Monday, August 31, 2009

Leh'ed

Had just settled into room after reaching Leh and having dinner...around this time last month.
Can't believe its been a month already and i took this long to get around to blogging it! But better late than never...huh? :)

So here's a very very tiny summary of my 2 week long road trip from 7th Aug to 23rd Aug:

Bangalore--->Delhi---Chandigarh---Manali---Leh---Chilling ~~~~Nimu---Alchi Monastery---Leh---Pangong Lake---Leh---Lamayuru ---Kargil---Drass---Sonamarg---Srinagar---Gulmarg---Dal Lake---Jammu___Amritsar---Wagah---Amritsar___Delhi___Bangalore

where

---> by Flight
--- by Road
___ by Train and
~~~~ by Water (Rafting :D )

It was truly an outstanding trip from many aspects.

> Just being on the road for two weeks!
The Journey...such varied landscapes...being bounced around in the cab...slumdog toilets...3~4Hrs of sleep...'n Maggi - the official food! :)

> Puking at the 2nd highest motorable pass...

> Feeling of dried blood in your nose...always!

> Rafting on Zanskar river...truly an unforgettable experience! the mountains towering over you and the icy cold Zanskar waters falling over you....just amazing!

> Frescos @ Alchi Monastery...

> Night camping beside Indus river - can never forget this!
Sleeping on the bank, seeing the moon rise over the horizon, searching/forming constellations, counting the shooting stars(had never seen one before 'n that night saw so many, there was one almost every other minute, apparently August is shooting stars month!), listening to river flow beside you...just heavenly!

> 'n yeah bought my first mineral, a first tiny step towards my childhood dream of collecting minerals :) Its a small l'il amethyst..hmm, which reminds me, 've not taken any pic of it yet...neways it looks something like this -



and *a big big hint* for all those ppl, who ever want to gift me something, please think about adding to my collection ;)

> Pangong Lake - such a Beautiful place, never seen such crystal clear waters before...'n what shades of blue and green! But the best part of that trip was definitely the crossing of 'paagal nala' - a freezing glacier water streaming down with full force 'n carrying with it chunks of loose pebbles, which when they hit you at that force...ouch! the pain would've been even more, except one minute into that freezing water, your feet go all numb... :)

> MonaLisa - A nice li'l restaurant attached to our hotel, who played Pink Floyd all the time!
Any wonder i fell in love with that place? ;)

> This trip taught me so much about the interactions & dynamics involved in a group...varied tolerance, irritability, stubborn quotient among individuals....learnt so much about myself, realized 'm still way too emotional when it comes to few things or maybe 've changed 'n need to change again... :)

> Lamayuru - wish i could've spent more time there, but hopefully there's always a next time?

> Drass - No Words!
you can go through my friend's blog on this - http://jencya.blogspot.com/2009/08/tribute-to-heroes-of-kargil.html

> Srinagar - idyllic place but with gun wielding police every 100mts...
An interesting thing was the comment our cab driver who drove us to Gulmarg made. He said that there's no terrorism now but the police themselves throw bombs now 'n then to maintain that unsafe situation so that Government keeps them, 'coz apparently they get 3K more for Srinagar duty!

> Dal Lake - shikara ride, ppl selling all sorts of thing on boats, the house boat, vegetable market on the lake, floating gardens!

> Ride to Jammu - very scenic! Highlights: Green Tunnel, Bhagliar Dam on Chenab, Patnitop 'n the 3Km long tunnel!

> Amritsar - Balle Balle! :)
Golden Temple - most neatly maintained religious place I've seen in India so far! Plus a really beautiful building to boot...

> Wagah Border -
crass entertainment...

> Highway On My Plate -
Had seen the Amritsar episode where they had shown Makhan Fish Dhaba 'n Since I was in Amritsar I didn't want to miss it, so began our long search for that place 'n it was so worth it. Was the best meal I had on the entire trip! Check out the snaps to see how much we enjoyed... :)

> Delhi -
With huge backpacks, searching for hotel room in paharjung...
Watching 'Kaminey' @ Regal theatre, which is Dehi's oldest theatre, was an experience!
Chandni Chowk - really awesome place, now i can understand why all these bollywood movies are so fascinated with it but frankly they don't do even an iota of justice to that place...!

> The BEST experience of the trip was how we managed to catch our train to B'lore just in nick of time all thanks to the Heavy Rain storm which took away the roof of newly built airport terminal! Explaining this would be a new post altogether and its already 3am, so I'll end it here...


Link to the snaps -

Pls: Going through the snaps maybe a better idea, as its almost like a photoblog of the trip, arranged in chronological order with appropriate comments :)

Sunday, August 02, 2009