So it was another day in July, most probably the 5th when I intended to ride to Nubra Valley, popular for having a desert among the mountains at 15000+ feet. I lubed my KTM's chain and left from my hotel in LEH at 9 AM. Breakfast, I thought would be done on the way after Khardung La (K top) which was 40 kilometres away so I consumed some sweets and dry fruits for the time being. I considered crossing K top by 11 AM since the roads would definitely be broken at 18000 feet. While I climbed gradually, the initial phase saw a good section of tarred roads and defense check posts where they verified vehicle and personal details from the documents I had.
There was a second check post where I was required to write my name down and proceed. Thinking that it was only for rented motorcycles, I carried on slowly. None of the army personnel around too, stopped me. I was mostly annoyed with the crowd around, like literally. There were too many rented motorcycles, too many taxis ferrying tourists to the so called highest motorable road, just for them to be able to click selfies before a board that may have got False information on it. I climbed up peacefully as the Tarmac remained smooth. After ten odd kilometres though, the road changed shape. There were rocks, sand and water crossings. It wasn't hard but the idiotic taxis around made it annoying to climb peacefully. At one place, my Duke of KTM started to spin its wheels at a river crossing but thanks to some other riders around who gave me a little push. My altimeter equipped watch showed that I was at an altitude of 16000 feet.
Khardungla being at 18000- ish, I thought the top was still a long way to go but soon after 3 odd kilometres, I noticed a lot of taxis, people ahead. I asked some guys by the side of the road if it was a photo spot or something. My watch displayed 17280 feet. The people said no. I then asked how far was Khardungla. They said that was it. I confirmed again if that small area was Khardungla top, to which, they affirmed. On going a bit ahead, I found myself to be bewildered, frustrated, shocked. How could they put up a board claiming a spot to be as high as 18380 feet when it was nowhere near 18000 feet. On top of that, they put that highest motorable road nonsense which people believed without questioning, as usual and clicked pictures beside it.
Most took their bikes to some parking spot beside it but I took my duke straight to the board, through the idiotic crowd. Even if there was parking, it didn't matter if I broke a rule, the board was a lie anyways. I got pictures clicked of me by a kind man since I wanted to display how pathetic the situation was. I left in a while, totally uninterested in the souvenir shops around or the eateries around.
I saw the road to Nubra valley ahead filled with taxis. I didn't want to experience the tourist taxi madness and I thought it would be nice to get back to LEH, chill there for a day or two and roam around. I felt it was wise to not visit Nubra when there's a lot of crap around, after all I didn't want to spoil my first impression of Nubra. Valley by Associating it with noisy, sheeple tourists I applied The same rule to Pangong tso too after I met a group of riders on my descent who had returned on their way from Changla, saying they couldn't move on to Pangong lake because of tourists creating traffic on the pass and then there was a landslide.
How can anybody allow this? These annoying, dumb people creating garbage and havoc on high mountain passes!? Coming back to Khardungla, I fired the duke up after taking pictures and headed back towards LEH. But the crowd wasn't going to let me go that easily. With the path being narrow, the oncoming vehicles didn't have any place to go and as a result, I got stuck there for 40 minutes, staring at a board that asked people to not stay at that altitude for more than 25 minutes. I didn't allow the saying to get into my head though.
I then remembered I hadn't had breakfast and it was already and it was 12PM, so I sped up a bit until stopping ahead by two ladies from Mumbai. They were on their Royal Enfields and had their male friends on other Royal Enfields accompanying them. Obviously, of the the Royal Enfields had broken down and the girl needed a push. I stopped since I had a rope but then that didn't make sense so I suggested that the boys pushed her for a bit until gravity helped her descend independently. Doing that at 16000 feet wasn't advisable but there was no other choice so they did, while I spoke to her other female friend for a while.
