[sandeep.barve]

Hi All,
We have finalised our trip for this year,starting July11 from Mumbai,flying to Delhi and then driving the rest of the way. We have hired an Innova for the trip.

Thanks to the helpful folks at BCMT,we have been able to plan it well ( I hope!)

My question to you veterans is, that I have read all sorts of glowing stories about people travelling to Ladakh. I am yet to come across any blog/post of something gone seriously wrong.Maybe a vehicle breakdown,or sickness,or accident or worse any theft/robbery incidents.

I need to understand these aspects of the trip from the experienced members here as I am travelling with family,and for the first time on a 15 day road-trip.

What kind of assistance is available enroute for such eventualities.We are taking travel insurance for all of us. Is there anything else required.We would ofcourse be taking all precautions/medical guidance as mentioned at various places on BCMTouring.

Would like to hear from members.

Thanks & Regards,
Sandeep Barve

[anupmathur]

Sandeep, if you could post your tentative schedule here, it would be a lot easier to visualize where the risks lie, if any. And how many people are you, in what age group?

By and large, travel insurance is not really required. Medical issues are generally AMS related and these are treated free all over Ladakh, by the army and the civil authorities both.

[sandeep.barve]

Anupji,

We are 4 people,self & wife and a friend and his wife.We're all 29-30 years of age.
Have taken the Domestic Travel Guard Policy from TATA AIG.Since it costs very small amount (Rs 239/- per person) and covers a lot of things,I thought it's worth it.
http://www.tata-aiggeneral.com/tagic...tic_tguard.jsp

The itinerary is as follows. We shall fly in to Delhi on 11July night and drive from there. We have booked all hotels enroute. The Innova is self driven (finally managed to get that), although we will have a driver.

Have attached the excel sheet for the itinerary. Could not manage to copy and paste it properly in the text window.
Please have a look and suggest.

One pitfall may be that we have done advance booking for all hotels and do not have a buffer day.

Regards,
Sandeep Barve

[sandeep.barve]

Seems my attachment is not visible. Am copy-pasting the same sheet here.

But why does it not look like excel? It looks like text, and that too scrambled.I hope you are able to understand. The header is date,day,daytime travel and night halt. The columns below give the details.

Date Day Daytime travel Night halt
11 July night – 12 July Saturday Delhi to manali Manali
13 July Sunday Manali local Manali
14 July Monday Manali to Jispa Jispa
15 July Tuesday Jispa to Sarchu Sarchu
16 July Wednesday Sarchu to Leh Leh
17 July Thursday Leh local Leh
18 July Friday Leh to Pangyong lake Pangyong lake
19 July Saturday Pangyong lake to Leh Leh
20 July Sunday Leh to Nubra valley Nubra valley
21 July Monday Nubra valley to Leh Leh
22 July Tuesday Leh to Kargil Kargil
23 July Wednesday Kargil to Srinagar Srinagar
24 July Thursday Srinagar local Srinagar
25 July Friday Srinagar to Pathankot Pathankot
26 July Saturday Pathankot to Delhi Own acco in Delhi

Regards,
Sandeep Barve

[anupmathur]

Sandeep, that looks good.
Your Tata AIG insurance seems like a very good deal.
You do not really need the Darcha stay, but good to leave it there. Reasons: (i) it will help with acclimatizing and (ii) just in case you meet a bad traffic jam (unlikely in mid-July) at Manali-Rohtang sector, you'd be grateful to call it a day at Darcha!

Srinagar will now be a very big IF.
IF you do go that route, my suggestion will be to straight away check into a houseboat. Generally works out to be a much better deal than equivalent hotels ashore, and it is an experience not to be missed. The car would need to remain in the public car parks along the boulevard.

In view of the disturbances, and 80% tourists having run away, the rates that you'll get for the houseboats should be very sweet, eg Rs.3000/- for a full boat with 3 bedrooms. Bargain hard.
Do remember that all the gardens are closed on Fridays, though your Srinagar stay is falling on a Thursday.

Would you want to visit ALL the gardens? Maybe one, like Nishat or Shalimar, would be enough.
Take a good long tour on a shikara. Do the full Dal lake and Nagin lake circuit. Do some water surfing!

[sandeep.barve]

Anupji,
Thanks for the prompt reply. However, my initial question of risks/issues remains unanswered

I have read several posts till now but not come across any person telling about mishaps/accidents/sickness. It seems everyone has had a dream ride to Ladakh,inspite of all the hazards involved. (I don't mind that at all!!)

But,being an engineer,I feel it is statistically impossible to have 100% success rate!! Someone must have had a screw-up somewhere,sometime! If yes,any anecdotes? And what did they do to resolve the situation.What precautions to be taken etc.

Regarding your reply,we're staying in Sarchu and not in Darcha. I hope thats ok. And I have read so much about the traffic jams in Manali that we have resolved to leave town by 5.30!!

We have already booked the houseboat in Srinagar through a travel agent. So there is no room for bargaining now But the agent is a friend,so I think I will not be ripped off.

We have 2 nights and 1 clear day in Srinagar,will try to cover as much as possible.

Regards,
Sandeep Barve

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Maybe because people don’t like to talk about things which went bad, especially their own personal experience.

As for accidents etc. its part of life and like anywhere else in India (especially in hilly regions), they are common in Ladakh as well. Theft/robbery isn’t that widespread yet, because people of the region are generally quite friendly.

As for what can go wrong, well just about everything that can happen in rest of India and Acute Mountain Sickness, which can be a killer if its serious.

While majority of the places don’t have phones and that much population, almost the entire area is under army control, which are quite friendly and helpful. In case of breakdown etc. you will always find help (from tourists, locals, taxi/truck drivers and of course the army) as long as you are traveling between early morning to early evening during season, later on as the traffic get sparse, chance of finding help diminishes.

I think last year or year before that a foreigner couple had pitched tents at/near Pang in late October, at the night a bear came and attacked them. The guy was seriously injured and they had to wait till morning before they could see any vehicles and get some help.

[anupmathur]

I have read several posts till now but not come across any person telling about mishaps/accidents/sickness. It seems everyone has had a dream ride to Ladakh,inspite of all the hazards involved. (I don't mind that at all!!)

But,being an engineer,

LOL, I too am an engineer!

Strangely, having done all the 'research' before my trip, the worst case scenerios I could find ANYWHERE on the WWW were only to do with AMS in its 'normal' forms! Not one case of HAPE or HACE! No fatalities!!
So, is it safe to conclude that because this journey is touted as the mother of all trips, people do prepare well and therefore do not suffer the problems that might arise in 'spontaneous and unresearched' trips?

BUT, please be well advised that every year there are the few unfortunate ones who lose their life to AMS! Maybe those fall well within the domain of 'statistics' for any travel ANYWHERE!

[sandeep.barve]

Thanks Yogesh and Anupji!

Will keep you posted regarding other developments.

Regards,
Sandeep Barve

[anupmathur]

Sandeep, things being what they are in J&K, maybe you should already amend your plan!
Maybe, it is too early to say yet, but this time it is looking rather bad. You still have a month in hand, but not much REAL progress will be made in this period.