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Published: August 7th 2015
How did I get Leh’d One morning at 10 AM, on my office table my phone rang, I was so excited to see my friend call, it was my bestie who called me, and he asked me to join him and bunch of other coolest friends to conquer the highest motorable roads. Yes, the trip was to ride over the foot hills of The Great Himalayas – The Manali-Leh Highway, where the only way is the Nature’s Way. The only place where you can get hit by a frost bite or the heat stroke at the same time. The Great Himalayas has it all. The wildest roads, Hairpin turns, Gushing rivers’ which flow through the roads, Streams, Snow, whether reads different every 10 minutes, hot sun to rain storm, cold deserts to dark mountains, the beautiful wild life, the mighty Yaks, the cute Marmots. The Lama – Finding Peace with Om Mane Padme Hum, the Military houses, personnel and their large trucks. This would be one of the finest and dream trip to come, I had no choice but to accept the offer. The best gang ever was meeting together for the dream trip.
Knowing the way
The Great Himalayas behave, you need to come prepared to sustain yourself. The checklist was ready, thermals, gloves, balaclava, protective gear, helmet, moisturizers, sunscreen, medicines and first aid for mountain sickness, pain killers, oxygen, jackets, rain coats and gum boots. The shopping was on and excited about the trip we were counting on every passing day.
11
th July, 2015 the day we started from Bangalore by air to Chandigarh. All set to go, families informed, no mobile connections, no facebook, no communications with whomsoever, this is the best part of visiting, The Great Himalayas. We reached Chandigarh in the late afternoon and went straight to some Punjabi Dhaba to hone our taste buds. All were impressed by the way city roads and its beauty maintained by the citizens. Late evening our cab was ready to take us all the way to the foot hills of Himalayas, in Manali. We reached Manali early hours 2.00 AM on 12
th of July.
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We had planned a rest day in Manali. This was to get used to the Himalayan behavior and also to check our Machines, The Royal Enfield. A mix of Classic, Thunderbird
and Standard Bullet are available on rent, with help of our friend cum tour operator, we were able to find bikes based on our choice. The rest day was used to test run our bikes, Kick Start your machine and it starts roaring – Duh duh duh duh. The best companion you can ask to discover the beauty of Himalayas. A short ride to Solang Valley was planned to test the machines.
The Test Ride to Solang Valey: Bullets were ready to be fired, we had our armor put, and the only thing we awaited was our captain to flag off the ride. This was the test ride to check if our machines miss fire. We choose Solang Valey for its proximity to Manali. A 13KM stretch with hill climb, mud roads, landslides hairpin turns, it had it all and would suit for our test ride. We started our ride post lunch on 13
th of July, the roaring bikes climbed higher, cameras kept flashing, the river is gushling along with you the roads are always bending to your left or right, there is no moment you can keep your eyes off the road, but the beauty
around you does not allow you to drive. We read a hoarding, Love my Curves don’t hug them. BRO (Border Roads Organisation) the team who built this roads, has come up with many such hoardings which make you alert on the curvy roads.
As we were cruising towards Solang, the Military man stopped us: -
Isse aage jaana mana hai - said the officer.
Hume Solang jaana hai, - exclaimed one of us.
The officer with a grim smile told us, we had crossed over Solang by 200 meters, the Royal Enfield, the foothills, the beauty of Himalayas, just carried us away. We went back and cherished our first ride into the Valley with a loud shout, “Hey Ladhak”, followed by an Echo, it felt like the valley was responding. We loved it. Just when we got off our bikes, everyone was amazed, how beautiful, oh woah, that’s amazing, each one of exclaimed emotions on “The Great Himalayas”.
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Your eyes are in for a treat, and it feels like you are high with an exotic wine. The mountains in different shades, black, grey, white, green. The lush
green tall trees, the hot sun, the cool breeze it’s all just amazing. We were seeing what the poets had said about the sky kissing the mountains, the endless flowing rivers. Just when you feel it would be dark, you can see the sun still shining bright on the mountains. The light on your side is getting dimmer, but the mountain is still shining brighter. It would take some time to get back to your senses. Ah, Alas we are here, this was some dream long waiting. It was tea time now, and then all return to Manali base. The short trip had already boosted our spirits we are now raring to go higher to meet the Himalayas.
That night all discussed about the short ride, about the bullets, thankfully all machines were found fit to go for the long ride. Then came in the Captain, there are some rules to be discussed, roles to be assigned, meeting was intense, who does what, our route plan, where we stop for tea, breakfast, lunch and dinner, dos and don’ts from the guys who had been here before, what to expect from the hills and how to deal with it all.
Overall the meeting made us more curious and raring to start our journey. The night was going to be long and all were waiting to start as planned at 4 AM in the morning.
