[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by D-nav

Anshuman, When did you do this trip? i mean, what dates? I did the same route from 14th Sep night to 27th Sep night. Seems like we stayed in the same camp in Pangong tso but on different dates (now, dont tell me you stayed in tent no. 2 & 3). will post my travelogue shortly.

I started the trip on 25th August. I do not remember the exact tent no. but #2 & #3 are very high possibility, let me check with others!

[.anshuman]

Travelogue continued-

We packed our bags and we were on the way back by 12. Plan was to have lunch at an Army mess enroute just to keep the promise from the previous day and reach Leh comfortably by evening.

Once we reached Leh, we spent the evening at Shanti Stupa.

More pictures from the day-

[.anshuman]

Some more pictures from Shanti Stupa-
















^ Blended 2 different exposures from a single RAW file, first one exposed for back ground and second one exposed for Moon, this is how it looked that day, just that camera's limited dynamic range could not capture it on its own.






Next- The climb to Khardung la and a quick visit to Nubra valley.

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by shabash

Wanted to check one thing. As I am from Bangalore and as I love driving on my own, what are my options if I fly in to Delhi? I presume Rental cars is an option. Or another (may sound crazy) option is to drive all the way to Delhi and then onto Leh/Ladakh....just over 3000 Kms (as per google maps).

1. You can fly in to Delhi and get self drive rental SUVs from Delhi.
   
2. You can fly in to Delhi and take a Volvo bus to Manali- there on you can look at either hiring a cab or you can hire a bike for Ride to Ladakh. Similarly- this can be done for Srinagar too and direct flights to Srinagar will be available from your place.
   
3. Easiest plan- Fly to Leh, hire a bike or hire a taxi.
   
4. I recommend- Drive your own car

[debuda]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Some more pictures from Shanti Stupa

Again, some superb shots here. Thanks, Anshuman.

Originally Posted by .anshuman

1. You can fly in to Delhi and get self drive rental SUVs from Delhi.
   
2. You can fly in to Delhi and take a Volvo bus to Manali- there on you can look at either hiring a cab or you can hire a bike for Ride to Ladakh. Similarly- this can be done for Srinagar too and direct flights to Srinagar will be available from your place.
   
3. Easiest plan- Fly to Leh, hire a bike or hire a taxi.
   
4. I recommend- Drive your own car

I like Anshuman's recommendation. There are many ways to travel to a destination, but for a car lover the ultimate way is to go in his / her own car, be it an old Ambassador or a Maruti-800 or a Land Rover.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Since our plans were not fixed, we always carried all our luggage with us.

A thought just crossed my mind.
Do you think that the Yeti would have been able to take the luggage that your Laura took for this trip?

4 of my friends are interested to do a BLR-IXL-BLR in a Yeti and would prolly have the same amount of baggage you did, more or less.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

A thought just crossed my mind.
Do you think that the Yeti would have been able to take the luggage that your Laura took for this trip?

4 of my friends are interested to do a BLR-IXL-BLR in a Yeti and would prolly have the same amount of baggage you did, more or less.

Nope! Having both the Laura and Yeti, I can confirm that the usable boot space in the Yeti is actually half of the Laura's! The only way to put more luggage in the Yeti is to get a roof rack and load it all up there. With a roof rack you will be able to comfortably carry all the luggage you need.

[shomshree]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Another set of pics from Pangong Tso-
Attachment 991829

A superb t-log with splendid photographs. The white dove is looking just awesome with blue background .

[.anshuman]

Sorry for the massive delay, i got busy with some stuff.
________________________________________________

Day 8
The next day was spent roaming around in Leh town and relaxing at our place, another Army guest house. The evening was spent lazing around in a roof top restaurant discussing and appreciating the good slow paced life in Ladakh.

[.anshuman]

Day 9

The day's plan was to visit Khardung la and give Nubra valley a quick visit and return back to Leh the same day. We were on the road by 630hrs, unlike what we expected there was not much traffic at the Khardung la route but roads were non existent mainly due to road widening work and fresh rock blasting in progress by BRO.

Last time in 2007 we encoutered snow fall at the time of Khardung la climb and our Innova had tough time climbing and temperature was low enough. This time there were clouds but temperature was normal and there was no snow fall but a slight drizzle. Most of the climb was done in 2-3 gears mainly because of the bad roads.

Just a few kilometers before Khardung la I could not believe my eyes when I saw the rear view mirror, a large sized Vintage car was maintaining as much pace as our car on the poor section, I lowered the speed to check out the car. It was a vintage Rolls Royce, it was nice to see such an old car do such harsh terrain with so much ease.

Finally we reached Khardung la top and so did the Rolls Royce. It was a 1923 Rolls Royce, the owner had driven it all the way from US . Even at Khardung la where the air is so thin, the RR's idle perfect and as good as a factory fresh car.

[.anshuman]

Here is a Full HD video of Rolls Royce Idling at Khardung La.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mXYY...ature=youtu.be

[.anshuman]

We had the typical Ladakhi meal- Vegetable Maggi on our way to Hunder sand dunes.

[.anshuman]

Some more pics from Camel ride-

[.anshuman]

Some more pictures from the giant Buddha Statue

[.anshuman]

Drive back was boring, everyone else was sleeping in the car. Driving DSG is not tiring at all and with these superb front seat i can drive forever with a good night's sleep.

Road at Khardung la climb was bad, really bad, just like any other pass we crossed and we had to cross this twice, this time without the excitement or anticipation of what next.