Part 1. So here it is...our story of a great trip.. To the remotest part of india. We had this belief that Ladakh was a place for bikers and hence for youngsters or the adventurous people oly.. Well..most of us. But then again we had an advantage. We had Sonal didi who was an exceptionally well informed fellow traveler since she was a seasoned mountaineer and had conquered many big ones like mount Kilimanjaro etc. Our group consisted of six ladies( of ages from 23 to 60) We were very doubtful that the youngest one probably will feel left out because of the fact that she was too young. .. Some members flew down to Delhi from Dubai and two of us from india. All of us met at Delhi airport and our flight was on 28th early morning to Leh.
The excitement of meeting friends at the airport was too noisy that people started glaring at us..looking daggers..hmm..a task well begun i guess. A short flight from Delhi to Leh by Vistara airlines. It was a lovely flight, new aircraft, leather seats etc and very friendly crew. The flight was full of tourists like us.We were told by our agent in Ladakh that the tourist season was nearly ending and we were just on time before the frozen scenes set in.
Lo...we are already in Kushok bakula Rimpoche airport terminal. Our agent was waiting with a smile. The first impression which is normally the best, was one of a very endearing one. People seemed friendly and very polite. They had all our luggage safely mounted on the carrier of the car and off we went to our hotel which was about 2 km from the airport.
The Sangto Villa was a very beautiful place with all the necessary comforts including wifi.!! We were told earlier not to expect much network connection in leh. But the wifi surprised us and our wifi-craving team mates had a lot of action as soon as we checked in. posing and clicking and sending to dear ones back home ofcourse!!! Especailly when the place is so laden with multi colored flowers and gardens. There were apple trees fully laden with green and red apples which were a sight to us. Soon those apples were inside our alimentary canal and we devoured them happily. Then we saw the apricot tree showering us with their ripe fruits which were another thing to pursue further. We wanted to behave like a proper tourist paying a casual glance to everything but those fruit trees wont allow us to be so..So off we went running around plucking those ripe ones and finishing them in a span of seconds.!! Such super abundance we had never seen earlier..!!
Our agent Siddarth took us to the dining area for a very sumptous breakfast of Poha, Aloo paratha, Omlette coffee tea and fresh fruits. He gave us a small briefing about ladakh Leh, cargil, Drass etc and also about the tourist season and what kind of things and climate to expect in each region. That day there was no sight seeing and we had to get acclimatised for the entire day. So we spent the day clicking photos and enjoying the various dishes that were provided. The rest of the day we spent merrily walking around the resort and enjoying the sights of ostentatious folds of mountains that bordered the villa and the poplar trees that stood over the villa as if protecting them. We went to bed after a great dinner that was served in the hotel and also in anticipation of the next day. We were already in awe of the silently eloquent ladakh mountain ranges…..(To be continued)
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