Driving In Ladakh - 7 days in a Private Car. Jhuley!

Day 1 - Delhi to Leh

Got on that plane and flew straight from 216m to 3500m above sea-level - Delhi to Leh.

Landed In Leh & Checked into : Singge Palace.

Its a nice quaint, clean, hotel - remember all you need to do in Leh is just acclimastise and let your body adjust to the elevation.

Tip1: While flying into Leh make sure you get a window seat... Pay more for it .. it’s totally worth it.. u will be getting an aerial glimpse of the mighty Himalayas.

Altitude sickness: It hits u when u fly in... so was I woozy that first day ?Heck yes ! Especially when u fly in u have a higher chance of getting altitude sickness.

How to cure altitude sickness ? Listen to this carefully ... Most of the times people have to go back down to lower levels... end of journey for you OR read tip I've shared below.

Tip 2: Altitude sickness pill - find out what it is ! When u have to take it etc. I ain't no doc so disclaimer alert!

That day we loafed around Leh main market, grabbed lunch and dinner at a close by place and decided to take it easy... we didn't want anything to go wrong on the drive. So be calm and don't try to pack too much in on this day.

Tip 3: Don’t waste too much money on a Hotel in Leh save up for #Glamping near Pangong Lake..

Read on to see where we stayed at Pangong Tso and what a glamorous camp that was ! Below is a pic of our camp in Pangong Lake.

Next day we were to drive from 3500m to 5400m no joke... don’t psyche urself up but also don’t let ur guard down. "Always be prepared"

Day 3 - The Drive began! Leh - Khardungla - Nubra

Driving from Leh via Khardungla to Nubra Valley

We left Leh by 8am. As you leave Leh you will begin to see the beauty of the Himalayas unfold in front of your eyes. It is unbelievable, in this world filled with beauty here is a place so close to home which we take for granted... Never again! Here on this road I decided that I am going to travel across India with my kids and show them the beauty of this land!

On this journey I also realised not to take anything for granted - I had lost my Dad, every time he made a plan to travel I just didn't try hard enough to make it! Afterall, its not just the journey but the memories we carry with us that will last a lifetime. So go create that memory and if you have your folks with you ... create many with them!

Say a thank you to the Skies and this Land of Ladakh .... The beauty mesmerises your soul, the ruggedness of the land give hope... and everything here will take your breath away. (Sometimes literally due to the altitude)

The brown against the blue ... the harshness of the region versus its beauty. You will never see something like this anywhere in the world! And here it is in India for us!

The terrain is hardy but beautiful nothing can express the beauty of the region even though most of it is barren rock-filled land and I never knew brown could be so may shades and so beautiful. It is a rock desert at the top of the world.

We proceeded along on bumpy roads as we left Leh behind and ascended towards Khardungla - we were using our phones to take the pics so every video of mine will show you how smooth or how bumpy a road actually was !

Khardung-la is a pass in the Himalayas at an altitude of 5300m(18000ft)

To put things is perspective Delhi is at an elevation of 216m, Bangalore 920m, London is at 11m ... umm ok u get the picture... So again do take care to avoid altitude sickness or AMS. Read how we dealt with it.

Tip 5: Handling AMS

Don't sleep during the day, ginger tea and cloves under your tongue, give your body time to adapt. Try not to exhert... I'm not scaring you or putting u off from this trip. All I'm saying is be prepared! Asprin / Disprin / Diamox check with your doc on this !

Driving through Khardungla was an amazing feeling, it is after all one of the highest motorable roads in the world.

That is its claim to fame.. so go take your selfie there... You must!

Stuck in a Traffic Jam just before we reach the pass.

So the thing is coz Khardungla is so popular people drive out here for a day trip from Leh, its crowded and the traffic moves slow. For the first time we were happy to be stuck in a jam coz we just got to sit around in one of the most scenic places in this world, chit chatting with each other.

Tip6: Always remember to chit-chat with your better half ! Mine was giving me a talk on the last time he visited Ladakh on a Bullet! And i was telling him jokes.