14th July 2015, Morning 3 AM. The Journey Begins. The Great Himalayas, stretched arms to welcome us. The phones started ringing, alarms shouting, all are up before it is time, that was the spirit and love that had been built in among us. The route was planned, the machine were filled with fuel, all set to conquer the 2 highest motor able roads in the world.
Manali – Rohtang –Koksar – Killong – Jispa – Daarcha – Sarchu – Pang – Taanglangla – Upshi – Karu – Leh Refer Images: - Pic 3 detailing the Route Map 
The journey was starting on Tuesday, all were already pumped up to go. We were told about the road clearing activities BRO undertakes on Tuesdays and does not allow anybody cross Gulaba check post after 6 AM on Tuesdays, this was haunting us and hemp we started early as planned. The roaring bullets were ready and we were out by
4 AM.
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The 1
st thought was to get through the Gulaba post. The joy of the ride was already in us, every curve was offering beautiful scenery and a visual treat. The Great Himalayas, as we had heard was a heaven on earth. We crossed Gulaba well in time and it was time for some fear some ride. A friend of mine asked me if what we were looking at is actually Ice. When you first look at it, it’s just like mud, we stopped to take a closer look, touched it and realized what we were standing on is actually Ice and would melt anytime. That gave us some Goosebumps. We reached Rohtang, breathing was getting difficult. It was chilled, it was difficult to click pictures, shivering was on, and the beautiful places won’t let u go ahead, the weather is not really friendly. This was just the beginning, we were just at 13TF (Thousand Feet) high, and was not even counted among the highest roads. One of our bikes was punctured and we had to wait a long hour to fix up things and start moving.
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The small hill here took the breath out of us uff, uff and hofff we reached on the top to pose for the picture.
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The cold weather could not reduce our determination. The roads till here greeted us with ease of ride, now it was turn for some bumpy ride adding up to the curves. The next 20 KMs till Koksar would be a challenge and this area is prone to landslide. We were going down-hill from Rohtang to Koksar, here was our 1
st greeting from a landslide, we had to quickly stand in queue for the landslide to clear, the heavy earth movers and the BRO workers were on the task while we saw a stream passing through the road. This is how roads are exclaimed one of the local there, this was our 4
th hour into the trip and we had started to see the different versions of the road, The Manali-Leh Highway. Thanks to the fast clean up by the workers, we were not stranded for long. The 20 KM ride took us more than 2 hours and then we reached Koksar,
where we had our Brunch, delicious mutton curry with chapatti. It was Awesome. It was now time to move on, Koksar to Jispa it was around 80 kms, we reached Jispa by around 4 PM, we had planned our stay at Jispa, so we unloaded our bags, took off our jackets and it was time for some jumping and dancing. Everyone was overwhelmed with the ride of day one. As Jispa, we put up our tents and had a fun filled evening. Dancing to the tunes of Bollywood music, cooking and watching the river flowing next to our tents. It was an awesome feeling.
Refer Images: - Pic 7, 8, 9 and 10 for Jispa
This was an awesome evening, after all the fun, jumping and dancing, we were too very exhausted, it’s not like partying in Bangalore, you can hardly complete your dance on one song leave along long hard party nights, the nature makes you party in a more disciplined way. You cannot beat that.
Jispa to Rumptse: - 260 KMs We had planned to travel a longer distance today because you cannot put up your stay at
Bharatpur, Pang, Tanglangla these areas are one of the coldest on this route, we had to reach Rumptse the next better location for us before we reach Leh. However, the nature had other plans for us. We started at 6 from Jispa, 5 Kms later we had the 2
nd check post. We crossed this and started moving up on the Bharatpur hills. The milestones read 9 KMs to Darcha, suddenly we saw our mates who had moved ahead were waiting, when we reached there, it was our time to get terrified, OMG the stream had burst into the roads, the gushling sound of water the sight of melting Ice had already feared us down to our spines.
Refer Images: - Pic 11 and 12, the stream looks beautiful but also stressful 
Fingers turned chill, faces turned pale. One of us gathered courage and zoom past us to cross the stream. Vrooom, Mr. Ravi Verma, our captain it was, full wet when he reached the other side of the stream. Heyyyyy Cheered all of us, the courage was back one after other we started crossing all had a fall but we all made it to
the other side. Clapping cheering each other on crossing this stream. The fear was more because this was the first we met. Now we shout, Ye Dil Maange More, little did we know our wish was coming true shortly? Hardly 4 kms on our way we find a huge line of cars standing in line, Landslide or something stopping them up we thought, there was place for the bikes to move beside these cars. We reached the front of the line, to see there was another stream which was much wider, and had more bumpy stones in it making it difficult for all to cross it over.
