Having learned from my last experience, I made a foolproof plan this time long before our scheduled departure for Ladakh. Yes, we went to Ladakh this time to feed our adventure hungry mind.

Day 1 (10th June, 2011)

Sealdah: Sankhadip, Dibyendu, Aniruddha, and I - four of us started our journey together at Sealdah. It was a very comfortable journey in Rajdhani Express which departed at 4:50 PM and reached New Delhi by 10:15 AM, the next morning. Though we did not get seats together, we managed to enjoy it throughout.

Day 2 (11th June, 2011)

New Delhi - Manali: We were not ready to tolerate the extreme temperature of New Delhi. We took an auto quickly and went to a hotel in Paharganj, the nearest place from the rail station. We had seven hours left to leave for Manali which we used for a quick visit to the Red Fort. Afterward, we traveled with a Sardarji in his auto to reach the designated pickup point of the HPTDC bus. Our bus left at 6:30 PM. It was raining heavily throughout the night. Though it was a night journey, it proved to be very relaxing and enjoyable. It was amazing to watch the downpour against the wide glass window from a reclined push back seat.

Day 3 (12th June, 2011)

Manali - Keylong: In the morning, I captured views of the magnificent weather of Manali in my camera. But unfortunately, we got stuck for almost 3.5 hours due to landslide near Manali (Manu Temple). At last, when we reached the Manali bus stand, it was about 1.00 O'clock. A new team member, Hari, joined us from Manali. Hari is a very energetic guy from Chennai. He had just finished his trekking in Sarr Pass and joined us to explore Ladakh. I found him through a popular travel forum where he was searching for travel partners for Leh trip. We had arranged for a driver (Mohon) in advance. He was waiting to pick us up from Manali Bus Stand. According to plan, we would reach Leh the next day and we will be having a night stay at Keylong, on the way. After taking a five minutes break we started with him in his Innova. On the way, we crossed a place named Marhi where we saw a lot of tourists Paragliding. We spotted a small eatery there and decided to take our lunch. But unfortunately, the food was very bad. We had only one Alu Paratha with achar, each. During lunch, we noticed a long queue up on the road to Rohtang Pass. We enquired and found out that the pass has remained closed since morning. Soon we also became a member of that queue. On the way to the pass, an Innova was badly smashed by a landslide near Rohtang. The road was being cleared by the JCB machine and we had to wait there for a few hours. But we utilized the time in taking photographs and enjoying the great view. Believe me, the view from Rohtang is simply awesome. After crossing Rohtang it was a smooth journey up to Keylong. Being the tour organizer, I was carrying a list of hotels in Keylong. I booked two rooms in a hotel instantly from the car. We enjoyed the chilling night there in Keylong which ended with a great dinner - Chicken Biriyani, Tanduri, and another chicken dish.

Day 4 (13th June, 2011)

Keylong - Leh: We started early the next morning and took breakfast at Lasha. Our driver was driving very fast to reach Leh as early as possible. Lasha is also a good place having great scenic beauty. Some of our team members became sick by this long journey and the road ahead was not so good. However, there was no other option available other than moving forward. Gradually, we reached the great Baralacha La which was totally frozen and nothing was there apart from snowy mountains. Just have a look at the images of Baralacha La to get an idea about the amount of snow. The tremendous beauty of this place will let you forget all your daily life tensions and headaches. It is just like heaven. We played with ice for 5-10 minutes and again started moving towards Sarchu. The back tire of our car got punctured suddenly. But we got a chance to repair that in Sarchu at a high price (Rs.800 to repair a single puncture!!). We stopped there for half an hour and relaxed a bit. By that time some of us were down with mountain sickness and were not in a condition to come out of the car. Breathing issues due to lack of oxygen, vomiting, and headache became a severe concern for some of us. But, nothing could be done in a remote area like that. Forget about a hospital/doctor, even a single house could not be sighted. We moved further and noticed a change in the environment as we crossed Sarchu. The Ice Cap Mountains vanished and we found ourselves surrounded by yellowish mountains. The condition of our group members got worse after reaching Gata Loop. This is a portion of the road where 21 loops take you to the peak of the mountain. After a long journey through these yellowish mountains, we reached Pang. We found a few tents there from where we could get food. But none of us took food from them and continued with the dry foods from our stock. Surprisingly, on our way, at a place where we could not even find a house, we found an army helipad. The next surprising place was Moore Plane, a long flat area above 14,000 feet. There was no ready-made road for some portion. Yet our driver was able to accelerate his car up to 90 km per hour. Then we came across Taglang La (17,582 feet). The road after Taglang La is more or less smooth as compared to the previous portion. We reached Leh almost 2.5 hours in advance. Mohon left us at Leh taxi stand. We took another taxi to go to Shanti Guest House (this guest house was in the first in our list of preferred guest houses in Leh) at Changspa Road. The guest house owner is a very humble and helpful person. We chose two good rooms for five of us. There are plenty of guesthouses and hotels in every nook and corner of Leh. Lot of foreign tourists hit Leh by this time.

