Mumbai to Ladakh in XUV 500 (Part 2)

Day 5, 23rd June 2017, Srinagar to Kargil 202km(Approx) 

Good morning Mumbai, It is 7am and today our brkfst is included in the package (ludhiana ke baad aaj humko subeh subeh khaane milega) chalo jaldi jaldi ready ho jaate hai naashte ka tym khatam ho jaayega warna. Hum fatafat ready ho kar brkst karne ke liye pahunche, humari saari expectations pe owner ne paani fer diya. Sirf bread butter aur chai, toast bhi nahin kiya tha yaar. Anyways kuch nahin se kuch toh sahi. After having that we wanted to click some pictures as the surrounding was so calm and peaceful and it was very beautiful. We pulled a nearby shikara and posed on it. Like street sellers people over here sell stuff on boats. One such seller came to our house boat and he showed us some beautiful jewellery made of famous stones and woods. They were very unique but very expensive, you can find this same stuff in Leh market at 1/4th of the price here. We came to know later on when we reached Leh. Still we bargained a lot and bought at almost the same price of Leh but this wasted more than an hour. 

We packed our bags and left for the main road on shikara. The person who was rowing the shikara was forcefully asking us to do sightseeing. Though it was hardly 700 bucks only but for us more than money, the time mattered. Sightseeing was going to take another 2 hours and we could not spend that tym over here because we wanted to reach Shaheed Smarak, Kargil, before 6pm as the visitors are not allowed after that. We clicked some pics near the Dal lake gate also and proceeded towards car.

Mughal Garden

On our way we saw Mughal Garden from outside. It was looking amazing but time frame did not allow us to go in there so we just clicked a picture of the gate and proceeded. Dal lake continued to be our companion for about 5kms to 6kms and after that it bid us a nice farewell. The whole area is secured by the army so their is no issue of any kind of riots. 

Another pait puja tym but this tym we are not hungry our car is, we have crossed almost 500kms and fuel is left for only 200kms so we do not want to take any risk regarding the fuel. It is a very small petrol pump and we are the only 4 wheeler rest all are 2 wheelers. After the refueling session we are back on road. A small man made canal is going on the right hand side along with some small farms. It is very neat and clean canal, in Maharashtra most of them don't even have water supply in them or children use it for bathing purpose. 

Their are many small single way bridges which are made above the heavy flowing river. Only 1 vehicle is allowed to pass at a time, so we crossed the bridge and parked our car nearby a restaurant and came back on bridge to click some pics for you. The water was very clear but due to heavy flow visibility was low for the camera. We eagerly wanted to touch and feel how cold the water is but didn't wanted to take the risk of getting drowned so we dropped the idea and continued towards Sonamarg. 

Road work and canal work is going on lot of work in progress boards can be seen, roads are getting wider and small dam is being constructed to control the flow of water. We crossing a small village and Sonamarg is another 70 kms from here. We have started to drive uphill and here comes a beautiful landscape.

Sindhu river is flowing between the 2 mountains and many hotels are situated on the river bank. It is very mesmerizing to see this. As we are moving ahead, the slope is getting steeper and we are leaving behind the habitable area. The whole mountain on our right side is covered with snow from the peak to the foot of the mountain and their is a small tunnel like opening beneath the snow from where the water is flowing and submerging with the river. Its time for some pictures. We are removing DSLR for the 3rd time. It is hardly being used by us as most of the pics are clicked in Iphone only. After a 45 minute session of photography we began on our onwards journey and decided that no more photo stops until Sonamarg. 

Sonamarg

We reached Sonamarg by 1:30pm and parked our vehicle for some quick snaps. Sonamarg is also know as 'Meadow of Gold' and you can witness that you are surrounded by mountains from all 4 sides. There are many tourist here and most of them are going to the Thajiwas glacier which is the highest snow melting point one can reach easily. Their are horses for going to the point and the charge is around 400 bucks only. 

We clicked more than 100 pics over here and now we are tired of doing that. It is lunch time and we are kind of hungry also, but now we have to conquer the Zojila pass and it is very curvy so we decided to avoid right now so that their wont be any problem of vomiting. Now we need to change the drivers as Swapnil is not having any experience of driving in such a terrain, even I have not driven on such small roads but still I maybe able to control the car. Oh God please bless us and let us pass through this road without any problem.

