We are a group of 7 college friends who did a Ladakh road trip from Bangalore, all by road, covering a distance of around 8,200 KM in19 days.
- Vehicles: Maruti Suzuki Baleno, Volkswagen Polo, Bajaj Pulsar RS200, Royal Enfield 500
- Team: Anish, Anshu, Meghdeep, Mohit, Pranjal, Prateek, Pretesh
- Time Period: June 6, 2018 – June 24, 2018
- College: IIT Kanpur
Day 1: Bangalore – Hyderabad – Nagpur (1100 Km, 18 Hours)
- Start Time: 4:30 AM
- Breakfast: Food Pyramid, Kurnool (9:50AM)
- Lunch: Moti Mahal Deluxe, Hyderabad (1:30PM)
- Dinner: Hotel Woodland (Oyo Flagship 525), Nagpur
- Refueling: 2 – 44.09L
- Toll: 17 (INR 1260)
- Arrival: 10:30 PM
- Stay Cost: INR 2000 (2 Rooms)
The plan was to start at 3:30AM but with slight delay, we reached with all the luggage near the car. It was a tough moment as we had a lot of loose items which would occupy a lot of space and trust me, it took us 30-40 minutes to pack the stuff in car. Thanks to Mohit and Anna for their superb stuffing skills.
A night before we also had to fit the tank bag on Prateek’s bike. We mistakenly ordered the tank bag thinking that Pulsar’s tank is metallic and tank bag would easily fit with its magnet but unfortunately fuel tank is made of plastic and Mohit did some jugaad to keep it in place.
The road from Bangalore till Hyderabad (infact till Nagpur) is a 4 Lane highway with few speed breakers but no bad patch. You can easily cruise at 100Km/Hr.
Hyderabad
We reached Hyderabad at around 1PM where we met an old friend and had lunch. We almost spent 3.5Hours crossing entire Hyderabad as bikes are not allowed on Outer Ring Road and the service road is a nightmare, full of speed breakers.
After having lunch, we started again and reached Nizamabad around 4:30PM. From Nizamabad for the next 100Km, road is just perfect. There are few bad patched between Shankarapur and Adilabad.
To clear the doubt of few people, Hinganghat rail flyover is now complete and that section till Nagpur is now a proper 4 lane highway.
Nagpur approaching….
With lost time in Hyderabad and ghat section after Nagpur, we decided to stay in Nagpur itself. We booked an Oyo room and decided to sleep for atleast 4 hours before the next day. One of the most memorable dinners we had in the entire trip was in Nagpur where hotel served us a superb “khichdi” which we are not able to forget till now. Day 1 was a success and we slept peacefully.
Day 2: Nagpur – Chindwara – Agra – Mathura – Gurgaon (1087 Km, 17.5 Hours)
- Start Time: 4:00 AM
- Breakfast: Narsinghpur (8AM)
- Lunch/Snacks: RadhaKrishna Family Dhaba, Mathura (6:30PM)
- Dinner: Pretesh’s House
- Refueling: 3 – 75.29L
- Toll: 14 (INR 1125)
- Arrival: 09:30 PM
Starting a very long day with just 3 hours of sleep was supposed to be very tiring but the *excitement* defeated all the tiredness and we could beat all the North Indian heat very easily.
After driving through the beautiful ghat section after Nagpur, we decided to stop for breakfast at Narsinghpur.
For viewers’ information, there is a 20km patch of ghat between Nagpur and Chindwara & 50km ghat section between Chindwara and Narsinghpur. But thanks to MP Govt., all this is a well laid highway with almost zero bad patch. You can cover Nagpur and Narsinghpur stretch easily in 2-3 hours.
Too much heat ๐
The maximum temperature we saw in Baleno’s display system was 45 Celsius in Jhansi, UP. The stretch was very tough for Prateek as he was dehydrating very quickly. It was good to have Anish as a backup rider on bike while Prateek took some rest in the car and re-hydrated himself.
The disputed patch of 90kms between Jhansi and Gwalior took us 2 hours to cover and road was below average with a lot of diversions. Finally we joined Gwalior bypass and from that point, road was proper 4 lane. Once we entered Morena, all city traffic joined us on the highway and it wasted a good amount of time. We stopped at Morena toll plaza for having some sugarcane juice until we saw huge pileup of traffic at the toll plaza. To avoid overtaking that traffic, we rushed to our vehicles and left Morena. A piece of advice would be to not stop in Morena and cross it quickly.
Gurgaon reachable now….
Morena-Agra-Mathura section was a piece of cake and we were cruising at good speed until we stopped at Mathura as were very hungry and we just had some chips and sugar cane juice during the entire day.
The last 10km was not very good for us as Sohna Road had heavy traffic and Prateek’s mobile fell from his pocket. Unfortunately, it was driven over by multiple vehicles and we lost contact with him. After 15 minutes, we found him but it was sad to see his broken phone. We quickly started towards Pretesh’s home which was just 15 mins away.
We finally reached Gurgaon at our expected time and it was wonderful to meet Pretesh after so many days.
Meghdeep was supposed to land at 10:30PM but his flight got delayed and he reached at around 1AM. Anshu landed next day at 8:30AM.
- Narsinghpur-Lalitpur: 1 Hour 37 Mins
- Jhansi-Morena: 2 Hours 40 Mins
- Morena-Mathura: 2 Hours 35 Mins
- Mathura-Gurgaon: 2 Hours 20 Mins
Day 3: Gurgaon a.k.a Gurugram (Buffer Day)
This was our 1st reserve day kept for getting the vehicles serviced for the upcoming challenges. Anish had to pickup up his rented Royal Enfield 500 from Stonehead Motorcycles (INR 1500/Day) in East Delhi. I got Baleno serviced at Nexa Exclusive Workshop in Sector 16, Gurgaon.
Polo had already been service while Pulsar was serviced at the nearest Bajaj Service center.
Service Cost: Pulsar – INR 710(3 Hours); Baleno – INR 1627(4 Hours)
Day 4: Gurgaon – Ambala – Ludhiana – Pathankot – Udhampur (679Km, 14.5 Hours)
- Start Time: 4:20 AM(Pretesh’ House) 5:30AM(Friends Place in Delhi)
- Breakfast: Multani Vaishno Dhaba, Ambala(9:30AM)
- Lunch: Apna Dhaba, Pathankot (4 PM)
- Dinner: Hotel Dolphin, Udhampur
- Refueling: 1 – 33.92L
- Toll: 8 (INR 650)
- Arrival: 08:11 PM
- Stay Cost: INR 5000 (3 Rooms)
The very first thing we did was get the luggage packed in the car earlier night as it became a painful task the other day when we left from Bangalore.
