The drudgeries of life
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The Dream Trip: Days 6 and 7 - Enchanting Nubraaaa - Part 2
Before I begin, I'd like to apologize for the delay... getting a bit caught up in life ;)
This post is all about the Second Part of our visit to Nubra... August 16, 2009, or Day 7 as we know it!
Ever had such an experience of waking up in the morning:
When as soon as your eyes open, your mind's blank and you feel totally fresh, not a bother in the world; and then before you can even start worrying about worldly problems, the scene outside the room window keeps you mesmerized for a while; then you go into the bathroom wondering about how beautiful the sight was and you feel so cheerful; there are no newspapers to inform you about the sad happenings around the world (let's face it more often then not, news is depressing... be it murders, theft, inflation, pollution, global warming, scandals et al); the breakfast is so damn good that the start of your day couldn't have been on a better note!
Well getting up that day in Sumur village was ditto like this :)
I got up at 5:30 AM, brushed, had a wash and got dressed quickly... tea felt awesome in the early morning cold! Brrr
Walking outside the room, I was filled with sheer pleasure at seeing the surroundings: beautiful gardens with colorful flowers; apple trees with loads of apples hanging on; and the nearby mountains.
Felt obliged to click lots of pics ;)
Try and count the number of colors you see in this pic!
Yonder the woods lie the hills...
Us with the apples in the bageecha!
Pinky!
And they were all yellow.... ♥
Fool khile hain gulshan gulshan :P
After settling our bill, we left for Deskit. The view along the way kept us hypnotized... and I kept clicking :) Best fun was hanging out of the car's window and taking some photographs!
The sand dunes looked awesome in the morning light.
Sand dunes!
The camel rides which was the main attraction didn't start till 9 AM, so we killed time till then... not a difficult task given everyone's obsession with getting their photographs taken :D
Deserted :D
Oh well! So what if no camels? Board ke saath photo :P
At 9 AM sharp, the camels, steered by their masters, emerged out of the trees. Randy opted out of the camel ride, but the remaining were totally keen on it... kids, I tell you!
The ride per se was one helluva experience!
Sid's camel led the way, followed by Mine, Chandu's, Zulfi's and finally the eternal follower Rusti's camel :P
Total fun interspersed with scary moments. For instance, Zulfi's camel going time and again for Chandu's foot, probably thinking of it as fodder :P Chandu looked up only once or twice during the entire ride... his attention was focused on where Zulfi's camel's mouth was :P
In addition to that, our guide kept adding masala by warning us about the camels going wild if someone makes lots of noise or distracting movements!
Well it wasn't a very smooth ride, but it did seem as if we glided through the desert... no wonder the camels are called "The ships of the desert".
All in all, this was an awesome and thrilling experience!
All aboard the ships of the deserts!
Chandu keeping an eye, rather both his eyes on Zulfi's hungry camel :P
Had dosas at a place which claimed to be the best food joint on the highway. Either it was the only canteen on the highway or it was unaware about competition, because it's food sucked bad. Anyway we had dosas and coffee... kept a stock of biscuits and chocolates for the drive.
It was 10 AM, and almost everyone was keen on heading back to Leh. Zulfi was more than keen to return as it was his birthday, and undoubtedly he was expecting calls from his loved ones :P But somehow we ended up at Deskit's centuries old monastery!
The place was nice, a must visit for serious tourists. A monk accompanied us as a guide and he gave us lots of information about the place! Won't spoil the fun by typing out the history here... go figure it out for yourself ;)
All 6 of us at Deskit Monastery
A top view... breathtaking!
What a backdrop!
While purchasing some souvenirs outside the monastery, found a couple of cute Tibetan kids (a girl aged 2 years, and her elder brother, aged 7)... Sid and I pampered the kids with chocolates, and also got a few pictures taken with them :)
Awww cho chuweet :)
A tanned me with the cute kiddies :)Next part of the journey was like the breeze! We raced back to Leh.
Noticed the crazy clouds that seemed ready to burst open any minute, and the fresh snow all around! No wonder it was so cold in Sumur! Also witnessed a cyclone!
The sky was falling... or so I thought!
The road leads into that hill, just like in Ali Baba's tale...
No, I'm just kidding you :P
Despite that being an accident-prone zone, we were shocked to see 2 massive road clearing machines that had fallen off the cliff :o
Witnessed snowfall for the second time in my life (first was earlier in the year at Solang, Manali). It was snowing when we passed Khardung La.
Riders on the storm
Raced home singing songs, doing bakar, and pulling each others' legs! :P
Most memorable parts of the journey were the raging bulls, and those huge army trucks on the hilly roads looking like tiny ants climbing up an ant hill!
Watching this bull go berserk was a treat!
Ants on an anthill?
Army trucks on a hill
By 3:45 PM, we had reached Leh. Checked out the fort in broad daylight this time :)
Us at the fort with Leh in the background :)
Everyone was starving, so had our heaviest lunch at Bon Appetit... nothing was wasted out of the 16 rotis, 9 naans, 2 plates of butter chicken, chicken chilly, dum aloo, mixed veg, rice, tea! And surprisingly the bill came to only Rs. 750 for six people! Did I hear you say "Nominal"? :)
Got our "We got Leh'd tees"! Yippee!!
This says it all... the journey till now :D
Returned to our guest house, bathed, and talked to the landlady who was brimming with questions on Nubra Valley :)
Too much distance from technology wasn't good so, to get back on track, we watched the movie "The Shooter".
Guru talked to us about reducing our expenses on the vehicle rent and all... right from the onset we knew he was a crooked character, but now he wants to take us into deeper shit. We had a long talk with him.
Back on familiar terrain, we were at Penguin's Bakery soon enough :D
Surfed the net for 2 whole hours and uploaded some pics on facebook... from the comments that started pouring in, sure looked like people's expectations from this trip were high!
That was End of Day!
Tomorrow is probably the biggest day of the trip... rafting on the crazy Zanskar river, and, if we survive (:P), move on to Kargil!! Adventure pe adventure, if you please...
50% of the trip is over! Let the remaining half be loads of fun too. Amen.
Next up (on Sunday, Jan 17):
The Dream Trip: Day 8 - Conquering the Mighty Zanskar!
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Labels: Bon Appetit, camel ride, Deskit, Dream Trip, Leh, Leh Fort, Monastery, Nubra, sand dune, Vacation, Zanskar
