Monday, 28th September, 2009 – DAY 7 – Rest at Leh

So where were we? Yup. Just got Leh’d. Today was a buffer day at Leh, so not much travelling to do. We got up pretty late in the morning and decided to visit a few monasteries in and around Leh.
First Stop : The Dalai Lama palace, situated at a few kilometers from Leh.




Inside The Dalai Lama Palace














Just outside the Palace, we saw a beautiful line of stupas.









Then we headed to the Shey Palace.




This palace had a beautiful 3 storey high statue of Buddha.





Then we headed to the Hemis Monastery, the largest Monastert in the Ladakh Region.










It was already getting dark and we were 45 kms away from Leh. We tried in vain to get back to Leh in time for the Leh Palace. Been to Leh and missed the Leh Palace. Doesn’t sound good isn’t it. That’s alright. There’s always a next time.
We spent some time in the Leh bazaar, settled down for dinner at a restaurant and headed back to the Hotel. In the Bazaar we inquired about Khardung La from quite a few people and all of them said the one does not require a permit to reach Khardung La. Only beyond Khardung La to Nubra valley the permit is required. So to save time, we decided to the skip the visit to the permit office the next day morning.

Before I close the day, didn't I give you heads up about the wacky lines of BRO. Well they were all around leh. Take a look.








The Journey Begins

DAY (-1), DAY 0

DAY 1, DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

DAY 7

DAY 8

DAY 9

DAY 10

DAY 11

DAY 12

The Journey Ends

Tuesday, 29th September, 2009 – DAY 8 – Khardung La, Mulbekh
Another D-Day. Today we will be conquering the highest motorable road in the world. Excited? Yes. But a little disappointed as well. Due to the time crunch we had to miss Pangong Tso Lake and Nubra Valley. This was a big blow to me. I was really waiting to make it to the lake and camp there. But I consoled myself for having one more reason to make it to Leh another time.
We started our ride to Khardung La at about 8:30 in the morning. We left the luggage back at the hotel and it felt really light to travel without all those bulky baggage behind you.



As usual, we had long photography breaks in between.






Khardung la was not as difficult as Tanglang La. The roads were also much better. But this may not also be true as for Khradung la, we were travelling light and fresh.



Leh is at an altitude of around 11,000 feet above sea level, while Khardung La which is 40 kms from Leh, is around 18,000 ft. Throughout the route one can feel the increase in altitude rapidly.
On the way, the guy from a check post stopped us and asked for the permit. I told him that many of the locals said that we do not require a permit to Khardung la. But he doesn’t seem to agree. He showed the permit letters of others and Khardung La was clearly mentioned in it. Damn! Skipping the visit to the permit office turned out to be a bad gamble. After nearly 15 minutes of negotiation, the guy agreed to take our pan card and driving license as proofs and decided to let us through.
Phew. But that didn’t spoil the excitement and the rush. We rode on and on and after a couple of hours, our mission was accomplished.




We met a Kiwi friend enroute and he also reached Khardung La almost at the same time.



We decided we’ll do something different at the highest pass and that thought led to Golf. Ram brought his mini golf kit and thus we had our record breaking attempt. Are the Guinness people watching?






Then came the funniest part for me and the saddest part for Ram. Our new found Kiwi friend also wanted to share the record and gave it a try. We forgot to tell him that this is not a proper metal putter. This is an executive mini golf putter made of wood. Apparently he didn’t notice that and swung hard to hit the snow ball. The ball did go high but along with it the bottom part of the putter flew. That’s 6000 bucks gone with the wind. Lol… you should see the look in Ram’s face. Poor guy.

Some rest, few snaps and we started our ride back to the hotel.



By around 2 P.M we were back in our hotel at Leh and we quickly got ready to leave Leh. Clock was against us as we planned to reach Kargil by today. And thus began our second leg of the journey from Leh back to Delhi Through Srinagar and Amristar.



I managed to click some beautiful scenery before the sun went down enroute Kargil. Soon it was dark and we were riding all alone on the muddy road to Kargil. We didn’t stop much on the way to save some time, but seemed to be not enough to reach Kargil. By the time we reached Mulbekh we were worn out and so decided to call it a day.
We stopped at the J&K tourism guest house at Mulbekh which was a pretty decent option for 300 bucks a night.



The Journey Begins

DAY (-1), DAY 0

DAY 1, DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

DAY 7

DAY 8

DAY 9

DAY 10

DAY 11

DAY 12

The Journey Ends

excellent log and pics,this is so far the best Leh thread i've see seen

Hey Congrats !

Nice write up & pics too....

How much u guys had to spend ?

Thanks bro...


including the cost of transporting bikes to and fro from hyd to delhi in addition to buying the sleeping bags and renting out the tents... it was altogether 20K nearly.


- Ananth

Hi Ananz,

Excellent trip Ananz, this made us to think to start our own dream trip in LADAKH.

We are planning to LEH trip in March 2010 from Pune. The traveling plan is Pune to Delhi by train/plane and rest of trip on bike and return back to Delhi.

We are going with R15 and Fazer 150.

I need some useful information for this trip. Could you please help us to provide the below information.

1) Will this tour possible with pillion? (I am considering my wife on this tour)
2) What basic things we need to carry from home and what other things we should carry at Delhi or other nearby place.
3) Should we do advance booking for night staying place?
4) Where we can stay in LEH or near place? [mean any other alternative of tents]
5) Petrol pump availability (on after Manali)
6) Do we need change our stock R15 and Fazer 150 rear tyre for this trip?
7) Is it possible to cover Manali to Leh in single day or should we take one halt in between (if yes, where?)
8) Is there any special permission require in J&K state or LEH?



