Ladakh: How To Do In 4 Days

Being a mountain-freak, the one place in India we always wanted to visit, was Ladakh. The legendary Indus river, the picturesque Pangong Tso lake, the vast mountains,  the desert-look, it was all very intriguing and a visual delight. Being a highly sought after destination post the depiction of the place in the iconic film ‘3 Idiots’, lot of people had multiple opinions, the most common one was that if you visit Ladakh for less than 14 days, it’s absolutely criminal. We had no other option but to commit that heinous crime since all we could manage was four full days in Ladakh. Of course, the whole sector had to be planned by air.
This is how we planned a four day itinerary for Ladakh:

Day 1: Arrival in Leh. Stay at the hotel to acclimatize to the high altitude. Recommended to stay indoors and restrict any activities

Day 2: Day trip to Pangong Tso lake. Four and a half hours drive one-way. Return to Leh before evening.

Day 3: Drive to Sangam through the Srinagar highway and then proceed to Nubra Valley, a four hour drive. Stay overnight at Nubra Vallley campsite

Day 4: Return to Leh by afternoon and do local sightseeing like Santhi stupa and the local markets.

Day 5: Return to Delhi by flight.
It is tough within a short time but possible. We managed it and made some amazing memories.

Day 1
I had already asked for a taxi at the airport (was recommended by the friend who had visted Leh). Zakhir was already standing with a placard with ‘Abishek bhaiya’ written on it. So we were welcomed with typical Pahaadi warmth. We boarded the Tata Safari and checked in to ‘Asia Guest house’, also recommended by my friend. We saw that there was no use in spending lavishly in accommodation as we had to stay mostly outdoors. The rate was a modest INR 500 per day with breakfast included. The room had the basic necessities like a bed and an attached bathroom. Hot water would be available only from 6:30 to 10 AM. A brook flowed past our hotel and the sound of the rumbling would always be dancing in our ears. It reminded of Tennyson’s famous lines from ‘The Brook’ –  “Men may come and men may go, but I go on forever”.
One of the most important travel advice for travelers to Ladakh (or any high altitude destination)  is that do not go out on day one. That is the day you take rest and get acclimatized to the high altitude and lower oxygen levels. Initially I hardly felt anything different. As soon as we took the stairs to check in to our room, I knew what it meant. After the climb, I felt as if I am back from a 400m run. No matter how slowly one climbed the stairs, there would be some breathlessness.
So, we decided that we would pay heed to the all the advice issued and take rest post lunch. We went out for lunch at a nearby restaurant or should I say library-cum-restaurant and had a light meal. The place was full of foreign tourists, most of them moving around with full trekking gear. I just wondered how one can climb mountains here when we were struggling after climbing one floor by stairs.
We came back to the hotel and decided that we would lie down for a while and then take a walk in the evening. However we dozed off and were woken up only by Zakhir bhai’s knock on the door at 6:30 AM the following day. I had no idea what happened in between. Perhaps the altitude did have some extreme effect. Zakhir bhai had reported right on time as we were planned to go to the Pangong Tso Lake for the day.

Day 2
We got ready as quickly as possible as Pangong Tso Lake is a good four and a half hours drive from Leh. So it required nine hours of travel through the mountainous roads and it was mandatory to return before sun-set. I was feeling a bit dizzy but thought I could manage.

The route to Pangong Tso involved travelling as high up to 17000 feet through the Chang La pass from where you come down to around 13000 feet and reach the lake. The higher we went, the colder it became and the roads worsened possibly due to the melting snow. While the road did become rough, it was still in far superior condition than the one which takes you to Rhothang pass from Manali. Soon we encountered the snow and it turned all white when we reached ‘Chang La’ pass. The drive continued for an hour more, this time downwards and soon the roads became better. We passed a number of army posts and finally reached Pangong Tso at around 1 PM. The turquoise lake from a distance was some sight which is hard to describe in words for someone like me. It is best that I let the photos do all the talking. Our car went right up to the bank of the lake where there were a number of tourists making their camera work overtime. From every position the lake seemed to have a different shade of blue with the mountains in the background. A snow-covered peak was spotted at a distance which I was told by Zakhir bhai, was in China. The Chinese border was just 150 kms from the lake. In fact the lake is long enough to extend to China. The lake was in its purest form with not a single man-made stuff floating on it. The place in itself was totally devoid of any concrete. The places to eat were in tents and for overnight accommodation as well, tents were the only option. We had lunch from one of the tents. Despite the fact that we were around 13000 feet above sea level, the temperature seemed easily in the early thirties, thanks to a strong sun. Post lunch we drove along the banks of the lake to the farthest point and probably viewed the best shade of blue for the lake. We clicked as many photos as we could and started off from there at around 2:30 PM since we had to return to Leh in daylight. The four and a half hour drive took us back to Leh. It was almost evening so we went to the hotel and released Zakhir bhai for the day. 

