Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Conclusion

Day 8 ( Leh – Nubra Valley ) 15^th August 09

The morning was not seeming so pleasant and my back was still hurting a bit, but the 15^th 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 ) 16^th 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 17^th and 18^th 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) 17^th 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 ) 18^th 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.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 5

Day 5 – (Pang – Leh) 12^th August 09

The night was a bit chilly, it had been the coldest so far, but nowhere as close to what I had imagined. The advantage I had in the trip was that because I was a last minute entry, I had not read a lot and had not prepared much as well, so I had no idea of things were going to be and there was almost zero disappointment.

Hot aaloo paranthas and tea was just we were looking for and breakfast was served, was really excited to reach Leh as I didn’t know whether I will be able to make it or not.

Moore Plains

As we hit the road the first thing we encountered were the Moore Plains, oh boy even the sight of it was breathtaking. So imagine no concrete road, mountains on both sides and around a 500 meter wide dusty path with tyre marks everywhere. It was like a scene out of the old movies where people are on their horses riding in the middle of Mountains on both sides, it gave a real sense of excitement. The road was really dusty and loose mud was making the bike slither a bit and control had to be maintained, after going for about 10 Km we started thinking are we really on the right track or are we lost, 1-2 cars crossing us made us feel that we should keep moving forward. At last we found the concrete road, which was almost always running parallel to us but at a farther point. We stopped to admire the vastness, calmness and the peace of the place. It gives you different kind of a high.

As we moved forward this was the first time we had to use the petrol cans, so they came in handy afterall J and yeah we haven’t found a petrol pump yet after Tandi (at many places you could buy petrol at 100Rs a litre though).

Tanglangla - Second highest motrable road in the world

The next stop was Tanglanga pass, it was the second highest motorable road in the world, reaching there gave me a sense of pride, that I have done something worth remembering all my life. Because of the height the views were mesmerizing ( I know keep using the same adjectives again and again, but each place seems to be better than the earlier one and even more beautiful).

The downhill from their was pretty neat and we really zoomed, all the pillions asses were already hurting a lot, and the bikes going at 80 was not helping their cause, but the roads were so gud that I couldn’t resist. I really appreciate the effort that BRO (Border Road Organisation) puts in to build the fantastic roads. The mountains here were really beautiful, or it was just me noticing them now different shaded, different texture but the heat was no less I wasn’t really expecting it to be that hot.

We stopped at Upsi for lunch very near to the crossing Indus river, and were on our way to Leh. As we entered the city it was still too hot and this was the first time I was kind of disappointed as I was expecting some snow at the destination, but it was nowhere to be found. We parked and tried to search for a Hotel and everyone was going in circles, then the phone came in really handy, I called up Shakul and asked where he had stayed and we went straight to that hotel, negotiated to the price what Shakul had told me and it was a decent enough accommodation.

The first thing to do was to take a shower, and believe me what a big relief it was. We settled down and took some rest. In the evening we went out to find a mechanic as the bikes need to be checked once again and took a time from him to bring the bikes tomorrow. In the evening we went out in 2-3 groups exploring and soon it was time for dinner. The mobile network was not gud and we didn’t know how to contact each other and all of a sudden we all reach at the same corner J , lucky us J. Shakul had told me that KC’s is a gud restaurant with a big screen and bonfire and all and we set out to find KC, it was trouble to find it but “Dhoondhne se to bhagwaan bhi milta hai” and this was just KC.

We finally reached KC and evevryone was starving. We had booze in our mind and got an Old Monk, food was worth waiting for and the ambience was amazing, the place was just perfect but everyone was quite tired and people started dozing off there itself J , soon most of them left and Dutta and me were the only ones, we finished the booze and headed off to the hotel, rejoicing the accomplishment of reaching Leh.