"Once we start working, after about 6 months, we will take 15 days break and plan a biking trip to Leh-Ladakh. " - A committment made by a bunch of biker friends in college just before the placement season started. High on confidence about placements and low on awareness on the grind of the corporate world!!!!
Aug/Sep 2011: "Abbe, October mein National alumni meet ke liye Pune Chale?" - The innocent question that started it all.. Reminded us that the trip planned in 2005 has been pending all these years!! Add to this the frustrations in the corporate world and the desperate need for a break started us off on the discussion about Leh-Ladakh.
Rahul sent out an email to the group involved in the original plan to check on responses to a new plan being made. 50% conversion only in the first screening round. Of 8 people involved, 4 gave excuses of work and backed out from the plan. Its only incidental that they are the married ones in the group. :):)
Stage 1: 3 confirmed and 1 tentative and the planning begins. Thanks to google god, details like the season for Leh-Ladakh, the ideal time to visit, etc, etc obtained in a matter of minutes. Basis other leave committments, work, etc the planned dates for the trip - 1st October 2011 - 8th October 2011.
Stage 2: The decision made on the dates, the next task on hand was to make the travel plans. The options were -
1. Drive down from Delhi and rent bikes locally in Leh
2. Ride bikes from Delhi
3. Drive till Manali and take bikes from Manali
4. Fly to Leh and then rent out bikes from Leh to cover the region
After a really long debate, the option chosen was to fly to Leh and rent bikes locally. In the interim, the "Tentative" converted to a "Declined". Resultantly the tickets for the 3 confirmed were booked and the trip well publicised.
10 days before the trip, the grind of the corporate world takes its toll and we have one more dropout. What would be a plan without a few setbacks and hiccups. To add drama to the whole exercice, my leave approval was pending till 4 days prior to the trip. Finally, the leave approval happened and the trip to go ahead as planned, but, with just 2 brave souls.
Lots of research on the internet and hearsay resulted in us boarding the flight from Leh with loads of warm clothing in hand. The trip had started and as the plane neared the Leh airport and the pilot announced the outside temperature - A pleasant 17 degrees!!!! The rest would be with pics.
Day 1 :
This was the first view of Ladakh as we were approaching the landing strip!!
Landed in Leh!! Took a taxi to the main market of the city!! We were told that was the centre of the city!!! Finding a guest house was quite easy actually with boards popping up on whichever side you see advertising for places to stay!! We decided on one with a decent room and a very sweet family running it!!
The two partners in crime in front of the guest house room!
Checked in, cleaned up and off we went again to the main market in search of our rides for the next 6 days!!! Into our little adventure we realised we may have pushed the dates of our trip a little too close to winter.. This was driven home when we realised that more than 50% of bike rentals had shut shop for the season and the ones who were renting out refused to give it after hearing about the places we had on our mind to visit!! One of them had awesome bikes to give but refused to let us take it far saying, "Barf girna shuru hogaya hai valley mein. Agar aap log vaha phas gaye tho hamare bikes bi phas jayenge aur humain trucks pe lana padega"
4 full hours into our search, we zeroed in on one guy who agreed to give us bikes from the next morning. 2 relatively new Pulsar 150s!! Must admit they were really good rides and got us out of couple of situations!!
Our rides for the week!!!!
Day 2: We started with the bikes and the first road we hit had to be NH 1 connecting Leh-Srinagar-Delhi!!!
One of the most awesome roads we have ridden our bikes on!!! Loved the highway!! The first place we hit was a place called Magnetic Hill.. The pic explains the name as well!!
After testing the claim which we found did not work on our bikes with fibre body, we moved on to Sangam which is as the name suggests, meeting point of the rivers Indus and Zanskar!!!
The 2 rivers can be distinctly identified in the pic as well!!
Further on, we covered Alchi monastery which was one of the oldest monasteries in the region!!! Though the monastery by itself is not in great shape, it is situated in a beautiful location!! Right on the banks of the river!!
The monastery in the background!! And the 2 women we met who were from Holland and Sweden travelling together!!! Reminder to both of us how bad we are at interacting with pretty women!! More so when the women walk up to talk to us!! Can you believe it? We told them what work we do, but we didnt exchange names of email ID's. :):)
After a long day out in the sun and the dusty highway, we made our way back to the guest house in the evening!!The next day was going to be a big one with Chang La and Pangong Lake on the plan.
Day 3: A 7:00 AM start in that place was an awesome experience!! Not sure if it was foolish on our part or extremely smart to start so early!! But, by the time we had covered 30 kilometres, our hands were completely frozen inspite of the gloves and we stopped over for a breakfast of awesome parathas on the Manali highway!!
This was one of the other stopovers on the way!! The awesome Thiksey Monastery!!
2 hours into the ride we realised it was not going to be an easy ride and we had clearly underestimated the travel time going purely by the distance in kms!! Chang-La at about 80 Kms from Leh took us almost 4 hours to reach!! The constant uphill climb was awesome and fortunately we had decent bikes which could handle it!!
The first view of Chang-La (3rd Highest Motorable road in the world) from when we were about an hour away on the road!!
Chang-La!!!!
Another view from the pass!!
15 mins spent here, we started our onward journey to Pangong lake, considered to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world!! It was an awesome ride though tough with the huge backpack on my back!! We had complete plans for our stay at the lake!!!
