I was thinking of writing since long time but some how I missed this. Anyways many Thanks to my good friend "Pinxx" and here is a story of one of my travel gossips which I made long back (not so long though). I am a crazy back packer, travelling is my passion and it actually makes me alive.
So this is about the most beautiful place I have visited so far, yep this was "Laddakh" this time.
I am not gonna write about 'Laddakh' as Google can provide you the best info as this blog do.
Anyways we were a gang of 3, all crazy back packers and we planned to travel Leh in the month of 'August'. Nowadays Leh is open for almost all the year but depend on the kind of your enthusiasm. Road trips for Leh are open from June to October. However you can go for CHADAR Trek in the month of January but I bet whenever you visit this place it will always be beautiful.
We were on a very tight schedule of 5 days and we have to travel from Bangalore, so we booked the cheapest to and fro package of Go Air with 1 stop in Delhi. The only problem was that the connecting flight from Delhi to Leh was after 5 hrs. Since a backpacker I will highly suggest not to carry too much of clothes to leh. So we started on Aug 6, 2014 from Bangalore and reached Delhi after 3 hrs. We landed around 11:30pm in Delhi @ T-3 and our connecting flight was from T-1. So if you are commuting from domestic terminal of Delhi in late night hours make sure you had your dinner properly before doing security checks as T-1 used to close by 11 pm and you wont get anything to eat inside.
Connecting flight from Delhi to Leh was early in morning @ 5AM. Leh is around 1 hr 30 minutes from Delhi.
We already had done our complete research the ways of reaching Leh and after outcomes. Leh is situated @ height of 11,500 feet from sea level so getting to such a height is always a thrilling experience until you have done proper homework. There are 2 ways to reach Leh either roadways or airways. The best way is always roadways if you are travelling in a group. There are 2 highways for reaching leh, one is via Kargil and other via Manali.
Day_1: August 07, 2014 6:30 AM:
We landed on "Kushok Bakula Rimpochee airport" one of the highest airports in world.
About half n hour after crossing Delhi you soon will realize that you are flying just above the most beautiful highlands of India.
This airport is very cosy as its a millitary air base and the sir strip is just 1/4 th of normal air strips in length so while landing make sure that you have complete trust on your pilot :) :) . Since within 2 hrs you just hiked almost 5000ft so make sure you shouldn't be much exciting to reach such place. As with height the level of oxygen starts decreasing and you will realize it soon once you come out of plane.
Before travelling we already made booking for our 5 days stay in leh. There are lots of hotels, guest houses and homestays in leh as its more to be a commercialize place now and I will strongly suggest to arrange a home stay near to the main market. We booked Gang-Shun home stay (google out for more information)and it was really cheap and very spacious being owned by a Doctor family over there. Travelling always become memorable if you managed a good place to stay. They only arranged a cab to drive us from airport to home. So finally Julayi (greetings in locale language) Laddakh.
This stay was around 15 minutes of drive from Leh airport and around 15 minutes of walk from main market. The most important thing if you are travelling to Leh is the mode of communication, almost all the prepaid services won't work after Delhi. Its good if you are having postpaid mobile network and best one is BSNL. So finally we reached home, for 3 people we booked 2 rooms for a minimal rent of 1200 / day and view from our house was very beautiful.
yep these scenes were from the rooms. People in leh can easily understand Hindi, english very well apart from their local language. So the very first day we were welcomed with red tea. They also provide in house food as well. I will suggest if you are opting airways then to avoid liquor and outside food in leh.
The actual problem will start once you landed in leh and the most troublesome will be "Acute Mountain Sickness". Most of the blogs suggests that people travelling through airways are likely to be more effected by AMS and it took almost 48 hours to acclimize with the altitude. So here are the few tips if you lands directly in leh:
* Dont involve in physical activities on the first day.
* Drink as much water as you can and take proper sleep.
* Avoid crowded place.
* Carry Diamox tablets. Its good if you try Diamox a week before to ensure that they won't create any side effects.
Our stand was clear as we were on a very tight schedule, we dont have even a single day to waste. We rested full day, drank water and slept and in evening we went out to arrange bikes for our voyage, Main market was almost walkable from this place and there were lots of shops who rents bikes. The best way to commute in Laddakh is "Bike", if you like heights and you really wanna enjoy the trip.
The most obvious choice is Royal Enfield available in 350cc & 500 cc options but you should be very careful while choosing bikes. So before hiring bikes make sure:
* Choose 350cc if you are single rider.
* choose 500cc if you carries a pillion also.
* Bikes should not be more then 3 years old.
* Lights, brakes and rear tyre must be in good condition.
