Chapter #6 - Descending to Leh Town

July 10, 2019

After a thrilling and adrenaline-loaded ride through more plains, it was time to enter the world's second-highest motorable pass and it was time to put our lovely Activa to test.  I must share that the ascent to Tanglangla pass is extremely steep and even bikes like Royal Enfield struggle a lot. 

Okay, finally we started ascending and as expected, we were able to get a maximum speed of 5 km/h with full throttle. There were numerous factors behind this - one being the activa was fully loaded. The weight of Activa with a full tank is around 120 kg and our combined weight was 130 kg and the combined weight of two backpacks was around 5 kg and this leads to a total of 255 kg. 

The other factor was the engine size and the steep climb at high altitude. The petrol engines are basically air-breathing engines.  They need an ample supply of oxygen-rich air as we do. The Activa's engine has a volume of around 110 cubic centimeters (cc) and at high altitude, the air gets thinner and the oxygen level drops drastically and this affects the engine's performance. We could actually feel the engine struggling while ascending and at one point, the climb was so steep near the turn that we lost all our momentum and engine got cut-off.  We were somewhat worried too because we have been riding on half air filter since the water crossing and there is no settlement near Tanglangla pass. 

Anyhow, we managed to get the engine started and continued to ascend. This time, we did not lose any momentum and after patiently driving for around  2 hours, we reached the top. It was so beautiful over there but We could feel the lack of oxygen as we got tired very soon. Take it this way - if you can walk 100 meters on sea level without getting tired, you can walk only 10 meters at this pass before you start feeling as if you are running out of breath !!!

Finally, we clicked some mandatory pictures!

From Tanglang la, the descent to Leh town started. The Leh town is at an altitude of around 11,500 ft, so it was a descent of around 6000 ft from Tanglang la. There is nothing much to talk about but you will come across some of the most beautiful scenes from nature. We just kept moving and moving and we could hear the great Indus river gushing through the mountains and we were filled with joy as we finally made it to our destination.

If you want to see the Indus river in its purest form ( Bluewater), then it is recommended to visit Ladakh just after winter. The river's water was sandy when we visited and for this reason, the famous Sangam point ( where Indus and Zanskar river meets) was not in full color.

Anyway, there were two beautiful towns of Upshi and Karu before Leh. The sun was shining and our faces were full of dust and suntan.  I had got a pretty bad face tan. 

At first sight, Leh looked like just a normal town with a lot of hustle and traffic but the beauty lies around Leh. The town was clean and Beautiful. We already had a booking near Sanchi stupa via Booking.com but we decided to look for another homestay and fortunately, we found a very homely and newly built homestay "Pearl House " and believe me it was the best decision. The owner was nice and gave us a pretty good deal. It was around 2000 for two days ( excluding food). One thing which we must remember is that Leh is a remote area and vegetation is scarce and is only available for 3-4 months and for the rest of the year, everyone depends on the transport of food from mainland India. So, the eatables and other items include the cost of transportation which inflates the price of things over there. In short, Ladakh is costly as compared to regular hill stations. How costly?

We had to get the air filter replaced and we paid around 250 INR for a single unit of the air filter while it costs only around 80-100 INR in mainland India. 

Anyway, The place where we were staying was pretty good and had really good vibes. What really impressed me in Leh was the decorative woodwork over the windows of hotels and homestays. It looked pretty royal. The aunt there ( owner of pearl house) was so nice and we used to have long conversations and we were the only guests whom she invited to have lunch and dinner in the kitchen itself. It was a welcoming gesture. 

In the evening time, we went out for some snacks and to have some look around the town. There was a lot of military presence in and around the town and it is justified. I still remember it was world cup 2019's semifinal and everyone was busy watching the semifinal and they got really sad when Dhoni was run out by the New Zealand team. It really broke their hearts and ours too, of course.

There is too much to see and buy in Leh town and shops stay open till late at night. At night, the whole town looked so beautiful and mesmerizing and one thing which we noticed, the concept of the ceiling fan is near to zero in Leh as most of the hotels and homestays did not have any ceiling fan, thanks to the chilling nights.

At night, we had a large bowl of maggie as maggie and mountain is the best combination, we can have. The most important thing is we were not in touch with our parents anymore because the moment we entered Jammu and Kashmir, our mobile network was gone. If you do not have a local SIM card then you cannot talk to anybody back home but yes if you can get a local SIM or broadband service, then you are good to go. This is due to security reasons and as long as we were in Jammu and Kashmir, we did not touch our mobile phones which is actually a good thing, otherwise, we would be busy in mobiles instead of talking to locals and roaming here and there. 

At around 10 pm, we slept as we planned to go to Khardungla on the next day.

I hope you are enjoying this series and please do comment if you are reading this. The next destination is the world's highest motorable road and probably the most painful road - The Khardung la.

Thank you !!!