Trip Started: We four Vijit, Harsha, Saumil, Kundan started from
Day 1: So, our actual trip started from 
We passed from
We reached Kullu around 7.00 Pm and it was dark, due to evening time, we stuck in heavy traffic in Kullu due to which we reached Manali very late by 9.00 in the night.
Day 2: Started from Manali at 6:00 AM: We woke up at 5 in the morning. And there were heavy clouds over Manali and little bit of rains, which is a bit scary for us as harsha never had experience in driving in rainy mountain curvy roads, and roads from Manali to rohtang is not cemented, in fact lots of places road did not exist. Soon we crossed Manali and scenic beauty as we started moving towards altitude.
And then experienced first major problem of our car: As there was a U turn, steep height, full of mud and as soon as we started climbing, harsha realized that car is not moving up and back tyre are moving at one place only. Till that moment, harsha kept leg breaks ON, then he tried putting hand breaks too and we realized our hand breaks are not gud enuff to stop the car, and our car started going backward. As soon as we realized this, we came off the car and put some big stones behind the rear tyres of car to stop the car. Within 5 mins, we realized because of us thr was a small traffic jam and people started shouting us chalani nahi ati to kyon chalate ho, side kar lo etc etc. Then comes our first savior: A Sardar ji military man, who drove the car for next 100m and helped us moving out of the mud. After this, he took a small session on how to drive car in such conditions. This really really helped us in the overall tour.
After 3 hrs of drive we reached Rohtang Pass (Manali 6725 ft to Rohtang 13200 ft is 52 km), in fact I should say we crossed rohtang pass and we dint even realized that we have crossed rohtang pass, (which we got to know after 1 km from the pass). Anyways, we dint go back thn, we stopped and have our brkfast at first restaurant, we had an omlette 30/- per plate and magi 50 per plate (this is standard rate at such height on Manali to leh route). Its always suggested to carry your own food such as energy giving biscuits such as parle G,Tiger and Chocolates.
The next part of route was down the hill, Next major stop was Tandi (35 kms from Rohtang). Tandi is the last petrol pump on the way to Leh. Make sure that you get filled your petrol tanks completely and I suggest do some initial calculation whether this much amount of petrol will be enough or not. 
If its not enough than carry some extra containers of 20L at least to keep reserve fuel. Further, we crossed Keylong (12 km from last stop), Jispa (24 km), darcha and we reached another high altitude pass Barlachala (15400 ft.). At this pass we saw snow first time on our trip. In fact remember Jab we Met song, snow coverd wall like structure on both side of a one way road. The height of this pass was quite high that we started facing some kind of breathing problems.
Soon we reached at Sarchu 14190 ft (33km from Barlachla). Here we decided to take tent for 100/- for the night. Here is we faced the Acute Mountain Sickness first time in our trip. As soon as we got down, I guess within 10 min all four of us started feeling like head ache and believe me, it was very painful. Harsha and Saumil did vomit and tried hard to go to sleep. But it was in vain. As it was expected so we already carried AMS medicines, but it was of no use. Thankfully we were fit n fine next morning. In fact I was fine when I woke up at 2.00 AM midnight (description below).
Night stay at Sarchu: Oh god the night was so amazing the cloulds were clear like u can really see infinite stars which are not visible in gurgaon. Darkness was like complete black... Silence was like u can even hear the sound of silence. A river flowing just alongside our camp, its voice was so smooth. It was chilly cold, but I loved it.
Day 3: Day was looking so great. As we all were feeling nice. I wake up at 6.00 in the morning, it was amazing scenery outside. 
