A Rock & Rolling Dream Road Trip To The Magical Heaven: Ladakh !!

[vijay]

Fantastic pictures pahujaamit, simply superb along with the narration you added on your each images.
Along with other members who completed this destination yours too makes it so much tempting to plan a trip up there to this beautiful place.
Keep it coming for the further trip.

 

[pahujaamit]

Driving at Zozila Pass after the landslide cleared

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Pay Tribute to the War Martyrs .. of-course !!​

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Descending Zozila towards Drass..​

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Descending Zozila towards Drass..​

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Look at that hole with a stream of water flowing .. it was deadly sight to see the land surface breaking in...​

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Tiled roads.. thanks BRO​

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Zozila ..​

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Zozila ..​

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ZOZILA, Altitude 11649​

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Zozila towards Drass..​

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Zozila towards Drass..​

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and .. thanks BRO for making this place accessible to crazy folks like us :)
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[pahujaamit]

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Now this is where our heart went out .. as we were driving towards Kargil, two of these kids approached us and started asking for food etc.. I guess probably they were from a local town or with the BRO labour as we could see some labour our there. We helped them with some packaged food we were carrying but really felt sad to see them battling in such conditions... may GOD bless !​

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On the way you get to see all these beautiful sheep .. we did not honk as didn't wanted to scare them or cause any damage to their ears and they did not move .. so slowly we moved ahead and go through the traffic jam of sheep's :)​

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On the way to Kargil ..​

After a while we reached Drass and took a brake to pay visit to the memorial, have tea at the army camp and enjoy some snacks..

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@ Drass Memorial ​

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Family Picture @ Drass Memorial ​

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Maggie and Momo's (sorry we had momo's even before we took a picture)​

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and great tea..​

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Graffiti wall..​

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Pamphlets distributed by army​

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On the way to Kargil​

 

[pahujaamit]

On the way to Kargil​

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On the way to Kargil ..​

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On the way to Kargil ..​

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On the way to Kargil ..​

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Beautiful valleys with good greenery..​

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On the way to Kargil ..​

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Valley's getting deeper and rockier.. loads of loose rocks ​

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And the greener areas getting browner​

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Bridge on the way to Kargil​

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Cattle on the bridge..​

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On the way to Kargil​

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On the way to Kargil​

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Rocky roads on the way to Kargil..​

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Rocky roads on the way to Kargil​

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Army convoy​

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Driving in the rocky mountains with the river view was a great experience all the way to Leh​

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Drass Village​

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Drass Village​

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Chopped out trees​

Back on to the NH 1D to Kargil

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Excellent tarred roads on the way to Kargil​

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Excellent tarred roads on the way to Kargil​

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Excellent tarred roads on the way to Kargil​

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Excellent views all over ​

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Excellent tarred roads on the way to Kargil​

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Waterfall ? Oh yes it is..​

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Excellent tarred roads on the way to Kargil​

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Pot holes... ​

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Some bigger pot holes ​

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This was probably one of the last evening shots we might have taken before we reached Kargil. We do have a video of drive. Enjoy and Good Night.

We reached Kargil around 7:30pm, checked into our hotel which was pre-booked for us and settled in. After a while we had dinner and crashed into the bed to prepare ourselves for next day's drive to Rangdum.

So before I slept I chatted with the owner of the hotel to take some guidance on next days route and place, and he seriously recommended not to go until Padum 'coz the road could be very bad.. and torturous.. and in case we get stuck there .. there might not be any help available for long kms and wait.. So I seriously thought over it and decided to go until Rangdum instead of Padum.

To make sure we had enough fuel for the trip next day, we tanked up at night as we wanted to leave for Rangdum early morning. Kargil has only one fuel pump and it probably opens after 7am. So we were lucky to find the pump open at night around 9:30pm

Next Day - Kargil Rangdum Kargil - A lifetime dream trip continues​

 

[pahujaamit]

Videos of Zozila pass

Drive through Zozila Pass - YouTube

Driving through Zozila pass - Part II - YouTube

 

[pahujaamit]

Driving through Zozila pass - Part II - YouTube

 

[pahujaamit]

On the way to Kargil

On the way to Kargil - YouTube

 

[Fyzy09]

Faisal, I made 90% of the bookings through CHD and was amazed with the service. You don't need to bother about anything before you actually reach the place and as per your itinerary and actual location you can opt to take a room through them. The discount they arrange for you will be very good. They do have good repo with the hotels so you get excellent treatment as well and no hassles of negotiating the rates etc. In our case I was pretty satisfied in most of the cases. Its only that you need to clarify everything like number of pax per room rate, per room kids allowed or extra kids charges could be a surprise... but I wouldn't blame them .. its just that you need to ask those details.

How they work, get in touch with them through FB, they do an itinerary for you and based on your actual location and the itinerary they plan the hotel booking for you. You need to stay connected on WhatsApp or by phone. No pre-booking charges to be paid to them. You directly need to pay the hotel upon arrival or checkout.

You need to tell them the price range so there are no surprises. Most of the hotels are good booked by them. It always helps to tell them your taste as we did and had less surprises.

Overall they took all my worries on them for hotel bookings which was a big relief.

Wow!! that indeed is a great relief.
I am a little curious to know how CHD benefits out of these bookings?? Do you pay some fees to them??

 

[pahujaamit]

Wow!! that indeed is a great relief.
I am a little curious to know how CHD benefits out of these bookings?? Do you pay some fees to them??

So that's what surprises me and all who uses them that they do not take any money from you and neither from the hotel guys (and hotel guys vouch for it). I'm not sure if they make money today...at all but maybe they will start charging later which will be a good thing. The reason I say is that not many people take this seriously as they don't have anything to lose in case of canceling or not showing up.

