4 years, that's how long I waited for this dream to come true. Almost 1/6 th of my entire lifetime. When the first images of a biker posing by the banks of the Pangong Tso lake filtered through my brain cells , there was born a dream, a dream which initially was thought to be nothing more than one and as years passed started to gain momentum, thanks to exposure to the great Himalayas gained the previous year and the required company brave enough to ride in one of the most inhospitable and beautiful terrains on bikes.
Many people told we were mental , going on a suicide mission :P, but having seen so many brave souls doing this circuit on 2 wheeler and returning alive and unharmed was an encouragement for us. Planning started almost 6 months prior to the trip going through numerous blogs and pieces of info, best time to visit and henceforth. Initially the plan was to do the touring in the month of june-july but by then suddenly something unexpected happened. I got a seat in IIMB, and not to miss an opportunity of 2 dreams coming true in a single year the trip was rescheduled to fall between 2 quarters so as to have a minimum interference on my studies. Finally only 5 guys(Senthil, Vineeth, Pradeep, Prasanna and Myself) were ready to endure 15 days of "pure awesomeness" .
Day 0: 27 Aug 2011, Bangalore
One of the more busy days I have encountered in the recent past. The day started at 4 am thanks to 2 exams scheduled for the day. With the exams lasting till 6 pm in the evening all the packing was left for the n'th moment. After returning from college could start packing only from 9 pm onwards and which extended all the way till 1:30 am in the night. Then it was time for some sleep, but who gets sleep when you are excited and scared at the same time :P.
Day 1: 28 Aug 2011, Bangalore-Delhi (flight) and Delhi- Jammu (Overnight Train)
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| Humayun's Tomb |
Got up quite early in the morning thanks to the morning flight and high degree of unpredictability of landing up in the airport. Reached airport at 9 am after a 1.5 hr journey from home with still some time left for the 10.35 am Jetlite flight. The flight journey was boring and all I did for most of the journey was catch upon my lost sleep. Landed up in Delhi and this being the first time I have been to Delhi after the CWG games was really impressed with the airport, atleast 10% of the sanctioned money found its way to the airport I suppose :P. From airport we took a high speed metro rail into the city centre and this journey was done in 22 mins flat, yet again impressed and this was the last time I was for the day.
It was still around 2 pm and we had almost 8 hrs to kill before we caught the overnight train to Jammu. So first thing I remembered was the UNESCO world heritage site "Humayuns Tomb" and decided to go for it. It took us 2 metros and an auto rickshaw from the city center to land up at this place and coming from Bangalore were there is a darshini or Shanti Sagar in every nook and corner of the city we didnt initially worry about going in search for an eatery. But New Delhi was totally different. Around Humayuns tomb you dont have an eatery within a 5 km radius, a pretty shocking fact, and all eateries are just concentrated in some unknown "utopian" place as mentioned by the auto drivers :P. Another mild shock for the day was there was no luggage room at this world heritage site (unlike Qutub Minar and Akshardham temple which we visited last year) and it was simply an arduous task lugging around completely packed saddle bags, which are not meant to be hand carried in the first place.
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| Waiting for Anna at India Gate |
From outside, Humayuns tomb really looks impressive, a building made of
sandstone and nicely maintained surroundings with neatly manicured
lawns and landscape. But on the inside it was a complete different
picture, it was literally stinking with a stench of bat droppings. After
getting tired by the afternoon sun , we decided to move towards
India Gate. Directly took an auto and as we landed at this place we were
greeted by a huge crowd waving the national tricolor and later it came
to be known that Anna Hazare was going to make an appearance later in
the evening to celebrate the government approval for the Jan Lokpal bill
to be presented before the standing committee. Satiated our hunger by
having roadside chats after getting to know yet again that there were no proper
eateries around. As the day wore off the number of people swelled in
number and people were shouting slogans and we too joined in :). But
sadly Anna Hazare was facing some health issues and had cancelled the
appointment and we were unaware of that and were waiting in vain till 7
pm. Then we decided it was time to move and started searching for the
nearest eatery and google search gave an Andhra mess hall some 1 km.
This was not a proper restaurant but a canteen/mess along with
accommodation for the MP/MLA/bureaucrats from Andhra on a capital visit.
So as expected we were subject to frisking, but conversations in telugu by
our telugu speaking members resulted in some leniency shown (ie my bag
was not checked whereas all others were .P.S. I dont speak telugu :P). Food at this mess was good
, a pakka south Indian andhra meal and the only meal we had for the day. From
here we caught a taxi to Sarai Rohilla Railway station which looked like
a run down station of a 70's western movie. Caught the train and
it was an event-less overnight journey.
Day 2: 29 Aug 2011, Jammu-Patnitop-Srinagar (302 km)
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| Our Bikes Ready to be unpacked |
Landed in Jammu station at around 8 am , and by this time noticed my cell phone had gone dead(prepaids dont work in J&K), eventhough Vodafone postpaid works both in Jammu and Srinagar. We had to travel nearly 10kms to Gati godown to collect our bikes which we had sent on Aug 16 from Bangalore. So started searching for a suitable transport , which came in form of a single auto-rickshaw with all 5 of us stuffed into it like cattle with all our luggage and rears packed to the brim :P. Enroute we collected petrol since our fuel tanks were dried up before parceling. Landed up at the office, collected the bikes from the godown and were really happy with the
Gati Agent (near old airport road, Blore) to have done a neat packing job with almost zero damage to the bike.
