Love my work at Leh

I am a self-composed person when it comes to working and making decisions for daily chores, but what if my work is traveling 30–70 km daily, to dusty yet peaceful villages where there are fewer people but more talk, fewer cars, and more animals? I jump on my autopilot mode!

I love to drive, especially when your hometown is Leh-Ladakh, people would say you are lucky to be born there. I share the same emotions about it, however, as a human, we need to change of environment from time to time. As a site engineer, I travel to remote places in Ladakh where our company, The Taru Enterprises Pvt Ltd, builds roads for government-issued tenders.

It's blissful to start the Mahindra Scorpio on a cold morning of March in Leh, the temperature is -2 degrees Celsius, and your feet drag you back to the heated room, but the morning Noon Chai (Butter Tea) is the fuel that shapes you for the journey ahead. After giving a good motivation talk to myself, I fuel up the car at the small gas station in Leh and move towards the village Hemis-Shukpachan.

Situated at a distance of 79 km from the main city, Hemis-Shukpachan lies in the womb of beautiful shades of deserted mountains. The main highway covers some beautiful villages en route to Hemis-Shukpachan. To give you a glimpse of the semi-arid region, I store the energy to travel continuously with a perfect breakfast at a small restaurant Gupuks nearby to Ladakh-Scout regiment camp. Sipping the much toothsome tea, you can take a glimpse at the running water under the army-constructed bridge

which flows down to the Indus River and the mighty Indus merges to the Shayok river which is called Sangam Point, situated a 10km drive from Gupuks. The scenery out there is beautiful, if you are a solo traveler you must plan a sunset visit to the Sangam!

In route, the holy Pathar Sahab falls which is just 2km away from the Magnetic Hill, what is better than a good lunch at the Gurdwara after a tiring sand bike expedition on the challenging Magnetic Hill.

I am going to spill my tea over my keyboard without a sip if I keep on reminiscing about my site visit to those beautiful villages. Although it took 3 hr drive one way to the site for a continuous 5 days’ visit, I enjoyed and would gladly drive again and again to the barren site with such stunning scenery.