicle for the trip - a humble & sturdy Toyota Innova Crysta. And off we went... towards the outer Leh. Once we left the city boundaries, the roads became wider and smoother, traversing smoothly through the rocky plateau, with frequent glimpses of coloured flags that made it evident we were in the Buddhist regions.
Zanskar quickly joined us, giving a nice serene company (cover image at the top). But this still being the summer, the river wasn't in its pristine blue form, but rather a dusty brown tint. We didn't mind... rusty was the flavour of this trip. And that's when our driver gave us the suggestion - rafting.
We are not, by any means, adventurous couple. Yes, we do our own little off-the-road treks down rocky rivers, occasionally, and come up with these impulsive spur-of-the-moment trip plans, which are always targeted towards exotic locales rather than cosy resorts. Still... 'Adventurous couple' wasn't something people would call us.
But, the word 'rafting' triggered something within us. We hesitated, mostly because neither of us had ever rafted before, and neither of us knew swimming... but also, because we had been advised multiple times to stay off any heavy-duty activities on the 1st day, to let our body acclimatize. Many of my acquaintances narrated their out-of-breath & fainting experiences, as a result of breaking the day 1 rule. So, we stopped at a restaurant-cum-trip-planner, where we were supposed to have our lunch, thinking what course to take.
It wasn't too long before we gave in to our thrill-seeking sides and bought a 14 km rafting trip. To hell with the day 1 rule! So, we dressed up in these red & black rubber rafting suits, that were designed to keep our body temperature normal even when soaking wet, and headed for the starting point up the Zanskar.
It sure wasn't rafting season, from the looks of it, as the raft had only 3 tourists, including us. After giving us a basic training on do's and dont's, out of the 3 tour guides, 2 stayed in the raft, while the 3rd one followed us in a cute little yellow kayak. There was no scope of photography here, so we relied on the go-pro attached to our leader's helmet, who did a great job by the way.
I was seated at the front right, while our tourist companion took the paddle on the front left, as we were assigned to be the main paddlers. My wife sat right behind me with a paddle, giving support to us. With excited hands, we started paddling in the mostly still water of Zanskar.
It was breathtaking, for lack of a better word - both the views around us, and this incredible existential feeling of being surrounded by this limitless valley of giant brown mountains. We touched the ice-cold water and listened to the silence echoing between the mountains, feeling out of this world. And then came our first drop.
The river seemed to have suddenly gone crazy up ahead and boy, did it look scary! We tightened our grips on the paddles, as our leader reminded what he had taught us. We kept our ears up, to follow each word coming out of his mouth, as the wild drop came nearer. With our hearts beating heavily, we rode into the drop.
The fierce waves threw our raft upwards and tried to tilt it. I felt as if in this moment, I would lose the paddle, the raft, my footing... as I catapulted upwards... but I grabbed on tighter, and stuck my feet even deeper into the grips of the raft. Water splashed all over me, almost disorienting me, but I paddled on... and so did the others... eventually getting out of the drop. It took about 10 seconds, but it sure was one of the most exhilarating 10 seconds of my life.
I looked at Bhavna and she at me, gasping for breath and yet, laughing with excitement at what we just did. We hit one more such wild drop few minutes later, after which the river became placid. Rest of the ride was quite uneventful, except for the moment where half of my body fell into the river, while doing a silly move standing on the raft's edge... but let's not talk about that.
Our trip ended right at the confluence of Indus & Zanskar. We came back to the restaurant, victorious, and finished our lunch, still basking at the first-time-rafter glory. Next stop - Leh Hall of Fame. Going in, I thought it would be another run-of-the-mill museum, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was a detailed documentation, in form rather than paper, of military achievements, gears, armoury, specially pertaining to the Kargil war.
But what gave us goose bumps, was the war memorial, laid beautifully behind the museum. The sight of the Indian flag flying high & proud, witnessed silently by hundreds of proud soldiers, lying down in their peaceful slumber around the flag, with the Himalayan range standing behind in the background, like a guardian, took our breath away. We paid our silent respect to the martyrs and walked out of there.
It was 5pm. Towns like these didn't have much night life, so we went back to the hotel. Originally, as part of the package, our plan for day 2 was to head to Nubra Valley, stay the night, be back to Leh on day 3, while checking out Diksit monastery. Finally, day 4 was booked for Pangong lake, finishing our trip. But our driver suggested, and we agreed, that the long & tiresome drive up to Nubra valley via Khardung La pass, and the one to Pangong Lake, via Chang La pass, would be quite similar. If we had more days, doing both would be a good idea, but with our current timeline, it made sense to choose just one and use the remaining days to visit more authentic Ladakh.
And we chose Pangong lake, because water attracted us both, we both being water signs - Pisces & Cancer. Also, Nubra valley ultimately offered a stay in the desert & camel rides, both of which we had done during our Rajasthan trip - so, redundant.