Day 5 (14th June, 2011)

Leh – Diskit, Nubra Valley: The next day, I along with Hari, left early to arrange our Inner-line Permit for Leh. Arranging Permit was another challenge. However, we managed to get the permit in the last hour. But we got stuck on another problem. A lot of foreigners visit Leh during this time and most of the local drivers get engaged with them. So getting a taxi at the last moment was really tough for us. Even after visiting two taxi stands there we got no free taxi. Then, we decided to skip the planning for the day and returned to our guest house. It was our guest house owner who arranged a driver at the eleventh hour. We packed everything very quickly and got into the car to Nubra Valley. We even took our lunch on the road to save time. The journey started very well and we were full of energy. Khardung La, which is the highest motorable road (18,380 feet) of the world, comes on the way to Nubra Valley. It’s a tremendous experience to see the surrounding Karakoram Range down the line from Khardung La. We really enjoyed the place, took a lot of snaps and again started for the journey ahead. The valley is just awesome. You can see the magic of the clouds and their shadows in the picture. By evening (7:45 – 8:00 PM), we reached up to Diskit only. We stopped in front of Olthang Guest House which is a good place to stay but unfortunately, the guest house was full. So we found another one near it. We got a room on the roof and got a chance to shoot night photography directly from the rooftop. We spent the night well enough and had a good sleep.

Day 6 (15th June, 2011)

Diskit - Hunder (camel safari) - Leh: The next day we started lazily and went to the Hunder village by 8:15 in the morning to experience a safari on a double-humped camel. It was an amazing experience to see sand dunes surrounded by high yellowish peaks. In fact, we were surprised to see such a big sand dune on a hill. And riding on the camel was really a superb experience. We came back to Leh the same day and relaxed.

Day 7 (16th June, 2011)

Local Sightseeing, Leh: The next day we targeted local places like Hall of Fame, Magnetic Point, and monasteries. We stared lazily in the afternoon after completing lunch. After visiting the Hall of Fame with a good collection of army instruments and sample ammunition, we headed towards Magnetic Point. Here you could see mind-boggling facts. What we saw that a car is moving upwards with its engine stopped. Then we read the fact of magnetic power present in that region. We came back and went to Hemis Monastery, Thiksey Monastery, and Shey Palace. Most of those got closed at 6:00 PM. And we were lucky enough to be the last visitor at those places. We returned by the evening and had a good dinner at Lamayuru Restaurant.

Day 8 (17th June, 2011)

Leh - Pangong Lake: We started early morning for Pangong Lake. The road there is mostly in good condition. The journey was very comfortable in a Xylo. The mighty Chang La comes on the way to Pangong which is the third highest pass in the world with a height of 17,586 feet. A cafeteria is also there which claims itself as the first highest cafeteria. After spending a good time there we headed towards Tangtste, then Lukung. These are the two places having accommodation facilities. But we moved forward as we planned to spend a night in front of Pangong. When we saw Pangong for the first time, it was a wow experience. The first thing we did is to search for a tent to spend the night. Our driver referred to a tent where we got food. We were lucky enough that we got an Eco Hut there maintained by the tent owner. It was not that much expensive as we expected. After finalizing the place to stay we started our photography session. The lake water is very much transparent and changes its color based on the intensity of sunlight. We took a lot of portfolio with different poses. Later we moved far away from the tourist spot in search of a good spot for photography. Then returned to the tent and spent the night in the Eco Hut. The night was very much cold as compared to day time. We completed our dinner with the dry food we had with us. It was also a unique experience to spend the night in that environment. We did chatting for a while and went to bed.