A 2 hour gruelling ride and the end result, we landed up at the place in this pic!! B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L was all we could say!!!
The fame is well earned!!!
The water was so clear that you look down and you can see the bottom of the lake.. Almost like our swimming pool with a different colored base!!!
Had awesome lunch of Roti, Subzi, Dal and Rice!! Would you belive it that they were having a buffet there!!!
As far as the expanse of the lake goes!! We covered about 6 kms in a straight line along the edge of the lake!! But, the end was nowhere in sight!! As per some claims, it ends in China!! I couldn't see the China border anywhere around!! :)
Done with all the fun and frolic at the lake, we decided to find out about places to stay!!! To our dismay, the camps on the banks of the lake had already shut for the season and only options were some places called "Home Stay" with the locals in their homes!! We went and saw some and we realised, the "Home Stay"s were small dinghy rooms with low ceiling, with windows boarded shut and only enough space to sleep and change!! We initially decided on one and after an hour of sitting outside, decided to go into the "Home Stay" to change!! Only then did we realise that both of us were feeling the oxygen levels to be quite low and we were panting for breath!! Initially I ignored it thinking my fitness levels were really low and hence i was panting!! :)
Post realising our conditions in that place, we evaluated our state and chances of survival incase something happens in the night and we have an emergency!! Realisation dawned that we were far, far away from any actual civilisation!! The 10 odd houses of locals there had nothing to help us!! We looked at our watch and re-eavaluated our plan!! The clock showed 3:50 PM and we thought we could make it back to Leh in time if we started right away!!!
We put the plan into action and the first step was to put on an extra layer of clothing!! Considering ourselves equipped, we stepped out and told the local that we had decided to ride back to Leh and his only expression was loud laughter with a gesture indicating "IMPOSSIBLE" with his head and hand!!!
So, there started one of our most adventorous ride!!! About 10 kms into the ride!! Since we were in total wild terrain with only tyre treads for road and no road signs anywhere, we realised we had erred and taken the wrong road!!! We were on a hill and the road we had to take was down below- a decline of 3-4 kms!! One look at the clock told us we had no time to go back and take the right road!! So, off we went down the hill on our bikes!! A complete off-roading adventure!! First thing when both of us realised we had made it safely to the bottom of the hill was stop and laugh out loud for about 5 mins!! And we were back on the road!!
That must have been one crazy ride we did!! On the highway we realised we were the last vehicle to leave Pangong and we did not cross any vehicle for about 25 kms!! Though we had doubts on whether we had made the right choice by deciding to ride back, we stuck to it and rode like maiacs on those hill roads!!!
As we approached Chang-La we realised the bike was struggling and had to be virtually pushed through on some steep inclines!!! We pushed on and were relieved only when we entered Leh city!! A journey which had taken us 6 hours onward was covered in 4 hours!!! One of the best and most unforgettable adventures of the trip!!!
Day 4: The adventure of the previous day had taken its toll and we slept like we hadn't slept in years!!! With the whole body hurting (Highlighting the lack of exercise in our day-to-day life), we decided to cover places of local interest!!! To our luck, we bumped into a team from Red-Bull which was planning an event at Khardungla!! Amazing equipment with a camera mounted on a remote controlled copter!! The way that copter was being flown around itself was a sight to watch!!!
A view of Leh city from the Leh Palace!!!
I wonder who would call this a palace!! :)
Day 5: It was time for the most awaited moment of our trip!! A trip to Khardung La - The highest motorable road in the world!!!! Off we went with extra layers of clothing!! 18,400 feet above sea level, it was going to be one hell of an experience!!! The brave souls that we were, we ignored a doctor friends advice to carry handy oxygen cylinders and decided to challenge nature and the oxygen levels there!! We did ensure that we stopped over very frequently on the way and had lots of water!!
AS we started our climb, we realised the term "ROAD" was not applicable and it was just a mountain path!!! Keeping us company on the road was a convoy of 16 Shaktimaan trucks of the Indian Army!!! As if the roads weren't bad enough already, our last 4 kms to the top also had snowfall happening!! We did have the crazy temptation to ride minus the helmets and catch some of the flakes on our tongues!! But, better sense prevailed and we rode on!!! :)
The feeling when we reached the top was just AWESOME!!!
For the ones who can see it - Snow fall!!
To our surprise, army has a big setup there and additionally a canteen selling chai, bisuits and of course - MAGGI!! :):)
THE MAGGI STORY!!! - At Khardung La
KHARDUNG LA!!
Day 6: The last day in Leh and we had decided to while away time in the local market and buy stuff!! We were also motivated to eat lots!! We HAD to try out some of the local stuff like Yak cheese omletes, etc.. Though I must admit I couldn't make out any difference in taste!! :)
We also visited some places within City Limits like the Shanti stupa, etc.
The huge Idol in the Stupa!!
The Top of the Stupa!!
As the sun started to set, we were left thinking, "Is our vacation over already??". Needless to say it was one hell of a trip.. With lots of the regions like Kargil, Drass, etc still to be covered, we boarded our flight back to Delhi with only 1 thought - "Ladakh Trip - Part II has to happen real soon"!!!
For anybody planning a trip to the region, please reach out and will try to share whatever info we might have and that might be useful!! :)
Durgesh!!
