[Ketan]

Originally Posted by AnandB

Re: Pangong to Hanle - i would not suggest this at all unless you are feeling adventurous. I risked it even when i was using a patched tyre because it was us 3 guys but i wouldn't with my family. I took this route as while we were in Ladakh (end of Sep'21) they had started allowing Indian tourists to cross Chushul having been closed since start of the year. It's basically no roads from Merak. Also the lake only lasts till before Chushul. The best part of the lake is between Man and Merak so yea go till there as roads are good till just before Merak but don't go through this route to Hanle. It does save you a day (it did for us as i didn't want to go back to Leh) but its not worth it. Let alone if a tyre punctures or some other issue. It's deserted and i saw maybe a total of 3-4 cars/trucks the whole way, you can't drive any faster than 20-30 km/h. A lot of times you don't even know which is the official road and which is off-road because there simply isn't one. We had to turn back a couple of times as what we thought was the road looking at tyre tracks wasn't.

Totally makes sense if you dont want to be little adventurous. However, I'd be a little adventurous when I'm in Ladakh. It's a different perspective altogether.

If at all you are planning to go till Merak. it makes more sense to continue riding along the beautiful lake all the way to Chushul and to Hanle. When you get to Merak, you almost made 60% of Pangong - Chushul stretch, in my opinion, it doesnt make sense to go back to Leh from there but continue riding that beautiful road/no-roads on the lake-bed.
I'm sure one would be prepared to deal with situations like flat tyre when riding around Ladakh. I agree, that stretch has less traffic and thats the fun part in my opinion.
Except a few water crossing and few sandy patches, most of the road is simple lake-bed and one should be able to do it in a car like XUV500 just fine.

I was riding a bullet500 with my wife as pillion in the last week of Oct-First week of Nov on that stretch. It was very cold and we had shorter window to complete our day ride during those times. With a car, you can even stretch that a bit. However, I'd suggest not to stretch and enjoy the beautiful ride at just 20-30kmph when you are riding such stretches. Only challenges I found on that road using motorcycle was a few water crossings where water started to freeze, a thin layer of ice on water crossings that I had to cross and another thing was certain sandy patches where my wife had to walk 20-40 mtrs since we found its difficult to do with the pillion. We thought we did bit more than little adventures doing such things with just one mobike, especially during that time of year when season was completely over. However, with a crossover like XUV500, one should be able to do it comfortably.
This is just my opinion and one may have to decide based on how adventurous (or concerned) one can be while planning, as you rightly mentioned. I just added this in case if it helps supertinu to plan it well.

[AnandB]

Trust me brother, riding on two wheels on that road is much better than on four. You feel everything on four wheels and risk of puncture or worse a cut is much higher the bigger the tyre is. Its not about car capability, a local in an Alto was using the same route. My advice was specifically for supertinu as he is riding with wife and kids and he is concerned about how the road is and weather in Pangong and he said days are not an issue for him.

Merak-Chushul-Loma route is relatively better than Tso Moriri route. Although there is no road its a mix of sand, gravel and some stones and rocks. The Tso Morori route is just bad with rocks and stones. At-least it has some movement compared to Chushul route.

I myself will not take the route next time if i go. When I started my trip I had originally planned to go back to Tangste from Pangong and take the newly made Kela Pass route and at Karu turn towards Upshi-Chumathang instead of Leh and proceed to Hanle from there. A day gets added as you will probably have to stay are Karu or Chumathang. This route is lot longer, around 350 kms from Pangong to Karu to Hanle where as Pangong to Chushul to Hanle is only 150kms. But later while in Ladakh i found out that tourists were allowed to pass Chushul so i decided to save a day.

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by Ketan

This is just my opinion and one may have to decide based on how adventurous (or concerned) one can be while planning, as you rightly mentioned. I just added this in case if it helps supertinu to plan it well.

Originally Posted by AnandB

Trust me brother, riding on two wheels on that road is much better than on four. You feel everything on four wheels and risk of puncture or worse a cut is much higher the bigger the tyre is. Its not about car capability, a local in an Alto was using the same route. My advice was specifically for supertinu as he is riding with wife and kids and he is concerned about how the road is and weather in Pangong and he said days are not an issue for him.