As planned, we started on time from Gurgaon and we had to meet Gaurav (college friend and Pretesh’s cousin) in Delhi. We reached his place and after a quick hangout, we started from Delhi at around 5:30AM towards Banihal.
We had our very first snacks break at Panipat (7:15AM) where a thought struck us (seeing that everyone was noticing BLR-LEH-BLR on Baleno and giving thumbs up!) that we should also get something written on Polo. This is where skills of Mohit becam helpful as he designed “เคเฅ Leh” using paper and cellotape.
We then started again and drove continuously until our breakfast break at Ambala. We had amazing “Paranthas” with huge portions of butter (after all it was Punjab we were about to enter).
Enfield problem ๐
Our next stop was unintentional and it was because Enfield had no engine oil left. Thanks to the poor condition we got it from Stonehead bikes. We found a repair shop nearby and got the oil changed.
The next stop was after a bad section of road in Ludhiana where we found 2 ft. water overflowing on the highway and traffic pileup nearby. Prateek couldn’t avoid his shoes from getting into the water and we took a fuel break so that he could get them changed.
By now, we realized we have lost some time and it would be tough to reach Banihal. Time now was 1:30PM.
We started again and drove until we opted to have some meal. This was after crossing Pathankot city at Apna Dhaba just before the J&K border. We had some heavy lunch and the food was really tasty!
The excitement was boiling as we were about to enter J&K and that too by our own vehicles. The entry point was Lakhanpur and the time was 5:28PM. Interestingly, there was no checking done for our vehicles. We had a quick photograph session just after where we decided that we would stop at the junction of roads going towards Jammu and take shortcut towards Udhampur.
Into J&K Now…..
Jammu road was longer in terms of driving time but had a better tar. We inquired from the forest officials about the shortcut and they said that we should prefer this road as we would reach earlier, locals use this road and road condition is good.
BUT “goodness” was relative and road was not very good. Still we saved a lot of time as we reached Udhampur earlier than expected time from Jammu route.
This short route to Udhampur was both a good and a bad decision as it saved a lot of driving time but had a large number of bad patches. Our target was to reach JKTDC Hotel in Banihal where we had a booking but to avoid night driving we decided to stay at Udhampur (Hotel Dolphin).
Day 5: Udhampur – Chenani Nashri Tunnel – Srinagar – Sonamarg – Kargil (416Km, 15 Hours)
- Start Time: 6:15 AM
- Breakfast: Vaishno Dhaba, Peerah
- Lunch: Zojila Pass
- Dinner: Al-Kareem Guesthouse, Kargil
- Refueling: 2 – 34.26L
- Toll: 2 (INR 120) + Kargil Entry Fee(Rs 50)
- Arrival: 08:30 PM
- Stay Cost: INR 5840 (2 Rooms with Extra Beds) including Breakfast and Dinner
After good night sleep, we woke up around 5AM. We took around 1.5 hours in the entire trip to get ready. We got refueling done at a fuel bunk nearby and left for our destination Kargil.
The very first thing we were excited about was to cross the Chenani-Nashri Tunnel.
Thank God! It was there as it saved almost 3 hours of our driving time skipping Patnitop altogether.
Breakfast!
We reached Peerah at around 7:40AM and decided to have breakfast there itself. It is famous for Rajma Chawal. Prateek’s colleague in the office told us about a famous dhaba in Peerah. Hence, once we reached Peerah, we went straight into that Dhaba. And worth mentioning, we never ever can forget the Rajma Chawal that we had. *delicious*.
We started again and soon crossed Banihal. It was not a good feeling to see the JKTDC hotel which we had booked. Infact they called us the previous day to confirm if we are coming and kind of motivated us to stretch. Next on this stretch was the old Jawahar Tunnel which I was crossing for the second time. In my previous trip with family, I crossed this tunnel and it took around 1 hour to cross it. This time it was smooth sailing and thus we entered the so called disturbed part of Kashmir.
We were anxious of not getting into any kind of “bandh” or “stone pelting” and rushed to cross Srinagar.
The Deadly Zojila Pass is next….
We stopped for a photo session at Dal lake (~2PM) followed by a refueling at Indian Oil bunk just outside the city. Thanks to fueling person, we wasted a lot of time in arguing with him that we had paid him for all the vehicles but he was no trusting us. Though we agreed at that time that we didn’t pay him for one of the vehicles but we still feel, we paid him extra. In all this debate, at the back of our mind we had a confusion of closing time of Zojila Pass. We thought it would close by 5PM. Hence we rushed to cross Sonamarg so that we could start ascending Zojila as soon as possible.
We started ascending Zojila at around 5PM and it took us 1.5 hours to cross it completely including the photo break of around 30mins.
Just after crossing Zojila, we had a long break to eat something as we didn’t have any lunch and everyone was very hungry.
Awesome road!!
The road between Zojila and Kargil is like a runway, no potholes and proper 2 lane highway between the hills. We soon reached Kargil war memorial and time was around 7:45PM. Since we missed visiting the memorial as it had already closed, we decide to come back again after visiting Zanskar as it would be a small detour while going to Leh.
It took us around 1 hour 30 mins to reach our guesthouse, Al-Kareem in Kargil which we had booked on Booking.com. We already informed them about our arrival and hence they had prepared the dinner for us (both Veg and Non Veg). We ate like anything as if we were hungry for days.
The day was all scenic drive across various terrains and our first pass, the killer pass, Zojila.
Day 6: Kargil – Near Rangdum – Sankoo (111Km, 11.5 Hours)
- Start Time: 9:10 AM
- Breakfast: Al-Kareem Guesthouse, Kargil
- Dinner: Goba Guesthouse, Sankoo
- Refueling: 1 – 13.34L
- Arrival: 08:30 PM
- Stay Cost: INR 4540 (2 Rooms with Extra Beds) including Breakfast and Dinner
Late start, that is what you would say!
We realized it later in the day. We could have started earlier and made it BUT!