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| First View Of Kashmir Valley |
Loaded the luggage bags to the bike, with the basic plan being that the other 2
bikes to ride with a pillion and I was to ride solo with 2 extra loads
of luggages. Did test runs with the luggages and when we were satisfied,
started the bike trip of epic proportions. Of course there were no
send-off parties, no breaking of champagne or a more traditional
coconuts on the bikes/helmets/riders routine :P, but who cared for such
formalities when you have got your bikes, tank loaded with fuel and
thousands of kilometers of road in front of you ready to be tamed. But within 10 mins of starting this legendary(i know, i am using all the adjectives possible :P) journey
we took a break at Chaudhary Dhaba for a brunch, as recommended by the
rickshaw driver and we were not disappointed. So atlast we left Jammu at
around 11.45 am and had almost 300 odd kms till Srinagar to be covered on
this particular day. But the roads were good and as soon we leave Jammu
city start the ghats, an indication that the mighty Himalayas are
beginning right away. As the ghats began, so did the deep gorges and
drops. It was really unnerving to ride on the edge of the road with 1000
ft straight drop and no protection/barricades whatsoever. One brush by
some other bigger vehicles and we would have become yet another statistic to be
mentioned in a Govt report. The western ghats in comparison fair very badly in such a scare quotient.
One thing that surely one cant miss in these regions is the huge
army presence. Every nook and corner you can expect an army convoy
zooming past with a dozen or so army jawans in the backside. But there
were no jawans every 100 m on the Jammu-Srinagar highway , as reported by fellow bloggers/bikers a few months prior to us. I suppose peace is
finally settling down for good after a long and bloody struggle. The
weather in Jammu was hot , but as we started the climb , mercury started
to drop and by the time we reached Patnitop it was literally cold in
the middle of the day. Patnitop is really beautiful with pine Trees
lining up the entire highway , giving a beautiful invitation to keep on
riding.
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| Green Tunnel |
Soon we came up to the entrance of Jawahar tunnel , a tunnel build way
back in 1956 connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the world and it
was really an awesome experience riding inside the 2.5 km tunnel all
alone, enjoying an eerie silence, broken periodically by pattering of the water drops seeping through the tunnel roof and landing on the helmet. As soon we exit the Jawahar tunnel start the Kashmir valley and
we took a break at a strategically located Titanic view point. The
entire Kashmir valley was brimming with different shades of greenery, a
feast to the weary eyes. We continued further and now we had endless
fields on either side of an awesome highway, and soon enough it was dark
, it was hard to ride and co-ordinate with each other in the dark
and added the fact that many including me had no mobile connectivity. Finally everyone assembled
and soon enough we were engaged by a broker for house boats. After
taking us to a beautiful house boat(Peacock Houseboats) we decided to
stay even though the package was on the pricey side, with the entire
package of stay, dinner, breakfast and a shikara ride at 3600 for 5
people. Ofcourse this was done after much haggling, such opportunities which we never missed during the entire trip. The houseboat also housed 2 Israeli's, an American and a Korean(Jin-Ho Choi, a musician ) who bonded pretty well with us after getting to know that majority of us worked for a Korean company :P.
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| Fields of Kashmir |
Day 3: 30 Aug 2011, Srinagar-Sonmarg-Zojila Pass-Drass (151km)
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| Inside our House Boat |
Morning was reserved for sightseeing around the city of Srinagar and as expected the first on that list was Dal Lake. The shikhara booked to take us around came at around 8.30 am and all 5 of us boarded this unstable form of water transportation. Thus started the sightseeing or so we thought. Dal Lake is so huge that we came to know that the place we are put up is miles away from the centre of the lake and from here slowly we made our way to the centre. Intially we loved the ride, pretty scenic views with row after row of house boats lined , but soon the actual headache started. Since this was an offseason and with very few tourists we are literally the centre of attraction. So many traders selling items from ice cream to saffron, photographs in traditional clothing to shawls etc chased us down in their boats and literally forced us to buy stuff. After so much haggling only Pradeep got some amount of saffron for dirt cheap price and which we came to know as counterfeit. Now this part of Kashmir I hated the most. There was no calm moment to relax before the next trader would barge in. We were irritated so much so that we literally cut short the ride and returned midway. Eventhough we visited the Dal lake market and some gardens enroute.
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| Mulbek |
Finally after the tube was
replaced we started moving forward. Leh still seemed possible even
though it was midday and roads were bad.But as it goes without a
mention, the view were simply awesome. The river Indus was accompanying
us on the major part of the journey and the view of the valley on
either side of the river were breathtaking. But as things started to
settle down after the initial hiccup, again we got a puncture in
Senthil's bike after crossing Hansikot. We had ensured that the puncture
guy had checked the tyre for any sharp materials , but after getting a
puncture so soon we were wondering what could be problem. Having no
patience of again removing the wheel and checking for puncture we
decided to go till Lamayuru and look for puncture shops. But we had
one small bump enroute, "Fotula", the highest point on the Srinagar-Leh
highway at 13479 ft. But the roads till the top were awesome and it
somewhat made matter easier for a bike now running on its rims :P. From
Fotula it was all the way downhill till Lamayuru , and by the time we
reached the town it was pitch dark.
Went directly to the
best hotel in the town which was Hotel Moonland and booked 2 rooms for
800 each. Had a pretty decent traditional Ladakhi/Tibetian buffet
filled with Momos, tupka, chowmein etc. But sadly there were no proper
mechanics/puncture shop in Lamayuru to check the wheel rim which we were
suspecting in the first place. So it was decided that we ship Senthils
bike in a pickup truck with all the luggage and other's follow it on
bikes.
