One can hire bikes like Bajaj Pulsars, Bullets, Yamaha FZ etc. Mostly they are in OK condition if not good or great but am not sure other formalities like exact procedure of hiring a bike there and things like break down repairs etc. Actually before this ride I never intended of hiring a bike hence never did a detailed research about it. Will have to do it soon if am going there again

During our ride, we met couple of foreign tourists. One had hired Pulsar and the other had a rented FZ. The FZ fella was getting it's speedometer repaired at a local workshop.

Dhannywada Lalit saheb
Here's a high res picture of the article..

Congratulations Ketan! And thanks for the info on bike hire.
Henry

You are welcome

Bhau ab thread bhi age bara do

Ekdam zaakas mitra......

Yes sir, am on it. Will update the log shortly.

Thank you mitra

Day 10: Leh - Khardung La - Diskit/Hundar

Day 10 was a big day for us. We were going to ride on the highest road in the world. Wow! Earlier that night we had had a chat with Deepan Devraj and group on phone. They had already conquered Khardung la. They did not go to Nubra valley. They reached the Khardung la top from Leh and rode back to Leh. I don't recollect exactly but they did so because someone suggested them roads are in worst condition beyond Khardung la towards Nubra valley and that there's nothing much to see and enjoy at Nubra valley. After the chat, Mandar and I was a bit confused over the visit to Nubra valley. For a moment even we thought twice about the bad roads beyond Khardung La top but it didn't take us long to make the decision that we are doing it, no matter what the road condition is. After coming so close to Nubra valley not visiting it just cause of bad roads didn't make sense. Anyway we were riding on bad roads so far.

We were suggested by the locals that it is better to leave early and reach Khardung La top before rest of tourists who go there by cars. This way you get better chances of getting yourself clicked besides the famous Khardung La board. As we got ready early morning to head towards Khardung la, those lines of the hotel owner's wife flashed in my mind - "Oh, this is a sporty bike and you are going to find it very difficult to cross Khardung La on this bike". I laughed at it but at the same time was a bit scared as well. Laughed because I thought, hey come on, I've crossed Zozila on this bike. Now what can be worse than that? And scared because this terrain is so unpredictable that you can't exactly take things for granted. Besides the tag 'world's highest motorable road' does make some difference. The highest pass so far was just 13.5K feet high and here we were to ride at 18K+ feet. So lesser oxygen, AMS were some of the thoughts that lingered in my mind.

There was another interesting confusion in our ride plan. During our planning phase in Mumbai, we had found an alternate route with the help of Vishwas sir, which would have helped us skip Khardung la on the return leg and would have taken us directly on Pangong Tso road. That alternate route was like this:
OR






I was using Canon SX20IS for capturing all the beautiful memories and if you know it's a bulky camera like DSLRs. And I used to put it back in camera pouch immediately after the job to protect it from moisture, dust etc. It was a cumbersome task to take it out and put it in every time and that whole Ladakh region is so beautiful that you feel like stopping for a photo break every few hundred meters. Same thing happened here. I put the camera back in the pouch and just a few meters ahead or may a Km max, I saw this breathtaking waterfall, Totally frozen. Couldn't afford to miss it. So stopped and captured it in the camera.



I was really looking forward to record some good on-board stuff as we conquered the highest road in the world but Mandar has misplaced his camera's charging cable somewhere after Amritsar. Camera's battery was dead and hence no on-board stuff .

Ascending Khardung la felt so easy that we reached the top when I was expecting at least half n hour more of riding. It was a pleasant surprise. There were already a lot of people, most of them in cars. We stopped near the Khardung La top sign board. There was a group of bulletiers busy clicking pictures with the sign board. So we had to wait for our turn. And among all the bikers there, we were the only ones fully geared. That attracted a lot of stares. Few even approached us upon seeing MH01 registration plates. They probably heard us speaking in marathi with each other. One of them started the conversation by asking tumhi Mumbaihun aalat ka? That was it. We had a long chat with them there onwards. He was so surprised and excited upon knowing that we've ridden all the way from Mumbai to that point. He frantically called and gathered all his friends and clicked pictures with us as if we were celebs They asked all kinds of questions, our aim, our professions, our journey so far and what not. Those guys were traveling in a car and had come via Manali route. They warned us of Tanglang la and Rohtang pass. They said even their Xylo found it difficult to cross it . Really scared the shit out of us for a moment but then we said, Chal na yar, jo bhi hai dekha jayega..

