Day 8 ( Leh – Nubra Valley ) 15th August 09
The morning was not seeming so pleasant and my back was still hurting a bit, but the 15th August significance and the aim to reach the “Highest motorable road in the world” gave me the boost to move on. The roads were clear and it was colder than usual as we moved on.
Not much exciting along the and we reached Khardungla around 11, it was a great achievement something I would want to mention in my resume as a landmark achieved and everyone was quite pleased. We managed to get the Indian flag from the army camp near by and clicked a lot of photographs there. I was trying to be positive but the pain was starting to increase which was really not gud.
The next destination was Diskit, just before the Nubra Valley, along the way it was Indus flowing on one side and was a real fun drive. Just before we reached Diskit there was a desert area in which the ride was quite enjoyable but we didn’t stop to take photographs. We reached Diskit around 2 and everyone was really hungry. It was a small town and we couldn’t find any restaurant to eat, we finally found a place to stay and orderd lunch there. We freshened up and had lunch.
My back pain was really troubling me now and was now starting to get worried about it. We had to visit the monastery called the Diskit Gumpha, which was on a hill around 5 km from the hotel. We rested for a while and went to the monastery, when we climbed up the hill on our bikes, the view from the monastery was amazing, with another monastery being constructed nearby. After parking the bikes we had to climb up the stairs to reach the top. Ashish and myself decided not to go up because of my back and his leg and we remained at the foot of the monastery to njoi the view and talking.
It was evening and I went to bed early, it was really important for me to decide what should I do next.
Day 9 (Nubra – Leh ) 16th August 10
The pain had not reduced in the morning and I decided to head back to Leh, to take rest for today, and give a chance for my back to improve. Uttaran and I requested a French couple staying at the hotel to take me back in their Taxi and they happily agreed. Others moved on to have a look at the two humped camels famous in Nubra valley.
As I headed back the thought process was really on, and it was decision time for me on deciding whether I should continue or I should head back. The thot of the excessive pain was really scaring me, but it has always been a dream for me to do this trip and I really wanted to complete it.
With the thought process continuing I reached Leh in the afternoon and straightaway went to bed. The guys came in around 4 PM and the pain was still there even after the sleep. I decided to leave the group and head back home. I didn’t know whether it was right or wrong, but this is what I promised myself before the trip and I had to do this.
Next step was to find a way to get back and the easiest was to take a flight from Leh. On enquiring we got to know that the flights from Leh are costing 19K for 17th and 18th so it was really no option to use. The other and feasible option was to go to Srinagar and take a flight from there, the flight from Srinagar was 4K and I booked that. Next target was to find something to reach Srinagar, from the taxi stand we found there are taxis to Srinagar and I can take one tomorrow, but they would not book us on anyone right now and have to come tomorrow morning for the seat.
The rest of the evening was taken up bby the shopping especially of TShirts and the most popular ones were :
“ How I Got Leh’d” – with a map from Delhi – Leh
“Kardungla – Highest Motrable Road in the world” – with the picture of a Bullet
“My Friend went to Leh and all he got me is this Bloddy Tshirt”
We had dinner and with mixed emotions I went to sleep.
Day 10 ( Leh – Srinagar) 17th August 10
Ashsih and myself headed out to get a Taxi in the morning and with a lot of problems finally got a seat in the last row of the Taxi. We were not completely satisfied but that’s the best we could get. All of the guys got ready and they left by 11, I had really got them late and they had to reach Kargil today, so I bid them goodbye and went up to the room to rest again.
The taxi was to leave at 4 and I was really getting bored as I was resting almost the earlier day and couldn’t sleep anymore. This was the time I realized that the trip for me is really over and I was heading home.
Boarded the Taxi and there was a pleasant crowd with Mixed nationalities inside, the front had the Driver and his wife and a young child. In the middle there was an Indian hardware engineer and a couple having a British wife and a Spanish husband. On the last row it was an Israeli guy , myself and the helper. The taxi ride was in no way boring and everyone kept chattering about their lives and it made for a fun ride.
Though the company was gud the ride was really bumpy as the road from Leh – Kargil was being relayed and the car was hitiing a lot of bumps, I think I made a wise choice of not going on the bike, as the condition of my bike would have been worse. I couldn’t really njoi the view outside and it was dark soon as well, so everyone finally got tired of talking and went to sleep.
Around midnight we stopped at Draas (The second coldest inhabihited place in the world) with recorded temperatures reaching -65 Degrees in winters. It was the coldest part of the trip but again nowhere as cold as I had imagined. We had a few snacks and moved on.
Day 11 ( Srinagar – Delhi ) 18th August 10
I reached Srinagar in the morning at around 6 AM, though I really wanted to visit a bit of Srinagar and I had some spare time, but I seemed a bit drained out of energy and the back was not helping. So I headed straight to the airport. I reached the airport at around 8AM, my flight was at 11 AM, and waited outside for a while before they let us in. Comes out that the flight was late by 3 hours which made the wait agonizingly long L .. but I had time to cherish the past 10 days and acknowledge that the work was still half done, I would love to come back again and complete it the next time.
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