Refer Images: - Pic 13, this stream was actually wider and longer and more bumpy 
With an experience now, we just zoom passed this stream, it was a great feeling again helping each other and cheering each other’s success. Sooner we were all on the other side of the stream, except on of us. The last stream had actually stressed up the machine, the thunderbird was not gearing up, the mechanic soon checked it up and made it ready, the sound was again up and we were ready to
go and then we saw a low floor car stuck into the stream, there was baby in this car, Mr. Saahil Hirani, was already into the water helping out people to cross the water, sooner many of our team members had jumped in. The car wasn’t moving, the water was severe cold, the breathing was difficult, pushing up down and both side ways we had manage to move the car to the top of the stream, but it was still too early to cheer, we had now seen the ice had started melting faster, the speed of the flow was continuously going up. It was fearful to see and hard to stand in the Ice, our entire team was into the water and trying our best to take the car our, put our hands into the water to pull out some stuck stones, it was hard to believe, but we believed to make a difference together, over 600 people including locals and military men, it was only our team which was struggling to take this car out, the child had forced us in and now we would not leave without completing the task. Exhausted to the core our last attempt
was hanging around to put out the car with help of some other car. We had the rope and we had help offered from a Thar, now that was the best we would get. However, the car had no place to tie up the rope, finally with a clamp tightened, we managed to signal green to the Thar and slowly started to pull. Wooooah, this time we cleared it. The car was out, cheers claps and shouts all around us. We felt on top of the mountains, we helped many other bikes and some cars to clear, before we thought it’s high time we need to get out of the cold waters. All our oxygen was exhausted, it was difficult to walk, to speak, to sit. This had also eaten up our time, we had to eat something now. Wet clothes on we had to cross, Bara-lacha pass, also known as one of the world’s deadliest pass.
Refer Images: - Pic 14, what BRO has to say about BaraLacha-La 
It’s long, cold and with no oxygen. We were already exhausted our energy in the stream, this was taking toll on some of us. Deep breathing was
on, no physical activity was accepted now, and Water was our only source of energy. It was hard to do other think any tasks. Bara-lacha, this is also the reason why this road opens only for 3 months in a year, this pass freezes completely. The weather here can be hot now and snowy within 5 minutes. The most difficult times of the trip had begun, we also had to make 230 kms in the day we had lost 6 hours of the day. We stopped at a local hotel for some food to get our energy back, it was difficult to eat as well. Half an hour break, some of us were completely down nobody wanted any physical activity. Mr. Shahid Noolvi, the chatter box was the most impacted there was silence around him. The journey had to continue, we still had to cover up a lot of distance. We reached Sarchu, at the check post we were warned about the bad weather ahead in Pang and we had cross along the Ghata Loops. It was already 4.30 PM, covering another 160 KMs would have been nearly impossible given the weather conditions. We had to stop at Sarchu, we
hired tents here.
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It was time for some photography and yoga. The cold was severe here not sure how the night would go, we choose to sleep early and get some energy by the next morning. Mr. Kiran Joshi, our doctor, was most affected here. But the brave always wins and rare to go more higher, so did he. To cover the lost time, we decided to pull up our socks and reach Leh on the next day, it was going to be a long drive and we were raring to go.
Sarchu to Leh: We started at 6 AM, as riding early morning without the sun out was going to be real tuff thing. Sarchu to Pang the roads are really tuff, dodgy and filled with mud, the rains make it more challenging creating filth on the already damaged roads. Sarchu to Pang a 80 kms stretch and we were again climbing to a 250 Mtrs high altitude. The breathing was again getting deeper. It takes 4 hours to complete this journey.
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The beautiful landscapes on each curve make
it more encouraging to drive and the river never leaves you alone, it is always carrying on with you, bringing the fear of flowing water, the noise is fearsome. On the adjoining roads you pass the Nakila pass, the pass are fun with the falling temperature and cheering winds,
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then next you find Ghata loops, the most beautiful 21 hairpin bends. BRO definitely needs a applause for having made life easier here because of it efforts. We reached Pang and stopped for a Brunch break. It was now time for a fast ride, the next 40 kms, Pang Rumstse, you have a perfect laid road, this stretch of ride is more enjoyable, surrounded by mountains, the noisy river, the perfect road, just add to fun. If day 2 was filled with adventure, the day 3 was a visual delight. A perfect combination for a dreamed trip. We passed upshi and then Karu to reach Leh by 330 in the evening. We had made most of the recovery for the lost time from the previous day. It was now time to rest in our lodge. The hill sickness was now gone, our
body had started coping up with the cold. It was all just fun from here on. The machines were restless, the guys were restless so we decided to stay back and enjoy the local city market of Leh.
