Day 10/Day11/Day 12/Day 13/Day 14 || 17 th to 21 st July 2023 We were pretty excited when we left Leh to go to Tsomoriri and Hanle. Tso-Moriri, low profile (than Pangong Tso) but equally enchanting lake and Hanle known for its crystal clear skies were some of few places that were very high in our Ladhakh-to-do-list. However, we were left heart broken when we told near Upshi (~50 kms from Leh) that the road had been blocked to a landslide ahead which occurred just few minutes earlier and we may have to wait few hours for another set of information. So we took our bikes uphill towards Hemis Monastery. The monastery was hands down located in the best of the locations and with its verandah and museum made the detour worth its while. We returned to the checkpoint towards the Hanle/Tso-Moriri to see the traffic freely flowing and raced our bikes for almost half an hour on those barren roads. As luck would have it, a pickup truck coming from the opposite side tol...
Posts
Day 9th of Ladakh: A Dream || 16th July 2023
Day 9 of Ladakh: A Dream || 16th July 2023 In my previous notes, I said the city of Leh showcases an insane amount of the Ladakhi culture; markets beaming with vendors selling locally produced artificats and vegetation, their monasteries narrating the stories of the past, their houses magnificent and so different from what we are used to. That day we decided to roam rather than explore and rode for around 100 kms all within the confines of that beautiful city. From the low of city roads to the highs of monastery compounds, from the bustling Leh market to the serene outskirts of the city, we wandered. Night fell too early upon us and once again we had to take shelter of our room after a day of flying.
Day 8th of Ladakh: A Dream || 15th July 2023
Day 8 of Ladakh: A Dream || 15th July 2023 Nothing much comes to mind about the return trip from Pangong to Leh which this time we took via Changla Pass and which took nearly 5 hrs of sunlit phase of our day since the distance was a meagre 150 kms approximately. The roads were comparatively better but by no means smooth. However, I realised that those were the toll you had to pay to the beautiful tall mountains to witness their glory. Weather was kind of gloomy all the way back but the clouds were still in two minds and thus we made short work of the road that lay infront of us. We reached our stay around at around 4 in the noon. After lingering for a while we went out to the market for our early dinner and came back to the stay for a much needed 12 hr sleep 😊 .
Day 7 of Ladakh: A Dream || 14th July 2023 For me nothing could have been more magical than visiting that elusive lake, the poster boy of every lake calendar . Emotions ran high in the morning of that day. That it was decided near Ramban, it may well be the only thing we could do if the trip was cut short, speaks volume of the importance of going to Pangong Lake in our life. Was that too much? Naah... That morning we got up early at night :) and after a light breakfast, let the tyres roll. If valley in evening was beautiful, it was fresh in the morning. Narry a person except the one in the rear mirror. Road till Hunder was absolutely gorgeous and we enjoyed riding under the morning sun. But the road beyond that was total carnage to body and bikes alike. Actually it wasn't even a road, it was not even a trail. It may well have been a river bed but million times more pebbles on it. My bike is not exactly made for such adventurous roads and I was constantly worri...
Day 6 of Ladakh: A Dream || 13th July 2023
On the 6th day, the plan was to go to Turtuk, an obscure village in the Nubra Valley, some 200 kms from starting point of our homestay. We left at 9.30 am knowing full well that we wouldn't be reaching our destination before the sun sets as we would pass through one of the world's highest motorable pass and visit Diskit Monastery and witness the exotic 2 humped camels in Hunder. We got our tanks filled and drove through one of the few motorable roads that still were covered with ice in that month of July. We reached KhardungLa('La'means a mountain pass and 'Khardung' is a name of village) ~40 kms from Leh and situated at an altitude of 17,982 ft full of excitement. Certain moment evokes happy memory and reaching Khardungla is going to be my happy memory if I ever create a Patronus. We also met Paul at the top and man, they were a group of smooth bikers. Khardungla to Diskit (~120 kms from Leh) was easy however, it was hot in the valley and the riding jacket f...
Day 5th of Ladakh: A Dream || 12th July 2023
Photo: Leh City Health advisory on the permit for visiting Leh-Ladakh reads 'All tourists/visitors arriving in Leh must undergo at least 48hrs of acclimatization before initiating their journey to high altitude areas'. Incidents where tourists gasping for breath is not uncommon. This is due to A.M.S (acute mountain sickness) when people from lowland areas whose body has become habitual to plenty of oxygen suddenly find themselves in a place where there is a lack of oxygen. Since during the past 4 days our altitude grew gradually, one day of acclimatization was sufficient for us which also allowed us to check the list of 'Must do places'. The city of Leh it seemed has somehow been kept intact with its cultural and religious persona being the driving force behind its identity giving Leh such a unique place among the places where young crowd go for a 'break'. Of course, it is not to say that Leh has...
Day 4 of Ladakh: A Dream || 11th July 2023
Photo: Somewhere in Ladakh Leh was just 200 kms. The capital city of Ladakh. A place and its people very unlike what I was habitual to. Just as we left Kargil, the bare mountains of Ladakh welcomed us in all its glory. The sun was up but it did not feel hot. The roads built by B.R.O (Border Roads Organisation) were next to perfection and riddled with quips aimed at hasty drivers. We had our breakfast of aloo parantha served with tamatar ki chutney at a roadside Dhaba and we could only wish that our maid at home made such delicious food. We passed Namik La situated at a height of ~12,000 ft and clicked many photos with folds of mountains serving as background. There was no vegetation to be seen on those mountains, however what lacked in the terms of vegetation, was fulfilled by the different hues of colours reflected by the surface of rocky mountains. One-fold of...