4th June2012
Maitreya Buddha-Mulbek
With electricity playing its regular game, mosquitoes and bugs on feasting spree, the night became long.
With the first rays of sunlight we were out of the bed to view a strikingly enormous carved figure of Maitreya Buddha called Chamba statue overlooking the highway.
After filling our stomach with the staple egg and bread in breakfast, we started our bikes and rode east on under construction road Lined with trees on one side and paddy fields on the other, towards our dream destination.
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The roads from here onward were a mixed bag of under construction and newly carpeted black top.
We had gone scarcely a few kilometers towards the first pass of the day Namikla, when FZ of my friend started throwing tantrums. It was losing power while climbing. We had to stop to clean the air filter and spark plug.
Riding on gradual ascend we reached Namik la. The view of mountains from the pass is breathtaking
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Road from Namikla to Fotula takes you through barren landscape with a few islands of green in between.
Fotula is the highest point on the Srinagar Leh route. Descending from Fotula one reaches beautiful monastery known as Lamayaru with moon land as a backdrop
After Crossing Lamayaru we planned to have lunch at Khalse but as we reached there, we planned to move ahead towards Alchi. We had hardly gone 10 kms ahead when we came across a long traffic jam. Even bikes were not allowed to cross it. According to the army personnel manning the traffic, it would take two hours to clear the road. We returned to Khalse for Lunch.
After devouring delicious momo’s at Dolma’s restaurant we again started towards Leh. This time bikes were allowed to cross that bottleneck point.
We had to stop again for one hour after covering just a few miles. The road was being widened and blasting of mountains was in progress.
We reached Nimmu without many stops on the way. Nimmu is the place of confluence of Indus and Zanskar rivers. Clicking few pictures we moved towards Magnetic hill.
The Magnetic hill was crowded like a local Sunday bazaar. Without wasting much time we reached Gurdwara Pathar sahib and stayed there for more than half hour.
Crossing Basgo plains we reached Leh around 8:30pm and went to Fort road in search of Semskit GH. We could locate it after wandering for a few mins. This GH is highly recommended for couples and families. It has a homely feel to it.
To be continued…