Advertisement
Published: September 4th 2021
Day-6: 28-08-2021 - Nubra-Hunder to Leh:
The last day of the Ladakh tour included a return journey from Hunder to Leh. Crowded it was, as we had seen while passing through two days back, but the people were simply going mad. There was a real traffic jam at 18000+ ft! Vehicles were parked at will wherever there was some space (see video). We stopped a few feet after crossing the peak and did enjoy the snowfall for a while. It was our first experience of snow.
Entertaining it was, but it raises serious issues about sustainability of the environment if such behaviour is allowed to continue. If we can restrict the time a vehicle remains inside the airport pick-up/drop-off zone, why not at such crucial and delicate points? On either side of Khardung La there are army check posts (South/North Pullu). Either the numbers of vehicles entering and exiting these two points should be controlled or time allowed to cross from North to South (and vice versa) ends should be fixed so that people do not create chaos at the top.
We crossed the world’s highest pass on Saturday, 28th August. We didn’t know at that time that
Khardung La was going to lose that glory of being the highest pass in just three days. On Tuesday, 31st August, Kela Pass was inaugurated connecting Leh with Pangong Lake, which is 350 ft higher (18600) than Khardung La. Now Kela, the no.1 and Chang La the no. 3 are on Leh-Pangong road and Khardung La, the no. 2 is on Leh-Nubra valley road.
At Leh, we had our share of mishap, our hotel booking (pre-paid through Make My Trip) was denied by the Glacier View hotel and we had to accept an alternate arrangement. Incidentally, on 28th, our last day in Leh, there was a call for ‘bandh’ for political reasons. Fortunately, we had done our local sightseeing on Day-2, so we didn’t miss anything. This was our second experience of ‘bandh’ (strike) at a tourist spot - the earlier being at Mt Abu three years back.
Day-7: 29-08-2021 - Return flight via Delhi.
13. Chaos at Khardung La:
Sonal Mehta
non-member comment
Very good info
Thoroughly enjoyed the write up and photos.