Zojila Pass is the most dangerous road in India, their was a show on discovery channel 'World's Toughest Trucker' 2012 where the truck drivers were made to go through toughest terrains all around the globe and the final lap was shot in India on Zojila Pass. So it is a task for people like us who are used to driving on high speed express highways. Though I have driven through Dharavi where only one vehicle could pass at a time but this is way different than that. Here on our one side their is a steep valley and if a small mistake happens then we will never make back to our house. 

It was quite a task for me as the slope was steep and due to snow fall the roads were wet and muddy and above all their was truck carrying iron rods infront of us and we are driving uphill. If he looses control, no matter what I do we will be crushed very badly and their is no scope of overtaking them as their is hardly some space to even let bikers pass easily. Thank god these people have made small places on the curves to let slow vehicles get in that space and allow the others who can drive or ride at more speed overtake them. 

As far as I can see we are the only car driving here rests are either 2 wheelers or commercial trucks and army trucks. All the army trucks are driving in the opposite direction i.e. they are going towards Srinagar. And these trucks are driving in a convoy of a minimum 10 trucks at one go. Whenever such convoy comes we had to see it before hand and make sure that we stop on the stipulated curve as hardly 2 cars or one truck can get in that space. And we do not want to cause problem for our soldiers so Swapnil and Amit kept an eye on the oncoming traffic while I concentrated on driving. It took almost 2 hours to reach the top before we started to descend the mountain on the other side. 

These valley's are so beautiful we are feeling like to make our house over here and spend rest of our lives here only. While descending down the slope we found a big space on the curve which can accumulate 3 vehicles at a time so we decided to stop and click some pictures over here. These snow capped mountains, bright sunshine and small village down the valley took our breath away. 

Zero Point, Zojila Pass

We spent approximately an hour clicking the pictures and those trucks which we overtook before they just passed us now. We decided to start our journey so that we can overtake them and drive easily. It took us around 1 hour 30 minute to reach point zero of Zojila pass. Guyz I personally feel pity for those people who drive through or pass through this place at night time because they are missing this scenic beauty and adventure at this point zero of the pass. Localites have made small tourist attraction over here. They have set up small restaurants which are selling tea, coffee and some snack items and their is snow sledging being organized by them. Many tourists are doing this over here.

The mountain is covered with snow from top to bottom and these people have made 3 points from where one can do the sledging. Highest point is just before the mountain becomes steep to climb and a small water fall is visible. One can opt for either a sledge or a snow mobile. We opted for sledging as we knew nobody would allow to ride the bike on our own. These people have different charges for different points. We chose the middle one, we must appreciate their efforts as one tourist needs a minimum of 2 to 3 person to pull the sledge upto the point as it is very slippery. At half way it was being very difficult for these people to pull Swapnil and me because we are quite heavy so they asked to walk the remaining way. It was difficult for us also to just handle our own weights and we were slipping, and these guys are pulling the sledges along with us on them, hats of to them. "Roti ke liye kya kuch nahin karna padta hai". 

When were reached the point amit, swapnil and me were breathing heavily as the oxygen is very thin over here and it is just 11,575 ft. above the sea level. I wonder what will happen to us on Khardungla as it is 18,380 ft. above sea level. We took some selfies and also asked the sledge puller to click some pics of our (bhai itna toh hakk banta hai, itna kharcha kiya hai aur climb karne mein bhi bahot mehnat lagi hai, girte padte aaye toh pics toh banti hai boss). 

We carried selfie stick with us so that we can record the whole ride and also asked one of the sledge puller to record from down so that we can show to you and our family also. It was an awesome ride, we never had any such adventure like this in our past, very bumpy but a fantastic one. After the ride we were feeling hungry so we decided to have some maggie but these people are selling it very costly so we dropped the idea and took out our own snacks.

Kargil Signage Board

We started driving, around a kilometre from the spot their was the direction board so we again clicked some pics and did some foolish stuff which is recorded in the video you can also see that and proceeded forward. Now we are entering Kargil check post, here we need to register our car as well as ourselves for the army record. Just our names id proof and car details needed to be written in their register and that's it. 

