Leh Ladakh '10

It all begins with a phone call, a phone call asking me if I was willing to be part of a trip to Leh. "Offcourse we will" is what I said, even without speaking to my wife and mom. I knew it would be expensive but I knew it would be worth the money spent. I had seen pics from my friends trip and it looked awesome, so I used to wonder is it really that blue is it really that white and are there really so many mountains. I can guarantee all those questions were indeed answered to the fullest when we finally went to LEH.

The iternary can be summarized like this :

Day 1: Pune - Mumbai - Delhi
Day 2: Reach Delhi
Day 3: Early morning flight Delhi - Leh
Day 4: Leh Acclimatization
Day 5: Pangoooong Lake via ChangLa
Day 6: Hemis, Thiksey Monestery, KhardungLa
Day 7: Likir, Shanti Stupa, Pathar Saab, and SHOPPINGGGGG
Day 8: Leh - Delhi - Mumbai
Day 9 : Mumbai and then Home sweet home

The hotel/guest house/home stay that we were staying in was brilliant. "Sia La" guest house, the hosts were amazing. Mr Nabilay is kindest and most humblest person I have known. He went through extraordinary measures to make sure that we were comfortable and in times of need he was even kind enough to lend us his car.
I'll cut through the chase and get to the more interesting details. The first day itself me and Anshu went and hired bike. Well it had to be a bullet, I promise you this "One can most enjoy the highs, the lows, the steeps, the beauty, the hills, the rivers of Ladakh only and only when on a bike". I get goose bumps even when I think of my ride to Pangong on that awesome Bullet Lightning.

There was a big big controversy on the day before the trip to Pangong, everyone wanted us to not take the bike. But common with three SUVs and 17 of us this was the best opportunity to test the limits of the bike and us. Good that there were a couple of us super keen on riding the slopes of Himalayas and not just be in a car.

We started of at 5.30 with Anshu and Shilpa starting the bike ride. Me and Rupali took over just before Karu. When we reached Karu, the others were surprised to see me and Rupali on the bike. A cup of tea and we were back on the bullet heading towards ChangLa which by the way is 17590ft above mean level. As we started climbing it started snowing. There was a buzz around that the peak might be snowing. Around 20km before the peak Mohan kaka and Neelu atya took over, I tell you guys they must be 50 a piece but they rode like 20 year olds. It was awesome to watch them drive to the peak.

It was snow, and it was white and it was beautiful. Pictures can't even begin to describe how it feels. You start feeling breathless as and when you start going higher. The pass was full of soldiers and from the Indian Army running a small emergency hospital giving Oxygen, and giving a warm cup of black tea for everyone coming. My little niece started having some trouble near the peak, she was given some oxygen and she jumped back to life.

Pangong Lake is undoubtedly the most beautiful place on this planet. It was clear and blue with the awesome backdrop of the mountains. While coming back it started snowing again near ChangLa, no one was willing to drive the bike, I took it upon myself to drive and bloody hell that has to be the most exciting experiences of my life. I even got thumbs up from the on-coming car traffic. I get goose bumps even when I think about it, I was riding along and it felt like being on top of the world, zzzzimply awesome... Unfortunately because of the weather I had panicked and had refused my wife the pillion ride. But I regret that, these things one only experiences once it would have been totally different if she had been with me. I really hope I get to do something tht exciting again but this time with my wife...........I am sorry baby...

The very next day our rented Bullet had a flat rear wheel, we were so bloody glad this did not happen the day before, else we would have had to pay for hauling the bike all the way from ChangLa.

The last two days were the toughest for me, I started developing symptoms of HAPE which basically means my lungs had started filling with water because I was unable to pull enough oxygen from the atmosphere. The last day when we were scheduled to fly out an entire series of unfortunate events unfolded. Let me write about this in greater detail......

Since the previous night I was having trouble and showing signs of deteriorating. I somehow managed to make it to Dabke's room where everyone was gathered for the highest party in the world :) how could ever afford to sit that one out.

Couldn't sleep through the entire night, I could crackling noises from each breath I took which was very very scary.. We wanted to go to the doc before leaving, so we decided to goto the military hospital. Man o man am i glad we decided to do that, as the doc said only if I had been 30 mins late I might not have made it. My pulse oxygen saturation was around 35 which is usually 98 - 99% in an adult. I think this would have been the pinaccle of my bad health. I had never been warned by a Doc before like this, he said I could never ever come to these altitudes again. They say I might have started developing this when I went for the trek to Himachal 5 years ago. So every time I go up, so does my hopes of coming back.. What he meant to say was if I go to these altitudes again I might not make it back alive. Well thats encouraging! But what the hell we had to leave that day, we had a flight and that bugger would just not let us go. Somehow we had him convinced that I can make it, because simply the cost of staying back was humongous. They had my wife sign a certificate which basically meant they are not responsible if I die at the airport.. Its not a joke to go book a flight and fly to delhi..
So we reached the airport, shit we were late I was sick the flight was about to take off. Somehow my mother convinced them to check us in, all this happened in a matter of 5 mins. Shit it was panic personified. Mom wept and wept as soon as we boarded the flight..

As soon as we stepped inside the flight I started feeling better because the freaking air plane is pressurized. As we landed in Delhi all tht was left of my pulmonary edima was that I was feeling super tired.

Was unable to do any physical work for a week but the doc had said that I will start feeling normal as soon as I go down. So ya tht worked.

They say life is full of surprises and hurdles man I faced both sides of that story. From an Exhilarating bike ride across a 17000 ft high peak to the nightmares of Pulmonay Edema LEh offers everything.

To sum it up in Hiro Nagamora's words "Yatta!" (I did it)


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