Ladakh Diaries - Part 2: Leh Day 1 & 2

     First day in Leh. We woke up around 7 AM. We had good sleep and a hot shower after 3 days, it was really refreshing. After packing up ,while having breakfast in the hotel, we came to know that if you want to go anywhere around Ladakh like Nubra valley or Pangong lake, you need to take Inner-line permit from the tourism office of Leh. Information which is available online regarding this says that if you are an Indian citizen you don't need to take any permit, which is incorrect. You have to go to the tourism office and take permit by paying some charges  which vary on number of days of permit. It will cost you around 300-400 per person. After taking that permit and getting our petrol tanks full, we went to a mechanic. There we heard that all the routes to passes (Khardung la and Chang la) are blocked due to heavy snowfall and land slides. After talking with some of the riders, it was confirmed that we won't be able to go to Nubra valley passing Khardung la which we have planned for  that day. So we thought of getting our bike serviced since we are not going out of the city.The mechanic name was Rakesh, proprietor of Sonam Automobile. He was an interesting man and good mechanic as well. He was a Punjabi who was settled in Leh for work. We were enjoying our conversation with him. He had many tales to tell and we were all ears to listen. After getting our bike serviced, we were looking for a restaurant to have lunch. We stopped at a tiffin center where we met Mrs. Moheena. She has some amazing homely veg and non veg food to serve and fortunately she also has homestay of her own. That was the very next thing we wanted after having such a good meal. Then we reached Green Tara Homestay on shanti stupa road. We kept the luggage there and went for a walk to Shanti Stupa.

It was a perfect moment walking in drizzle after riding for 3 days. At Shanti Stupa, we saw beautiful scenic view of entire Leh city. What a beautiful city! Army camp on one side, green plantation on the other. Beautiful mountains in the front and a small city in the middle. Perfect place to spend a slice of our valuable time from the trip.

We sat inside the meditation hall for a while. A monk was sitting there and reading the mantras, he didn't bother what people were doing around him. There is one request to all the readers, if you ever visit such a peaceful place, please don't ruin the beauty and sacredness of that place by flashing your cameras, making noise, wandering here & there just because there is no written notice to keep silence.

After leaving from there, we splitted into two. Few of my friends wanted to go to hotel and rest of us went to the Leh palace. We followed the Google maps' directions, but this time google was not right.

Though we entered the palace but it was not the official entry of it. The palace was closed by that time so we were roaming in its premises.

                                               
While returning from the Palace, we saw a cafe named Lala's Art Cafe.

It has narrow stairs, even 1 person can hardly fit-in at a time. But It was a small nice cafe. They have some really unique choices of coffee and cakes. We had hot coffee and Lhasa's Tashi Cheese cake.

It was a nice place to sit and read something out of their collection. We got so engrossed in there that we didn't realize they were waiting  for us to leave since it was closing time for them. Like any other hill station, market of Leh also closes early around 8 PM daily. We were roaming in the main market lane.

You won't get such feeling by walking in your busy city's market. There were some interesting shops selling Tibetan antiques. We didn't have much knowledge and interest on antiques so we left from there. We had our dinner cosily tucked inside our blankets and slept early because one more memorable and special day was waiting for us next morning.

Day 2

 We were set to leave at 6 in the morning. Although we were told that road to Khardung la is blocked but we wanted to give a try and see it our self. So we headed towards Khardung la. After crossing the city, there was a check post in the way where we saw people from Leh Rental community asking us to show the pink slip.

What is pink slip? If you are renting a bike from Leh, you will get that slip otherwise you have to pay 500 per bike to get that slip and then they will allow you to go anywhere in Ladakh region. I am not sure whether it is authorized or not but we paid the charges to let us pass the check post. However you don't have to pay for your own bikes. We reached north pulu, there we saw a long queue of vehicles, waiting for barricades to open. We asked check post's in-charge about it. He said a vehicle has been sent to know about the condition of route as there was heavy snowfall at the pass, last night. Yes! snowfall in June-July. Locals were telling that this is happening after 10-12 years. Usually snowfall stops in month of March-April. But everything was set to make our trip more adventurous. Seasons are really uncertain! They allowed 4-wheelers to go and stopped 2-wheelers to wait till the sky got cleared. But clouds were not in mood to let us go.

We waited for 3 hours but did not get any signs of hope. While chatting with other group of riders, we got to know that route to Pangong lake via Chang la is open but is in really bad shape. We didn't want to waste our whole day waiting over there so we decided to head towards Pangong lake. My co-riders started already  but I stood there, hoping to get a sign. It was really hard for me to digest that we were so close to the World's highest motorable Pass, the place about which we were dreaming from so long to conquer but I am not allowed to live that dream. With soar throat I took U-turn to join my co-riders. I was mute, riding and thinking about my next destination. But your bad mood can easily be changed by riding through such a beautiful place.