The Halo Have you ever seen a Halo? Have you ever faced a Halo? What is a Halo? Now that we have seen it we can answer it. A typical first class student would answer this as, “A halo also known as a nimbus, icebow or gloriole is an optical phenomenon produced by light interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere, resulting in a wide variety of colored or white rings, arcs and spots in the sky”. However, simply to put it, it’s a rainbow or a colorful ring around the sun, that’s how easy it is to understand it.
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On the way to Tanglangla, while we pass the cold deserts, we stopped for a break, when we lay down on the roads we observed this phenomenal view. All amazed to view this as none had seen it before, we were happy to be treated with this; you do not
always get to see this. There is an old weather saying, “Halo around the sun, there is a storm in hiding”. Though the sky in the picture looks clear, the halo is formed due to Ice crystals and high cirrus clouds often appear before a storm. It was time to run.
The Ghost of Ghata Loops Ghata loops, a series of 21 hairpin bends between Sarchu and Pang, offer more than what you desire for. Beautiful roads, the mountain terrains, the ghats, the bends, you can also go off road and beat the bend with some short cuts in between the bends. While it’s fun, it’s too dangerous as well, as BRO mentions on one of its boards, “Short cuts, can cut short your life”.
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Carefully driving through, the ghata loops, you see a small temple with plenty of bottles thrown at it. The legends have a ghost story associated to this temple. A story about the cleaner who died of thirst and hence the bottles with some water as an offering is seen at this temple.
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The story goes
like this, “Long ago, a truck broke down on on of the curves of the Ghata loops, while the truck driver instructed his cleaner to stay with the truck while he would walk back to the village to get some Mechanic. The village nearest to the Ghata loops is around 20 KMs from the Ghata Loops, the driver kept walking alone and reached the village and was finding it difficult to get any mechanic. Then the weather turned worse, it started to snow, the clouds got intense, the winds started to blow. The driver was forced to take shelter in the village. The weather gods never smiled and the rough snowing went on for almost a week, after the weather eased the driver worried about his cleaner, ran to this location only to find him dead, due to thirst and cold weather. The disappointed driver had no choice but to bury his decomposed body at the place where he died. After this, everybody passing here saw an old beggar asking for water and those who resisted suffered from serious hill sickness and some even died. Those who offered to help and gave the bottle of water saw the bottle fall
through his hands. Thus the birth of this temple and water as offering became the part of the Ghata loops. Legends say, since then nobody has actually stopped for a break on the ghata loops
Leh to Pangong: The holy day of Ramzan was here, the city was decorated and colorful. The temperature was high and so was the love to fly. We started at 11 AM on this day, the guys had a long rest and we were ready to catch up the next visual treat, we had to get our bikes permit, to be allowed to ride over the Changla Pass to Pangong. There is shrine at the Changla Pass and the military base on this hill top.
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The check post at Karu was cleared and we started moving higher and higher into the mountains, the Monastery on the way took us for a joy ride, it was great architectural work to have this built up on the mountains.
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The Hail Strom hit us hard We crossed a good 20 kms, we could see the weather changing
its mood. It was visually appearing the clouds were forming; it was changing from hot sun to thunderstorm. The fear was in, but continued to move.
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The Changla pass was very near and then the hail strom stopped us. The big Ice Cubes hitting us all over the body, you cannot stop as the hills are too dangerous and may slide anytime during the rains. The rains were getting heavier, we found some safer place to stand but there was no shelter from the shooting Ice cubes. It was painful, we had to hold until this passed, not sure if the rains had caused any landslide. The army was stopping people, the locals would also warn us and then, we had to retreat, you cannot fight mother nature. The storm was too heavy and would not stop, the idea was now to get back to Leh. Thank fully none was injured or there was no damage caused, we returned to Leh. The weather here was totally opposite, it was hot and sunny, and we decided to go to some local Sightseeing.
The Lamayuru Monastery – 130 KMS This Tibetan
Buddhist Monastery around 130 KM ride from our stay in Leh. It is said that the Lamayuru was founded by the Indian Scholar Naropa, he had caused a lake to dry up, which had filled up the valley, to form Lamayuru Monastery. This Monastery at 11500 FT high is a majestic display of peace and beauty. It is also called as the moonland of Ladhak more because of the moon like landscapes carved into the greater Himalayas.
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An Offbeat village of Ladhak is a must visit place. It was late morning when we started to Lamayuru, the roads are good and would not take much time, and this was going to be a smooth ride for all us. We started thundering our bikes and passed through the beauty of Leh, passing the large military bases of the Indian Army.
