Ladakh - the floor below the roof of the world

Ladakh, the word means Land of high passes in Ladakhi and appropriately so. A lot many people think even though they have read in History and Geography, that being a mountainous area it’s just an extension of Himachal Pradesh, and not a part of Jammu and Kashmir state.

Infact barring Jammu, both Kashmir and Ladakh have been the reason for dispute with our respective neighbours since the last 68 years of independence. But then that is a lesson for different audience, here we are more interested in getting there and enjoying what it has to offer, rather than a history lesson.

And what does Ladakh has to offer? It depends of what you went there looking for. The landscape is barren, very barren. Almost like a desert in fact a lot like a desert, just that there is little sand but lots of mountains and rocks. It also has rivers and green valleys, which seem like an unusual contrast when viewed from the high peaks or any of the famous passes.

This natural scene does not appeal equally to all who go there. For some it’s just the empty noise of wind in their ears, while riding over the distinctive thump thump of their enfield engines, or the spirituality in the air, heavy with its unpolluted presence for over 2000 years now.

And spiritual you are bound to become, once you reach this place. It reminds you of how utterly insignificant you are in the long run, or how so ever important or successful you are, these mountains and valleys have seen many more such people than you, they came they conquered but its this place that has seen it all and yet is unchanged for the past so many millennials.

There is a lot to see and learn from, for the initiated, for the naive there are all the attractions of a hill station slowly destroying the calm culture, prompted by the heavy tourist inflow and lack of the other economic opportunities save the tourism industry. Though humans have the tendency of reducing the best of places to mere photogenic memories, it is a long time before all of Ladakh would be just another destination to show off on your social media timeline.

For most of the statistical data look below, and then read on for what it will be well worth the experience,

Best months to visit - 

By Road : (Self Drive)

Via Manali - May to September. The road opens normally by mid of May, Rohtang pass opens a couple of weeks earlier.

Via Srinagar - May to September. This is the longer route, though it lets you see all of Jammu and Kashmir, if you choose to return Via Manali. 

More on the choice of roads to come later.

By Flight : All year. Flights are available all year round, depending on weather in Leh. There are atleast 4 direct flights between Delhi and Leh.

What did I do?

This was my second trip to the fabled land. And having seen both the routes the first time, i had the liberty to choose my path. The Srinagar - Kargil - Leh route been open since May would have been the ideal choice but a time crunch made me decide to head to Manali and try my luck from this side.

Delhi to Manali

It takes a day or rather 12 hours of drive to reach Manali, from Delhi. No matter at what time you start your journey, it is going to be of the same duration. Delhi to Manali is an easy drive, the hill routes are not tough. The road and traffic both get a lot better post Barmana, where the ACC Cement Factory is located. Till there, there is a lot of movement of heavy traffic which makes overtaking and driving at decent speeds impossible.

Kullu to Manali

Kullu and Manali have since long been connected with the new bypass road so now we don’t need to cross the city to head to the other side. There is still a lot of jam in peak season to cross the bridge towards the bypass at post Bhunter. The bridge over a tributary of Sutlej is quite narrow, hence results in a lot of bottlenecks. Once crossed Manali is hardly an hours drive away.

Manali to Leh

This is the tricky part and also the best part of the journey, at least for me. To drive on this route is the ultimate test and experience of ones driving skills.

The route from Manali to Leh is peppered with 5 passes, each getting higher than the previous as we proceed towards Leh. That is why it is mostly advisable to return through this route and head to Leh from srinagar side, but when were we to follow the right way?

RohtangLa

The first of the passes, translated to “Pass of Corpses”, literally is the worst to cross. Not because of the bad roads or difficult terrain but for the influx of tourists on this spot. It is said that even after stringent restrictions on arrivals here, atleast 1500 vehicles make a round trip to this pass daily and thats just the average number. One of the busiest tourist attractions, this pass is snow covered all around the year. Although a tunnel is being constructed from the solang valley side so that traffic to Leh can be opened all round the year but there are other bottlenecks on this route as well.

Once you cross RohtangLa, the roads become even more treacherous and muddy going down on the other side. A lot of careful and attentive driving is required on this stretch. Although the terrain provides ample opportunities to try off roading as well, at some places, but be advised, its a do it at your own risk activity.

