Around Leh, 1 Sep, 2015

We made a grave mistake last night by booking bikes to roam around Leh, to Alchi, Likir Monastery, etc. We again had to climb almost a km. up hill for breakfast on the Fort road. I was feeling nauseated, even though hungry I couldn’t eat more than a single Cinnamon bun. Tea was just for taste and gave it away to Sourabh. Already feeling tired, all of us, somehow picked up the bikes, me with Siddarth on Bullet 500 and Sourabh riding alone on Avenger.

It wasn’t even 20kms or so that I noted Sourabh was dragging behind a lot, Somehow we stopped near Nimmu for the confluence’s snap in the late morning. He complained his bike wasn’t in a great condition so was he. Ahead while I was riding easy waiting for Sourabh to catch up, Sourabh came roaring from the back halting us to stop.

नही हो रहा है ! उल्टी जैसा लग रहा है, मैं नही चला पाऊंगा, मैं लौटता हूं

We were close to a military camp and asked a jawaan if he can rest by the road side, he suggested to go little ahead in Bhagso in the Primary Health Care clinic. At the clinic, the Dr. gave him an injection and asked him not to ride the bike, we decided we’ll move ahead and on our way back get Sourabh back around 4pm till then he would sleep and rest. Sourabh was dizzy with headache and nausea when we left him in the clean, beautiful ground + single floored govt. clinic.

Have complete rest on the first day

The thought kept ringing in my head. We moved first towards Alchi dam. Where we saw in the distance a pristine turquoise blue water body being held by the man-made wall. All the journey had been through the arid, naked, sepia colored mountains, suddenly out of nowhere the cold water jutted through the gates. The mountains with varying shades of brown due to the clear sun’s netting with clouds made a picturesque scene, which seemed very common in here. Most of the places in India, the smoggy haze is so much that one can’t really see past few kms ahead, but here in Leh, as long as the eye’s gaze marched, the mountains, the valleys and the cold rivers followed.

We moved back from the dam towards the Likir Monastery having a 23m tall statue of Buddha, or as wikipedia states that of Maitreya. The ride to Likir isn’t simple either, although the road is good, it cuts off from the main Srinagar-Leh highway near Alchi and rides atleast 10km into the hills climbing, running along the edges, coming down and climbing up again, a typical traverse for any village / town in Ladakh region. We did a customary snap with the yellow statue on a colorfully painted pedestal. Both were famished and completely tired. We stopped at the cafe/shack by the monastery had some soupy noodles which made us feel better and headed back to Leh, but the first pitstop being Bagso Primary Health Clinic.

Sourabh felt fine after a 3hrs+ nap, although he was little hungry, he preferred to not eat anything, liked it better than the heavy, churning guts in the morning. On our way back we decided to have a go at the Leh Palace, before which we did a quick halt at the taxi stand for next day’s return trip of Khardungla Pass, the highest motorable road in the world. At the taxi stand, we tried bargaining for the rates, when a driver quietly took Siddarth in a corner and gave a better deal.

Post that we head straight up for the Leh Palace, which was through another road climbing all the way up the hill atleast for 30mins reminding me of treacherous climbs of Matheran that we tried on the cycle. Another few 100s of meters above Leh city, the view was enchanting, with the ice clad Stok mountains in South and the rough naked mountains on the north, the ones that we had to cut through tomorrow for Khardungla. A long prayer flag strip was hoisted across 2 hills making it serene and yet heart thumping. The flags kept fluttering in the windy city !

Back at guest house, we were late to let Padma, our host know about our plans, and she denied us for food since it was late for her to cook. Tilting her head sideways in agreement (as we thought) she said..

काना … नई मिलेगा … लेट होगया !

Intrigued by her nod and conflicting statement, It reminded me of this video.

Me and Sourabh ventured back on Fort street to buy, bread, butter and jam as noway we could go all the way top for food ! On our way back we kept discussing Padma, and her nods.

Night was always quick here, I thought tomorrow would be another tiring one. Atleast sleep will rejuvenate us back completely.