1. Day 4 - 13 June 2011
( Karu - Leh and Around Leh) We woke up quite late the next day as we had
only 30 Kms to travel to Leh and then spend the rest of the day roaming around
in the city. As such we had kept the 4rth day of the trip for rest and recoup.
Due to paucity of time we could not keep the visit to Khardung La and Pangong
Tso in our schedule which otherwise are
always recommended to be a part of this trip. We left Karu by around 1000 hrs
and visited the famous Thiksey monastry enroute. The Thiksey monatry is known
for its resemblance to the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet and is the larget
monastry in central Laddakh. It is a common attraction for toursits coming to
Leh city. We roamed around the monastry for while and had our brunch at a
restraunt at the entrance. The monastry had a
peaceful environment and is located against a beautiful scenic backdrop
of the Thiksey town. We started for Leh after spending some nice 40-45 mins at
the monastry and by 1300 hrs we were in Leh city. From the very first glance at
the surroundings, Leh city looked like a fresh new world! The city spilled out
a lot of colours than I had imagined. People there had a wonderful sense of
fashion and were dressed in all sorts of attires.There were Round hats, short skirts,
bright colourful t-shirts, all sorts of shades and aviators and one could find
almost all colours in the hairstyles of boys and girls, these people surely
knew how to look good! We soon found a good Hotel in the central part of the city and rested for the afternoon.
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| View From the Monastry
2. We woke up around 1630hrs after shedding off the
tiredness from the three days hectic ride. We freshened up and first went
around the Hotel. Hotel Royal Palace in Leh was a very well built hotel with a ethenic and cultural look. It had
a wonderfull lawn up front and a gorgeous dining hall. It is definetly worth
the money. Rooms cost around Rs 2500-3500/night and the food is amazing. We headed to the local market after that and
first, we looked for an ATM. There was a long queue at the SBI ATM and most of
them were bikers or foreign tourists. We spoke to a few while standing in the
queue and almost everyone expressed their sympathy for us not bieng able to do
the Khardung La and Pangong Tso after reaching Leh. But we were sure that we
would visit again soon and then do these trips. Moreover, the ride had already
given us the best memories of our lives hence we did'nt have much regrets. We
pulled the required cash and went around the market. There were lots of
souvenier shops around selling various laddkahi ornaments, traditinal dresses
and the famous prayer flags. We bought prayer flags for our bikes and few
t-shirts with quotes about the ride. It was a nice little walk in the market.
However, the market was to close early that day as the annual Laddakh Hemis
festival was underway. Hemis festival is one of the most famous monastic
festivals in June to commemorate birth of Guru Padmasambhava, the founder of
Tantric Buddhism in Tibet. The sacred dance drama of the life and mission is
performed wearing facial masks and colorful brocades robes. Alas! we had no
time to witness that too but we were noting down everything into our 'things to do' list and will definetly
check them out in our next trip. We returned to the hotel and had a nice dinner
and geared up for the second phase of our trip, ride back to our world!
3. Day 5 - 14 June 2011 (Leh - Drass 251 Kms). I woke up at 0600 hrs next day, got ready and
afer a hard work of 10-15 mins I was able to get Abhinav out of the bed. We had
to skip our breakfast there to be able to set out on road before 0800 hrs. The
moment we exited the Leh city, the view of far strecthing smooth black tarmac
renergised us and filled our hearts with joy! The road was nothing like we had
seen ever before! The vast expanse of Laddkahi barren, deserted land on both
sides created a special graphic marvel. The only differentialting colours were
the black and white of the road in front of us. It seemed like we were in video
game riding through one of the exotic tracks! We soon crossed the famous
magnetic hill but to our dissapointment,
did'nt experience anything special. That was a let down! The road took us to
Nimmu, a small town where we could see
the usual greens as in the real world. We had our breakfast at Nimmu and
continued our ride.We ascended towards one of the two passes in our route for
the day, the Fotu La. Fotu La stands at a height of of 13,478ft (4,108m) above
the sea level. This mountain pass is referred to as the highest point on the
highway. The drive through the pass is a beautiful journey where you can stop
to get an amazing view of the mountain
ranges. As we halted for a bit to embrace the breathtaking view, a group of
tourists started to flock around our bikes and getting clicked with them. It
was a proud moment for us and our bikes and we took it as their appreciation
for what we were doing. The road from Fotu La descends to the town of Lamayuru.
We crossed Lamayuru, Heniskot and reached the second pass, the Namika La which
stands at 3285m (12198 ft). We were greeted by the amazing Lunar landscapes
before Namika La and the stunning scenic backdrop at the top. Descending from
Namika La we reached Mulbekh, where I got my tyre pressure checked again as it
was still loosing air slowly. I found my valve faulty. I got it changed
and we looked for a place to have our
lunch. Interestingly we found a sikh person running a dhabha in Mulbekh. There is no part of the
country where you wont find these people, hats off to them! We were happy to
hear him read out 'Rajma Chawal' in his menu. 'Finally we will have a good
north Indian meal' we thought. However, the meal he prepared was nowhere near
'good'. We were hardly able to get it down our throats. While we were trying to
gulp that thing down, the person kept staring at us waiting for a
reaction. We looked at each other and
then gave him a nice little smile to which he smiled back and went on with his
work. We bought a bottle of cold drink
and managed to gulp down the meal along with
it. We paid the owner and thanked him for the strange thing he made us
eat. After that, we visited a near by
Budhdha monatry and then continued ahead for our destination, the second
coldest inhabitated place on earth, Drass.
 
People Lining Up to Get Clicked With Our Bikes!
   
The Lunar Landscape Before Namika LA
The Scenic Backdrop at Namika La
4. By around 1600
hrs, we reached Kargil which marked the end of the Buddhists region of the
Laddakh district and start of the Muslim region of Kargil district. We wanted
to visit the the Kargil War Memorial before dark to pay our respects to the
martyrs of the 99 Kargil war. We crossed Kargil and reached the memorial by
1700 hrs. After spending about 30-40 mins at the Memorial, we headed for our destination, the Drass transit camp.
We crossed the Drass town and reached the transit camp which is an Army
instalation catering for accomodations
for the transient troops. We requested for a stay for the night to the Officer Commanding, Transit camp and
after the routine check ups and inquiries, we got a nice guest room. Since it
was an Army camp, it was a much better stay for us than the other days. We got
hot water for bathing and were served nice hot dinner by around 2000 hrs. The
day had been a wonderful riding experience and we rode in one of the best roads
in the country. Specially the strecth from Leh till Kargil was an amazing and
unexpected experience. Not only the quality of the road was exceptional but the
landscapes it offered were simply out of this world! We were now in a much familier part of the
country, the roads looked much more routine and the breathtaking landscapes
were behind us, barring the Zozi la pass which we were to cross early the next
day. From then on it was going to be a routine ride through usual traffic and
surrounded by a busy, much more chaotic world. Cherishing the day's memories we
slept off early. We had planned to leave the camp by 0700 hrs the next day and
reach Srinagar which was 148 Kms away.
TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT BLOG PREVIOUS BLOG.
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