Day 4 - Pathhar Sahib, Magnetic Hill, Alchi and Shanti Stupa!
Next day, 23rd July - Day 4 of our trip, we were supposed to get ILPs (Inner Line Permits), and do some nearby sight seeing. We woke up around 7-ish, got dressed, and ordered some breakfast. While having breakfast, we discussed the option of hiring bikes. The guy at our Guest House(City heart) - Bhagirath, he asked us our plans for the day. He had some contacts with a local taxi operator, and he called him to the guest house. He volunteered to get the ILPs for us, ofcourse with a charge. He had a large map of Ladakh with him, with all the tourist places marked on it. As per our original plan, our itinerary included Alchi, Magnetic Hill, Pathhar Sahib Gurdwara and Shanti Stupa for today after getting the ILPs. Even the local taxi guy suggested the same to us. So, we decided we'll do this route today - and let him get the ILPs so we dont waste any more time.
After, deciding the route - the next question was how were we going to get there? We were told that the road on this route is absolutely wonderful. We wanted to rent bikes, as coming to Leh and not riding a Bike would have left the trip somewhat incomplete. So, renting bikes was also decided - but one more problem. Amongst the 6 of us, only Rohit was the one who used to ride a bike regularly. All of us were into 4-wheelers, and we had only 1 experienced rider in Rohit. I can ride a bike, but it had been nearly 3-4 years since I had driven a 2-Wheeler. And, the last time I rode it - it was not at all a incident free ride on the Pune-Mumbai highway. Arun, had only driven scooters, so her straight away refused to drive a bike. And, Amitesh had never tried his hands on 2-wheelers. I was ready to ride a bike, but Arun wasn't - he only agreed to ride if we got him an Activa. So, it was decided we will get 2 Bikes, and one Activa.
We gave the money to the Taxi guy to get the ILPs for us, and he would have it ready for us when we return in the evening. Rohit and me, went out to look for the bikes. There was a shop right next to our guest house. and we brokered a deal with him for 1 Avenger, 1 Yamaha FZ-S, and 1 Hero Access. Rohit took the Avenger, I took FZ and Arun took Access.
Soon, we were on our way. The first stop was for refuelling - right at the entrance of Leh. After refuelling, we decided to take it easy on the highway - Access would never have managed to keep up with the bikes, and also chances of skidding were high. Anyways, we were in no hurry - and had plenty of time with us. Thus, began the bike ride towards Alchi, on the Leh-Srinagar highway.
After you exit the Leh city, the highway is an absolute bliss to ride on. With freshly laid tarmac, the barren mountains of Ladakh looked even more beautiful in the contrast! Just after exiting Leh, we were greeted with some beautiful views so, we decided to do a quick stop and click some pics :p
Up next was Gurdwara Pathhar Sahib We stopped here, prayed, interacted with the Sewadars, and clicked. The Gurdwara is entirely managed and maintained by the Army, and its personnel. We were offered tea and one of the sewadars asked us to wait and have Langar as well. We would have loved to stop and have Langar here, but the photo-stops took considerable bit of our time and stopping here for Langar would have meant waiting for an hour more at least. We decided to skip the Langar and move ahead -
Inside the Gurdwara -
Outside -
Nishan Sahib, on the hill opposite to the Gurdwara -
That's Gurdwara Pathar Sahib as seen from the Nishan Sahib on the hill on the opposite side
The view from the hill -
The climb on the hill opposite to the Gurdwara, where Nishan sahib is located was a mini trek in itself. At the end of the climb, we were panting and gasping for air. Being at an altitude of close to 11,500 ft didn’t help matters either.
After the stop at Gurdwara, we moved ahead towards our destination for the day – Alchi. And as we moved ahead we were greeted with more amazing views and more amazing roads. The next stop on our route was the famous Magnetic Hill. We stopped here for a few minutes, and tried to see if there was anything magnetic about this hill – to our disappointment, we were actually not able to experience any illusion of our bikes being pulled towards the Magnetic hill. Magnetic hill was a disappointment, we did not waste much time here - and decided we will stop here for the pic on our way back.