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Around lunch time on top of the hill we stopped to fuel in ourselves with some local delicacies. Simple roti sabji and chowmein we ordered, hmmmmm, lovely, exclaimed one of us. Super tasty food was served. We just loved it, happy with the
taste, we kept ordering and hogging on until we were full to the throat.
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It was now time to reach the monastery; it was just 5 KMs from where we stopped for our break, it looked beautiful from here. We just had to reach there.
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One of the bikers said the fuel in his bike was about to be over. This is one frequent problem in Leh, you need to be cautious of your fuel. You do not find fuel easily here. We reached the Monastery; it was now time for some peace. A local Lama (Priest as you can call him) in their traditional attire gloomed at us and took us through the Monastery, it was dark inside with dim lights making things looks much beautiful, photography is not allowed inside the Monastery. People donate in cash and kind, the kind includes Chocolate bars, sweets, candies etc, which is used as offering during the prayers and later distributed. We were lucky it was time for the evening prayers; waiting to see the Lamas offer their prayers we were sitting in the
prayer hall. A tall Lama standing next to me was staring at me, while he did not speak a word; his eyes told me you are sitting at the Lama’s seat. Oh, I looked at my friends, come here they signaled with that grin on their faces. I jumped out and quickly settled next to them. We attended the prayers and quickly out of the Monastery, had we attained inner peace, actually it’s always in there, expressed one of us, laughing out loud we all moved out.
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As we start our bikes for the return journey, we released the roads are offering a gem to ride. So this was going to be fast and furious. All were dying to ride on to their bikes and find such roads here. Zoommmm, it had began; Vrooom sounded other; one after other the bullets started firing, the speeds went higher and higher, all went onto enjoy their rides, on the course we missed each other and all were driving at their own speed now. Some had realized there was no enough fuel in their bikes, infact 3 bikes had ran out of fuel, one
of them luckily saw the petrol bunk fuelled up and was again back on tracks, but the other 2 in the zest of the ride had missed the bunk, you must not miss a bunk in Leh. While on the way we saw them waiting for us.
Is it a tea break? I asked. Ya he explained. Infact we needed one, on tea, he told us there was no petrol in the bike and he had jumped the bunk behind. The distance was still high we had to cover more than 60 KMs. The Royal Enfield envies others when on fuel and envies you when not. We decided to slow down a bit and move together, not sure where the other bikers are, we were three and moved in together from here. 30 KMs away from Leh and voooosh, one of the bikes dried up, asking for some help from the locals got a bottle from them passed on some petrol from one bike to the other, still cautious if any other would dry up, we started again moving slowly to our hotel. We reached back to Leh filled up our tanks again and stayed up at the hotel.
Lamayuru offered a peaceful journey and peaceful heart to all of us.
Leh Palace Overlooking the Ladakhi town of Leh, a royal palace of the Ladakhi kingdom or the Namgyal Dynasty is designed on the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. The palace is said to be built in the 17
th Century and is said to be 9 storeys high. The palace was taken over by Dogra forces in the 19
th Century. It is said that Sengge Nyamgal had completed the Palace and this was the world’s highest building in those days.
Refer Images: - Pic 29 Shanti Stupa - Leh On the hill top of Chanspa, the Buddist Stupa was built in 1991, the place was real peaceful with the Buddhist prayer, “Om Mani Padme Hum”. We do not know the meaning, but the music reminded us of the kung panda and his kung fu masters. We did not miss the chance to take some pictures of the leh city which looks so beautiful from this hill top, lush green land surrounded by mountains.
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This was a day, we actually missed but it was
more adventurous and fearsome to have come out from the mouth of the hailstorm. I can still feel the pain on my shoulder claimed one of us during the dinner time. We choose to start early next day and conquer the Khardungla pass and reach Nubra valley.
Leh to Nubra via the Khardungla Pass (The Highest Motorable road) The next we started our journey towards Nubra at 6 AM, the locals had started a stir and would not allow any bikes which were rented from outside leh, we were told not to take our bikes ahead, we had to hire a local tempo traveler for this day. Tashi, was our driver. A calm headed cool guy. Nothing can make him drive faster than what he wishes to. He talks with a smile on his face all the time. He can never get mad on you. He was our companion for this journey. This day the weather was severe cold due to the previous day rains and then we reached Khardungla. Woah, this is the highest motorable road.
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The skies were covered with some white clouds, the mountains are covered
with snow, it was severe cold here, our bodies were acclimatized to this weather but we could still feel the bitterness of the weather. The military base on top of this hill has 150 Men posted all the time, the Indian Army works hard to make our country safe. You cannot stay here for an hour and our Army stays put up alert and steady at this height all during the year against all odds. Thinking how hard it would be to be in the Indian Army, we continued our journey towards Nubra. If you have not visited these places before, you see some new animals here. Yak is definitely one of them;
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You also see the little creature Marmoot. It is indeed a cute animal hiding into the holes into earth.
