Ladakh - the land of high passes

Ladakh - the land of high passes is known for it's beautiful landscapes, monastery and large high altitude lakes. I have never experienced such drastic changes of landscapes. One can get enough time to indulge with the nature.

Let me share my own created itinerary which I carried with me to Ladakh.

Day 1 - Take flight to Leh and head towards your homestay. The taxi stand is just near by the airport and it costs approx. Rs.500 for 4km (cost can differ based on the distance of your homestay from the airport). There are beautiful homestay available on the Leh market itself with affordable price per night. It is not a big deal to get a hotel/homestay in Leh.

As Ladakh is the highest plateau in India(almost 9800 ft) so it is always suggested to be there in Leh city for first 2 to 3 days for acclimatisation.

First 2 to 3 days you can explore the Leh city completely. Nice local food, market, shopping, palace, monastery and what not.

Coming to my schedule- First day after getting refresh in homestay, I started to explore the leh market. It was just 2km(walkable) from my homestay. There is one very famous Tibetan restaurant in the Leh market itself to explore the local food which is delicious and reasonable. There are some more must try restaurants which I will explain below. You can visit Leh palace too which is just near the Leh Bus stand.

Day 2- The very next day I started for Thiksey Monastery, Hemis Monastery, Shey palace,Shanti stupa, hall of fame. All are in Leh only and within 100 km distance. The sunset in shantistupa is mesmerising.

Day 3- The next day you can visit magnetic hill, gurudwara pathar Sahib,Sangam point(the confluence of Indus and zanskar river) which is just 30 to 40 km away from Leh market. Also there are places called zanskar valley, Lamayuru.

Day 4 - The actual trip starts here. I checked out the homestay in Leh and started towards Nubra Valley. You need to cross Khardungla which is the highest motorable pass(17000 ft almost) to reach Nubra valley. Due to the high altitude it is not advised to stay more than 15min. But yes it completely depends on your health condition. Luckily I did not feel any sickness so I was there for around 30min and enjoyed the view from top of the mountain.

After Khardungla while driving towards Nubra, there are places to do few activity like ATP ride, double bump camel ride, Zip lining etc. in Hunder, which is also known as cold desert. Hunder is famous for it Sand dunes and the bactrian camel. It is located in the bank of Shyok River. There is a monastery called Diskit which will come on the way and trust me the view from the Monastery is awesome.

It was almost evening by the time I cover these many places. So I had some delicious food in the local market of Nubra and checked in to homestay.

Day 5- The day 5 was scheduled for turtuk and zero point. Turtuk is the village which was part of Pakistan earlier and then during Kargil war India occupied the place. It is about the village life, journey of loss and redevelopment. Turtuk is one of the gateway for siachen glacier. Then you can head to India-Pakistan border. It is allowed to interact with Indian army since 2018 and you can witness the view of India-Pakistan border from distance. You can also interact with villagers of Turtuk and hear out their struggle during the war. Turtuk has lots of apricots and you can explore some of the local food made of apricots and local flour.

Day 6- The day 6, I left Nubra and headed to Pangong. The way to pangong from Nubra is filled with landscapes,river,greenary ,adventure and what not. It is highly risky off road to reach Pangong. Sometimes people experience unexpected ladslides, over flow of river. But the local drivers are so skilled and aware to drive through this route.So Pangong is at an elevation of 13000 ft approx. This lies cradled between India and China. It is the world's highest salt water lake.It achieved immense popularity after the Bollywood movie "3 Idiots" shoot.Also it is popular due to it's breathtaking beauty, colour changing water. Actually it has blue water but due to sunlight you can see the change in the colour of the water from blue to light green. It is nice experience to spend some time in the lap of the nature without any sort of mobile network and internet. I spotted yak,white horse,marmot on my way. The pangong has very cold temperature and windy weather. so proper winter wear is must. So I had a stay there in Pangong just near the lake. There are many camps, homestay available in very famous pangong. You can visit the 3 Idiots shooting spot near Pangong lake. There you get the props used in 3 idiots movie shoot like scooters, 3 idiots bum etc. and do the photo shoot with cost of 50/- per person. It is better to stay in Pangong at least a day just to enjoy the amazing surreal view of blue water surrounded by huge mountains and fresh air.

Day 7- The next day was the time to leave beautiful and neat Pangong and head to another out of the word beautiful lake called "Tso Moriri". It is connected from Pangong by Chusul where you can see the china border from the distance. It has beautiful and breathtaking view which should not be missed. Pangong to Tso moriri is about some 200 km distance.So it is better to stay a day there. so that you can rest and indulge with the beauty of the nature. Tso moriri lake is some 300 ft depth and really it is pristine, beautiful attraction. It is not as popular or crowded as Pangong but beautiful.It is also known as mountain lake. It is surrounded with greenery and mountains. Here also you will get so many homestay to enjoy the lake view without any mobile network/internet. It is almost 14000 ft high altitude. so yes carry enough winter wear. While driving from Pangong to Tso moriri just keep enough snacks and water bottles because it is completely off road and you won't get enough shops/restaurants on the way.

Day 8- Sad ! The last day of my trip. It is the day to travel back Leh from tso moriri. On the way there are places where you can see hot springs. Localites are aware of such places where you will see the hot springs and trust me it is really boiling water. Tso moriri to Leh is almost 220 km far and you will not see a single person in some places in that route. You will get to see some hot springs and marmot on the way to Leh. It was a tiring journey from Tso moriri to Leh. I had a stay in Leh to take rest over night.

Day 9- Departure from Leh. The time took to the airport from Leh market is hardly 15 minutes. As it is an army based airport and very less(hardly 2 0r 3 only) flights are operated that too only in first half of the day, always better to reach to the airport at least 3 hours before departure to avoid rush.

Note - You need pass from transport department of Leh to travel to Nubra, pangong.tso moriri etc. It will just cost you something around 700/-

Some recommendations for homestay :

Kushu Homestay - Leh

Hill view homestay - Nubra

Thangzyng house- Pangong

Milkyway guesthouse - Tso moriri

Recommendations of the local food:

Shapta, thintuk, momo, thukpa, skyu,tingmo

Some famous restaurants you can try in Leh Market-

Tibetan kitchen , Dogra dhaba, Gesmo Restaurant

Cost of Cab as per my itinerary - 30k-35k

Total cost of the trip - If you are not solo traveler then on an average it will be 60k per person(including stay, travel, food everything)

Important things to carry- Enough winter wear, umbrella/raincoat, sunscreen, cash- Some places due to no network digital payment will not work, medicines for acclimatisation - It depends on individual's health condition. Else you can keep camphor for the emergency instead of tablets.

There are many offbeat places in Ladakh to explore. I personally feel one week is not just enough.

Happy Travelling.