[hillsnrains]

It’s been a while since we had a real out station trip especially after Covid-19. I have been dreaming to do a Ladakh trip for last 4-5 years and finally made my mind in January and started gathering the information. After lot of reading on our forum and deliberation about timing, decided to do it April second half. Somehow, I am always off season guy (should I call myself odd guy?) and prefer less crowds. The only regret here is that I am not going to be behind the wheel.

Why in April?
Kiddo wanted to play with snow and a frozen lake may be even more special. If Lucky there is a possibility of snow fall in April. Last time we played with snow when visited Rohtang pass some 6 years ago.

What to expect in April: This will help those who are contemplating a trip
1. Snow and snow everywhere, especially altitudes greater than 13000 feet above MSL. Snow-capped mountains all around are a treat to watch. This was our primary reason to visit in April.
2. One can get to see snow fall if lucky. Yes we are lucky enough to witness snow fall at Khardung La pass.
3. Most of the lakes are frozen but it’s unique if one haven’t seen earlier. Definitely one going to miss the unique colors of water bodies.
4. Most of the Hotels/Guesthouses are vacant, it means no need to book in advance. We only noticed fellow tourists at our place of stay only three out of eleven days.
5. Expect heavy winds in the second half of the day (say from 3pm) especially at places like Hanle, Pangong, Tso Moriri. It means temperatures can suddenly dip in the second half of the day.
6. Temperatures can dip to sub-zero in the nights at places like Pangong, Tso Moriri and Hanle. Don’t get surprised when glass windows offered only blurred views when you wake-up in the morning, condensed water frozen on the glass.
7. Don’t ever dare to stay in tents or camps in April. Always prefer pucca hotels/guest houses preferably with heating provision. Most of the pucca houses were constructed using the mud bricks which will help to keep the rooms warm.
8. Most of the road side eateries are not yet functional due to off season. So, plan your lunch/snack breaks in advance, else one may struggle to find good eateries.
9. Start the day early and wind-up site seeing by noon. Evenings are very cold, so carry proper winter clothing.

General Observations/Tips:
1. Non local prepaid sim cards doesn’t work in Ladakh. My Post-paid Airtel sim card worked in Leh, Nubra Valley and along Kargil Highway. Again coverage is very limited to small towns.
2. BSNL has the best possible coverage. Remote places like Pangong, Tso Moriri neither had telephone coverage nor wifi facilities.
3. Except Leh, no electricity in nights (11PM-7AM). Leh has round the clock power supply.
4. Don’t ever dare to skip acclimatisation (minimum 2 nights stay in Leh) especially those who arrived by flight.
5. A tourist couple who supposed to stay at our homestay in Pangong couldn’t bear the extreme cold and left abruptly to a place of lower altitude.

Detailed Plan:
I could gather very little information on the functioning hotels and weather conditions in April month, reason being off season. Only selected hotels and home stays are functional. Initially explored couple of tour operators and the cost quoted by them are very high. I researched little bit and decided to plan the trip on my own. Thanks to several travel blogs and Youtube videos, could hire a taxi based on the feedback. We booked an Innova for entire trip starting from airport pick-up to last day airport drop. Next shortlisted the places to visit as well as the sequence, don’t have to struggle much here as this is a cake walk for Team BHP readers. I booked hotels by paying some advance before start of the journey for peace of mind.

Here is the initial plan:


By and large we could follow the plan with minor tweaks on the move. I think it’s enough of text and lets add some colors as we go for a quick Ladakh trip.

Day-1 (18th April 2022): Took an early morning 6 AM flight from Bangalore and arrived in Leh at 1.30 PM after ~3 hrs lay over in New Delhi. We were asked to show vaccination certificate at the exit gate of Leh Airport. Here are some pictures captured on board.






Another Indigo plane ready to take-off as we just land


Our taxi is waiting at the gate and reached home stay in about 20 mins. That’s really quick, Bangalore folks can understand what I mean. Homestay is very comfortable and our host Mr. Tashi and his family members are very accommodative which us feel at home in no time.
This is our beautiful home stay as well as base for our 11 day Ladakh trip.



Here are some beautiful views from the room in the evening.





Another view from the room. The structure on top of the hillock is called Namgyal Tsemo Gompa. We have added this to the list of places as it over looking Leh Palace and could definitely offer good views.



Day-2:
It was a lazy start to the day as it was a rest day. By noon we are feeling much better and son would like to eat pizza so we called our taxi and he promptly arrived quickly. We straight headed to Leh main market area only to realise that most of the famous food joints were not functional due to off season. Finally we found a small place called “Leh Pizza” and settled for it. While returning we decided to visit Shanti stupa as it is on the way. It offered splendid views of Leh city.





My son liked the clam and clean place so in meditation mood, don’t ask what is next to him. He bought it for his cousin but she gifted back to him, so prepare to see more during the trip.




