Have you never heard me talking about running a photography tour in Ladakh? That is because my trip to Ladakh was a family holiday! Between two photo tours in Asia, I decided to take my family to a place that looks very different from our home of Hoi An. The Himalayan mountains of Ladakh were for sure a change of scenery!
The city of Leh
We only had a little bit over 9 days to spend in Ladakh. As recommended, we stayed in the city of Leh for the first couple of days, time for our bodies to acclimate to the high altitude. It felt really weird to be to of breath after climbing a few steps!
The old quarter of Leh is really pretty. It reminded me of Hoi An old town, the way it is manicured and polished for the tourists. A real postcard location!
We had the chance to be there when the Dalai Lama gave a lecture, so we went to say hi. Quite an experience to be sitting surrounded by the huge mountains, listening to the Dalai Lama talking about love and compassion. Definitely something that we won’t forget!
We went to visit a few monasteries around the city. As I was travelling with my family I wasn’t really on a “photo mission” the way we can be when on a photo tour. I did snap some images but I wish I could have taken the time to wait for better shots!
The Nubra Valley
A few days after landing in Ladakh, we drove to the valley of Nubra, via the Khardubg pass. Located around 5,300 meters above sea level, it is the first time any member of my family ever went to high! Definitely hard to catch a breath up there, but an incredible road and experience!
It was really exciting to be able to spot a little bit of wildlife through the car windows: birds, marmots, yaks, camels, etc… a refreshing change from Vietnam!
Once we got to the Nubra Valley we instantly fell in love with this place. We stayed in a great little hotel and spent the next couple of days driving around and chilling with the camels! And we had a rainbow!
Pangong Lake and its surroundings
We kept driving towards the Pangong lake. We had to show flexibility and thanks to our driver we managed to go through all the roadblocks caused by recent landslides. But honestly, the more we were driving the happier I was. The constant stream of stunning mountain ranges was an impressive spectacle already.
We stayed in a local homestay along the lake and took some time to chill and walk around.
Hanle region
We did not stay in Hanle itself due to some restrictions imposed on tourists there (too close to the Chinese border!) so we stayed in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. But so fantastic! My kids enjoyed just playing around with local boys, building damns in the streams. I walked around the village trying to find some viewpoints (and some people of course!). Honestly, I could have stayed there for a week!
This was a really fantastic family trip, and I wanted to share these few images with you. I am not convinced this is a great place to run my photography tours, as I like to photograph places that have more people around! But for any landscape photographers out there, you should definitely go and have a look!
