Ho Tuan Tai (Win Di), currently living and working in Ho Chi Minh City, shares his experience traveling to Ladakh, India. His trip lasted 20 days, right after the pandemic ended and the world began to reopen international flights.
The impromptu trip started when he happened to read a book about Ladakh and watched many documentary series about the journey of the Ladakh people in the Himalayas, so he really liked it. As soon as India opened its doors, he immediately booked a plane ticket.
Win Di spent 20 days exploring many destinations in Little Tibet, Ladakh - India
Known as “little Tibet” in India, Ladakh is where Buddhism flourishes, creating a unique Buddhist culture. Along with the unique cultural features of the Himalayan snow mountain range, this land is a blend of natural beauty and spiritual culture that any tourist would want to visit.
“Ladakh’s tourist season starts from May to November every year, however, September and October, when autumn comes to this land, everything becomes perfect. You must prepare your physical strength well because with the dry, cold climate and different altitude compared to Vietnam, we are very susceptible to altitude shock as well as having to walk and trek quite a lot,” Win Di said.
Ladakh is a pristine land in the North of India that holds surprising beauty.
The schedule is distributed by Win Di in stages: exploring Ladakh and the majestic works in Central India. In the Ladakh stage, Win Di visited the following destinations: New Delhi - Srinagar - Gulmarg - Srinagar - Leh - Nubra Valley - Pangong Tso - Tso Moriri - Leh - New Delhi. And in the Central India stage: New Delhi - Arga - Jaipur - New Delhi - New Delhi.
Stage 1 from New Delhi - Srinagar
The first place after arriving in Srinagar was Gulmarg - a small state of Srinagar. Win Di's eyes were caught by the green grasslands, hills and ancient houses of the ethnic people that looked like fairy tales.
Coming to Gulmarg, people will have 2 choices: one is to ride a horse through the forest to the top of the snowy mountain, the other is to take the cable car. Win Go chooses to ride a horse, although crossing the forest, crossing streams, and rocky slopes is quite dangerous, but in return, you will be able to see the grasslands and diverse vegetation. Because here there are mountains, grasslands, and villages of indigenous people in the primeval forest, with green grass dotted with daisies.
Ancient houses at the foot of the hill
In the afternoon, Win Di's group took a boat to watch the extremely chill sunset on Dal Lake. Along Dal Lake, there are many Houseboats - a type of hotel on a boat, which sounds strange but the interior looks very "royal" but the inconvenience here is that the water is very dirty and can easily cause rashes. Sunset here falls around 6:30 to 7 pm. The shadows of the boats and boatmen cover the calm surface of Dal Lake like an extremely poetic ink painting.
Second leg from Srinagar - Kargil
Early in the morning, the group was picked up by the driver at House Boat and headed straight to Kargil. The scenery on both sides of the road was interesting, with snow-capped mountains in the distance, a babbling brook along the road, and rows of poplar trees in the distance, very different from the terrain of the countries that Win Di had been to before.
“Win opened the car window and took a deep breath. The cool mountain air rushed straight into his nose. The feeling of enjoyment was truly wonderful. Nature here is not only to be seen but also to be smelled and felt with all your soul to fully appreciate its beauty,” Win Di said excitedly.
People here also set up many photo spots with yellow Vespas or butt-shaped chairs with 3 colors.
There was a section where the group stopped to take pictures, the roadside looked no different from Switzerland or the natural landscape in Europe. The people here were quite friendly. They also taught Win Di traditional Indian dances, so the whole group got off and danced together in the middle of the road, very cheerful. After that, the group moved to a village in Kargil to spend the night. This place looked like an ancient village in a Nordic movie on the bare rocky hillsides. The local people in this area were extremely friendly.
The road from Srinagar to Leh is extremely beautiful and will be one of the most memorable experiences of the Ladakh journey. The winding passes, the distant valleys, the looming snow-capped mountains seem to take people into a dreamland.
3rd leg from Kargil - Leh
On the way from Kargil to Leh, Win Di stops by a monastery housing the Mulbekh Rock Buddha. The statue is a 9 m high stone sculpture of the “Buddha-to-be” or Mulbekh Chamba, which combines esoteric Saivite iconography with Buddhist artwork. The monastery and statue are located on a hilltop on the side of the Srinagar-Leh highway.
At the end of the visit to the monastery, the group stopped at the snowy hillside to ride snowmobiles. The group started to feel cold because the higher the altitude, the lower the temperature and the thinner the air.