Kargil War Memorial

We reached Shaheed Smarak at around 6pm our official sight seeing spot as per our planned itinerary and it was almost the time of closing. It was very cold as the whole place is open and cold winds are blowing continuously. We clicked some pics at entrance and then went inside. On the left hand side the personnel who died in 1999 war their tombstones were placed and on the right side their were weapons which our army used at time of war. 

Our army had also captured some pakistani weapons and bunkers, they were kept upside down because we took over them. Our turret guns and all were displayed very nicely with the relevant information about them. The middle portion led the way to Amar Jyoti and along the pathway our flags were hoisted and behind the Amar Jyoti a huge flag was hoisted sky high. Few army personnel were guiding us like what had happened how did the enemies kept pressuring us and how our soldiers fought back and won the war, how many personnel gave their lives so that our flags stay high and all those things.

Then we entered hut of remembrance known as Manoj Pandey Gallery. It is a small museum which has all the details of the Kargil War, the battle of how our brave soldiers won back the peaks which had been under the enemy control. They had made miniatures of mountains which was under enemy and each and every peak how our army captured back. Pakistani army had taken control over 130 to 200 square km of the Indian Territory mountain ranges which was over looking NH1D which was the only road from Srinagar to Leh so as to block our transportation to the valley. The battle lasted for almost 3 long months and the weapons, bunkers and other things recovered from the enemy are displayed inverted in the museum. We felt very proud of our soldiers who fought so bravely and then paid a small tribute to those who died near the tombstone area. 

After exiting the Smarak the sun had already set and it was getting darker. We began our journey as Kargil city was another 60kms(approx) which will take another 2 hours from here. While driving towards Kargil their was not even a single person on the road except for us. As it started to get darker and darker it felt like a horror movie was going on. On our left side Drass River was flowing heavily, all the windows were rolled up music system was playing but still we could here the river flowing and water bashing on rocks. I just prayed that nothing happens to car because it is so dark that we wont even get down to check what has happened. 

It was around 9 or 9:30pm we started to see a small a village where dim lights were on, on reaching nearby it was a small check post to Kargil and the lights were of guest house. We didn't book any hotel in advance in Kargil as we were not sure that we will reach Kargil by today itself as we started very late and after war memorial their was no network in our cell phones. After crossing check post we started to search for some good hotel where we could get some food as well as a nice place to spend the night. Luckily Amit saw a board of some hotel with direction on it, we followed the direction and reached that place. Hotel Jazeera was newly opened and some parts were still under construction. We saw the room it was good and quite spacious and enquired regarding the food. The manager was very helpful,he enquired with the cook but said that it will take a minimum 45 minutes to 1 hour for him to prepare the food. Amit and Swapnil wanted to have non veg so the manager said that he will talk with his other branch if the cook can prepare some non veg dishes, he also said that we will have to tell him what we wanted to have so that he will bring those ingredients from that hotel itself and prepare it here. Till that tym we ordered for the veg food and went to freshen up ourselves. After 10 mins manager said that the cook has already left for the day and that's why they wont be able to serve non veg. So we went ahead with the veg food and doubled the order of the same. In the whole hotel only 2 rooms were occupied that is ours and one other room where a couple from Delhi had come on bikes. Till the food got prepared we sat in the lobby area and talked to that guy. He said he was travelling for the second tym to Ladakh and we asked him about his experience and all. 

As the food came the guy went inside his room and we had our dinner. The food tasted awesome and we were hungry since morning so began eating non stop. After having such an amazing dinner the manager informed us that the wifi had started working so we called up home and informed our parents that we have reached safely to Kargil. After that we went inside the room switched on tv and were watching some serials. I don't even remember when I had slept off keeping cell phone in my hand.

Day 6 24th June Kargil to Leh 213km (approx). 

Good morning guys, it is 7 am and we are getting ready as today is a major sight seeing day for us. Today we will travel from Kargil to Leh and on the way we will be covering Lamayuru Monastery, Pathar Sahib Gurudawara, Magnetic Hill and Spituk Gonpa. So lets get ready and proceed towards the journey. The previous night was very scary sort off, as the hotel in which we are staying is on the banks of river, whole night the gushing sound of river was coming but we did sleep very peacefully because we were damn tired. After getting ready we ordered for breakfast which was again bread and butter with coffee but this tym we asked the guy to make toast. 

