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Bear with me folks, this is going to be a long one, but I've added headings and put lots of photos (two pages in fact, so just click on page 2 to see the rest that are not shown here!)
The Adventure Highway to Leh
The road from Manali to Leh goes over some of the highest mountain passes in the world and is known to locals as the "adventure highway", and for good reason!
We debated for many days whether to take the shared jeep, shared minivan, or local big bus. The former two options covered the 475km in one long 20 hour day
if everything goes according to plan. Due to the possibility of altitude sickness because of the quick ascent, and the fact that the driver would be awake for over 20 hours straight, we decided to opt for the public bus. This takes two days, stopping in the village of Keylong for as many days as you like, a great way to acclimatize.
Glad to have finally made our decision, we trotted off to the bus station to buy a ticket for the 4:30am bus. We were told that there were no buses for
the next two days due to roadworks - what?! After asking around town, we found that the roadworks were only 20km from the start of the journey, so if you set off early enough, you could make it before they started. We went back to the bus station and talked to someone different this time and, hey presto, we soon had tickets in our hand for the early morning bus, the last one before the road was closed.
The next morning we walked to the bus station and looked around in the dark for our bus. To cut a long story short, we were given the run around from bus to bus until 4:40am when we became convinced that our bus had purposefully left without us! To say I was annoyed is an understatement - partly because this had been our last opportunity before the road closed, and partly because we had gotten out of bed at 3:30am for absolutely no reason! As it turned out, a bus we had been turned away from three times turned out to be our bus after all, so we quickly got on, thankful for once that the bus was late. After a
Ooops!
This truckie was lucky that the tree caught him from an otherwise inevitable deathwhile, everyone was getting impatient as there was still no sign of the driver and conductor. Rumours started to circulate that there was a problem and the bus wasn't going to go today. Then, at 5:15am (45 minutes late) the driver jumped in without explanation, started the engine, and off we went.
Climbing out of the valley, the views were truly stunning with snow-capped mountains and green fields against a clear blue sky. Even the hard bench seats didn't faze us. We were on our way and that's all that mattered!
On our way, that is, until 20km into the journey (one hour!) when we arrived at the roadworks. A police van pulled up to our bus and told the driver that the road was already closed and we couldn't proceed. All of this was translated for us by three young Indians who were also travelling as tourists. After a few minutes of talking and probably a bribe or two, our bus was suddenly allowed to go - hooray, nothing could stop us now!
Thirty seconds later we came across a line of trucks sat with their engines off on the zig-zag road up to the pass.
Instead of waiting his turn, our driver decided to go past the waiting trucks, driving on the wrong side of the narrow road i.e. dangerously close to the steep drop-off. At one point the road was so narrow and damaged that our top-heavy bus pitched and rolled on the uneven road just inches from the edge. "Stop, stop!" we had our new Indian friends call out to the driver, and the five of us all got off - only the second time in my life that I have gotten off a bus due to fear (the first being a few days ago). Out of the sixty people on the bus, it was amazing to me that no-one else got off. We walked behind the bus as it pitched and rolled and teetered on the brink of falling hundreds of feet into the valley, and then hopped back on about 500m later when we'd passed the construction zone. I'm sure the other passengers thought we were being overly cautious, but we thought they were being overly naive (after all, there was a tanker in plain view that would have fallen into the valley if not for the tree that caught it,
saving the drivers life).
The rest of the journey to Keylong was a mixture of awe and amazement at the mountain scenery, and fear and tension every time we had to go on the edge to negotiate around an oncoming vehicle. By the time we arrived at Keylong town six and a half hours later, I had a handful of lovely photos but my knuckles were white (and probably my hair, too!)
Keylong town itself was nothing special, but the setting was gorgeous, surrounded by snow-capped mountains. We spent two days there to acclimatize at 3,350 metres (11,000 ft). We seriously considered trying to get a jeep for the rest of the journey, but in the end we decided to stick with the public bus. When we'd asked at the bus station if the bus would have bench seats or individual seats, we were surprised by the answer: hi-tech seats! (They weren't!)
