I never thought that the day would eventually comes this fast when I was busy distracting myself from all daily routines. But I was glad to do this with my two craziest and yet kindest friends in my life.
Leh is a town in the Leh district of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It was the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh. Leh is at an altitude of 3,524 metres (11,562 ft), and is connected via National Highway to Srinagar in the southwest and to Manali in the south via the Leh-Manali Highway. In 2010, Leh was heavily damaged by the sudden floods caused by a cloud burst. But you won't see the scars of this disaster any longer. You will only find the beauty and stunning landscape.
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| Pangong Tso |
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| Vistara Airways from Delhi to Leh |
The first time I knew this place from Indian movie called "3 Idiots" back in 2009. Well I did not know very well of this place at that time, but I was amazed by one of the movie scene in Pangong Tso (Tso means: Lake). The lake looks very beautiful and unique, one of the biggest salted lake in the world. This lake belong to two countries, India and Tibetan China.
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| Frozen Pangong Tso |
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| Pangong Lake |
After been waiting for almost ten years to make this dream come true, I eventually booked my plane ticket in 2018. I planned to do solo traveling but at the end, two of my friends were interested to join.
The best and cheapest airfare route was flying from New Delhi. There are several airplanes from Delhi to Leh, such as: Jet Airways, Air India, Vistara, Go Air and Spicejet. Took a lot of preparations to come to this Kingdom, especially during winter. Besides the altitude sickness, we also fought the freezing temperature. As I remember, the lowest was - 31°C. For people from tropical country like us, it was really tough and struggling. We even went to bed with complete winter coat and thermal in layers.
Every traveler is suggested to take rest within 2 days, limit your movement and adjust yourself with the acclimatization. Some of travelers will have nauseous, dizzy and hard to breathe. My suggestion is, take the medicines with you and buy an oxycan (you can find this at Pharmacy in Leh).
Beyond the efforts that I did for this trip, I found many interesting stories and places during my visit in Ladakh. First time I saw beautiful Himalayan mountains lied and covered with snow, different culture and language to other part of India and delicious combination of Indian and Tibetan food. Leh also gave me another perspective of religion, even though majority are Tibetan Buddhism in this area, but I found a grand mosque stood still near the main Bazaar. The Ladakh people told me about how people are united in peace and harmony regardless their belief and faith.
Leh has several monasteries that you can visit, the only and one Leh Palace, Hall of Fame, Shanti Stupa and more. If you love to see the festival, February onwards is the best time to visit. To avoid the tourist crowd, I would recommend you to visit Ladakh in September until November, not during the summer even though the best temperature is starting from end of May but you will lose yourself among the crowd.
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| Leh Palace |
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| Hall of Fame |
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| Indus River |
Last but not least, go and roam this Himalayan Kingdom with your best attitude and intention. New things will follow and surprise you. I always keep telling myself to do good to people and universe as much as I could. Remember, no matter how far and high you travel, you can always get down in a sec when you rely on your ego, cockiness and unable to accept things that you would learn along the trip.
I hope you will enjoy The Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh and have a fabulous trip!