As we chatted in marathi with these old men, one of the Bulletiers came ahead and asked Marathi ahat ka tumhi? Wow, yet another Marathi manus. And once again we got into a long conversation with him, this time it was more interesting as he was of the same age and shared the same passion His name was Manish I guess, and he was from Maharashtra but been staying in Delhi for profession. He had already been to Ladakh before and this time was with a newbie's group. It was a group of 4 bullets with 2 riders on each bike. Manish had a female pillion rider who was a foreigner, may be his colleague..I don't know. We helped them click some pics of their group before they gave us the opportunity. We parked our bikes properly and a big high five and hug to each other. After all we had achieved our aim fighting with all odds. That was an amazing feeling.







We met yet another Maharashtrian as we climbed up to the board. He was from Pune and had come there with his family. Sahich...evdhi marathi mansa baghun bara vatla..

Mandar having fun in the snow....


We were so so excited and there were so many people talking to us that we totally forgot to visit the souvenir shop and buy a souvenir that we wanted so badly . I had also carried Indian national flag and it was my wish to get myself clicked with the flag. We forgot all these things cause of the excitement and confusion and straight away headed towards North pullu . Whoever told Deepan and grop about road condition was true. Road was worse than the first half, but again no way close to Zozila . Here are some of the pics that we clicked on our way to North pullu:

The Himalayan warrior


Check out the BEAUTIFUL sky patterns in the following pictures










The second copy of DC permit is supposed to be submitted at North pullu. But there was no one to inspect our documents at north pullu when we reached there. There's a restaurant where most of the car tourists and bikers had stopped for a quick bite. Even the bulletiers were there. So even we decided to have some food before moving further. We had vegetable soups and chow mein noodles. Yikes, none of it was good at all. But it was just a mental satisfaction that we had at least something, which was very important as we had had absolutely nothing since we left Leh in the morning.

As per my guess, except Manish in the bulletiers' group, rest of the 3 riders weren't much experienced. When we got out of the restaurant, we saw some communication gap between the group. Manish with two other bulletiers left the place and moved ahead towards Nubra while the fourth biker was still gearing up. He could not start his bike in time and by that time even we passed him and moved ahead. Like I have mentioned in previous parts of log, I used to ride my R15 pretty fast in almost all kinds of terrains, be it rough roads or smooth roads. Where as Mandar used to ride at moderate speeds. This fellow on bullet started his bike and I don't know what was going on in his bike, whether he wanted to catch up with his rest of the group or just trying to show off by overtaking us. He chased us like crazy and first overtook Mandar. I saw him in the RVM and immediately sensed he's riding faster than what was necessary on those narrow curvy roads. As he closed in, I gave him enough space to overtake me. He did so but since I myself ride at quite high speed he had to go faster than that to overtake me. Seems he didn't realize that and just a couple of corners ahead he lost his control and overshot a corner. Bang.. He and his pillion rider fell off the bike on huge sharp rocks. And saw this shocking incident live. The scariest part was the speed at which they crashed and the place where they crashed. There were so many sharp edged rocks that it could easily rip them apart. To add to it none of them was wearing any safety gears except helmets.

