If you’ve been watching this space lately, you’d know that I was on an amazing two week vacation to the land of high passes this May. I was in Ladakh in 2008 as well. It took quite an effort to overcome the deadly procrastination and publish few major posts from the 2008 visit – this, this and this!

Before I start with the very detailed posts on each of the days that I spent in Ladakh, I thought I’d begin with a complete round up of the vacation concentrating more on the experience than on the specifics.

The journey to Ladakh started with quite a bang I must say. Cyclone Laila was lashing the Eastern Coast and Karnataka was also facing the effects of cyclone or monsoon advance but it sure was raining like hell here as well. I was to join my family who flew from Hyderabad at Delhi directly. My flight to Delhi got off to a very shaky start. 15 minutes of turbulence with lighting striking right next to the window in the clouds is enough to get even an atheist to start praying for his life! I was initially calm and composed but c’mon, 15 minutes of roller coaster ride at 35000ft is not fun by any standards. Despite a panic attack and a thunderstorm attack I managed to get myself to Delhi by 1 AM. Met up my family and we were eagerly waiting to take off come tomorrow.

It was just now that I was able to smile contently. I was going back to Ladakh indeed. I was smiling sitting in a plane flying to Leh from Delhi. We landed at Leh Airport after 90 minutes and it damn right felt like home. The mountains welcomed me or maybe I was hallucinating already but it did feel good to be back! After Srinagar airport, this has to be the prettiest airport ever!

The day turned out to be a freaking frenzy and you’ll know why in the subsequent posts. Here’s a shot of the evening view from the hotel terrace.