Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Nice stuff.
Wear riding gears for next ride.

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Day 5 :- leh 14th june

We woke up late as this was our rest day and the only place we were going to visit was Royal Place Leh.
So in morning I and Nishant went to Juma automobile for bike tuning. Shop remain close on sunday but fortunately, it was open that day.






He was busy with Royal enfield there and we had to wait there. After descibing him my problem of bike loosing power in climb, he cleaned air filter and fiddled with carbuerator. He also adjusted the gap of spark plug. He asked me to take a ride and now bike had became more responsive. I will not say 100% but it became 80-90% responsive, much better than how i rode it after zojila. Then after my bike, Nishant's bike was also got tuned.


(he also pasted this route map on my bike's tank)

We came back to room, got ready and after having breakfast at nearby Punjabi Restaurant, we rode towards Royal Palace.



Before going to Royal Palace, we went to DC office to enquire about permits. We knew we won't need permits to visit nubra valley or tso moriri but we went to confirm it.




After riding from there we reached at palace. Clicked pics at front of the palace and went inside. It was looking like old architectural structure which has been restored. From the roof of palace complete view of leh city was marvelous. Weather was awesome too, neither hot nor cold.










From the roof we saw a monastry at short distance above. Nishant and i decided to go there. I am writing "decided" as climbing just few stairs was becoming difficult task for us there. We all were getting tired from just walking stairs only. We both trekked there, it was not much but became very tiring climb. Nishant was feeling energetic and started to ran toward peak, but it paid off and he started to vomit. Some nice pics were shot there.







While going back to leh we went to leh market and did shopping till late evening.

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Nice going! Great pictures.

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

thanks krishna..

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Day 6 :- leh- khardung-leh

Our intial plan for the day was to cover leh to diskit, but unfortunately we were stuck by AMS and thus, plan was changed in middle of journey. (as learned by reading many travelogs and finally by experience "ready to change your itineary as weather is not predictable")
We woke up early as we had planned to cover khardung la and nubra valley today. We started around 6:00 am and road towards khardungla. Once we crossed leh, landscape started to change while ascending towards khardung la.



Brown landscape and mountains started to change white. Peaks were covered in snow and weather started to became cold and we were enjoying every bit of it.








We reached to southpullu and registered our vehicles there. By this time weather was freezing cold. Even the police officer also, just passed the register to us through window and closed it afterwards. We entered our details and moved forward towards our destination.




After riding few kilometers from south pullu, riding became tough. Road was full of snow and our bikes skid and fell 2-3 times. Nishant and i played the role of hero and pick up bikes ourselves at that high altitude. We completely forgot about the things we had read and prepared about AMS and how to prevent it from happening.



As we were still struggling to make our bikes steady, two army personals from the army vehicle crossing by us, advised us to wait untill some snow melts. We waited for almost half n hour clicking pics there and then moved further.





It was nice ride and we were enjoying it, suddenly snowfall started. Initially it really didn't bother us and we continue to ride forward. I was more excited as i haven't seen snowfall before and therefore was completely unaware of consequences too.
We were just around 1/2 km away from khardungla top when snowfall got heavy and moving further was not possible for us. Many other vehicle stopped there as going further was risky. Some riders returned to leh and some were waiting for weather to be stable.



2-3 cars started to move and was struggling to move forward there as they were skidding on slight sloppy snow on road. Once again we played hero and pushed them to move. That was our big mistake as after sometime I, Nishant and Arti started getting headache which was getting severe continuously. Sandhya was somehow not struck by AMS and was completely fine.



After sometime it became unbearable and we decided to move down as i knew if it gets more severe, i will not be able to ride back. Road was full of snow and slush and our condition was not good. So riding with our wives as pillion was not a good idea. thankfully two local persons were going back to leh on there jeepsy. They gave lift to Sandhya and Arti, me and nishant were following them on our bikes. As I told road was full of slush, i was literally sliding on it, not riding. It was really very difficult to control bike on downward slope with snow on it, but the headache was so severe that it seems to be easy than bearing pain. I was feeling like i was skiing on bike, using my legs as pole.

Nishant and i stopped at military base at southpullu where we were given oxygen. At this type of situation seeing an army hospital was the happiest moment of my life. Army doctor advised us to decrease altitude and go back to leh as soon as possible as our oxygen level was not becoming steady without there oxygen mask. We both came out, i sat on my bike and Nishant went back to military base. I thought he left something inside and will be riding behind me, so i started to ride towards leh, at whole route i was feeling dizzy and somehow i reached at a check post type place where our wives were waiting for us. Arti's condition was also not good. I laid down at the side of the road and rested as we waited for nishant to come. After some time, nishant also reached. And the reason he got late was he misplaced his bike's key at military base and was searching for it with headache and vomiting continuously.

After resting a bit at roadside, we rode toward leh, booked room there and went to hospital. Arti was hospitalized till evening and was feeling good afterwards. People of leh were so helpful to us. Lady owner of the room we booked, gave us a local recipe which supposed to help in relieving our condition. We halted at leh that day and cancelled the plan of nubra valley to pangong. And after Vishwas sir's experience of climbing chang la on fz on his leh tour, i was also not sure if my bike could climb chang la. that too with pillion. So reaching pangong via changla also was a big no. Pangong lake was also cancelled from the plan and we decided to go tso moriri next day.

