Bus Ride to Leh

I wrote most of this while on the 2-day bus ride through the Himalayas. I wanted to add some color to it after rereading (actually re-typing since it was on my Berry), so where I’ve added color I’ve put it in [brackets].

Saturday, July 18^th, AM

8:30AM – 9:30AM

Climb out of Manali - zig-zagging up through the mountains passing tourists, goods carriers, and tankers.

9:30AM – 11AM

Continue to climb up through the mountains into the clouds and on muddy roads. [Been lucky with rain on the trip, however it did rain on Saturday morning causing mountain passes to get severely muddy]. Several long traffic jams due to stuck vehicles, rock slides, etc. No problem, take a look around and you’re in bliss. Hop out for a stretch and a chai from a hawker taking advantage of the traffic jam. Looking up and down the mountain there are about a dozen loops (backs and forths).

11AM

Rotung La. A mountain pass at 4,000 meters (x3.3 = 13,333 ft.). Driving through the clouds, looking over the side of the truck all you see is white. Traffic subsides due to tourist turning around. Wish they could see Michigan snow! [Indian tourists coming up to Manali usually take the 3 hour ride up to Rotung La to get their first sight, feel, and taste of snow.]

Yeah, so, ummm, I'm going to have to have you not fall off the scary, cloudy, cliff. Mkay?

12PM – 1PM

Green meadows surrounded by absolutely stunning mountains, glaciers, clouds, rivers. Have already taken dozens of pictures and movies buy they do not serve one percent of justice of how majestic and sublime this scenery is. Rain clouds have dissipated and driving into the bright valley.

Stunning.

1PM – 2:30PM

Passed out. Woke up in a dry, hot river valley surrounded by huge, rocky mountains with landslide trails. Picked up some more water and sugar candies at the passport check and we started climbing more. Reading about what lies ahead in terms of passes gets me a little nervous that my cargo shorts idea was a little too cocky. I can get aggressive with “cold” weather in Jackson and NYC, but versus the Himalaya? We’ll see…

Okay Horn Please.

2:30PM – 5PM

Combination of sleep, sights, dhaba stops, peeing, eating snacks, and pounding water. Starting to feel mild affects of AMS so popped an Ibuprofen – can’t wait until 5:30PM so I can take another Diomox. [AMS – Acute Mountain Sickness, is a sickness that affects those that do not acclimate property in high altitudes. With Dr. T’s (Tejas’s) help, I got all the right medicines and enough water to get me through the trip]. Drove up to and stopped on Baralach La, a mountain pass at 5,000 meters (16,500 ft.), most probably the highest I’ve ever been outside of an airplane. Passed a sign that says 29 kilometers until Sarchu. I find that it’s easiest to pass through the bumps and dull headache by sleeping straight up and not letting my head touch the headrest. Tick, tock.

The little engine that could...

6PM

Wake up at Sarchu, which is far from a village/town/civilization. Sarchu is basically a campground of campgrounds. There are 30 or so tents in a rectangle with a dining tent and cooking tent at our establishment. A worker asks me if I want a standard or deluxe tent. The deluxe has an attached toilet for 200 rupees more ($4US). Hmm. Move into my deluxe tent and I really like the digs. Very spacious, probably 10 x 10 x 10 ft. Check out the bathroom, it’s actually a toilet stuck into the ground! Change into warm layers, have a hot chai, take my Diomox, set my alarm for dinner and crash.

8PM

Did I just see a small Indo/Asian guy pop his head into my tent and yell “Dinner”!? Stunned, I threw my shoes on and headed to the dining hall. My fellow passengers were all eating and socializing. I sat down with my plate of roti, dal, and mixed vegetable and joined the conversation. It’s quite spectacular the cross section of people on my bus. Two French Canadiens from Montreal, a couple from France, 2 Indos my age from Dehli/Singapore, and Italian, another Indo traveling with the Italian. Awesome to hear the different languages that went across the table (sad to say I was the only one that could speak 1 useful language)!. Looked up and saw every star imaginable. It’s cold. Currently typing this under 3 blankets. Going to retire now, see you in the AM!

The digs.

Sunday, July 19^th, AM

11AM

Let me preface by saying it is now 11AM and I’m finally feeling better to get around to writing this. The things I do for you guys…

It must have been the dal. I’ve been trying to think of how to title this post, and was honing in on “The Day My Iron Stomach Failed Me*”, - asterisk for I think it was the altitude that caused my problems. Anyhow, I had so much gas during my sleep I don’t think I’ve ever farted that much in my life. Yes, I do realize this may be the boldest statement I’ve ever said, but it definitely ranks up there. I woke up with excruciating stomach pains (after careful research I found out that I wasn’t the only one). I did read somewhere about this happening. Someone called it HAFE – High Altitude Flatulence Emissions. I couldn’t believe it until this morning! It’s disconcerting that the staple food in this region is Rajma and Rice – or Rice and Beans. (Aside – how amazing is it that the staple food around the whole world is rice and beans)?

Anyways, I was scared to eat anything, just had my chai and took a couple pieces of jam and break into the bus. The rest of the morning was a combination of farts, burps, and sleep. I was awake where we climbed through the Gata Loops – an infamous series of 21 back and forths (loops) over a large mountain. The lanes were about 1.25 US lanes wide, half paved/half rocks. At some times we have to stop to let a line of goods carriers and gas tankers through sometimes we pass them and look over the edge of the cliffs and shit our pants.

The scenery on this part of the trip was very arid. Lonely Planet describes it as stone and scree which is a great description. Very dry valley/deserts, huge monolithic mountain ranges with rivers of rock coming off them instead of water. Dusty roads had the driver recommend to close the windows up – not a good situation taking into the account the heat and my farts.

Stopped at a dhaba, had some chai (the ultimate recuperator) and felt better immediately. We have one more pass to go over, the second highest one in the world at 17K+ ft.

I'll have a chai and an oxygen to go - thank you kindly, please.

I really miss these sunglasses. They were 35 rupees! (70 cents!) No wonder they broke.

3PM

Excitement is building! We’re a mere 60kms from Leh, perfect day, paved roads through glorious rocky mountains. As I look up the walls of these mammoths I pray that Sunday is the day off for rockslides.

Fitting, the song playing right now is “Mera Dil Be Kitna Pagal Hai” from Saajan – the same song that was playing when I got picked up a few days back. Full circle.

Lachung La, the last high pass we went through was gorgeous. We could see the Himalaya all around us – rocky peaks, dry valleys, snowy peaks, etc. After that, it was all downhill. Took a quick nap and woke up at a dhaba and nervously wolfed down some Maggi noodles and chai and we continued on our way.

Sign we just passed says “Know AIDS, No AIDS”. Hmm. Clever girl.

I see the Indus River! Woohoo! Now the blog title makes sense!

View from hotel in Leh. Now that's what I call a 'vista'...