Another early morning wake-up got us onto the 5am bus. At first, the road was quite hair-raising, but after a couple of terrifying hours, it settled down into a safe valley road. I was glad as our driver was scaring us by having an animated
conversation with the conductor. In India, it seems that no-one can hold a conversation without wild hand motions, an unfortunate trait for a mountain bus driver!
At lunch time we pulled into Pang, an area with small round tents,
dhabas offering basic food. By this time, I was feeling the effects of alititude sickness - lethargy, nausea, and headaches. It only got worse when we crossed the world's second highest mountain pass, the pleasant sounding Taglang La at 5,328 metres (17,582 ft) and subsequently got trapped at altitude when the truck in front of us got stuck in the snow, blocking the road. I ended up being sick out of the window - not pleasant!
Once we got down into the valley it was supposed to be plain sailing on the final stretch to Leh, but our bus kept making strange whirring noises as soon as we picked up speed. The only way to stop them was to come to a momentary standstill. So, every 5 minutes or so, we slowed down and completely stopped, making the journey considerably longer. By the time we pulled into the bus station at Leh at 10pm, our backsides were killing us
- 17 hours on a bus seat is way too long, even if they are "hi-tech!" We decided to make life easy on ourselves and just followed a tout to a guesthouse. Who needs Lonely Planet anyway when you have touts?! We worked out that our average speed for the combined two days of travel (a total of 23.5 hours) was a measley 20 km/hour!
Yak Yak Yak Ledakh...
...or so the T-shirts say. We actually didn't see yaks until our trip back to Manali!
Leh is a town in Ledakh. While it is in India, nestled in the Himalayas between Pakistan and Tibet (now China, grrr!), you can instantly see the Tibetan influence, from the many Tibetan Handicraft markets to the dozens of
gompas or Tibetan Monastaries. On our first day, we took a "chill day" to recover from the journey. This meant lots of sitting around on roof tops drinking chai, eating momos, and reading, plus a healthy dose of internet - just what the doctor ordered! By the next day we were ready to explore.
We started locally by walking up to the ruined Leh Palace and then further up to Namgyal
Tsemo Gompa and an old fort, both of which had lovely views over Leh town. The town itself was interesting to explore for a day, with lots of older Tibetans walking around rubbing prayer beads and swinging mini prayer wheels around, mumbling mantras.
On subsequent days we took local buses along the Indus valley to some of the famous monasteries and sights. We started with Thiksey monastery, which was my favourite, and then walked along the dusty 3km road to Shey Palace and fort. We got lovely views of the parched desert valley and snowy mountains all day. The next day we went to Hemis monastery. As the 7am bus to Hemis we were told about didn't actually exist, we ended up taking an 8am bus to a nearby town and walking 4km uphill - at least it forced us into some exercise! We felt quite good until we met another foreigner who marched into the monastery wearing a huge backpack, exclaiming that he was glad to arrive after 24 days of hiking - shattered our hiking bubble quite a bit!
The Bigger the Better...or not
As soon as we had arrived in Leh, we had started
This truck was stuck in the snow for an hour...
...meaning we were stuck at 4,000 metres for an hour - and I wonder why I had altitude sickness? to dread the return trip. We even thought about flying out until we heard about Indian Airlines' terrible safety record, and the fact that the plane had to weave in and out of mountains. We also read in the paper about an Indian pilot that fell asleep at the wheel (co-pilot, too) on the way to Mumbai, and ended up half-way to Goa before being woken up! That and the high cost made us decide to overland it after all. We again considered a jeep, but the 2am start is a bit too daunting. In the end we decided to take the public bus again. It got us here in one piece, and in India, the rule is generally "the bigger the better" when it comes to transport. If you are a pedestrian or a cyclist, forget it. The buses and trucks have the right of way and you are just an annoyance getting in the way. Not wanting to be shoved off the cliff by a big bully, we decided the bus was definitely the best option.