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| Forula Pass |
Day 5: 01 Sept 2011, Lamayuru- Magnetic Hills- Leh (139km)
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| Lamayuru Town |
According to initial estimates this was supposed to be a rest day, a day were we lazed around and did nothing in particular , having covered 700 and odd kms. But thanks to yesterdays turn of events we were still around 140 km short of Leh. The first thing in the morning we went to the Lamayuru monastary eager to take a look inside an age old monastery (the one at Bylakuppe is a recent one), but sadly the doors were locked we had to be content roaming around the main buildings spinning the prayer wheels at every possible opportunity. After coming back from the monastery it was time to leave for Leh, we loaded the bike on the back of the pickup truck and left the place.
Just after Lamayuru is a site called moonscape where the surface
resembles the surface of the moon. Frankly speaking I saw the entire
Ladakh region to resemble moon's surface and not just this one site in
particular. There were lot of road blocks on this route thanks to some
maintenance work carried out by the BRO (Border roads organization), but
the road condition between Lamayuru and Leh are real awesome. You could
cruise non-stop. And the beauty of this land is that the views you get
in one place is totally different from views you get at a different section
of the highway, so the chances of getting "brown mountain fatigue" is
less. In short the views offered in Srinagar-Leh highway are completely
different from Leh-Manali highway, so it is always preferable to enter
via one highway and exit via another, so as to enjoy both routes.
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| No:1 in terms of scenic beauty |
Enroute we came across magnetic hills. According to the internet this gives
an optical illusion thanks to a horizon lined up differently. But we were
not seeing any illusion, after spending a lot of time doing circus on
bikes we finally gave up. As we neared to Leh, there were a lot of snow
capped peaks in the surroundings, a awesome contrast to the brown
colored mountains, surrounding it. Also caught sight of Stok Kangri
peak. Soon we were entering the town of Leh and as our pickup truck went
to a mechanic others went in search of a hotel. Found a decent budget
place, Hotel Shanti Deluxe charging 1.6k for 5 of us in 2 rooms. By this
the time was 3 pm and we asked the hotel manager whether we can get
Inner line permit (required for places near the Chinese border) today
itself and he replied in negative and told he can get the permits the next day if we paid some
1800 for 5 people for 6 days permission, which seemed too much since I
read somewhere that it cost 20 bucks /person/day coming to a total of
720 for all the 5 people. So decided to give DC office a visit and to
our surprise the DC office was still issuing permits and to our great
luck we were issued the last permit for the day at 4 pm. and costing
exactly 720 bucks :P. (For details regarding ILP go to bottom of this blog) Those who came after us had to return disappointed.
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| A snow capped peak, probably Stok Kangri |
Got our bikes checked for the long journey ahead and by evening decided
to do some sight seeing in Leh. Went to Shanti Stupa which gives a
pretty decent views of the Leh city and after that decided to visit the
Leh palace, but the roads to the palace were so confusing and whenever
we asked a person he would send us via a totally different route.
Finally exhausted we just dropped any hopes of going to palace since it was already
dark and we had to big day tmrw. One more thing I observed is eventhough
Leh is filled with more western tourists than Indians, the locals do
not discriminate between them and us , as seen and observed in other
places frequented by western tourists in India, which makes Leh all the more likeable.
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| Shanti Stupa, Leh |
Day 6: 02 Sept 2011, Leh - Khardungla Pass- Diskit - Hundar (131km)
Today was an important day. We were to attempt climbing the mighty Khardungla Pass, the highest motorable road in the world at 18380 ft. Kinda like Mt.Everest for bikes, even though there is Marsimik La at a much higher height, but it is not termed motorable and more of a dirt track. Day started with us leaving Leh town to climb Khardungla and plan was to cross the pass and go and stay in Nubra Valley. But soon enough all our bikes started to struggle to climb this high altitude pass.
And as the altitude increases your mind starts playing moody and in very unexpected ways. You feel a tinge of depression, headache etc, all this because of lack of oxygen (actually its oxygen pressure and not %) at this high altitude , there is less than 50% of oxygen content at Khardungla (at 5602m) when compared to sea level, so you know what we were facing. Soon reached South Pullu till which the roads were good, after this roads become bad till the top and this part of the road we didnt actually enjoy riding both mentally and physically. There were a lot of girls on a cycling expedition from Youth hostel (YHAI), but as expected majority of them were walking and covering the climb than cycling all the way, but still this requires a standing ovation to even think of attempting such a feat.
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| Khardungla , Worlds Highest Motorable road, kinda like Mt.Everest for bikes :) |
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| Khardung Village at a distance |
Finally we reached the top. This was the highest altitude I have reached (on firm ground :))
at 5602 m beating previous personal record of 5030m during the
Roopkund Trek
done the previous year. There were a lot of bikers getting their snaps
taken in front of the "Highest Motorable Road In the World" boards. Of
course we too got those, had some tea, got a souvenir T-shirt and in
process we spent nearly 45 mins at the top. This was a big mistake. The
army recommends not to stay more than 20 mins at any high altitude pass,
be it Changla, TaglangLa or KhardhungLa. And becoz of the extended stay
each member of the group was hit by AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness),
right from mild headache to severe headache and vomiting (Mr. Vineeth, just check him out in the Khardungla Snap :P ). I too was having mild
headache and this headache stayed on for the entire day even
after descending to much saner altitudes.
While descending the roads were bad till North Pullu, and after that it
becomes good. We stopped and had maggi's (a dish most commonly found in these regions) here. After North
Pullu you have officially entered Nubra Valley and man there were some
breathtaking views along the way. Deep valleys by the river Shyok, and
some towns totally covered in greenery against the brown background
giving great contrast views. Every 5-10 mins I would stop and take a snap.
