indian himalayas

[tim]

does anyone have info or recommendations on travelling in north india: scenic highlights? great roads?

i am taking my cbz hero honda (150cc). will she be up to the leh manali crossing in june-july? has anyone ridden the spiti valley road?

all info greatly appreciated.

thanks tim

[parkie]

Spiti/Lahaul road quite rough but passable & absolutely stunning scenery. You need an inner line pass as this goes pretty close to Tibetan boarder but this can be picked up at Kaza (I think) on your way around.

Road from Ladakh into Zanskar also amazing. VERY rough though & a dead end. Need to come out the same way. No gas station in Zanskar but petrol can be bought on the black market. Ask around.

Other great rides in Indian Himalya include road up to Gangotri & road up to Badrinath.

Enjoy !!

[parkie]

Just realised I didn't even mention Manali-Leh road. Absolutely fantastic ride! Make sure you have enough petrol range. There is no gas station between Keylong & Leh - can't remember how far - check your map. I needed to carry spare gas on my Enfield. There are a few places to stay on the way across - takes 2-3 days. You cross some pretty high passes - 5300m max so you may have a few carburation probs - not much oxygen up there. Altitude also a prob for yourself - read up on AMS & drink LOTS of water.
Road generally in better condition the later in the season you leave it - same goes for all Himalayan roads. Winter trashes them & they rebuild them every summer!
Enjoy the views & watch out for maniacal truck drivers.

[vincent danna]

hi
so what would be the best time for biking in ladakh and zanskhar
and the worst time
i plan to go there on my trip but think i have a really bad schedule
thanks
ride safe
http://vincent.danna.free.fr/

[parkie]

The roads open when the snow has melted enough for the road gangs to clear a motorable path over the passes. This normally occurs in June but if it has been a bad winter it may be later.
The Rotang Pass while not being the highest is normally the last to open. This is only about 20km from Manali - last town in Kulu Valley so even if they are telling you it is closed in Manali it is worth a ride up - I have found I could get my bike through even when the road was not yet officially open. If you can get over the Rotang you are then in the rain shadow of the Himalaya & the remaining passes while higher do not receive nearly as much snow so should be fine. You can suss this out in Keylong (the district capital) after you cross.
Road gangs spend all summer repairing the damage winter has wrought so the later in the season you leave it the easier the road is.
The snows arrive again September/October & then the roads close so make sure you're out in time or you may be stuck for winter!

[tim]

dear parkie,

cheers for the info, off on sunday and i am hoping for a good spring so i can try your recommendations,

thanks tim

[vincent danna]

hi i may be there at the wrong time end of 2002, beg of 2003
now in novosibirsk, russia, soon in mongolia

safe travels

[stormsearcher]

dear vincent, gona do the himalayas?the road opens in mid june till bout sep/oct/ best time would be august/rough roads/but great ride/ if u wanna check out a trip and see some pics of a trip i did check out www.bsmotoring.com/bsmrd350club/rdhim
u will get an idea bout the roads/and travel thro the himalayas/ have a gr8 trip/

[iris_trui]

Hello Himalaya riders out there. It seems I kick in "late" but we were travelling, exactly there, last year. We took 5 weeks up in the North and it was worth all of it and even more.

Light bike can't be the problem - rather the contrary, for some roads are rough. We prepared our carburetors (smaller main jet, lowered the needle, and took of the airfilterlid for the very highest parts).

Manali to Leh is.......... awesome. Can't think of another word. Take your time for it. Stop and look around. And prepare your trip in chewable parts regarding to the height espacially ! Read info on AMS and be very carefull. For some reason we didn't have any problem besides a very mild headache at one stage, but we saw and heard others...
385 km between fuel right before Keylong and Leh. Camps in Darcha, Sarchu and Pang (and 1 or 2 small ones in between). The latter lays high - 4630 m - we choose not to sleep here but rode Sarchu to Leh in one long day. 3 days on the way up and 2 on the way back.
Darcha to Sarchu is the roughest day - we did 83 kms and were knackered. Around all passes: dirt track and a few river fordings. Toughest river crossing was shortly before the Baralacha La.

Nubra is a must (across the Kardung La at 5.600 m but we measured it lower, 5399 m by GPS both ways).

And for me the REAL highlight was our trip to Pangong Tso. A high altitude lake on the border with Tibet. It's just that, but the road to it (ROUGH in a few places !), and the lake's solitude and beauty and surrounding mountains is something we will never never forget. Have a look at our website for some pictures - not all have captions yet, but I'm sure it will give an idea.
(the full stories of our journey are also on our website)

Spiti is amazing too, but from Khoksar to Losar or a bit further even is 100% stony rough track with 3-5 deep river crossings, and more of the ride-through type (+/- 120 kms). We did Keylong to Losar in one day, then a half day to Kaza. On the way back --to our own surprise-- it took us just one day to get all the way from Kaza to Manali. And the weather was even rainy and foggy for half of the day.
Looking back, we think we should've done Spiti before going up to Leh, as we were already SO spoilt we weren't fully enjoying Spiti. But is IS beautiful of course. Absolutely visit Tabo gompa. Together with Alchi the oldest and the most finely decorated of all Northern India.
But do visit many gompa's - all have something special, and the monks are usually very welcoming and friendly.

