Instead of being like Tom Hanks in 'Cast Away' where he had to completely fend for himself, there is always help when you ask the right person. Who better than to ask our prized Indian Army personnel who was standing near the entrance of the Airport. Guiding me to the nearest Taxi Stand, with the help of a driver, I reached my hotel where I was duly welcomed in by a very friendly Tour Manager (TM) who even said that I needn't have to pay the Taxi Fare and that he would take care of it. Yes. In this case, the Guide and TM were two different persons.
The TM's instructions were crystal-clear - Acclimatization to the weather of Leh, Drink lots of liquid fluids and Not to partake in any non-veg food due to the fact that it will consume, pun intended, time for digestion. As I was a Veg, I had no issues with the last part. Sadly, there were two other family from Chennai who were admitted in the hospital on the day of arrival itself. The official version from the TM is that they had certain non-veg food and that caused them sickening health issues. I have no idea what actually caused their condition to become bad and sad. Just think for a moment. You are thousands of miles apart from your hometown. And you have fallen sick with your nice kids on a trip which you have been looking forward to enjoy.
I was amongst such a situation and I felt really sorry for them as they had also traveled all the way from Chennai by spending a fortune but ended up in the beds of the hospital. Poor people. They were around 6 of them and none of them were able to make it to the next day's itinerary. In fact, one of the family was nearby to my house which I learnt during my brief interaction with them on our first day before they were hospitalized.
All this had happened during the night time and I was in the know of these events only in the morning when the bright sun broke apart the intense curtain of chilliness of the night. Oh Yeah. The weather was cold. Damn cold. Unfortunately, I didn't have any gloves and my hands were being slowly frozen like water turning to ice. I decided to get myself a pair of cheap gloves when we were on en route to sight-seeing.
First up, the Tourist van went up to a Buddhist temple atop a hill followed by the palace. There was absolute stillness in the air which made the meditation simpler and faster and at the same time, the dry chilly winds was making matters worse. I had been to Kullu-Manali, Shimla, Gangtok, Badrinath, Kedarnath when I was a kid. So, chilly temperature wasn't a big obstacle to me. But, the dry cold winds was something which I was experiencing for the first time and I was constantly in need of water like an agricultural crop in a land. After visiting the Palace, the driver politely obliged to drop us near the market to get gloves. There was an Aircel showroom nearby and evaluating a quick CBA, okay Cost-Benefit-Analysis, it wasn't worth to have a postpaid SIM just for the tour. The only major barrier apart from the weather which I faced was the language. Luckily, I had people who could speak English in our van. Thus, I simply got the gloves as that was mandatory for survival in that inclement weather and foregone on the idea of SIM as there were decent people around me in our group to help me out in case of any emergency like any sickness which the family from Chennai had experienced.
Leh-Ladakh was a paradise for photo-taking. Such was the opulence of breath-taking vistas that were spread out in front of you like a lavish buffet. Incredible is an understatement to thoroughly capture the grand beauty of Nature's exquisite paintings on the canvass of land - You could literally see snow-capped mountains on one side, greenery on other and dust-filled barren lands on another. DSLR holders and owners would have a field day on the field with their valuable cameras as they have a treasure chest of scenic settings in their kitty. I had to be contented with just taking pics in the cam on my mobile to freeze those marvelous views which was extremely unique and striking from each angle that you could not comprehend the wonders of the majestic landscape merely in one single shot.
After the purchase of gloves and whatever others had wanted to purchase, we returned by the van to the hotel and I half-expected Maggi to be my staple diet throughout the course of the tour. Luckily, I had an array of fantastically cooked food, at least in my hotel, to withstand the brute of a weather. The HK encounter with food made me very cautious to politely request the servers whether it was Veg or Non-Veg as they had both in their menu. And I said "fantastic"for the food not only for the taste but also it was piping hot. A much needed where everything was darn cold.
As the next day we had to travel to the highest motorable road in the world - Khardungla Pass and then to a I-forgot-the-name-of-the-valley, it shall be covered and concluded in the next blog.
X---To Be Concluded---X
After the purchase of gloves and whatever others had wanted to purchase, we returned by the van to the hotel and I half-expected Maggi to be my staple diet throughout the course of the tour. Luckily, I had an array of fantastically cooked food, at least in my hotel, to withstand the brute of a weather. The HK encounter with food made me very cautious to politely request the servers whether it was Veg or Non-Veg as they had both in their menu. And I said "fantastic"for the food not only for the taste but also it was piping hot. A much needed where everything was darn cold.
As the next day we had to travel to the highest motorable road in the world - Khardungla Pass and then to a I-forgot-the-name-of-the-valley, it shall be covered and concluded in the next blog.
X---To Be Concluded---X
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