Heading back to Leh… wait what?

For a while now, I have been thinking of revisiting Leh – Ladakh and that too in winter. In fact visiting Ladakh in winter has been on the back of my mind for over 5 years now and I haven’t yet been able to pull it off.

But today, all that changed. I was talking to Bijoy on BCMTouring and turned out, he too was thinking of heading back to Ladakh and when I said I was interested in going there in winter, he too shared the same viewpoint and things just got fixed and I ended up on Jetairways’ website and booked my flight tickets for end of December!

All this went so fast that it took me at least half an hour fathom what had happened and that I had actually booked the tickets and I will be going back to Ladakh, this December!

Now I did end up booking ticket on the 25th December, which also happens to be the date for Losar festival in Ladakh and although I am not quite sure, whether I will be in a state to actually cover the festival, after landing there on the first day (AMS is a real worry at that sort of altitude), at this point, I just don’t care and I am all set to start dreaming of Leh under the blanket of snow and experience the weather colder than -3 degrees, which I had experienced on my first trip to Ladakh, at Khardung La.

Of course this also means that I need to improve my physical health, since walking at such high altitude requires more effort than in plains and add that cold weather too and one is looking at a real workout and I would be lugging my photography gear along as well, so it will require a lot more strength than a normal bike ride to Ladakh.

Of course at this point, it all just seems like a dream and I guess it will take sometime to sink in, after all, it all happened so fast and yet, the dates are so far ahead. But one thing is for sure, I can’t wait to go back to Ladakh!