awesome stuff in here. had subscribed to your youtube channel some time ago and so have seen all the videos you've uploaded there. The pics are spectacular and so is your triplog. cheers.

Thanks a lot. I'll be updating Day 12 log shortly.

Day 12: Leh - Chang La - Pangong Tso

I guess Leh is the only place in the entire journey where we had spent max number of night halts, 3 night halts in total. The beginning of Day 12 could have been just like past 11 days - waking up early to the alarm, getting ready and immediately head towards the destination. But no, this time it was slightly different.

We had decided to leave a little late as Mandar wanted to withdraw some money from the SBI ATM. Mandar got ready and left the hotel early.

As I rode to the SBI ATM later, I was greeted with a nice surprise. Mandar was talking to 2 of the xBhpians - Tourer Kashif and Hyperion from Pune xBhp. Wow! That felt nice. They were heading to the DC office for their permits. I had a chat with them while Mandar got the money from ATM. Finally after wishing Godspeed to each other we left towards the Leh city exit for Manali highway. There was confusion between us on carrying extra fuel in plastic cans but ultimately after some calculations based on fuel efficiency and night halts we decided not to carry any extra fuel and take the risk, well I would say a calculated risk.

Riding on Manali highway was a pleasure as the road is in very good condition till Karu, from where one turns left(while riding towards Manali from Leh) for Pangong Tso. Before Karu, we stopped at Thiksey monastery. A beautiful place this is. Some pics:









As we moved on towards Karu, we reached this particular place as seen in pictures below. The place was so beautiful that no matter what angle, frame you choose, pictures ought to be beautiful to look at. The backdrop is just amazing! Enjoy!













Moving on, we reached the Indian Oil petrol pump which is a Km before Karu and which the last filling station for next 350 odd Kms on Manali highway. Next one being at Tandi. We tanked up our bikes before heading towards Pangong Tso. There was no crowd, rush at the petrol pump. Nice!


Unfortunately there was no digital fuel gauge at the petrol pump and we wanted to make sure our bikes' tires are in good shape before the battle of Chang La. We searched for puncture repairer/air pressure shop at Karu but couldn't find one and had to continue with that slight uncertainty.

Roads are in good condition for quite some time. En route, we reached this junction where one road goes to Shakti. Instantly all those thoughts came in mind. Thoughts of missing the action on Agham - Shakti route, missing Wari la, another high mountain pass.



Slowly we started to feel the ascend of Chang La. Chang La top is at an altitude of 17,586 Ft making it the second highest road in the world while the third rank goes to Tanglang La at 17,582 Ft. Like most other high mountain passes, road is good for most part and gradually degrades as you reach closer to the top and the last 8-10 Kms to the top on both the sides are in worst condition, obviously because of the heavy snow fall and difference in temperatures. So far so good and we were ascending Chang La while enjoying the breathtaking beauty around.





But as we moved on towards Chang La top, the climb started to become steeper and steeper making it difficult to maintain good cruising speed. Thanks to the FI engine in R15, I didn't have any trouble like lack of power or engine gasping for breath etc. Mandar did face some pick up issues on his ZMA but never to an extent to be worried about. We had seen Yacks many times during the journey so far but never this closely. Couldn't resist clicking a few pics of them





Carrying on with the ride, we fought hard with the harsh terrain, low temperature and pathetically bad road conditions to reach the Chang La top. The steep climb was making it difficult to find way through football sized rocks(due to landslides) on the road. We let out a sigh of relief as we reached the top at 17,586 ft. It was an amazing feeling and the view around was marvelous. All the efforts were worth it. We stopped there for a few minutes and posed for some pictures.





Chang la baba temple








Before moving on we went to the military souvenir shop of Chang La top. Since we couldn't buy any souvenir at Khardung La I decided to buy a nice pen holder from the shop. The military run shop also serves free hot black tea to tourists and hot water. One must wash the cup after having tea - military discipline. In those cold conditions, hot tea was the best thing to have. We had a good chat with the army officer and he gave us an address for accommodation at Spangmik. He was shocked to know that we had ridden there all the way from Mumbai.

The descend on the other side was equally challenging. Rough road coupled with slopes. That was fun! Chang La top to Pangong tso, this particular section was the most fascinating part of the day's ride. Everything looked weird, spooky. I don't know spooky, scary are the correct words or not but it was something different. Not so psychologically comfortable. Weather was changing by every passing minute. One moment we were in bright sunshine and the very next moment it felt like it'll start snowing any moment. The next moment everything used to freeze with no breeze at all and sometime later there used to be strong winds carrying sand particles with it. Whew, that was some experience. We saw a lot and lot of water crossing on our way to Tangtse and later to Lukung but fortunately there was no rain at all and ALL the water crossing were dry. But we could easily understand that they were water crossings by the dip in road level and road patter. We saw this particular thing on our way. I think it's a water body that was frozen.