* Air filter must be proper additionally check the engine oil level.
* Most important that it should not have vibration.
* Don't forget to take helmets for both pillion and rider.
* Good to take biking bags on rent if you plan to carry extra fuel.
* Bike is carrying a small toolkit.
* Bike number plate must be black on yellow.
* Make a complete video of bike i.e. to make sure how many scratches, dents its carrying.
In leh the main business is of renting bikes and cars so you will be lucky if you can grab a good bike. By evening we hired 2 Bullets (we made mistake as were 3)in which one was of 2014 model and of 500cc while other was of 2011 model and of 350cc. We managed to grab biking gloves and extra clothes to wrap around on head n face. For security reasons Leh used to shutdown by 9pm so make sure you grabbed all needed stuff from local market i.e:
* Bikes with full petrol tank. Fuel capacity of 350cc model is normally 11Lts which is enough if its condition is good to make to n fro ride to Leh. You can carry extra tank of 5L but make sure you can tie it properly with bike or else it will make you nuts on the way.
* Enough cash as ATM's are available only in Leh.
* Application format of Inner line permit which is usually available @ any photostate shop. Every bike needed 1 such application. you just need to fill it and submit it on checkpost.
* Make sure you are having valid DL.
* Biking bags which can be easily tied on the back seat, they are very helpful in carrying water and other luggage if you wish to carry some.
* Dont forget to carry handy eating stuff like nuts, chocolates, energy bars as you won't found anything (apart from noodles and tea)on the way till you reach your destination.
* Don't forget to tell the house keeping staff @ what time you planned to move out so that they will prepare breakfast by that time and believe me Gangshun provides very delicious food.
* Don't forget to carry good quality camera as this is once in a lifetime madness..
Day_2: August 08, 2014 6:00 AM
Since Leh is @ very high altitude so no doubt sunlight will stay for the longest possible time. Normally sunrise in these months happened @ 5:00 am so if you wish to see the sunrise then you really need to kick out of bed very early.
We were not aware of what kind of voyage we were about to make but it was clear to all of us that its a kind of madness riding Bullets all over the worlds highest motorable road. This feeling was only giving me goosebumps.
So let me clear about this madness: Khardung-LA is the world's highest motorable road @ kickass altitude of 18350 ft and the only road connecting Hunder and Nubra valley to Leh. These 2 places are the last place @ one end of India where civilians are permitted to go. Post 70km of Hunder, border region with Pakistan started.
We just had a rough idea that how much distance we will be covering in next 2 days but we don't have any idea that what kind of distance it will be. Khardung_la is around 40km from leh and nubra valley around 80 km from this pass. So in next 2 days we will be covering almost 240km on the rough and beautiful terrain of Leh.
It was just like the judgement day and we all were excited but the keypoint is to stay calm as much as possible else you will loose the raunchyness of the crazy milestones you gonna cover.
Start early to avoid rush on the road. We started @ 7:00 AM after having light breakfast and a doze of Diamox to avoid any kind of trouble. Once you started taking elevation you can feel the presence of vast mountains in your heart beat and veins. Since none of us has driven Bullet on hilly areas so we decided to stay together , drive @ slow pace and avoiding sharp curves. The first stop on the way was South Pullu. Its an army base camp and you have to submit permit papers over here. They will register your bike information and period of your stay and will give you small piece of paper which you have to submit back on returning. Till South Pullu road is good and well maintained by BRO. But once you crossed South Pullu the real excitement begin, you will found BRO working on these roads 24*7, cleaning boulders and we understand that this gonna be real thrill since road is rocky and you have to use only clutch and brake till you attain 18000ft.
But if you believe me then you will found this rough terrain more beautiful. Paths getting disappeared in the chains of mountains, some time you found gang of crazy bikers on these trails and sometimes you are the only lone survivor. These treks had a kind of magnetism and it feels like that this road should never end.
On the way we find that the fuel tank which was tied to one of the bikes got loose and started touching boulders on road. So precautionary if you are on such a trails never wear ear plugs, or else you will never listen to the fellow riders.
If you have been in the month of June then you might found traces of ice on the road but in august since days used to be too warm you will found these water crossings on the road which makes the track more slippery and dangerous.
No roads will be too scary and no destination will be too far if you are riding over the bullet. Some times it feels that your heart beat and engine sound had become single that means you are really enjoying this perfect ride.
After covering few more kms there will be a natural gateway which marks the last turn and symbolizes that you successfully had reached Khardung Top.