Next destination is a small halt, Gramphu. This is the place where on the right, the road heads to wards the ever magnificent Spiti Valley, and left head towards Sissu, the next stop on the Manali Leh highway.

Off late some camps and staying options have come up here as well, so people heading to Leh can have a stop at this place too, otherwise there is always camps at Jispa.

Jispa is around 140 kms from Manali, and some 23 odd kms from Keylong. It is a small valley with Bhag river flowing at its right edge. It makes for a very scenic stop especially at night under clear skies.

On way to Jispa is Tandi, a small village and the last petrol station before Leh on this route. It is advisable to have the tank filled up completely here, and also carry some extra fuel in a jerry can, you never now what detour or bad road may halt your progress ahead. The next filling station, as a board proudly boasts is about 364kms away at Upshi.

A night stay at Jispa later, you are acclimatised and rested to tackle the roads better. A word of advise, if you leave at around 6 from Manali, you may reach Rohtang by 9. Spending an hour or two here will be a good idea, then head to Jispa by 12. You will reach there by 4, very comfortably.

BaralachaLa

The second pass on this route, and also maybe the worst to cross. For reasons like its location, and geography, the weather on BaralachaLa is always unpredictable. There can be rain, snow or bright sunshine within a matter of minutes. Whereas sunshine is good only when you leave early and cross the pass before the snow and ice starts melting, because then, the naalas start flooding which may cause traffic to stop for 3-4 hours at a stretch. On the scenic front this pass scores more heavily than any of the other passes on the route. Just below the pass is a lake, Suraj Tal, which remains frozen till end of June only thawing by Mid July, by then there are small camps setup there, which make a good overnight staying option, if you can bear the chill that is.

Sarchu

On the other side of BaralachaLa is Bharatpur Tent Colony. Beautiful and Barren. The temperatures here reach to -10 degress and more often than not, the fuel lines are frozen for vehicles which stay overnight here. If this is what it does to non living things, think about yourself. The people manning these tents are very helpful and friendly. Another hour later you reach the Himachal Border, at Sarchu.

If you leave Jispa by 8 in the morning, you can cover the distance to Sarchu in three or four hours, with ample stoppage time in between for photoshoots, which can never be enough, because the barren beautiful landscapes beg to be clicked now and then. And no matter how many pictures you take, the next scene seems too good to pass without taking another shot.

Pang

Post Sarchu, the next big stop is Pang, which takes another couple of hours. In between lies Gata Loops, a set of hairpin bends which take you from around 14000 ft to 16000 ft at the NakeeLa. This is the third pass on this route. The ascent is very comfortable save for the bad condition of the road on the loops and of course, an occasional landslide could set up back by an hour or so on the time. Barring that, it is one of the easiest passes on this route. Once you cross NakeeLa, the next valley has a crossing named, BiskyNala, or WhiskyNala. One of the two famous nalas in this region, the other too, a one before is named after another spirit, for that you can do some research on your own too. It would be fun.

Crossing Whiskynala, another 8 kms later is LachulungLa. This is one of the easiest passes even though being on such a great height. From here Pang is another half an hours drive. Why is Pang important? Well for one, from there starts the More plains. This is a plain stretch at about 13000 ft for 40-45 kms. The views to see here cannot be described in any words. You have to see the vast expanse to believe it. So much land, so much free space and exquisite sculptures cut by the movement of water on rocks for thousands of years. Each view more beautiful than the previous one.

TanglangLa

The fifth and last pass on this route is TanglangLa. Claimed to be the second highest motor-able pass in this reqion, this is one of the best maintained sections of the whole highway. Post this pass the drive simply follows the Indus river to the Leh valley along cities like Hemis, Shey, Thiskey which are also centuries old monasteries, infact Shey was the captial city of Ladakh kingdom until very recently, the new palace too is located there.

If you leave Jispa by 8 am, then you can very comfortably reach Leh in 10 hours with ample stops along the way.