Until the breakfast was ready we decided to clean the windscreen of the car and asked manager if their was any tap or something near the parking lot, the manager showed us a pipe attached to the tap so we thought of cleaning the whole car as it was very dirty. It took almost an hour to make the whole car shine. Then we had our breakfast and packed our bags and left for Leh. 

We started from Kargil at around 10:00am and within 20 minutes the whole city was left behind and we were on the open highway. We could barely see any tourist cars travelling towards Leh. All the mountains were barren piece of lands as hardly any kind of plants and trees could be seen on them, but at the base of mountains small villages were settled with a nice amount of greenery surrounding them without any visible source of water. Here the houses are very rarely painted and their colour make them blend in with the rocky mountains. 

After driving continuously for more than 2 hours we decided to take a stop in order to stretch our body. The valley seemed to be a picture perfect spot, so we took some nice clicks and spent 15 mins over their, we also saw an army helicopter flying from there. After driving for another half an hour we could see the entire village of Lamayuru and I always wanted to have such pics where the whole village is set up in the form of terrace farming one above the another. 

Our co writer Amit also wanted some shots where he will run and jump while getting down the stairs and this was the perfect spot for his wish because a small sitting area was made over looking the valley which gave a very nice frame to his wish. We clicked few shots and proceeded for the 1st sightseeing spot of the day. 


When we arrived at Lamayuru Monastery, we saw some bikes in the parking lot which were having a maharashtra passing number plates. We felt like their are many idiots like us who are riding from so far. We also saw a 20 yrs old HONDA CBZ bike, while we were talking about that bike one uncle overheard us and said that they are the ones who are riding those bikes. He said that it was his 1st tym to Ladakh but another guy who has accompanied him is travelling to Ladakh for the 5th tym, we asked him what is his age and he said that he is in his early 50s but the guy who owns this bike is 70plus, we were shocked to here that uncle's age and asked him how did they manage to ride all the way from Maharashtra. He said that they didn't ride all the way from Maharashtra but got their bike transported from Maharashtra to Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) and from there they are riding it. 

After a long conversation with him we reached the monastery gate but the entrance counter was closed for lunch break, so even we decided to have lunch till it opens. Guys we are having lunch after 3 days as the entire journey we had skipped our lunch. The restaurant seemed to be very nice and lot of tourists were eating over here, it was a decent place so we decided to have a very heavy lunch. The food was awesome and they had made everything in a very authentic manner. 


After having lunch at around 2:30 pm we proceeded towards the monastery, their is a very minor entry charge for the upkeep of place. At the entrance of monastery wheels of prayers were kept so that the devotees can chant prayers while rotating those wheels. Inside the monastery their are 2 or 3 small Buddhist temples made which are the meditation room of the Buddhist monks.

The Lamayuru Gompa 

The Lamayuru Gompa is also known as Yung-dung Tharpa Ling. It is said that the whole valley was once under a lake's water and an arhat (a saint of high rank) named Nimagon prayed that 'May a monastery be founded in this place' and he offered votive water offerings(which means that the water wont be recovered or used again) to the Naga Serpent (spirits of the water), this caused the lake's water to drain out. 

The grains of corn which were offered to the water spirit mysteriously grew into the shape of swastika (yung-dung). When a monastery was later founded here it was called Yung-dung gonpa. Later in the 16th century the monastery was declared a holy site, where even criminals could seek sancturay the monastery got its new name Yung-dung Tharpa Ling(place of freedom). After spending some time in the monastery we clicked few pictures of the monastery and proceeded for Leh. 

We were driving through the ghats between Lamayuru and magnetic hill and suddely I saw turret guns on both my sides. There were approximately 4 to 5 guns placed along the highway, this was a very sensitive area and we were very close to the border. On the other side of the mountains it was pakistan occupied Kashmir and if something happens at LOC then we will be stuck between war zone.