O yes, another highlight is the road to Lamayuru gompa (and the Fotu La further on), direction Kargil. There's one road which devides in two somewhere before Lamayuru - can't recall exactly where but there's a huge yellow sign all of a sudden pointing in two directions. One is the main (lower and new) road to Lamayuru, the other is the old high road. Difference between them is 560 metres !!! The views from the old, rarely used road over the valleys, the low road and villages is simply AMAZING. We were all alone there and surprised two eagles on the road side. The high road ends (or begins if you come from Leh) with 27 spectacular hairpin bends. The road is slowly crumbling as it's no longer used much, but it's ok.

I'm very sure Tso Kar and Tso Moriri are also extremely beautiful (and Stormseacher's pictures confirm this), but as Iris says "always leave something to come back for" ;-)

Ladakh is unbelievable.
Keep us posted on your trips up there. I suppose we'll read about it in the HorUnl newsletter.

Trui

------------------
Iris and Trui
2 belgian women, often travelling on motorbikes (now on DR650SE's)
2nd overland from home to Northern India and back, April-October 2002

[This message has been edited by iris_trui (edited 21 March 2003).]

[vincent danna]

Hello
I arrived in manali beginning of October 2003.
In leh 10 October, good road, no snow then went on a trip to tso morriri and khardung la , from leh
From leh then west : to kargil down south to zanskar ( not really only rangdum ), back to kargil, more west to srinagar, jammu

Very nice, no road or weather problems
Sleep, food, almost everywhere, no worries, not much choice but it s ok

The roads stop being maintained in October around leh manali.
Asphalt, rocks, grasslands, sand …

Have fun

[james]

To revive an old post, can someone fill me in on the need for camping gear in Ladakh? I'm going to head up there this summer, and am wondering whether to bother to take my gear.

I notice that Vincent says 'sleep, food, almost everywhere, no worries'. I'm thinking of exactly the places Trui talks about - maybe not Spiti, but the other offshoots plus Tso Moriri and perhaps into Zanskar.

So, two questions:

1. Is camping gear entirely unnecessary/useful/essential?

2. Can you cross Zanskar all the way from Kargil - or further east, since my map shows some smaller roads from around Fotu La - down to the Manali-Leh road? The brand new Nelles map shows a road under construction over Shingo La at 5090m, which is just north of Darcha on the Manali-Leh road. Ringdom seems to be about as far as anyone's gone from Kargil.

Chris, won't be making to the HU meeting this year, unfortunately, so I'll miss your talk.

James

[vincent danna]

you ll be quite high in the mountains so it can be cold sometimes, not especially during the day but during the night : you should wear pretty warm clothes during the day for riding and night also.
if it s risky (on the way to cachemire and in cachemire), the military will not allow you to go : they ll stop you and will tell you to wait or go back.
you ll meet anyways a lot (!) of military presence (military convoies on the roads, barracks, check points), starting from manali then increasing the more you get to srinagar.
unless you love being alone at night / you don t want to meet people, you will always find a place to stay / eat (kind of guesthouse or private house) : that s why i was saying you don t really need camping equipment. i had some camping equipement just in case.
the only thing you have to really worry about is the petrol pumps : try to know exactly on your way where you can get some : if you run out of petrol, you can wait a while, before finding someone willing to help :-)
during summer, you ll meet for sure other tourists. remember : the "locals" are used to seeing tourists and bikers every summer.
the roads (manali to srinagar via leh and kargil) usually close on 15 october.

if you look at a map : you have on the right : ladakh, in the middle zanskar, on the left cachemire.
manali to leh to kargil : no road problem, you meet people, villages etc ...
kargil to srinagar : no road problem, you meet people, villages etc ...
zanskar : as written before, we only went from kargil south to rangdum : no road problem, you meet people, villages etc ... south of rangdum, it gets complicated for the roads, junctions etc ... : risks of goat tracks leading you nowhere (?).

otherwise, the roads are fine for a bike or a car : you can find your way by asking people, we had the india nelles map i think but you can get a more local one, which may help a lot if you really want to escape from the main roads or attractions.
lonely planet is full of pretty good info : look at it, it ll help you a lot to prepare.

enjoy, it s beautifull over there, if you love beaches, sorry mountains :-)

[This message has been edited by vincent danna (edited 08 June 2005).]

[seanh]

I concur with all of the above, the high himalaya is spectacular, both for it's scenery and it's remoteness, I think it beats the Karakorams and the Pamirs of central asia. I took smaller jets for the carbs on my R65 but could have done without them, saw one guy cross Khudung La (5600m) on an old vespa.
Sean

[NSML]

A burst dam in China has done huge damage to the road through Lahaul, the bottom route into Spiti. It will be very difficult, if not impassable for the rest of this year. About 10 bridges have gone. Last time this happened (11/8/97) it took a couple of years to repair. Rohtang is now open, so you'll have to go that way, and over Kunzum, a little challenging but plenty people around to help if it gets too much. I was there in late june and managed on a bullet. Malling Nallah has also "gone", so not much point going past Tabo. Sod it, go to Leh and on to kashmir, a more stunning route anyway.
Good Luck.

[bunnypunia]

malling nullah is history now.. a new road was opened 2-3 months back but i am not sure if it survived the recent floods..

the best way is to reach via rohtang pass-kunzum..