An
Adventurous Bike tour to Himalayan city of Leh - Part 1
Base village: Leh
City, Ladakh
Height: 3,500
m above sea level
Dates: 15th
September 2019
Bikes: Royal Enfield Himalayan
Bikers: 3 (Irish
Pereira, Edward Pereira, Ashish Nikalje)
Day 1 - Arrival in Leh and local sightseeing
Epilogue:
It was cold Sunday early morning 4 Am where we 3 were hogging Hotdogs, cuppycakes at Premiere Lounge at Delhi airport. Actually we had boarded a Go Air flight from Mumbai at late night with stopover at
Delhi. The flight to Leh was scheduled at 6:30 am and we had choose to occupy the window seat to enjoy the view. Additionally to our surprise, the pilot too was travel freak like us, who announced the and pointed us the major landmarks from top. The first amazing view of snow clad mountains was day well begun. It was worth 10 times the pennies we spent for the window seat.
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| Snow clad mountains - View from Flight 1 |
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| Snow clad mountains - View from Flight 2 |
The Tour
As Leh airport is sensitive zone militarily, one is not allowed to click pics of the areas near the airport. We landed at Leh airport at around 8 Am. It was around 8 degrees temperature when we stepped out of Plane. After checkout we looked for drop cab till Leh town which is at 3 - 4 km from Airport.
As we were travelling backpacking style , we
had not booked any hotel and had to search for one. Also our plan was to rest
for half day and acclimatize with the cold climate there. It was a cold Sunday
morning.
Once we found cab for Leh we asked him to drop us to
Changspa road adjoining Leh market. We had decided to settle for hotel there; as it is
near to Leh market at just 5-6 minutes walking distance. As we entered Changspa
road, our driver named Dorjee volunteered to help us with finding a
hotel. We told him to find us a hotel with an apple garden in it and within few
minutes we trio found ourselves admiring the fruitladen Apple trees in Hotel Zanbalee Inn.
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| Apple tree @ Hotel Zanbalee Inn |
It was a beautiful and well maintained property with apple
trees in outer courtyard laden with Apples. After negotiating for rates we
settled at INR 1800/ day for triple sharing room without food. (The hotel has
paid food facility)
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| Ashish with frontyard @ Hotel Zanbalee Inn |
Once checked in we asked hotel owner Mr. Motup to arrange for breakfast. Then after refreshing ourselves, we had a sumptuous breakfast of double omlette coupled with tea sitting besides Apple trees.
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| Breakfast in Apple garden @ Hotel Zanbalee Inn |
It was very cold and we were experiencing changed breathing patterns. We could feel the heavy breathing for even small walks.
After breakfast we pulled our blankets to rest for couple of
hours. Then at 11:30 AM, i volunteered to get our permits stamped at the DC
office located at 2.5 kms in downtown Leh. It is near the Leh petrol pump.
We
had applied for Inner line permits online and had taken 8 sets of printouts
with us. However they must physically stamped at DC office. It is open upto 9 - 12
pm om Sundays. Otherwise it is open upto 5:00 pm on weekdays. I grabbed a bicycle on rent from nearby bicycle shop to go DC office. It took me hardly
10 -15 minutes to get it stamped and Xeroxed at local shop nearby.
Then after returning to hotel, we continued to rest upto 1
:30 pm. Then we walked to Leh market for lunch. We decided to try Punjabi
cuisine at Punjabi dhaba and had punjabi thali. The local restaurant run by a
young Sindhi is cost effective and food served here is authentic and tasty. I would recommend one to have hot Gulab Jamun which we had for dessert. (The owner of hotel who serves the dishes himself, the young Sindhi guy is very helpful and knows Leh very well)
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| Lunch @ Punjabi Tadka Restarant - Leh Market |
So after lunch at around 2:30 pm we decided to search for
bikes on rent. There are many such Bike rental shops in Leh Market. We has decided to rent 2
Himalayan's and checked for few shops only to find most bikes already rented. At
last we found a good rental shop named "Planet Himalayan Bikes" on Changspa
road.
It was about 3 pm already. The owner Mr. Phoonsuk (who was Jet airways
staffer at Mumbai) was helpful and rented us 2 Royal Enfield Himalayan's for
half day at INR 1200/ bike. We choose Himalayan over Classic 350/500 Bullet because of their light weight and
sleek frame. Both the bikes we rented were almost in new conditions. One can make it out
by seeing at the tyres and overall look of the bike. Here our research online on bikes came handy.