Day-3:
Excited to start the tour, our taxi arrived 10 mins ahead of our scheduled start at 9AM. We followed the regular sequence Hall of Fame, Gurudwara Pathar Sahib, Magnetic Hill and Indus-Zanskar Confluence point. Kiddo wish to go for river rafting but couldn’t dare at those temperatures. Not much water in the Indus river yet offered beautiful views.




We headed to Alchi monastery after spending some time at the confluence point. On the way got to see this small yet beautiful monastery called Basgo gompa.



We were very hungry by the time we reached Alchi village. So quickly finished lunch and then toured monastery. Cameras are not allowed inside Alchi monastery due to ancient wall paintings. As usual with any monastery, there were huge number of prayer wheels along its compound.



We headed towards Indus river after getting our camera and mobiles back. Wow, it’s some beauty




We headed to Lamayaru and some random shot on the way.



Moonland aka Lunar land scape




We reached Hotel Namkila around 4 pm and planned to roam around after check-in. But that’s when we realised how quickly the weather can change in Ladakh. Excellent views of Lamaryuru Monastery from hotel room.

[hillsnrains]

Day-4:
Today’s plan is to reach Leh by lunch time and relax. Lamayuru monastery offered some beautiful views especially in the back drop of moon land, which makes it a perfect shooting spot.




View down from the monastery, mostly old and abandoned part of it.



Nothing much to cover Today so stopped at a foot over bridge little after Alchi.



The smooth Kargil – Leh higway



We headed to Leh city palace after a quick lunch break near main market. Eight storied fort offered some good city views with snow-capped mountains in the back drop.





Day-5:
Got the not so bad news in the morning at 7AM that the vehicle movement is temporarily halted towards Khardung La due to overnight snow fall. We started from home stay ~9.45 AM after the vehicular movement started through the pass.
We started seeing the traces of fresh snow fall from the moment we started our climb towards mighty Khardung La pass.



Snow everywhere and kiddo enjoying the minor traffic jams due to truck cross overs. Road became small at places due to fresh snow eating into road on either side.





Light snow fall started again as we approach the Khardung La top.




Some random shots on the way




Finally at Khardungla




Some random pics on the way










Reached Hunder sand dunes after a quick lunch break at Khalsar. The roads are very good all the way to Nubra valley. A beautiful view of Hunder village from dunes.





Kiddo don’t want to wait till the next day for the camel ride. You can see two families in the picture, Yes camel family too there in picture (Mother, Son and Father).

[hillsnrains]

Day-6 (23rd April 2022):
Had good sleep overnight and 8.30AM start towards Turtuk. The route is very picturesque and road surface too.







Thang village view point: First village of the Pakistan occupied Baltistan on other side of LoC.



Stopped at Turtuk for Lunch break.



Had a small tour of the village and old fort on the other side of the bridge. Headed back after spending couple of hours in the village.




Had a quick break at Shyok War Memorial.



The landscape is very beautiful but at quite a few places rocks are randomly shooting down.









Kiddo wanted to repeat the camel ride, so straight headed there instead of guest house. No regret in skipping the tea break, as the sky in the evening is just awesome.







The landscapes and views of Nubra valley are something special especially from photographer point of view (Don’t yell at me, I am not considering myself a photographer).

[hillsnrains]

Day-7 (24th April 2022):
Today we made the earliest start in our entire trip i.e 7.30 AM. We paid a quick visit to Mytreya Buddha in Disikit.



Kiddo completed one pradakshina, thanks to prayer wheels all around the statue base cum monastery.



Disikit Monastery is very beautiful



See what I spotted immediately after crossing Disikit towards Khalsar.



We stopped for an ATV ride along the Shyok river and enjoyed thoroughly. Highly recommended.



Headed towards Pangong lake and started seeing bad patches of road especially at water stream crossings. Little we know this is just start of bad roads.





We had quick lunch at Tangtse and continued our journey towards Pangong. First glimpse of mesmerizing Pangong Tso



We had booked our stay in Man village and we are slowly progressing along the lake with stops at multiple points. We were told that lake was partially frozen a week back, so we are lucky again. Pangong Tso’s beauty completely blown us away.










Evening it was extremely cold and huge winds as expected. Unfortunately room heating provision was removed just two weeks back. It means we have to survive subzero temperature in the night. One more family supposed to stay that night in the same guest house. They were scrambling for oxygen cylinder in the evening and later left the place about 8PM to a place at lower altitude.

[hillsnrains]

Day-8 (25th April 2022):
This is our Home Stay in Man village.



We started our journey towards Rezangla war memorial around 9AM. Enjoyed the beauty of serene Pangong Tso until we reached Merak village.







Both the lake as well as road disappeared after Merak. We spotted many military trucks on the way.



We spent an hour and half at Rezangla war memorial. This place has been re-developed very recently, which is now ultra-modern with excellent facilities such as mini theatre (a small movie was played about Rezangla war), scaled model of the entire Pangong area and café apart from guided tour of the entire memorial. We were fortunate to bump into an army commanding officer, who started a candid conversation with us as we were the only people with-out uniform at that time. We thanked our guide and left after having a piece of cake and coffee.



