Trip to Leh Ladakh

Ladakh trip is not for everyone. From my perspective it is for the adventurous lot! Those who love trekking,  photography, biking, cycling or just enjoy watching nature!

Few things to take care of for ladakh trip:
Ensure you are in good health for the trip
Have ayurvedic medicine or  Diamox tablets (2 continuous days after meal) before leaving for Ladakh. It has side effects. So check with doctor. Also it has a tingling sensation in finger & toes for a day or two. Otherwise high altitude & low oxygen can cause nausea, head ache which could keep you from enjoying your stay in Ladakh.
Have meals at correct time else it will cause you headaches!
Have a strict diet if you are a South Indian. Don't over eat as it can cause vomiting if you are traveling to higher altitudes. Have lot of fruits like apple & banana & drink lot of water even if you don't feel like.
Have maggi in high altitude places like Khardungla pass & changla pass to keep you going!
Avoid exposure to direct sun light as it has UV.
Those who don't want to tan, use sun-screen lotion with extra UV protection.
Ask the driver to stop every hour for a 5 min break so that you don't get vomiting sensation during your trip to nubra valley, khardungla pass & pang gong lake.
If you are staying in nubra valley ensure the itinerary is such that you visit Hundar desert next day morning & not the same day afternoon cause it is quite hot & you will be tired by the journey.

If you are short of time, you can skip:
Shey & Leh palace are under renovation & not so well maintained.
Druk padma karpo school as it is only famous cause of the movie (3 idiots).

Don't miss Thiksey Monastery & Shanti Stupa as they are very beautiful.

Shopping: Nice gifts to buy at Leh market. Items made from wool, yak wool, silk, pashmina etc, Paper mash, Post cards, apricot nuts & other dry fruits. Brass work of buddha & other Buddhist works are nice but expensive. Traditional dresses are also nice to shop.  Bargaining is common & negotiate well :)

Here is the details of our itinerary:

Package inclusions:
Round trip airfare from B'lore to Delhi & Delhi to Leh with taxes in economy class
Accommodation in Standard and Deluxe Category Hotels.
Accommodation for 6 nights at specified hotels in Leh with attached bath
Accommodation for 1 night in Nubra Valley
Stay on MAP basis (7 breakfasts and 7 dinners)
Lunch on arrival in Leh during the stay
Transportation by non air-conditioned Qualis for arrival/ departure transfers
Sightseeing tours as per the itinerary (suitable vehicle will be used as per the group size)
Assistance at the airport at the time of arrival and departure
Miscellaneous charges like inner-line permits, porter services at hotel and airport and all applicable luxury/ road taxes

Package itinerary (MakeMyTrip):
Book 2 months in advance to get at a low rate (Rs. 33K from b'lore to leh)

Guests arriving in Delhi from other hubs(Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Nagpur) will get return airfares, one night accommodation and return airport transfres.

Day 1 : New Delhi - Leh
On your arrival at Leh, an MMT representative will meet, greet, assist and transfer you to your Hotel in Leh. Rest of the day is free to acclimatize to the high altitude of Ladakh. Stay overnight at Hotel in Leh.

Day 2 : Sightseeing around Leh (80 Kms round trip)
After breakfast at hotel, drive to Sangam. Enroute visit Magnetic Hill and Gurudwara Patthar Sahib. The Confluence of the Indus and Zanskar Rivers is in Ladakh, India at Nimu. From this point on, beyond this Confluence of the two, the stream is regarded as the Indus River. Can anyone ever imagine the movement of a vehicle up a steep mountain with its engines off? Reach Magnetci Hill to experience the nature which sounds unbelievable. Just before reaching Leh visit Spituk Monastery (Kali Mata Temple) Ladakh Hall of fame. Arrive at your hotel in Leh for dinner and overnight stay.

Day 3 : Leh - Nubra Via Khardungla Pass (140 Kms 5hours approx)
Early morning proceed to Nubra Valley via the World Highest Motorable road (5602 Mts) Khardungla pass. Popularly called the orchard of Ladakh, you will definitely be overwhelmed to see the Bactarian Camels (Shaggy double hump Camel) around sand dunes, Deskit & Samstanling monasteries. Arrive at Nubra Valley and proceed for a visit to the White Sand Dunes at Hunder. You can enjoy the camel ride (at your expense). Later if time permits visit Hunder and Diskit monasteries and check in at Deluxe Camp. The evening is at leisure. Stay overnight at the Swiss comfortable camps.

