Ladakh- India
Photo Tour - 12D/11N

July/August 2021

Physical Difficulty- No intense trekking or similar activities, mostly road trips.

Maximum Number of Participants- 10 (minimum 4 participants needed for the tour)

Please note that this tour is NOT only for serious photographers, but also for anyone who are interested in image-making or exploring beautiful places. Non photographers can also join. However as being a photo tour the agenda will be followed accurately to cater the photography needs of participants.

Ladakh is in the Northwest part of India bordering few neighbouring countries like China and Pakistan and spreading through the Himalayan mountain ranges. A traveller can witness huge valleys, rivers, endless farms, nomadic tribes, numerous monasteries, wildlife like elusive snow leopard, dark blue sky, snow capped peaks, friendliest people, etc - The list is exhaustive.

“Juleh”, the magical word of welcome from absolute strangers in Ladakh makes one feel deeply connected to the region from the very first visit. Be warned!, you will find it very difficult to leave Ladakh once visited.

So whats the best way of seeing all those amazing places and people of Ladakh and at the same time take beautiful images by being at the right place at the right time. The Ladakh photo tour does exactly that.

We will be traveling through the ancient silk routes, visit numerous monasteries, stop literally at every corners to witness those dramatic displays of light over the Himalayan ranges, learn the nomadic lives of pashmina goat herders, pass through the worlds highest motorable road, and there will be lots of portrait opportunities as well. We will also visit one of the most beautiful festival in the world in one of the monastery in Ladakh.

Your tour leader and photography mentor will be Bhagi Siva, an award winning photographer with an experience spanning over a decade. His Pictures have been published in many publications including National Geographic, Lonely planet, etc. He was nominated twice as a finalist in the Travel photographer of the year contest - One of the most prestigious award for Travel photographers and twice as a finalist in the Australian photographer of the year contest by Australian photography magazine. He has won several other competitions.

With a beautifully crafted itinerary with premium inclusions, a tour to one of the most exotic location in the world, led by an award winning photographer who will be guiding you all the way through the journey in making beautiful images you can just sit back, relax and enjoy a trip of a lifetime.

Itinerary 12D/11N

Day 1 - Delhi - Leh, Ladakh

Our journey to the Himalayan Kingdom will begin from the Delhi Airport. As a complimentary service your Airport transfer from your stay at Delhi will be covered. You will catch a morning flight, last few minutes of the flight you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the amazing, endless Himalayan ranges. On our arrival, we will head straight to the hotel in Leh. Leh is at an altitude of 3,500m ( Approx. 11,500 ft). Due to the rapid ascend with a short 90 minutes flight we will not take part in any overly effortful activities during the day as we will need to rest and acclimatise.

During the evening we will have a pleasurable walk through Leh town. On the way, we will also visit Leh palace and shanthi stupa. Whilst at Shanthi stupa, we will enjoy photographing the sunset over the leh town with the background of Himalayan ranges and magnificently glowing twilight night sky.

Day 2 - Leh to Pangong through Thiksey Monastery

One of the main attraction we will see for today, is the 15th century Tibetan-style Thiksey Monastery founded by the Gelukpa monks following the Tibetan Buddhism. This large illustrious monastery is home to over 500 monks whilst also housing a tremendous 15m tall statue of Buddha. At this Monastery, we will be able to witness the morning prayers as well as numerous amount of other sensational sights including, if lucky, Mandala art being created.

Later, we will travel to Pangong Lake; one of the highest saltwater lake in the world. We will trek through windswept landscapes and past luscious lakes with frequent sightings of wild horses, Himalayan marmots, yaks, pashmina goats and if we are lucky, mountain goats. We will stop at many spots whenever we see picturesque scenes and other interesting elements to photograph. We will also witness how local pashmina herders live around this region and their unique technique of handling goats, of which will give amazing photo opportunities.
For the night, we will stay in luxury tents/hotels just beside the Pangong lake.

