This is something stupid… Never in my lifetime have I woken up at 8 am to get ready for the office. But here! Just imagine, waking up at 5.30 am, completely afresh, without Mum screaming my name thousand times, without Dad growling at me to wake me up or without even my lil sis kicking my butts, to give up my bed…
The climate is so charismatic that I just cannot resist to leave my bed and see the sun tearing apart the mountains to brighten up the world… (Hey! Hold on guys? Can’t you just ask me to stop using this poetic descriptions in my travelogue? Hahaha… Sorry guys… Aaj mausam bada beimaan hai!) Such is the power of the nature. Who says time is the best healer of all pains? Well… I say so… The climate is so good that you feel like doing some exercises or going for a walk.
CAUTION: DONT DO EITHER OF THE THINGS OUT HERE… THE OXYGEN IS QUITE THIN OUT HERE AND PLEASE PLEASE NO STRESS WORK (YOU MIGHT JUST FEEL RESTLESS OR ASTHAMIC OR MAY HAVE AN HEART ATTACK TOO.)
(Sorry for this advice guys! But precaution and prevention is better than cure.)
Coming back to the day’s itenary, it’s time to get ready and have a delicious breakfast. Again, the food quality is good enough to keep you hale and hearty. Time to move on….
So we check out of Hotel Siachen and move towards the next stop… Mulbek. It’s on the way towards Leh via Ule. Mulbek is famous for a giant Buddha sculpture on Rock Mountain. The sculpture’s called Maitreya Buddha and it is supposed to be the future incarnation of Lord Gautama Buddha.
After spending some time to adore the statue, visiting the nearby Gonpa, refreshing ourselves and pulling each other’s legs, we move towards our next destination called Lamayuru. Lamayuru is supposed to be the oldest monastery of the Ladakh region. (Boss! I do love cultural and heritage places, but this goes a bouncer to me.)
As we move ahead, we reach the Moon landscape. The beauty of this place is that you feel as if you have landed on moon. The mass on the ground is quite different from the other places. The ground consists of sand-soil combo and so feel like travelling barefoot on it. (Tip: If possible, visit this place on a full moon night because the sky is so bright that you could actually read a book without any need of electricity.) The layers of rocks are of different colours which definately have some resemblence to the surrounding of moon.
(How am I so confident that it resembles like moon? Dude! Mummy ko bolo Discovery Channel lagaye… Ab dobara mat puchhna… Hahaha.)
Another couple of hours of drive and we reach to the day’s final destination… Ule.
The time is 4 pm and we check in a camp called Ule Tokpo Camp. This is supposed to be the best place to stay. We stay in a tent-hut combo camping site that can possibly lodge maximum two people to rest. The area of the rooms are 8 X 10 feet. What attracts you is the mesmerising flirting between you and the nature.
So we freshen up, have evening breakfast and think about the way to kill the time. (Just one problem… No network coverage at all. A blessing in disguise, I guess.) To my surprise, we find a games room in the hotel. Play chess, play billiards, play carrom and I bet its dinner time. The dinner is fantastic. The staff at the Ule Tokpo Camp is helpful enough to treat you like kings.
That’s the end of another great day and it’s time to go on a date with your crush (in your dreams, duffer!) Good night.