Oh I couldn't go on that bike trip coz i was preggers with my 2nd baby. But that didn't stop me and here I am.. finally made it! So if you decide to visit a place and you cant go at one time dont give up on that dream... make it happen whenever you can!

While we were waiting we took some snaps. That white thing there in the photo below thats a tempo traveller.. just so you can get the perspective.

And Oh Ya! Those are just rocks .. they keep falling. Not to worry just pray none fall on you...just kidding. They seem to be glued on all together. I still cannot understand the geographic marvel of this land.

Tip7 : Drive a little away from the main tourist stopping point and take your pics. Most of the day tours turn and go back to Leh from here. So go a little further down the road and take your pics

Next Leg of the Drive - Onwards to Nubra Valley

Once you cross the Khardungla Pass and loose the crowds you're once again on dreamy roads in the Himalayas.

We were hungry so we decided to stop at the next place we came across lots of 5star restaurants to choose from ... I'm just kidding we were lucky to find a stop at North Pullu that served up hot hot maggi... my soul food ! They had a restroom too ! Stop here and eat the next place we found was almost an hour away.

Tip8: Carry a Ipad or any notebook and make notes as you travel, a photo will only tell so much. Here at this place I sat and wrote all my thoughts. it has been easy to copy from them now 2 years later!

The road just gets better and better after this as now you are descending into a valley towards Nubra.

At this point we felt something wrong with the car the bonnet was slightly dropping on the right wheel. It was a slight tilt so we just posed and drove on.

As desis we took God's name and decided to move on. Heck there was nothing else we could do :) What do we see next... a sign "Jai Gurudev" & I felt better ! the psychological effect positive message can have is immense... all along the road we then found signs written by "BRO" and the Army, they are so motivating - I have shared pics of the really cool ones later on in this blog. One of them is my permanent screen saver. - Lets see if you can guess which one ?

Souvenirs : Collected all sort of colourful stones that we saw on the way sometimes a red mountain sometimes a green mountain and most surprising lots of lil lavender shrubs all along the way. I have a full colection of stones from all the places I've visited and each is kept in a seperate box.

Soon we were driving parallel to The Shyok River - a tributary of the Indus River.

As the river flows it made me wonder where did it come from ? Who is the creator of this land ? How does it exist ? How do people inhabit this area ? So many questions they remain unanswered as this is a land of rugged hardship and mystery, there is an aura of how superior the mountains are to us.. mere mortals. How long they have been standing here for. Millenials before me and G drove by and will be here for millions of years.

We drove for another hour through these roads we were now a little lost coz google maps didn't work here - As usual we did not download any maps so we just had to use instinct to find this place, I had one lame map I had downloaded just before we left. So I asked him to stop and ask someone for directions and our man decided to stop and ask a cow 😝🙄😳 thats his way of telling me to stop nagging and enjoy the scenery so i did just that.

Day 4

The breakfast next morning at Nubra Eco-Lodge was outstanding and the view we got was stunning

Day 4 - Exploring Nubra - We had decided to keep this day to explore Nubra visit the Diksit Monastry and take it easy walk about. Coz as much as we love driving we love walking about. And since Nubra is at a lower elevation it was manageable.

The drive to the monastery was beautiful. We had to descend right to the bottom of the valley enter the gorge then drive a long straight road and then again climb the mountain on the other side to reach.

The Diksit Monastery was built in the 14th century and has this large statue of the Buddha. You have to pay a small fee and enter the premises.

Tip11: Climb to the top most part and just spend sometime enjoying the views from there.

As we drove down from the monastery, there are several of these smaller Gompas, lining the road.

The sun was setting and we got to see some spectacular sunsets at a region 10,000ft above sea-level

That was a day well spent.

Day 5 - A Change in Plans - Overnight at Nubra.

When in Ladakh be ready to be spontaneous you never know what plans you may need to change. We had to cancel Leh and stick to Nubra and it all got done pretty smooth.

Day 5 the plan was to head back to Leh ...explore the confluence of the Zanzkar and Indus river but that was not to be!