Magnetic Hill

At around 5pm we reached magnetic hill, it was a dream come true for me. I always wanted to drive car on this patch and see how it actually works and the whole idea of road trip for me was to experience this phenomenon that defies gravity. It was my childhood dream as I had always read about this in books and wanted to see and feel it personally. 



But to my disappointment, this is just an illusion guyz, this road does not defies gravity. Swapnil and I had an argument over it where he said that car is driving itself up the slope and I disagreed with him. Amit and me tested it with a 3ft. long rod which I was carrying in the car. So sorry guyz to spoil your and my mood but this is a fact, though, I don't have a video of this but if you people are going there just park your vehicle in the yellow box and try to observe carefully that the car is going down the slope and not up the slope. They have made the slopes in such a way that the car actually travels down the slope but it seems that is it travelling up the slope. This is just like a trick shown by the magician where he puts one iron ring into the other without any openings in anyone of them. But Swapnil did not agree to it, I am glad that atleast our co-writer Amit who didn't drive the car did agree with me because he also observed it very carefully. 

We spent around an hour at magnetic hill, here people have made a dirt track for ATV's and if one wants to ride then he or she can pay for the same and enjoy. We clicked lot of pictures with the information board, and other things like ATV and all made video which is showing the gravity, being defied(but its and illusion) and then finally we clicked some photos with the milestone of Leh as planned in the itinerary but we forgot to park the car behind the milestone and click it with car. Anyways we have lots of personal and group photos with the milestone so we again came back on our track. 

Gurudawara Sri Pathar Sahib

We reached Gurudawara Sri Pathar Sahib in about 10 mins because it is hardly 4 kms from magnetic hill. This Gurudawara is constructed, maintained and managed by the Indian Army.

"This gurudwara is very special as Guru Nanak Devji was was on a spritual journey. He was travelling from Sikkim via Tibet, Nepal and Leh when he reached this place in the year 1517 A.D. A demon used to live on top of the mountain who used to torture people living here and used to eat them. These people had prayed to guruji and that is the reason Guru Nank Devji came to this place and settled nearby the river bank. People felt relieved after seeing guruji but the demon became angry and devised a plan to kill guruji. One day when guruji was meditating in the open the demon threw a huge piece of rock on guruji, he thought guruji must have been crushed under the rock so he came down to see his dead body. When he reached near the rock he saw that the rock had melted like a wax and guruji's back was half inside that rock and he was still meditating. On seeing this the demon became very very angry and bashed his feet on that rock but even his feet had slipped inside the rock like it was actually made of wax and not stone. Then that demon realized his mistake that he is trying to kill a sheer devotee of god and he fell in the feet of Guru Nanak Devji and asked for forgiveness. Guruji then broke his meditation and said to demon that if he wishes to seek forgiveness then he should devote his further life to help the mankind. The demon agreed to it and started helping the people and led a peaceful life. After sometime Guruji left that place and proceeded for his onward journey". 

One can see the rock that had hit Guruji and witness that it has taken the shape of guruji's back from one place and the demon's feet at the other. Every day army personnel keeps langar for the devotees, we felt very peaceful as soon as we entered this place. The environment was very calm and soothe ring despite being many tourist inside the gurudawara. 
We sat for half an hour ate prasad and left for Leh. 

Spituk Gompa entrance, Leh

After driving for around 18km(half an hour) we reached at the entrance of Spituk Gompa. All these gonpas are made on top of the hills, so we drove upto the parking area. When we reached parking area their were many stairs to reach the gonpa so I backed out because I was not in the mood of climbing stairs as already my legs were paining badly and was too tired so I told Swapnil and Amit that we will come tomorrow to the gonpa. 

Spituk Gompa, Leh

The parking area of the gonpa over looked whole Leh city and the Leh airport was at the base of the mountain. It is the highest airport in India, I dont know about world. A small landing and take off strip, the airport building looked like a small ground level shopping mall and we could hardly see any aircrafts. We clicked some pics of the gonpa and the city and proceeded towards the city as we had to find a hotel for stay because we had not pre-booked any hotels after Srinagar. 

Leh Ladakh City

When we were crossing the Leh airport we saw a used fighter jet and an helicopter parked outside the gate. We parked the car and went to the other side of the road to click some pics with them. After 10 mins we left for the main city as it was getting dark. 


