Escapades

  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...

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 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 😊 .