My Travel Dairy -Reena Kapoor

Monday, June 25, 2007

Recently, I went for a vacation with my husband Karan to Laddakh. Being a military area, it is still untouched and remains a virgin beauty. It is not like any other normal hill station with greenery and a lot of tourists and dirt, but Laddakh has hills of different colours as they are made up of different stones.

Being a hill station, Ladakh has a pleasant climate no exactly pleasant but it is cool there. We went to Chaula Pass, which is the third highest peak in the world and the temperature there was -6 degrees. Apart from that, the temperature remains around 10 degrees.

Being a military area, one has to take permission at most places one visits, but as my father-in-law has a military background we did not face any problem. We visited a lot of places in and around Laddakh, but one place we liked is Chumpa Phanga. This route to this place is out if this world. It is a three-hour journey from Leh and surrounded by mountains and runs parallel to the river Indus. Once you are there it is extremely cold, but you will find hot springs there and if you sit beside these springs you feel warm.

There is a problem for food in Laddakh. We had though that we would survive on typical Chinese or Thai dishes, but it was not a good experience. Ultimately we had to depend on the local dal, roti and rice. The rice is of typical Himachal quality and is coarse. The people there are very sweet and helpful. We got their co-operation at every place.

There is a lake, I cannot recall the name, but it is beautiful. I liked the trip there because it was colourful amd ill tell you why. The lake has water which is dark blue in colour and all around it are colourful mountains with no greenery. So it looks like a painting on a canvas. I have never seen such a sight before and one such sight that I will never forget.

All that I advice people is that Laddakh is not an easy place to be in since it is at a height and a mountainous area. Thus, one has to be sure that they are in good health and have to give around two days for the body to adjust. Also there is no scope of shopping there because it is not an exploited place.

I strongly recommend people to visit this place for a quiet vacation in the lap of nature.