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Ladakh - Planning The Trip

Over 2000 Km by road, in around 10 days. Stunning landscapes, wonderful people. That sums up our Ladakh trip. But how did it actually work? How did we make it happen? Read on to find out!  Leh, the capital of Ladakh , is accessible by air and road. Flying into Leh is the easiest, and time-saving option, while the road is the time consuming one, but with the added advantage of driving past some of the most beautiful landscapes in our country. Each option has much to recommend it, and we chose the road for just one reason – altitude sickness. Altitude sickness was one of my biggest concerns, since I suffer from motion-sickness. Yes, I do travel a lot, but that is despite my condition, and, over the years, have learnt how to handle it. I struggled with it when we visited Nathu-La in Sikkim, and wondered if I would be able to manage a week at the even higher altitudes that we would encounter in Ladakh. This was the reason we stuck to a basic plan, of only 9 days in Ladakh, thoug...
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Train Journeys- Fun and Photographs

Train journeys can be fun- as I keep telling Samhith. He usually gets bored on trains, and either wants me to read to him all the time, or climb up and down, troubling everyone else, and getting hurt. This time, however, the trip to Kumbhalgarh was different. We had great company in our coach - 4 young boys, about 20-25 years old, with their family, on their way to their hometown near Falna. They were only too glad to play with Samhith, and he kept them occupied! It was certainly the best train journey I have had since Samhith was born. I don’t know their names, but when we got off the train at Falna, I asked them to pose with Samhith for a photograph, and they happily obliged. Samhith remembers their nick-names, with which he called them, and I have the photograph for him to remember them by. It was certainly a memorable journey!








I am an avid photographer- not a very good one, but I just enjoy taking photos of just anything and everything. This time, while we were approaching Virar station, I was able to get a good shot of the Jivdani temple. This temple, situated on a hilltop is a very popular one, but unfortunately one I have not yet visited. I hope I get to visit the temple soon – meanwhile, I have photos of the temple.





The Jivdani Temple

Shankar refuses to touch the camera, but Samhith is taking after me, and keeps asking me to let him use the camera. While we were on our return journey, the coach we were in was empty, and we had the whole place to ourselves. While the train was held up at a small station, we saw this temple near the tracks. As the train was stationary, I helped Samhith take a photo, and the result is in front of you. It was a Tuesday, and women were praying to Shitala Devi, a form of Durga, for good health and a long life of their husbands.



I also took some snaps of the sunset, as seen from the train.







This was, really a wonderful trip, as we had a good time on the train too, and Samhith wasn’t bored at all!
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  1. D.K. SharmaJanuary 21, 2017 at 3:10 PM

    Good write up for the people interested in sight seeing and exploring the countryside.
    I wish to visit Kumbhalgarh next month

    ReplyDelete

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