Day 3
We set off on the Srinagar highway. The road was absolutely smooth providing a great view of the beautiful rocky mountains that stood tall. The road at times looked like a ribbon maneuvering itself through the ranges. We reached the place which is named Magnetic Hill. The reason behind the name was demonstrated by Zakhir bhai. The car engine was stopped on an upward slope but still the car moved forward by around five metres. It was said to be behaving like a magnet and hence it was pulled forward. The whole thing seemed strange because if indeed there was such a powerful magnet which could pull up a Safari by five metres then certainly it could have pulled all other magnetic objects like my spectacles or my key chain. It did not, so it could not certainly be a super powerful magnet. Anyways, it was good fun to be a part of that small live demo from Zakhir bhai.
Our next stop was ‘Sangam’. Just like the one in Allahabad, this was also a confluence of two rivers – Indus and Zanskar. Probably the only small difference was this was surrounded by mountains which looked mesmerizing and the view of the rivers meeting from the road on top and the mountains as the back-drop can be just described in one word – breathtaking. We could spot some army people doing some river rafting. However, I learnt that it’s not open for the public. The most fascinating part of the ‘Sangam’ was the distinct difference in color of both the rivers. There were two totally different shades meeting and then flowing as one. 




We then planned to proceed to Nubra valley and stay overnight there. 
Nubra valley is located at a lower altitude of 9000 feet, than Leh. However, the route was through the famous Khardungla pass which is at 18000 feet and is the highest motor-able road in the world. So we had to climb up to 18000 feet and then come down to 9000 feet. The journey time would be same as it took to go to Pangong Tso which is four and a half hours. 

We reached the snow-covered Khardungla pass in an hour and a half up the mountains. We stopped for a while. When I tried taking a walk, I felt my head spinning and thought I would fall at any moment. Without taking any risk, we resumed our journey towards Nubra. The snow gradually disappeared as we descended. We stopped at a road-side place for lunch where we had an eternal favorite dish of the mountains – Maggi. Never had Maggi tasted so awesome. We reached Nubra and checked in to a camp site. We checked into one of the tents. The site had all the facilities – snacks and dinner was covered and had extremely clean toilets. Needless to say, it was surrounded by mountains. A small brook flowed past our tent. Nubra is mainly a desert and hence it’s famous for its camel safari. After checking in, we proceeded to the camel safari in the desert. I enjoyed a fascinating camel ride though Asmi decided to skip it and instead be the photographer and capture my camel ride. Desert with a mountain backdrop – breathtaking combination. Never thought we would see this much variety in a span of two days.
There was nothing much to be done after that so we chilled out in the tent site. We started off with some snacks – French fries and onion pakoda. There was a sharp drop in temperature after sunset and the place was buzzing with tourist groups – both Indian and foreign. Buffet dinner was served in the dining hall and soon after we moved back to our tent. It was quite cold by then so we crawled under the blanket as the tiredness took over and we dozed off.

Day 4
We lazed around checked out of the camp-site after having breakfast at around 11 AM for the long four and a half journey back to Leh via the Khardungla pass. Once again we stopped on the way to have some priceless maggi. We reached by around 3 PM, freshened up at the hotel and set-off for some local sight-seeing. We visited a monastery followed by the Santhi stupa. It was at a height from where you could get an aerial view of the whole of Leh. We got dropped off at the Leh marketplace where we did some shopping. Both of us bought souvenir t-shirts of Khardungla pass with the punch line “Top of the world” stitched on it (nice old fashioned design). We had dinner at one of the open air restaurants mostly flocked by foreign tourists. Unfortunately, we were a bit late so most of the special ladakhi food was already over so we had to be content with normal biriyani (There is nothing like ladakhi biriyani unfortunately). Just a mention that the taxi bill for the three days had come to around INR 13000 – a highly reasonable rate considering the great condition of the car and a highly skilled driver in the terrain.

Day 5

It was time to go back to Delhi. We boarded the flight in the morning at around 10 AM and were in Delhi by 11 AM. 

PS. Barely 2 weeks after this most memorable trip, Leh was struck by a cloud-burst resulting in floods which devastated the place and killed around 200 people. It was the worst possible thing to happen to the wonderful people from the beautiful mountains. Nature will heal the damages and as I write, the place is already back on track, just that the lives can’t be brought back.