Monday, August 27, 2012

A sample Ladakh itinerary and a vote of thanks

So yours truly went to Leh two weeks ago. It was, as expected, a mind-blastingly awesome experience.

It is not the most routine of trips, so I pulled up my Google socks and got down to business. Although data is widely available on each individual destination in Leh, I found difficult to plan an itinerary since no one was very clear how long each place would take (I found Nubra Valley estimates from "Dont even bother going there" to "It will definitely take 4 days"). The tour operators will certainly make one for you, but the geeks (and the jock for that matter) _has_ to work it out for himself, right?

I eventually had to call up friends who had been there to get their itineraries. Not cool. I don't want to be real life social when I can be online social. So to save all you worthies this trouble, here is my itinerary:
Day 1
Arrive Leh and overnight Stay. Check out Leh Palace and Shanti Stupa. Chill in random cafes.
 
Day 2
Leh-Like Monastery - Gurudwaara Pathhar Sahib - Lamayuru Monastery-Ule :  
You can actually visit Alchi the same day and come back if you rush somewhat, but why bother? The nice Ule resorts are built overlooking the river. Ergo, overnight stay.
 
Day 3
Ule-Alchi-Leh : Alchi monastery is nice and old. You can visit Basgo Palace on the way back, but it is really just a pile of mud and stone now and not worth the climb. Also see Hall of Fame - an army memorial/museum for our high altitude warriors. Respect.
  
Day 4
Leh to Nubra Valley - The drive is awesome. Bragging rights are earned by clicking pics at Khardungla (the highest motorable pass in the world at 5600-ish metres). Then bactrian camel ride at Diskit. It's  beautiful here and a hard ride back, so stay overnight.
Day 5
Drive back to Leh. Relax.
 
Day 6
Leh - Chang La - Pangong Lake : Changla is the third highest motorable pass in the world (14500 ft. Reach camp around lunchtime. Sit on the banks of the beautiful lake. It's frikking cold and windy.
 
Day 7
Pangong Lake - Leh. Enroute visit Hemis, Thikse Monasteries and Shey Palace.
 
Day 8
Go home
 
Everything was done at a mellow pace, no rushing. Spending less time than this would not be doing justice to them IMO. Also, this is a fairly touristy plan, since this was my first time.

For all the research, we still booked a packaged tour (I'll hulk out the next time, I promise) via Escapades India. That almost got effed up due to the recent flash floods. We were stuck in Manali for 2 days, and missed the first two days of our itinerary. But the folks over at Escapades were EXTREMELY helpful, stayed in touch constantly to find out if we were doing okay. I called the unputdownable Mr. Parag more times than I called my family and he just might have done the same! A mail of theirs said "On adventure trips, you want to worry more about the reliability of your operator rather than what he is charging you" (paraphrased). Parag and Co. certainly came through on that front.

We extended our trip by two days to compensate for the things we had missed, and Escapades arranged it for no extra charge. Read that again. Slowly. No extra charge.

So all in all I strongly recommend anyone looking for the arranged travel option to go to Leh (or elsewhere, but I'm not very sure of  that) to get in touch with Escapades India.

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