Today, we planned to reach Padum, the headquarter of Zanskar which was about 227km and we expected to reach in 10 hours. This estimation was because till today, we had been on time and our estimations were working perfectly.
We got Royal Enfield checked up in a nearby shop and tyre pressure was corrected by the inflator which we carried from Bangalore.
We then went for a refueling and reached Sankoo in no time as road was perfect. Time was around 11AM and we thought everything is going good.
Break for a while!
We had a small break with local kids and then started again. We then stopped at Panikhar and time was 1:30PM. Nallahs had started coming and since they were our initial crossing, we were extremely careful. Road had become terribly bad by now. We also decided to stop at Rangdum for tonight as Padum was unreachable and incoming vehicles warned us about the nallahs coming ahead.
After traveling for some time we reached Suru Valley at 4:30PM. We stopped at a small stupa and realized it would be late to reach Rangdum but then we were just 30Kms away, time was 5PM and on the right was Nun-Kun Peak. We took some photographs as Rangdum was reachable.
As soon as we started again, we hit a Nallah. It was deep but could have been crossed by car. We also saw a truck coming and could estimate the depth from its submerged wheels. Seeing it, bikers became terrified and it was logical as bikes would have got stuck.
Everyone was upset as Zanskar now seemed just a dream. We were hoping if someone could help us cross the nallah but no one was there.
Should we return back now?
Now the biggest dilemma was that where should we go as it would get dark in 1.5 hours and both ways there was no place to stay. It already took us 7 hours from Kargil if we remove breaks. So only option was to find a village and stay with someone. The Truck wallah told us about a village 1 hour from this point towards Kargil. So we started in hope of finding that village but couldn’t find it. On top of that, both the bikers were way ahead and were supposedly missing.
We started driving fast and were covering greater distances in no time. Then came a junction, we came from the other side but google was now suggesting a different way. Only thing creating problem was that which route did the bikers take? We were hoping that they target Kargil rather than stopping at some way in between as without network connectivity it would be very difficult to find them.
After taking the Google suggested route, we became anxious as we started gaining height and we were unsure where this route would take us. Thankfully a JKSRTC bus came and we became confident that we are on the right track. But still no sign of the bikers. After driving for half an hour, we saw a person stopping us but we didn’t. Then again a tractor stopped us to tell that 2 bikers are waiting for you ahead. Thanks God, we found them and it was an emotion which cannot be expressed in words. We still were targeting Kargil and luckily this new route was much better and wider. We reached Sankoo and bikers were very tired, so we decided to stop there itself.
All’s well that ends well!!
It was a wise decision to take a u-turn before Rangdum as if we would have tried and anything gone wrong could have screwed up the whole trip.
We reached Sankoo at around 8:30PM and luckily found a very good guest house. The aunty over there prepared dinner for us and a tiring and insightful day came to an end.
Learning: Do not trust Google blindly infact avoid Google and just follow road signs. Google gives faulty time of arrivals and sometimes even wrong routes.
Day 7: Sankoo – Kargil – Drass War Memorial – LOC – Mulbek (194Km, 13.5 Hours)
- Start Time: 8:05 AM
- Breakfast: Goba Guesthouse, Sankoo
- Lunch: Tololing Inn, Drass War Memorial
- Dinner: Paradise Guesthouse, Mulbek
- Refueling: 0 – 0.0L
- Arrival: 09:30 PM
- Stay Cost: INR 4800 (2 Rooms with Extra Beds) including Dinner
It was more like a reserve day for us as we had missed Zanskar. So utilization of this was the utmost priority and we did it perfectly well.
We first left for seeing a famous Buddha Statue in Sankoo as suggested by the landlady of the guest-house we stayed in. The statue apparently was not properly located on Google maps and we had to walk to and fro until we found that we already crossed it. It is on a narrow trail and embedded perfectly in the rocks. We clicked some photos and left directly for Drass War Memorial.
We left Sankoo finally at around 10AM and reached war memorial at 12:15PM. For me, it was one of the most memorable moment of the trip. Paying homage to those who give their lives for our future is a very small thing we can do for them.
Kargil War Memorial #proud
We could relive the Kargil war and sacrifice of our heroes by visiting this place. You could see the evidences of Pakistan NLI’s involvement in the war and how they disowned their own soldiers. All of us sent Postcards to our homes form this place which is essentially a contribution of small amount for maintaining the memorial.
We then had our lunch at a small restaurant besides the memorial itself, planned what to do next and decided to head for the guesthouse in Kargil to pickup our luggage which we had left intentionally while leaving for Zanskar and then head towards Mulbek to stay that day. We reached there in quick 1 hour and had some tea.
The guesthouse owner suggested us to visit the LOC view point which was half an hour away from Kargil. I wanted to visit this place which no one wanted initially as we were late but then everyone agreed to it. We located the place on Google Maps and started in no time.
LOC for the first time ๐
The road towards this view point is well paved but steep. You would almost gain an altitude of 2000 ft. in few minutes. We reached the topmost point which is a village where you have to make entry and park your vehicles. It started raining heavily and we took shelter in an army portable compound where the officer described the place very well.
So we could see 4 different peaks, of these, 3 were Indian and 1 was Pakistani, There were small bunkers from both the sides which could only be reached by climbing the hills. The temperature at the top reaches -40 C in winters. There is a small village in the valley which was capture by India in 1999 Kargil war and handed over to Pakistan again when they appealed in UNO to hand it over to them. Now at the mercy of Indian army is this village situated, surrounded on 3 sides by Indian Army. We spent good half hour over there and started for Mulbek after that as it started raining heavily.
Pakistan check-post
There is a small stall just before the actual point who rents binoculars to look at all the Indian and Pakistani check-posts closely. We borrowed 3 and could now visually connect what the officers told to us. We could see all the bunkers on top of the hills. Unfortunately, Mohit and Pretesh were ahead of us, we tried to stop them using horn and dipper but they didn’t stop. They missed this binocular experience.
When we started descending, Prateek’s Pulsar was skidding a lot and it was because of the type of tyre it had while Anish was moving quite swiftly.
We met them Mohit and Pretesh at the foothill and made them jealous about the experience we had. We reached Mulbek at around 9:30PM after a good drive on a wonderful road and stayed at a road side guesthouse. For initial half an hour, it was tough to find a place to stay but then we located this guest-house which is directly in front of Mulbek Gompa. The owner provided us with the dinner and it was a relieving sign as we were very hungry. We quickly slept after having dinner.
