Leh and Ladakh - Trip Planning - All queries go here

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Hi nilanjanray

8 Inch- are potholes as you said - what you will face in these roads are best termed as craters - the one where I got hit must be about 1-1/2 fts - the car almost tilted and for a moment i felt we are gone .. i was not at speed must be less than 30 - though it was climb and i was trying to accelerate .

The throttle response was very bad - I had to continuously floor the accelerator - can be because of - less oxygen / Turbo Lag / Diesel Quality - after Manali it was fine - new fuel , better air maybe .

1.5 feet!! No wonder....would have wrecked most vehicles.

Yes, it seems there are a few variables, perhaps all adding up. I have gone till ~ 9000 feet in the South with the Fortuner, didn't face any issues. But have felt suboptimal pull when I filled up diesel (bad quality, now I know) from a small pump on the highway - it continued till I refilled my tank. Would you know whether the local Innovas and Scorpios tweak the ECU mapping for high altitude driving?

[Anupam]

tougher the game, better the fun..

I guess, you are right, maybe there will be a calling to Leh again......

this was a patch from Omni, omni is a house hold name to all tyre guys, should be pretty easy to source, also you can easily find info if you google 'Omni Mushroom tyre patch'

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Manali route is indeed open & the best part is most of the passes are covered with fresh snow & if you are lucky you may see snowfall at this time as we could experience , in fact because of Snow these passes looked exceptionally beautiful , sorry you missed maybe this will make you come again next Year .

Thanks for your advise on repair of tire - can you please elaborate on this - from where can we get this done or do we need to buy something ?

I think another point, is the risk of your hard disk crash, I think this has been covered earlier by HVK but nonetheless, no harm in repeating, hard-disk above 8000 ft are at risk
mine did not crash but it gave some other problems and now have 40% bad secors in the hdd, detailed info of this phenomenon is widely available through google

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Quite an experience, Ladakh always causes a scare and brings out the best in everyone

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

1.5 feet!! No wonder....would have wrecked most vehicles.

Yes, it seems there are a few variables, perhaps all adding up. I have gone till ~ 9000 feet in the South with the Fortuner, didn't face any issues. But have felt suboptimal pull when I filled up diesel (bad quality, now I know) from a small pump on the highway - it continued till I refilled my tank. Would you know whether the local Innovas and Scorpios tweak the ECU mapping for high altitude driving?

Most modern vehicles, esp turbo charged, manage quite fine. Sure at high passes above 5000mts like K.Top, there is some loss of power, but there is nothing which is too drastic.
Only place where I felt that the cooling system failed to cool the engine was the last 1km to Marisimik La around 5650 meters above sea level. I was doing 2000-3000 rpm in 1st gear low ratio, and service light started blinking putting ECU in limp home(standard procedure in case of overheating).
Parked with bonnet up for a few minutes, went up, and while coming down faced no issues.
Other than that, I have not faced any sort of overheating issues anywhere in ladakh, not even when driving continously at 5100mts above sea level in the changthang desert.

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Most modern vehicles, esp turbo charged, manage quite fine. Sure at high passes above 5000mts like K.Top, there is some loss of power, but there is nothing which is too drastic.
Only place where I felt that the cooling system failed to cool the engine was the last 1km to Marisimik La around 5650 meters above sea level. I was doing 2000-3000 rpm in 1st gear low ratio, and service light started blinking putting ECU in limp home(standard procedure in case of overheating).
Parked with bonnet up for a few minutes, went up, and while coming down faced no issues.
Other than that, I have not faced any sort of overheating issues anywhere in ladakh, not even when driving continuously at 5100mts above sea level in the changthang desert.

Thanks - very useful inputs. In 2003, I went to 16500-17000 feet in a Sumo in North Sikkim, to a front line army base. The hired Sumo was not special for sure - it even had a bald rear tire :-). I have seen (traveled in) Army Gypsies going to 18150 ft without any trouble - but maybe they are modified ones.

I guess one needs to recalibrate ones driving style when driving in high altitude. And be extra careful about terrain, filter clogging, changed rpm/performance curve, engine heating up etc.

I always wanted to do 3 major troad trips. MP forest trip done with my vehicle. To do: Leh and Arunachal - that will require high altitude driving wisdom from the folks here :-)

[Abhiknov]

really need to know of some place to stay between manali and rohtang!

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Abhiknov

really need to know of some place to stay between manali and rohtang!

Manali rohtang is around 40kms(or 50 maybe)
The last village on the highway is Kothi, around 30kms from Rohtang pass. There are a couple of hotels there.
5kms before Kothi there is Palchan, and another 3-4kms before that is Solang valley.

[Abhiknov]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Manali rohtang is around 40kms(or 50 maybe)
The last village on the highway is Kothi, around 30kms from Rohtang pass. There are a couple of hotels there.
5kms before Kothi there is Palchan, and another 3-4kms before that is Solang valley.

I was looking more for names of hotels/guest houses. Any ideas on that front?

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Abhiknov

I was looking more for names of hotels/guest houses. Any ideas on that front?

Sagoo cafe at kothi is one, and whispering woods at palchan is another. Google search for solang valley, there are lot more hotels there(but slightly expensive)

[Turbanator]

some place to stay between manali and rohtang

any reasons ? If you are coming from Leh side - Jispa is more scenic to stay or else HP hotel at Keylong , towards Manali you can have number of Hotels as soon as you are about to enter the town , you will have better options in Manali for sure .

[8090guy]

All
I'm planning Hyd - Leh - Srinagar - Hyd trip from 26-Aug to 18-Sept. Myself, wifey and our Swift ZXI! Planning to drive through Bombay not Nagpur.

I was going through this thread to see if anyone from Hyd is doing this trip at the same time. Looks like no. MileCruncher seems to be doing it along with hvk , who is planning mid-August if I'm not wrong.

Pls let me know. My itenary is getting to a final shape.

-Vivek

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

any reasons ? If you are coming from Leh side - Jispa is more scenic to stay or else HP hotel at Keylong , towards Manali you can have number of Hotels as soon as you are about to enter the town , you will have better options in Manali for sure .

I think he is asking for going to leh.
From Delhi manali is a good 14 hours.
Staying ahead of palchan gives you a good 1 hour head start, and instead of needing to start at 4:30am, you can start at 5:30am and miss the jams of rohtang

[v&v]

Another update about Lakhanpur Toll : One can pay Rs 130 here itself. There is no same day restriction. We paid rs 130/- here and passed Qazigund next day. No issues.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by v&v

Another update about Lakhanpur Toll : One can pay Rs 130 here itself. There is no same day restriction. We paid rs 130/- here and passed Qazigund next day. No issues.

Hi, nice to hear but you must have crossed in less than 24 hours , or do you want to say that one can pass at any day ?

[v&v]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Hi, nice to hear but you must have crossed in less than 24 hours , or do you want to say that one can pass at any day ?

Cant comment on that. The guy at checkpost only checked whether i paid 130 rupees or not, just thats it. he did mention or ask about when we paid this !

[Hammer & Anvil]

For some reason, a couple from my group wish to come via Srinagar- kind of roughing it out testing the local transport.

Therefore:
Concrete information required- for August-end 2011.

Without own vehicle, whats the alternate arrangement of transport to travel from Leh to Srinagar-one way only.
1. AC-Delux buses?
2. Do they halt in Kargil for the night
3. Cost per person?
4. Private Taxi/share a cab- cost/stopeover and time taken.

Please help.

KD