Day 11 - 24th Aug, 2015 - Leh - Delhi - Pune

This was our last day of the trip, day started at 5.30 AM and we were ready to leave the hotel at 6 AM. So we are not going to have Maggi or noodles today :P




One day before we had booked a cab for Airport drop, as we had the flight from Leh to Delhi and Delhi to Pune. Mannu and Shashank were with us till Delhi and Praveen had different flights because he joined this trip little bit late so could not get the same flight. He was first travelling to Jammu then Delhi then Pune.

Now the cab was there and I was just checking the room so that we don't forget anything. Meanwhile Mannu negotiated with the cab driver to drop us to Airport in exchange of 5 litres of Petrol, which was left from your reserved one.

We left hotel at 6 AM and I can remember clearly that I clicked one pic of a flower from the garden.

I was all the way thinking about this place, I am sure everyone else would have done the same thing, I did not want to come back as I really loved being there.

We reached the airport, entered and stood in a queue for security check after getting the boarding pass. I had never seen such a security check in my life, it took lots of time to complete everything.

Finally Praveen flew off after saying good bye to Ladakh and then it was our turn to say Good Bye Ladakh with mix emotions.

At the very last moment also there was still so much adventure because of the plane was flying over the mighty Himalayas which was so worth to watch.

Finally let me tell you the BIG CUP reason, in Ladakh area generally it remains cold and we do not drink water properly so this amount of tea helps to keep body warm and also put some water in the body.

We reached Delhi said Good bye to Shashank, who went to New Delhi Rly station to catch a train for Bihar.

I came with Mannu to his house in Gurgaon, Kaushik went to his relative house in Gurgaon. Again Me n Kaushik met on the airport to go to Pune.

We all safely reached to our home after 10 days of extreme adventure, That is really a proud feeling for all of us.

When I sit and think that what I have got out of this trip, then I can think of the following:

• Memories captured in 2000+ pics 
• 50+ videos to remember our days always
• Unlimited breath taking scenes which we captured in our eyes.
• Strength & Patience to survive in difficult situations
• Thrilling experience of driving Royal Enfield
• Five fictional characters, which helped us to keep smiling in those 10 days
• Mannu as Maharaj
• Shashank as Senapati
• Amit as Mahamantri
• Kasuhik, Praveen as Praja

And so many other things, which can't be written in a single blog or conveyed, it is just to be experienced by yourselves.

With this note, our trip ended and we proudly say that we are a LADAKH RETURN.

Day 10 - 23rd Aug, 2015 - Leh - Sangam - Pathar Sahib - Leh

Distance covered: 120 KM
Places visited: Hall of Fame, Kaali Mata Temple, Magnetic Hill, Sangam Valley, Pathar  Sahib Gurudwara, Leh Palace

With all the memories keeping in our mind, we all woke up around 8 AM. It was a beautiful day with full of sunshine.

We had to visit mainly three places, all were in the same route, so we had plenty of time. First of all we went to "Neha Snacks" for our breakfast, we had Chole Bhature in the breakfast, it was quite heavy :P. The owner of Neha Snacks advised us to first visit to Leh Market -> Hall of Fame -> Kaali Mata Temple ->  Sangam Valley -> Magnetic Hill -> Pathar Sahib -> Leh Palace -> Leh Market.

I found one board in the Neha snacks shop and it was full of letter and words of appreciation. People had put their words on the tissue paper and pinned it on the board.

We started keeping the same itinerary and directly went to Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame is build and maintained by Indian Army in memory of brave soldiers who died in the Kargil War, 1999. It was just  situated near the Airport area, we bought the ticket and went inside. There were so many prototypes of Various points, Glaciers and Indian soldiers. There were few Army people who were explaining all the histories, it was a great feeling to read and listen about Indian Armed Forces. There was a small movie as well which we saw inside on the Kargil war. There was a small shop with few of the items being sold out at very less price by Indian Army. I bought one sheet made of world famous Pashmina wool, which is only found in J&K state. Kaushik and Praveen bought Apricot from there as well.

From Hall of Fame we went to Kaali Maata Temple situated just after 1 KM on NH 1A. It was situated on top of the hill but there was a road so we reached directly to the gate of the temple. From the top we could see the complete Airport which was under Indian Air Force. This temple is quite famous in Leh, as it was one of the oldest temple and only temple which I observed in last 10 days. The people in Leh area are mostly Buddhist so everywhere it was Stupas only. Here one thing I observed inside the temple i.e. all the faces of the statues were covered with cloths. I tried to find out the reason and then got to know that the faces are very scary so the temple Administration has covered it and it gets opened once in a year.

