|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One has to be a true
adventure lover to trek to Zanskar in Ladakh, writes Sneh
Wadhwaney The experience of travelling to Zanskar itself is a feat to be achieved. It is a trip of a lifetime. A lot of books will tell you that Zanskar is a lonely, inhospitable land. But it is only when you reach Zanskar that you realise how lonely, lonely can get. The best way to discover
Zanskar is by road. However, travelling to Zanskar can be a
challenging experience and one must not venture there without complete
knowledge. Surrounded by the Trans Himalyan and Zanskar range,
it is untouched by civilization and miles away from basic
communication.
Most of the travellers here are European, very few Indians even know that Zanskar is a part of India and in the heart of the Ladakh region. One has to be a true adventure lover to come to Zanskar. There is no road from Leh to Zanskar, the work there has just begun. The people of Zanskari feel that the road will take another 15 years to get built. One has to go all the way to Kargil and then drive back to Padum the capital of Zanskar. It is an exciting drive to Kargil, one comes across the famous Mulbekh Monastery which has an old stone-carved Buddha statue welcoming you inside. It takes about nine hours from Leh to Kargil. It is from Kargil that the backbreaking drive to Padum begins. Be prepared for the longest 234 km ever which take approximately 13 hours. The road is unpaved, bumpy and uncomfortable. It seems never ending, going nowhere with no one in sight. The drive to the Zanskar valley is magnificent. One passes the beautiful Suru valley on the way, the Nun Kund peaks and a couple of famous glaciers like Gangri and Drung Drung. The drive is mind-blowing and the awesome beauty of the place, besides the bumpy road, will not let you take a quick nap. The Zanskar region is snowbound throughout the year and is completely cut off for seven months from November to May when heavy snowfall encircles Zanskar. It opens for travellers, trekkers and river rafters in June and the season takes off by July and ends by September. Padum is a tiny village. It has a few quaint houses and fewer hotels. Ibex and Kailash are the prominent ones but to really experience Zanskari life, one must try and get a room in the Mont Blanc guesthouse. It has authentic traditional Zanskari rooms and one gets an opportunity to interact with the host family, eat with them and share with them their views. It is here that one realises that in the most inhospitable of places there is always a wealth of hospitality. If you visit Zanskar around Buddha Purnima, which is considered extremely auspicious, you can see residents from nearby villages who come here to offer prayers and perform traditional dances. The Zanskari women wear an elaborate headgear and yak skin clothes embedded with gems and turquoise stones. Zanskari people live in harmony with nature, maybe that’s why they belong there. They are farmers and depend entirely on the glaciers surrounding the villages for their water supply. They wait all day for the glaciers to melt and drop their waters and make streams; which flow, into their farms, and are then directed to the right places by the farmers with sticks. However, the story is quite different in the winters. The natives stock up for the long winter and virtually go into hibernation once the cold sets in. They don’t step out of their warmed houses and as one of them says "it is not good for our brain. We don’t do any work for seven months of the year. Just eat and sleep." It is amazing that even in this unformidable region there are preparatory and high schools in many villages. The weather is inhospitable and a major deterrent to serious travellers. Icy, dust-laden winds blow all the time. As the evening draws, there is almost nothing one can get to eat other than the restaurant that serves food at night. Zanskar is not for everybody. Zanskar is for the people who live there, who were born there, who depend on nature, for whom television, mobile phones, computers, electricity and hot water are not even needs. If planning a trek in Zanskar whether from Padum to Darchha or Padum to Lamayuru, one must take all precautions and be prepared for the worst. Since hospitalisation is unavailable and one has to either trek for nine days to reach Manali or drive back in 24 hours, it is better to be well prepared and carry all necessary equipment for a trek and safety. You can’t dare to fall sick here. The Zanskari people who need medical treatment in winter have to undertake the gruelling chadar trek over the frozen river to Nimoo village to reach Leh. Go to Zanskar but be prepared for the unfamiliar. Go there for the innocence of the place, for the age-old culture that still runs strong and for the natural beauty of this earth.
|
||||
|
|
||||