Day 8: Mulbek – Leh (198.8Km, 11.5 Hours)
- Start Time: 7:15 AM
- Breakfast: BudhKharbu
- Dinner: Punjabi Kitchen, Leh
- Refueling: 0 – 0.0L
- Arrival: 06:50 PM
- Stay: Raybo Hostel, Leh INR 3500 (7 Beds) including Breakfast
More of a relaxed day, so we wanted to spend enough time at various places en-route. The very first stop was directly in front of the guesthouse, i.e., Mulbek Gompa. Being in Buddhist region now, we rang the prayer bells for the first time which was one of a kind experience.
We then moved in the direction of Leh and the crossed our 2nd Pass of the trip, Namik La.
Once again, 20 mins break for photography. After driving for an hour, we stopped at a Punjabi dhaba in Budhkharbu for having breakfast. This break was almost an hour followed by a straight drive till Fotu La, highest pass on Srinagar-Leh Highway.
We then reached Lamayuru Monastery at around 11:40AM where we spent almost 1.5hours. Apparently a festival was going on at the monastery and it was the last day of the festival. We were lucky to have witnessed atleast 1 festival in Ladakh. We did some live video streaming on Facebook and Instagram. Airtel was rocking here with a good and stable 4G connection.
Nimmu Confluence
Post that we stopped at Nimmu Confluence which is basically a confluence of Indus and Zanskar rivers. One can see the clear difference in water colors from this point. At this time of the year, Indus was bluish while Zanskar was muddy. We spent good 1 hour around the confluence until we realized that we would get late in reaching Leh. Photographs are attached below.
Next in the list was Magnetic Hill which few people in the group were confused that it is not an illusion but some magnetic effect which pulls vehicle! Though the illusion cannot be easily realized by standing on road or on bike. The best way to feel it is seeing in the rear view mirror of the car. I took various people in the car to make them feel what the illusion is all about.
After a quick break, we left again for Leh. We also stopped at Gurudwara Pathar Sahib which was very close to Leh. We had a quick darshan at the gurudwara (maintained by India Army), had some suji halwa and tea, clicked photos and left again.
Leh FINALLY!!!!
We reached the entry point of Leh at around 6:30PM and it was a great feeling as our first half of BLR-LEH-BLR was now complete :D.
We reached the Raybo Hostel at around 6:50PM and it was relaxing to have reached on time.
While transferring the luggage from the cars to the hotel, we could feel the shortness of breath and yes we were at 11,500ft! We finalized the plan for the next few days as Anish had to rent a new bike here in Leh and he would rent accordingly.
A word of caution for all the readers out there – If you have rented a vehicle from outside Leh(even Srinagar, number has to be JK10), you have to rent a new vehicle from Leh otherwise taxi union people wouldn’t let you roam around in or outside Leh. They have check-posts on Leh-Pangong and Leh-Nubra roads. If vehicle is in your or your parent’s name, then you don’t need to worry about.
We decided to rent the vehicle next day and then leave for Tso Moriri the day after. We would deposit the vehicle and pick our Delhi’s Royal Enfield while we cross Leh after Nubra.
All of us had dinner at a restaurant nearby and slept.
Our next night stay in Leh was at Hostel Lavie.
Day 9: Leh (Buffer Day)
- Breakfast: BudhKharbu
- Lunch: Gesmo Cafe (01:15PM)
- Dinner: Himalayan Cafe, Main Market, Leh
- Refueling: 1 – 37.15L
- Stay: Hostel Lavie (INR 350 per person including Breakfast)
We divided ourselves in 3 groups – Anish and Prateek went for the bike service and picking up the new bike. I and Meghdeep went for getting the permits signed. Mohit and Pretesh went for the service of both the cars. For Maruti Service, you can visit Druk Auto Zone. For other cars, there is a big area near Indian Oil which has a large number of workshops.
Permit Info
- Permit Stamp Location: Tourist Information Center, Taxi Stand, Leh (34.1638788,77.5848806)
- Cost: INR 560/person
- Areas Included: Hanle, Tangtse, Nubra, Pangong, Chushul, Shyok
Don’t go to the DC office as they would redirect you to the above location.
You can register for a permit on http://www.lahdclehpermit.in/. Remember to register for a group permit if you are not traveling alone as it would save time as well as you don’t need to have a printout for each person. The office at the TRC initially asked us to get a group permit as we had separate permits on everyone and they would have to sign on 28 copies (7 for each person and 4 locations). There is a photocopy shop just next to the TRC and they were charging Rs 100 per person extra for the permit.
So we decided to request the officer once again and this time she agreed. It took her some time but she did it for us. Remember to reach TRC as early as possible.
We met a few people who told us horrific stories of what happened at ZingZingBar nallah a few days ago. 3 bikes got washed away because of the sudden increase in water level due to cloud burst. The villagers warned the bikers not to go but they ignored. Thankfully they were alive.
Similarly there was a landslide near Panamik village which has led to closure of that route.
Day 10: Leh – Upshi – Chumathang – Tso Moriri (215.5Km, 11 Hours)
- Start Time: 7:00 AM
- Breakfast: Upshi (07:55AM)
- Lunch: Chumathang (01:00PM)
- Dinner: Nomadic Tent, Tso Moriri
- Refueling: 0 – 0.0L
- Arrival: 06:00 PM
- Stay: Nomadic Tent (INR 8200 including Dinner and Breakfast)
It was time to explore Ladakh now and our very first destination was Tso Moriri. It is the largest high altitude lake which is entirely in India. But the concern was regarding the road, how bad it is and do we have ample time to reach. We started well on time and directly stopped at Upshi covering around 50 Km in 50 mins.
We had some breakfast at one of the dhabas in Upshi. Apparently this was the last point till Airtel works. After this it was all no network or BSNL only. We had Paranthas in the breakfast and spent close to an hour here.
Our next break was one for a photograph close to blue colored Indus which was somewhere between Ikpadok and Kiari (33.691971,77.977321). The road till here was good and we covered another 30Km in just half an hour.
After the previous break of 30 mins, we started again for Tso Moriri. We were targeting to have lunch at Chumathang which was supposed to be the only place where we would find something.
