Unscripted Adventures: A Budget Tour to Ladakh by a Born-Free Traveler

Sharing my experiences of traveling to Ladakh, with a limited budget and bootstrapping and no fixed plan to visit Ladakh, here is the story of how I traveled and how did I manage to enjoy the holiday.

 

 

As I missed the call from my good friend, later I called him and learned that he is purchasing a new car and said wish you were here, as he was leaving in Delhi and I’m at Bengaluru, however, It was a week ahead to get delivery of his car.

 

But I had no money though I wanted to visit, however, I got some money on Tuesday and suddenly booked the ticket on tatkal and left Bengaluru on Wednesday night as I had not much money to travel in first-class or air travel, yet I took sleeper class train and got food from home. Called my friend and told him I’m on my way and he was shocked it was a surprise for him. After reaching Delhi visited him and stayed in his house, it was a Sunday morning went to the showroom after our breakfast, to take the delivery of a brand new car, it was a wonderful moment for him and then we went on a ride to Habitat center’s cafeteria Complex for having lunch and then the next day was my birthday.

 

 

                                                                                                                                          Surprisingly my friend gifted me some money on my birthday, then I decided to travel to Vaishnodevi Nd immediately booked the train ticket to Katra and on my birthday night took the train and traveled overnight. Early morning reached Katra, checked-in to some budget hotel, dropped all my luggage, and left for a darshan.

 

Started trekking for twelve km to reach the top and it was also a Dussehra on the cards and the temple authority was decorating the entire place for the festival, below are the pictures of the decorations in the temple premises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    then took bath in the natural spring and went for darshan in theGarbhagriha and had a wonderful darshan as there wasn’t much rush and darshan was very much satisfied, trekked back to Katra, by the time I reached I was exhausted, just took bath and slept after dinner.

 

 

 

By then as I had some cash decided to travel to Srinagar and stay was organized at a police guest house as one of my brother’s friend was working there and he had organized it. So I took a bus to Srinagar but there wasn’t a direct bus hence I have to take a bus for midway, as I traveled with a huge backpack.

 

 

 

As I was traveling at many places there was a roadblock due to landslides and road works were going, enjoyed the ride through the tunnels.

 

After reaching there, I had to change the bus to Srinagar I found a bus and took it and reached Baramulla then they said buses can’t go further due to some roadblock, then I was stuck as I have no idea what to do, suddenly there was a railway station nearby and reached there in a local shared taxi, there was a train which goes to Srinagar, which takes around two hours and the train was very good and the route was beautiful unfortunately I was traveling in the evening it was dark. Reached Srinagar took an auto who charged ₹200 to take me to my guest house. As I reached the guest house and checked-in to my room and slept.

 

The next day went to the lake after having breakfast at the guest house, then took a boat ride at a good price as they didn’t have a business so enjoyed my ride, now I was in a fix I had no money to return to Bangalore or do anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I called my cousin and requested him to transfer some money, then he did transfer so now I was loaded then decided to travel to Ladakh, which is around 250kms from here and take almost a day to reach if the roads are clear.

 

The next day I cleared all my bills at the guest house also the previous night I had stomach upset due to extensively walking in Srinagar, it was like some food or heat upset. while I was walking met one of my friend’s friend who is a journalist there and a well-known personality, also evening visited a park.

 

 

After checkout walked down to the bus stand where u get a lot of shared taxis to Ladakh, I was lucky that day there was one vehicle was going and he just took me and another gentleman so we were only three of us traveled to Leh via Zozilla pass, Kargil, Drass and reached Leh in the evening, after having a few pitstops for lunch and tea. Also, our vehicle got punctured on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

After reaching Leh I checked into a very nice hostel called Hostel levie, a decent dormitory accommodation at a cost of ₹350 per night with attached toilets and breakfast was complimentary.

 

 

The next day was completely acclimatized and was sleeping in the room only. Here even my phone’s weren’t working properly no internet.

 

 

 

 

In the evening I met few travelers from various places and as I was speaking to them learned about bike rides to nearby places, as I wasn’t having much money so I was wondering what to do, then I had called my friend and requested him to help me to book the flight ticket to Bangalore and he did it, so now I had one day in hand to enjoy and a limited budget.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So met a friend we both shared the cost of the bike and fuel, took the bike and went to Magnetic hill, gurudwara, Zanskar river confluence, army museum, And nearby monastery, in the evening enjoyed the good dinner with other members and later reached the guest house and in meanwhile, I had bought some MTR upma and Poha, as I was missing home food.

 

 

 

 

 

The next day early morning checked out and took a taxi to Airport and checked in there, took a flight to Delhi and used my MTR upma for lunch and reached Bengaluru in the evening, had some money to reach home on a bus after reaching went had nice dinner in the hotel.

 

Overall it was a great experience very adventurous..