beautiful pictures bro!

Day8,9 - Leh to Pangong Tso and back

Expected difficulty: ****
Experienced difficulty: ****
Distance: ~350Km
Riding hours: 15

Today saw one of the slowest starts of our trip. It was a rather gloomy morning and we started from Leh at 9:15AM after having breakfast. "The Mighty" Chang La falls on the way to Pangong Tso. I was waiting to find out why it is called so. Also, it is claimed to be the second highest motorable road in the world.

It didn't take me long to realize why people have called it mighty. RTR was having more trouble in pulling up than ever before. Some stretches even needed extended use of first gear. But bike never gave up on me. This, in comparison with all other passes we have seen so far, was more challenging for the bike. I think the Oxygen is what causes the problem here. Also, the combination of slush, rocks and water crossings makes it tricky in some places. One needs to keep the momentum going. Difficulty was not just for the bike, but also for the rider. I felt the lack of Oxygen more than in any other mountain pass so far. The accumulation of rocks and snow on this mountain looks very dangerous.



Quite a USP, isn't it!





Once we got down from Chang La, we had food at Darbuk. The local women were distributing food to whoever passed by. They said it is part of some ritual. I can't recall the name of whatever they gave, but it looked and tasted similar to Pongal. The hospitality is incredible in this part of the world.














The first look of Pangong Tso was breathtaking. It's a moment I will remember forever. You're riding through mostly barren land, suddenly amidst mountains, you get a glimpse of majestic blue colour of the famous salt water lake. The multiple shades of vast water blows you away. We reached Spangmik and found a small guest house for our stay. One can find stay for 200Rs-4000Rs here. We dumped the luggage and went to the bank of the lake. It was very chill out there because of the wind flow. The serenity of the place is just amazing.
















Day 9 - Return to Leh

It was probably the coldest day of the ride. My hands were freezing till we got to Tangtse. Also the weather didn't looks sweet. Thick clouds were grouping above the head and it was drizzling. Not very encouraging when you know you need to cross Chang La to reach Leh We got to Tangtse and wore the rain gear quickly. The sight at the top of Chang La was nothing less than scary at that time. It was all too dark with clouds and didn't look inviting at all. But we had to move on anyway. It was one of the tougher days so far. Cold, tricky water crossings and snowfall made things difficult. Interestingly bike behaved much better today. The reason for this must be the difference in steepness.





After riding cautiously through Chang La top, we reached Leh safely. I visited Shey palace on the way. It's a nice place. Did a bit of shopping for souvenir collection also.


View from Shey palace



Also, there is a great place called World Garden Cafe where one can eat woodfire Pizza. We tried different variety of veg Pizza here and liked most of them. Some samples for your viewing pleasure!

Thanks a lot for the appreciation bro

Leh-Drass-Srinagar-Jammu

This last leg was not as exciting as rest of the trip. Some good things were Lamayuru, Kargil war memorial in Drass and hail fall in Zozila. But apart from these, ride was mostly bugged by the maniac traffic due to Amarnath yathra, non-receptive crowd in some places and scorching heat.

Leh-Drass

The bad weathers had continued from previous day. When we started at 7:30, it was extremely cold combined with rain. I didn't mind this though, as I love rain riding But weather improved slowly as we approached Lamayuru. The roads are excellent here. I learned that the Lamayuru monastery was built 1000 years before. We spent some time at the monastery and then moved on.













After Lamayuru, good roads continued for some distance and then it all got bad and inconsistent. The whole ride experience was average today as the view is not as majestic as NH21. We pushed on till Drass since we thought it will be easier to do Drass-Srinagar next day. 5Km before Drass, there is Kargil war memorial. Every Indian must visit there and see how much those Army men have gone through to save our lives. I went with my camera with an intension of clicking some picures, but I was so lost that I didn't click many pictures there. This is one of the best things that happened to me on the trip. My respect towards Indian army has increased even more.


Kargil town


Drass valley


Drass-Srinagar

I had high hopes on today's ride, but I reached slightly disappointed. Zozila is the last link of beautiful Himalayas, where we experienced hail fall for a brief moment. But once the Sonamarg stretch opened up, things just got frustrating. Though the scenery was good around me, I couldn't enjoy it. Amarnath yatra had caused a surge of traffic all throughout and it was just too irritating to cover this stretch. Cab and truck guys drive around like maniacs here. And when we got to Srinagar, there was a curfew in place! Srinagar is a nice place, but political situation is not good at all.


Just before the last pass - Zozila. With Ashish and Rajinder.




Srinagar

The whole day was spent relaxing. Floating around Dal lake in Shikara is a good experience. Some pictures from Srinagar.















Srinagar-Jammu

congrats brother... pictures are beautiful & the Pizzas looked way too good than Pizza Hut & Domino's!! Seems like you were in a hurry to complete the log, though!

Thanks brother! Yeah pizza was indeed better than Domino's pizza I have been really hard pressed for time, so I didn't want to waste the weekend. Just wrote down as much as possible. Last thing remaining is preparation tips and route map. I will put that up once I get some time.