We had negotiated the rent
on condition that if we were satisfied with bikes then we would extend the bike
rentals for next 4 days also. In that case he offered us bike at INR 800/per
bike /half day. The timings for half day are from 2 pm to 7 pm. However the
owner allowed us to keep bikes upto 8 pm. We had to pay half the rent in
advance and the only collateral kept for 2 bikes was one Aadhar card. (One of my findings is that the people at Leh are very hospitable and cool people..and they trust more and are less commercial). Helmets
were provided free of cost in the package. However we had to pay more for leg and
arm guards.
We had planned to visit Hall of Fame - War Memorial, Magnetic hill,
confluence of Indus and Zanskar river, Shanti stupa for this evening. And if
time permits we wanted to visit Leh palace.
Then after we were done with Memorial we set out towards
Magnetic hills located at around 20 kms from there. The roads were well tarred
with sparse traffic. Riding was a real fun as we were getting acquainted with
our bikes.
We passed the Gurudwara Pathar Sahib on the way,
however decided to drop it due to limited time.
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| Scenic Indus river |
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| Pic with our saddles en route Magnetic hill |
We were riding parallel to Indus river and had scenic views
of the valley. Then after half an hour of ride, we reached Magnetic hills. The
roads were so straight and well maintained that at some point before Magnetic
hills we rode at 100 km/hour.
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| Our Team @ Magnetic Hill |
It was an great adventurous experience in
itself. At Magnetic hills there is a point that defies gravity. The
vehicles parked on neutral gear at that point moves uphill against
gravitational force.
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| Wanderlust - Roads our Destination |
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| Make safe journey |
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| Urge for Adventure - Make it Large |
We watched cars experience that anti gravity phenomenon. Then after few clicks
we moved 5 kms further towards on Leh - Srinagar highway to River confluence.
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| The Confluence of Clear River Indus and muddy River Zanskar |
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| When two divergent thoughts meet... |
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| There it is.... |
It is point where Indus River meets Zanskar River. One can
clearly view the clear bluish green waters of Indus mixing with Muddy off white
waters of Zanskar River. By now it was about 4:45 pm and there after few clicks
we decided to return to leh to visit Shanti stupa.
After riding back 26 kms we reached Leh around 5:45 pm and
accelerated to reach stupa in day light.
 |
| Footloose are we ..Milestones our guides |
The Shanti Stupa a Buddhist Architecture is located uphill
at an considerable height. One can have a bird's eye view of entire Leh city
from the stupa's corridors. The view was delight to eyes. There after some time
it was dusky and the stupa was illuminated with colorful lights.
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| Team @ Shanti Stupa |
The view with
sunlight beam behind illuminated Shanti stupa was worth the effort to reach the
place.
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| Illuminated Shanti Stupa |
There i was experiencing mild headache partly due to dehydration and
also due to over exertion. (I had not had water since lunch) It is very
necessary to keep one hydrated.
After some time we could also see illuminated Leh city in
night time.
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| Leh City @ Dusk - A view from Shanti Stupa |
Then we decided to drop a visit to Leh palace and visit Leh
market to have dinner. We had chicken fried rice coupled with chicken
gravy for dinner at Local Restaurant.
Then we visited the bike rental shop at 9 pm only to renew
our bike rentals for next 4 days. There we paid the additional rent in advance
at rate of INR 1200/ Himalayan bike /day. The mechanic got one bike fitted with
luggage carrier to enable us to carry our luggage's effectively. The bikes were
serviced once again of all aspects and replaced with fresh engine oils to make
for 4 days of arduous journey.
There at the bike rental shop as we were having fun with
mechanic, we met an lovely young couple from our hometown Vasai who had also
rented a bike for half day. They happened to have same travel itinerary as ours
and we decided to join our forces together in a team. After deciding on timings
and venue in the morning, we returned to our hotel at around 10 :30 pmto
jump in our blankets as it was very cold that night.
Prologue: To sum up it was a wonderful
day spend in arrival, acclimatizing and local sightseeing ride in Leh.
Happy Riding, Keep Exploring!!!!
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