After visiting the temple, we had some snacks and water as it was very hot that day. We left the temple area and went ahead to Sangam Valley via NH 1 A. This was the best road we saw in our trip, it was black, smooth and surrounded by mountains. We reached Sangam valley, where Indus and Zanskar river meet. Kaushik was quite interested in Rafting but others were not because the water was freezing :P:P . We sat there for sometime and enjoyed the peace and sounds of water flowing.

We started to come back to the Magnetic hill, so we were travelling towards Leh. We stopped at Magnetic hill, everyone says that there are some effects of gravity here, but I could not find any. So I was least interested in staying there :-). But I must say the mountain there was very black and huge.

After few minutes, we headed  towards Pathar Sahib and went inside the Gurudwara. This was very famous place and maintained by completely Sikh Regiment of Indian Army. We missed out the bhajan-kirtan by just few minutes but as the day was Sunday, so there was Langer in Gurudwara. We had the food there which was very nice and again sat inside the Gurudwara for some time.

After a very good food and blessings of God, it was the time to go back via NH 1A, best highway of the trip. We accelerated a bit to reach out to Leh Palace, in between the petrol was finished in 4243. I was carrying the reserved petrol on 4241, Kaushik and Praveen were waving their hands which I saw in the mirror and went back. Filled all the three tanks with some fuel and started again to reach out to Palace.

The palace was situated on top of the hill in the centre of the city, the view from the top of the Palace was great as we could see the complete city just like Shanti Stupa.

The palace was created in 17th century and mainly made from woods, it was ruined by some king in 19th century so it did not look great but Indian government were doing some beautification so I believe after few years it would be one of the attraction among the tourists.

Still there were few sections for tourists but it was not that good, so we left quickly after visiting all the floors.

We came back to hotel, me and Mannu was not interested in shopping so stayed back at hotel while Shashank, Kausik and Praveen went out to the Market and bought few things, mostly Apricot.

Today we had to return our bikes at 8.30 PM as agreed on the first day. We returned the bikes and had dinner in Changs Pa area in a punjabi restaurant. This was our last dinner in Ladakh, we were even discussing about our experiences during the dinner.

We came back around 10 PM and packed everything because we were having flight in the very next morning.

This is how the tenth day ended, mostly with the experience of good food :-).

Next Day

Day 9 - 22nd Aug, 2015 - Pangong Lake - Leh

It was early morning in Pangong area, weather full of clouds and raining little bit. We came out of the hotel and saw that the soil is wet, it was raining all night. Now the scary part was "Weather is bad" and chances of landslides were more.

We wrapped up quickly and loaded everything on the bike and moved towards the start of the Pangong Lake as we were staying at the mid of the Pangong Lake in some village.

According to our plan, we had to leave Pangong for Leh around 12 PM but since the weather was very bad so we had to change it to 9 AM. That means we had only one hour to move around and capture memories :-). But that was enough....

Now it was the time to fill our belly with some food, so I came back to Rancho cafe and ordered Paratha and Fried rice meanwhile others were busy in clicking.

I aslo asked few locals about the weather and they said there is some snow in Changla, I was little bit scared because I did want to get stuck in snow and driving is quite difficult in snow. Initial few minutes in snow is the happiest moment and struggle starts afterwards, with this feeling we had our breakfast and moved ahead.

With just one stop in between we reached out just below Changla Pass in just 2 hrs, the place where we stopped was very beautiful, it was a straight road, ups and downs between the two big mountains.

In the pics you would have noticed the clouds on the top of the mountains, We had to cross those mountains :D. With the feeling of adventure we moved ahead on our way, and it started raining very slowly after just few minutes, but we continued. Rain got converted into frozen pearls :D, it was coming down to the roads like pearls then the feeling was so awesome because it was our first experience with these rains.

But somewhere down the corners of the heart, the feeling of getting stuck in between was also there, we kept moving. We had to move towards the strip inclined, poor Royal Enfield was also struggling :P with that inclined part. Suddenly snowfall started slowly, I asked one driver "is it safe to move ahead?"he replied yes, go the changla top and then stop, here you will get stuck.

