Journey in the Himalayas (Leh - Chandigarh diary)

Not every journey need to have a destination. When we are in a mood to enjoy the journey itself, it does not matter, what the route is, how the path is, who the co-travellers are and what the destination is.

It was with this mindset that my wife (Anita) and I decided to explore this theme of journey for the sake of journey.

When we heard about #Cougarmotorsport which amongst others conduct, what is called #DefenderJourneys and in the #Jaguarlandrover #Defender, we were curious and tempted.

The Journey

We were served with multiple options on enquiry and as I was about to finish a business trip in Europe and found a nice slot in July, we looked for what is organised in that time slot. After all, we were more interested in the journey than  the destination.

The journey that we selected was from Leh to Chandigarh drive and from 13th till 19th July.

Fellow travellers

It is but natural to seek out within the family and friends circle to travel together. I always get intrigued with this Hindi word “Humsafar” (co-traveller) and always interpret in a quasi-English way and say as “hum” (we) suffer (together). So, in essence was looking for someone crazy enough like us, to suffer (or enjoy) with us.

We could not rope in any and decided to go ahead. 

We took a call that this will be in fact a good idea as we will get to know new set of people and be with perfect strangers till then and as we keep our step ahead together, will develop some sort of camaraderie. We weren’t wrong about this and we got to know Rohit Reddy and his family of Hema and Rishik from Bengaluru apart from a team of friends from Hyderabad (Naveen Reddy and his friends). 

Day -2, -1 & 0

This does sound like a final countdown for a rocket launch! We did plan it this way as we had been to Leh about fourteen years back and having travelled to Machupichu too, we understood the importance of “Acclimatising” at these altitudes. More importantly, we weren’t gradually climbing up to this altitude, but directly flying in from the plains of New Delhi.

We flew in on 10th July and started our “Journey” from 13th July. On arrival, we were whisked away from the airport to the hotel #thegranddragonladakh

After the customary welcome in the Ladakhi style, we decided to "Do Nothing" and just relax to allow our body to get acclimated to this thin atmosphere. We took Diamox tablets, kept ourselves hydrated and it was a day of complete relaxation.

The next day was to have some light exercises and we took a taxi and visited Hemis and Thiksey monasteries and the Shey palace with a small stop at the Sindhu ghat. Later in the evening, we walked up to the main market area.

Monks drawing a Mandala for the rituals 

The colourful Thiksey Monastery

The Sindhu Ghat

Main Bazaar street in Leh

And…. This is where the “Bike bug” bit me. I wanted to hire a Royal Enfield Himalayan and do an early morning ride (much against the wishes of Anita). Could not resist and finally went out that evening and took a bike on rent for an early morning ride the next day. 

Check more on renting a bike..

Me, riding the bike…

Day 1

It was all about an early morning ride and meeting up with the co-travellers, briefing about the journey, signing the indemnity and other documents and have a nice local culture exposure through an evening of song and Jabro dances.

Ride to the Hemis monastery (in the background)

With the Jabro dance troupe (next to us is our co-travelling family of Rishik, Hema and Rohit)

Interesting point during that morning and at the breakfast was, that an elderly gentleman asked me if I was the person in the riding gear in the morning and I replied affirmative. We instantly bonded and started to talk like any biking brotherhood evokes bonds. This was Mr. Shyam Bhat (who had done quite a bit of biking himself including biking in South Africa) hailing also from Bengaluru and his brothers (The Bhat brothers from Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bengaluru). We had a brief chat only to further discover that they just then had completed a journey in the Landrover Defender and arrived at Leh in the previous evening. We exchanged notes and I spoke of our journey ahead, while they did about what they concluded the previous night. 

Day 2

In the morning we had free time as we were to start the journey in the afternoon. We decided to visit the #Thehalloffame a memorial built in memory of the Kargil war.