Day 4 : Nubra - Leh (140 Kms, 4hours approx)
Morning after Breakfast proceed for Leh, once again driving via Khardungla pass, the World Highest Motorable road.

Day 5 : Monastery tour and Leh Sight seeing
Morning after breakfast drive to Thiksey Monastery. After visiting the Thiksey Monastery drive to Shey Palace, located 15km to the south of Leh on the Leh-Manali highway is the Shey Palace. Later visit Sindhu Ghaat. Then Shanti Stupa and Leh Palace. Then lunch. Return to your hotel for dinner and a comfortable overnight stay.

Day 6 : Excursion to Pangong Lake (280 Kms round trip)
Morning after breakfast drive to to Pangong Lake on the Indo China border. Pangong Lake is situated in the northeast of leh, 4,350 meters above sea level. The long and narrow lake lies in the neighborhood of the famous Chushul Mountains. The size of the lake is best inferred from the probable etymology of its name, Pangong, which means extensive concavity. The mirror-calm water is cold, clear, and extremely salty. By the evening, come back to your hotel in Leh for dinner and overnight sleep.

Day 7 : Leh at leisure

Day 8 : Airport Departure

how to plan a trip to jammu & kashmir

Plan to travel in mid April to May (you will get to see tulip garden & sonmarg)

You can book the flight tickets on your own. Go for direct flights (Delhi - Srinagar Non-stop). Most flights stop at Jammu.

Book house boat (5 star) for 3 nights (Rs 2000 per room per day could be costlier). Each room has 2 beds (one double & one single bed).

day 1 - gulmarg (don't use sledge. walk your way to gondola (cable car). some try to fool about the distance & make money. so be careful. no entry fees is charged. cable car costs 300 per person. children Rs 150.

day 2 - local sight seeing (shankaracharya temple, tulip garden, shalimar bagh) & shopping (shop for walnut & saffron & pashmina shawls & chinon sarees, & wood carvings made of walnut)

day 3 - sonmarg. you can go in sumo/alto to this place. buses & mini-buses are not allowed. taxi walas will try to take advantage. renting a sumo should cost you Rs 600 to reach sonmarg & back.

day 4 - Pahalgam (visit avantipur temple on the way towards anantnag). Stop at the Saffron fields. We stayed at Hotel Paristaan at Pahalgam which is a km away from the town. Visit Mini-Swiss (horse costs Rs 300) but is walkable for youngsters. There is a 1Km walkable point called Love Story & another point near Paristaan hotel.

day 5 - leave for katra early morning. stop before nehru tunnel to get a view of the valley. patni-top is also a good stop.

day 6 - vaishnodevi leave early morning at 5:30am. you will get entry tickets at katra market at 6am. (total 6hrs; last 5kms at the top, cable car is available). once you are back down don't miss nau deviya & Baba Dhansar temple which is just around 12 kms from Katra.

If you want to travel by helicopter to vaishnodevi it costs Rs 1200 & it needs to be booked 15 days in advance (your travel agent will do that for you).

We went through saffron travels. They are very good.

Hotel Vaishnodevi at Katra is good.

The entire package for 7 days & 6 nights which consisted of flight tickets, travel, stay, food (breakfast & dinner), road taxes etc cost us Rs. 23,000 per person.

Don't let godha wala (horse owners) & sledge owners fool you. They ask a very high rate. So deal with them on your own & don't let guides interfere.

Riding the Winds @ Horsley Hills

Horsley Hills... 1st July 2006... well, there are no horses here This place was named after a British.. don't remember exactly though. The place is around 180 kms from bangalore and is just a 4 to 5 hours journey i think...
We made this journey in a Scorpio and it was very comfortable. We left bangalore at 8pm in the night and my friend (Sujith) did all the driving (while the smart guys slept ). Anyways this place is in Andhra Pradesh and is very close to the Karnataka border. A kind of plateau and hence at a higher altitude, this place remains cool and windy all through the year...

We reached the place at 1 in the night or something... it was very cold and luckily the rooms were booked at the AP tourism guest house and so we didn't have to wait long to sleep... but hey wait my friend's aren't the type who sleep... i think we walked around for sometime before we slept...

I need good sleep during the night and usually feel good when i get up early, my mom made it a habit in me to get up and so i can't sleep beyond 7am... So usually i am alone early morning staring at the sun as most of my friend's get up late when on a holiday...

