Tag Archives: leh

Leh Ladakh Trip: Pangong Lake

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Leh Ladakh Trip

Leh, 3 Sep, 2015

We were up early and Koncho, our driver called right at 6.30am. Before 7 we were already on the road in yet another Innova ride. The road to Pangong is first down south of Leh and then travels eastwards.  Its a fairly long journey for the Ladakhi terrain, around 160km through the tough mountains. Our last bike ride experience had ensured that we let go of any idea of traveling to Pangong on the bike. The bike owner had said the road passes through Chang La another high mountain pass and there are no petrol pumps till you return back, so fuel has to be carried on the bike. With our great experience the other day, Innova was a much comfortable choice.

Our first stop was at Karu, a junction where the road from Leh heads down south towards Manali. Koncho said the petrol pump was the last one enroute to Manali, next one would be only after 350km in Himachal Pradesh. Our road however moved eastwards, after a heavy and delicious breakfast of Aloo parathas by a non-ladakhi woman. I guess she was from HP by the looks of her high cheek bone,  frosted rosy cheeks and blue eyes which weren’t narrow.

enroute Pangong Tso
enroute Pangong Tso

Soon enough the road started climbing upwards and the tarmac converting itself into globules of white rocks. As we climbed higher we overlooked Sakti, a village where our nodding Padma had gone visiting her natives, they too called it गांव.  The road worsened, he said few days back there was a rainfall, due to which a lot of sand, stone and soil had come down from the hills and uprooted and spoiled the road. The nature of the soil and rocks was very lose, you could disturb the balance by a minuscule force. Climbing up, I asked Koncho what do the locals do when the tourist season is over, he replied many go down “South” (He always referred Ladak as North, नॉर्थ के लोग) while others like him drove trucks, cars for the Army as even the army’s drivers weren’t skilled enough to drive on the treacherous, slithery, icy single-laned roads on the mountains.
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Leh Ladakh Trip: Rest…

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Leh Ladakh Trip

Sleep didn’t seem to come. Even after last day’s ride which was tiring, I kept waking up every 2 hours or so. Around 3am, I felt I was struck with viral fever, my body was aching, sleep wasn’t coming by and I wasn’t just feeling good enough. Somehow time just passed, wriggling in the nice warm thick soft cotton blankets. I kept hearing Siddarth wakeup, sneezing he was choking ’cause of his heavy cold. Kept muttering something loudly, only guy who seemed to be dozing was Sourabh who had got the injection for Altitude Sickness at Bagso.

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Leh Ladakh Trip: Roaming along, Alchi, Likir, Leh

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Leh Ladakh Trip

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

Sourabh at Primary Health Care, Bagso
Sourabh at Primary Health Care, Bagso

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.
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Leh Ladakh Trip: To Leh

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Leh Ladakh Trip

Kargil, 31 Aug 2015

कल खुबानी नही लिया !? अरे बहुत अच्छा हे !

The driver enquired in the morning. The body seemed to be little deprived of sleep, even though there wasn’t any city late night social occasion or last moment code or presentations. A slightly heavy head since last evening seemed to have reduced but lingered there. We moved for Leh by 7am, climbing over the Suru river’s tributary – the Wakha river. Had a small breakfast of Ladakhi roti and tea and headed to Mulbekh’s Buddaha. A small monastery  on the Kargil – Leh highway. The chill in the air was evident, every single person in around covered head to toe. Breeze was a constant companion here.

The land of high passes, Ladakh
The land of high passes, Ladakh

We crossed multiple passes, amongst them a 3700m Namikila top. The landscape continued to be barren and naked. At times resembling the overflowing thick skin of fat fawn colored Neapolean mastif. We stopped for Army Cafe to fill the voids with momos and tea. The Cafe actually run by the army, was manned by 2 jawans both from Maratha infantry. A big silhouetted Shivaji painting adorned the door of the cafe. Further ahead Fotula (4100m) had to be crossed which took us into Lamyaru Monastery, one of the largest and oldest Gompas in Ladakh. It was here that I had a first hand experience of the clay-baked walls of Ladakh.

Moon Land, Lamyuru, Ladakh
What on earth is this Moon land !?

The lunar landscape of Ladakh became so devilish yellow looking after Lamyaru, that its actually a tourist attraction – The Moon Land. The fawn colored thick skin changing to sulpher yellow colored clay with even softer self holding capacity.

Deserted and flat on the top of the world
Deserted and flat on the top of the world

We had our lunch by 1.30pm at Khalsi in a Punjabi Dhaba, a scarce resource in this part of the world in orchards of Apricots and Apple. After snoozing off in the vehicle for long, we halted on a flat land where the driver told that this a very long straight road. After a few snaps and some more drowsy minutes we stopped at yet another flat road.

ये मेगनेटिक हिल है

The Magnetic Hill, he put his car on neutral and demonstrated how the car is being pulled uphill on slight slope. Unable to comprehend on whats really going on, we felt its pointless to just assume the magnetic nature of the place and we headed further ahead overlooking the Gurudwara, to Leh.

Indus and Zanskar Confluence, Nimmoo
Indus and Zanskar Confluence, Nimmoo

Leh’s entry is marked by the Indus’ tributaries. One such is Zanskar river. We stopped on a ghat which overlooked the confluence of the Zanskar and the Indus rivers which continued ahead as Indus. After the confluence at Nimmoo Leh welcomed us with a barrage of Military camps and postings. These gave away for a more civil traffic on the roads, with shops, hawkers and hordes of cabs. We settled for a home stay on the Fort Road. It was close to 5pm.

In the night we walked up the Fort road almost a kilometer to a restaurant for dinner. Along the way we also booked a Bullet and Avenger motorbikes for our next day’s trip to Likir, Alchi and other close by sight seeing. The climb had left us exhausted ! Leh’s high altitude and this kilometer long climbing road made us pant ! It feels strange to just walk a few meters and feel exhausted – that’s high altitude’s low oxygen showing off!