Thanks in Advance and any input will be appreciated.

Regards,
Jiten & Ganesh

Good luck for your trip mate.

Lemme answer ur q's one by one.

1.
Yes, definitely you can. But you need to plan a few things in advance.
like adjusting your suspension for rocky rides. The roads would be terrible most of the trip which bend the back of a rider, imagine what could be the plight of the pillioner.

One more thing is having a pillioner would reduce your space for the baggages. better have a big saddle bag with you.

2.
a small punture kit and a few spares. extension box (very very imp). apart from winter clothing and some cosmetics i could'nt think of nething else.

3.
not at all.

4.
Leh - Hotel Horzey.
PwangChuk - 9906979233 ,001982-252454,01982-260065
this is where we stayed @ Leh. a nice room for 500 bucks.

5.

just make sure you fill your tank at Manali. That should be more than enough. Although you can find one inbtw at Tandi.

6.
absolutely no need.

7.
I would strongly recommend not to try that. Theoritically you can do that. but thats not fun at all. you miss so many things. take your time covering this part. Stay at Sarchu inbtw.

8.


Just for Leh, absolutely nothing. if you're going to Khardung La or Pangong Tso , you will have to get the permit at Leh.

- Ananth

Wednesday, 30th September, 2009 – DAY 9 – Mulbekh – Srinagar.

Good Morning Mulbekh!!! It was such a beautiful tiny little town which was shining in its full glory at dawn. Another beautiful morning to start the ride.
With Kargil on our radar we started our ride and after about an hour we had the first view of the Kargil valley.



Well, you can guess what would be the first thought on my mind. I couldn’t wait to have a glimpse of those peaks which our army bravely won back from the intruding neighbors.
We had our breakfast at Kargil and moved towards Drass where the War memorial of the Kargil was built.
Here’s something to boost you up.






Apart from feeling the beauty of the place, I was really wondering how did our army managed to fight a war in these treacherous valley, that too with the enemy sitting on top of all the peaks.
Then we reached the Drass War Memorial.



Standing there, reading those names which were carved out on the wall, made me realize how precious the land that I was standing on is. All along the way I could find the graves of brave soldiers who stood their positions while the enemy rained bullets all over them.



Really, with such an out of date weaponry that our Army posses, it was only the pure courage of our soldiers that had won this war for us.



Interesting, even in those hard times our jawans could pack a punch with their sense of humor.



Just outside the Drass War memorial






This was one of most important peaks for us, which was captured back from our intruding neighbors. The Tiger Hill.



After giving a Salute to our Heroes, we moved on towards Srinagar.



Didn’t I tell you before what a beautiful sight it was to watch all those kids going to school? Look for yourself.



Sonmarg, you’re a beauty. You can imagine how difficult it was to just ride past this beautiful heaven knowing that you can’t return for quite a long time.



Kids@Sonmarg. These kids were playing along the road. I asked to pose for a picture and they more than excited to do so. I asked them why are they not at school today. They said it was a holiday. Can you guess the occasion? It was the last day of the month and hence the Holiday. Damn! Everything in this place is so good.




Then came the dirty, dusty and the breadth taking Zojila Pass.




Below is a common sight on the road through Srinagar – Jammu.




Damn! I wish those power cables and the posts were not there in the below picture. It would have made a great shot.









Enjoying all these beauties I almost forgot that I haven’t seen Ram for over an hour. The thing was I stopped by on the way to make a phone call to my near and dear one and apparently Ram had pulled ahead quite far away from me at that time. The icing on the cake was Ram’s mobile didn’t work anymore and we were already into Srinagar, where it is not just one straight highway, but crisscrossing city roads. After taking a detour of almost half the city, he called me from a public booth. He was waiting for me at the Dal Lake. Reason- Sometime ago I had told him about my desire to stay on a boat house at the Dal Lake. Well he had kept that in mind for so long. Quite cool, isn’t it?

View from our boat house below. We thought we pulled off a cool deal for a boat house at 500 bucks per night, but only next day we were in for a rude shock.




Riding through the paradise on earth, spending the night on a boat house over the eternal Dal Lake. Bring it on: I’m ready for more J




The Journey Begins

DAY (-1), DAY 0

DAY 1, DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

DAY 7

DAY 8

DAY 9

DAY 10

DAY 11

DAY 12

The Journey Ends

Thanks a lot ananth,

One more question, will march is suitable for LEH and Shrinagar trip? I have read that on net that the in march Manali to LEH and LEH to Shrinagar highway is not open for tourist. is that true?

Is really nice photography, I love it and I hope I will capture similar type in our LEH trip.

March is absolutely a bad time to go there. Don't even think about doing this with your wife at this point of time.

The route opens on May and the end of May would be the best time.

First of all congrats for the trip... it was one of the best travelogues i have read in xbhp... actually i didn't see this one, my friend told me to read this... mind blowing man...

keep going brothers... that's all i wan't to say... one day i will...

Amazing!!! Truly a wonderful experience for us!!!

Amazing Dude...really Amazing Hats Off to you..

I was here in Xbhp for a long time and i didn't ever read a single tourer-diary before.. am very happy that i started Xbhp reading from ur experience......

Once again thanks machaaaaaaaa...

hey! read the entire thread now! is absolutely amazing! you guys rock! so there is more coming up from your side right? about your trip from srinagar to delhi? cant wait!

i'm so sorry for making you guys wait longer.... i'm done with all my log and will be uploading the rest today.


Thanks binoy, ankit, vishnu and anuj for your kind words.


- Ananth