This is the prime reason why I decided to ride solo else all this
routine would make my pillion rider pull out his hair in frustration
:D. After Khalsar village there is a 'Y" fork, one going to Diskit and
Hunder and another going to Sumur, Panamik and Siachin Base Camp. We
took the former and we had plans to stop at Diskit to visit the
gompa/monastery , but somehow we missed the entrance and decided to
visit the next day on the way back, since all of us were in
irritated state thanks to AMS.
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| Sand Dunes of Hundar |
After Diskit within a few kms start the famed sand-dunes of Hunder. But
this high altitude sand-dunes were totally pale and white in color
against the much livelier , red/brown sand of Rajasthan. Went in search
for a homestay and found Olgok Home Stay. The owner was a good fella
charging 800 bucks for 5 of us. Food was lipsmacking :). After dumping
all our luggage we went towards the camel safari, with Bactrian camel
found in these parts of the region, a reminder of the Silk route legacy
of the yesteryear's which passed right through this region. The double
humped camels looked strong and healthy hence I too decided to go for a
ride, which I usually avoid in other circumstances. The ride was pretty
amusing, but the most painful part was when the camel gets up and sits
down. Having a tender part pressed against a hump in an incline is pretty painful :P.
After the safari spent some time sitting in the sand dunes and by night
fall returned back to our homestay, had dinner and slept like logs.
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| Double Humped Bactrian Camels |
Day 7: 03 Sept 2011, Hundar - Diskit - Sumur - Khardungla Pass- Leh (172km)
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| Diskit Monastary |
First thing I noticed in the morning was that the headache had vanished miraculously :). So was pretty determined not to repeat the previous days mistake. Today we were to return back to Leh having a detour to Sumur enroute. Left Hunder pretty early and we directly went in search of the Diskit Gompa. The first thing that catches your attention is the nearly 50ft tall statue of Maitreyi(future buddha) in the Gompa's premises. After paying the required entrance fee we climbed to the Gompa which is situated on the edge of a cliff and requires a steep climb both on foot and on vehicles.
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| Monks In Diskit Gompa |
Finally reached the entrance of this ancient Gompa. There were a lot
monks going through their daily morning prayers, chanting them in a very
hypnotic fashion I must say. Also surprisingly there was a temple for
Goddess Kali, I dint know abt Buddhists worshiping Hindu gods even
though there is a lot of similarities between the 2 religions. Spent
nearly 2 hrs exploring the gompa , its surroundings and the huge
Maitreyi statue. We retraced our steps back to Khalsar and took a
deviation towards Sumur. This road goes all the way to Siachin Base
Camp, which supports the forward posts on the Siachin Glacier facing
both Pakistan and China on 2 sides , but of course they are restricted
areas and for civilians like us getting permission is close to
impossible.
Entered the village of Sumur and this was
cozy little place, surrounded by fields, mountains, trees, rivulets and
houses. Decided to visit the Sumur Gompa, which seemed to be much
younger than the one at Diskit. There a monk came to talk to us and we
came to know that this guy had stayed in Mysore for nearly 4-5 years. We
actually found quite a few locals who had been to Mysore for education
and probably bcoz of its proximity to Bylakuppe. He chatted with us for quite
some time and then it was time to leave.
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| Slush Near Kharungla, Was an effort to cross this |
As we were nearing to Khardung Village, on the base of the Khardungla
Pass, it started to rain quite heavily. We were a bit worried since near
the top it will be much worse. Anyway we took a break in this village
and had a great meal at Maitreyi Open Air Restaurent(were huddled inside
a tent for most part thanks to rain :P) and when we thought the rain
subsidized a bit we moved. When we reached North Pullu at 16000 ft
Prasanna was hit with mild AMS and Senthils bike was having problem with
pull. So Prasanna sat pillion on my bike and we started the second
assent to Khardungla Pass, it was actually fun riding with a pillion
because you had to put full trottle and ride continuously on the damaged
potholed roads no matter what , else you will loose momentum. When we
almost reached the Khardungla Pass, we had a very close shave. When I
stopped by the roadside and to our badluck on the slope side (with deep
drop to the left and road to the right) to check whether others were
coming or not, Prasanna suddenly dismounted putting all weight on right
side of the bike which I didn expect in the first place. So as expected
we had a fall (a stationary fall though) on the road, Prasanna on the
ground, me too smelling earth and bike on top of me. Somehow with great
effort I lifted the bike , which was so difficult at this altitude that I
actually felt proud abt it later :P. Thanked our lucky starts since if
by chance Prasanna had dismounted in the opposite side (ie to the left)
it would have been a much serious case.
After this incident we were shaken up a bit, but we
continued on , but nature had put up one more obstacle in front of us. A
roadblock in form of a landslide, thanks to the incessent rains the
past 24 hrs. It was actually snowing when we were waiting for the
landslide to be cleared, with near freezing temp the limbs were going
numb with cold. It was our first high altitude slush-fest, both man and machine getting stuck
in nearly 1/2 feet of slush, and finally pushing it to
safety which overall took nearly 1 hr of our time. Eventually we reached
the Khardungla Pass and I didnt even stop there since Prasanna was
already down with AMS. The downhill ride to Leh was quick and eventless
and by evening we reached Leh.