It was such a moving experience to hear of young soldiers and their officers bravely defending our land. While we should not shed a tear for a brave martyr, but respectfully and proudly salute them, we could not help, when we saw a letter written by Captain. Vikram Batra to his parents. We could not hide our smile, when we saw the airforce bomb with writings on it as “From Raveena Tandon to Nawaz Sharif”. It is worth a visit to this museum to understand the topography and lay of the land which made it important for us to capture back the Tiger hill and few other strategic locations which had incursion from the Pakistani army.

In front of the entrance to the Hall of Fame

Post lunch, we all packed and started off on our “Journey”.

All set for our Journey

It was much of an uneventful journey and we all had to familiarise ourselves with the vehicle and its controls (like switching to manual mode as we get to the climbs and hairpin bends, use the off-road mode etc.). We also had to get used to a disciplined driving (like being in the convoy and follow the sequence in the convoy, no overtaking, adherence to all the safety norms like giving enough space between vehicles etc.). The team lead by Mr. Armaan Gupta and ably supported by Mr. Anil Ambady and Mr. Raghav Dhamija (all from #Cougarmotorsport) were polite, but firm in having all of us follow the norms strictly and ensuring no deviations are tolerated. We had to get used to the usage of a “Walkie-talkie”. Rishik, our youngest member in the group had a lot of fun with his quirky replies / acknowledgments to the commands / instructions / warnings being given out (like Roger Capt. Roger that, Copy that, okay, …). 

 On our way, we visited Gurudwara Pathar sahib. We learnt about Guru Nanak’s “Udasis”. For person like me, coming from Deep South, we were exposed to Sri Shankaracharya’s travels around Bharath to propagate Hinduism and establish Mutts. However, I had not heard of Guru Nanak ji’s Udasis. This was a new revelation to me. To know more about it check on this hotlink…

https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/The_Udasis_of_Guru_Nanak

In front of Shri. Pathar sahib gurudwara.

To read more about the history and legend of Pathar Sahib and Nanak Lama, check it out here..

https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Gurdwara_Pathar_Sahib

This story was narrated to us by Aramaan, our lead in the journey and it was very fascinating to learn and what impressed me the most was the extensive travel that the Sikh Guru had undertaken including to the south of India.

Uley Eco Resort

We reached Uley Eco resort, our place of stay for the night and much to our delight, situated in midst of Apricot and Apple orchard. Like small kids we were greedily reaching out and plucking ripe Apricots and eating them. Apples did not look ripe enough and we were told that they ripen later in the season. The accommodation was superb and we assembled around a campfire later to enjoy “Juley” (I will not further elaborate as to what that it is 🫢). Juley - is incidentally a form of greeting in the Ladakh region.

Day 3

A long and an arduous drive through a tough terrain.

We left Uley after breakfast and started a 378 Kms and almost 10 hours journey. We were gaining altitude in this drive and had bad rod / off-road conditions. We passed through two passes - Sirsir la and the Singe la.

This drive needed all the focus and attention on the path and pushed me beyond my comfort zone, while not being too challenging. At one point in time, I switched off the music just to focus on the drive. We had to be cautious in not getting our Tyres slashed (these tyres have robust reinforcement where they contact the ground, but the walls are vulnerable and any sharp stone / boulder can make a cut, which then cannot be fixed like fixing a puncture). Aramaan, as a lead, kept cautioning us and calling out hazards, so that we could be aware and take action (“Sharp stones - drive slow”, “sharp stones to your right - keep left”, Water crossing ahead - keep to the mountain side” etc.). I also had the luxury of having Anil Ambady in the sweep car and behind me also guiding me.

At Sirsir la

At these passes, we paused and stayed for some photo ops (we were sufficiently advised to step out wearing warm clothes, stay hydrated, use sunscreen, keep our ears closed and allow some time with deep breaths, before moving around after getting down from the vehicle and not stay beyond 15 mins).

We were also initiated by our young guruji (Armaan), about the significance of the Buddhist prayer flag, what do the colours signify, how to tie a flag etc. we tied the flag reverently at the passes.

To know more about the prayer flags, click here…

We stopped in between for lunch in the middle of almost nowhere. The #CougarMotorSport team was amazing in the way they had prepared and arranged for our lunch.