Tip12:Stay flexible in your plans. We had told our hotel in Leh - Singge Palace the booking for trip on night 5 was tentative and may change. They were ok with it.

Why we couldn't make it back to Leh on Day 5

The previous day while driving in the we noticed the dip of the bonnet on the right side had become more and now there was a distinct sound we could not ignore anymore. Hmmm! Today since the drive was going to be challenging we didn't want to take any chances and decided to get it checked.

We left Nubra early morning 8am.

The bonnet had sunk too much it was getting difficult to steer, we had seen a garage at the crossing before entering Diksit the previous day and we decided to get it checked before we started the main drive.

The mechanics started.. and they worked ...and they worked and they worked ... then G got his hands dirty... and I took pics. In hindsight it was all part and parcel of the adventure.

Turning the negative day into a positive - The garage had a beautiful scenic setting. Soon it was 3pm - Our mechanic friend Rohan, told us he would just put things back and we could drive to Leh, but would have to be very careful.

After the parts were put back on the vehicle we decided to head back to Leh and then set out next day to Pangong Tso to keep to our plans.

Do you think we made it back to Leh?

As we were driving out of Nubra Valley - We passed a junction and we saw 3 signs -

One road to Leh

One road to Pangong

Finding a place to stay at on Day 5 ?

Then we called a friend of a freinds' who we had dropped off a camera the previous day, we asked him to recommend a place & Mr. Wangial told us to just head over to his Lharimo North Cottages that was nearby - the perfect gentleman and the most wonderful host. This was the first time we were meeting him, and he opened out his place to us in Teggur. Its a place a little further up from Nubra and with open arms he welcomed us in.

Now everything happens for a reason - we were meant to spend time at Lharimo North Cottages - you have to see this place it to believe it!

It was beautiful, in hindsight I don't know why we didn't choose to stay at this place in Nubra.

That evening our host Wangial enthralled us with stories of Ladakh, we discussed politics and shared more stories late into the night, we learnt about the Ladakh Scouts and how they literally won the Kargil war for India. Spending time with him was an eye opener to the local ways, their issues with water in this cold desert. ... Its a tough life !!

Lharimo North Cottages conducts treks and offer super stay packages in Nubra and now we have a reason to head back in the future with our girls!

A large dose of Ladakhi Hospitality is what we experienced. All I can say here is - Yes it was stupid of us to carry on with a damaged vehicle in this terrain, but put that thought to rest. The Ladakhi is the epitome of hospitality - Once our vehicle broke down, people were so good and helpful. Wangial , Rohan - these 2 gentlemen and our driver Sayyed who we were yet to meet and so many more on our journey just made it so much more memorable. Jhuley ! Jhuley!

Tip13: Learn the magic word Jhuley- Use it when you want to say hello, goodbye, thank you, how are you, nice to meet you and you’re welcome. Its an all-in-one word. Jhuley for reading till here !

We spent that night at Lharimo Cottages and decided to leave the vehicle there and to hire another car. Only this time we would not be alone we would have a driver with us. Hiring a car was easy. Sharp 8am our driver Sayyed and new vehicle showed up and we were ready to go.

Day 6 - Nubra to Pangong via Chang-La

So we said goodbye to our Grey Beauty today not taking any chances as the suspension was gone and the road today is supposed to be one of the most difficult roads in the world. And very few stops.

Day 6 - Two Choices.

We had 2 choices now for the next leg of our journey !

1. Head back to Leh and spend one more day there the route was the same as we had come on, through Khardungla and skip Pangong completely.

OR

2. Head to Pangong from Nubra - A road less travelled and hardly taken because it was very treacherous and long through the Chang-la pass.

Ofcourse we were going to go straight from Nubra to Pangong through the Chang-La pass. We had booked and saved for the glamping part of our journey for the last. There was no way I was going to forfeit that !

That drive as tedious as it was, the scenery on the way was just Ooh la la !

The Drive - Nubra to Pangong

We left Nubra at 9:30am and Reached Pangong at 3:30pm.