Have plans to back to this place, as its a nice place during summers to relax... Nothing much to see here... It has a zoo but nothing special here... lot of monkeys dwell here and you need to watch out if you are eating something in front of them
Due to the altitude, Horsley hills has a great view of the surrounding area... need to be careful while on the steep rocks...

We had a great time here, playing rummy and also some football... and having home made chapathis... mind you, horsley hills doesn't have a good restaurant... luckily in the morning since the tourist restaurant was closed as we were late for breakfast we went searching for food and some shop-cum-home vendors offered to make chapathi and alu palya for us and it was better than the food that we had later in the tourist restaurant...
There were also a lake-cum-forest area on the way back that we visited...
All and all a very peaceful place to stay for a day or two...

White Water Rafting @ Dandeli

Isn't it funny! Knowingly or unknowingly we make it a point to be late that too by 2 hours! This is what happens when we friends decide to leave early for a trip. We had decided to leave bangalore city by 7:30 pm or so... but it was 9:30 pm when we actually left for Dandeli. We make it a point to be late!

I was terribly sleepy that night as i was working for long hours for the last 2 days in office... But is it possible to sleep when such good friends are giving you company! hehehe! anyways they just couldn't stop me from sleeping... The problem was that since we were doing a night journey, if everyone had slept off, the chances were that our Driver would have also fallen asleep and I guess I wouldn't have been writing this blog! Anyways the ever reliable few didn't sleep and we made it through. It was the last week of dec 2006. I had got the full week for myself as my company had shutdown for christmas and new year.

Anyways morning came and we were in Uttara Kannada District and closing in on Dandeli. On the way we had breakfast in Sirsi. At Dandeli we stayed at a Guest house which was neat. Food was simple and good too. As one of my friend had contacts we got to see a better view of Dandeli, River Kali, Dam, Power Generation Plant, which the normal visitors don't have access to. So the first 2 days went in visiting these things.

We then went for a Wild-life Safari in the so called Dandeli Wild life Sanctuary in the evening. At the end of a 2 hour dusty ride, we got to see the Dorsal view of a Bison hehehe! We had shifted to a Jungle Safari Lodge which also had a tree house. I had a good night's sleep at the tree house, however initially it was a bit scary as my friend was being teased of ghosts and he was so scared that he wanted nobody to sleep in the tree house... hope he doesn't read this!!

Dandeli which is a so-called Wild life Sanctuary has been completely vanquished by human inhabitation! The River Kali that flows along is polluted by the Paper mills that exist alongside the river. Anyways this I found out while River rafting.

So our river rafting was guided by australians who were enjoying there time @ dandeli. It was very adventurous and its a real good experience! But very expensive. I say that cause when we were kids my cousin used to build a raft using bamboo and banana stem and we used have great fun! but anyways this kind of rafting is more of power and speed and you need to use safety equipments.

With the rafting done with, we started our journey back. On the way we had dinner at Dharwad i guess (not sure!)

Finally we were back in bangalore safe and sound. I had a few more holidays to enjoy... Though the rest of my holidays did go very fast. Anyways all said and done, rafting was an ultimate experience. Hope I do it again, this time our very own Cauvery!

Wedding @ Bidar

Bidar is located northern most part of karnataka and borders AP and Maharashtra... Initially when i thought of Bidar I really didn't know what to say...
7 friends left bengaluru in Hampi express... it was a pleasant 18 hr journey...
Now I can say one thing... Its a nice place :) liked it a lot... people are very friendly... and will serve you feed 24/7
Though a bit dusty and a little bit hotter than b'lore... yeah u got it right... software engineers never stop complaining when they are out in the heat!
Bidar's name comes from the 15th century Barid Shahi Dynasty...
Bidar boasts of Narasimha and Papnash temple along with the famous Gurudwara... It also has a fort which we didn't venture into as we were short of time...
Bidar is also know for the Bidri works (Black metal with silver art) and i did get really good art pieces!
We had a nice time dancing all the way at the Baaraat.
You can find nice food any time and people are very friendly...
We had also been to srisailam which is a temple town and is around 5 hours journey from Bidar. We went via hyderabad and the road was good.
Srisailam also has a dam and a ropeway...
All and all, it was a nice trip and I plan to go there once more to buy lots of bidri art and also visit the Narasimhji cave temple!