We next stopped again for a photo break after 47 Km. There were good and bad patches but road was much better than what we expected.
Lunch Break ๐
We reached Chumathang at around 1PM for lunch!
After starting again, we stopped for the permit verification at a J&K Police Check-post (33.255646,78.431685) which was at the junction of road going towards Nyoma and towards Karzok.
The road from this point was not very good and we were driving at an average speed of 20Km/Hr.
We were astonished to see a beautiful lake just 30Km before Tso Moriri, which was Kyagar Tso (3:30PM).
We spent good 1 hour at the lake to capture some of the most amazing photos of the trip.
After starting from Kyagar Tso, road became terrible and it took us around 2.5 hours to cover 30 Km. There was one ITBP check-post just before the lake.
Since we had no advance bookings, so we had to roam around few places to confirm the rates and we finally stayed at Nomadic Tent which turned out to be a better option.
Tea Time
We had a wonderful evening tea and then we walked towards the lake which was just opposite to the tent. We also spotted a fox and few Tibetan Mastiff close to the lake.
Post that we had our dinner which was a tasty buffet and the main chef became very good friend of ours. He also suggested where we should stay at Pangong. He cooked a very tasty dinner including soup and rotis.
BSNL was working here in Tso Moriri.
Day 11: Tso Moriri – Nyoma – Merak(Pangong) (191.6Km, 10.5 Hours)
- Start Time: 9:00 AM
- Breakfast: Nomadic Tent, Tso Moriri
- Lunch: Gandpa (02:30PM) +122Km
- Dinner: Homestay, Merak
- Refueling: 0 – 0.0L
- Arrival: 07:45 PM
- Stay: Merak Homestay (INR 5500 including Dinner and Breakfast)
The day started with the first snowfall of the trip. It was really a mesmerizing experience, all nearby peaks covered with fresh snow. We had a quick breakfast, checked tyre pressures and cleaned the vehicles. We also realized that there is another group of tents just on the opposite side of Lake (East) and road till there would have been much better.
And we started!
We again had to trace back till the J&K Police check-post where we had shown the permit. The road till ITBP check-post is horrible. You cannot driver at more than 10Km/Hr. We had to stop as a Scorpio group from Haryana who asked for help. They had flat tyre and their stepney was also flat. There was no puncture shop nearby. We tried to inflate their tyre and it took almost 15 minutes as tyre was very large. They wanted to borrow our inflator but we couldn’t lend them as we still had a lot of distance to travel. It would have been a nightmare for them as they also didn’t have puncture repair kit.
Anyways we couldn’t help much and we started again until we stopped for a photo break besides Tso Moriri.
We slowly and steadily reached the J&K post and we did our second entry over there and changed the direction towards Nyoma bend. The road was much better now. The landscape also started changing and it was as typical as we see in photos of ladakh online. There were sand dunes, blue Indus river and small green patches. Overall it was ladakh as we imagine now!
Hanle
We next stopped at Hanle bend where road diverges towards Hanle and Spangmik. The ITBP checked our permits and we had a small and interesting conversation with them. They suggested us to refill our water bottles as we wouldn’t find any drinking water till Pangong.
Thereafter, we stopped for lunch at Gandpa (2:30PM). From here Pangong was around 85Km.
But then there was no tar road and we had to drive on trails of sand and mud. This was truly a very new experience. You have to be careful here as we had read at few places that people take wrong trails and cross China border. Have a sense of directionality with the help of Google maps.
We also tried drifting the car a lot of times which was amazing. Pretesh got stuck 2 times in the loose sand. So we had to push the vehicle. Bikers were literally abusing us as we had splashed large amounts of sand while drifting. Driving fast here was causing difficulty for the bikers, so we had to be slow. It was very tough riding on the bike at this stretch especially for the Pulsar.
Pangong on the right…
We eventually reached the road when Pangong came on our right side at around 6:45PM and decided to stay at Merak where we reached at 7:30PM. There was a homestay where we negotiated and stayed. Pangong was just 100m from us!
From the roof, you could enjoy the clear night sky. All the planets of the solar system till Saturn are visible in ladakh region. Today was one of the interesting day in terms of driving as I drove in sand for the first time in my life.
Day 12: Merak(Pangong) – Shyok – Hunder(Nubra) (194.6Km, 11.5 Hours)
- Start Time: 8:15 AM
- Breakfast: Merak Homestay
- Lunch: Dreamland Restaurant, Spangmik-Durbok Road (+37Km) – 12:40PM
- Dinner: Shizling Homestay, Hunder
- Refueling: 2 – 39L
- Arrival: 07:20 PM
- Stay: Shizling Homestay, Hunder (2 Rooms, INR 5000 including Dinner and Breakfast)
We started the day with a plan to reach Spangmik village in Nubra which is famous for hot springs. The day would also see moving into the Karakoram range. We started a bit late but had breakfast in the homestay itself. Pangong was on our right and the road was a trail of sand, stones and small rocks.
We soon reached Spangmik, where the majority of the tourists stay and we thought to stockup water bottles in the car until we came to know that each bottle is double the price, i.e., Rs 40. Hence, we just took 2 bottles, had a photo session and left. We soon reached the famous “3 Idiots” photo spot which has become commercialized and they charges INR 50 for each photo with the scooter and the bench.
Away from Pangong
The road became better as we moved away from Pangong and sand started coming on the road. Anish was driving infront of me and I could see him slipping on the sand. Then came a very big pile of sand and I intentionally slowed down so that I could cross it with good momentum. But Anish slowed down and I had to brake which got me stuck in the sand as axle was now caught in the sand pile and wheels became free. Soon traffic started piling up and few people came to help us. With a push in the reverse direction, I again came back at speed and crossed it easily this time. This helped a lot of vehicles cross that sand pile as with the help of my axle, sand got spread all over.
We met a uncle in an army vehicle who gave us water and hajmola candies ๐
We reached a restaurant called Dreamland (12:40PM) where Jab Tak Hai Jaan was shot where we had paranthas and refueled the vehicles with the petrol cans. This place was 27 Km before Tangtse.
Tangtse
We reached Tangtse at around 1:30PM where we got our permits checked and from there Karakoram range started. We started ascending quickly and could see the beautiful Shyok valley (2:50PM). The road today was very good till now. Though we got stuck couple of time when Army convoys were coming.