We went along to the "Bus Ticketing Office" located in central Leh town. They could give us bus times but couldn't
sell us a ticket - soooo India! Instead, we had to go to the bus station out of town and find the bus we were going to take the next day. The driver spent the 24 hours before departure sleeping and living in the bus and selling the tickets - very strange! As soon as I saw the driver I had doubts. He had red hair for a start (no offence to red heads, but this is India, and no-one dyes their hair, was this guy a rebel?!) Still, we were ready to leave the dry mountain air of Leh (our skin was flaking off all over - what about our tans?!!) so we got our tickets.
The next morning at 4:30am we arrived at the bus station to a chorus of barking and fighting stray dogs. Scott climbed onto the roof to place our bags and then we took a last bathroom stop. The public bathrooms at the bus station were incredibly filthy. I have seen some bad sights in my travels, but this was surely the worst. It made me feel instantly sick. Even the Indians agreed as everyone declined to even go in the door, instead
just squatting down outside on the gravel. It was utterly disgusting. This country is just one huge public bathroom it seems.
We took our seats on the bus. When we set off I instantly noticed that the bus tilted to the right. I spent the first several hours worrying about toppling off the cliff whenever we hit a pot-hole, exacerbating the tilt. By lunchtime, I finally felt OK that the bus wasn't too badly tilted over that the slightest thing would send it over the edge. After lunch, the driver's attitude seemed to suddenly change. Maybe he ate something with too much sugar, I'm not sure. Whatever it was, he turned from Mr.-Not-Bad-Driver to Mr.-Wreckless-at-Every-Turn. It was horrible. He was on a mission. The strange thing was that he drove the complete opposite to how you or I would drive. On the flat, safe valley roads, he drove like an old woman, but on the steep downhill hairpins, he drove like a madman, speeding up whenever a vehicle approached us. Mind you, things often seem back-to-front in India. For example, cars honk their horns incessantly for absolutely no reason on the streets of towns, but when they are on
blind bends on mountain roads and you actually
want them to honk, they don't! Here another example: everyone eats messy curry and rice with their fingers, no utensils, getting it all over themselves. However, when someone came around on the bus selling dry, clean peanuts, everyone used a little newspaper scooper to pick them up, avoiding touching them with their fingers! I didn't understand that one at all!
Anyway, back to the driving. It was insane, and we spent the entire second half of the day gripping the seat and counting the kilometers until we arrived. We would dread every hairpin bend (and there were lots) as he always took it too fast and couldn't make it, meaning he had to reverse back almost every time. We thought about getting off, but how could we? We were in the middle of the Himalayas at altitude, and every vehicle that went past was crammed to the hilt with passengers, with the exception of the trucks, and there was no way we were going to get in a truck after seeing several in a crumpled mess at the bottom of the valleys. No, we had to stick with it. By the
time we arrived in Keylong we were nervous wrecks.
We were supposed to take the same bus at 6:30am the next day, but we threw our ticket away (only $4 anyway) and decided to try to get a jeep instead. We asked around a bunch of jeeps that we saw, interviewing the drivers (we didn't quite go so far as asking to see their resumes/CVs!) We soon came across one that was heading our way but the driver was only 24 and had a bunch of friends with him who were busy organizing the music selection. Surely a boy racer? The next jeep was pretty much the same. The bus was looking more and more tempting! Then, we found a man in his 30s who was travelling with his sister and baby - perfect! He agreed to take us for only twice the price of the bus, and we readily agreed. What a difference! He drove super slowly and negotiated the hairpins with ease. An anticipated day of tension turned into a day of great views and low-stress. We were really happy with our choice! We arrived back in Manali safe and sound, but we will
never take the
"adventure highway" again!
Finally, I want to share some of the slogans that are posted along the roads. Someone in the Department of Transport obviously has too much time on their hands!
Safety on the road is
"safe tea" back home
Heaven, hell,
or mother earth
The choice is yours
What's it worth?
Keep alert, keep your eyes on the road,
otherwise you might end up in a heavenly abode
and my favourite:
Planting a tree is a noble deed,
It's like having ten sons indeed!
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bharat ahuja
non-member comment
hey nice pics
pal these pics are beautiful and crazy specially the curverceous it is hilarious and making friends in thiksey.i have been to leh couple of times on bike , illl post you my pics soon