I slammed the brakes and stopped right away. Mandar followed in a minute or two. I got off the bike and rushed towards them to free them from the bullet's weight which was fallen on them. They were so shocked that they didn't move a muscle before we aided them. We could see the rest of the group riding towards Nubra down the mountain but they were too far away to be able to listen out shouts. We were shouting and hoking like crazy to stop them. Fortunately there was a hairpin turn where they faced at us and we waved like crazy standing in the middle of the road. One of them saw us and they quickly realized something has gone wrong. They turned back and started riding towards the accident spot. Then we quickly got back to the two of them and calmed them down. The bike was so heavy that Mandar and I could not lift it up out of that pile of rocks. Surprisingly none of them was majorly injured, just minor cuts and bruises. But am sure they got hit pretty badly and it must have been damn painful in that cold environment. Few minutes later their friends arrived and were shocked to see the bullet fallen in the pile of rocks. We first lifted the bike up and checked for damage. There wasn't any. It's a bloody heavy battle tank. Manish asked me how it all happened and when I told him everything he could figure out what must have happened. The one who crashed was one of those who easily get carried away and over speed where it's least needed. He shouted at him a bit but we quickly calmed every down. We asked them if they need medical assistance or kit. They had their own and so the foreigner started cleaning their wounds and bruises. We waited for sometime and that's when one of them asked the million dollar question.. "Yeh aise riding jackets aur gears kaha milte hai Delhi, Mumbai mein?" Seems he learned a lesson out of the incident

Manish thanked us before we left for Nubra and so we were off towards Nubra valley. Roads were mostly in good condition and we were enjoying the beautiful vistas around. Few hours ago we were having fun in snow and then we were in a region full of sand and dry mountains. I clicked the following two pics as I waited for Mandar to catch up.





^ Fantastic isn't it? As we moved on, we descended the above mountain and rode alongside the river towards Diskit. En route saw a diversion and a signboard which read Agham, Sakti. That was our route for next day. Sometime later, we stopped here when we saw the first Sand dune of Nubra valley.











Riding a few KMs we reached a junction where we turned left towards Diskit. The other road goes towards Panamik. Now this junction is special. The road from this junction till the next mountain goes through a completely arid land, as good as a desert. And it's a loooong straight road. But should not be ridden beyond 90 Kmph or so. Cause it's bumpy and extremely windy. Can easily loose control of the bike. Following picture will give you some idea of what am saying. Mind you it's clicked from a height and that's why may look small but it's pretty long. The thin black line you see in the middle is the road.



Up ahead we saw these tourists near a waterfall. There was hardly any water in it though .


Finally we reached Diskit, the place where we had planned to stay for the night. Vishwas sir had given detailed contact information of the guest house where they had stayed during their visit to Nubra valley. So we searched a bit and found the Siachen guest house. The entrance to the house goes through a tunnel. But things beyond that are surprisingly nice. A beautiful Ladakhi house. When I went inside the tunnel to inquire, I was greeted by a dog at the main gate. I got scared and so did the dog. I knocked at the door for quite sometime but no one opened the gate. Just when I was about to turn back in disappointment, a small kid came rushing towards the gate and opened it. I asked him if there's anyone elder in the house? May be his dad?Mom? anyone? He said no, there's no one at home except him. I said now what? I told him we wanted room for night stay. He took me inside and showed me one of the rooms. Room was so beautiful that I decided even if we had to wait for sometime, we would do it. Two kinds of rooms were available, room with attached toilet bathroom for Rs. 500 and room with next door toilet bathroom for.... well the kid had no idea about rent of the second room. But Vishwas sir had told us it would cost us Rs. 300. So without inquiring further we checked in in the second room. It was on the first floor of the house. I immediately went inside the bathroom to get fresh. By the time I came out, Mandar was talking to the kid's mom - the owner of the guest house. Mandar was waiting for me to come out and discuss the rent. We gave her Vishwas sir's reference. First she seemed a bit hesitant for Rs. 300 as rent but finally she agreed. I ordered a hot lemon tea and got dressed up as Mandar went in to get fresh.

That's me having hot lemon tea and transferring day's photographs into Laptop while doing some homework for next day's ride, especially the Agham, Shakti route.


That's the view straight out of the door of our hotel room


We had a brief chat with the lady before we left for Nubra valley sightseeing. She works at the government medical department which is quite near by. Kid's father and her husband is a teacher and a Reliance insurance agent. The kid is pretty sharp as well. He recently had been to Paris on a study tour representing his school. She had just returned home from her work and though we were going to pay her for dinner n all, we didn't feel like bothering her too much. Therefore when she asked us what would we like to have in dinner we asked her to cook anything she's comfortable with. She happily agreed and we left for Hundar.