 

[Skay]

@pahujaamit, excellent TL. Just went thru all the pages now. Amazing photos. Please keep it coming.

Can you please elaborate on CHD? Is it a hotel booking site? Couldn't find anything on the net. Hope it will be useful for others as well.

 

[pahujaamit]

Day 7 - So we got up early morning and got ready to leave for our first day out in Ladakh region what we were waiting for from quite a long time. Early morning we were all fresh, wifey was feeling better and kids were good. We asked the hotel guy to pack some breakfast for us so we can eat on the go and don't waste time in a relaxed breakfast. So we cranked the engine, loaded the necessary baggage and zoomed towards Rangdum.


Before we started we were advised by the hotel guy that do not go until Padum as it will be very torturous route and not very safe. Also if we get stuck somewhere the help might not be available and we might be stick for hours/days. So we made a decision that we will go upto a certain mid point and will return so that we can be back to Kargil by evening. I personally wanted to do till Padum but as I was with family and specially kids, I didn't feel like taking too much risk and decided to do a safe trip and enjoy in whatever we can do.


For today this was the circuit we wanted to do... Kargil - Rangdum (Drang Drung Glacier) - Kargil that was about 90 kms or so. So we left Kargil towards Rangdum quickly. The roads leading to Rangdum for first 12~15kms was good and some places it was narrow 'coz you have to pass through some of the villages in between. Once you cross the villages etc, you get into a very scenic valley which had excellent views of Suru valley and the river flowing at full force. The only strange thing we found basically in this stretch as well was the color of the river was muddy grey and the skies were too blue. It was a good sight but I wished the color of the water flowing in rivers could have been blue... anyway so we continued our journey and stopped for a photo opp at one of the suitable spots.

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River on the way to Rangdum, Zanskar range​

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Another view of the river on the way to Rangdum, Zanskar range​

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Me and my cousin bro posing at the riverview​

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River on the way to Rangdum, Zanskar range​

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River on the way to Rangdum, Zanskar range​

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Another view of the river on the way to Rangdum, Zanskar range​

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Our trusted Partner, our SUV - Mahindra Scorpio​

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Beautiful Mountains of Ladakh​

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Look the the texture of the mountains​

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Army camps @ Valleys of Ladakh​

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The green areas with the contrasting mountains​

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Take the Shot
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[pahujaamit]

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And this great guy. He came to us asking us where we are heading, were we are from .. was very happy to see us taking shots and willingly wanted to take a shot with us.. and here we go.. thanks Buddy :)​

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Valleys with a great view of the snow mountains​

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Zanskar Valley​

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Roads leading to Rangdum were not this bad but were not good either.. whatever it was we had great fun driving on the rocky muddy roads​

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Another view of the mountains and the muddy river​

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Views .. views and Views..​

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Views .. views and Views..​

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Stopped for taking another shot​

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Entering Suru Valley​

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First view of the snow covered mountain​

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Rocky roads surrounded by ​

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Views .. views and Views..​

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Views .. views and Views..​

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Another mountain another texture and a great view​

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Local houses, shops and people​

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Local village people doing household chores​

 

[pahujaamit]

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A panorama​

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Another panorama​

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And another panorama​

After we were done with the taking pictures, we had the breakfast in our SUV itself and moved further ahead. At this stretch we saw some army camp which we had to cross to go towards Rangdum.


The roads for another few kms were good and tramac'ed. After a while we had to cross a village and from here the fun started.

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Army camp approaching​

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Good tarmac'd roads on the way​

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Zippy Zappy Roads​

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Bridges patched with those wood pieces you see above.. were stronger to bear the load of a 2ton SUV​

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Another lovely drive alongside the river Suru​

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Great views all the way​

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Great views all the way​

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Great views all the way​

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Taking back shots​

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Great views all the way​

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Village on the way​

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Village Kids ​

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So cute kids of the valley. We stopped to talk to these kids and they were too shy to talk to us. We offered then some sweets and they were very happy.. lovely !​

 

[pahujaamit]

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Hotel, closed today for business :)​

After crossing the village, we reached the police check post where we had to make an entry to enter the area. I was expecting that since its a police checkpost we might have to pay some "personal fee" as usual throughout India specially in tourist places. But, I was wrong and the police fellow did not ask for any fee or chai paani etc.. and so I made the entry in the register and got going. The roads from here got totally rocky with loose gravel and loads of pot holes.

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At police check post entering details of my vehicle, people etc​

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Another bridge​

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Passing through the village​

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Houses in Ladakh region built with partial concrete and partial mud... shot at a Village on the way​

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Mosque at the village​

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Shy kids of the village, we very happy after we gave them some sweets :)​

Drive to Rangdum had very narrow lanes and unprotected boundaries. The roads were extremely rough and tons and tons of loose gravel making us go very very slow at the speeds not more than 20-30kms/hr. The twists and turns and the steep inclines of the roads were making us nervous at few places but nevertheless we enjoyed the beauty of the place and the rugged drive in our SUV.

I always wanted to do a looong offroading trip and here we go .. we were at a place where we were almost offroading on the road tracks.. After about 3~4 hours of drive we reached Parkachik Glacier.

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Road tracks​

 

[pahujaamit]

small water crossing..

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A small water crossing..​

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Swift crossing the water crossing..​

And its our turn now to cross the water crossing..​

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Crossing these water crossings was a pice of cake for Scorpio​

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Water-crossing on the way ..​

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Great shot !​

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Leaving the water crossing area..​

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This water at this Waterfall was in full force with a wild view and the noise of rushing an gushing water down to the river.. and yes it was certainly a cold cold water​

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Great Valleys of the Valley​

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Great Valleys of the Valley​

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Driving on these roads was a great feeling and a good adventure. We saw very few people in the entire 240kms drive today in these barren mountains..​