Amit and me desperately wanted to eat pani puri but Swapnil was not allowing us so we fooled Swapnil by saying that "tu ruk hum dono hotel kahan hai puch kar aate hai" and we ate pani puri. At Ladakh 1 plate of pani puri consists of only 3 puris so we both had 2 plates each. We asked the pani puri vendor regarding the hotels he said that all the hotels are situated near to the market place so we drove till market place where we saw 2 to 3 hotels. Most of the hotels were either expensive or were giving room only for 1 night because all were pre booked and we had planned to stay 2 nights in Leh city so that we can see some points within the city. We later went to a hotel The White Yak it was newly opened, we saw the room it was nicely done and the washroom was also good. Since the hotel was still unfinished they did not had tv, wifi and restaurant. We asked for the parking, to which the manager said that only bikes can be parked downstairs and cars needed to be parked behind the hotel so manager went with Swapnil to park the car. 

We all freshened up and went to the market to have dinner. We saw an open restaurant which looked quite decent so thought of having dinner their itself. The name of the restaurant is Hot Pot and is located on the terrace of the building, the staff over here gave us a warm welcome and were very friendly. We befriended the waiter who took our order and joked with him a lot. He was also feeling comfortable and most of the time after taking orders from the other tables he came to our table and started talking to us. After having a delicious food we went back to the hotel as every thing in the market had shut down and even we needed a proper rest for the next days sight seeing. 

Day 7 Leh Local Sightseeing 

Good morning guys, it is 9am and the very 1st task of ours is to obtain permit(Inner Line Permits) from the DC office for Khardungla, Nubra, Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri. Guys please it is a request carry photocopies of your ID proof and take the form from the photocopy shop which is just outside the DC office. You will have to mention each and everyplace where you will be going to because these permits will be checked everywhere and they need to be submitted on the check posts, take atleast 5 to 7 copies of these permits and mention 3 to 4 days extra as you don't know what mother nature has planned for you which may spoil your adventure. These permits cost Rs.400 per person as environment fee and another Rs.20 per day as wildlife fee.

Copy of Inner Line Permit

You should go early in the morning by 9 am so that by the second half of the day your permit is in your hand as it takes 3 hours to process it. 

We had reached the office on a sunday and the DC office was open only till 2pm, o shit now how will we get the permit? We rushed from one desk to another and then 1 tourist informed us that the form will is with the photocopy shop owner and we have to take it from him only. 

After filling in the details you need to take a photocopy of the form. Original needs to be submitted at the DC's office itself and the other one with the stamp will be given back. At all the check post we need to submit the photocopy of this permit along with the photocopy of ID proofs, as the original stamped one should be kept with the person and needs to be produced whenever is asked for. It took almost 2:30 hours to get the whole thing done as the office was going to be closed and the queue was huge. (charge of 1 photocopy is Rs.10 so if you people will carry your own copies of ID, it will save money as well as time because their is a huge queue of tourist at the copier and he is the single one in the whole area). 

After this we proceeded towards Leh palace. 

Leh palace can be easily seen from the Leh market but it is 2kms from the market so we drove uphill and reached the palace at around 12pm.

Their is an entry fee of Rs.15 per person to enter the palace. From my personal experience I will say the palace is shit, they are still constructing it and it has nothing inside it. Only some small prayer rooms and a photo gallery where photos of heritage sites of India is displayed. We can google that also, but you should surely go to the palace as you can see the whole city from their and nice pics can be clicked from the palace. 

Leh Palace

After spending an hour clicking photos on each level of the palace, we came out of the palace. It was already 1:30pm and we were hungry as we had skipped breakfast so we needed to refuel ourselves. Outside the palace itself nearby the parking their is a nice open restaurant. They had wifi with them so we sat over their for lunch as we needed to contact at home also because our hotel doesn't have any wifi and net signal is also very weak so we just dropped msg at home that we have reached safely. Till the food came we called up our homes and informed them and also said that maybe for the next 4 to 5 days we won't be able to contact them as tomorrow we will be heading towards Nubra via Khardungla and from their we will directly go to Pangong Tso (3 idiots lake) and Tso Moriri. We may get signal after reaching Manali only. The food was good and the lemonade also tasted amazing. 