After a quick stopover, we started moving ahead towards Alchi. Up next was the Indus/Zanskar confluence, we did not stop here – just saw it and moved ahead. As we were moving ahead, Rohit suddenly thought that his Bike is low on fuel. We stopped and checked, but we were Ok as of now. As a precaution everybody checked their tanks, and everyone seemed to have enough fuel. But, what this did was instill a sort of fear of running out of fuel in all of us. The most susceptible would be Access with its small fuel tank, and we were not even carrying any spare fuel with us. With this fear now instilled in our minds, we decided to get some fuel from Nimmu. We stopped at a few shops, and enquired where we could get fuel from, but did not get any positive response. Trusting our initial judgment, when we fuelled at the Fuel Station in Leh, we thought to lets continue without fear.
On the way to Alchi-
So, going slowly through the curvy and beautiful roads, finally at around 1 PM we were at Alchi. With some photo breaks and stops at Pathhar Sahib Gurdwara and Magnetic Hill, this 70 Km drive took us around 3 hours. The entrance to the village Alchi is extremely beautiful, you wade through some narrow lanes to finally reach the Monastery. We parked our bikes just before the market outside the monastery and went inside.
Before starting back from Alchi towards Leh, we ate Maggi for lunch at a local shop just at the entrance. The Maggi as always was delicious. The ride back was also through the same route. On the way back, we stopped at Magnetic Hill and also, at a few other places in between to click :)
And, we moved ahead again from the Magnetic Hill towards Leh! Me and Amitesh left first, followed by Rohit and Nidhi, and then Arun and Bhavna on their Access. All along the route, all of us had made a point to be in sight of each other. On this last stretch, since we were almost back - I moved ahead. After moving some distance we realized that no one was following us. I slowed down a bit, to let others catch up. We had no Mobile signals, so calling others was of no use. As we neared Leh, near Pathhar Sahib Gurdwara, Amitesh's phone rang. Bhavna was the only one having a BSNL connection, which was working near magnetic hill. It was Bhavna, she was trying to say something, but the strong winds made sure we were not able to hear anything. The only thing we heard was FUEL!!! Our worst fear had come true, Access had run out of fuel. There was no use going back towards them, as we ourselves didn't have any spare fuel with us, so Amitesh and Me decided to move towards Leh and get some fuel from the city and return back. As, we were moving ahead, Amitesh's phone rang again, and this time they told us that they have started again. Phew! That was some relief.
I started moving slowly now, waiting for Arun and Rohit to catch us. While we stopped for some water break at a roadside shop, Rohit and Arun caught up with us and told us the story. After, me and Amitesh left from Magnetic Hill, Rohit and Nidhi followed us on thier Avenger, followed by Arun and Bhavna on their Access. After moving for just a few minutes, their Access stopped. Rohit and Nidhi realized that Arun was not following them, so they went back, and saw Arun with some local in his car standing with them. That guy apparently, stopped on seeing them, and popped up the hood of the car and filled a bottle with some petrol, enough to take them to the filling station. So nice was that guy, that he even after giving fuel, he went a few metres ahead, stopped, looked back and again enquired if everything was Ok. Whoever you were, Thanks a ton! I had only heard about the hospitality and the welcoming nature of the Ladakhi people, and we just witnessed it for ourselves. He saw a tourist stranded, stopped, helped and moved ahead, expecting nothing in return.
After, this incident - we all stopped at the next Fuel Station, refuelled, and moved. Our next, and the final destination of the day was going to be Shanti Stupa. Clikced a few pics, had some tea and off we were towards our guest house. Did I forget to tell you we had some company at Shanti Stupa! Poonam Dhillon, Bhagyashree and Himalya Dasani (Bhagyashree's husband) with their family! All of them were apparently on a trip to Leh. We just heard Himalaya talking over the phone, and asking the guy at the other end to see "What special can the Army do for them, so that they feel special" I wanted to give that guy a tight slap then and there, he was talking as if the Army is there to entertain him! Anyways, I'll not waste this space on that guy.
