[S2!!!]

Lovely travelogue complimented by some awesome pictures. After seeing countless Ladakh travelogues, I've been longing to visit this place since quite a while now.

Originally Posted by mr.sinha

After about 30 seconds of driving, my friend remarked "dekhli" (did you see) ?. I said "yeah". No other words were exchanged before we saw the lights of Hanle.

So what did you guys see? Some more details please? I'm damn curious to know

[winsler_srider]

Originally Posted by mr.sinha

It was then that as we turned a curve, we saw a person in the distance standing by the side of the road with his hand raised asking for a ride. The person was dressed in coveralls and a hood on the head... However, I did begin to slow down with the aim of stopping near him. About 20 ft away, the high beam illuminated the person's face for the first time.

During dinner, we recounted to Sonam the incident with the person on the road. After listening, he smiled cryptically and said "Saab, idhar bahut kuch dikhta hai", and left it at that.

Hi Sinha,

The write up that you have shared is wonderful and encouraging similar to other great descriptions here in our pool of knowledge. And like S2 mentioned the urge to achieve such epic trip is boiling under my roof as well. But for now, eagerly standing atop the chair for the answer on that precious expression of your friend's "dekhli??"

regards,
winsler

[mr.sinha]

Thanks for all your comments.
Many of you have asked about "what we saw". Well, it actually sounds stupid writing it here, but in the two seconds the high beam lighted up the face, we saw one of the most scariest faces we could imagine. Hooded, white powdery face with large holes for eyes and mouth. And no, it was definitely not our headlights playing tricks. So, yeah, go on laugh, but we saw what we saw. Maybe it was indeed some road worker wearing a funny mask asking for a ride to Hanle, though I can't imagine how anyone could even expect to get a ride with that mask on, in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, till now, we do not have a plausible explanation since we don't actually believe in ghosts.

Originally Posted by Bohemian Spirit

Awesome blog Mr. Sinha. BTW the "Well Fed" person is a friend for life! was never more envious that he could manage this expedition while we were in our corner office day dreaming about such drives. The "tale of hitch hiking" turned into an urban legend at our office - though still waiting for complete details from the man himself.

BTW - Super excellent photos.

Yes, I am lucky to have him as a travelling partner. We also did the Sikkim-Sandakphu trip last May. Another one in the works shortly.

Originally Posted by GhostRider28

A proper adventure trip, in the truest sense - Mr Sinha, your travelogue is an great inspiration! I dream to do a similar trip with my Duster AWD someday.

How you would you rate the Sandakphu climb compared to Marsimik La or Kakasang La?

As for "what you say on that night", I believe some things are best left unsaid!

Good luck with doing the trip on your Duster. It will definitely be worth it. Be sure to do the Turtuk road, Marsimik, Kaksang, the drive to Chushul along Pangong shore and the Kyu Tso track from Hanle, and diesel permitting - the Agham-Shyok track (which we missed).

To me, Sandakphu was five times more difficult than Marsimik/kaksang. During Marsimik climb, never felt a serious danger or threat to life. It was an extremely strenous climb for man and machine, given the altitude and the terrain, but at least there were no big vertical drops. In kaksang, there were vertical drops, but not as intimidating because in most of the hairpins there was enough place to turn properly. Also in most places in Marsimik/Kakasang, there is enough room for a vehicle coming from the opposite direction to pass. Sandakphu is a different ball-game. It takes all your patience, skills, concentration, and some nerves of steel to climb it for the first time in a long wheel base SUV. In some places in the last 4 km section (Bhikhey Bhanjan to Sandakphu), there is hardly a foot left between your wheels and the gorge. The drive down is twice more scary. In most turns, you have to do two or three 3-point turns at impossible angles. Of course, now that I have done it once, my second time will be easier and less scarier. The drive is worth it though because as far as I know, this is the only place where you can see both Kanchenjunga and Everest in the same frame, and everything in between. I wish you good luck trying this in your Duster AWD too (though I am not sure how AWD would perform compared to 4WD Low).