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| Entrance Gate of Leh |
Day 8: 04 Sept 2011, Leh - Karu -Sakti- Zingrail - Karu - Leh (190km)
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| Shey Palace |
We had reached only halfway of the trip and by this time couple of members of the group (Prasanna and Senthil :P ) were loosing motivation and blabbering plans of ditching the bike trip and directly going home. In short they were home sick, and during all this time I was thinking "What did u expect on Bike Trip? A walk in the park ??" :P. Agreed touring on bikes is not easy as it sounds, it is very demanding and doing it for 12 days continuously takes a toll on the rider, but seeing the bright side it is one of the most exciting form of touring and of course a person needs to be reasonably fit to do that in these regions. We were to visit the famed Pangong Tso lake on this particular day crossing the mighty ChangLa Pass. But we couldnt be more wrong. This day is best remembered as the day were Senthil's bike was determined to give us some more hardship.
Left quite early in the morning in order to reach Pangong Tso lake by
late afternoon and we never expected to come back to Leh. The weather
didnt seem that favourable with constant drizzling in Leh. We expected a
repeat of KhardungLa episode and were quite wary abt it. Around 11 km
on the Leh-Manali highway we came across Shey Palace, which looked
impressive. Eventhough it was not part of our itinerary we decided to
have a look. But sadly on the inside it is quite the opposite of the
word 'impressive'. Hence after spending some 20 mins here we moved on.
Stopped at Karu for breakfast, a staple diet of aloo parathas and the hotel
owner gave us info that it was snowing at ChangLa and a Qualis returned
back bcoz of that. Eventhough this made us even more jittery we decided
to move on. From Karu we had to leave the Manali road and the beginning itself there is a check post were we have to submit our permits.
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| A Beautiful Monastary Enroute |
The roads till now were good and we reached the town of Sakti and were
gaining altitude in leaps and bounds. And suddenly Senthil's bike was
having problem pulling both him and the pillion rider. We attributed the
problem to high altitude and some dust in the fuel line and decided to
move further. But as the altitude increased , Senthil's bike performance went
down. We decided to return back to the nearest mechanic for check-up
which was all the way back to Karu . So we rode back to Karu and
considering the roads were good didnt take much time. The lone mechanic
at Karu can be termed as inexperienced as the least. He removed the
carbuerator, cleaned , tuned it and fit it back and all this took close
to 2 hrs and surprisingly this didn help at all and Senthil again
started to have pulling problem when climbing ChangLa the second time. We somehow rode till Zingrail which is
the army base/checkpost before vehicles start climbing all the way to
Changla (which was around 15 kms from here). Here we had a difference of
opinion, some wanted to ride on and others including Senthil wanted to
return back and get his bike checked and considering that the mechanic at
Karu didn't inspire much confidence in us we decided to return back to
Leh.
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| Leh Palace |
So started the non-stop ride to Leh were we covered nearly 80 odd kms
in less than 2 hrs. But sadly all the mechanic shops in Leh were closed
thanks to it being a Sunday and we had to wait for the next day to get the bike checked. So we had entire evening to spend and so decided to visit Leh
palace,which we finally reached after roaming /getting lost within the town innumerable no of
times. Similar to all palaces in Ladakh , this palace too was a
disappointment from inside even though from outside it looks impressive.
From inside it looks more of a cow shed, sans the cattle and
the dung :P. After this we went exploring the commercial streets of Leh,
window shopping in most of the cases :). With this ended the day where we achieved pretty much nothing, a precious day lost into oblivion.This also meant that we would have to drop one lake destination and with a heavy heart Tso Moriri was dropped from the plan (sniff...snifff :'( ....)
Day 9: 05 Sept 2011, Leh - Karu - Sakti- Zingril - Changla Pass - Tangste - Pangong Tso Lake(Lukung) (155km)
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| Changla Pass, Third Highest in the world |
Today we were to reattempt climbing ChangLa and go all the way to Pangong Tso lake. But first thing we had to do in the morning was to get the bikes checked. We went to the mechanic from whom we had got our bikes checked the previous time around and this guy took just 10 mins to fix the bike. Shocking and surprising at the same time. Got my bike checked out too and we were all set to leave Leh. Our hotel owners wished us success and hoped we would not return back again as we did the previous night :P.
Left Leh at around 10.30 and since the views were a repetition of the
previous day the ride till Zingrail was done in least possible time with
minimum possible photo breaks. From Zingrail the roads turn a bit bumpy
, but when compared to the roads of Khardungla , these roads are
much-much better. Finally reached the top and surprisingly there were no
crowd/tourists at the top, unlike the K-top even though this is
considered the third highest motorable pass in the world (5360m). Lot of
army guys speaking Kannada/Telugu/Tamil were present at the top and
they were giving us a lot of "gyaan" on how to cope with high altitudes.
Spent close to 15 mins at the top visiting the ChangLa Devi temple in process.
After ChangLa start one of the most scenic roads of Ladakh (which is
super awesome considering Ladakh in general is simply mindblowing ),
mountain valleys, innumerable rivulets, a thick carpet of soft grass
flanking the rivers. And as expected on this route we took a lot of
breaks, to enjoy the scenic beauty. We stopped at the town of Tangste
for lunch which was pretty decent and moved towards our most revered
destination for the entire trip.
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| Finally Pongong Tso Lake, My Dream Atlast Came True |
Just some 5-6 kms before reaching the banks of the lake we start getting
the first view, and even this first view was much more beautiful than my
expectations. Few kms from the lake the roads turn bad , but we were not
complaining. The first view of the lake had boosted our motivation to a
very high level and we were hungry for more. Finally reached Lukung on
the banks of the lake at around 5 pm. There in front of us was the sight
to behold , to be remembered for a really long time. Went directly to
the banks of the lake (which was actually not allowed and we came to
know abt it much later) and were clicking the dream pics sitting on our
bikes and with the beautiful lake in the background. One of the few traits of
this lake is that it changes colors during the period of the day, Dark
blue during the morning and evenings, Aqua green during afternoons,
golden during sun-rises and obviously black during nights :). After
spending considerable time to our hearts content we went to Eco-tents just on
the banks of the Lake for accommodation. Got 2 tents for 1.3K , but on
the inside it was nothing like camping tents. It had huge comfortable
beds, with thick spreads for protection when the temperature drops
considerably during the nights. Also their buffet hall was pretty
impressive , even though the food was nothing more than OK.