Day 3- Pangong Lake to Leh

For those happy to get up early in the morning, we will have a chatty enjoyable walk through the Pangong Lake area and adjacent villages. Locals wake up early in order to herd their animals and to commence their daily chores. These are all great photo opportunities where magnificent shots can be taken. After breakfast, we will be heading back to Leh where we will once again get many opportunities to take captivating photographs. To be more specific, we will stop at a few vantage points in order to capture photographs of unique landscapes and monasteries. Similar to previous days, we will witness many beautiful scenes of the fascinating wilderness and the enchanting Himalayan ranges in different lighting conditions.
After the day long travel with multiple stops, we will arrive at Leh and after much needed rest we will walk around the night markets before we settle down for the dinner.

Day 4- Leh to Nubra Valley

After having our breakfast we will leave to Nubra valley. During this journey we will cross the highest motorable road in the world (approx. 17, 600 ft). There are opportunities to photograph snow-capped mountains en-route and numerous small villages on the hills. There are some streams with crystal clear waters and of course we can stop to dip our foot into chilly waters. By afternoon you will be amazed by beautiful valleys that suddenly pop out from nowhere and we are much closer to Nubra Valley. The surrounding Karakoram mountain ranges were once traversed by the the caravans of ancient silk road. Once we reached the hotel we can rest as much as possible and by late afternoon we will take a short ride to a nearby place for some amazing landscape photographs and for anyone who wants to jump on the back of a double humped bactrian camel they can have a ride through the desert, just like the ancient silk road traders.
Overnight at Nubra Valley. Beers on me.

Day 5 - Nubra Valley- Turtuk village

Turtuk village is the last village in the region before Pakistan. It is surrounded by beautiful lakes, barley fields and the inhabitants are small ethnic group of muslims. We will walk through the village while capturing interesting scenes and people. There are many landscape opportunities and to fully enjoy them we will be staying at Turtuk tonight. We will enjoy some astrophotography today through the high mountain ranges. It will be such a wonderful experience to see night sky that way.

Day 6- Turtuk to Leh

We will get up early in the morning and visit various streets of Turtuk village, stopping at many places to photograph locals. After breakfast we will leave to Leh. This is a long journey back and of course during the course of journey we will stop at many places to take beautiful landscape images and wildlife. Overnight in Leh.

Day 7- Leh to Kargil ( To Suru Valley)

Today we start our journey towards one of the remotest, but enchanting area in Ladakh. We will be stopping at many places en-route. For example we will visit the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar river to take few landscape images. Then we will drive through moon landscape- a terrain well known for its small hills which at right light resembles the terrain of moon. On the way we will stop at Lamayuru monastery. Its a huge monastery complex and there are few small hills in the vicinity of the monastery if you would like to navigate.
Our journey will be at slow paced to stop at many places and finally we will reach Kargi. Overnight at Kargil.

Day 8- Kargil to Suru Valley

Today we will leave to Rangdum village through Suru Valley. Ideally this strip would take around 4 hours. But we will travel at slow pace. This a landscape photographers paradise. There are so many interesting views to choose from. The night sky also will be amazing particularly for astrophotography and depending on the participants you can either opt to stay in a camp in the open wilderness overlooking mountains or in the nearby hotel. As we are visiting the region during summer the nights are not overly cold.

Day 9- Suru Valley to Leh

It will be a long day back to Leh from Suru valley. After an early morning rise to photograph the beautiful landscapes again we will leave to Leh. On the way as we already used to we will stop at few interesting places to photograph. This will be the final day of long road trips as tomorrow we will be leaving to Delhi.

Day 10- Leh to Delhi

Say good bye to Ladakh and add “ I’ll be back soon ”, most definitely you will be.

Please note - That this tour has been marked as 12D/11N. However only 10 days have been covered in the itinerary . This is due to the fact that we will be visiting a world famous monastery festival where we can take great pictures of performers, different costumes and dance forms. This will be a day tour just near the leh town.
We also spend an extra day in Nubra Valley shooting nomadic camel men and Diskit monasteries. The day for this haven't been finalised yet.

Please Note- The arrangements of days across the itinerary will change slightly to add the day to attend monastery festival. As the tour will be in 2021 the festival date haven’t been announced yet.