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You can also see the double back camels.
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From Leh to Diskit, the Capital of the Nubra Valley. Nubra is a high altitude cold desert with vegetation only along the river beds. The Shyok River meets the Nubra or Siachan River
to form a large valley that separates the Ladakh and Karakoram Ranges. The Shyok river is a tributary of the Indus river.
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The sand is so white in color, the clouds are closer to you, and the snow was high on the way. Khardung-la at 16 TFH, we are now at 10 TFH. The cold desert is also a must visit place. On the way back we visited a monastery near Hunder, this is called to be the future Buddha.
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It was now time for some rain, the rains were cruel again. However we zipped passed in the Tempo traveler and reached back to Leh. The evening was spent shopping in the local Leh Market. The Tibetan market is a must visit in Leh. The locals selling some handmade stuff from sweaters, shirts, tshirts, home décor everything is available at the Tibetan market. You can also find some nice Leather Jackets and some good bargain. Mr. Najish Nadaf, made it easy shopping for us with his bargaining skills. You can also delight your taste buds with some nice
chow-mien and Thukpa a local delicacy.
Leh to Pangong 175 KMs. Via Changla post – 3nd highest motorable road All read and heard, we were ready to explore the Pangong lake. Pangong or the Pangong Tso, as it known as is tricky way from Leh. Spread over 604 Sq. KM the Pangong Tso, separates India and China. Within the inner line of this lake in the LOC, since 2014, Indian nationals need no permit to visit this lake. On this way, you pass through Changla, this is the third highest motorable road at 17500 feet high. You also pass other villages to reach Pangong from Tangste. We had our own version of a Bollywood song for this location, “Panngonggg – Tu Mere Saath Chal, dil pe chala hai koi Jaaduuuuuu”. That became an instant hit with many of missing to recognize what was the original lyrics for this song.
You also cross the 'Pagal Nala' here. The name Pagal Nala is so called because of its changing size during the course of a day. A little stream in the morning the 'Nala' by afternoon becomes unnegotiable. Make sure you cross Pagal Nala near lukung on the way
to Pangong before 12 PM, else retreat, the more brighter the sun, the more ice melts into the stream.
This route is also more vulnerable to the landslides, the military is always alert and the check-posts are regularly monitored. This day we reached Pangong Tso at around 2 PM. The lake had gained more fame post the last scene of the Bollywood movie 3 Idiots. The influence of it can be seen here, every hotel is named after Rancho or 3 Idiots. We had our food here and headed towards the tents to find a place to stay overnight.
Refer Images: - Pic 38, Epic Pic of the Pangong Lake 
Pangong Tso, the beauty of its lake increases under sun, Blue is water, Blue is Sky and the mountains sing let us fly. What ever heard and read about this lake, seems so less about its beauty. There is nothing that words, stories or even videos and pictures can describe. The Pangong lake, is an ocean miniature. The most beautiful lake I have ever seen, I was also happy to see the public visiting the entire Himalayan ranges, bothers about keeping these areas clean.
Refer Images: - Pic 39, 40 and 41, beautiful pangong lake 
It’s an awesome feeling having been to Pangong Tso. We stayed in a local home stay. The locals are very friendly, once of also cooked food with them and it was gala time. The next day, we returned from Pangong to Leh. We reached the Tangste check post and saw the military had blocked the way, a huge line of cars waiting for their turn to be allowed to pass the check post. It was 1030 AM, we got down and not bothering much stopped for our breakfast, noodles with egg omlett. It was nicely made, sooner it became an ocean of people, food was over in all the hotels, and sooner from a cloudy weather it turned to be a hot sunny day. It was an hour and we were still stranded, on further enquiring we realized the military was working to get the way cleared for us. There was a 15 KM landslide on this road. All jaws dropped. This would take a long time, we now choose to start playing into the small hotel we had our breakfast. Dumb
charades, songs, dancing were all part of the day, sooner we were exhausted. The area is a beast, it drenchs your energy within no time, your stamina is 1/10
th of what you are in your home town down south. With no place to lay down, many of us choose to lay down on the biscuit cartons as our beds.
Refer Images: - Pic 42 
The hills make you hungrier every now and then. It was 4 PM when the military signaled green and with loud cheers people started moving so did we. We reached Leh at around 7 PM that day. The rest of the day was again spent in the local market.
