Our week long adventure in Ladakh was coming to an end. What started of as a round trip from Manali to Srinagar with stopover at Leh had to be curtailed at Leh due to security situation in Srinagar. We missed another fabulous drive from Leh to Srinagar via Kargil. We should do that during our next trip to Ladakh.
We had booked our flight to Delhi from Leh since we dropped the idea of driving to Srinagar. The flights from Leh
to Delhi are all in the morning. Knowing the fickle weather conditions
in mountains, we were keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for good weather and smooth take off.
Our departure was at 7 AM which meant getting up early and reaching the airport by 5.30 AM. We settled dues with Ladakh Safari, (http://www.ladakhsafari.com/) our tour operator on the previous day and bid good bye to Deleks Namgyal who had arranged everything for us flawlessly. Zigmet, the driver was ready with the car at 5 AM with the good news that weather was good and flight will take off in time.
It was still dark when we reached Leh airport. Located in Military area, it is a small airport which is used by both civilian and military aircraft. All flights to Leh
are from Delhi and they arrive in the morning and return back. The
airport shuts down for civilian aircraft after 10 AM unless there is a
delay due to weather.
We sit there in the lounge reminiscing the good times we had in this fabulous mountain country. The landscape, the people,
the culture, the drives, the food, shopping.........everything was
fantastic. The memories of this trip will remain with us forever and we
will definitely come back some time again.
We board the flight and settle down as the flight take off. Now the most surprising
part or the grand finale of the trip was to happen as i look out of the
window. We see fabulous scenes of Himalayas, Indus river as the plane
slowly attain the height. We are lucky that we got the seats on the
correct side to watch beautiful snow clad mountains in morning light.
Here are the pictures we shot from the plane............
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| View of Indus river and Leh cantonment as flight take off |
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| The rigged terrain of Ladakh mountains |
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| As plane gain height, we see first glimpse of snow clad peaks |
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| We are now above cloud line and mountain peaks look like a silver line at a distance |
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| This is one of my favourites......the peaks in all glory rising above cloud line |
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| Mesmerising sight of rugged valleys, snow clad peaks and low hanging clouds |
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| This is another favourite.......the cloud balls resemble parachutes hovering over the mountains!! |
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| Mountains in full glory.... |
We reach Delhi after an hour's flight from Leh and reached Bangalore in the afternoon.
Do plan a trip to Ladakh. It is a fantastic experience you will always remember. If you are planning India Travel, do include Ladakh and Leh as part of your itinerary. If you are flying to Leh from Delhi, make sure you have a window seat with camera handy!
This is the Seventh post in "Ladakh Diaries" series in this blog. If you want to explore earlier posts - click on the link in this series, please click this link below. Clicking "older posts" at the end of the page will take you to previous posts in the series.
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Do you need help in planning a trip to Leh and Ladakh? You are welcome to write to me at poorna62@gmail.com.
Do you need help in planning a trip to Leh and Ladakh? You are welcome to write to me at poorna62@gmail.com.