I take an inspiration from a friend of mine who recently made an exceptional climb to Mount Kilimanjaro and wrote a wonderful post about it. I guess I should not allow my laziness to miss an opportunity to write down one of the best moments in my life.
Of course, the start to these "best" moments wasn't exactly the way I had planned, but as they say all's well that ends well. In the month of May when I met few of my friends for the BNHS camp where we sited the Flamingos who had migrated to Sewri area. I had been thinking about a trip to Ladakh region in the past few days. So when we started discussing about a trip which could be planned in the month of August, I told them about the place I wanted to visit. Considering the busy schedule of my other friends, we left the discussion undecided.
After a few days one of my friend who had accompanied me for the BNHS camp, contacted me and told me about the Ladakh camp organized by BNHS. If you know me very well, you may know that I have never traveled outside the Maharashtra-Goa region for a personal trip. Yes there was that Mahabalipuram trip when I went to Chennai for training earlier this year, but that was just filling up my free time during official tour. So this time I was determined to travel "somewhere" else in India this time. I shared the idea with many of my other friends. Unfortunately most of them had some monetary reason or other for not attending. So none of them were ready to come with us. In the hindsight, I feel it was good that many of them didn't come as they might not have enjoyed as much as they would have expected (Of course, few passionate ones would have enjoyed it more than I did). Why? More on that later.
So in the month of June, after discussing the flight details, I finally booked tickets and a place in the BNHS camp. In fact, if I am not wrong I was the last person to apply for the camp. Now, I have traveled only once in the North India, which was in December of 2011. At that time I was highly unprepared for the kind of winter is observed in the North. So this time I asked 2 of my VJTI friends who had visited Ladakh in July this year, about the weather conditions in the region. Both of them told me that the weather was very pleasant and tolerable. One of them went even further and told me that it was so hot in Leh that he had to remove his shirt at night as there were no AC/fans in the hotel. Now after getting such an information I was pretty sure that the same weather would be there when I visit the place (No wonder my boss calls me highly optimistic person). Another thing my friend pointed out was the High Altitude Sickness. He recommended me to take the tablets - Diamox to avoid the particular illness. Few days later even BNHS informed us about the symptoms and precautionary measures to be taken. I discussed with the friend who was traveling with me and decided to purchase the tablets in case we need it.
Now, we had booked a connected flight to Leh via Delhi. So from Delhi we would be landing directly to a place above 10,000ft (Leh is at 11,000+ft). Initially we had decided to take Diamox at Delhi airport so that by the time we reached Leh, the medicine would have started with its effect. However, once in Delhi we decided against it, thinking that we should get acclimatized to the climate naturally. Unfortunately for me it turned out to be a bad decision.
When we landed in Leh, we were immediately taken to the hotel Bijoo where we stayed for 6 days. The morning was bright and not too cold. We had a good breakfast - I finally had a non-veg dish after a gap of 41 days! But after lunch, things became worse for me. BNHS had instructed us to avoid physical activities as much as possible and hence first day of the trip i.e. August 15 was a rest day. I decided to watch the movie "Divergent" on my Kindle Fire HD, but was never able to concentrate. Finally I gave up after half an hour and tried sleeping but started feeling a bit nauseous. After a while I vomited everything I had for lunch. Same thing repeated after evening snacks. (It was much more embarrassing than I note here). I immediately reported my condition to our BNHS group leader. He took me to the hospital and as expected was diagnosed with low Oxygen level. I had to be admitted to the hospital for the first time in my life. I was put on oxygen for the night so that my oxygen level returned back to normal (I don't think I ever wrote "Oxygen" so many times during my HSC). And guess what! I was asked to take Diamox ;) I was discharged from the hospital next morning, but considering the risk of relapse, I was asked to rest for the remainder of the day.
It was a bit frustrating to wait for the day but considering the fact that more interesting things were lined up in the coming days, I was a bit relieved. The rest of the group traveled to Indus-Zanskar river sangam, Magnetic Hill, Hall of Fame museum.
Let me come to the point where I stated that many of my friends might not have liked this camp. The reason being the camp was mainly for birding rather than typical "enjoying" which some would expect. There were strict timings when it came to departing from the hotels for lakes or other venues. There weren't the long waits at typical tourist spots for random group photos. Everything was planned and was executed to near perfection.
Question might come - did "I" like it? Well, I loved it. The scenery, the people, the co-travelers, everything was amazing. I can't forget the discussions I had with my roommate and few other people. I had never seen such a group of passionate people whose sense of enjoyment matched mine. True, I was not particularly interested in bird watching, I do like to observe people in my usual passive way. I wish I had such a passion in my life.