Experience camel riding across Nubra valley
The highway to Leh is very beautiful. The enthusiastic driver stopped by the lunar terrain for the group to check in. Due to the dry and cold climate at an altitude of over 3000 m with little rainfall, high evaporation and a very high temperature difference between day and night, the limestone quickly cracks, breaks into small pieces, then rolls away, erodes the slopes and gradually lowers the peak, gradually widens into valleys, creating a rocky desert landscape with unique isosceles cone-shaped karst blocks and tilted towers.
During his 20-day adventure in India, Win Di traveled 220 km from the small village of Kargil to Leh Ladakh - "a little Tibet in India and the land of Lamas". He crossed many different terrains, from the surreal lunar terrain of the Moonland area, the steep cliffs without trees, to the peaceful moments when below were valleys, small green villages and in the distance were the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas.
When arriving in Leh, although very tired, all members of the group were excited by the rustic, poetic beauty of the city, a beauty that Win Di could not fully describe in words.
Stage 4 from Leh - Pangong Tso
"Pangong lake, Ladakh - isolated from the outside world, incredibly pristine and seemingly at the end of the earth".
The group reached Pangong in the late afternoon, when the sun was starting to set. From Leh to Pangong was a long way and the road was quite dangerous, with only passes and steep mountains with the daytime temperature only a few degrees. In the afternoon, Pangong Lake was beautiful and calm, the weather was very cold but there was no snow.
“At night, the temperature drops below zero, so it’s quite cold. Because I have to sleep in a tent above the lake, the wind blows very cold at night, making my head shiver even though I wear 5 layers of clothes and have a lot of heat packs, I still can’t sleep,” Win Di said.
Yet overnight, everything turned strangely white. The blue color of Pangong Lake is mesmerizingly beautiful and hard to look away from. Here, people set up many photo spots based on the movie "3 Idiots" by director Rajkumar Hirani.
Stage 5 from Pangong Tso - Tso Moriri
The road from Pangong Tso to Tso Moriri is very beautiful, it is difficult for visitors to take their eyes off the scenery passing by on both sides of the road while sitting in the car.
Tso Moriri Lake in the Changthang region of Ladakh is one of the highest, most serene and sacred (to the Ladakhis) lakes in India. Tso Moriri is about 19 km long and is part of a Ramsar wetland reserve. Tso Moriri is a picture perfect picture of nature, the lake shimmers in the sunset and don’t be shy about asking your driver to take you to the Tso Moriri view point.
Stage 6 is Tso Moriri - Leh
Tanglang La is the second highest mountain pass in the world that motor vehicles can pass. On the way back from Tso Moriri, Win Di encountered snowballs, not grains, falling very quickly and heavily. The snow on both sides of the road was quite thick and beautiful, passing through the endless winding mountain passes.
Ladakh is famous for its mysterious beauty and majestic natural scenery, and for Win Di, Pangong Tso Lake is the place that impressed him the most because of its romantic and majestic beauty like a painting.
Of all the destinations on the journey to explore Ladakh, Pangong Tso is the place that Win Di is most impressed with because of its romantic and picturesque beauty. This place also appeared in the Bollywood blockbuster - Three Idiots. This is a lake in the Kashmir division of Ladakh, India, and is one of the largest lakes in the Himalayas.
“I was lucky to come here on a snowy day, so I had more opportunities to see the changing colors of the lake at different times of the day. It was so beautiful outside, so beautiful that I can’t describe it in words,” Win Di shared.
A detailed itinerary is needed to make your Ladakh trip smooth and convenient.
But besides that, there were many difficulties in this trip to Ladakh. His group was one of the first groups to arrive in Ladakh after a long time since the pandemic ended, so there was not much information and experience to prepare for the trip, so there was almost no preparation. Medicine, heat packs, food and drinks, altitude shock... and many other difficulties.
Win Di also said: “Indian cuisine is quite difficult for me to eat. There were days when I could only eat 2 packs of noodles or a few potatoes a day. Near the end of the trip, I discovered an Asian supermarket in Leh, so I went there to buy ingredients to cook a delicious meal. If I had known about this place, I would have let Win stay here for a month.”
Tourists should prepare clothes and medicine carefully for this trip because the weather here makes it easy to get sick.
To have a smooth and convenient journey to Ladakh, Win Di also gives some notes for Vietnamese tourists when conquering this land. Tourists should carefully prepare clothes and medicine for this special trip because the terrain and weather here are very different from Vietnam, it is easy to get sick and quite cold. Coming here, the road is long, so tourists should go in groups, the more fun and safer it is. You should go with the most comfortable and optimistic mindset possible because sometimes the weather is not in your favor. And especially, traveling by tuk tuk or buying things in India, tourists will definitely have to pay.
“If you have the chance, everyone should come here once in their life to feel the majestic beauty of nature in the Himalayas. This is a place worth experiencing, Win will definitely come here a few more times in the future,” Win Di added.
