Travel to Ladakh

Because it’s a land of magic. Because it’s unforgettable. Because it’s here you will learn to appreciate the little joys of life, like the sound of silence

These stone huts were made by the administration for the region’s nomadic tribes who mostly use these as store houses

No one I know who has travelled to Ladakh has ever told me that the place bores them or has lost its charm. A trip to Ladakh isn’t the same as a trip to any other hill station or somewhere in the mountains. Ladakh is just so different.

“It is here that you might come to listen to the sound of silence and connect with the universe”

I have now been to Ladakh a fair few times over the past few decades and I will tell you this that no matter what the typical Indian traveller might tell you, time really stands still here. Once you leave the crowded throngs of Manali behind and below, you realise that up here the pace of change is much slower and everything feels familiar. Including the difficulties of scaling Rohtang La.

Landslides are a regular affair at Rohtang

Nothing appears to have changed. Not even that lone petrol pump at Tandi where you tank up one last time before you run the gauntlet to Leh. En route, barring a few more or perhaps many more shanties there is again that sense of familiarity. They all serve the same steaming tea and hot Maggi and momos that will have you watering at the mouth, and should you get pally with the shanty owner you might even be able to convince him to part with a small cup of rice wine from his meagre ration.

Rickety bridges like this continue to span over sheer drops

What feels the most familiar however are the mountains. The crisp white of blinding snow on Baralacha La, the semi-frozen surface of Suraj Taal or the rocky lunar peaks that ring the fringes the endless plains of More. Each time I have gone back I have felt that same sense of belonging here, that same sense of being humbled for these mountains do that to you. The sharp contrast of the brown rocks and the azure waters of a now crowded Pangong Tso or the more remote Tso Moriri are things that I recognise. Things that make me feel at home.

This is from 2010, before the More Plains got its properly tarred road

There is magic in these lands. Magic created by the endless vistas, the starlit skies that you will find nowhere else, the whistle of the wind atop Taglang La and of course the smile of people who never stop being friendly. Even to perfect strangers. It is here that you might come to listen to the sound of silence and connect with the universe as you disconnect with the world.

The shores of Tso Moriri. Circa 2010