After carrying on, I reached the bottom as soon as possible and stopped at the first eatery by the road. It was small and basic but very scenic. Maggi was an obvious item on the menu so I had that. Eventually, I made it to the hotel by 3 PM, freshened up and went to the market in the evening to buy things for people at home. One thing's for sure, K- top isn't the highest motorable road and tourists are screwing around with Ladakh!
By: Ssaajan Manoj Jogia
There was a second check post where I was required to write my name down and proceed. Thinking that it was only for rented motorcycles, I carried on slowly. None of the army personnel around too, stopped me. I was mostly annoyed with the crowd around, like literally. There were too many rented motorcycles, too many taxis ferrying tourists to the so called highest motorable road, just for them to be able to click selfies before a board that may have got False information on it. I climbed up peacefully as the Tarmac remained smooth. After ten odd kilometres though, the road changed shape. There were rocks, sand and water crossings. It wasn't hard but the idiotic taxis around made it annoying to climb peacefully. At one place, my Duke of KTM started to spin its wheels at a river crossing but thanks to some other riders around who gave me a little push. My altimeter equipped watch showed that I was at an altitude of 16000 feet. Khardungla being at 18000- ish, I thought the top was still a long way to go but soon after 3 odd kilometres, I noticed a lot of taxis, people ahead. I asked some guys by the side of the road if it was a photo spot or something. My watch displayed 17280 feet. The people said no. I then asked how far was Khardungla. They said that was it. I confirmed again if that small area was Khardungla top, to which, they affirmed. On going a bit ahead, I found myself to be bewildered, frustrated, shocked. How could they put up a board claiming a spot to be as high as 18380 feet when it was nowhere near 18000 feet. On top of that, they put that highest motorable road nonsense which people believed without questioning, as usual and clicked pictures beside it.
Most took their bikes to some parking spot beside it but I took my duke straight to the board, through the idiotic crowd. Even if there was parking, it didn't matter if I broke a rule, the board was a lie anyways. I got pictures clicked of me by a kind man since I wanted to display how pathetic the situation was. I left in a while, totally uninterested in the souvenir shops around or the eateries around.
I saw the road to Nubra valley ahead filled with taxis. I didn't want to experience the tourist taxi madness and I thought it would be nice to get back to LEH, chill there for a day or two and roam around. I felt it was wise to not visit Nubra when there's a lot of crap around, after all I didn't want to spoil my first impression of Nubra. Valley by Associating it with noisy, sheeple tourists I applied The same rule to Pangong tso too after I met a group of riders on my descent who had returned on their way from Changla, saying they couldn't move on to Pangong lake because of tourists creating traffic on the pass and then there was a landslide.How can anybody allow this? These annoying, dumb people creating garbage and havoc on high mountain passes!? Coming back to Khardungla, I fired the duke up after taking pictures and headed back towards LEH. But the crowd wasn't going to let me go that easily. With the path being narrow, the oncoming vehicles didn't have any place to go and as a result, I got stuck there for 40 minutes, staring at a board that asked people to not stay at that altitude for more than 25 minutes. I didn't allow the saying to get into my head though.
I then remembered I hadn't had breakfast and it was already and it was 12PM, so I sped up a bit until stopping ahead by two ladies from Mumbai. They were on their Royal Enfields and had their male friends on other Royal Enfields accompanying them. Obviously, of the the Royal Enfields had broken down and the girl needed a push. I stopped since I had a rope but then that didn't make sense so I suggested that the boys pushed her for a bit until gravity helped her descend independently. Doing that at 16000 feet wasn't advisable but there was no other choice so they did, while I spoke to her other female friend for a while.
After carrying on, I reached the bottom as soon as possible and stopped at the first eatery by the road. It was small and basic but very scenic. Maggi was an obvious item on the menu so I had that. Eventually, I made it to the hotel by 3 PM, freshened up and went to the market in the evening to buy things for people at home. One thing's for sure, K- top isn't the highest motorable road and tourists are screwing around with Ladakh!
By: Ssaajan Manoj Jogia