Road Trip to Leh (India): July 2009 – Day 3 of 10

Sarchu to Leh

I had thought that I would have a sound sleep since we were so tired with all the traveling yesterday. However altitude sickness got the better of me and I could sleep only intermittently and kept turning in my bed. A gust was blowing outside and the tents fluttered violently. The tethers did a good job to keep them in place all night.

I woke up with a bad throbbing headache, the kind you have after a night of heavy drinking. I’d to gather all my strength to get ready and go to the kitchen tent for tea. As I left my tent I saw the view around our campsite for the first time. It was breathtaking – we were in the middle of nowhere with huge barren mountains all around and a smooth straight road extending from infinity to infinity on either end. The tents looked so meek surrounded by the gigantic creations of nature. The breeze and the view eased my head a bit and I downed a hot cup of tea in record time.

My friends weren’t feeling very well either – they’d also had a sleepless night in the rarified air at 14 thousand feet. We force-fed ourselves some breakfast, loaded our luggage back on the taxi and left for Leh. We were all apprehensive about the Tanglang La pass we needed to cross in order to reach Leh – at over 17 thousand feet it is the second-highest motorable pass in the world.

The road from Sarchu to Leh was in an average condition with some rough patches. For instance, one of the bridges we crossed was barely hanging there. We got off the car and had to direct the driver to cross gently and precisely over the surviving girders. Then at one place our car got stuck in a pool of icy water on the road and we had to remove our shoes, get down and push the car with all our might to get it out. The lack of oxygen did not help either.

Between Sarchu and Leh lie two spectacular stretches of land – the Gata Loops and the More Plains. The 21 Gata Loops are formed by the winding road that climbs up one of the mountains to the Nakila pass. More Plains is a flat, barren stretch of land that lies after Pang. Though very dusty and rough, it is still a welcome break from the atrocious twists and turns of the mountain track. It reminds you of Arizona where they test rocket cars and watch them break the sound barrier.

More Plains give way to a steep climb to the Tanglang La pass. By this time we were getting a bit acclimatized to the high altitude. Armed with this and the thought of our nearness to our destination, we gathered the courage to come out of the car and click some pictures at the pass. We watched as some taxis drove by without stopping and taking the chance. A group of motor bikers arrived there in an exhausted state with the look that they could go no further. Somehow, we survived.

After Tanglang the going was great – we had to cover only a couple hundred kilometers to Leh and the journey was all downhill.

The surroundings change spectacularly as you enter Ladakh. You have the first sighting of the Indus river. Houses begin to appear with small cultivated farms and gardens. Behind them are the barren, brown mountains with not a shrub on their steep slopes. We relished every moment of our first contact with civilization after almost two days.

Our mobiles started catching a signal as we entered Karu, about 40 Km from Leh. We informed our families of our successful tryst with the Himalayas and altitude sickness. Some friends were jealous to know how much we had seen and enjoyed in the last two days.

The weather now was quite warm and our jackets and sweaters started coming off. We reached Leh in the evening to find tourists roaming around in t-shirts and shorts. The first thing to take care of was arranging a guesthouse. We asked around to find no vacancies since it was peak tourist season in Leh. Finally we found a small guesthouse in one of the hidden alleys where we took two rooms at a cool Rs. 400 per room. The rooms were tiny but well furnished with carpets and wooden furniture. We found a bigger guesthouse a small distance away that had livelier rooms with a great view, priced similarly. However there was no vacancy for the day, so we booked it for the next three days.

We took hot bucket bath and went out for dinner at Il Forno, a rooftop restaurant famous for its pizzas. The place was packed and we had to wait for a table. The food was good, though we could not eat much as our appetite was still shriveled. We went off to sleep directly after. No travel was on agenda for tomorrow and we could wake up as late as we liked.