Once you cleared this turn you finally will reach on the Khardung top. We took almost 3 hrs from Leh to reach this top. This place is an army base camp running a small medicare and a canteen which probably be the world's highest canteen serving noodles on the top. There is a small temple on this pass for that you have to climb stairs. So when you reached over here dont miss to enjoy delicious maggi @ height of 18350ft. Army suggests not to stay more then 20 minutes over here. Once you reach here you should start declining as soon as possible. The pressure was so much on the top that blood started coming out from my nose and temperature was so low that it got freezed instantly. We quickly finished our Maggie and started moving down.
But as soon as we started going down we came to know that further road is jammed because one army truck got punctured in between of the road. However bikers were able to escape from there while other vehicles stucked. Sliding down was always a tough task rather then climbing up and we understood it pretty soon when 1 of our bike get slipped on the way over the boulders but we both were lucky that we escaped without any major injury other then minor scratches.
After crossing Khardung_La next stop was North Pullu which was about 14km from the top.
So this is about the most beautiful place I have visited so far, yep this was "Laddakh" this time.
I am not gonna write about 'Laddakh' as Google can provide you the best info as this blog do.
Anyways we were a gang of 3, all crazy back packers and we planned to travel Leh in the month of 'August'. Nowadays Leh is open for almost all the year but depend on the kind of your enthusiasm. Road trips for Leh are open from June to October. However you can go for CHADAR Trek in the month of January but I bet whenever you visit this place it will always be beautiful.
We were on a very tight schedule of 5 days and we have to travel from Bangalore, so we booked the cheapest to and fro package of Go Air with 1 stop in Delhi. The only problem was that the connecting flight from Delhi to Leh was after 5 hrs. Since a backpacker I will highly suggest not to carry too much of clothes to leh. So we started on Aug 6, 2014 from Bangalore and reached Delhi after 3 hrs. We landed around 11:30pm in Delhi @ T-3 and our connecting flight was from T-1. So if you are commuting from domestic terminal of Delhi in late night hours make sure you had your dinner properly before doing security checks as T-1 used to close by 11 pm and you wont get anything to eat inside.
Connecting flight from Delhi to Leh was early in morning @ 5AM. Leh is around 1 hr 30 minutes from Delhi.
We already had done our complete research the ways of reaching Leh and after outcomes. Leh is situated @ height of 11,500 feet from sea level so getting to such a height is always a thrilling experience until you have done proper homework. There are 2 ways to reach Leh either roadways or airways. The best way is always roadways if you are travelling in a group. There are 2 highways for reaching leh, one is via Kargil and other via Manali.
Day_1: August 07, 2014 6:30 AM:
We landed on "Kushok Bakula Rimpochee airport" one of the highest airports in world.
About half n hour after crossing Delhi you soon will realize that you are flying just above the most beautiful highlands of India.
This airport is very cosy as its a millitary air base and the sir strip is just 1/4 th of normal air strips in length so while landing make sure that you have complete trust on your pilot :) :) . Since within 2 hrs you just hiked almost 5000ft so make sure you shouldn't be much exciting to reach such place. As with height the level of oxygen starts decreasing and you will realize it soon once you come out of plane.
Before travelling we already made booking for our 5 days stay in leh. There are lots of hotels, guest houses and homestays in leh as its more to be a commercialize place now and I will strongly suggest to arrange a home stay near to the main market. We booked Gang-Shun home stay (google out for more information)and it was really cheap and very spacious being owned by a Doctor family over there. Travelling always become memorable if you managed a good place to stay. They only arranged a cab to drive us from airport to home. So finally Julayi (greetings in locale language) Laddakh.
This stay was around 15 minutes of drive from Leh airport and around 15 minutes of walk from main market. The most important thing if you are travelling to Leh is the mode of communication, almost all the prepaid services won't work after Delhi. Its good if you are having postpaid mobile network and best one is BSNL. So finally we reached home, for 3 people we booked 2 rooms for a minimal rent of 1200 / day and view from our house was very beautiful.
The actual problem will start once you landed in leh and the most troublesome will be "Acute Mountain Sickness". Most of the blogs suggests that people travelling through airways are likely to be more effected by AMS and it took almost 48 hours to acclimize with the altitude. So here are the few tips if you lands directly in leh:
* Dont involve in physical activities on the first day.
* Drink as much water as you can and take proper sleep.
* Avoid crowded place.
* Carry Diamox tablets. Its good if you try Diamox a week before to ensure that they won't create any side effects.
Our stand was clear as we were on a very tight schedule, we dont have even a single day to waste. We rested full day, drank water and slept and in evening we went out to arrange bikes for our voyage, Main market was almost walkable from this place and there were lots of shops who rents bikes. The best way to commute in Laddakh is "Bike", if you like heights and you really wanna enjoy the trip.