The return journey, 21st of July. Now it was time for some long bike rides. There was news of a local stir picking up for the issue of bikes and cars rented from outside leh. It was soon gaining air that we would be stranded if we do not leave on the next day. Many of us logically thought it was a wise idea to start in the morning, but some thought the stir would gain up steam. Then
they said we would start at 4 AM and escape before anybody wakes up. We had a toss and it was decided to leave on the same, again somebody pipped with a voice and said, no it’s good to leave early morning. After many discussions, it was agreed to leave the next day. Hopefully everything would be fine. The hotel in which we stayed at Leh was already empty there were no guests; the stir actually had hit the local business as well. Hoping everything would be fine the next morning, after all we were starting before anybody would wake up. This happens down south the strikes start at 10 AM and end at 6 PM, that how lousy our ministers are.
4 AM, each one us was out on the bikes, it was very dark and the bullets were beaming the lights. We started from the hotel nice and sharp and all in a line. Suddenly we realized three of our guys were not behind us, the idea was to cross the area of the stir, if we cross Karu, and we were good to continue our journey. Leh to Karu is around 30 KMs journey, so we
choose to wait for our friends once we reach Karu. 10 KMs from our hotel when our hearts were bidding good bye to the beautiful places, valleys, the river which always flows next to you, the mountains which are always standing high, the military bunks. All set to go and suddenly, there were 2 tempo travelers blocking the road, tyres were on fire, locals and already started the stir, we were up for a surprise. They were beating up people, sending them back, lucky for us there was no indecent show, we were asked to go back and we turned back like good boys. We returned for some distance and waited for the 3 missing friends. They suddenly zipped past us and missed our shouting. They would get stuck with the crowd again. One of us choose to get them back and the rest were to stand at a meeting point. Sooner when we reached the point again, we saw our friends urging the locals to leave them, they thought we had crossed this problem area. Slowly I reached them and exclaimed we are waiting behind, let’s turn back before things turn ugly. We were forced to go back to
the hotel. The entire city of Leh was closed in response to the stir, we were locked in the hotel, and we had to spend the entire day in the hotel. This was an ugly face of the beautiful city. We stocked up all the available beers with the hotel for our team and partied the afternoon. The strike would open at 6 PM, so we planned to start again at 6 PM.
All was set and were on their bikes, few of us were already out, only to find that one of our bikes was punctured. Ah, not again, exclaimed us. Looking at the beauty of the places, hills and snow, we had prayed to god to get us stuck in this beautiful place by some natural calamity, all started recalling that incident, but this was no natural calamity, we would overcome this. With some local contacts our trip organizer helped us get this fixed sooner. Our back up van had left the previous day for passing issues and was waiting at Upshi. The puncture had eaten up 2 hours of our time, we were starting at 8 PM, it was already dark and we had to travel
around 130 KMs to our planned stay. Making the best of the better roads till upshi, we zoomed our bikes and reached Upshi, only to be stopped by the local police at the Upshi check post, there was bridge that had collapsed on the way to Sarchu, this means we were stranded were badly on this night. Sooner the locals gave another route via Chumthang, this was a longer route going via, Tso Kar Lake, Chumtang hot stream and reach Pang. Fuel was a concern but against all odds we decided the continue, the police made a group of passing cars and asked us to leave together. Upshi to Chumtang 88 KM stretch, we decided to travel in the night. It was already 11 PM, the mountains were dark, there was landslide all around and river was not visible but heard clear and louder. The roads were full of stones and it seemed like a dirt trek. Of all the cars we were the only bikes. All the vehicles were zooming at good speed on the bad shaped roads. Sharing the roads and other information with each other. Suddenly there are people waiting on the roads, we thought we had
reached to some village, but there were no houses around. We enquired and shocked to be told that there was a slide few hundred meters ahead from where we had stopped. There were shivers done the spine. We were stranded in the dark, one side was the mighty mountain and the other side was the river. We could click this picture in the morning.
Refer Images: - Pic 43 
Stranded in the middle of nothing, we cannot choose to return back from here. We decided to put up our beds on the road, some slept in one of the locals Van, under the breeze, and the sound of the river flowing beside you.
Refer Images: - Pic 44 
Only the next day morning we realized we were sleeping next to the mountain that had loose rocks and prone to slides. We were the only bikers here.
Refer Images: - Pic 45 
After a good nights’ sleep we woke up to realize we slept under the rocky mountain. We visited the area of the slide which was visible from the place where we had tented. With help of some
locals, we could make way for our bikes through the 6 feet tall mud slide. All our bikes had passed, due to rains combined with the mud slide, there was a quagmire or the marshy land (Daldal in hindi), one of us got stuck into it, thankfully it was just 12 inches deeps, but if you drop in your feet, it would suck out all your energy to take it out. Three of our team together pulled the bike out and helped to pass ahead, all the 3 had lost all their energy and were breathing to their throat. A short break and breakfast and Chumthang, we had to miss going to Tsomiriri for the want of fuel which this extra journey had consumed.