I was driving alone in the front and rest two bikes were following me, snow started coming down heavily, we were riding like anything in those dirty inclined and stones. With that force of freezing breeze and heavy snow, the visibility was very less road were clear so we were moving very fast. After 20 mins of driving in that snow I saw the post of Changla, it was one of the happiest moment of my life :-).

I reached there first and parked my bike and when I looked myself and bike, it was scary feeling as I was completely white covered with snow and my bike too. I took shelter in one of the ARMY garage which was just beside the road, then Shashank came inside the garage with his bike along with Praveen, meanwhile I also brought my bike inside. Mannu came little bit late as he had to go behind the seat and Kaushik took the command on bike because of freezing temperature. Finally we were inside, shivering with cold but safe.

We removed all the snow from jackets, bags etc and started enjoying the snowfall. It was heavily coming down and covered all Changla in just few minutes. We made few videos during the snowfall with our jokes :P.

Snow was continued for 1 hours very heavily, so roads were completely covered with that but after some time it started coming down slowly. That moment brought smile on all our faces, slowly sunshine was there and we all came out and started throwing snow ball on each other :P. We were the happiest guys of the world not because we saw so much of snow because we survived in that situation and happiness of watching sun coming out :-).

Within minutes after sunshine, roads were completely clear. The feeling was like watching a magic show, suddenly all snow was gone.

We forgot our pain and playing with the snow and then moved ahead towards Leh. Again the bad road took our time but somehow crossed and reached Karu check post by 3 PM.

While going to Leh from Karu, there was a landslide on the road and ARMY JCB was removing all the stones from there, we stopped there for few minutes and then accelerated our bikes to reach directly to the hotel. The same hotel was there in which we stayed initially "Sangto Green".

This time our room was different, it was a big hall with 5 cozy beds :).

We were so tired because of all adventure we had that we were being lazy to go out for dinner, but we went and went to one of the very famous restaurants i.e. Lamayuru Restaurant. The food was so awesome and we ate till neck.

We came back to hotel and it was around 9 PM. We saw all the videos of snow storm and made some jokes, laughed and then slept.

This was the most adventurous day of our trip and finally ninth day ended with the proud feeling of visiting world's highest salt water lake.

Next Day

Day 8 - 21st Aug, 2015 - Leh - Pangong Lake

Distance Covered: 120 KM
Places visited: Changla Pass (17688 ft), Pangong Lake(Highest salt water lake of the world)

After a good sleep and healthy breakfast the day started, time was to say good bye to small cute tents :D :P.

We loaded again everything on the bike, This time we had to go Pangong Lake, took right after crossing the famous Pang bridge on the river Indus. It was around 9 AM Friday morning. We left just after taking this photograph for our memories.

We went directly to petrol station to fill our tanks, then moved ahead to the checkpost for bike entry process. It took another 30 mins to finish these paper works and move ahead in the valleys, time would be around 10.30 AM.

We consulted few local people and asked, that is it possible to go and come back in one day from Pangong Lake? Mostly answered yes, because the roads will far better than Nubra Valley. The initial 40 KMS from Leh till Karu was a charm, we were running on 100+ but when we crossed the check post, it was Rajputana Rifles Regiment there and thereafter we had to cross Changla Pass(17688 ft).

So the valley started again, the roads were again dangerous. We were quick this time as we had to return back according to our initial plan. so we directly stopped 2 KMs before the Changla Pass(~40 KMs from Karu), that time we did not know that the Pass is just 2 KMs ahead :-).

When we were getting closer to the Changla Pass, the temperature was also decreasing with the same speed, so the jackets were on.

Finally the mighty Changla was there, with few tourists, ARMY camp and DRDO centre. There was one restaurant as well, located at a very nice location. We parked our bikes and clicked one pic with the board for the memory. The scenic view of Changla was breath taking, loved the surroundings.

We were short of time, as we were late according to the plan, we moved ahead, this time it was a sharp inclined to go down from Changla. To reach out to Changla we almost drove ~20 KMs in the inclined section but to go down it was only ~5KMs. Thats why it was tough, we reached the bottom after driving for 40 mins because roads were so dangerous and bad. Stopped for a tea break, remembering those few people with some good words who said roads are good :P. Just we started and after 10 KMs the brakes of 4241 was stuck with something. Somehow we fixed it and kept moving.

There a big board nearby ARMY camp, which had "Train Hard Fight Easy", so we had to stop for a click :P.

