What I learnt riding in the Himalayas for the first time.

I recently rode up into the Himalayas into the Ladakh region of India for the first time and I thought I'd share some of the things I learned that might help others who are thinking of riding in the region for the first time. There are people out there who have ridden up there a lot more than me and probably have forgotten more than I know. If you are one of them please leave a comment below if you think of anything else that might be helpful. But this is from a first Delhi is where I left from and you get to ride through the city of Delhi and it is a unique experience. It takes about two days up to Manali or one big day. Manali, you can get a train up to Manali from Delhi and it actually gives you access to two of the better rides I rode. One up to Kila up to the northwest and the other is Spiti Valley to the northeast. And the town of Manali itself is quite interesting and it's at the foothills into that green area of the Himalayas. Leh, you can get a plane from Delhi to Leh and it puts you right in the heart of the riding but it is at altitude. I think it's 3,500 meters and they say take 48 hours doing nothing when you first get there to try and acclimatize. But doing it that way is where I heard most of the issues with altitude sickness. So you can either stage it up coming from Delhi or Manali or go straight in and have a rest. Permits. You need a permit to ride north of Leh. I didn't have one when I got there but where I stayed at the hotel the guys there organized me one. I think it was 20 or 30 Australian dollars. I can't remember. It just seemed cheap. There's also a permit needed if you're going to continue east out of Spiti Valley. There's just a local government place. It's easy to get. Just ask around. I did read something online about a permit needed at Barsi Bridge. There's a checkpoint there. I didn't know so I went to the checkpoint and said I was going to ask how do I get the permit and they just let me through. So I don't know if it's during a certain time of year. I know during when it's snowing that they alternate days of going across the high passes so maybe it's got something to do with that. But personally I didn't need a permit. I just rocked up, showed my passport and they let me through. And with the permit I got to go north of Leh I actually got four copies and everybody wanted a copy. They all like their paperwork in India and I got to the last one and I still had some checkpoints to go through but I articulated this was my last one and they let me keep it to go to the next checkpoint. So just say it's the last one and you should be right. Prepaid sim cards. I got a prepaid sim card in Delhi and it worked all the way up until I got to Ladakh and then it didn't work. I got this information second hand but the Indian government wants to know who's in the area and basically a prepaid sim card can be like a burner phone. So if you have a permanent address linked to the phone like an Indian address so like you would in your own country they're fine but as a foreigner it's very hard to get one. Basically you can only get sort of a Wi-Fi signal once you get into some accommodation that has Wi-Fi. So to get one or not, well it's not going to work in Leh but if you're riding anywhere else it's probably worth it. So navigation. If you have a navigation system that you take with you that has inbuilt maps your suite you can get apps that have downloadable maps and that's what I had and mine was Gaia GPS and the interface system on that's probably the easiest one I've ever tried so that's the one I used and I just quickly copied off the region I wanted to have a map of. It was that simple and it worked the whole time. Accommodation. Should you book ahead in advance? I'd say definitely no. So many things can happen on the road. I got turned around I think four times from landslides or road blockages so it just if you had a itinerary and all that it's just going to throw it way out and I wasn't even in the worst time of year for landslides. But if you are a bit of a planner one thing you can do is on your offline navigation maps is mark down some locations of a couple of different places you might stay in a few different towns over you know 50 100 kilometers and at least you've got somewhere to head to in that town nearest to where you decide to stop. Then if they don't have accommodation they're always going to be able to you know tell you where somewhere else might have accommodation. So if you get there late it's always you know it'd be a great thing to go at least I've got somewhere to start looking for accommodation rather than rocking up into a town in the middle of the night and just going knocking on doors. But in saying that I bumped into Jody McDonald and they literally came in one night and knocked on doors and got accommodation. I think they ended up putting them in one of the children's rooms but that's the thing about there everybody's really helpful and you can get accommodation nearly anywhere so I wouldn't be stressed about getting accommodation. And that also brings me to the thing of the difference between a traveler and a tourist. If you're with a big group and you're on a tour you know things are sorted. People in small villages are normally really opened up to travelers traveling by themselves or maybe in one or twos. I guess they just you know they understand you're traveling rather than being on a tour and everybody's really friendly. Well that's the experience I've always had. Cost of accommodation well I spent anywhere from I think around four dollars to five dollars up to about twenty five dollars. The four dollar one was one of the camps on the side of a mountain pass and it was comfortable. I really liked