View from Shanti Stupa -
Shanti Stupa -
A cricket ground!!!
This brought an end to a tiring day. We went back to our guest house, returned our bikes, had dinner and planned for tomorrow.
Next - The Magnificent Pangong under a cloudy sky!
After, deciding the route - the next question was how were we going to get there? We were told that the road on this route is absolutely wonderful. We wanted to rent bikes, as coming to Leh and not riding a Bike would have left the trip somewhat incomplete. So, renting bikes was also decided - but one more problem. Amongst the 6 of us, only Rohit was the one who used to ride a bike regularly. All of us were into 4-wheelers, and we had only 1 experienced rider in Rohit. I can ride a bike, but it had been nearly 3-4 years since I had driven a 2-Wheeler. And, the last time I rode it - it was not at all a incident free ride on the Pune-Mumbai highway. Arun, had only driven scooters, so her straight away refused to drive a bike. And, Amitesh had never tried his hands on 2-wheelers. I was ready to ride a bike, but Arun wasn't - he only agreed to ride if we got him an Activa. So, it was decided we will get 2 Bikes, and one Activa.
We gave the money to the Taxi guy to get the ILPs for us, and he would have it ready for us when we return in the evening. Rohit and me, went out to look for the bikes. There was a shop right next to our guest house. and we brokered a deal with him for 1 Avenger, 1 Yamaha FZ-S, and 1 Hero Access. Rohit took the Avenger, I took FZ and Arun took Access.
Soon, we were on our way. The first stop was for refuelling - right at the entrance of Leh. After refuelling, we decided to take it easy on the highway - Access would never have managed to keep up with the bikes, and also chances of skidding were high. Anyways, we were in no hurry - and had plenty of time with us. Thus, began the bike ride towards Alchi, on the Leh-Srinagar highway.
After you exit the Leh city, the highway is an absolute bliss to ride on. With freshly laid tarmac, the barren mountains of Ladakh looked even more beautiful in the contrast! Just after exiting Leh, we were greeted with some beautiful views so, we decided to do a quick stop and click some pics :p
Up next was Gurdwara Pathhar Sahib We stopped here, prayed, interacted with the Sewadars, and clicked. The Gurdwara is entirely managed and maintained by the Army, and its personnel. We were offered tea and one of the sewadars asked us to wait and have Langar as well. We would have loved to stop and have Langar here, but the photo-stops took considerable bit of our time and stopping here for Langar would have meant waiting for an hour more at least. We decided to skip the Langar and move ahead -
Inside the Gurdwara -
Outside -
Nishan Sahib, on the hill opposite to the Gurdwara -
That's Gurdwara Pathar Sahib as seen from the Nishan Sahib on the hill on the opposite side
The view from the hill -
The climb on the hill opposite to the Gurdwara, where Nishan sahib is located was a mini trek in itself. At the end of the climb, we were panting and gasping for air. Being at an altitude of close to 11,500 ft didn’t help matters either.
After the stop at Gurdwara, we moved ahead towards our destination for the day – Alchi. And as we moved ahead we were greeted with more amazing views and more amazing roads. The next stop on our route was the famous Magnetic Hill. We stopped here for a few minutes, and tried to see if there was anything magnetic about this hill – to our disappointment, we were actually not able to experience any illusion of our bikes being pulled towards the Magnetic hill. Magnetic hill was a disappointment, we did not waste much time here - and decided we will stop here for the pic on our way back.