Leh is another 90 kms from here, and the road is well maintained, with the route all along the Indus river, from Upshi the first town you will encounter in past 24 hours. No doubt you would be a bit disappointed at seeing fellow human beings after two days of solitude, and the natural sceneries now start to get dotted with human intervention. Not that that does not have an intrinsic beauty of its own but the to each their own piece of heaven, that is what Ladakh has to offer.

Other important information:

Permit for Rohtang - When you are travelling to Leh, you don't need the local permit to travel to Rohtang, that is only applicable for vehicles returning the same day. For vehicles crossing Rohtang to Lahaul side, the shack at Gulaba or somewhere before on the route will issue a slip which needs to be safely carried along till Leh. There are BRO check points where you have to sign in with the local official on duty. It is mandatory.

Tips for Driving:

Make sure you are adequately rested. Never drive sleepy on mountains. Drink a lot of water or juices. Go light on aerated drinks as they can cause acidity on higher altitudes, which is not good for driving on such roads. Take regular stops but don't physically over exert yourself as you will tire out very easily at such heights. Fellow travellers since they are very less in number try and stick in close driving distance, driving in those areas is very different from what we are used to in plains, proper etiquettes need to be followed for ones own better experience and those of others too, whom we encounter on the road.

Book Fair 2016 - Another year another visit

Book Fair 2016 - International book Fair

It’s not seldom that one gets to view or be part of a news recently read in the papers. Over the period of my short life, as compared to many other generations before me, i have had the honour of being at the right place at the wrong time, many a times. The timing though yesterday could not have been better, for some minutes before or later i would have missed the group of cyclists, on the NH 24. What made them stand out wasn’t that it was a large group of people cycling together, or that they were dressed in apparels common to all, but what made them noticeable was the police escort under which they were travelling. For it was the sound of the siren that made me notice what was happening on the other side of the highway carriage. Recently i had read about a group of cyclists who had come from Nepal, through UP to Delhi, maybe it was them who were heading back to their source. What had interested me in the new were two things, one the cycling from Nepal, and other the route they took, it was almost a mix of politics and religion, the places they had visited. Gorakhpur, Patna, Gaya, Varanasi which were on the route for religious places of  importance, but Saifai? And Agra? Probably because they would have arrived using the only cycle-able route, Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra, Delhi. That’s the route normally taken by anyone heading to eastern side of the state anyway. When i saw them, and since they were cycling on the NH 24 it seemed they would be returning through the other highway, the slightly northern one which goes through, Moradabad, Barielly, and maybe even head back into Nepal from Pilibhit side.

Here is the only link which i could find online mentioning something of their trip, Link. 

What further made me a part of history, wan’t the fact that i was heading to Delhi on just some day. I was travelling on the 13th. Not that it was the first time i had been out on Delhi’s roads on the day of lohri, but the fact that it was an odd date and i had odd numbered vehicle too. Odd, yes the even-odd we learnt in school. I was a part of the traffic during the experimental two weeks of odd - even rule as well. The Kejriwal government decided that it would reduce the traffic and pollution on Delhi’s roads, yes to some extent atleast the traffic is less, pollution i could not guarantee since i wasn’t the one carrying the proper scientific apparatus around. While heading into Delhi, even though i was travelling around 2 in the afternoon, the traffic did feel a lot less than what i had seen it to be in the previous years. I could see some rule breakers too, like this white scorpio travelling right ahead, but then who was i to point this out to?

The lines at the ticket window at Pragati Maidan weren’t that long, just around 5 or 6 people ahead of me, and the buying and entering was hardly an affair of 10 mins. There were some college students too, i assumed from their excitement about getting tickets on showing their id cards that they were here for the first time and it wasn’t only the books that had drawn them here. But then everyone had their own little motivations and plans for being someplace. Who was i to question their young desires? Moving ahead i caught a shuttle to the nearest hall. Even these shuttle to the respective halls weren’t that infrequent and crowded, i could easily gain a seat without any hustling, that is so characteristic of any fair at Pragati Maidan. Maybe the even odd rule and part fact that i had chose my visit on a working day mid of the week that to at noon worked somewhat in my favour of a quite roaming around in my own company. The book fair this year for some reason seemed alot more organised in the number of halls to be visited and presence of the publishers. Maybe subconsciously all the previous visits along these years were paying off or the fact that this one was the only visit in all the years that i was going alone too had something to do with it. I was alot more free in terms of making mistakes about going and retracting my steps, i wasn’t worried about walking an extra mile even if in the wrong direction. And a alot more than a mile i did walk. Once home, i checked on my steps i had taken for the complete day, and they were well over 10000. That’s more than 6 kms, and though all of it wasn’t by roaming in the fair, but atleast 4 out of those 6 were.