After dumping all our luggage we decided to take a walk on the banks of the lake and it was an awesome experience. A serene one to be precise. After nightfall we returned back to the tents and spent time playing cards and so on. Went very happy to bed considering my dream of 4 years was finally completed :).
Day 10: 06 Sept 2011, Pangong Tso Lake(Lukung) - Tangste- Changla Pass - Karu - Upshi - Rumste (165km)
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| Sunrise |
We woke up early (only 3 of us) to witness a spectacular sunrise in the backdrop of Pangong Tso Lake. I would recommend spending atleast a day near the lake to enjoy all its forms. Literally I was in love with this beauty. With every other opportunity I would sneak in to meet my love :). There were quite a few signs of wildlife at this high altitude lake (4250m). Ducks and Sea(Lake)-Gulls made the majority of that number.
Just before noon when we had packed all the stuff on the bikes, we decided to ride some distance along the lake towards the village of Spangmik. By now the lake had changed its mood to Aqua Green and a couple of km ride turned to nearly 10 km ride totally. By afternoon we left Lukung after shopping for some souvenirs at Army shop and maggi at Army Canteen. It was time to start the return journey towards home via Manali.
As we started to climb ChangLa, it was Prasanna's bike's turn to give
problem . It was now having a tough time climbing up and to make
matters worse it had to carry Vineeth on its back :P. So it was decided
that Vineeth take lift till the top and we got this within a matter of
minutes :). So riding solo
Prasanna somehow climbed the pass, and this time we went for free tea
offered by the Army for all the tourists who visit this place. Came back to the
same mechanic at Karu who had messed up our bike the previous time
around (Since we had no other option and bike's condition was not that
bad , to ride all the way to Leh). This time around too he cleaned the
carburetor (his standard operating procedure :P ) and this somehow made
matter a bit better.
From Karu we took the road towards Manali and it was good till Upshi. After that it turns really bad.
With a lot of landslides and road cave-in into the river, running
alongside the roads. Probably this is the remains of the disaster,
Ladakh witnessed the previous year. Reached Rumste and within no time
got beds in a home stay for 100 bucks per person. Here 5 of us were to
share a room with a Canadian female cyclist , pretty much on a world
tour, with an awesome determination. But apart from that what stuck me
was her fearless attitude in sharing a room with 5 men who were complete
strangers. Slept like a kid after having a very tasty dinner prepared by the home stay lady.
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| Moonscape |
Day 11: 07 Sept 2011,Rumste - TangangLa Pass - Morey Plains - Pang - LachulungLa Pass - Nakeela Pass - Sarchu - Baralachla Pass - Jispa (255km)
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| Climbing the Taglangla pass |
Got pretty early in the morning since we had a long day on saddles. Left the home-stay at around 7 am and man it was freezing like hell this early in the morning. The worst affected were the palms and the fingers, eventhough everyone had protection in form of riding gloves. Soon after Rumste start the climb towards the TaglangLa pass and as we start the climb the temperature dropped making matters worse. We were desperately looking for some spots in direct spotlight of the sun to warm up our bodies. Finally reached the TaglangLa( 2nd highest pass) after getting almost frozen by 2 hrs of riding. Spent some time there and it was time to descend.
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| Morey Plains |
Soon after start the famed Morey Plains. A place having a flat surface
flanked by mountains on either side and running for around 40 kms. This
high altitude plain has no tarred roads eventhough at many places they
have started to build one. You literally make your own roads , and man it
was such a great experience offroading in these lands. The best offroading
destination I have been to, and it was so much fun traversing the plains
at pretty good speed. The most thrilling part was while riding the bike
in
motocross style
to absorb the deep drops and rises in the dirt path (a great advantage of riding solo :P ) . But surprisingly
it was pretty hard to stand on ur bikes and ride for more than a couple
of minutes in these roads. Respect for motocross riders :).
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| Morey Plains: An Offroading Heaven |
Morey plains is pretty much the highlight of the Leh-Manali route. The
other highlights for this day were 4 high altitude passes (TaglangLa,
LachulungLa, NakeeLa, BaralachLa) and innumerable water crossings. Just
after Morey plains is the Campsite of Pang. We had our brunch in here
and soon enough start the climb to LachulungLa pass. The roads were bad
again and not as fun to ride as Morey plains. The climb to this pass was
eventless and as we started the descend I saw an empty truck taking a
sharp right turn and going downhill head-on instead of taking the ghat roads.
Observed the truck for some time, and still having an itch for
offroading decided to ride this downhill dirt-path after getting an affirmative nod from Senthil who was following me. Yet again this part
of downhill riding was equally thrilling with the downhill gradient of
almost 45 degrees more than what we had expected :). Somehow everyone
reached the bottom of mountain safe and sound and in process saving
nearly 5 kms of riding in the not-so-thrilling ghat roads.
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| 'X'-cited |
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| Water Crossing |
Soon enough start the climb to Nakeela Pass with the fact that
LachulungLa and Nakeela pass are very close to each other. Yet another
pass was crossed and we were heading towards the Himachal Pradesh border
after crossing the Gata Loops (a drop from 4667m to 4201 m within 21
loops of road). Reached the town of Sarchu by 4 pm and this marks the start
of Himachal Pradesh. Affter Sarchu start the climb to
BaralachLa pass , our last high altitude pass for the entire trip.
