Start of the Trek: Lamayuru monastery
All the things we took with us... along with a cook and what we thought was a guide
Descending from Wan-La
Entering Wan La village
The kids and the donkeys work hard here
Day 2.. through the canyon into Hanupeta
Entering Hanupeta
The village of Hanupeta
Can you find a better setting for being served warm breakfast? Though, this is the day Pooja fell miserably sick towards the end...
Day 3: Onwards to Photoksar, past the 2nd of the big passes
Pooja carries forward, though getting sicker
The final part of hte climb... Pooja's already thrown up anything she ate since morning... Horses have already gone forward... We carry on...
Beautiful sight all around, but Pooja was in a different mood...
Does anyone remember "horn of the yak" from Tintin in Tibet?
Next morning, Day 4: Photoksar village makes a pretty sight as the Sun finds its way into the valley
The picturesque village of Photoksar
Day 4.. The hardest day, with the prettiest of sights. Out in the distance where the mountains dip, you can see Shinge La -- the 4900m pass we climbed later today. Pooja suddenly feels a lot better in the morning and we move on. But she decides to rather ride the horse today.
Sights like these make up for all the tireness....
Day 5: To Lingshed... Pooja's a lot better, had good sleep. Here, she strikes a pose at the top of one of the passes we climbed to Lingshed.
Descending down to Lingshed
On our hike, we found a lot of "Hotels" -- small tea shops that sold Coke, and a few other items besides tea and cooked rice+dal. Big hit with the hikers.
A friendly Ladakhi farmer woman from Lingshed. The monastery is in the background...
Lingshed Gompa (monastery)
Day 6: Climbing the Hanamu La -- a non stop steep climb up for 2.5 hours.
2/3rd the way up to Hanamu La, we stop for a photo shoot. By this time, we were clearly in the need for a shower...
Top of Hanamu La...
Descending down from Hanamu La... to the base of Parfi La...
Inside one of hte "hotels" on the way. The hiss you hear when you open a cold bottle of Coke was so refreshing :) Here (and before) we met the two hard core French hikers who climbed Hanamu and Parfi La on the same day.
Descending to Parfi La base. You can see hte climb for the next day behind Pooja... The pass is where the white cloud's peeking from behind the mountain...
Some things you miss on the trek... Such as the Fridge....
The Washer...
The Dryer...
A shower...
Day 7: Stretching before the climb... Parfi La, the last pass on the trek before we enter the Zanskar valley. Pretty excited!
Packed and ready to climb. Our lips are parched... we are pretty suynburnt by now... 3 more days to go...
Climbing Parfi La... Pooja starts to feel sick again. No worries, the horse is about to arrive!
Arrived in Hanumil... A small village with 2 houses, 5 people, 3 "hotels," 1 guest house and 2 rivers.
Day 8: Onwards along the Zanskar river
The village of Pidmo
The kids of Pidmo...
The grassy campsite of Pishu
Day 9: The last day.... the normal rituals of the morning... the weather turned cloudy and colder though. We didn't complain after the sweltering heat of the past two days.
Making sure we got some photos in Pishu before we left...
Getting close to Karsha... the final stop before we took a taxi to Padum
Looking out to the Karsha Gompa...
Zanskar! On the way from Padum to Kargil.. we took this from within the car. The drive was long but amazing!
A stop midway to Kargil.
More prettiness on the way...
FINALLYYYYY!!! We arrived in Srinagar, had a great houseboat and host, and all was well with the world!
The beautiful Dal Lake!
From the Shikara ride on the Dal lake... Water lilies and lotuses everywhere
Last morning on the trip... Goodbye Kashmir!
Arrival in Leh... Little does she know what's in store for her.. heh! :)
