Digital Arsenal: August 2006

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Got Leh'd

Yes. I just got Leh'd. If anyone ever tells you that Ladakh's cold desert is amazing or Kashmir Greenery and Landscapes are breathtaking, please donÂt believe them. SEE IT ON YOUR OWN!!

Its hard to come back to normal life after having an out of the world experience traveling close to 1500 KMs on road and 1000 on air. The route we took was Delhi - Manali - Leh - Khardungla - Pangong Tso - Sonamarg - Srinagar - Delhi.

It all started in May when a friend of mine Dipayan from Mumbai suggested that Leh is a good option for a long trip (Note: In Indian software industry any vacation more than 3 leaves is considered a long leave; I had to take 5 added to 3 weekends and 2 holidays making it a 10 day trip, which is really long). The first plan was in June but we were just 2 people who were ready at that time. 2 more friends of mine showed interest if we were ready to postpone it to June end or early July. We had to agree but unfortunately due to project pressure and unavailability of leave, plan got spoiled again. Finally near the end of June, we decided that August mid is the time where this trip can be done without taking many leaves. 4 people - 3 from Delhi Region and 1 from Mumbai. A fortnight before the trip, Dipayan backed out (He said he is still trying but I understood :)) I was so fu**in looking forward to the trip but was just left with 2 friends - Sudhish and Sudhanshu. A trip like this needed at least 4 people so that the cost can be shared effectively so we started searching for travel partners online. In the meanwhile over a glass of beer, I found another friend Amit, who was interested and he was pretty sure that his childhood friend Varun would also be interested. He confirmed two days later and we got 5 Volvo Bus tickets to Manali. Just a week before scheduled departure date, Sudhanshu found out that he is a critical resource for his project and 5 days of leave is a lot to take. He was denied the vacation. We felt terribly bad and were thinking whether to continue it or not but now more people were involved and there was no looking back.
Few days before while driving back home one day with my friend Ashish, he told me that his plan for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was ruined due to the heavy rains and now he has his leaves approved but no plans at all. I am sure I donÂt need to tell you what the consequence of this conversation was.

August 12, 2006 Â Me waiting for Ashish, Sudhish, Amit and Varun in front of the Shivaji Stadium entrance of the Rajiv Chowk Metro Station. THE PLAN IS ON!!

The whole post for this trip would take me at least a fortnight but I canÂt wait to express my happiness, hence I am posting some of the magical photos I have taken using a Canon SLR and a Sony Digicam. The photographs are not not in any particular order.