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Just made the return trip from Leh to Srinagar. FYI, the Zojila pass is closed on Fridays for maintenance. No other time restrictions for cars.

So, this might have already been discussed here widely, but wanted to put my thoughts across and see what you all have to say.

I just wrapped up a wonderful trip to the Himalayas in May. While trips went smoothly, one thing that caught my attention and bothered me much was how the cabs drivers in both J&K and HP drive in these challenging terrains.

Okay, we understand that it is their daily route, and they are aware of what to expect and how the roads are. But given that, it is also used by people like us, those are new to these roads, shouldn’t there be a bit more empathy while ripping through these high mountain passes?

They seem to be always in a rush. Trying to squeeze into that tiny little gap that we have left as a precautionary measure. They seem to be oblivious about how the private car drivers feel. Honking continuously, speeding, and even trying to overtake right around the cliff, I found it dangerous to their passengers as well as the others on the road.

I’m trying to understand why the Taxi unions in these areas do not try to instill a little more empathy and patience while on these high mountain passes.

We may argue that it is the behavior is same here in the plains, but what is not same is the response time if something untoward happens. It can cause them their life as well.

Just an open discussion, nothing directed at anyone here.

Drive Safe,
R-Six

I had a few questions:

1. From Udaipur, did you take the Bhilwara route to Jaipur and beyond?
2. From Narnaul, did you take the recently opened Narnaul-Ambala exressway to go towards Panipat?
3. From Panipat while going to Patnitop, did you go via Jammu or did you turn right at Samba and go straight to Udhampur? If you took this road, how was this section?
4. From Sonamarg, did you go straight to Leh in a day? At what time did you start from Sonamarg and when did you reach Leh?

Also do you mind sharing the details of the hotels/places you stayed during the trip? I am planning to start on 17-Sep from Pune and do the same trip as yours.

While we wait for TheCatalyst to respond with his experience, here are my thoughts.

If you are planning a night halt in Udaipur, taking the Bhilwara route to Jaipur is much better than the other one google suggested.

But if your plan is to stop around Vadodara (just guessing since you will be driving down from Pune, and wont drive all the way to Udaipur in a single stretch), then you can take the Palanpur-Abu Road-Pali road to Jaipur. It will be faster compared to the Udaipur route.

I was on this route in May. While I was on the road, this highway was still not opened, with a couple of flyovers still in progress. What I did was taking the Rewari-Jhajjar-Rohtak-Gohana route and connect to the main Delhi-Ambala highway near Panipat. It worked well for us in skipping the Delhi traffic.

Here is a map of the route I took:



Here are the google map link for the same: URL


Hope this help. Have a safe trip.

R-Six

I have self driven extensively -about a month- both in Uttarakhand and Himachal. MY experience was the local drivers were very courteous and pulled in a layby when they saw traffic approaching. It was mostly drivers from the national capital who were not bothered.

Yes. Post Udaipur, towards Bhilwara, stay on NH48 as much as possible till 148B. Then towards the Narnaul Ambala expressway. This new expressway is a cruise-control bliss for more than 200KM non-stop through Haryana. If possible avoid taking the detour to Panipat like I did and try to stay in Ambala or Chandigarh. The road towards Panipat through Gohama was quite crowded and in bad shape.

From Panipat, we used the Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Pathankot, Jammu, Chenani and Patnitop route. The route from Samba is also good which we used while returning.

From Sonamarg, start early for Leh, before 6am, that way you will bypass any traffic on the Zojila Pass. You should reach Leh by 4-5PM.

For hotels enroute, you could use Google maps and call them directly. We used to do this task during evening tea the same day. For us, the priority was good car parking, food and decent rooms (based on reviews) and a budget of 2-3K per night.

These are the ones we used, based on just random searches
Udaipur - Aura Gold. Little on the outskirts, but good food and located on highway to give a headstart.
Patnitop - Samson. Good hotel, great location and food. Narrow broken roads to reach for about 0.5km.
Sonamarg - Hotel Thajwas. Good location and food and decent rooms. It's off season there now, so lot of choices.

Hope this is helpful. Enjoy your trip. Also on long roadtrips, it is important to enjoy the journey and not just the destination. :thumbs up

Anyone knows what is the latest procedure for permit to visit Hanle? The general permit is available online. However what I am getting from online source is that one has to get a physical stamp on the online permit for Hanle. Wanted to know if anyone has done this recently? In my case am reaching Leh on Saturday so a visit to DC office will have to wait till Monday and that will again change my current travel plans.

No you don't. Just carry on with your digital permits.

Hello team,
My plan is finalized with your inputs. Please wish me luck and let me know if I need to watch out for anything. One thing that worries me is that I'm due to cross Zoji La on Thursday. If there's any delay then I'll be stuck as it is closed on Friday. Shall I still keep to my plan or you suggest changes?

Thank you:thumbs up

Its very unlikely that Zojila will be closed for 2 consecutive days, so if they don’t open on Thursday (very unlikely) they will surely open on Friday morning for short time.
Onething, I have learnt, you start by 6/6:30 and even check post is found missing, so no stoping.

If you are worried about your Srinagar - Leh stretch, best option is to go and stay in Sonmarg the previous day and leave from there early morning, that should give you enough time to manage traffic jams.
When I drew from Jammu to Srinagar, I was able to reach Srinagar and go to Dal lake for shikara ride on the same day. If you can do that, you will have less to see the next day and that will allow you to go to Sonmarg on Wed evening.

You can refer to the below link for traffic update, generally you get an update around 6:00 PM. And yes Fridays SSG roads are closed for weekly repair.

https://www.facebook.com/HighwayUpdates

Yes, thank you. I was thinking on the same lines. Shikara on the arrival evening and Gulmarg etc on the rest day. :p Then move on to Sonamarg for the night. :thumbs up

Thank you. So this mean that now there is no need of visiting DC office and with the online permit one can cover the nubra pangyong Hanle circuit. That's great and can save the hassle of going there and collecting the permit.
Though not planning Umling La would be good to know the permit process for that.

There is no separate permit for umlingla. The same online hanle permit works.

I called up the airline for clarity on RTPCR test and they said, for fully vaccinated individuals RTPCR is not needed. But for non-vaccinated RTPCR is mandatory. This includes my son who is 11 years old and not vaccinated. So I guess I will have to have his RTPCR test done before I travel.

Anyone recently visited Ladakh recently with a non-vaccinated child? Any issues you faced?