Ladakh Trip: Day 9 (Pang -> Leh)

Ride Summary: Distance 175 km.  Time: 7 hrs

I woke up early, around 5:30 am. That's what I thought. Until I went to the kitchen. Damn! Those women were already ready with chapatis, tea, coffee etc. Unbelievable! I had a couple of cups of hot tea. Our service van driver, Nittu Ji, was up as well. Being a local, he shared a lot of insights with me of staying healthy at high altitudes. We were supposed to cross the Tanglang La today but travelers reported snow on the road. Nittu Ji told me that we won't start until 10 am or so as we would wait in Pang for the snow to clear up. I took advantage of the morning free time to dry up my socks. Also, got a picture with the wonderful owner of the Dhaba, Sonam ji.

I wasn't aware that Sonam is a Ladakhi name. I told her that Anil Kapoor's daughter is Sonam; hence I didn't think of it as a Ladakhi name. She shared an interesting story about a shoot when Anil Kapoor was in Ladakh and decided to name his son/daughter Sonam. Not sure if the story is true but it's surely interesting.

I took a walk to acclimatize myself. Everybody was up late as they had had a rough day yesterday. After breakfast, we were all set around 10 am or so for the ride to Leh. The road from Pang->Leh was super-awesome. We so enjoyed it after the bumpy rides for 2 days in a row. Shweta and I took advantage of the empty roads for some shots.

We had a few snow showers as we approached Tanglang La. It was pretty cold; hence we didn't stay long enough on the top. A rider from Mumbai, doing Srinagar-Leh took this picture for us.

The ride after Tanglang La was pretty smooth. We stopped for tea along the way. Some structures reminded me of my favorite movie series "Lord of the Rings".
Along the way, project Himank had some really amazing road signs. I may put up a separate section in this blog for them as they deserve it. Meanwhile, here are some!

We had lunch in Upshi. After a few days of maggi, kadhi-chawal, rajma was a pleasant surprise.

We enjoyed every bite. I filled up my tank near Karu, got the bike's air checked and we reached Leh around 4 pm. Checked into a home-stay guest house. Today's ride was comparatively smooth. I took a nice hot shower and went to bed early. Tomorrow was a rest day in Leh. We all needed some rest.