Ladkah photoessay

You are going to hear a surfeit of Ladkah stories on this blog for a long time. Just warning.

Here is my latest published work – a photoessay on Ladakh on the Matador website. Do head there now, have a looksee and leave your comments!

Memories of Ladakh

This is the scene of confluence of the sparkling blue-green Indus with the muddy blue-brown Zanskar near the tiny village of Nimmo, just a hour’s drive from Leh in Ladakh. The two mighty rivers merge at this point, and flow on as the Indus. It is a popular spot for rafting among visitors and falls on the way from Leh to the ancient monasteries of Alchi and Likir, and Lamayuru further ahead. I think it is one of the prettiest spots in Ladkah.

This is one of the images that was recently displayed at a photography exhibition at the Alliance Francaise Bangalore. This is the other:

A day spent by the shores of Pangong Tso (‘tso’ for lake in Ladakhi) is one of the highlights of a trip to Ladakh. The lake changes colours by the minute, hundreds of shades of blue, dictated purely by the whims of the sun at that time. Pangong is a salt water lake situated at an elevation of over 4250 meters (13900 feet). It stretches on for 134 km, at its widest no more than 5 km, and over 2/3rds of it lies in China.

The road to Pangong

The route to Pangong is through the ‘mighty’ Chang La, proudly referred to as the third highest motorable pass in the world. In mid May, when we headed to Pangong, Chang La was completely covered in snow, making the journey as exciting and interesting as the destination. The trip took close to seven hours, what with all the stops for food and photography, snow clearing and for letting the more impatient vehicles pass and lagging behind the slower, larger ones.

At Chang La, the tent serving the customary cup of tea to weary travelers stayed shut in this off-season month and so we made our way to the other side after a few minutes out in the biting cold. We stopped at the tiny village of Tangtse for a quick lunch and headed on to Pangong. And just the first glimpse of Pangong, from a distance, just a small circle of brilliant blue is worth the long road journey.

At Tangtse, we stayed in a tent at Camp Watermark, close to the shores of the lake, spending the evening in frozen delight, watching the water change colours as the sun slowly disappeared among the snow-capped mountains. The temperature was close to zero degrees when we stepped out for dinner at eight p.m. and later in the night, dropped to -5 degrees!Inside the tent though, all was warm and cozy; we were tightly zipped up against the cold and under two heavy blankets.

Pangong is a salt water lake situated at an elevation of over 4250 meters (13900 feet). It stretches on for 134 km, at its widest no more than 5 km, and over 2/3rds of it lies in China. A day spent by the shores of Pangong Tso (‘tso’ for lake in Ladakhi) is one of the highlights of a trip to Ladakh. The lake changes colours by the minute, hundreds of shades of blue, dictated purely by the whims of the sun at that time.

Highlights of Ladakh

I have just returned from two weeks in Ladakh – mid May turned out to be a great time to go, despite the severe cold and dark clouds during the first few days – the high passes kept getting shut due to snowfall and our plans kept getting changed from day to day, yet more snow and fewer people made it all a dream holiday.

A few highlights for now:

~ the cheerful Juley! greeting from everyone on the streets, perfect strangers smiling at you…

~ landing at Leh, flying over the thick snow-clad mountains and then the shock of the stark brown hills of Ladakh, and the descent on to the tiny runway bounded by Spituk monastery on one end…

~ the unpredictable weather – clouds, rain, snow and sunshine in the same day…

~ driving to Pangong up the high Chang La, totally covered in snow, the pure white and brown like ice-cream with chocolate sauce…

~ the blues of Pangong, a hundred different shades all at the same time…

~ the blues of Tso Moriri, similar yet different from Pangong lake, the route along the crystal clear Indus all the way through…

~ the monasteries with their friendly monks, and especially the monklings (the young ones in training), all surviving the severe weather conditions over centuries, all unique in some way that makes it hard to play favourites…

~ walking up and down the tiny market road, chatting with the vendors of green vegetables and dried fruit and learning their names, just to forget them the next minute…

~ hot momos and thukpa soup, vegetable chowmein and the green chilli sauce, peanut cookies and mint tea, alu parathas and rajma chawal…

~ making friends with other travelers, many of them sophisticated world travelers who lose their world-weariness in Ladakh and give in to its quiet charm, some for months on end…