HIMACHAL AND LADAKH PART 9 LEH

After an interesting night at Sarchu, we began our journey heading to Leh. Leh will be our point of departure to the Nubra Valley moving up north of Ladakh.

The View Enroute

View of the mountain

The road most travelled in summer

The climb

It was a dry day, and the travel brought us to the most arid land. I was catching nap in between, as the night before, I did not have much of a sleep. But Baldev nudged me from time to time, whenever there are sights to behold appears.

Pitstop

This place seems to be a regular pitstop amongst travellers, so did we, to do some stretching. The over towering mountain was simply fantastic.

Truckers point

Chorten or Stupa

One of the uniquenss you see on these roads are Chorten or Stupa, which becomes a point of seeking blessings for travellers especially drivers who traverse in these difficult terrains. 

 

Bikers

The highlight of our trip today is to pass the highest point of the Tibetan plateau at 4200m leading to the Tanglang La Pass at 17582ft (5280m). But the road to the the second highest pass in Ladakh was not an easy one, with glacier walls and road just cleared from the glacial formation. 

Amongst one of our face offs, this one was one of the scariest, with a narrow slippery road, with glacial formation on side and a deep ravine on the other. 

Melting glacier about 20 feet

FaceOff (Video 1)

FaceOff (Video 2)

FaceOff (Video 3)

One thing I admire these drivers, they were cool, calm and collected regardless of the circumstances. Nobody got angry nor showing off their fist as to who should have their right of way. As if these guys communicate telepathically, they know who should back up, which side to meneuver and who should give the right of way.  

 

Tanglang La Pass

I guess after that, nothing will scare me, but I spoke too soon, didn't realise more spookes to come later. Finally we arrived at Tanglang La Pass just about noon. This will be the second highest motorable pass in Ladakh. The wind was incredibly strong and extremely cold. The entire journey up to this pass and down to Leh covers about 21 hairpin loops called the Gala Loops, which in itself is an experience to behold.   

The Pass

The View

A Temple

Bikers taking break at the peak

The snowcapped mountains are simply breathtaking

After taking these breathtaking shots, and immersed in the beauty of nature, we slowly descended heading to Leh. As we were moving towards lower altitude heading to Leh, the landscape changed, we saw a little greenery and local cows were grazing. 

Grazing land

A Temple on the roadside

A Chorten

As we were nearing Leh, we saw the great Indus river, which was originally known as the Sindhu River. In actual fact it was Alexander of Macedon who renamed the river Indus, and people who lived beyond the Indus river were known as the Indus. Many Indus (aka Indians) were also recruited by Alexander when he waged a war against the Magadha Empire, after defeating Gandhara and later King Porus of Punjab. Well, lets keep that for another day. Anyway the Indus Valley civilization is the earliest known urban culture in the Indian subcontinent. Again that is for another day too.

Indus river 1

 

Indus river 2

Finally we reached Leh just about 5.00pm. Traffic into the city was rather heavy, and there were some roadworks along the way which delayed our arrival. Leh is the capital city of Ladakh a newly annointed Union Territory of India. By the way the city is at an altitude of 11562ft (3524m), so we are still very elevated if you know what I mean. Many tourist visiting Ladakh would arrive in Leh via Delhi, totally not prepared for the altitude and put themselves in difficult situation. However this city is fully equipped to deal with unprepared tourists. 

After checking in the hotel, Greeja and I had the much needed shower, and later all for us went out to explore Leh. The town square was filled with tourists, mostly Indians, and trade was brisk. Since we will be returning back to Leh after the Nubra Valley journey beginning the next day, we kept all purchases for then. We chanced upon a Buddhist Temple during our walk, went in, sat down for a short while. Spoke to one of the Monk, who speaks excellent English. He was from Delhi, and on a retreat in Ladakh. We spoke about spirituality and politics, and the Monk himself has an MA in Economics. Interesting person.  

Resting Monks

Had our dinner at 8.30pm in the hotel we stayed, and later had a night cap with my friend Jameson and we went to sleep, looking forward to whats in store for us tomorrow. As our actual Ladakh adventure starts tomorrow. 

Next stop Nubra Valley.

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