But
surprisingly the roads at the bottom were bad and awesome at the top
which goes against the norm we witnessed at the other passes. But before
we could ride all the way towards the top Prasanna caught sight of a
single rain cloud and started to convince others to return back to
Sarchu to be better safe than sorry. But nevertheless we moved on and
later on this became a point to tease him with the title "Prasanna and
the Single Rain Cloud" :P. At BaralachLa top was a gorgeous emerald
colored lake called Surajtal. By this time Prasanna was literally
speeding for the obvious reason stated above and I was the only one to stop at this
pass to enjoy the view.
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| Downhill ride : we took the path which starts perpendicularly |
After we crossed this pass we witnessed the obvious, we had left behind
the Ladakhi landscape and there was greenery in all the direction. A
pretty sight after 10 days of witnessing just brown everywhere :). Just
before the town of Darcha was a water crossing. Eventhough we had
crossed nearly 5 water crossings on this day with good success , at this
crossing Prasanna's bike hit a stone and got stuck in middle of water. So
we had to literally get into ice cold water and push the bike, totally
drenching the shoes in process. From Darcha we moved towards Jispa , our
destination for the night. Searched for some accommodation got in form
of a homestay. Forgot the name, but the food and stay was good.
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| Near Sarchu |
Day 12: 08 Sept 2011, Jispa - Keylong - Rohtang Pass - Manali (134km)
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| View From Jispa |
Today we were to attempt the "unpassable" Rohtang Pass, as put by some riders whom we met during the trip. So even though we had to cover just around 134km we left early. The roads were a mix of good and bad roads, but the views we got were real good. Greenery everywhere, innumerable no of falls, with a particularly beautiful one near Sissu, just visible from the main highway.
Eventhough we had heard horror stories of Rohtang pass, the climb upto the pass was nothing out of place when compared to the other passes we had climbed. But the real picture emerges when we start the descend. Since this side of the pass is on the Rain exposed side it was thickly engulfed in mist and in the beginning the entire picture didnt emerge with us encountering few sections of bad slushy roads, bad but manageable. But soon the slushiness of the road started to increase. What began as a couple of inches of slush had turned to nearly 1 ft at many places. The bike was literally struggling to move forward eventhough we were coming downhill. Surprisingly this was very tiring since pushing the bikes took a toll on us , eventhough this altitude is nothing compared to what we had encountered.
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| A Gorgeous falls near Sissu |
There was a huge traffic jam , probably the highest traffic jam in the
world - for record sake :P.. But being on bikes we were able to squeeze
through the jam eventhough our progress was slow with us stopping every
20-30 m to have a breather. At one point I was ahead of my group and I
was deceived by the depth of the slush and my bike literally sank into
1-1.5 ft of slush. Half of the wheel was invisible and the hold of the
slush was so strong that the bike was standing without any support :P.
Revved the engine, but the bike didnt budge, called for help and within
no time a Sikh, a foreigner(a biker too, taking a break :) ) and a BRO
worker came and pushed/lifted the bike. Help available just a call away
:). We took nearly 2 hrs to cover 5km of these super bad roads. After we
crossed the bad roads we were literally thanking our good luck since if
I had planned to start the trip via Manali and climb Rohtang Pass , the
chances of trip being a failure was pretty high. Even imported BMW offroad bikes
weren't able to climb up the pass and had to return back.
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| Rohtang Top |
While coming down saw some people doing paragliding, so we too
decided to do so. It cost us 600 per person after bringing it down from
800 with the ride lasting for 2-3 mins and maximum height of around 200 m. The paragliding session was
mildly thrilling , with the most exciting phase being the take-off and
landing :P. (check the video at the end of this blog). Unfortunately I
had 2 bad starts thanks to no wind during my takeoff and only during the
third time was able to successfully take flight. After the paragliding
session we had food at the nearby "Fouji Dhaba", which was very good. We
were still some 35kms from Manali , but the locals assured the roads
were good all the way till Manali. So off we started and soon enough it
started to rain pretty heavily. Out came the ponchos and rain coats and
we were riding in mist filled roads. Pretty good experience. Dog
tired after wrestling with bikes in mud/slush we finally reached Manali
at around 5pm. Psychologically speaking this was the end of the bike trip, with just a formality remaining to take the bikes till Mandi since Manali didn't have an outlet for Gati , our preferred courier. Went inside the first Hotel we got "Hotel Rohtang View"
and got 2 rooms for a total of 700 bucks, pretty much an off -season I
suppose. The rest of the evening we did nothing but take rest and sleep.
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| Slush and Mud: A Nightmare for Bikers |
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| Me Stuck Up and Helped By the Foreigner- Rohtang Pass-----(Image Courtesy--Karthik MB) |
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| Paragliding |
Day 13: 09 Sept 2011, Manali - Mandi (109km), Mandi-Chandigarh (Taxi)
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| Mall Road, Manali |
The final day of bike riding had arrived. We were to ride till Mandi to courier our bikes back to Bangalore and from Mandi we were to catch a transport to Chandigarh. Also we didn't want to do any sightseeing at this place since a majority of the places will be frequented by Honeymooners and we didnt want to look out of the place :). Anyway left out Manali sightseeing to be covered with my better half (whenever that happens :D) in a true blue honeymoon fashion :D :D. Roads between Manali and Mandi is in great shape , but nevertheless it started to rain again.
