Come, hear me!

We had a long, solid view on the Tsomoriri in the morning and started our journey to Manali. (Btw, the pic on left is not the Tsomoriri, but the small lake I mentioned before.)

 

We drove along the famous salt water lake, Tsokar. We could see salt depositions many kilometers before Tsokar; at places we could not see the road though.

 

 

  Tsokar also seemed to have receded quite a bit. Getting near the lake was quite tricky because of the marshes.

 

 

 

We caught up with the Leh-Manali highway and yes, I admit it: there were some of the most spectacular landscapes on the way, specially the areas around Moore plains and the Baralacha La.

 

We had the taste of the “adventurous” Leh Manali highway, when our car got stuck in one the high make-shift bridges made by the army, over a very swift stream. We managed to create atleast 3 km long traffic jam on both sides.

   

Situation got so scary and confusing, that I didn’t even take a snap! With the help of atleast 50 truck drivers and some army jawans, we repaired that bridge with help of some GI sheets lying nearby and only then were able to move forward. 

 

We didn’t halt at Sarchu, as is the norm, but moved forward and decided to stay at Jispa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

As I had mentioned before, Leh is becoming green, as is quite evident by these pictures. I took these pictures, near Leh on the Manali road. We started our trip to Tsomoriri on Day 5 morning. I had seen some pictures of the famous lake on the Internet, but never could have imagined how beautiful and surreal it looked. Even the journey provided some of the most spectacular views. Now I’d better shut up and let the pics do the talking.

 

 

 

Small lake on the right is not the Tsmoriri, but Thag Sang Karu, as shown in the road map I had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ten lane superhighway to Tsomoriri…

 

 

 

Lo and behold! The Tsomoriri.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had seen this pic on Wikipedia. Since then, I have been mesmerized with and wanted to see Tsomoriri. At last, I was able to take the same shot, but not as colourful.

Speaking of  colours, we were able to catch the festival at local monastry. Costumes were interesting, the dance and music were not.

They went on and on repeatedly for quite some time, when we got fed up and went back to the lake.

In the meantime, Tsomoriri’s water had changed its colour. We could see shades of green too now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun, shadows of clouds and the mountain behind us, created cool effects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Locals are  fearing that the water level in the lake is receding year by year!I don’t know what can be done about it. If this is truly the case, it is really, really sad!

We had been planning this trip for so long, that I can’t even remember who had earlier proposed it. Not that it matters. For all I remember, I was vehemently against going to Leh by air, as I thought that it would ruin the whole journey. I wanted to experience the famous Manali-Leh highway.

However, inspite of all our plans, this trip came upon us quite unexpectedly. Less than a month back, when dad asked me whether I was interested for a trip, I said yes, only on the condition that we would go to Leh and that too by road. If he was game, I am too. At that time, he said yes, and so our trip was on. But I knew he didn’t want to take the usual route: Go Manali-> Leh by the road and come back by air.

So the next evening, both of us sat down and charted a different course altogether. This proved out to be one of the most enthralling trips of my life and the people who know me, know that I have travelled quite a bit, specially among Himalayas. Here, I would be giving a brief description of the tour. I am a man of less words, so I would let my pictures say the thousand words.

On Day 1 (21/7), we took the early morning Kingfisher flight from IGI ND to Leh.

The less said about this flight the better. The ‘Aloo Puri’ breakfast of the flight was stale, airhostesses looked like characters from ‘The Ghost Bride’ ( I think you can guess whose side they belonged to.)

Anyways, the plane was quite clean and I think that was the saving grace.

The weather was quite cloudy and views of Leh were scarce. After an uneventful flight, we landed safely on the irregular, jerky Leh runway.

After a bit of rest and ignoring warnings about AMS, we went to the market to hire ride for our charted plan, had a good lunch and went around Leh for some local sightseeing.

    Disclaimer (for all articles in the series): All photographs have been shot by me and are my property. If you find them objectionable, please look elsewhere. If you think know, I have shot something which I didn’t have the right to shoot, I have done so in complete innocence. Please let me know, I will remove the snaps immediately and delete them from my computer too. Thanks!