Mountains on the top covered with snow which were brown last evening, so overnight snowfall made the whole view amazing. We moved forward at around 8.30. Camera was continuously ON anywhere u c and u want to capture those scenes. We crossed NAKI LA (45 km) and GATA LOOPS 15500 ft. : a series of 21 loops of roads and within a span 2-3 kms we climbed a height of some 1000 feets. Our next stop was LACHULUNG LA 16600 ft (12 km). Next we crossed PANG (20 km), DEBRING (35 km), MOREY PLANES and TANGLANG LA 17500 ft (40 km), it was the worlds 3rd highest motor able road. The roads were in too bad condition that only one person can pass comfortably at a time. Accidents on this route are very common. But I must thank Project Himank: operated by Indian Army to build roads at such a lovely place on this earth.
After this pass, we almost covered the toughest road on this route. Next stop was UPSHI 11500 ft (60 km) and KARU (14 km). At Karu, you can find another petrol pump. From Karu to Leh (34 km), roads were very smooth. So we reached Leh at around 6 PM and it was very sunny at that time. As we crossed karu, we started got the first view of INDUS river, this is the river on which our country named
One more incident to share on this route: It was around 3-4 in the afternoon when, me and saumil at the back seat were kind of sleepy. And the car was climbing upward, when suddenly I heard Harsha is saying “hamari gadi ka break fail ho chuka hai jaldi se utar ke patthar lagao”. Suddenly after listening this, we all get into full attention and saumil again got out of the car put some stones behind the rear wheels. We all got down there and started trying to figure out what can be done. And this area was complete Jungle, next village was some 30 kms away. We were bit tensed, because our can not move ahead and we are at such a height where already all of us were facing some breathing problems. After some 15 mins of wait, we stopped a Jeep and this is what you call luck, the driver of jeep was our 2nd savior, a car mechanic. JJJ. Luckiy, within 15 mins he repaired our car and we moved otherwise, I am sure we wont be able to reach Leh that day and we definitely had to stop somewhere on the way.
For travelling to Khardungla and Pangong Tso we need a permit from Leh Admin department. Normally hotel arranges the permit with some extra money. According to normal process, if you submit in the morning then you will get the permit by 3.00 0 clock only so its like you can visit any place on that day. But luckily our hotel wala knows someone from the govt. office so he made sure that we will be able to get the permit by 11.00 and we can go to Khardungla next day as it is only 2-3 hrs drive from Leh.4
Day 4: Started from Leh to Khardungla at 11.30 AM: LEH 11620 ft to KHARDUNGLA 18500 ft (50 km): Our trip started around 11.30 AM. 
Make sure that whatever documents u get from the admin deptt., get at least 5 xerox copies of them. Weather was good, and roads were good so we dint face any problem... Once again our camera was busy within 20 mins we reached on top of a hill from where we can c the whole leh it was a nice view. As khardungla is the highest top, so it was obvious that we had to climb a large altitude, from the start we found roads were steep. Soon, we reached at the first check point south pullu, submitted our documents. From this point onward. as we moved up, weather gets more chilly and we were able to see lots of snow clad mountains and we were going close to them.
After some one and half hour we reached at the top. It was a great feeling to be on the world's highest motorable road. Instruction board is present at the top and make sure that u follow all those instructions.
We came back to Leh by some 5.00 o clock and we had enough time to do some local shopping in Leh. We bought memento T-shirt with a map of Manali to Leh route, saumil and Kundan bought pashmina (a specific kind of shawl). At the night, we tried some local kashmiri food. You can go to any Local restaurant and ask the waiter let u know about all kind of food. It was OK OK types, but you should try at least once.
Day 5: Started from Leh 11620 ft to Pangong Tso 14500 ft (140 km) at 8.30 AM: As pangong is quite far from leh so we tried to move as early as possible, we left at 8 AM. Roads on the initial part were nice and we dint face any problem.
On the way to pangong, we had to cross Chang La 17800 ft (46 km), it is second highest motorable road in the world. Unfortunately, or fortunately that day on our way to Chang La, theres snowfall over the route with a temperature of around -10. By the way dont forget to have a cup of black tea provided by military at the top, it was really good. We stayed thr for some 15 min and moved ahead. