Preface
After having an amazing journey along the amazing Shyok river to reach Pangong, we spent the entire night just in front of the Pangong to explore the amazing lake and then woke up early in the morning to explore the lovely views and then left early to reach Hanle by night at any condition. The roads until Chushul was ok, but later conditions was horrible. Read it here
Plan for the day
This is a continued part of the the journey from Pangong Lake to Hanle via Chushul, Nyoma. In the previous episode we reached Chushul and visited the famous Rezang La memorial. It was such an amazing experience to see the courage and sacrifice of our brave soldiers.
Chusul->Nyoma->Hanle
The journey was not so long, but the road was in a very terrible condition until we reached Nyoma and hence the journey extended to a very long time. The roads until Nyoma was the worst patch we experienced along the whole of Ladakh.
The worst roads from Chushul
The worst conditions started actually after Chushul. We were passing just beside the Chinese controlled territory and the road was in a very pathetic condition. There actually didn’t exist any roads at all. We were literally watching every bike/car which were going from a far distance and just following them.
There were few dangerous water crossings along the way as well. The roads appeared on the google maps and they appeared to be under construction which we weren’t allowed and hence we should ride across the rough patchy terrain. This was the worst patch of road we travelled in the entire journey in Ladakh.
Totally inhabited area
Along with the rough patchy roads, or literally non existent roads, there were no signs of any people living around or any hotels, food stalls. The weather was too hot and complete dryness all around with some army bunkers all around. We were very hungry after a long journey as the journey was taking too much of time and we were hardly moving ahead.
We felt like we were stuck at the same place and barely making any progress distance wise. The time was already around 2 PM and after some time we reached a pass named Tsaga La which I had never heard before. There were hardly anyone around this area and it was very hot all around. I just clicked a photo as the sun was so hot that it was very difficult to stand for sometime as well.
Finding a hotel after almost 2 hours of journey
After a very long journey of 2 hours we finally found a small dhaba which all the bikers who were traveling in that road stopped for a break. My shoes was totally wet due to the water crossing on the way. Just put the shoes and socks to dry and went to have some food as we hardly had any food since morning.
Though we had covered most of the distance, the sad part was Nyoma was almost 50kms away but the roads were similar to what we travelled just now and we had another challenging journey ahead. We had some good food, hydrated ourselves and got ready to leave after some rest.
Journey to Nyoma
The land patterns changed again and the roads were still almost the same. We got some muddy roads, broken roads and weird kind of patches along the way to Nyoma. We had to fuel next at Nyoma and I was shit scared about the fuel left on our bike as well. The calculated fuel wasn’t an issue, but the rough roads adds more trouble.
There were some confusions regarding the roads on the way and the network didn’t exist at all. Also nobody was around to ask for help as well. So we had to take a wild guess and we took the shorted yet a rough road, where the other was good but a longer one. Again this road was again terrible and very very rough.
The Hanle Region
We were still very close to the Chinese region and the interesting part was we were averaging 15,000 ft and mostly around 17,000+ ft all the time when traveling in these roads. Dehydration, loss of mental balance, more fuel consumption, dusty roads and what not, it was one hell of an experience. But on the entire journey, the scenic views never disappointed us for real.
After a long long terrible journey, we finally reached Loma, which is a very crucial place for Armed forces. This is the major connecting place to Hanle, Dungti, Demchok, the complete region of South eaastern Ladakh. Hanle was our today’s destination which was around 55kms, but we had another task. This is an area of no fuel and hence we had to fuel up at Nyoma for the next part of our journey.
So we again went to Nyoma, which is 16kms just to fuel up which is the main road connecting Leh to Nyoma, Loma, Hanle regions. There were many military establishments here as well.
The Highest Fuel Pump of the World, Nyoma
We went to fuel up at Nyoma, which is the highest altitude fuel pump of the world, so that we could cover World’s highest motorable road at ease. If this fuel outlet didn’t exist, then it would be impossible for us to cover this region without extra fuel can with us. Because the last pump we got was at Tangtse before Pangong and next is near Leh at Karu, on the Leh Manali highway.
So if we plan to cover the entire region along with Tso Moriri lake, we need 2 full tanks of petrol on RE Himalayan 411 which could be possible just because of this Indian Oil outlet. Thanks to this initiative by Indian Oil helping us connect with to these places easily. Though we can still get fuel at local shops, they’re much expensive, impure and also not reliable.
Journey to Hanle
Once we filled up our tanks, we had an amazing coffee at a local shop and then got ready to leave. We met a group of Bangladeshi riders who were exploring the entire region of North India and there were some places which even I haven’t heard of. India is such an amazing place to explore even for such International tourists.
We headed towards Loma and took hardly 8-10 mins to cover 16kms on the butter smooth wide roads with almost no traffic. There is a checkpost on the road to Hanle in Loma and we showed our documents, made entry and then started our journey to another paradise named Hanle. It was around 55 kms far but it was already 6:30 PM and completely dark everywhere. We didnt have other option as it would delay our journey further and spoil our plan to explore Tso Moriri lake.
The later journey was getting terrible as the road was very narrow, where it was hard for 2 cars to pass at a time and there was nobody else except us in the dark night. We were kind of left secluded and the dark night scenes were scary as well. The roads were amazing and that was the best part, else we had to just turn back to Nyoma and stay at night.
There were few army vehicles or trucks infront of us and would give us way easily after some point. This was such a nice gesture by them to help give give a way for seamless traffic. The wind was terrible and the night was getting darker and darker. After a exhaustive journey of 1.5hrs we finally reached Hanle.
The beautiful village Hanle
The entire village was pitch dark with few hotels here and there. We didn’t book any room online as it was very expensive and we always come here and negotiate to get the best price. But we were trapped here. There were hardly few guest house and the ones we went charging too much which was way out of our budget. We didn’t have the power to negotiate too as there were lot and lot of tourists in Hanle and they were not ready to reduce even a single rupee.
We went to Sonam guest house, the one suggested by Devil on wheelz and found that the rooms were occupied but she was so kind that she called her friend and enquired if a room was available. Luckily the room was available and we checked in immediately. We got a decent price along with dinner and breakfast. There usually are homestays where they stay in a room and rent our other rooms and cook food for the tourists.
Conclusion
We were very very tired and the network here was poor as well. So we freshened up had food and jumped to sleep immediately. The food was very good and met a few other tourists who were planning to visit Umling La as well. With a lot of excitement to reach the Highest Motorable pass of the world, we were just waiting for the next day.
