Chota Ladakh | Weekend gateway from Bangalore

Got a call from my friend Amit in an evening suggesting for a trip to Chota Ladakh by car. I was like “what , Ladakh by car, no man, it will be too tiring”. Then he clarified saying its a place near Bangalore , not the original one and sent me some links from google which were quite convincing.

Why the place is named so:

This landscape and the water bodies are some what resembles with the Pangong Lake of Laddakh. Hence this might be the reason of such name. The actual name is "Dodda Ayur" . Please ensure to address it with its primitive name while inquiring with locals about the place as many are not familiar with the alias 'Chhota Ladakh'. This name is mostly popular among tourists only.

Our trip:

Around 7 AM Amit & Anand picked myself and Pinku from Marathahali and started our trip. On the way we picked Kabi and took the Kolar highway [NH-75]. The drive was quite enjoyable as as it was full of scenic beauty all the way long. We had multiple photo/tea stops on the way and one breakfast stop. I do not remember the name of the restaurant but the food was really mouth watering.

How to reach:

It located in between Bangalore and Kolar at a distance of around 60 km from Bangalore and 30 km from Kolar. We followed google map and taken a diversion from the highway, drove around 2 km further to approach the place.

Also Read: weekend getaways near Bangalore

We reached around 10 am. Car and bikes can go near the exact place. Parking is free here. There is no designated parking area, but lot of open space to park the vehicles.

The beauty of the place can be enjoyed from the top but for a lively experience we decided to go down near the water. There are no proper steps that goes down , so we had to be bit careful. This place does not witness much tourists, which makes this place a perfect gate way for those who wants to be away from city noise for some time, to rediscover themselves.

We spent around 2 hours roaming around here. A day well spent gossiping our college days, pulling each others leg and driving back some good memories.

Instagram : _tapan.k