The Touring Diary

Disclaimer: This trip has no association with any organization whatsoever. It was a personal, a self funded trip which was solely planned by My wife and me. I have created a FaceBook page as well for our trip. Please do leave your comments/thoughts there as well: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leh-on-a-Ducati-Monster-by-Moreen-Sumit/141181422686385 The enchanting, mystical Himalayas. The mesmerizing beauty of the Himalayas (Leh, Ladakh) is raw and pure. As beautiful as it is, the terrain, climatic and road conditions, to reach there, are equally challenging. The two ways to reach Leh, the Manali - Leh Highway and Srinagar - Leh Highway, both provide the ultimate adventure with altitudes rising above 17,000 ft with an average altitude of 11,000 ft above MSL. If there is one place I like to tour again and again is the Himalayas. I had already toured Leh, Ladakh twice before, in 2008 with a team of four bikers and in 2010 which was a solo ride, on my other bike, the Hyosung Co...

Day 11 (July 18, 2012)  This will be last set of pics that I will upload because after this day we shipped the bike to our home and we travelled on a taxi. So today's destination was to reach Manali and no we were not on our bike for this leg. Unfortunately the puncture gave away yet another time and the morning I woke up and saw the tyre was deflated again. Moreen suggested that it would be dangerous to take the bike ahead with such a puncture. And if it does give away in the middle there would be not much of help. And I also agreed. We spoke to a truck driver who was coming from Leh and going towards Manali. He agreed to take us and anyways the truck was going empty. We had to load the bike on to the truck. We started our journey with we two sitting in the drivers cabin and the bike loaded in the truck's loading area. Since there nothing to pack around the bike we used all our luggage that we had so that the bike rests on it and doesn't get hurt  This was a totally differ...

Day 10 (July 17, 2012) When started our journey back to Manali from Leh. Leh to Karu was already covered in terms of pic hence we didn't take it any pics until we reach Rumtse and stopped for breakfast. I was a little worried about the puncture which hampered our Pangong lake segment. Whether it'll be able to hold against the rough terrain or not, what if the same puncture opens up in between, etc. But anyways I put my faith on it and continued ahead. The road till Tanglang La ascent is nice and smooth. The road was even better while climbing until we reached near the top. We reached Tanglang la top pretty smoothly and there we met a biker group. They wanted to click photographs with our bike but we didn't allow them as previously those SUV guys dropped the helmet and broke it. Didn't want that to happen again and also the stand of the bike was bent quite a lot (we had to put a flat rock whenever we use to park the bike, as visible in the Tanglang La top pictures) We co...

Day 9 (July 16, 2012) Not much details for the day. We just loaded the bike on Pinchuk's Bolero jeep, thanked Pinchuk's family that they helped us in the time of trouble and headed back to Leh. After reaching leh I went to my usual mechanic shop "Juma Automobiles" and got the wheel removed. After a little searching I got one guy who could fix the puncture by sealing it from inside. Got the wheel fitted on the bike and came back to Hotel. Next day we had planned to start Leh Manali segment. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't visit Pangong Lake. But we just said "Next Time"  Day-wise trip log: Preparation Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11