The road before Khalsar is very bad and full of big pebbles. One has to be careful here.
We reached Khalsar at around 5:45PM and road was just awesome now. All of us decided to go to Spangmik next day if we have time as we came to know from the locals that road may be closed because of the landslide which happened few days ago. We went in the direction of Diskit and road was perfect for an evening drive. On the way, we saw sand storm as well.
We reached Diskit at 6:50PM and refueled at Diskit Indian Oil bunk. We skipped Diskit and went to Hunder instead. After struggling initially, we found a very good home stay at reasonable price.
This was the end of a wonderful day!
Day 13: Hunder – Turtuk – Hunder (246.6Km, 12.5 Hours)
- Start Time: 8:15 AM
- Breakfast: Shizling Homestay, Hunder
- Lunch: Ashoor Cafe, Turtuk (+147Km) – 4PM
- Dinner: Shizling Homestay, Hunder
- Refueling: 0 – 0L
- Arrival: 08:45 PM
- Stay: Shizling Homestay, Hunder (2 Rooms, INR 3500 including Tea)
The day was more of a relaxed day as we just had to visit last Indian village that was with Pakistan till 1971, i.e., Turtuk
We started a bit late but then we knew that road was very good. We had already driven on some of the bad roads till date and this would be a smooth ride for us. But with over confidence comes trouble!
There was a small wooden plank with few nails lying on the road and Pretesh drove over it avoiding any tyre contact. Unfortunately, Anish drove over it and he realized immediately that his tyre got punctured by the nail protruding out from the plank. We stopped to check and we could listen the strong air gushing out of the tyre. The place was right opposite to the Thoise defense base.
RE’s tyre was a tube one and hence would take some time. If it would have been tubeless, we could have fixed it immediately. We luckily had some saved Youtube videos for puncture repairing and we started repairing it. Anish, Mohit and Pretesh led the whole effort. Prateek, unfortunately, got separated from us and he didn’t stop.
I and Pretesh went till Hunder again (19Km) to find any shop but we didn’t, so we came back and decide to try ourselves. I also drove almost 15Km in direction of Turtuk to find Prateek but couldn’t.
Finally…
We were able to fix the puncture after 2 hours (the rubber patch was bad and we it wasted a lot of time). After fitting the tyre in the tube, we started filling air but tyre didn’t inflate even after several minutes. We realized something was wrong and hence I and Anish took the tyre and drove to Diskit where there was 1 puncture shop, just besides Indian Oil. This is probably the only puncture shop in Nubra (Hunder, Diskit and Thoise).
There was a long waiting at the shop so it took us almost an hour to get the puncture repaired. The puncture shop person told us that we fixed the 1st puncture very well but did a 2nd puncture in the process. Meanwhile, we came to know that Prateek had reached Thoise where everyone else was there. This was a good news and thanks to BSNL for providing network connectivity in such remote places. Everyone felt that Prateek should have halted if he didn’t see us for some time. He was like 50 mins ahead of us when he stopped!
We started for Turtuk at around 2:15PM and reached there at around 4PM. I and Anish felt we should first visit LOC at Turtuk and then eat something but everyone else was of the other opinion. So we had our lunch and by the time we reached LOC view point (20 mins from Turtuk) it was closed. Closing time was 5PM.
Tussle in Turtuk
We talked to the officer over there and he explained the story of 4 villages including Turtuk which was captured by India in 1971 and about the landscape of Turtuk. It serves as the gateway to Siachen basecamp and one could easily spot Pakistani peaks from the viewpoint. To clarify, LOC doesn’t have fencing in general and there is no clear demarcation of the boundary. There is a very good army canteen at Turtuk, cheap and good food!
We clicked few photos and left again for Hunder. The plan was to stay at the same place as previous night. We finally reached Hunder at 8:45 PM.
Day 14: Hunder -Khardung La – Leh – Pang (285Km, 14 Hours)
- Start Time: 6:30 AM
- Breakfast: Khardung Village – 8:30AM
- Lunch: Upshi – 2:40PM
- Dinner: Tent @ Pang
- Refueling: 1 – 23.85L
- Arrival: 08:30 PM
- Stay: Roadside Tent @ Pang (1 Big Room, INR 2300 including Dinner)
The day had finally come when we would be crossing Khardung La, aka, Mecca of Road Travelers.
We started on time today as we had a lot of things to do in Leh; a) Return Rented Bike b) Pickup old bike c) Refuel all vehicles d) Polo’s clutch smell check e) Cash
and we had to move as close as possible to Manali, i.e., reach either Sarchu or atleast till Pang.
We started on time and quickly reached Khardung village in just 2 hours. The road was just awesome and no bad stretch. We stopped for breakfast and ate paranthas (again :p). It was very cold outside and it started raining as well. After the breakfast, we started again at around 9:30 AM.
Khardungla Top approaching….
The rainfall gradually got converted into snow and I started getting “ice ahead” warnings on Baleno instrumentation. The temperature dropped to -3 Degrees. We stopped for few photo clicks and kept moving. For some reason, Pretesh complaint of Polo not getting proper pickup, so I was moving ahead of him. In the course of time, Anish and Prateek got separated.
We reached Khardung La top at around 11 AM. The dream had come true!
We saw Prateek but then he disappeared again. There was lot of traffic at Khardung La top was if everyone in Ladakh was there only.
We quickly clicked photos and left for Leh assuming we would meet Anish and Prateek in Leh only.
Unfortunately, road after Khardung La top for 5-10 Km is very bad and narrow at few places. This led to a huge traffic jam in which we got stuck for almost 40mins.
Back to Leh…
We reached Leh at around 1:30PM and we got a call from Anish that they have returned the bike and picked up the old one. So we decided to meet at Indian Oil fuel bunk where there was a cash machine as well. We got all things done in Leh and decided to reach Pang for the day.
We drove for 50 mins and reached Upshi quickly. Again we stopped at the same dhaba for lunch where we stopped while going to Tso Moriri.
There we met a biker coming from Manali who told us that ZingZingBar nallah is now fine but road after Pang is very bad and we should leave as early as possible from Pang.
We quickly left for Pang at around 3:30PM and reached Tanglang La top at around 5:50PM. Road till now was good except that outside it was too cold due to fast winds. We had some Tea at the top where we met a group of bikers from Bangalore.