the experience so that was great and at twenty six dollars it was really nice. I mean it wasn't a five-star hotel but it was clean it was just really nice atmosphere and yeah all the mod cons even had wi-fi in some of them. So that's about the budget range. I was on a really tight budget so I was averaging between about 10 maybe 15 dollars over the whole period. Talking about budgets. Food well I was on a pretty strict budget as in I probably didn't have enough to last to the end of the trip so I basically just ate one meal a day and that would range between three dollars up to eight dollars. So and that was just basic stuff there aren't well I didn't come across any fancy restaurants out there. Normally it was pretty basic and it still tasted great. So obviously three to five so maybe average five dollars a meal up to eight and if you're eating three times a day obviously calculate that by three. Fuel well it all depends on how far you're going to ride each day and if you're going to ride each day. Personally I spent about 10 to 15 dollars of fuel a day and the frequency of fuel stations I don't think I went anywhere that was more than 200 kilometers but as a rule if I was if I hadn't just fueled up I'd probably stop at most fuel stations just to top up along the way. But note you can find someone in most villages that sells fuel. I actually asked at Killa and within you know minutes I found someone who actually was selling fuel. I didn't need it there but I just wasn't sure if I was going continuing through or going back so I asked the question and really quickly I found someone who was selling it not at an actual fuel station. Cash and lastly with money cash is about the only thing I ever saw. I didn't see anywhere who took credit cards and I personally didn't see any ATMs but I wasn't looking. There was money exchanges obviously in Delhi, Manali and Leh so it's just about getting enough cash to be able to get around. I just don't think you'd be able to use a credit card. Best time of year to ride in the region? Well there seems to be a few pros and cons. Obviously it's northern hemispheres so winter not being able to get through for snow basically so that's your biggest issue and that can happen all the way into March and even April again it's a bit hit and miss depending on the season. The peak season seems to be June a bit before a bit after but then there's a that's going to be the busiest time of year so you're going to have a lot more people around so it depends how you want your experience. If you like lots of people around maybe that's a time for you. I personally went in August and I got told oh no that's a bad time of year because of the monsoon. I got two days with a bit of rain maybe three but I think when I was in Ladakh I think where Manali and that is they did have some flooding issues there so I think higher up from my experience there was just rain with snow storms whereas further down it was a lot more hectic. Then I've been told September is really good because there's a lot less people but again you're running that risk coming into winter again colder if you get early snow but apparently I was told that was pretty good and again later in the year it's just the more risk getting colder and getting snowed in. Gear. Well I had 19 kilos with me which included my pannier bags my normal bags my boots and my helmet so not a lot but the things that are probably essential a puffer jacket maybe thermals riding boots and helmet. I did use the puffer jacket and actually set of winter gloves I brought as well in the higher passes and that was in you know the warmer time of year. I didn't use my thermals but I would still have brought them just in case. Other things I had riding boots because a lot of it is off road and I got some shin strikes from rocks so again just protective gear I guess everybody's got a different level with that. Delhi to Manali though was stinking hot so I just had to suffer a bit and sweat there but above that it's a really nice and in August a really nice riding temperature but yeah you've just got to be prepared for some really cold stuff and also I had rain gear. I had two pieces pants and jacket and definitely used both of them and it also is another layer if you get cold. Other things I brought were spare tubes front and back, tyre levers, patch repair kit, a pump so I didn't use them but riding solo out in a little bit more remote areas it just you can get on with it yourself. I had the ability I had enough water and food to be able to walk out of just about anywhere and I think it was probably a you know a day's walk maybe two so you know to get to the nearest village and then as I said everybody seemed really helpful there so I'm sure you'd be able to get help to get recovered. I also had some other basic tools and I had an EPIRB emergency personal beacon just in case. One other thing you might grab while there in any pharmacy chemist they have little cans of oxygen. I got to the highest pass and didn't need it but I tried it and it made a huge difference so it's it'd just be a good backup in case you do struggle with the altitude and the lack of oxygen just having it as and that was super cheap so it's worth just throwing one in I think. Also with that I had an oxygen reader it was like $15 off ebay just went on your finger. I was riding solo so just having an early warning sign thing to get down before you actually got in trouble. From what I read under 80 you've got to start watching it and under 70 just get down the mountains just turn around and go down. Where to ride? I'll go through where I rode and show you on a map and then link that to each episode so if you've seen somewhere in one of the episodes you'd like to check out you'll be able to work out and make