Having lunch of Poori and bhaji in the middle of nowhere

A joy to drive around these mountains in Landrover Defender.

Van following us with backups (drivers, spares, carrying food and other support stuff) and a ladies toilet was of great help (more so for the two ladies in the group).

After a gruelling drive, we were glad to be on terra-firma. The Tara mountain resort was “Glamping”, while being a tent, was pretty luxurious.

Day 4

We were to camp for two nights at Purne. The night sky had absolutely no “Light pollution” and that allowed to do some real star gazing (while the most of India was doing star gazing on the social media at the Ambani wedding).

We had choice to stay back in the resort camp and relax or do a “moderately easy trek” to Pugtar monastery.  Of all the nine guests, three of us decided to do a trek. We had a local guide to take us there.

For a person, who had done Kilimanjaro climb and Machupichu Salkantay trail, this should have been an easy trek. But, this was my first trek after my cardiac incident and I was apprehensive. I was not carrying my trekking boots too and did not want to injure myself with an ankle twist. 

We managed to complete the trek of two hours one way and had a peaceful visit to the monastery which is to date, not connected by road and people have to trek to this remote place.

The Zanskar river flowing through the valley

A monk basking in the sun

Crossing the river over a hanging bridge with Rohit Reddy and Rishik.

As we got back from trek and towards evening, we heard that one of our Co-traveller (Pratap Reddy) fell sick, his oxygen level went low and had to be sent to Manali along with his team mates. Raghav and the doctor had accompanied them to reach a hospital safely. 

Quick decision and actions taken by the Cougar team needs a special mention.

With a reduced number of people, we still decided to keep the spirits high with Rishik playing truant and making us all play cards (Bluff). 

 

Keeping our spirits high.

Day 5

This was another quasi-tough drive, but not as tough as the previous one. We reached the highest possible altitude in our journey at Shinku la. We also passed through a sacred mountain called Gumbok Rangan or Gumbok Rangjon (which I nicknamed as Rangan betta - Rangan is a name given to Lord Sri Ranganatha manifesting a aadi, madhya and Antya Ranga spanning across Karnataka and tamilnadu. Betta means a hill or a mountain in Kannada)

Gumbok Rangan

Another highlight was travelling through the 8.5 kms long Atal tunnel which has made it possible for an all season connection to the Zanskar valley (we had come 14 years back to the nearby town  called keylong and there was lot of security arrangements around for “Foundation laying by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi”). 

We got down from those harsh almost tundra desert levels to below the tree levels of altitude and lush greenery of Manali.

The over night halt was at ITC welcome group Hamsa Manali.

ITC welcome Hamsa, Manali.

Day 6

My birthday being celebrated at Manali

Time to say thanks to team Cougar, Defender journey

This last part was a plain vanilla highway drive with a lot of usual traffic that we are all used to in the urban jungle. It was time to say goodbye to the team Cougar, which proceeded to Delhi in the vehicles and we retired for the day at JW Marriott, Chandigarh.

It was a lovely curated experience provided by #Cougarmotorsport and a great on site team of  Armaan Gupta, Anil Ambady, Raghav Dhamija (all of them are trained and certified instructors under JLR Global experience program), Dr. Tshering Tandup, Sri. Amanpreet Singh, Kulwinder Singh and Sunil Kumar (support staff in the van) and with support from the staff at Cougar motor sport, Delhi (Ms. Sapna and team)

To end, I can only say that this is the beginning of hopefully more such journeys. 

To quote Ghalib…

हज़ारों ख्वाहिशें ऐसी कि हर ख्वाहिश पे दम निकले 

बहुत निकले मेरे अरमान, लेकिन फिर भी कम निकले

(Armaan - this one is for you…)

This means …

Thousands of desires, each so intense that every desire exhausts me 
Many of my dreams have been fulfilled, yet I remain unfulfilled.

Please click here for a short video of our experience…

https://youtu.be/AXFmIJIH1ig?si=pRZE39AqV6eFEq5U