Thanks Ketan and Anand. You guys are the best and thanks for sharing your inputs. Definitely helps to decide my plans. I will mostly return to Leh from Pangong. That is enough adventure I presume. My family already thinks I am nut to drive from BLR and took me 10yrs to convince my wife for it

[Ketan]

Originally Posted by supertinu

Thanks Ketan and Anand. You guys are the best and thanks for sharing your inputs. Definitely helps to decide my plans. I will mostly return to Leh from Pangong. That is enough adventure I presume. My family already thinks I am nut to drive from BLR and took me 10yrs to convince my wife for it

All the very best buddy! Wish you and family a wonderful time together on the trip. I'll look for hotel details at Tangste if I can find, in case if you are taking Shyok route, you can check that option out for night stay.
Edit: it was hotel Pangong Residency, probably the only one operating when I visited outside the season, decently okay food, warm water etc.
Since you are planning to return from merak, try to make it quick, mostly homestay options in merak I guess. When we were visiting in Nov first week, all waterlines were frozen and we had an opportunity to use local toilet, it was more or less similar to the composting toilets I have used in Sadhana Forest community, Auroville, I'm sure most of us are not going to go that raw of a lifestyle.

[Shivanshu]

Hello friends, I am planning to go to Leh by mid June. I need help in few things -

1. Itinerary (I will have approx. 13 days in hand)
2. I want to go via Srinagar and come back via Manali
3. Preparations for Vehicle (Mahindra Thar)
4. Preparations for Self (I may go Solo)

If there are any previous post or thread on any of the above points please if you can copy the link it would be great. Thank you.

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by AnandB

Trust me brother, riding on two wheels on that road is much better than on four. You feel everything on four wheels and risk of puncture or worse a cut is much higher the bigger the tyre is. Its not about car capability, a local in an Alto was using the same route. My advice was specifically for supertinu as he is riding with wife and kids and he is concerned about how the road is and weather in Pangong and he said days are not an issue for him.

Originally Posted by Ketan

All the very best buddy! Wish you and family a wonderful time together on the trip. I'll look for hotel details at Tangste if I can find, in case if you are taking Shyok route, you can check that option out for night stay.

Folks, one more question. XUV has a tank capacity of about 72L which gets me almost 1000km in plains but in Leh region I am assuming I shouldnt expect more than 600-650km on a single tank. Is that enough for covering LEH-NUbra-pangong-leh trip, not sure about fuel stations. Or should is consider emergency jerry can? Which is another pain since i dont have a roof carrier and dont want to carry diesel in the cabin.

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by supertinu

Folks, one more question. XUV has a tank capacity of about 72L which gets me almost 1000km in plains but in Leh region I am assuming I shouldnt expect more than 600-650km on a single tank. Is that enough for covering LEH-NUbra-pangong-leh trip, not sure about fuel stations. Or should is consider emergency jerry can? Which is another pain since i dont have a roof carrier and dont want to carry diesel in the cabin.

You have two options:
1) Do Leh - Nubra - Leh - Pangong - Leh.
Here you can top up again after you come back to leh from Nubra. No jerry cans required here. This route will bypass Wari La or the Agham route which I presume you want to take.
Note: You must fill up at Diskit for safety reasons.

2) If you want to directly go from Nubra to Pangong via Wari La or Agham route, then you must mandatorily fill up at Diskit, Nubra valley pump, after completion of your Nubra valley trip. The route from here is about 500 kms via Wari La, Pangong and back to Leh.




For safety reasons:
1. You must carry a 20 litres jerry can. Metal ones are good and do not leak.
2. Fill up at all pumps enroute to keep the tank at max. level.

[AnandB]

Originally Posted by supertinu

Folks, one more question. XUV has a tank capacity of about 72L which gets me almost 1000km in plains but in Leh region I am assuming I shouldnt expect more than 600-650km on a single tank. Is that enough for covering LEH-NUbra-pangong-leh trip, not sure about fuel stations. Or should is consider emergency jerry can? Which is another pain since i dont have a roof carrier and dont want to carry diesel in the cabin.

As ruzbehxyz said, its best to keep it topped up whenever you can. Though you should not need to carry fuel for Leh-Nubra-Pangong-Leh. There is Nubra Filling Station just before Diskit as shown in above picture. Top up here when you are either coming to and leaving Nubra. Similarly on the way back to Leh from Pangong there is another pump at Karu.

[touring_spirit]

Hello,

In about a month I will be on a planned break in between switching jobs. I have been wishing to go to Leh on my motorbike for some time now. Thought this would be the best opportunity to do so.

Looking to travel in the 1st week or early 2nd week of May.
The plan is to carry my motorbike from Bangalore to Delhi as luggage and start the journey from Delhi. My wife and a couple of friends would take the flight to Chandigarh and start their journey from there on a rented cab.On the return i would parcel my bike from Ambala and all of us would take the flight back from Chandigarh.

