If you want to know what happened the previous day, check this – Kargil to Leh – Getting Leh’d Part 3
Day 4
Places covered: Leh – Khardung La – Khalsar – Diskit – Hunder
Distance covered: ~130 kms
It was 8 am and we were still under our thick warm blankets trying to get some more sleep. Our destination for the day was Hunder. We were told that the bikes that were brought from J&K wouldn’t be allowed to visit local places in and around Leh. The bike associations in Leh Ladakh had some kind of restrictions. So we had to rent another set of bikes from Leh to visit the places nearby. We decided to rent bikes for the next 3 days. And to go around these places in Leh, we needed Inner line permit. The hotel staff helped us arrange both the bikes and permit. They also allowed us to store our J&K bikes in their hotel until we returned. It almost took half a day to get these done. We also dropped off our excess luggage at the same hotel and packed only what was necessary for the next 3 days. It was around 2 pm when we were ready to start our bikes.
Khardung La: Our first challenge for that day was crossing Khardung La. This high mountain pass is located after South Pillu if you are travelling from Leh, sitting at an altitude of 18000+ feet. Riding up Khardung La was very much challenging for us as the roads were pretty bad. It was all muddy roads with rocks and pebbles everywhere. All 5 bikes that were rented from Leh were Bullet 500cc which was good enough to pull us up through the rough terrain. The wind was getting colder as we climbed Khardung La. We saw a few cars and a big army truck convoy that was moving in the opposite direction. While we were struggling to make our way up this rough terrain, these men rode those massive trucks so easily which totally wowed us. I was already sick from the previous night’s stay at Leh. However it didn’t bother me much as my mind was busy focused on riding. But once we reached the top, there was a sudden change in our body which most of us felt. Since this spot is located at a very high altitude, there is a high possibility that people may face some difficulty in breathing because of the lesser oxygen content in air. The same happened with us. I was able to feel a change in my breathing pattern. There was a medical camp set up at the top where one can have themselves checked up. All of us checked the SpO2(Oxygen Saturation) level and most had it below 75%. They had oxygen cylinders to help people with the breathing issue.
Here we are recharging ourselves with some oxygen.
Nevertheless, the mighty Khardung La was an amazing and challenging terrain to ride and we enjoyed every bit of it. Here is a short video of us reaching the top along with some pictures clicked. More videos will be uploaded soon.
Once done, we had some hot refreshing tea and maggi in the small cafeteria available there. We lost count of how many Chais and noodles we had in there. The bill that the Bhaiya gave had a big number though. We stayed a little while longer than we should have been which made Gautham go for a second round to inhale more oxygen from the camp. We left Khardung La right after that because we didn’t want to take more chances. I could feel the change in atmosphere as soon as we started descending. I even dozed off a bit on the pillion sitting behind Aravind while he rode the bike downhill. It was almost sunset by the time we reached down. We stopped in a couple of places before losing light to click some pictures.
Our last stop before the day light was at Khalsar. We had to reach Hunder for our night stay that day at any cost and we were riding continuously after our last stop. We started losing light gradually. The feeble blue light that lit the sky after the sunset was the only light source that was visible. At around 20kms further we had Diskit and Hunder was another 10kms from Diskit. The road from Khalsar to Diskit was really great. The mountain roads were done and we were riding towards Nubra Valley. It had long straight stretches without much curves. It got pretty dark soon after that. You couldn’t tell if some vehicle is approaching you or not until you see a head light glowing at a distance. We kept the gang close and just followed the tail light of the bike going in front of us.
Diskit offered us a nice dinner. Hot egg fried rice with some dal and roti if I remember correctly. It was cold but still we chose to sit at the table outside the restaurant. We kept asking for hot water the entire time we ate, to cope with the cold winds. “Bhaiya! Garam pani chahiye” was on repeat. At 9pm we reached Hunder. Tent stay in Hunder is very famous thing to do. We stopped our bikes outside a local bar/restaurant to enquire and got to know about a place that offered tent stay. We were also told that there would be power only till 11pm. The village had some kind of arrangement where they will have power only from 7pm to 11pm in a day. We made use of the few sockets left in the kitchen, to charge our phones and camera batteries and crashed into our beds to end Day 4.
Day 5
Places covered: The Hunder Sand Dunes + some rest
We woke up after sunrise. I was doubtful if I could sleep through the night after experiencing the previous night’s weather. But it was not as worse as I thought. The multi layered blankets provided in the tent were good enough to withstand the cold night. Each tent had a double bed plus one extra bed arrangement with attached restrooms. Sounds different right? It was the first time I saw them as well. These tents are not like camping tents that is carried along during treks. These are well built with ample space in them. There is a separate compartment within the tent where you can make use of the restroom and even take a shower. The tent stay area was quite a big place with around 8 to 9 tents but we were the only tourists to use it that day. The place had a lot of apricot and apple trees within the premises and it was free for us to eat if we wanted. We sat outside the tents, removed our jerkins and pullovers to get some warmth. We decided to visit the Sand Dunes by evening as it was closer by. So we had a good amount of time until evening to rest. Amos played his favorite music on the speaker and we started chatting sitting around a table.
Sweet memories are always special to sit and share with your close friends. While we were making one right there, we all started sharing our old childhood memories with each other. Most of it were from our school and college, the best days of everyone’s life. We laughed till our stomach ached. It made us hungry. We came to know that none of the restaurants around were opened. But no worries, maggie was always there for us. The tent care taker agreed to cook us maggie. An hour later there was big bowl of hot maggie served on the table where we were still chatting and laughing. After eating, Amos asked if we could play Poker. Except a few none of us knew how to play Poker. He came forward to teach us as well. We rearranged our table under the tree shadows and started playing for the rest of the time. And all I learnt about the game was, “If you can bluff like a pro, bet like a billionaire and sit and react like a rock, you could be a winner”. Aravind was really good at it. While most of us were struggling to win, he was stacking up his poker chips like a tower (though half of it was stolen from Amos when he went to pee 😀 ).
The Hunder Sand Dunes: We left to Sand dunes after 3. It was around 5 to 10 min drive from our stay. There were already some tourist vehicles parked outside when we reached. There was a restaurant nearby where we went to have our lunch. The Sand dunes was a massive piece of land surrounded by high mountains. The sand here looked like how you see on beaches except that it was more fine and softer. It looked a big desert to me. It was a stunning landscape with such an amazing view. For the first time in my life I saw double humped camels(also called as the Bactrian camels). We took a stroll around the place enjoying the beautiful scenic view. The crowd started increasing slowly and soon the place was filled with so many tourists. That was the first time in our trip I saw so many tourist gathered in one place given the curfew and other experiences from our past days. I switched to my wide angle kit lens to capture some pics. People were doing camel safaris around the place and there was a spot to try archery. We spent the rest of the evening in the sand dunes walking, sitting and clicking pictures everywhere. We left the place only after it got dark.
More clicks from this location…
The time when we left this place.
On our way back, we filled up our bikes and extra cans with petrol for the next day’s trip. We reached back to our tents in Hunder, ate our dinner which the guys bought to conclude our day 5.
Poker again for the Night!
Stay tuned for the next day’s events…
What happened the next day ? Check it out – Nubra to Pangong lake – Getting Leh’d Part 5
creativentechno 
Wonderful 🙂
Thank you Joshi 🙂