The most obvious choice is Royal Enfield available in 350cc & 500 cc options but you should be very careful while choosing bikes. So before hiring bikes make sure:
* Choose 350cc if you are single rider.
* choose 500cc if you carries a pillion also.
* Bikes should not be more then 3 years old.
* Lights, brakes and rear tyre must be in good condition.
* Air filter must be proper additionally check the engine oil level.
* Most important that it should not have vibration.
* Don't forget to take helmets for both pillion and rider.
* Good to take biking bags on rent if you plan to carry extra fuel.
* Bike is carrying a small toolkit.
* Bike number plate must be black on yellow.
* Make a complete video of bike i.e. to make sure how many scratches, dents its carrying.
In leh the main business is of renting bikes and cars so you will be lucky if you can grab a good bike. By evening we hired 2 Bullets (we made mistake as were 3)in which one was of 2014 model and of 500cc while other was of 2011 model and of 350cc. We managed to grab biking gloves and extra clothes to wrap around on head n face. For security reasons Leh used to shutdown by 9pm so make sure you grabbed all needed stuff from local market i.e:
* Bikes with full petrol tank. Fuel capacity of 350cc model is normally 11Lts which is enough if its condition is good to make to n fro ride to Leh. You can carry extra tank of 5L but make sure you can tie it properly with bike or else it will make you nuts on the way.
* Enough cash as ATM's are available only in Leh.
* Application format of Inner line permit which is usually available @ any photostate shop. Every bike needed 1 such application. you just need to fill it and submit it on checkpost.
* Make sure you are having valid DL.
* Biking bags which can be easily tied on the back seat, they are very helpful in carrying water and other luggage if you wish to carry some.
* Dont forget to carry handy eating stuff like nuts, chocolates, energy bars as you won't found anything (apart from noodles and tea)on the way till you reach your destination.
* Don't forget to tell the house keeping staff @ what time you planned to move out so that they will prepare breakfast by that time and believe me Gangshun provides very delicious food.
* Don't forget to carry good quality camera as this is once in a lifetime madness..
Day_2: August 08, 2014 6:00 AM
Since Leh is @ very high altitude so no doubt sunlight will stay for the longest possible time. Normally sunrise in these months happened @ 5:00 am so if you wish to see the sunrise then you really need to kick out of bed very early.
We were not aware of what kind of voyage we were about to make but it was clear to all of us that its a kind of madness riding Bullets all over the worlds highest motorable road. This feeling was only giving me goosebumps.
So let me clear about this madness: Khardung-LA is the world's highest motorable road @ kickass altitude of 18350 ft and the only road connecting Hunder and Nubra valley to Leh. These 2 places are the last place @ one end of India where civilians are permitted to go. Post 70km of Hunder, border region with Pakistan started.
We just had a rough idea that how much distance we will be covering in next 2 days but we don't have any idea that what kind of distance it will be. Khardung_la is around 40km from leh and nubra valley around 80 km from this pass. So in next 2 days we will be covering almost 240km on the rough and beautiful terrain of Leh.
It was just like the judgement day and we all were excited but the keypoint is to stay calm as much as possible else you will loose the raunchyness of the crazy milestones you gonna cover.
Start early to avoid rush on the road. We started @ 7:00 AM after having light breakfast and a doze of Diamox to avoid any kind of trouble. Once you started taking elevation you can feel the presence of vast mountains in your heart beat and veins. Since none of us has driven Bullet on hilly areas so we decided to stay together , drive @ slow pace and avoiding sharp curves. The first stop on the way was South Pullu. Its an army base camp and you have to submit permit papers over here. They will register your bike information and period of your stay and will give you small piece of paper which you have to submit back on returning. Till South Pullu road is good and well maintained by BRO. But once you crossed South Pullu the real excitement begin, you will found BRO working on these roads 24*7, cleaning boulders and we understand that this gonna be real thrill since road is rocky and you have to use only clutch and brake till you attain 18000ft.
But if you believe me then you will found this rough terrain more beautiful. Paths getting disappeared in the chains of mountains, some time you found gang of crazy bikers on these trails and sometimes you are the only lone survivor. These treks had a kind of magnetism and it feels like that this road should never end.
On the way we find that the fuel tank which was tied to one of the bikes got loose and started touching boulders on road. So precautionary if you are on such a trails never wear ear plugs, or else you will never listen to the fellow riders.
If you have been in the month of June then you might found traces of ice on the road but in august since days used to be too warm you will found these water crossings on the road which makes the track more slippery and dangerous.