The high point on this road is the 2.8km long tunnel near Aut which
again was an awesome experience, reminding greatly of the 2.5 km Jawahar
tunnel we encountered during the start of the trip eventhough the latter
one has a single carriage way. We spotted the Gati office just a couple
of kms before Mandi and our Biking trip came to a screeching halt.
Registered the bikes for courier after providing the necessary documents
and decided to hire a taxi till Chandigarh instead of slugging out in
public transport. Couple of guys went and booked a taxi in Mandi town
and after some time the taxi , a Bolero arrived. But we had a surprise
in store for us.
The driver of the cab was the most foul-mouthed and rashest
driver I had ever come across. Every other minute our heart would pound
with fear seeing the reckless state of driving. By this time I was
thinking that I was better off riding 1000 more kms on my bike than ride
in this shortcut to hell. Somehow we reached Chandigarh safe and sound ,
although we had countless no of close calls. The driver took us to a
hotel called Rajhans in front of the new ISBT bus stand. The area we were in ie sector 52 sucked big time and so did the hotel. Very bad first experience of Chandigarh in short :(.
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| Aut Tunnel : Manali-Mandi Highway |
Day 14: 10 Sept 2011, Chandigarh Buffer
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| Rock Garden |
The most boring and least exciting day of the entire trip. This day was reserved so as to compensate for any unforeseen circumstances during the bike ride and considering that we finished the ride on time , after dropping Tso Moriri, we had to spend a day in Chandigarh. The rooms were pretty much stinking and we were in a confusion whether it was bcoz of us (especially the shoes :P, thanks to Rohtang Pass) or the room. So whichever the case we decided to change rooms and Prasanna and Vineeth were our scouts for this task . But they returned back saying this was the best among the lot and so we decided to stay put. Even the hotel management were surprised and not once but we were asked abt it in 3 separate instances.
Since it was very hot during the afternoon we decided to do some sight
seeing post afternoon and left our stinking rooms at around 3 pm. Went
directly to world renowned Rock Garden and I must say it was a
disappointment. I guess when it was constructed in the 80's, people's idea of entertainment was very simple, this must have
caused a rage then, but in today's world I must say it ain't happening. Also
we found huge violations to the basic idea of this place... "art created
from garbage". Nevertheless we spent close to 2 hrs in this place, thanks
to the entire park being shaded and cool when compared to the outside. From
here we decided to walk to the Rose garden and man I must say,
Chandigarh is India's best planned city (except for Sector 52 where we
stayed , which sucks big time) with wide straight roads, cycle lanes,
and broad footpaths covered with thick vegetation. Reached Rose garden
after a walk of nearly 45 mins and this is projected as Asia's largest
rose garden, spent some time in here. From there we moved to the central
business sector having malls, shops etc.. Kinda like Brigade/MG Road of
Blore. Had a good dinner enroute and returned back to our hotel for the
night.
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| Rose Garden |
Day 15: 11 Sept 2011, Chandigarh - Delhi (Morning Train), Delhi - Bangalore (Evening Flight)
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| IGI Airport, T3, Delhi |
The last day of the trip and I was having mixed emotions. Took a morning train from Chandigarh to Delhi and landed in Delhi at around 1 pm, having almost 6 hrs to kill till our flight to Blore at 7 pm. Vineeth and Senthil met with a common friend of theirs and they decided to go to his room for some time and the remaining 3 of us decided to move to the airport, since all of us were pretty tired for any sightseeing. Took the super-fast airport metro and within no time were in the airport. Spent time reading , sleeping and so on till the flights started boarding at 7:10 pm, with a 30 min delay. A handful of flights were also canceled, and considering this day was the 10th anniversary of 9/11 I didnt look for any other possible explanation. Landed in Blore at around 9:45 pm and took an airport bus to reach home. My mom was so happy that I returned back safe and sound that I almost got the feeling that I had returned back from some war :).
Finally the ride of my lifetime came to an end. Now I can say that I
have travelled the entire length of the nation from "Kashmir to
Kanyakumari" (or my own "Ladakh to Lakshadweep" :)), but of course there
are lot of gaps in between which have to be filled. For me it was like
a huge climax for motorcycle touring, since nothing can possibly better
it at least here in India. Even though this circuit can be done in a
"easy way" (ie Flights to Leh, and taxi thereafter), the fact that we
did it in "our way", makes it all the more satisfying. This was one of
those trips where I felt truly alive. The happiness,
the pain, the frustration , the anger, the proud feeling, with the
entire body both the physical and mental front on an overdrive. Hence
retiring on a high and as promised to my mom (which was how I leveraged
for permission in the first place :P ). Now its time to shift focus on
cycling as the means for touring after getting inspired by so many
westerners in Ladakh, building stamina and becoming 100% eco-friendly.
And when you combine cycling and Himalaya's it takes you to a whole new
different level altogether and this somehow reminds me of the quote by
Abdul Kalam which goes "
You have to dream before your dreams can come true.". Ain't I doing that already :).
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| Waiting for the Sunrise-Pangong Tso Lake |
Below is compilation of some videos I recorded during the trip.
-------COMING SOON :)---------
Trip Summary:
Trip 'O' Meter -> 2068 kms
Cost Per Person -> 27 K (including flights, bike courier, shopping prior to the trip,paragliding ,food, accommodation etc)
Our Route :
View Larger Map
Snaps Link --->
A Special thanks to the members of BCMTouring for being there and guiding us in the right direction.
Some Useful Maps- Click to enlarge (Courtesy BCMTouring) :
Inner Line Permit Form(click to enlarge) (Details to fill Here) :