At last, it became the most difficult and the most memorable day of the whole trip. (lets hope may be some other time we will click pics at khardungla and changla)





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I know i posted an update after a long long time but i don't know why, i was unable to post any thing before (when i apdated to windows 10). I wam unable to insert image , edit text and links in my posts. Today tried after a long time to repost it.

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Great going!

Sent from my Xperia L.

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Day 7 :- Leh to Tso Moriri

As visiting Pangong lake was dropped from the plan, next day we rode towards Tso Moriri.





On the route we pass through Shey. After crossing Shey we reached hemis school "Rancho's school". Visited the school and purchased T-Shirts and cards from there. The school is well maintained and very nice. Cards made by children were nice too. School guide told us that children's from many villages study there for free and these donation and amount collected from selling goods is used for funding their studies.





We moved forward from there and clicked some pics at front of Thiksey monastry also. Did some shopping there. Road was good and riding there was fun.




After that we were riding beside river and scenery was soothing. Landscape is always picturesque in every part of leh. We stopped our bike and walked toward river side. Clicked some pics and rested there for a while and moved forward.





Then we crossed upshi and riding further we reached shang. And once again the view had changed. Now all we can see was barren land and mountains with river flowing there (all i have only seen in movies and never in reality) and as the maintenance work was in progress, road was in very bad condition. It felt like riding on a series of thousands of small speed breakers. I was literally feeling that my bikes handle bar will came off. But B.R.O personals were there too was working very hard in that barren area too (atleast it seems like).







Riding through that road we reached chumathang. After a long ride we saw shop and purchased some refreshment from there before moving forward.






We were becoming late for our destination of the day. We reached late at Tso Moriri at almost around 9 pm and at that time the only option we saw for accomodation was tents. It costed us rs 2000/- for that night.




We had dinner and went to sleep. But the night was damn freezing cold. It was surely the coldest night on whole tour.

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Nice!

Sent from my Xperia L.

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Doing leh with a pillion is not at all a serious stuff. And to be a pillion on leh roads are like one should an award to pillion.
The roads are so pathetic that one needs serious preparation or will power.

excellent travelog.

But you need riding gears for sure for both actually. You never know whats kept at next turns

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

yes, i agree. And even today also i praise her for being able to complete whole tour as a pillion.
And we will surely get riding gears for next trip.

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Day 8 :- Tso Moriri to Sarchu

We started our day by visiting Tso Moriri lake. Lake and surrounding was shining beautifully in rays of sun. Whole surrounding was feeling fresh and we clicked some nice pics there. Actually we clicked normal pics but the beauty of this place made every pic awesome. After passing quality time there we rode towards tso kar.




Tso Moriri


one couple pose is must


and bike's too





Now while riding towards Tso kar, as soon as we left Tso Moriri, we saw the area which we missed previous day because of dark. There was just plain peice of land and we were riding through it. There was another small lake too.





this one is my favourite..

Further we encountered another stretch of very bad road. It seems like tarmac has beer teared off. It was very tiring to ride on that stretch. And after covering some distance my bike's rear tyre got punctured. After inspecting i found a nail pierced in rear tyre . I didn't repaired it and continued to ride after filling air as i had never fixed a puncture and was not ready to take a chance. (I know its an easy task and i was theoretically prepared for it with puncture repair kit, but the thought of "if any thing gets wrong" was sets me back as we were almost 70km away from pang, and didn't saw anyone in route either). But after filling air two three times and riding afterwards became tiresome, i finally tried and successfully repaired the puncture. It was a little repair work but it boosted the confidence, lol.



We reached Tso Kar and clicked pics there but didn't went near lake.



Had our lunch at Tso kar Restaurent and it was one of the best lunch we had at whole tour (you can see in pic how happy we were).
We rode from there and reached the most awaited place of the whole tour, moore plains. i had read other's experience of riding on moore plains and now i was feeling mine. It was awesome stretch and the landscape too was amazing. But luckily as my bike was not pulling much, i was riding in a limit of 40-60kmph and it helped me to feel and have a eyefull look of the amazing scenery.






Riding further we were welcomed by a milestone showing its Lachung la at the altitude of 16616ft. Then we rode by Naki la and Gaata loops too finally reach Sarchu.




Bends of Gaata loops were looking fabulous from top. We reached Sarcu at 4:30pm and halted there for night. Made a phone call to home from military satellite base phone and booked a room at Sarchu. I must say i didn't like the food there, or i was exploited by the food i got in Leh.

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Wonderful log. Great captures too.

However some pics are not visible... don't know why

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Wonder full pictures guys, Leh with pillion require serious skills and pillion also should be experienced.

Carry on...

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

Could view all the pics in a different system ... amazing :-o

Re: Ladakh : Journey to a barren paradise

thanx buddy..

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i'm glad you them amazing..