Now we proceeded towards our next stop Shanti Stupa which is 4kms from here. Parking lot of Shanti Stupa is very small and it is very difficult to find a spot to park your vehicle(guys park your cars in such a way that while going back you don't have to face any problems as you may not be able to take a U turn easily and will have to drive down the hill in reverse direction only).

After crossing the entrance, main Buddha temple is made where we offered our prayers and then proceeded towards the Stupa. 2 levels are made where you have to circle both of them and offer your prayers. It has a huge viewing area which overlooks many other places like, we clicked few pictures and then went on the 1st level. 

Shanti Stupa, Leh

On the stupa the whole life Gautam Buddha is depicted from the birth of Buddha to defeating of devils. We went on the 2nd level found a nice shady place and sat over there. Nice cool wind were flowing and I felt like sleeping on the floor. Guys it is a very peaceful place and you will feel that you are in heaven only. I slept on the floor for around 45mins people past by and saw me, Swapnil was saying they are laughing but I didn't cared as it was very soothing for me. If given an option I would have checked out off the hotel and would sleep here only. After a nice nap we came down the stupa and clicked few pictures and proceeded back to our hotel. 

On the way back we saw a riders cafe where a weird looking bike was parked we clicked pic of that and less than 200 meters the army base was their. Army trucks and bikes were kept outside the gate which was used during the wars. The bullets had pierced through the body of the trucks and marking were made to show those tears. We clicked few pics and proceeded back towards the main city. 

On our way back we saw Zorawar Fort. It is a small fort unlike those in Rajasthan and now is being used as horse stable. This fort shows the story how Gen Zorawar Singh captured the Kashmir Valley and the weapons used by them during the period of 1800. We spent an hours exploring this unexplored area and except for 3 of us not a single tourist could be seen here. 

After that we refueled our car from the only fuel station of Leh and went back to hotel. We then explored market and reached back to hotel for some rest. Swapnil was not feeling good so he decided to stay back at hotel itself, Amit and me went back to the market at around 9pm. Amit bought some dry fruits from the market and also some ornaments for his mom and sister. Guys remember we had purchased some jewellery from Srinagar the same is over here and that too at the 1/4th of the price which they were selling at. So girls don't buy from Srinagar, infact their is huge variety in Leh market.

Around 9:30pm Amit and me decided to have dinner so I asked Amit to go and call Swapnil also, as the phones are not working over here till then I will find a restaurant which is open till he returns back. We decided a meeting point and he started walking back to the hotel and I started searching some nice restaurant which has a free wifi also. I inquired about the timing but most of them said they wont be taking orders after 10pm and it was already 9:30pm and Amit and Swapnil will take another half an hour to reach here. Finally after too many struggle I found a nice decent restaurant with good ambience. Hotel Blue Lotus which is right in the centre of the market and it is in a 2 storey building occupying 1st and 2nd floor, when I enquired with manager even he said that their closing time is 10 pm but still they will remain open for us. I assured him that I am surely going to have my dinner over here but will have to wait for my friends downstairs at the decided point. He said it is not an issue at all. Amit came back by 9:45pm and he was alone. I asked where is Swapnil he told me that Swapnil is ill so he didn't come for dinner, he took medicine and slept off and doesn't wish to eat anything as he had some snacks from the bag. We ordered for the food, oh my god it was an amazing looking food, we had ordered manchow soup, veg cripsy, a veg thali and some chicken dish.

The taste was amazing, it is bit expensive but every single bite is worth it. While having dinner we talked to the manager and said him that our friend has fallen ill so he advised us to take him to the govt. hospital and drop our plan of proceeding further. After having dinner we walked back to the hotel, as soon as we reached the room we saw Swapnil puking and was looking very ill. We then decided to skip tomorrow's plan and 1st thing in the morning was to take Swapnil to a doctor. We can't neglect it because once we will leave Leh we may not find any medical assistance and we can't even take risk of making Swapnil travel the whole day. 

Day 8 Leh 0kms

Note:- Guys if you have too much patience only then go to govt. hospital of Leh, otherwise their is a local clinic though it is costly but will give you a proper and timely treatment. 