After Nyoma junction the roads are excellent all the way to Hanle. This is the most scenic road as mentioned in the “Leh, Ladakh and Zanskar - The Ultimate Guide” thread.






By noon we reached Padma Homestay @ Hanle. We didn’t find any food joints on the way hence have to settle for maggi. Then we visited Indian Astronomical observation centre.



As a norm huge winds started in the late afternoon but the views around are breath taking.








Our host Sonam ji was very helpful and took good care of us.

[hillsnrains]

Day-9 (26th April 2022):

We made a leisure start @9AM towards Tso Moriri, our first stop is Hanle Monastery.




Hanle village from Monastery.



Again the beautiful stretch between Hanle – Nyoma. This is some journey, I may never get bored of this stretch.













Indus river just ahead of Nyoma junction




Tarred road disappeared after Mahe check post but not the beautiful snow capped mountains.







Frozen little Kyagar Tso lake



First sight of Tso Moriri



Only little portion of the lake wasn’t frozen towards northern side.





As we moved closer to Korzok village, this is what we saw



Lake is completely frozen @ West view point little ahead of Korzok village.

[hillsnrains]

Day-10 (27th April 2022):

Started early @7.45AM as we headed to Leh via Tso Kar, Taklang La. Kiddo wanted to play in the snow again hence this long route. A calm morning



Next stop is Puga hot springs. Once need to walk about a kilometre but worth visiting as you can spot many horses and Yaks.




The roads are horrible in some stretches and lot better after Tso kar. Most of the stretch between Tso Kar to Manali highway junction is being tarred. First sight of Tso Kar





A frozen stream and a herd of pashmina goats




First sight of Manali – Leh highway.



Within no time we reached Taklang La. There were hardly any vehicular traffic as the Manali side is not yet open for civil vehicles. We played around for 30 mins in complete privacy and moved on.




Standing alongside wall of snow



Mountains are beautiful towards Leh especially the stretch between Rumtse and Changa.









The Manali Leh highway repair work is in progress ahead of road opening



Again roads are much better as we approach Karu




Made a quick Lunch break in Karu and headed to colorful Thiksey Monastery.



Views from the roof top are amazing




We have to skip the Shey palace for our next visit as we are tired and don’t have energy to climb. Kiddo enjoyed feeding the fish @ pond bang opposite to Shey palace. Reached our home stay (kiddo started calling our home in Leh) around 4.30PM.

[hillsnrains]

Day-11 (28th April 2022):

This was the buffer day and glad as the need didn’t arise. We did a lazy start around 9.30AM and headed to Namgyal Tsemo, which undoubtedly offers the best city view



View of Shanti Stupa



One can see the Leh Palace on the right hand bottom corner of the pic (mud coloured structure).



Few more views. We could also witness two military cargo planes taking-off from Airport (don’t search in pics, they were not there ).






From there we went to Zorawar fort and then Leh main market for some shopping. We returned to home stay after a very good lunch @ Gesmo.

Day-12:

Time to say good bye to our wonderful hosts. Literally one room was blocked for us for entire 12 days, as we always left some excess baggage in home stay. We were served with hot delicious food that too some exclusive Ladakhi cuisine. Our return flight was @ 1.40 PM and landed in Bangalore @8PM. An excellent trip finally came to an end

I would like to thank our tour companion Rigzen Namgyal (94198 44285). He is simply awesome human being and super punctual. I won't hesitate to recommend to use his service if you need so in Ladakh.

[Car Stalker]

Congratulations on a great travelogue & awesome clicks !!! What was the cab (Innova) charges in total for all the days covered ?

[Dhar's]

Enchanting Ladakh and equally mesmerizing photos. The photos from Hanle are captivating.

Did you use the same Innova for whole trip? Can you please share the cost of Innova?

[Sommos]

Beautiful travelogue and some superb pictures. We have just completed our Kashmir - Ladhak trip yesterday. We missed some of the places around Leh and these would certainly be in our next itinerary.
This was our first trip without our son, who is in college. We loved Kargil and Leh so much that we wish to visit again sometime with our son.
Incidentally met Mr. Wangchuk on our return journey, he was sitting next to us.

[hillsnrains]

Originally Posted by Car Stalker

Congratulations on a great travelogue & awesome clicks !!! What was the cab (Innova) charges in total for all the days covered ?

Originally Posted by Dhar's

Enchanting Ladakh and equally mesmerizing photos. The photos from Hanle are captivating.

Did you use the same Innova for whole trip? Can you please share the cost of Innova?

Yes, The mountains around Hanle are so unique and colorful. All photos posted here are raw images w/o any processing.

Yes, we had the same vehicle staring from airport pick-up to final day drop-off. I have paid 51K for 12 days, price includes everything like permits, parking, driver allowance, food etc).

[SJM1214]

It's always fun to visit mountains during the off-season or start of the season. April is practically the start of the season. During April, you can witness lots of snow, frozen lakes & rivers, and lots of snowfall on high passes. Your photos tell us that you had a great time in Ladakh region with lots of snow. Thanks for an excellent T"log with amazing pics.