Tanglang La onwards….
We started from Tanglang La again at 6:30PM and soon reached More Plains where Prateek switched with Pretesh and Mohit started driving Polo. Prateek wasn’t prepared for that much cold and hence came inside car.
For the first time in my life, I defecated in the open, behind a rock.Hell of an experience!
We reached Pang at around 8:30PM and were surprised to see that there is literally nothing to stay except few tent like structures made of wood where lorry drivers sleep.
Where to stay?
We enquired from the driver of an Indian oil lorry and he suggested us to stay in those tents only as road ahead was bad and it was night already. We got a big room in one of the tents and few thick blankets. The aunty prepared fresh dinner for us and we felt good as finding good food in such a remote place was less expected.
We also met a group from Mathura who had AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) symptoms. We gave them Diamox and asked them to take rest. They were totally unprepared while leaving from Mathura and were literally not carrying proper winter clothes. They were also going to Manali and they said to wake them up as well the next day when we would leave.
The day was finally over!
Day 15: Pang – Jispa – Keylong – Manali (301Km, 16 Hours)
- Start Time: 5:05 AM
- Breakfast: Sarchu – 8:30AM
- Lunch: Snacks @ Darcha – 12:15PM
- Dinner: Sparsh Resort, Manali
- Refueling: 0 – 0.0L
- Arrival: 09:00 PM
- Stay: Sparsh Resort, Manali (3 Room, INR 5000)
We planned to start at 4:30AM but eventually started half an hour late. Everyone slept with their jackets on and were almost ready to go. The bathroom was kind of unusable and there was no electricity as well. We didn’t even brush!
The day was interesting as we had to cross ZingZingBar nallah and Pagal nallah.
The Mathura group also started at the same time and were happy as Diamox did wonders to them.
The road became terrible as we had expected. We crossed Lachung La at around 6:05AM and later Nakee La at around 6:45AM.
Sarchu break
We stopped for breakfast at Sarchu and this was almost an hour break. This was a must break to get fresh for the day ๐
We started at around 9:30AM and soon entered Himachal Pradesh. There is a check-post at the border where you have to make an entry. We soon reach Baralacha La (10:40AM). The landscape here was very different as you can see in the pics below.
We kept crossing nallahs, few were easy and few were difficult but made easy by us :D. Baleno’s large tires were very helpful to driver on bad roads with water crossing and big stones.
We stopped for snacks break at Darcha where we enquired about the ZingZingBar and Pagal nallahs.
ZingZingBar Nallah
ZingZingBar nallah had lot of water but maneuvering was not that tricky. On the other side, Pagal nallah was easy to cross. We soon reached Tandi (1:40PM) where bikes were refueled and now our expectation was that we had crossed all the nallahs. But the game was still not over.
The toughest nallah we faced was while ascending Rohtang pass. That was a serious challenge and we faced no big issues except 1 underbody hit. The time was around 3:30 PM.
Rohtang from Leh side is terrible as roads are all broken, there are big boulders, traffic and steep slopes. All bad things put together made the driver very slow.
Down to Manali
We started descending Rohtang pass at around 4:20PM and were shocked to see a huge traffic jam. The local taxi drivers told that it would take another 5 hours to reach Manali which was less than 40kms away. Meanwhile, we decided that Anish and Prateek should reach Manali and take rest, may be find some place to stay as well. Bike could easily cross the jam.
The jam started clearing in an hour and we entered Manali at around 8PM. We met Anish and Prateek just at the foothill and they had their dinner.
We did a booking on Booking.com and reached the hotel at around 9PM. It was very close to Manali-Kullu highway. We had our dinner and finished the day.
Day 16: Manali – Kullu – Ambala – Gurgaon (585Km, 15 Hours)
- Start Time: 6:05 AM
- Breakfast: Mandi- 9:45AM
- Lunch: Snacks @ CCD, Ambala- 4:50PM
- Dinner: Pretesh’ House
- Refueling: 1 – 31.97L
- Arrival: 09:05 PM
- Toll: 6 (INR 335)
- Stay: Pretesh’ House
We were supposed to start at 5AM but got delayed by almost an hour. This was a personal learning from the trip that bathroom becomes a blocker in the morning(:P) and just thinking that I would just take 15mins doesn’t work.
Anyways, we got the air pressure checked in all the vehicles except RE as the valve was not fitting properly. So Anish went to a nearby fuel bunk to get it checked.
The road till Kullu is not that good and there are small potholes which break the speed. Also, we found few points where some work was going on and hence led to a delay in reaching Mandi where we had our breakfast. Time was around 9:45AM and we had traveled 100Km in 3.5 hours.
Too much traffic ๐
One problem in leaving late is increased traffic until you reach highways which became a cause of concern for us.
RE had a problem with the brakes and because of that Anish fell down once. We got it repaired at a local shop.
I got a bit frustrated with the traffic after reaching Bilaspur and that too on the hills, so I decided that I would now stop only in Gurgaon. Anshu and Meghdeep joined in and we next stopped directly at Ambala (4:50PM) for having snacks. The next break was a water break at around 7PM at Delhi entry and then directly at Gurgaon.
The other vehicles reached Gurgaon around 10:30PM.
Day 17: Gurgaon (Rest Days)
- Refueling: 1 – 35.27L
This was our 3rd reserve day kept for getting the vehicles serviced for the long stretch before Bangalore. Anish had to drop his rented Royal Enfield 500 from Stonehead Motorcycles in East Delhi. I got Baleno serviced at Nexa Exclusive Workshop in Sector 16, Gurgaon.
Polo had already been service while Pulsar was serviced at the nearest Bajaj Service center.
Service Cost: Baleno – INR 1704(4 Hours)
Day 18: Gurgaon – Mathura – Chindwara (910Km, 15.5 Hours)
- Start Time: 5:00 AM
- Brunch: Gwalior- Shubhim Retreat 10:20AM
- Dinner: Dhaba @Chindwara
- Refueling: 1 – 33.73L
- Arrival: 08:20 PM
- Toll: 13 (INR 1045)
- Stay: Hotel Kusum Residency, Chindwara (2 Room, INR 2822)
We started on time as decided as we had a good idea of the roads this time. Hence, we were gliding this time after coming from such bad roads and reached most of the places as expected. We crossed Morena and Gwalior-Jhansi stretch in no time. There was a lot of heat outside, so Anish and Prateek kept switching regularly. After Lalitpur, we also encountered rain and it was a good feeling.
