Trip Report :Ladakh

Introduction and Acknowledgement :
My sincere thanks to the entire IM community who had made possible all my trips in the past and the Ladakh trip in particular . My special thanks to Jaydeepy , whose daring trip to ladakh in the month of November with family has given me enough confidence not to backout and also arinhere whose timely tripreport gave me new ideas and tweaks which made the trip all the more memorable.

Finally , after years of gaining inspiration from this vibrant community my small contribution back to the community

Itinerary :
Our Initial Itinerary was :
Day1 : Delhi to Leh ( Fly) - Rest , evening local site seeing
Day2: Leh-Patharsahib-Magnetic Hill-Indus confluence- Basgo-Likir- Alchi
Day3: Leh-Khardungla-Diskit- Hunder ( Nubra Valley)
Day4: Nubra- Leh
Day5: Leh- Pangyong , Day6: Pangyong- Tsomoriri ; Day 7: Tsomoriri -Tsokar- Leh .

But after reading arinhere tripreport , I got more adventurous , so I changed the Day-4 onwards itinerary :
Day4 : Hundar- Turtuk-Tyakshi- Hundar (Stay)
Day5: HUndar- Agam- shyok- Durbuk-Tangste (stay)
Day6 :Tangste- Spagmik ( Pangyong)- Man- Merak- Chulshul-Tsaga La- Loma- Hanley ( Stay)
Day7 : Hanley- Loma - Nyoma - Mahe- Sumdo- Tsokiagar- Tsomoriri-Tsokar- Debring- Ta lang la- Leh ( Stay Leh)

Day 8 : Leh- Delhi - Back to boring life

But it was 2nd week of November and we were not sure how the climate will turn up , so we were flexible and ready to change itinerary if required.

Yuf!! so finally if you waded through all the boring write up , hope few pictures would make you more enthusiastic to read the rest

...

looking forward to read that "write up" and to see all the photographs ...

After trying to upload photos for last 2 hrs ..the result is FAILED!
SOS !
Can I upload photos from my facebook page directly ?
How can I upload photos by pasting URL here?
Can i upload from my pc directly ? upto what size limit?
I dont want thumbnails to come !

saw lovely painting like photographs in your Images Gallery of India Mike...

It's very easy to upload your images here...

You should click the image on the Gallery . It will open with JPG extension...

You have to copy the URL and paste it into the pop-up.

Please don't go for Facebook images. It would be lost as soon as they shift the location.

In stead Flickr, tumblr or photobucket are better options...

Thanks Prakaant , you saved my day. Finally some photos I could upload

Beautiful photos Thanks for sharing .

Thanks for sharing your experiences Himadri. What camera / lens combination have you used?

- Vaibhav

Thanks for liking

Thanks vaibhav.. i have canon1100d with sigma 18-250 , canon 10-18 mm, canon 50mm lenses

How can I upload photo from laptop directly ? Is it with the 100kb size limit?

You can upload to the image gallery (there's a limitation of 1024 pixel length on longest edge). ETA: If you want to upload to your post directly, there are size limits.

... And you will have to go to the "Go Advanced" and use icon to upload images directly from your laptop...

Once you upload image, you may again click icon, and you will find "Attachment xxxxxxx". If you click this, it will be transfer the Attachment to the location where your cursor is...

I looked through the double layered window glass of my Go Air flight . The proceedings of last few weeks played before my eyes- the anticipation, the agony of waiting , the fear of sabotage have taken its toll . Just to think that I almost left my camera bag at the security check , gave me goose bumps now. It was November 2nd week , lot of vacant seats in the plane. The locals wore mostly light woolen and this made me amused. Me, on the other hand, was dressed up for the sub-zero temperature ,I anticipated . Now I feel suffocated, I could hardly move my neck with the layers I wrapped myself with. I removed my jacket, muffler and felt relieved. I checked my watch , it read 8:30 AM and luckily the flight started maneuvering just on time . I got my seat belt tightened and readied the camera. The plane started speeding, perhaps my heart was racing even faster . Soon we were air borne, we glided through the morning haze of Delhi air. The streets,the cricket fields,the high rises became smaller and smaller and finally gave way to blanket of clouds.

After my exodus from this City few years back it has become a sort of transit point for me this days. My recent dwelling in Uttrakhand, living closer to the Kumoan side of Himalays, has in fact enhanced my wanderlust for the Himalayas. The magnificent Mountains in its authoritative presence, the mystical air that flows around, the loneliness in its tiny hamlets, the play of sunlight on the snow clad peaks entice me like nothing else can . I confess I have spend hours just staring and soaking in its presence . In one of those moments I have penned down a few lines :
“I looked at Her standing Aloof
Like a Nymph on a Full Moon Night
Pine and Deodar forms roof
A path allures and disappears from sight”

Fourty minutes into the flight I was hyming those lines in my head, the clouds have given way to blue mountains of Himachal . I rested my head at the window pane, outside the clouds play , the sky changing colors went on incessant . Soon , we were flying over the snow white peaks .Layers of peaks were stacked and spread across the horizon . At the top there was the azure blue sky and unsullied peaks at the bottom ,looked like a painting on a canvass. We flew over glaciers , blue lakes.





I Clicked non-stop , changing lens in between , so much so , I couldn’t see with my right eye for a while. My wrist watch showed 10 o’clock and we were about to land in Leh. The Pilot announced 4 degrees outside, I wrapped myself back with all the clothes, as did everyone else. The Plane flew close to the ground , for a while its shadow chased it from behind , then it rapidly grew bigger in size and met its own creator. The flight finally came to a halt and we all got ready to alight .Thus ended one of my most memorable flight .

Apart from being a good photographer , you are a good poet as well Interesting travelogue.

Thanks arupratan for your kind words