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.

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.
Continue reading Leh Ladakh Trip: Pangong Lake →

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.

Continue reading Leh Ladakh Trip: Rest… →

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.
Continue reading Leh Ladakh Trip: Roaming along, Alchi, Likir, Leh →