Now these are lot of things in a single post. Day 3 onwards in next post. I will also post few photos. Till then here is one pic taken at Pangong Lake.
Note - My parents still don't know about my first day's "adventures".
After a few days one of my friend who had accompanied me for the BNHS camp, contacted me and told me about the Ladakh camp organized by BNHS. If you know me very well, you may know that I have never traveled outside the Maharashtra-Goa region for a personal trip. Yes there was that Mahabalipuram trip when I went to Chennai for training earlier this year, but that was just filling up my free time during official tour. So this time I was determined to travel "somewhere" else in India this time. I shared the idea with many of my other friends. Unfortunately most of them had some monetary reason or other for not attending. So none of them were ready to come with us. In the hindsight, I feel it was good that many of them didn't come as they might not have enjoyed as much as they would have expected (Of course, few passionate ones would have enjoyed it more than I did). Why? More on that later.
So in the month of June, after discussing the flight details, I finally booked tickets and a place in the BNHS camp. In fact, if I am not wrong I was the last person to apply for the camp. Now, I have traveled only once in the North India, which was in December of 2011. At that time I was highly unprepared for the kind of winter is observed in the North. So this time I asked 2 of my VJTI friends who had visited Ladakh in July this year, about the weather conditions in the region. Both of them told me that the weather was very pleasant and tolerable. One of them went even further and told me that it was so hot in Leh that he had to remove his shirt at night as there were no AC/fans in the hotel. Now after getting such an information I was pretty sure that the same weather would be there when I visit the place (No wonder my boss calls me highly optimistic person). Another thing my friend pointed out was the High Altitude Sickness. He recommended me to take the tablets - Diamox to avoid the particular illness. Few days later even BNHS informed us about the symptoms and precautionary measures to be taken. I discussed with the friend who was traveling with me and decided to purchase the tablets in case we need it.
Now, we had booked a connected flight to Leh via Delhi. So from Delhi we would be landing directly to a place above 10,000ft (Leh is at 11,000+ft). Initially we had decided to take Diamox at Delhi airport so that by the time we reached Leh, the medicine would have started with its effect. However, once in Delhi we decided against it, thinking that we should get acclimatized to the climate naturally. Unfortunately for me it turned out to be a bad decision.
When we landed in Leh, we were immediately taken to the hotel Bijoo where we stayed for 6 days. The morning was bright and not too cold. We had a good breakfast - I finally had a non-veg dish after a gap of 41 days! But after lunch, things became worse for me. BNHS had instructed us to avoid physical activities as much as possible and hence first day of the trip i.e. August 15 was a rest day. I decided to watch the movie "Divergent" on my Kindle Fire HD, but was never able to concentrate. Finally I gave up after half an hour and tried sleeping but started feeling a bit nauseous. After a while I vomited everything I had for lunch. Same thing repeated after evening snacks. (It was much more embarrassing than I note here). I immediately reported my condition to our BNHS group leader. He took me to the hospital and as expected was diagnosed with low Oxygen level. I had to be admitted to the hospital for the first time in my life. I was put on oxygen for the night so that my oxygen level returned back to normal (I don't think I ever wrote "Oxygen" so many times during my HSC). And guess what! I was asked to take Diamox ;) I was discharged from the hospital next morning, but considering the risk of relapse, I was asked to rest for the remainder of the day.
It was a bit frustrating to wait for the day but considering the fact that more interesting things were lined up in the coming days, I was a bit relieved. The rest of the group traveled to Indus-Zanskar river sangam, Magnetic Hill, Hall of Fame museum.
Let me come to the point where I stated that many of my friends might not have liked this camp. The reason being the camp was mainly for birding rather than typical "enjoying" which some would expect. There were strict timings when it came to departing from the hotels for lakes or other venues. There weren't the long waits at typical tourist spots for random group photos. Everything was planned and was executed to near perfection.
Question might come - did "I" like it? Well, I loved it. The scenery, the people, the co-travelers, everything was amazing. I can't forget the discussions I had with my roommate and few other people. I had never seen such a group of passionate people whose sense of enjoyment matched mine. True, I was not particularly interested in bird watching, I do like to observe people in my usual passive way. I wish I had such a passion in my life.
Now these are lot of things in a single post. Day 3 onwards in next post. I will also post few photos. Till then here is one pic taken at Pangong Lake.
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| Pangong Lake |
Note - My parents still don't know about my first day's "adventures".
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