Unfortunately it started raining as we crossed Narsinghpur and riding on bike became difficult. We also had to cross 30Km ghat section. So we took a call to stay in Chindwara itself. We had dinner at a Dhaba and meanwhile booked a hotel on Booking.com
Day 19: Chindwara – Nagpur – Adilabad – Hyderabad – Bangalore (1237Km, 19 Hours)
- Start Time: 4:30 AM
- Lunch: Sarang Food Court, Nizamabad – 11:35AM
- Dinner: Food Pyramid, Kurnool – 5PM
- Refueling: 3 – 79.5L
- Arrival: 11:45 PM
- Toll: 19 (INR 1405)
- Stay: HOME ๐ ๐
Today was going to be one of the longest days in our life on vehicles and hence challenging. We quickly reached the Ghat section and had a small snacks break to have some Tea., then crossed Nagpur followed by Hinganghat (7:30AM). We were taking short breaks and hence were quite fast today. Soon we entered Telangana.
Next stop was at Nizamabad at a Rajasthani restaurant. We also decided that this time Prateek and Anish would go through Google suggested fastest route for bike while I would go through ORR and would meet at the junction. This proved to be a good strategy for us. While Prateek took around 1 hour and 10mins to cross, we crossed Hyderabad in whopping 39Mins.
We stopped again at Food pyramid to eat something as we were very hungry. Food pyramid has become our favorite break-spot. This was my 4th break at Food pyramid.
We entered Karnataka at around 10:05PM and soon reached Bangalore.
A big relief as we didn’t face any issue and were back home.
A successful and memorable trip comes to an end!!!!
Quick Tips and Suggestions
Saving Time
- Leave as early as possible in the morning (max before 8AM) to avoid a hectic day and save ample time for photographs
- Avoid taking bath daily as it wastes time and come on you are
- Save offline videos from YouTube for fixing punctures, cleaning air-filter, towing car, jump-start, etc. Learn about your vehicle in detail!traveling, forget hygiene for some time
- Pack minimal items as you have to pack and unpack a lot of times during the trip and it would be a tiring and time-taking job unless you have less items
Vehicle
- Leh taxi union doesn’t allow any rented vehicle outside Leh (including J&K vehicles). In other words, only JK10 rented vehicles are allowed in Nubra, Pangong and Tso-Moriri
- Top-up fuel every time you find a fuel bunk unless you are aware of the next one
- Cross all dangerous nallahs (e.g., pagal nallah, zingzingbar, etc.) before noon as water level starts increasing after noon
Other
- Carry a BSNL Postpaid SIM as only postpaid networks work in J&K. In Ladakh, only BSNL postpaid works in most of the areas except Leh region.
- Stay for atleast 1 full day in Leh to get acclimatized to high altitude and get the permits ready
- Forget internet as soon as you leave Leh
- Booking.com is quite handy for booking accommodations as you don’t have to pay while booking
- Stay in a hostel in Leh as you would meet a lot of travelers from across India
- Know the sunrise and sunset time to plan your day
- Leh-Manali CANNOT be done in 1 day unless you start at 4AM in the morning
- Drink only mineral water and carry reserve water, you may not find one for several hours
- Start taking Diamox as soon as you are above 9000 Ft and put few drops of parafin in the nose every morning. Parafin prevents nose bleeding due to dryness.
Checklist
Car Checklist
- Fuel Cans
- Stickers
- Air Pump
- Car Tow Cable
- Torch
- Tissues, Napkins, Extra Cleaning Clothes
- Windshield Fluid
- Puncture Repair Kit
- Offline Map Location Update
- Plastic for Seat in case person is wet
- Gloves for Dirt
- Water Bottles/Camper 5L
- Car Mats Other Than Cloth Mats: Rubber mats
- Spare engine oil
- Glass Breaker/ Seat Belt Cutter
- GoPro Holder
- Oxygen Cylinder
- Oil Pouring Funnel
- Nitrogen and Pollution check
- Tool Kit
- Fastag Recharge
- Duplicate Keys
- Jump Start Kit
- Double sided tape
Medicine Checklist
- Diamox (Most Important)
- Paracetamol
- Combiflam
- Azithromycin
- Ciprofloxacin
- Ciplox TZ
- Ofloxacin
- Roxithromycin
- Digene
- Eno
- Volini
- Voveran
- Entroquinol
- Ondem
- Metfal Spas
- Cetrizine
- Multi Vitamin
- Entrozyme
- Dettol
- Neosporin
- Crepe Bandage
- ORS
- Odomos
- Eye Toner
- Iodex
- Cough Syrup
- Vicks
Cloth Checklist
- Thermals – top and bottom – 2 pairs
- Normal cap
- Woolen cap
- Woolen Gloves
- Normal Socks
- Woolen socks
- Underwears – 5-10
- Boxers
- Shorts
- Lower
- Jeans
- Jacket
- Sweater
- Shoes
- T-shirts
- Slippers
- Shoes Sandals
- Sunglasses UV
- Handkerchief
- Belt
- Towel
General Checklist
- Phone Charger
- Laptop for Photo Backup
- Hard Disk for GoPro
- Power bank
- BSNL Postpaid SIM
- Trimmer
- Google Offline Map
- Disposable bags for garbage/laundry
- Scissors
- Sunscreen
- Moisturiser
- Camera
- Offline Youtube videos of vehicle checkups and basic repairs
- Paper Soap
- Hand Sanitizer
- Raincoat
- Nail Cutter
- Power Extension
- Mouthwash
- Facewash, shampoo
- Toothbrush, ToothPaste
- Comb
- Hair Oil
- Tripod
- Passport Size Photos
- Newspaper and Polythene
- Printouts of Vehicle Documents, ID Cards, Booking and Permits
- Sim pin
- Deodorant
- Lip balm
- Food Items
- Ziplock bags
- Toilet paper
- Leather gloves or biking gloves
- Gum boots for bikers
- Extra Cash
Coverage in Media
- https://www.rushlane.com/maruti-baleno-owner-impressed-with-the-car-12274159.html
- https://www.rushlane.com/bajaj-pulsar-rs-200-road-trip-leh-ladakh-12278170.html
