This is the signature trip when you’re in Leh, which takes you over the world’s highest motorable road. Exciting stuff! Once I returned from the Markha Valley trek this was next on the list. My hiking partner was off to a high altitude medicine conference, so she was out, back on the hunt for travel buddies. Leh is a bit odd in that it doesn’t really do group trips. You have to find a group and then split a shared taxi and a driver. The travel agencies can help find you seats if you only have one or two people, but with so few foreigners around the most likely thing to happen is I would get put as +1 to an Indian group or family. Ehhh. Anyway, I put my name and number down at two agencies to see what would happen. That night I got a call they had a spot for me. Lucky! It was two Koreans, a German – Indian couple, and me. We were off the next morning at 9am.
I met everyone at the agency, and then we were into the jeep going straight up and up and up. We climbed well over a mile in elevation on a surprisingly nice stretch of road, as the snow kept accumulating on the tan colored mountains. After a couple hours we were at the top, Khardung La Pass! There were a couple of cafes – all saying the highest café in the world, as well as the world’s highest medical tent and government office! You get the idea. We hiked up a bit to the lookout point and I had to bend over to recompose myself after about 3 minutes of steps, oof. You’re only supposed to stay at the pass for up to 15 minutes for safety reasons, and it’s cold enough where you don’t really want to stay for longer than that anyway!
the drive up with Leh down in the valley
Khardung La Pass
the other side
The other side of the pass looked much different, everything was completely blanketed in snow and the roads deteriorated quickly. I did not enjoy sitting in the back seat for this part. A couple hours later we were down in another valley, this one called the Nubra Valley. There were a few small villages, but like most of Ladakh, it was mostly rocky, dry, and barren. We stopped at a huge Buddha statue and monastery overlooking the valley and had lunch at roadside restaurant. The Koreans actually weren’t traveling together, they coincidentally met in Leh and were both from Busan. The German girl was visiting her Indian boyfriend for a month. They had just taken the ‘highway’ from Manali in a shared taxi, which included their driver drinking whisky, some sort of belt in the taxi going bad making them lose electricity in the car and having to drive many hours at night with no lights, for a grand total of 18 hours. I’d be taking that route the opposite way next, yikes!
Sandstorm - Darude
The greenest part of the valley
Besides the mountains, the Nubra Valley is known for its sand dunes and Bactrian camels. The one thing everyone does in the valley is go for a camel ride. Well at this point in my travel career I’ve been on enough camels by now to know that I don’t really need to sit on another one. They have to be one of the most uncomfortable animals to ride, clunking along, jerking you up and down every step. No thanks. I was happy enough to play photographer.
After getting through a sand storm and another hour of driving we arrived at the sand dunes, where the camel/tourist zoo was located. The rides only lasted about 15 minutes and the camels were certainly kept busy with an unending supply of Indian tourists. For being in such a remote part of the world, it certainly didn’t feel like it! In our group just two opted for the camel ride, while the rest of us walked around with our cameras. I was not the only photographer in the group! And it was an excellent location for photography with the dunes and the mountains in the distance. I just wished we could have arrived just a bit later for better lighting!
Camels waiting for their riders
3/4 of our group
chilling on the dunes
Our driver took us to a guesthouse he thought would have room, Rishav did some negotiating in Hindi and we were all set. The valley isn’t exactly cheap, it was 2,000 rupees per room, pretty expensive by Indian standards, but in dollars it was $24, fine by me. We took a rest and then walked around a bit, the sheer number of guesthouses, many of which had been built in the last 5 years, was pretty wild. We got back for a typical dinner buffet of rice, chapatis, dhal (lentils), and curried vegetables. You don’t get much variety out in the mountains. We all retired pretty early, the combination of the altitude and the amount of time on the road that just seems to sap all your energy.
The next day was a solid 5 or 6 hours of mostly dirt track to get to our next spot, Pangong Lake. Despite the driving conditions there was a steady caravan of tourist jeeps, sometimes piling up a bit when the roads got narrow and only one car could pass. At one point a rockslide had washed away some of the road and we had to sit and wait while the Bihari road crews cleared it away. Bihar is the poorest state in India and I guess they get employed en mass to do roadwork in Ladakh, not with machines though, all by manual labor, while living up on the roadsides in small little camps. Pretty bleak, but I guess it’s better than having no work.
rockslide delay
the roads
Our first glimpse of the bright blue alpine lake was a wonderful contrast to the dullish grey-brown terrain we’d been driving through. We even got a few minutes of sunshine breaking through the clouds. We eventually stopped a very famous section of the lake, one where they had filmed a scene from a famous Bollywood movie, 3 Idiots. You can pay to take photos with props from the movie, it’s a must stop for almost every Indian who goes to the lake. Although by the time we had stopped the clouds had completely closed in and the winds picked up, so it was absolutely freezing. The photos looked nice in a dark, ominous type of way.
first glimpse. Sadly you only get that nice blue when the sun is out
Not so nice weather. Not pictured: The wind
We drove further along to lake to get away from the most touristy villages and found our way the smaller town of Merak. After stopping by a few guesthouses we found one with 2 rooms and I got to sleep on the cot in the common area, ha. It was fine, I’m not really that picky. After a nice tea break we had a chance to walk down to the lake, beautiful, but also still numbingly cold. Dinner was basically the same as the night before, as expected! Later on the Koreans wanted to make some fire ramen (Buldak) and Soju (Korean rice wine) as customary back home, so we all joined in the festivities. A nice way to spend the final evening.
scenery outside Merak village
Then it was back in the jeep the next morning, one more stop at the lake, and over a different pass. This one was in much worse shape than the first one, and it was mostly a snowy whiteout, making for a long day on the road. I would be getting very used to horrible road conditions on this trip! Once we were back in Leh we ate dinner together and the next day we parted ways, some people back to Manali and some going further into Ladakh. And I was happy to take a rest day! So all in all it was good trip, and the scenery was spectacular. Although the ratio of time spent driving was certainly a bit higher than I would have liked! And of course I do have to lament on how friggen touristy this part of Ladakh is. I’m hard to please :p
One last stop at the lake
Taking a photo of someone taking a photo of someone taking a photo
just the beginning of the ascent, ugh
The top. Very popular route with motorcyclists. I’m glad I’m not one of them!
Next up: The Leh – Manali highway and onto the Spiti Valley. As if I hadn’t had enough desert mountains, monasteries, and rough roads!