There are no words to explain the miracles of nature. How different is that place! it is really hard to believe that we live on the same planet where such mesmerising places exist. We reached Karu. After passing through check post, I stopped at a restaurant to have lunch. Since I was ahead of all the riders, I thought that I will stop them all but unfortunately I missed stopping one of the riders. By the time rest of us realized, he has already crossed us. Since no one was getting networks in their phones, there wasn't any way to contact each other. After having lunch, rest of us started towards Pangong lake. Now we were 6 on 4 bikes. It was very bumpy route and it was getting really hard for us to ride together at same speed. At village Sakti, there were 2 routes to go ahead. 1st is by crossing the village and 2nd is from the outer. 1 of our riders took 1st route and 1 other rider took the 2nd route. Me and the last one followed the rider who has taken the 2nd route. So we lost the bike which took the 1st route from there. Now we were riding towards Chang La. The route was not at all in shape to ride. Big stones, water flowing from  peaks and steep edges. We were not riding but crawling our bikes. By the time we were about to reach Chang La, snowfall started and we got a problem. Exaust of a bike got broken and fell on the road. A group of kind riders helped us to fix it and make it durable enough to cross that storm. That was the extreme climate conditions for us till now. Temperature dropped to -6 degrees and we were all covered with snow by then. It was not possible to ride with closed visor of our helmets because of almost zero visibility. So we had to face deadly winds and snow on our faces. All of our 3 bikes reached Chang La.

Then we had 2 options. Either to take shelter in army base camp over there and wait for climate to calm (which could even take a  whole day and may be night as well), or we ride in heavy snowfall to cross that pass and reach a place down at lower height, where there would be no snowfall. Both options  has its own demerits. First could make you stuck there and you would not be able to make it to Pangong lake. Second is extremely dangerous. You could get freezed while riding in those conditions or your bike could get crashed somewhere because of low visibility or may be you could get stuck at a place where there is no shelter. We really had just fraction of seconds to decide.I wanted to reach Pangong lake that day So I decide to ride ahead and other riders decided to stay there. Now I was alone. From count 7, it reduced to 1. The snowfall was really unbearable, I was hardly getting any oxygen to breath, route started getting blocked because of stuck vehicles and road became river with heavy flow of water. I knew one thing, if I stop or release the accelerator, my bike will turn off and will not start again. So I decided to keep blowing my horn and not to stop at any cost. My jacket was covered with snow, my hands started freezing inside wet gloves and my fingers stopped moving. I was shivering more  than my bike's engine. But I kept moving, until I got down to another army base camp which was around 9 km from chang la. Those 9 km ride was the most memorable out of all my experiences till date. I entered the camp and asked someone to help me take off my gloves because my hands were not moving. One of the soldier helped me taking my gloves and jacket off. Then they offered me to stand  near chimney to get myself warm and they served me hot black tea which I was very much in need of. That army base camp was of Rajputana regiment and they recognised me very easily that I belong to Rajasthan too. There were a group of riders from England, who were also stuck there. I chatted with them as well. Basically I was conveying what they had to stay about Indian army (all good things) to soldiers. That was a really nice experience to spend some time with them and a must required break indeed. I was all set to move ahead, my bike didn't ditched me even once in my whole ride. After the snowfall, the views of Himalayas are really mesmerising.

Enjoying the views, I reached Durbuk. I stopped at a cafe called Saser Nubroo. I entered the cafe all drenched and shivering and asked the lady if she could get me some hot tea and possibly give me anything to warm and dry myself. By seeing me shivering so badly, she asked me to stand near the stove where she was making tea for me. It was not making difference. Snow has entered inside my jacket from collar due to which my neck was paining and my shoes were all wet. So she asked me to sit on a chair while she turned on a kerosine oil stove for me to heat up. I tried to dry my jacket's collar and socks first and then to get my blood circulation normal because my hands and feet got blue. I asked if I can use her phone to contact my friends. I knew it was of no use to try calling their numbers. So I dropped a message in a hope that if by any chance they get my message, they will know that I have passed this village and I am heading towards Pangong lake. Later when I was about to reach Pangong lake, I saw white sand frozen desert of Ladakh. It was completely different from Thar desert. I was few kms away from Pangong lake when I saw a tiny glimpse of it. A pure and crystal clear water body was shinning between the white mountains. Now I wanted to reach there quickly. But when I reached there it was already dark. I was not able to see the lake at that time but I could feel that a huge water body is lying next to me. I parked my bike at a restaurant where they were providing the accommodation as well. I had only 400 rupees cash in my pocket. So I told same to the host. He agreed to give me accommodation and food to eat in that amount. I sat close to him and started telling about the situation that I was with 6 of my friends but we got separated and I am not sure where are they right now. But if they come, they will also stay and eat here only. So he asked a boy who was working there to keep a watch at the door if he sees any biker groups arriving there. He stood there for almost 2 hours and kept on asking me to confirm every time he saw bikes. Meanwhile I was talking with the host about my day and about the condition at Chang La. He has offered me tea and hot water to drink. I had my dinner after that. The host was about 60 years old man but he was looking like a boy with headphones in his ears all the time, wearing a cap and cooking very tasty food in style. Then he took me to my room. Actually it was not a room, it was a tin box where they had put mattresses with quilts. It was cozy enough to spend a night. We all were separated but I was very positive and contented. Because I have reached Pangong lake and was sure that my friends would be fine wherever they are. But it was a mysterious night for all of us, where the mystery is about each other. We all knew that whenever we meet, we will have our own tales to share. From 7 to 6 at Karu, from 6 to 4 at village Sakti and from 4 to 1(me) at Chang la, I was sleeping near Pangong lake my destination for the day.