Saturday, April 30, 2011

More memories from Ladakh

A couple of years ago, I teamed up with two guys from Pune, and we met up at Manali. After spending a couple of days there, we hired a Tavera, and we had a person drive us to Leh ! I've travelled quite widely in India, but what I saw then was something breathtakingly fresh and beautiful ! I think everyone should travel from Manali to Leh on road once in their lives.

Along the way, all three of us suffered from pretty serious altitude sickness, slept in a tent right in the middle of the mountains shivering through the night despite multiple layers of clothing, drove over small streams that flow right over the road along a few stretches, and across several bridges that creaked and threatened to give way as we drove over them, and ended up spending a few days at an army camp, as these companions of mine had a friend posted there! I might post some details of those adventures some other time, but for now, I'll just put up some pictures from that wonderful trip !

1) The long winding road....


2) Miss this sign, and you are doomed :-)


3) "Zingzingbar" is a road building camp en-route to Leh. For some reason, I fell in love with the name, and spent the next ten minutes of my life having a Zingzingbar - pronounciation- contest with those guys:-) Try pronouncing it repeatedly yourself, and you'll see what I mean !:-)


4) Picture perfect ....


5) Pangong Lake - Otherworldly ....

7 comments:

Rafiki said...

The pictures are beautiful. Reminds me of my trip to Haridhwar, Hrishikesh and Badrinath.

Rafiki said...

And about Zingzingbar, there are other words that you should try saying. Honolulu, Kuala Lumpur. I can't tell you why but these names make me laugh every single time I hear it or say it. :) I am adding Zingzingbar to this list. hehe.

Karthik said...

Rafiki - Oh yes Honolulum and Kuala lumpur are also good :-) Haven't been to Badrinath, but Haridwar and Rishikesh are beautiful ;-)

Lalit Patnaik said...

Beautiful photos. But the winner definitely is the signpost for the filling station that's 365 km ahead! The last one reminds me of Phunshuk Wangdu's school in Ladakh :)

Karthik said...

Lalit - Yes, that signpost was the best advertisement for people to buy fuel there :-) The last scene of 3 idiots was infact shot at the Pangong lake !!

Neeraja said...

Lovely pictures! So ethereal. Ladakh is surely a place to visit :)

Karthik said...

Neeraja - Yes, it is ethereal ! In fact, I myself was wondering whether to call it ethereal or otherworldly, and I happened to choose otherworldly :-)