[SouraC]

This is an exceptional TL Mr.Sinha, Pictures are great and we are enjoying what ever we have not covered.
We have just completed a Ladakh trip and we were quite depressed about missing Wari La, Agham, Shyok, Man, Merak and Chusul stretches and here is a TL covering almost all the places we missed.

Hence start planning again for another one.

Requesting you to narrate the rest of the stories and the Ghost part was

A small addition from my side :

[Samba]

There are so many Ladakh travelogues and each one of them are special in there own ways. This one is no exception. I just loved reading this. The photographs you have shared are excellent.

The ghost part was really scary. It will scare the hell out of anyone specially in such dark & deserted stretches.

[behaln]

Excellent write up Mr Sinha. Awaiting for you to complete the TL.
I belong to hills and I can assure you that we do ' see' a lot of scary things.

[me_sid]

WOW'fied, if there's ever a term that exists. Loved reading every bit so far. Yes this face thing is quite exciting, would love to have a detailed picture, ghosts or paranormal activities does add to the thrills of driving ( from the cozy confines of office, yes. But at that particular time and place, its downright hair raising).

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by mr.sinha

We switched on 4WD L and tried following the Stallion tracks. It was a very difficult drive.

Pangong itself is at an elevation of 14300 ft. From there, we had climbed around 500 ft at Phobrang (14700 ft). Over the next 2-3 hrs, we were going to climb another 4500 ft to reach Marsimik La (18953 ft).

The difficult terrain and the low level of oxygen in the air stresses the engine a lot, especially when it is climbing continuously in 4Low. The Scorpio felt reassuringly sure-footed as it negotiated the tricky ruts created by the Stallions, and sometimes the deep sandy areas. The vista as the climb continued was awesome. The snow and ice had melted and it was all rocks, dirt and dust. In places, the dust was too deep.

Awesome job sirjee.

Do you have a GPS track of your drive?

[mr.sinha]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Awesome job sirjee.

Do you have a GPS track of your drive?

No, I don't, but I will post the map that we followed in one of my next posts. It was as simple as following that map really.

[psurelia]

Superb TL Mr Sinha! Rated 5*. Waiting for the rest of it. Hoping to meet you soon to hear the story of the mysterious man.

[DriveTrain]

Mind blowing is all I can add , you seem to have done a most comprehensive parikrama of Ladakh and the resultant visual treat for the readers is awesome as is the craving to experience it first hand !. Whatever you saw that day will probably give you goose bumps every time you recall that incident , it must have been extremely scary and horrific

[Nempuguru]

Wonderful write-up. Congrats to you and your friend for accomplishing Leh-Ladakh expedition.

Reading Leh-Ladakh travelogues from past few weeks continuously. All travelogues are epic and has loads of valuable information.

Couldn't resist my urge of exploring that region.

[naveendagar]

It was one awesome TL Mr.Sinha, thank you so much for sharing. All the old memories of my visits to Ladakh gets refreshed everytime i read a travelogue about Ladakh and around.

As far as the 'dekhli' ghost is concerned, i must tell all members from personal experiences of serving at those places, all BRO workers are 'ordered' to wear face masks and cover all skin area which generally we tends to keep uncovered while working like face, neck and hands. this is done to serve a dual purpose:

1. In the day time, to save extensive damage to uncovered skin due to sunlight which results in irritation, severe damage to skin and other UV related skin diseases.

2. In the night time, to save the skin from wind chills and prevent sweat freezing which must have accumulated during day working.


I think what you saw must be one of the poor BRO guy trying to take a lift while adhering to orders , OR the real ghost who was sitting idle from so many days of not having fun due to no visitors because of remoteness of that area and suddenly got a chance to show up.

[mr.sinha]

Likely explanation of a masked BRO worker, even though the choice of mask was ghastly :-)
As I said, if someone expected to get a ride in that place at that time of the night in ink-black darkness, wearing THAT kind of mask, he is grossly over-optimistic. Happy that he was not standing in the middle of the road, otherwise things could have turned tragic !!!

[me_sid]

Can be, if you try to explain logically. But sure have to say if it is, then the guy is insanely stupid to wear a mask like that and flag down a passenger vehicle in the middle of nowhere, that too after sundown