After the trek, Amogh and I had kept another week to travel around. The plan was to hire motorcycles and head to the Suru and Zanskar valley.
We scouted the entire market. Every bike rental shop welcomed us... and when told them our destination they politely refused to give us bikes on rent. Apparently the roads are bad so no one wanted to take the risk. Finally Planet Himalaya guy explained to us - this region is so remote and the roads so bad, that if someone left the bikes there, it would be very costly for them to get the bikes back. He agreed to give us the bikes if we kept a security deposit with him. We were a bit apprehensive whether he would return the deposit even after we got the bikes back. But he was equally straight forward then too and promptly returned our deposit at the end of the trip. We had taken a Bullet 350 and a Hero Impulse. Both the bikes performed very well. Would highly recommend Planet Himalaya, both for the quality of bikes as well as their transparency in dealings.
Next day morning we picked up the bikes, went to the ATM and then the long queue at the petrol pump. All this meant that we left quite late - almost 10.30 am. The initial road to Kargil was good. We were cruising along. After Lamayuru the road condition deteriorated drastically. There was a thick layer of dust on the road. This made the stretch prone to skids. Also every time a larger vehicle passed it left behind a dust storm! By the time we reached Kargil we were fully covered with dust. We looked something like this...
Kargil to Rangdum
Rangdum to Padum
Padum to Rangdum
Rangdum to Kargil
Kargil to Leh
We scouted the entire market. Every bike rental shop welcomed us... and when told them our destination they politely refused to give us bikes on rent. Apparently the roads are bad so no one wanted to take the risk. Finally Planet Himalaya guy explained to us - this region is so remote and the roads so bad, that if someone left the bikes there, it would be very costly for them to get the bikes back. He agreed to give us the bikes if we kept a security deposit with him. We were a bit apprehensive whether he would return the deposit even after we got the bikes back. But he was equally straight forward then too and promptly returned our deposit at the end of the trip. We had taken a Bullet 350 and a Hero Impulse. Both the bikes performed very well. Would highly recommend Planet Himalaya, both for the quality of bikes as well as their transparency in dealings.
Next day morning we picked up the bikes, went to the ATM and then the long queue at the petrol pump. All this meant that we left quite late - almost 10.30 am. The initial road to Kargil was good. We were cruising along. After Lamayuru the road condition deteriorated drastically. There was a thick layer of dust on the road. This made the stretch prone to skids. Also every time a larger vehicle passed it left behind a dust storm! By the time we reached Kargil we were fully covered with dust. We looked something like this...
Kargil to Rangdum
Rangdum to Padum
Padum to Rangdum
Rangdum to Kargil
Kargil to Leh
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