Finally when we reached Tangtse, we decided to have some food before heading towards Lukung. You see we hadn't had anything since we left Leh in the morning. Co-incidentally, we stopped at the same guest house cum restaurant where Amir khan and crew had stopped during their shoot for the movie 3 idiots and Saif ali khan during the shoot of (I guess) Tashan. Wow, that felt nice The food was good too.

After lunch we moved on towards Lukung and on our way saw the army cantonment of Garhwal rifles. Solders and snipers were under going training and there was arrangement for long distance shooting practice. A nice experience to see this personally.

Continuing the ride for some more time, we finally came across this sign post which read -



Yay! That little blue thing you see in the middle of those mountains is the Pangong Tso. We were so happy that finally we were so close to our day's destination and that too without any problem. 4 Kms later we reached Lukung where we saw beautifully built tents. I was imagining myself staying in that tent but soon we were disappointed. That was a restricted area, meant only for army officers. Just ahead there were some more tents with lot of tourist vehicles. We enquired for a tent but the answer was, sorry, no tents available. More disappointment. We had almost made our mind to go to Spangmik to stay at the hotel recommended by army officer. But there were some more tents up ahead and some not so good looking rooms. Took the last chance and we finally had a positive answer. Tent accommodation was full but couple of rooms were empty. We pounced on the opportunity and bargained a room for Rs. 300/- for two of us. There were two beds and a table inside the room. It was so small that when we kept our luggage and gears inside the room, there was simply no space to even stand. We were walking on our jackets, knee guards and bags. No electricity, no water to even wash our hands forget drinking water. Toilet was few meters away. It was just four walls, some wooden planks with a hole in between. No water there as well. To get water bottles filled with drinking water one must walk at least 300-400 meters to the main tent where the owner stayed. Jeez, it was terrific.

I quickly got rid of my riding gears, washed my face with the available water and got out of the room with my camera. Mandar preferred to take some rest. Just as I rode my bike to the lake, I saw a group of bulletiers coming in towards the tents. Guess what it was the same group that had a crash near Khardung la. Manish and his friends. They too were looking for accommodation but couldn't find one. I asked them to contact the same lady as we did. She gave them two rooms next to ours. Manish and the foreigner lady was missing though. We later understood that her permit had expired and she was supposed to get back to Leh at any cost. Manish had gone to drop her and then would meet these people at Tangtse on next day.

And now the best part of the day - the lake. Well I have no words to describe it. It's..it's just Beautiful! The cleanest and most beautiful lake I've ever seen in my life. And evening was the best time to be there as the sun is on the west horizon. Perfect lighting conditions. Sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds making the lake look even beautiful with changing light conditions. I won't even dare to try and describe it's beauty with my limited vocabulary. I'll just let pictures do the talking -





























All this while I was all alone clicking the pictures but then almost half n hour or 45 mins later Mandar joined in with his bike. And then my friends it was time for some posing



















After posing and getting clicked, we went back to our room and slipped inside the warm blankets on our 'respective' beds. We just relaxed and talked to each other on the day's experience and the ride. As the evening turned into night, temperature started falling down and it became extremely cold in very short time. Strong wind was flowing outside. We didn't realize when we started feeling sleepy and we dozed off. Later someone knocked at the door asking "Bhaai so gaye kya? Khaana khane nahi chaloge?" It was the bullet guys asking us for the dinner. When I checked the time it was around 8.30-9.00 pm And it was so cold that I couldn't even get out of the blanket forget going out for dinner. We both ate Snickers energy bars as dinner and again fell asleep .

Day 13: Pangong tso - Tanglang la - Pang
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Again, breathtaking pics. I am addicted to this.

aawweessoommee

Amazing Bhau just amazing.... you just make my day with your logs and pics

Hey Ketan,

Really maan your logs are detailed and very well written.
I just wait everyday for any updates on your log.
And the pics are fabulous, mind blowing.....

Thank you all for the support!
But unfortunately it'll take a little longer for me to update the next set of pictures and log. Please bear with me..! I'll be back soon.

Hey Ketan, Saw a reference to your article in Loksatta today and went and purchased Lokprabha. Nice article there. Congrats and bravo!

Thank you very much Roamer.
For everyone else, I am attaching the pictures of my article in one of the Weekly Magazines. It's a magazine of Loksatta newspaper called as 'Lokprabha'. Am sure many of marathi people must be aware of this magazine.

vow.. congrats ketan sir..!! keep it up

Thank you bhau!

Ketan may i know How did you managed entire 20 days with few cloths??
can you explain me your Cloth Management

Waiting for next update brother do it soon please...

Will try to update it by tonight Viraj