Ladakh Trip: Day 10 (Hall of Fame, Leh)

I woke up around 6:30 or so. Shweta and I wanted some nice continental breakfast as Leh offered a number of options. We hit a cafe around 8:30 am with wifi to enjoy some coffee along with my omelette. We took it easy as it was a rest day.

I had to get my bike's air filter cleaned. Took it to a local mechanic and we found that he was super busy. Ended up cleaning it myself the old fashioned way -- using the exhaust as a blower.

Post lunch we all went to the Hall of Fame in Leh. It's difficult to write about Leh without writing about the Indian Army. So many connections.

The Hall of Fame offers great insights on various battles including the Kargil war. A short 30 minute film on the Kargil war is a good watch along with the rest of the museum. There is something different about these places. They make you feel you are an Indian. You feel it on the 15th Aug and 26th Jan while you are in Pune. But here, the air breathes something else.


I really enjoyed the Kargil section and the Siachen section of the musuem. The Siachen hut, the way our soldiers live at those temperatures is absolutely mind blowing.

I really loved this pic of Captain Vikram Batra. I think the museum did a great job in some of the pictures displayed here.

We had early dinner as we planned to ride to Pangong Lake the following morning.

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.

Ladakh Trip: Day 8 (Jispa -> Pang)

Ride Summary: Distance: 160 km  Time: 11 hrs

We woke up around 6 am to this beautiful view from our tent.
The tents had charging points and pretty neat washroom facilities. Got everything packed; had cereal for breakfast and we were all set for the ride around 8:30 am. Sherab, our organizer, came to meet all of us. We bid him good bye as this was the last time we were gonna see him on this trip.

Today was supposed to be the most exciting day of the trip and it did indeed live up to the expectations. The Baralacha La ! The road between Jispa->Sarchu hardly exists if you ignore Baralacha La. The puddles of flowing water are mind blowing!
Shweta and I were riding slightly ahead of the group but we got our shoes n socks wet on one of the mighty crossings which I am so proud that I did it with a pillion rider without any hassle. Almost all our riders had trouble in that small waterfall, if you will. Their bikes got stuck and needed a little push. This led to a group break of "drying your socks"! What a superb experience!

We ate some snacks we had packed and started the Baralacha La climb. What a superb pass! Mighty walls of snow, ice-icles,

what a unique experience riding through all of this. And once you are done, you get to Suraj Tal, the frozen lake. It's the origin of the river that  flows through Jispa (our campsite one!) We enjoyed taking a lot of pictures.

Shweta and I reached Sarchu around 2 pm. I had maggi for lunch as you know what to expect. Shweta ordered Dal-Rice and was disappointed. We did get to lie down at the Dhaba-like joint and enjoyed some rest while we waited for others. The owners kids were so awesome.

Could not resist taking a snap. At 3:30 pm, already 1.5 hrs later, we were little worried why the other riders hadn't arrived. I thought of checking at the police check point where you need to make an entry of your vehicle to make sure that they hadn't past us while we were resting. When I came out, I saw a group of people fighting, believe it or not. Some car driver had done something nasty that pissed off a rider. He was about to go down the valley and the other riders from his group, chased this car driver. They took the car key, registration papers, and rode away. Yes, literally rode away with the passengers, who had nothing to do with all this, stranded at Sarchu!

Finally, around 4 pm, the riders in my group arrived. They were caught up with some delays of snow-clearing which I luckily skipped. Pang, our destination for today, was still around 75 kms away. Given the road condition, people estimated it would take about 3/3.5 hrs. Since we were done with our lunch/rest break, we decided to move on. It was already getting cold. We started from Sarchu around 4:15 pm.

We crossed into J&K near Brandy Nala. Yes, that's what they call it. The bridge over this nala is called Brandy Bridge. I coudln't get a pic of the it but here I have, a picture of the next bridge and no wonder it's called the Whiskey Bridge!


It was really cold while we were riding. Around 5:30 pm, we got to a camp site. Pang was still about 30 kms away and we had to cross the Lachuang La. I stopped for a quick conversation with a riding group from Mumbai. I advised them to ride with me to Pang rather than stopping at that camp site. He goes "sab riders down hai sir, idhar he rukenge". It was freezing cold, I admit. We decided to ride on. I want to make the reader aware of the fact that 30 kms on bad roads is more than an hour! I enjoyed riding the loops along the way. Hard to tell the roads different from the river water. Everything gels!