My visit began with the usual halls 8-11, which since time immemorial have been hosting the foreign publishers. That being the first step of the fair, i rounded up most of the biggies like, HarperCollins, PanMacmillan, Hachette, Oxford and others in their league. These were the ones most crowded, people thronging their aisles for their favourite books and hoping to catch the fair price bargains. The crowd was young and interested in books. Even though there were enough people to make the halls suffocatingly warm, walking wasn’t that tough. I was more interested in books and stalls which sell those rare books which can’t be found in the regular book shops, though it not did not prevent me from entering the popular stalls and talking down names of books being currently published on topics of my interest, which being politics, history and philosophy.  What i did notice was that there was a dearth of new topics, new books being published. I could still see books from 3 or 4 years backs being on the bestseller list, which says either something about our reading habits or good content missing from the shelves. Some new participants which i could see was those of the Speaking Tiger, and coincidently had finished a book of their publishing just a couple of days back, so the name too was quite fresh in the memory. They have an interesting collection at hand, and are printing some really nice stories from all parts of India. Here is the link with some more information incase anyone is interested in knowing more about them. Exiting from the international participants, i made my way to Hall 12, the one for Hindi publishers. My visit here was restricted to listening to authors in a couple of events and looking into a few stalls. The authors too had nothing new to add to what i already did not know about the publishing in hindi language, the declining readership and their commentaries on social issues plaguing our society since ancient times. I made my way towards the Hall 6, kind of escaping from what i thought was like the nature or most of our population. Escape from reality or problems of others which were not yet our own. All through the long walk i kept reflecting on various social evils in the society, which we choose to conveniently ignore in the safe havens of our homes.

Reaching Hall 6 was somewhat a change as this is where the smaller publishers and book stores have been aloted spaces. Here was where i expected to land a bargain and get some part of the treasure i had come looking for in the first place. I came across yet another new name, Niyogi books which i hadn’t registered on any of my previous visits. I wonder if we feed on what happens to be whetting our appetite in the near past, because i could see they had some really interesting titles in their collection. Here is a link incase you want to check out more about them. I finally struck gold at the stall of Sangeeta Books. They had the oldest collections of some of the rarest books. Books about which i hadn’t even heard of on most of the top e-sellers even. There was a clearing sale of sorts going on and every title was available at bargain prices. I spent the longest part of my visit there and when i had been satisfied that this well now had no more water for me, i made my way towards the highlight of the Book Fair this year, lugging around 7 kgs of prised possessions. I had even beaten 3 or 4 people to a title they could not help but envy me for being there at the right time, which was minutes before them.

Planning my exit strategy was easy, heading back towards hall 7 to cover the Guest country China’s exhibits and the showcase of India’s cultural past were next on my agenda. The history of printing in China has been very well exhibited and covered in great detail. It is peppered with lots of specimens on display, replicas of  rare books. Some of which i captured to be shared, most of it i just stood and soaked in the experience.   

 Once i had seen what our northern neighbour had to offer, i headed into my own past. A place which show cased India’s literary travels through the various ages. It is a nice setup, a full circular area, which starts with the southern india and ends on the eastern front. With books and arts from  each area displayed splendidly, i could do nothing but be mesmerised with what all there is to see in this land, and what a small part of life we spend trying to see it all, whatever little we see, we think we have seen everything.

I then moved on to bid adieu to a day spent well in the company of books and knowledge, both of which one can never have enough of, in my opinion. The drive back wasn’t easy, traffic was back on the road, it was later than 8 pm, the time limit for odd even rule had expired and so had space on roads. It took me about an hour or so to reach back home, a distance of around 17 kms in in one hour. But in this one day i had already travelled far and near, in theory, i had been to China and back and it had only taken me 2000 years or so.