Good morning guys it is 9am, Swapnil's condition has worsened and he needs an urgent medical attention. So we are planning to extend our stay but the manager is not ready to extend as he is already having a group booking. Till the time Swapnil gets ready Amit and I are going to hunt for hotel with wifi and TV, as we won't be doing any sightseeing today.

Nezer Holiday Inn, Leh 

Nezer Holiday Inn(Nezer Inexpensive Adventure)  is just opposite to Hot Pot Restaurant where we had our dinner on 1st night in Leh. The rooms are not too big but they are quite good and looks like a traditional Ladakhy House sort off. The owner is very nice and we got the room easily but did a little bargaining with him. After paying the advance we went to the earlier hotel 



The White Yak to pack our bags and proceeded for the Leh govt. hospital to get Swapnil checked. We reached the hospital at around 10 am, the building is very huge and are having different buildings for different illness. So we asked for general ward where they can treat fever. Their is a huge queue of patients to enroll for their illness at the reception counter. It took almost half an hour to just register Swapnil and the fee is only Rs.5. After that we proceeded towards the doctors room and another problem. 

There are more than 100 patients who are ill and they are before us in the queue. We waited over there for more than 2 hours for our number but doctors over here are a typical govt employees doing time pass and they have seen only 10 patients till now. People especially guys who have come as an emergency case even they are not being treated, I don't know what if someone with Cardiac Arrest comes over will he be treated or not. After wasting 2 hours we left from the hospital without availing the treatment to find some local physician who can do the needful. There is one just outside the hospital but its Monday so he is closed(Note:- Monday is like an official holiday over here so its half day over here and offices and other things are open till 2 pm only and after that they close down, even this govt. hospital doctors go for off after 2pm and that's the reason I guess these doctors were doing time pass). After wasting another half an hour a local person told us that their is one physician in the market and he is also open till half day only. It was already 1:45pm and we proceeded towards the market again. We reached the clinic at 2:15pm and if this doctor leaves then no one is going to help us out today. Even this doctor has a huge queue of patients and was not ready to see any more patients but we explained the compounder our situation so he allowed us. Another biker group came and even they explained their situation so they were also allowed, we asked them what had happened to them, they explained us that they are riding from Manali and on the way one of their friend had fallen and due to that a stone had pierced through his finger and he was bleeding badly. Even they had been to the govt. hospital but nobody was ready to attend them so they came over here. It took more than an hour so I said Amit that I will go and do the check inn in the Hotel and you both come after the treatment is over because I needed to attend nature's call urgently. So I checked inn and attended my natures call and called up at home and said that Swapnil is unwell so we are extending our stay till he doesn't recover back. My mom said that extend for more 2 to 3 days because travelling is not good when ill. 

Amit and Swapnil returned back around 3pm. We all were hungry but swapnil said that he won't come to hotel, he asked to bring curd rice for him as doctor advised not to eat too oily stuff and all. Amit and me went to Hot Pot had lunch and brought curd rice for Swapnil, he was not able to eat even that but we made him eat forcefully as he had to take medicine. I asked Amit what did the doctor say, doctor told that it was due to Mountain Sickness and reaction of the medicine which had taken as a pain killer which further affected his health. 

Leh Main Market

After doing some time pass and we slept till 6pm. Then I and Amit decided to stroll in the market, we bought some dry fruits, clicked some pictures and made today's video and then went to the vegetable market because doctor had told Swapnil to eat banana's. So after finding the whole Leh Tourist market someone said that we will find fruits and vegetables at the other market which is 1km walk from that place. We started walking towards the market, bananas over here are for Rs.100 a dozen and that too the small one in size. Everything over here is too costly and shops were going to close so we bought at the that price because it was necessary for us. Even we both became hungry so we decided to have dinner but not too heavy as we did our lunch late this was just as safety side we were eating. Their was a nice local cafe and lots of tourists were there so we ate over their only. We ordered french fries and 1 vegetable pizza both were very tasty, we both couldn't finish that pizza so we parceled it and took to the room. We made swapnil eat those banana's and later at night Amit finished that remaining pizza and we went to sleep. 

To Be Continued..........