No roads will be too scary and no destination will be too far if you are riding over the bullet. Some times it feels that your heart beat and engine sound had become single that means you are really enjoying this perfect ride.
After covering few more kms there will be a natural gateway which marks the last turn and symbolizes that you successfully had reached Khardung Top.
Once you cleared this turn you finally will reach on the Khardung top. We took almost 3 hrs from Leh to reach this top. This place is an army base camp running a small medicare and a canteen which probably be the world's highest canteen serving noodles on the top. There is a small temple on this pass for that you have to climb stairs. So when you reached over here dont miss to enjoy delicious maggi @ height of 18350ft. Army suggests not to stay more then 20 minutes over here. Once you reach here you should start declining as soon as possible. The pressure was so much on the top that blood started coming out from my nose and temperature was so low that it got freezed instantly. We quickly finished our Maggie and started moving down.
But as soon as we started going down we came to know that further road is jammed because one army truck got punctured in between of the road. However bikers were able to escape from there while other vehicles stucked. Sliding down was always a tough task rather then climbing up and we understood it pretty soon when 1 of our bike get slipped on the way over the boulders but we both were lucky that we escaped without any major injury other then minor scratches.
After crossing Khardung_La next stop was North Pullu which was about 14km from the top.
We stayed here for few minutes get refreshed and started again for the next destination which was Nubra valley. Road from now onwards is in better phase as it was no more broken. There were villages after every 15 kms till destination. Since we were downgrading so we have to manage the speed, slopes and curves of the road. It was easy to drive here but more dangerous then earlier. Soon we reached into the plains and stayed there to get refreshed. It was too cold by this time.
While heading toward Nubra valley and after crossing few more villages soon we were accompanied by Nubra river.
After this we crossed Khalsar Village and post 5km of Khalsar there came a junction where we have to decide that either to visit hot water beds in Panamik (around 35km from khalsar) or visit SandDunes and stay back in Diskit.
We reached khalsar around 4pm in evening and Panamik was around 35 km from Khalsar and there is no option for over night stay in Panamik so we decided to head towards Hunder. For overnight staying there are 2 options either you can stay in Diskit 15km befor hunder or you can take a camp stay in Hunder. From Khalsar we reached Diskit village and it is slightly commercialised but if you search out then you can get cheap and good places for over night stay.
On the way to Diskit we caught by desert storm on the road :) .. We reached Diskit in another an hour and find out a guest house, its name was SunRise guest house. Diskit is the headquarter of Nubra valley and famous for Diskit monastery and 32 mtr tall Buddha Statue.
From Diskit to Hunder road was good so we reached Hunder in another half n hour. Hunder is famous for white sand dunes among tourist but this small town is very modular. There is a army base camp and its surrounded by mountains from all the sides. Hunder is famous for white sand dunes and double humped camel.
There were some small shops as well in case if you want to purchase local dresses. It was the first time I saw double humped camel. So we did the camel ride over sand dunes. You have to maintain your centre of gravity when this beautiful animal lands and takes off otherwise you may do a crash landing or it may damage some important things :)
Next to the sand dunes a very beautiful canal is going towards the town.
It was almost 6:00 pm by then in Hunder so we decided to move back to Diskit as everone was very tired and need rest. While on the way back we had tea and omlete in a army run canteen. By the time we returned to Diskit it was almost dusk. That guest house owner was a noble man and he prepared good dinner for us. We had dinner and slipped into our beds and when we felt asleep nobody knows !!
Day 03: August 09, 2014 7:30 AM
We get up early in morning and decided to visit this famous Diskit Monastery since it was very near to our guest house but by this time we missed the prayer slot which was supposed to be done by 8am.
This was the view of Diskit town from the monastery which was really breathtaking:
This monastery is very old and monks were very noble over there. We visited their main temple and then we visited the large statue of Jumpa, "maitrey buddha". This statue was built over there and its really very huge.
After having breakfast we started from there @ around 9:00 AM. This time the roads were known so it was easy for us. But once we crossed Khalsar we stuck in a situation. One of our bikes break down in between. It was its air filter which creates issue and we dint found any mechanic on our way. The main hindrance was only to climb the Khardung_la as bike was not accelerating properly. Some how we manage to climb khardung_la and this time it took 2 hrs from North Pullu to reach Khardung_la. We took rest on the pass for some time and then we started rolling down our bikes on the steep slopes of Khardung. By the time we reached Leh it was almost 4pm.
By the time we reached leh there was a different kind of calmness on our faces. I was more peaceful and then I sat down in balcony till the sun sets in distant.
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