Refer Images: - Pic 46 
and the journey towards Pang continued, we had to make the lost time, we were now running behind schedule and any further delay would mean to lose our flights back to Bangalore. We took some break at Tso kar lake, this was again a visual delight.
Refer Images: - Pic 47 and 48 
The joy of ride was high in the
terrain roads, the alternative road from Upshi is bikers delight, the humps, the jumps, the stony ride, the muddy slides it had it all. Some complain about back aches and some about their butt, but the bikes won’t stop we kept moving at high speeds, climbing one after the other the mountains and the rocks, this was the most delightfull journey. 40 KMs to Pang, you get the butter laid roads, smooth and straight, it was time to zoom your bikes again. With all the painful butts it was now time to relax and enjoy the ride.
Refer Images: - Pic 49, 50 and 51 
We reached Pang during the lunch hour, it was a grueling journey with your ass in bad shape and back hurting. But this is all it’s worth. The fuel in three bikes was all done. We still had a long journey before we reached Manali. Now we had to wait for refueling the stocked fuel was in the backup van.
Refer Images: - Pic 52, Pang to sarchu, the roads are a riders delight 
The wait was not longer, by the time we
finished our lunch our van joined us at Pang. Knowing that we had to go long and the streams were also waiting on this roads, we wanted to cross the streams before it was dark. We had to reach Darcha before the light fades. Passing through the ghata loops, Nakeela, Barlacha the streams and down we reached to Darcha. The streams had been worked out by the BRO and diverted, reducing the brutal force they had while we were going towards leh, however, that had increased the width of the streams. On reaching Leh, we were only 5 bikes, which means the remaining 4 bikes were yet to come. We choose to wait for our friends, while the distance to Manali was still very high, but we wanted to see our buddies come together. The climate had suddenly changed and the dense dark clouds had formed. It was around 7 PM, we ordered tea, biscuits, chips and freshened up. It was 8.30 PM, now we started to worry about our friends, time was making us nervous. Every passing car we would stop and ask if they had seen 4 Bullets on their way, every time the answer was negative. The
night was on and the darkness had taken over all the mountains, nothing was visible. We now had thought to go back and reach our friends. It was around 9.30 PM and we saw bullets coming, till now there was no bullet coming on this route. Uff! It was the team reunited. We were so happy to see you guys. What had caused the delay? Barlacha, as it is known as the most dangerous pass had shown its way. 15 minutes from the time we had passed, it had changed from sunny to a snowfall for our friends. They were stuck in the snow fall for more than an hour. They worried for us and we worried for them, it was an emotional reunion. We planned to stay put up in a eatery shop, kindest people and there hospitality is worth an applause. A view from our stay.
Refer Images: - Pic 53 and 54 
The journey for the last stretch would take around 5 hours, we started early at 6 AM. The idea was to not to reach early and but was to enjoy the final ride, photography and fun on
the way. We were visibly dirty and also really dirty, it was the last 3 days, there was no brushing and no bathing, but does someone really care. It was all part of fun.
Refer Images: - Pic 55, 56 and 57 
While we reached Koksar, we ensured to eat the delicious mutton curry and roti again. We thought the adventures of the trip were over and we would reach back safely. However, we were wrong. Just when we reached, the Rohtang, we were in for another lifetime experience. We were in the clouds; visibility was just around 10 meters. It was impossible to ride bikes.
Refer Images: - Pic 58 
We just could not move ahead, but we had to continue. It was 60 KMs from Manali and we were having the fun ride, riding under clouds in the dangerous hairpin bends. This joy of riding would definitely remain for long. The mist was settling on our helmets, on our eyebrows, on our dresses, on our bikes. The droplets looked like diamonds. A perfect end for the trip with another perfect adventure trip. We reached Manali safely
by around 4 PM on 23
rd of July.
The trip we enjoyed, we loved, and we lived. Hope you enjoyed reading through our journey to conquer the top three motorable roads. This trip would remain as one of the best of my life. Close to heart. We went so close to the nature, with much of adventure and the bestest of our friends accompanying you, what more can be asked for.
With lots of Love and thanksfrom Shahid Noolvi to Rahul Kamble, Kiran Joshi, Najish Nadaf, Arun Talawai, Kiran Sadare, Ravi Verma, Balu Patil, Mahantesh, Manjunath Gayakwad and Nithun Gupta. The trip was most enjoyable with you folks. Let’s join again for the next trip to the next beautiful nature calling destination.
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Naushad
non-member comment
Amazingly put up.. Need to publish
Lve ur dare guys.. Congratulations and have fun. Enjy and keep up the high spirits