Another 40 KMs were left, we were through one of the toughest road of the world.

There were few people returning, we asked about the road they it's a charm now. We started again and  it was really a good maintained road, loved driving there.

The scenic view was ultimate, made few videos of our driving and clicked few pics as well.

I love dogs and fortunately I got one to spend few minutes with. I was playing with him, meanwhile Praveen clicked few pics for me, these pics are really good.

Now it was time to say good bye to this dog and river which was flowing there and moved ahead to the Pangong Lake. Since our plan to stay at Pangong only so there was no hurry and decision was quite right because we could not drive again passing through Changla Pass, it was so tough that we were tired in just 9 hrs driving.

The roads were good that we covered remaining distance very quickly, and here it was the first view of  very famous Pangong Lake (Highest Salt Water Lake of the World).

Blue water shining in the sunlight, here it was the World Famous Pangong lake share by India and China both. There was so many small restaurants name after "3 Idiots" movie like Rancho cafe, Idiots Cafe etc :D. Yes that was the place where all three met in the end of the movie, verbally this place was named as 3 Idiots point :P.

We were excited but wanted a bed as well to rest, since this time there was no previous booking so we had to find out the rooms which we did and finalised one home stay. We did not go anywhere else that evening, just sat in the room and played cards :P while other tourists were busy in roaming.

Kaushik was having some problem in breathing, so I gave camphor to inhale. He also had Dimox and went to bed afterwards, rest four of us was completely okay. We had our dinner which okay okay and slept like anything ;-).

The eight day ended with full day of adventure.

Next Day

Day 7 - 20th Aug, 2015 - Nubra Valley - Leh

Distance covered: 140 KM
Places visited: Khardung - La Pass, Chuchot Village 

After a cozy sleep, we started our day. Today there was no place to visit in between so there was plenty of time for photo shoot.

Photo clicking started from the beginning of the day itself :-). We came out of the tent and it was a beautiful scenic view, just loved it and captured in the cam.

Since we had plenty of time in the morning so we went for a walk down the river, meanwhile Mannu clicked some photographs for us :D

Now it was to time to have to some good Aaloo Paratha :P , after having breakfast we loaded everything on our bike and said good bye to Nubra Eco Lodge, a recommended place to stay from our side. The Safari tent was just awesome and cozy, would like to stay there again if possible.

Again the same path, but this time we knew the situation so it was not hard for us to move ahead safely. But this time we took so many stops to just have tea, food and pics.

We were riding our bikes one by one with proper resting as the journey was long. There was a military canteen on our way where we had Momos and Maggi on a very basic rate :-) and the chutney was so hot, which indeed made the maggi super delicious.

After 60 KM, we stopped for a while, and then I switched on my camera to utilize the time :P

Suddenly the clouds started covering the sun, so we decided to pass Khardung-la asap. we moved ahead with those scenic view keeping in our eyes and capturing in the video, which was the department of Shashank.

We reached Khardunla-La around 3.30 PM but this time there were very less people, may be because of bad weather condition. We were going to Chuchot village which was on the way to Pangong and according to our plan we had to reach there before sunset. We were little bit late so we accelerated our bike a bit, when the road was good but still very sharp corners without boundary.

Finally we reached Leh and had a BIG CUP tea again then moved to our next destination, this time it was a tent placed in the ground. We were excited to get the experience, we reached the destination but it was quite inside from the main road. But I must say that this time also the view was excellent. Kaushik was the happiest person as he liked the tents more than anyone else.

Our tent was booked in Bikamp Adventure, Leh

Since we reached there just after the sunset so it was quite dark and we get know that there was no electricity in Leh for las two days. Thanks god we were in Nubra that time, but then after sometime electricity came and we were feeling good.

As usual we were again hungry, but this time there was some delay in food so we took advantage of it and enjoyed bonfire. The weather was very cold and definitely it was required. Meanwhile food was ready and we started eating like hungry lions. First time I had Kashmiri Aaloo dum in my life and I really liked it. Even other items from the dinner was also great. In 5 people we ate 30 chapati, big bowl full of rice, big bowl of Aaloo dum and one bowl of Manchurian :P :P.

We again went to get some energy from fire and finally went to bed. The tents were very small with two separate beds in each tent and a small attached bathroom to it. It was a good experience to live in a tent in an open field with very hot blanket :D.

Seventh day also passed with lots of adventure.

Next Day