Day 9 (18th June, 2011)

Pangong - Leh: The next day we woke up early to shoot the sunrise there. But it was a bit cloudy and we got a totally different color of the water. After half an hour, clouds got partly cleared and we started for Leh. It was a hard snowfall throughout the night and the road was totally covered with snow. Even our driver was afraid that Chang La might get closed due to the hard snowfall. However, we were lucky enough to enjoy the snow with Chang La open. We again stopped near Chang La cafeteria and had a cup of tea. It’s not much expensive as we expected. The view was extremely good as everything was covered with snow. After crossing Chang La Baba temple, we got a place with no tourists and got out of the car to have some photos in the snow. While returning back we found a lot of Ladakhi people widening the road for the safety of tourists like us. Thanks to them for making our journey easy. Anyhow, we reached our guest house safely and spent the rest of the day lazily. We had a plan for rafting the next day so we went to Splash Adventure Tours in the evening and booked a 2+ level slot for us.

Day 10 (19th June, 2011)

River rafting in Zanskar: None of us was having previous experience in rafting so it was a bit challenging for us. Aniruddha was very much keen on this adventure from the very beginning. Splash gives a pickup service from the hotel. The bus came in time and transferred us to Nimo, the meeting point of Zanskar and Indus River. We further went to the inner part by following the bank of the Zanskar River. The 2+ level starts from Skorpochi. There we found our boat, dress, and all the equipment we need for rafting. The natural beauty of this portion is awesome. We were just mesmerized by the natural beauty. There we found our Guide who gave us our dress and the paddle we need to raft. Before starting the rafting he taught us some techniques and rules we need to follow throughout the session. We were nine members there and most of us had the question: what should we do if we fall in the water! The guide tried to ensure our safety by giving a few examples of recovery actions done by security personnel from Splash, but some of us were still very afraid about the risk ahead. However, we started with a small splash followed by the biggest one in that route. The water was tremendously cold. The boat was almost flooded after the first splash of water and my legs were almost frost and senseless. In that condition, the second splash came and we were really shocked. I was about to fall from the boat but somehow managed to lock my legs with the boat in the last moment. This was the most dangerous splash, but the next splashes were not so furious. We hit a stone very badly after passing the first three splashes. Once we reached the calm zone we got the chance to click some photos. The place is really magnificent. We then got into our bus and had lunch. It was a single Guest House cum Restaurant in a vast valley! Nothing was there within the area we can see. Having lunch in that open-air environment was really a charming experience. We returned to Guest House with a very unique and refreshing experience and spent the rest of the day lazily.

Day 11 (20th June, 2011)

Local Sightseeing - Shanti Stupa and Leh Palace: We were left with Shanti Stupa and Leh Palace only. As I said previously, Shanti Stupa was just behind our Guest House, we took it easy and started with Shanti Stupa first. It has 557 steps to reach to the top. We started with great energy and also took rest after 5-10 minutes so that we can retain the energy level until the end. Taking photographs from that place is quite interesting because you can have a different view from a different height. We reached the top at last and found a foreigner is almost done with his energy level and lied down near the last step to take rest. We found another local guy painting the beautiful scenery of the Ice Cap Mountains. The Shanti Stupa is a very calm place and totally white colored. However, in the back portion painting was going on which can reveal the actual color. We got the best view of Leh city from this place. I experienced rock climbing while coming down from Shanti Stupa. Then we went for lunch in a popular restaurant there in the market. Next was Leh Palace. It is not so far from the market. In fact, we got a very close view sitting at the restaurant. But there are too many steps up to the Palace. There is a road also up to the main gate of the palace where the ticket counter is. People from our group didn’t find it easy to climb that rocky path after lunch and they returned from the middle place. However, I continued and reached the palace safely. The palace is not at all in good condition. Maintenance work was in progress in the inner part. Some portion is full of garbage and dust. However, I got a very close view of the Leh city from the balcony of it. The District Magistrate office, Polo Ground, some Monasteries and lot of congested house is what I captured in my camera from the balcony. After this, I returned back to the guest house to have a good sleep. In the evening we went shopping in the market and then had a nice dinner. The next morning was the last day in Leh.

Day 12 (21st June, 2011)

Leh - Delhi (by flight) - Kolkata (by train): 6:55 AM was the time of flight departure from Leh. Getting a taxi in that early morning is always a problem. However, we managed to get a taxi by giving extra money. The flight journey was nice up to Delhi. Then we had Rajdhani Express booked from Delhi to Kolkata. This was a good journey too. This is how we ended this trip with lifetime memories.