The road was gorgeous but also tough one with little habitation.

We saw many signs on the way that said "beware of shooting stones" the thing is, we fear so many things in life but when we overcome these fears that's when we step out of the comfort zone and see the beauty of all the things Mother Nature has to offer.

So we saw mountains that had fallen as in piles and piles of stones as though they had just been dumped their in a truck...

Shale stone that may have fallen and that was smashed to a thousand pieces...

Mud just holding the mountain together with all the pebbles and stones embedded into it for like a 1000years.

Jagged edges jutting out of nowhere and then a beautiful green river flowing below us .. That was the first leg along the Shyok river.

While we were driving to Pangong – we had to drive through a ridge… its gorgeous and ofcouse deep … and if you look down on the open side you can actually see a blue/green river running with you all the way. I have shared the videos on instagram.

It was like a race we were having with the river, it flows fast and set against the afternoon sun, amidst the backdrop of the gorge that gets like an orange brown color with a blue sky above – like a real live movie playing out. You have to see it.

We crossed over and reached Dubruk and the road got slightly better with a few river crossings stopped for lunch and then proceeded through Tangste towards Pangong.

Entering the Pangong Panamik Region:

Here is where there was green meadows start and you can spot a few animals but the the mountain was as harsh as before with not much sign of life. The great dry desert continued...

Spotting the Blue Beauty - Pangong Tso

After driving for about 5 hours. Suddenly out of nowhere we spotted blue-The mighty Pangong Tso... I cannot tell you how blue it is or no picture can ever do justice to what we saw with our own eyes.

Here at a place far and beyond the maddening crowds our final campsite. I'd like to call it our glamping site. #glampinginladakh

At the Hermitage there are just 8 tents it is at the edge of the lake and the tent itself is luxurious. There is a desk that I sat and wrote on and the view from the desk itself is of the lake and the mountains surrounding the lake.

And Viola - that's how it was from the inside... the view !

That afternoon I just sat and starred at the lake and watched as the color changed as evening set on.

Exploring Pangong Lake - Walk about in the evening.

That night I remember looking up at night to the sky and it was filled, I cannot even begin to explain how many stars there were. At 14000ft elevation more than a million stars shining down on me like blessings. I am so glad that I got to see a clear night sky at Pangong.

Day 7 - Exploring the Lake & Heading back to Leh.

We spent the morning enjoying the lake and all the beauty that surrounds it.

How did the lake get this colour ? Did you know the lake is translucent it just reflects the color of the sky thats why the color keeps changing.

Drving back from Pangong to Leh via Changla Pass.

The drive back from Pangong via ChangLa To Leh was beautiuful to begin after about 2 hours on a long flat road we had again climbed towards Chang-la

We were quite at the top and we drove through in silence not uttering a word my heart was in my mouth. Suddenly we saw this sign post that said “Avalanche area end” and I breathed. (Mom I hope you're not reading this!)

We then reached Chang La top - the mountain pass, beautiful it is.

Take a moment to salute our unsung heroes - All along the roads in Ladakh you will see and appreciate all that our Indian Army does at border regions like this for us.. Don't forget to notice the signs on the road.

The BRO (Border Roads Organisation) Just wow! what they do and achieve here. Also as you pass army base camps on the mountain walls you will see all sorts of motivational messages.

The Indian Army also sets up some serious inspirational message boards, its like a reminder to you for all the intentions you began your life with.

Once you pass Chang La top the road gets better. We just drove till we reached a checkpost just outside Leh.. sat in a dhaba and ate out of flowery plastic plates.

Tip15:I've added an image of the google maps route we took you can follow that when you make your own plan.

Permits

What do you need to drive - Permissions ! Find out and get them sorted in Leh. Foreigners need a seperate permit you will get details online.

This trip was an epic trip for me - sharing it with you makes me re-live it. Hop onto @we_travel_india on instagram if you want to save any of these pics & to follow us on our next trip.

Go now and plan your own epic journey. Jai Gurudev!