The loop planned was the route suggested earlier in the forum of Leh-Noubra-Pangong Tso- Hanle. So in essence we wanted to do Chandigarh-Jammu-Srinargar-Kargil -leh(Surrounding areas)- Keylong- Manali-Chandigarh.

Could anyone suggest whether this is a good idea considering the issues with
1) Cartelization of taxi services in the different region.
2) Status of the roads and passes. Would the Srinagar-Leh and Leh-Manali roads be open and would they be drivable?
3) is it better to just fly down to Leh from bangalore and rent cabs/bikes in Leh ?

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by touring_spirit

Could anyone suggest whether this is a good idea considering the issues with
1) Cartelization of taxi services in the different region.
2) Status of the roads and passes. Would the Srinagar-Leh and Leh-Manali roads be open and would they be drivable?
3) is it better to just fly down to Leh from bangalore and rent cabs/bikes in Leh ?

For the short trip that you are planning, all of you should just fly to leh, inspect local agencies, and hire whatever it is you want for the duration from Leh. Simple, and way less hassle.

[touring_spirit]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

For the short trip that you are planning, all of you should just fly to leh, inspect local agencies, and hire whatever it is you want for the duration from Leh. Simple, and way less hassle.

I was planning to take two weeks for the trip. For a bike trip what should be the ideal number of days for doing this trip ?

[C.ARPIT]

Hello,

We are 3 friends planning to do Jaipur-Srinagar-Leh-Manali-Jaipur for 12 days in April end or May first. Is it advisable? Any update on roads opening? And what about roads inside ladakh? Leh-Nubra, Leh-pangong? Any advice would be highly appreciated.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by C.ARPIT

Hello,

We are 3 friends planning to do Jaipur-Srinagar-Leh-Manali-Jaipur for 12 days in April end or May first. Is it advisable? Any update on roads opening? And what about roads inside ladakh? Leh-Nubra, Leh-pangong? Any advice would be highly appreciated.

The roads to Leh generally open only after Mid May and aren't open for public before that. If your time schedules are fixed though, you could go by flight to Leh.
The road from Srinagar opens first and the first 15 days the BRO repairs the road as it is completely destroyed every year. The road from Manali opens a bit later (but this year could be a bit earlier as Rohtang pass tunnel has now avoided some of the challenge areas. But snow clearing would still take time.

[AdityaDeane]

Mandi, March 27

The strategically and logistically important 428-km Manali-Leh highway has been restored for single-lane traffic via Baralacha pass by the Border Roads Organisation after being closed for winter for nearly five months.

However, normal traffic would be allowed from Lahaul side to Leh after nod by the district administration of Lahaul and Spiti.

According to sources, the BRO had connected Manali-Leh highway via Baralacha pass and few vehicles crossed towards Sarchu from Lahaul side.

This highway is two lane, while the BRO has restored it only for single-lane traffic. The highway will be restored for two lane traffic within a few days.

Deputy Commissioner of Lahaul and Spiti Neeraj Kumar said: "As soon the BRO will restore the highway, we will inspect the road in view of public safety to ascertain that whether it is safe for civic traffic or not. After inspection, normal traffic will be allowed on it."

The DC urged the tourists and general public to avoid travelling on this route beyond Darcha towards Leh until it is allowed by the district administration. A notification will be issued by the administration to allow the traffic movement after inspection, he said.

The highway crosses high mountain passes like Baralach-la (16,047 feet), Nakee-la (16,170 feet), Lachung-la (16,616 feet) and Tanglang-la (17,582 feet) which receives heavy snow during winter blocking it for months every year.

Link to this news: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.tri...the-bro-381210

[FURY_44]

Originally Posted by Sahil00090

I am looking to change tyres as well, OE MRF are over now ( went really well). I wanted Road 5 but heard they are soft for ladakh like terrain, now considering Pirelli Rally STR. Any experience of Pirelli or road 5 on such terrains? Any other tyre to consider?

Sahil, you can also consider RALCO Tyres, a couple of my friends got these in early 2020 just before COVID hit, they were supposed to do K2K that year and these tyres were procured specifically for that trip only.

They got it fitted to the bike and have been using it for the past 2 years, with no complaints, no punctures. It's very cost economic too, a pair costed them around Rs.5000/-, whereas a single Pirelli/Michelin tyre would cost you more than that.