your own map and decide where you'd like to go through this and again I probably went to the main areas there are so many other places to explore but this might give you a starting point at least and try and understand the map and the region itself so where things are located compared to other places. Episode one from Delhi to Manali Delhi is an interesting and chaotic place to ride. After leaving the city there's a lot of highway then you get to the foothills heading up into Manali and that's where it gets interesting again. Episode two I rode from Manali out to a small town called Kila to the northeast of Manali which had those incredible cliff edge roads definitely a highlight of the journey. Episode three there was a landslide that blocked me going any further up the valley as I was originally thinking of going to Kargil. So I turned around and traveled back along the cliff edge track which was epic then headed north onto the Leh-Manali highway. I think it's highway number three on the maps and I ended staying high up on the side of one of the passes which again was an epic experience definitely worth doing. Episode four this is where I crossed the three high passes the highest being over 5000 meters there is also the high plateau which was amazing I'm definitely glad I rode through this area. Episode five I made my way from Leh over the old highest motor wheel road in the world to Nubra valley. Apparently there's some really old villages to explore further up the valley to the south of Disket. Definitely worth checking out. Episode six I tried to get from Nubra valley to Pangdong lake along the Siok river. Google maps said I could get through on the southern side of the river but the road was under major reconstruction so I got to a dead end. I found out later there is a track on the north side of the river but be warned apparently there are long sections of sand and deep sand at that. This might have changed by the time you get there or the road I got turned around on may be open. So I ended up going the long way around over the Chang La pass. Episode seven after staying at the lake which is incredible definitely worth seeing I headed to the highest motor wheel pass in the world. At first I took the road that went along the lake towards the east but then I got turned around again by another landslide. You can see why you probably wouldn't want to schedule and book accommodation in advance because everything's always changing up there. The ride up to the highest motor wheel pass in the world is stunning. Definitely have that one of the places to go explore. Episode eight from the highest motor wheel road in the world I made my way down some random dirt tracks. Apparently there is a really good dirt track to take so it's worth investigating and finding out where that is on a map. Just ask around. I stayed in Hanley. There's not a lot of accommodation there yet as it has just been opened up to foreigners in the last year. I headed back towards Ley via another lake which again was epic and found somewhere to stay in a small village randomly on the road. Episode nine I continued on to Ley where I got my gear lever fixed and stocked up on supplies again. I then headed to the monastery which was really interesting definitely worth checking out and also the surrounding area what they call moonland with these incredibly eroded formations. Then I went on to the best day of riding of the whole trip as I took the back way to Zanskar Valley. This is one ride you need to do. Episode 10 well again I was stopped by another landslide trying to get to Zanskar Valley but I didn't mind as I got to ride back through the way I came. I stayed in the same town again and then headed to Kargil which is the biggest town in the area. Episode 11 I finally made my way to Zanskar Valley and got to see the glaciers. Definitely worth going through these valleys to see them. Also the mountain ranges here were amazing. I stayed in the town of Paddam and I noticed something on a map. It looks like there is a road from the checkpoint near the Barsi Bridge into Paddam so that's another option but again ask locals if it's actually open. Episode 12 I rode back out of the valley to Kargil then to the village of Arayan which was another incredible valley to ride through. I continued to lay, stayed there the night and then headed back over the high passes staying the night in one of the high camps which again I highly recommend. Episode 13 from the high passes I made my way to Spiti Valley which from all information said it was closed due to about 10 landslides along the track but I took a punt and went to the checkpoint and they let me through. Now this was probably my favorite track to ride. The terrain there was a lot of fun. I did get rain through part of it but again stunning views especially the last section so it's definitely worth going the whole way through. Episode 14 I continued east out of the Spiti Valley and made my way back down towards Delhi. The rest of Spiti Valley was again spectacular and awesome to ride. The further you head south the greener it gets. Again beautiful valleys but it also gets a lot busier with a lot more towns. Remember the place is all about exploring. The scenery, the people, villages. It's not about going fast. I think the speed limit in most areas is 60 kilometers an hour or less and remember people used to do this on those Royal Enfield bullets. So I hope there's some helpful information in this. If you do have any other questions that I haven't answered just write them in the comments below and again if there's anybody out there with a lot more experience and has some information that would help people going there for the first time please write it in the comments below. I'll see you in the next one.