Diskit to Hundar is hardly 7 Kms distance. As we rode towards Hundar we saw a biker waving at us to stop for help. When I got closer I saw it was Manish and his bullet His bike had a puncture and he and his friends were looking for a puncture repairer. I told him we didn't see any such shop from our guest house till that point. Fortunately his friend had seen a shop few meters ahead. So we accompanied him till the shop, wished him good luck for rest of the ride and zoomed ahead towards Hundar.

I'll let pictures do the talking for our Hundar sightseeing:

A weird mountain en route Hundar


A good view of the famous Sand dunes of Nubra valley


Finally at the Sand dunes and Camel safari point














Nubra valley is famous for it's sand dunes and double hump bactrian camels.








Pics clicked on our way back to Diskit






Visit to the Gompa in Diskit






We were back at the guest house well in time. I think at around 6.45 pm. In Diskit, electricity supply is only for 3 hours, from 8pm to 11pm. And hence we couldn't do anything except chit chatting. Laptop battery was down and no power supply. So couldn't even see pictures we clicked. Mandar called up Abhilabh in Mumbai and we got some latest news of what all was happening in Mumbai. Ninja 650 was launched by then and we got some interesting news from Abhilabh like what's going on on N650 thread. Who's pulling who's leg etc etc. Power was up at sharp 8pm and rushed upstairs to get the laptop and charger. When I came back Mandar told me the kid is watching motogp qualifier on TV. What a shocker.. I rushed inside and sat next to him watching Lorenzo scrape his knees Wow, who would have expected this at a remote place like Diskit. Fantastic. We watched the qualifiers, shared our pics with that kid and his mother and chatted for quite sometime. Dinner was served by 8.30-9.00 pm. Sitting arrangement was typical Ladakhi style. Was quite an experience. Food was good too but too expensive. For the first time we paid less amount for a room(Rs.300) and more for food(Rs.350 for dal chawal mix veg and roti )

That's sweety...


Altitude as per V6200


Ladakhi dinner


The smart kid


It was getting pretty cold as the night grew older. Before going upstairs to our room we asked her if she knew anything about the Agham - Shakti route and even she said the route ain't that good. We thanked her and went upstairs. Before sleeping, as usual, we discussed about next day's ride. And there we realized that we had forgotten to go to the souvenir shop at Khardung la. Also my dream of clicking pics with Indian flag was not fulfilled. That was really disappointing. I don't know why but we both felt the same thing - that all these things were suggesting us against using the Agham - Shakti route. So finally after a bit of discussion we chucked the confusion and decided to stick to the original plan. Yes, we decided to conquer Khardung la once again and ride back to Leh. So we called up Mr. Raj Kumar and booked a room for Day 11 before falling asleep.

That's all for Day 10. Day 11: Diskit - Khardung la - Leh..
.
.
.

Nice going Ketan. Keep it up.
Henry

Beautiful pix & narration ketan. We couldnt go ahead of Khardungla, as didnt had much time & we already delayed by 2 days..
I am searching small gap where I can create my thread now

Hey Ketan,

Really maan, cant get my eyes off this trip log. And the pics do justify the beauty of that place. Hope to ride with you someday

Thanks a lot Henry

That's sad man . Chal next time karenge Even we could not go to Panamik and Turtuk. So may be next time.

Thanks a lot buddy. We'll definitely ride together someday

wonderful guys, you both seems to have enjoyed the max up there..... great keep it up

lovely LOG with beautiful pics... wonderful efforts ketan..

Congrats on your published article Ketan! I am enjoying reading a log after long time. Well written!

North Pallu - Khardung road is quite narrow and has very sharp corners. The fellow was lucky he did not roll off the cliff, else wise you would have cursed yourself the rest of your life for not slowing down considerably and letting him go by! Anyways, you find such fools everywhere...

@ Ketan bhai - The hotel where we had stayed at Leh, we met a couple from Nashik who had done the Pangong and Nubra route. They has told us that the route compared to the ascend is bit more difficult but scenic during the descend from K Top. He also said that there is nothing much except for the sand dune and the double humped camel which were dirty. Also we had to do the Spiti route and hence took a call to avoid Hunder and Diskit.

But yeh will do a Ladakh trip in future for sure and that time it would be a Leh-Ladakh trip only .

Regards,
Deepan