After a quick stopover, we started moving ahead towards Alchi. Up next was the Indus/Zanskar confluence, we did not stop here – just saw it and moved ahead. As we were moving ahead, Rohit suddenly thought that his Bike is low on fuel. We stopped and checked, but we were Ok as of now. As a precaution everybody checked their tanks, and everyone seemed to have enough fuel. But, what this did was instill a sort of fear of running out of fuel in all of us. The most susceptible would be Access with its small fuel tank, and we were not even carrying any spare fuel with us. With this fear now instilled in our minds, we decided to get some fuel from Nimmu. We stopped at a few shops, and enquired where we could get fuel from, but did not get any positive response. Trusting our initial judgment, when we fuelled at the Fuel Station in Leh, we thought to lets continue without fear.
On the way to Alchi-
So, going slowly through the curvy and beautiful roads, finally at around 1 PM we were at Alchi. With some photo breaks and stops at Pathhar Sahib Gurdwara and Magnetic Hill, this 70 Km drive took us around 3 hours. The entrance to the village Alchi is extremely beautiful, you wade through some narrow lanes to finally reach the Monastery. We parked our bikes just before the market outside the monastery and went inside.
Before starting back from Alchi towards Leh, we ate Maggi for lunch at a local shop just at the entrance. The Maggi as always was delicious. The ride back was also through the same route. On the way back, we stopped at Magnetic Hill and also, at a few other places in between to click :)
And, we moved ahead again from the Magnetic Hill towards Leh! Me and Amitesh left first, followed by Rohit and Nidhi, and then Arun and Bhavna on their Access. All along the route, all of us had made a point to be in sight of each other. On this last stretch, since we were almost back - I moved ahead. After moving some distance we realized that no one was following us. I slowed down a bit, to let others catch up. We had no Mobile signals, so calling others was of no use. As we neared Leh, near Pathhar Sahib Gurdwara, Amitesh's phone rang. Bhavna was the only one having a BSNL connection, which was working near magnetic hill. It was Bhavna, she was trying to say something, but the strong winds made sure we were not able to hear anything. The only thing we heard was FUEL!!! Our worst fear had come true, Access had run out of fuel. There was no use going back towards them, as we ourselves didn't have any spare fuel with us, so Amitesh and Me decided to move towards Leh and get some fuel from the city and return back. As, we were moving ahead, Amitesh's phone rang again, and this time they told us that they have started again. Phew! That was some relief.
I started moving slowly now, waiting for Arun and Rohit to catch us. While we stopped for some water break at a roadside shop, Rohit and Arun caught up with us and told us the story. After, me and Amitesh left from Magnetic Hill, Rohit and Nidhi followed us on thier Avenger, followed by Arun and Bhavna on their Access. After moving for just a few minutes, their Access stopped. Rohit and Nidhi realized that Arun was not following them, so they went back, and saw Arun with some local in his car standing with them. That guy apparently, stopped on seeing them, and popped up the hood of the car and filled a bottle with some petrol, enough to take them to the filling station. So nice was that guy, that he even after giving fuel, he went a few metres ahead, stopped, looked back and again enquired if everything was Ok. Whoever you were, Thanks a ton! I had only heard about the hospitality and the welcoming nature of the Ladakhi people, and we just witnessed it for ourselves. He saw a tourist stranded, stopped, helped and moved ahead, expecting nothing in return.
After, this incident - we all stopped at the next Fuel Station, refuelled, and moved. Our next, and the final destination of the day was going to be Shanti Stupa. Clikced a few pics, had some tea and off we were towards our guest house. Did I forget to tell you we had some company at Shanti Stupa! Poonam Dhillon, Bhagyashree and Himalya Dasani (Bhagyashree's husband) with their family! All of them were apparently on a trip to Leh. We just heard Himalaya talking over the phone, and asking the guy at the other end to see "What special can the Army do for them, so that they feel special" I wanted to give that guy a tight slap then and there, he was talking as if the Army is there to entertain him! Anyways, I'll not waste this space on that guy.
View from Shanti Stupa -
Shanti Stupa -
A cricket ground!!!
This brought an end to a tiring day. We went back to our guest house, returned our bikes, had dinner and planned for tomorrow.
Next - The Magnificent Pangong under a cloudy sky!
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