I couldn't feel my hands even after 2 layers of gloves. We kept riding. Fortunately, we weren't short of day light. But there was no heat in those weak sun rays. Shweta complained about body ache due to the bad roads. I kept telling her that we will reach shortly. Finally, after a very long day, we reached Pang around 6:45 pm. I rode fast even on bad roads since all I wanted to do is get to Pang quickly, before the light went down and it got really cold. We did the Sarchu-Pang ride in 2.5 hrs; non-stop.

We stopped at Sonam Dhaba in Pang. The owner, Sonam, gave us hot garlic soup, to beat altitude sickness, if any. Shweta resisted and she almost shouted at Shweta likea mother. She litereally forced her to have the soup. And it acts like medicine. Within 5 minutes, you are fresh; feel so much better. Shweta wasn't used to such long rides. I told her to get a nap. There she is in the corner of the dorm!

I decided to hang around in the kitchen. Met a 60 yr old Aussie rider, Steven, who was the 1st rider in the book this year from Manali->Leh. He shared a few pics with me where he rode in 6-8 inches deep snow. Mind-blowing stuff. He offered me a drink. I was cold and I absolutely didn't mind one! Again, Sonam aunty warned us of drinking at high altitudes. We were aware as well; hence I kept it to a single drink.
Steven and I spoke a lot about riding till about 9:15 pm. That's when the other riders arrived and they were like statues!

Some of the group riders were not feeling well. Vomiting, loose motions, body pain etc. I hate to say this but to me, it was the best ride of the trip so far. No one said riding through the cold, in snow-clad mountains is going to be easy. If it's easy, one wouldn't enjoy it and it won't be adventure. To me, this was exactly what I signed up for and boy, was I loving every bit of it!

I wasn't in a mood to sleep early. Hung out in the kitchen where Sonam aunty and other women were working tirelessly. They are so used to this kind of hard work; yet they appeared very happy. I bought a pair of nice, warm socks they hand-made. That felt good! I went to bed around 11 pm or so after giving a pain killer to Shweta for her body ache.

Ladakh Trip: Day 7 (Manali -> Jispa)

Ride Summary: Distance 147 km   Time: 11 hrs

The service van was scheduled to arrive at our hotel at 4:30 am and all the riders were all set for the ride!

This was it. We had come all the way from Pune just for this and we were so excited. Our organizer, Sherab, arrived with the permits required to cross Rohtang Pass. We left Manali around 5:15 am to beat the traffic. Since we were on motorcycles, I would say we weren't that late. But check out the traffic on the way to Rohtang.

Unfortunately, we left the permit in the service van. This meant we had to wait for around an hour at the top to be cleared by the local police. We finished the "maggi" ritual breakfast till then. Beyond that point, all the tourist traffic ends. The roads were wide open for some motorcycle riding and we thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. Stopped for pictures every now and then.


What a wonderful experience riding through snow. I mean, it's just beyond words. And what natural beauty around you. Absolutely loved it! I wondered whether I should look ahead or in the rear view mirror. It was full of nature's paradise.

The best part of Manali->Leh is enjoying riding through puddles of flowing water.

They were the most fun. I couldn't get videos of the tough ones as Shweta was riding pillion since we didn't want either of our shoes to get wet. Rohtang was comparatively easy we were told and we enjoyed every bit of it. Along the way, you see sheeps, mountain goat herds and you just ride through all of this. That's the package :)

On the way, we saw a number of small villages. Check out this volleyball court in the top right side of this pic. Beat that!
Apologies for an iPhone pic that's not very clear but I must admit. Riding a motorcycle and taking good pictures is little tricky. Especially with the gloves and all the gear we were wearing to protect ourselves from the cold.

We filled up our tanks at an Indian Oil pump at Tandi. The next pump was directly going to be in Karu, just before Leh. Hence we got some extra fuel in the service van as well. A good backup, I must say. Pic to banta hai boss!

One of our rider's bike had been having some issues; so we did a quick mechanic stop at Keylong on the way. We reached our tent site at Gemur, 5 km before Jispa around 5:3o pm. What a scenic day it had been. And to end the day with this fantastic camping spot along the river! Heaven on earth! And the ride was just getting started :)