Running my first marathon, in Hyderabad, India
“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” – T. S. Elliot It all started almost a year and a half back in April 2011 when I started running to prepare myself for the high altitude climb in the Himalayas. Like any beginner, I too, started with [...]
Day 9: To the Pangong lake and back
I woke up early in the morning at 6am. Today, we were to go to the Pangong lake, about 140km from here. Since we wanted to get back by evening, we got into our taxi and moved on early at 7am. When we looked out, we could see that it was snowing in Stok Kangri. [...]
Day 8: From Stok base camp to Stok village
I woke up at 7am in the morning. My legs were all cramped up thanks to the marathon 14hr climb yesterday. After taking a small walk outside the tent, I was almost back to normal. We had our breakfast and by 8:30am, we moved on. Today, we had to return to Stok village which will [...]
Day 7: A climb to the summit of Stok Kangri at 20,135ft
Finally the big day arrived. It was by far the earliest wake up time for me surpassing the 12:30am set in Colombo couple of months earlier. It was 12:am. Temperature inside the tent was 8 degrees thanks to me keeping the tent door open after all that had happened last night. We slowly got out [...]
Day 6: Panic at 16,000ft
I woke up to a 5 deg C cold morning at 7am. Black tea was served inside the tent itself. We felt pampered on our expedition! After we got ready, we had an excellent breakfast of french toast and cornflakes. Today, we were to do a small trek up to the Stok Kangri base camp. [...]
Day 5: Trek from Stok village to Mankarmo base camp
Finally the day of the big climb arrived. It is for this trek that we had actually come to Ladakh this year. For me, it was about checking out one item in my bucketlist (a list of 10 must do things); – “Climb a 20,000ft mountain peak”!! Though we were all a bit apprehensive of [...]
Day 4: Return from Tso Moriri
A funny incident happened very early in the morning. It was still dark. Since I was wearing a sweater over two layers of thermal wear, I felt a bit warm. I decided to remove the sweater. As I did, there was so much of static electricity that was developed that I could see sparks coming [...]
Day 3: A lake beyond words, Tso Moriri in Ladakh
I woke up early in the morning at 6am. The headache that I had the previous night had gone. I felt a lot better. Today, we were to go to the Tso Moriri lake which is a good 230km from Leh. After having a good breakfast, we started our journey by around 8:30am. Unlike yesterday, the [...]
Day 2: An 18,380ft high “mistake”
We got up early in the morning. Koshy was feeling a lot better. That was good news for all of us. Guess it is always advisable to meet the doctor in case you aren’t feeling rather than wait and allow things to get worse when in Ladakh. After having a good breakfast, me and Simha [...]
Day 1: Flying into Leh, Ladakh
It was a warm Thursday night in Delhi when we landed in the domestic terminal 1D from Chennai. We got into a shuttle bus to get to terminal-3, from where we had our next flight to Leh. I found the terminal-3 in Delhi to be a beautiful airport terminal and with good facilities of international [...]
Berty Thomas
I am Berty Thomas, and I love to travel around the world which are unique in the way that they are short, quick and exhausting, often gives you the feeling of a hurried visit rather than a pleasant vacation! As a part of traveling, [read more...]
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