The title seems obscure, will get to that later, but for now, another story about Ladakh, a place I’ve now frequented thrice.
If you travel to a place often, you feel like a local, right? I mean, as soon as you land at the airport, you tend to pick up small talk with your cab guy – hey, when did this building come up here? Or hey, it’s been a year, why haven’t they finished tarring this road yet? Or a request like, in 200 meters, can you stop the car at the left corner shop for a chai? just to show that you know there is a chai shop around the corner.
The cab driver, in his mind, would curse you for trying to ‘fit in’, and be yet another wannabe local.
I was that guy in Ladakh this time, just because it was my 3rd visit. And I didn’t stop my ‘being local’ act in just these pointless conversations. I took it a step further.
This time, the trip to Ladakh was in July 2025, and the agenda was the same as before: to chase the dark skies and capture the Milky Way. This time around, we wanted to visit new places and explore new skies. We also didn’t want to waste time in Leh City going to the Leh market, so we zeroed in on a homestay on the outskirts of Leh, close to the Stakna Monastery. The idea was to shoot the Milky Way over Stakna while also acclimatizing, and then the next day travel to Tso Moriri, followed by Pangong, Nubra, and back to Leh.
Do you see through the audacity of this plan? Well, none of us did. When you travel to Ladakh, you need to respect the mountains and the altitude. Never take them for granted. Let me put this perspective – Bangalore is at an altitude of 3,020 ft above sea level; Leh is at an altitude of 11,480 ft above sea level. When the magnitude of the transition from one mean sea level to another is so high, you are prone to altitude sickness. You need to acclimatize. Acclimatize simply means that once you reach a high altitude place like Leh, you do nothing. You just need to chill for a day or two and let your body get used to the lower oxygen in the atmosphere.
By less oxygen, I mean reallly less, and each step you take feels like walking with a 25kg vest plugged to your body
We had planned for acclimatization for 1 day, and in our minds, this was ok, well, because… hmm, you know, we felt kind of locals. I mean, at the 3rd visit, you are deemed local, right?
The problem with our plan was that, from Leh, we were headed to Tso Moriri, which is at an altitude of 14,836 ft above sea level, much higher than Leh. In fact, Tso Moriri is one of the highest altitude habitable places in India. Technically, our acclimatization at Leh was less than 24 hours (at least mine), however in all enthusiasm, we started the next day’s drive to Tso Moriri.
The drive to Tso Moriri, like any other drive in Ladakh, is breathtaking. I won’t even attempt to describe it, because I can’t. No one can. One needs to experience it in its entirety.
After a surreal drive through mountain passes and picturesque grassland, we finally reached our homestay in Tso Moriri. As soon as I checked into my room on the 1st floor, I could kind of sense some sort of discomfort. I ignored, after all, a regular to gym guy from Bangalore can’t feel fatigued climbing 12 steps with just a messenger bag strapped around the body. I quickly grabbed my camera gear and joined the rest of the crew to drive up a hill with the most gorgeous view of Tso Moriri Lake. The idea was to shoot a time-lapse.
As I opened the car door, I remember being pushed back. The wind was unbelievably strong, and there was no way we could set up our tripods for a time-lapse. But luckily, there were 3-4 cars on the hill, and we strategically parked them so the wind would be cut off as much as possible. A good 10-second daytime timelapse takes about an hour to shoot. I set up my gear, and for the next hour, like a fool, hung around my camera to see it mechanically click 300 images, completely disregarding the gushing wind.
To get a sense of how strong the wind was, check the movement of the lake water. Not properly acclimatizing + strong wind + high altitude + thin oxygen is your perfect masala to instantly summon acute mountain sickness (AMS). I got so badly hit, it was not even funny. Never in my life had I experienced such a crazy headache, nausea, stomach sickness, and tiredness, all at once. If I’m not wrong, my blood oxygen had dropped below 70%. I remember looking at it and getting psyched.
I quietly went back to the room, trying to reconcile whatever was happening. I popped Diamox and electrolytes, hoping things would get better, but no. Nothing happened, and my condition worsened. I could hear some chaos outside the room. I gathered some strength to open the room door and check what was happening – it was basically the entire crew falling one after another, hit by AMS. All of them with headache, nausea, pounding chest, and whatnot.
As I cocooned in my room, my inner voice told me – You are not a local! 3 times to Ladakh only makes you a trans-Himalayan travel addict, not a local. With these thoughts, I lay on my bed, hoping diamox would help. But it didn’t. Heck, I didn’t even know I was supposed to take Diamox a day before high-altitude travel, not pop it like paracetamol when you get a fever. Hours passed, and I lay helpless in my room, hoping things would get better. I completely forgot the reasons why I was in Tso Moriri in the first place – to photograph its glorious dark sky. It didn’t matter anymore.
At this point, my cab driver walked into my room to check if I had a phone charger to spare. He saw my state and knew what I was going through. He then rushed to the car, brought an oxygen cylinder and plugged it into my face, and asked me to breathe deeply. I had never done this before, and I had no idea what to expect. But frankly, at that state, I’d have done whatever to feel better.
While I was deep-breathing, he sat by my side and explained why traveling directly to Tso Moriri from Leh was a rookie mistake. Understandably so, since most travelers cannot afford to give Ladakh the travel time it deserves. We spent a few minutes chatting about AMS and how different people react differently. But honestly, at that moment, I was just glad that there was another person with me who could understand and empathize with my condition. Talk about the real human connection in the age of AI.
Anyway, after 15-20 minutes of deep breathing, I started to feel the difference.
As more oxygen entered my system, things slowly returned to normal, and most of my issues were fixed. The headache reduced significantly, nausea was gone, and I was generally feeling better. I also somehow managed to get some sleep. Most importantly, I knew I wouldn’t die that night. To me, that driver was no less than a magician.
The next day, I woke up as if nothing had happened. Other folks were in a mixed bag, but were generally getting better. We didn’t rush. Post breakfast, I stepped out to the nearby monastery (Korzok Monastery) to witness their annual festival.
As I immersed myself in the festival, soaking in the ‘local’ vibe, I almost forgot the shit state I was in the previous night. For me, Tso Moriri was memorable; it didn’t offer the dark skies I wanted, but it did give me the dark night I didn’t want. And that means I will have to go back at some point, but I now know I will be much better prepared.
As for the dark skies, Pangong Lake and the sand dunes of Nubra offered what we were looking for. Here are a few night sky images.
By the way, this trip was in July 2025, and as I write this, it’s April 2026. My writing has gotten a bit rusty, and I know I have to retrain my mind to write.
That retraining-the-mind bit reminds me of this scene in Kill Bill. Uma Thurman, after regaining consciousness from a prolonged vegetative state, finds herself in immediate danger; enemies are already looking for her. She escapes from the hospital ward, drags herself to the parking lot, and hides in the backseat of a car. She then recomposes herself and does something quite remarkable – she connects her mind and body to train herself to walk.
She does this by giving herself one specific instruction: “wiggle your big toe.”
You can watch that incredible scene here.
And this is me, wiggling my brain to write. Adios 🙂
PS: All the homestays I’ve stayed at on this trip are hyperlinked.
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