Tour de Leh: Silk route

We hired Pulsar and Thunder bird for two days biking trip. Again set of early morning around 6, but still Chandra was getting bit worried that we might be late. So we skipped having break fast and set off to Khardung La, thinking we might get some thing on the way. Khardung La was one more highlight of the trip. Its the highest motorable road in the world at altitude of 18,380 feet. Riding bike towards Khardungla was thrilling and with each passing KM, we started getting desperate to reach the Pinnacle. Leh is at around 10,000 feet high, so you attain almost 8000 feet altitude within 60 - 90 mins of travelling. You can easily feel every 1000 feet altitude change... any guesses why? because there are sign boards indicating altitude level :D... jokes apart... as you go higher it becomes more windy, more cold, more snow, tough road and no need to mention that it gets tough to ride...

It was like dream come true for all four of us to reach Khardung La ( FINAL DESTINATION - 6) on bike. Spent some time at the peak, there was canteen serving yummy hot anda maggie and Kawa... till date its the best Maggie I never had in my life... more than the chef skills for making maggie, guess the place, challenging climate, empty stomach had made maggie more tasty :)

We continued our journey towards Diskit, passing through Nubra Valley. The route from Leh - Khardunga La - Diskit is part of popular Silk route -

"The Silk Routes (collectively known as the "Silk Road") were important paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between traders, merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from Ancient China, Ancient India, Ancient Tibet, Persia and Mediterranean countries for almost 3,000 years.^[4] It gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, which began during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE)."  - Wiki Zindabad

Nubra Valley is yet another mind blowing valley and I do not understand why our film people go on foreign locations to shoot, when there is so much beauty in our country. After passing Nubra Valley we continued out journey towards Diksit. We were again heading towards border, thus we were getting more and more remote. Tourists generally come up to Khardung La and head back, few even come up to Nubra valley, but very few attempt to go past Nubra Valley. Infact we did not see any tourists after Nubra Valley for 2 days, and there are few military camps on the way and few villages with barely 10 houses. So no option of getting any help if required, no option to buy anything, and no mobile singnal :)

For hours we did not see any vehicles passing by, any trace of civilisation, but the only good thing was that there was no crossings or option to turn right or left... so there was no way we could get lost :) But only thing bothered us was how long is Diskit? On our way we saw one straight road ( as good as some one drawing straight line), deep in the valley, which we later came to know that its route to Siachen Glaciar, the highest battle field in the world. It was around 50 KMs away and obviosuly public entry is not entertained. It just reminded me of some of equipments I had seen in Military museum in leh earlier. We had a good chat with one of military officer in museum and it was interesting to know the life of commandos in high altitude regions, and how important is Siachen Glacier for holding both Pak and China from entering India.Saluting Indian Army we continued our journey to Diskit. Finaly reached Diskit, found a place to stay over night... dumped our luggage and headed towards our last and FINAL DESTINATION - 7, Hunder. Hunder is small, but beautiful desert in Ladakh. You also get to see double humped camels here.

 Just few Kms from Hunder is bridge after which Public is not allowed. Thats almost like border for general public. So the whole journey could be called as "Bangalore - Border". In 16 days trip, we had used all sorts of transport from train, bus, cycle, car, truck and now the bike. We had already started feeling bad about leaving Ladakh and getting back to Mundane life. we had our flight (only means of transport we hadn't used) back to Delhi next to next day.

We stayed night at Diskit and started off to Leh next morning. After about 30 Kms, that damn thunder bird broke down. And we couldn't see absolutely no soul what's ever to look for help. I guess for first time me and chandra got tensed. We had our flight booked for next day early morning, so we had to reach Leh that day at any cost. More than the flight thing, we were in middle of no where and if we can't get help means we have to spend night on road... in that f**k'g cold weather. Even Yogi looked bit tensed, but surprisingly Majid Khan Mohammed Zai, who generaly gets tensed for no reason looked very relaxed with huge smile on his face.  I realy do not understand how he had that smile? Anyway after failed struggles to get any kind of help, a truck came to our rescue, we almost pleaded him to get our bike on truck. Next big task was to lift that hulk and put on the truck... we four did the job as though some one had kept us at gun point.

Finally got back to Leh for the final time. Had heard lot about resto called "KC restourant". They served good food and they did had campfire kind of thingy, they also screened Movies... so it was perfect place for us to chill out the last night in Leh.