Blogs from Leh, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India, Asia

Today was always going to be a big travelling day. I had to get from the furthest outpost of Ladakh back to Leh, where I had arranged to pick up a mountain bike and then another hour or so in a vehicle with bike and baggage to Sakti where there was a Buddhist festival I planned to attend the following day. The second leg was organised. The first leg was not as there was no taxi stand in Turtuk, and I really didn’t fancy travelling by the local bus (not just because it left at 6am). I had brekkie and waved goodbye to my hosts at about 7.30am, and wandered down to the parking spot where a number of chartered taxis were parked. There were about five vehicles and not a soul in sight. I went ... read more

Leh - Ladakh: 23/8/21 to 29/8/21 There are three mis-matched regions of “Jammu & Kashmir” state: (1) Hindu dominated ‘Jammu’ region, (2) Buddhist ‘Ladakh’ and (3) predominantly muslim - ‘Kashmir’. This is not a political commentary on why and how they came together, but now some sense is being brought in by separating ‘Ladakh’ as a Union Territory with Leh as its capital. Leh-Ladakh has many strange ‘world-records’ to its credit. It is in fact a (world’s highest) desert (rain-shadow area) in the Himalayas. Technically this region opened for tourists sometime in the 1970s but has developed as a major destination in the last two decades only. I will arbitrarily divide Himalayas in to six regions (for tourism purpose only) - (1) Snow clad mountains of Kashmir, (2) Deserted mountains of Ladakh and Kargil, (3) Green ... read more

The day of marathon has arrived. I am still not confident that I will make it, but there is never a question of turning back. After 4 days of relaxing, I am feeling strong. We started at 5:30 in the morning in taxi to get to our starting point. There were quite a lot of people, more than I expected. Many groups from Delhi, Pune etc. We did our usual pre-race preparation, bib, sunscreen. Then after seeing many groups warming up, I decided to join one of them to warm up. Then it was off on the course. Starting strong, I soon overtook quite a few people. Usually it is a sign that I am running too fast at an unsustainable pace. But I was feeling fine, so I carried on. Once slightly out of town, ... read more

Thukje to Leh The Indian Himalaya is made up of a series of parallel mountains ranges running from north west to south east. In order to get from Shimla to Leh you have to climb the passes over all of them. They are, in order starting from the south west, the Great Himalaya Range and the Zanskar Range, then just north of Leh there is the Ladakh Range, and finally, running along the border with China from Pakistan to Tibet there is the mighty Karakorum Range which includes near the Pakistan end as one of its peaks the huge K2. We left Thukje after breakfast outside the tents in the intense sun and road back along the single track road across the Moray plain and back onto the main road leading towards the end of the ... read more

K2S: Katraj to Stok Quiet an unusual trek? For those who are not from Pune, K2S stands for katraj to Sihagad, a tiring 5 hours (at least) trek made famous by Enduro. What made me to name my blog after this trek name was because I did K2S (Katraj to Sihagad) twice, thrice rather. Once a straight K2S & then….the tiring S2K & return K2S, back to back on the same day! Itserved as a stepping stone, a foundation for the mighty Stok Kangri Climb. I thank my group members for being with me. The foundation of Stok Summit was rather laid many years back during my Harishchandragad via nalichi waat (makad naal) climb, which happened to be my first trek. Innumerable treks later, I was finally prepared by the Sahyadris for the mighty Himalayas. This ... read more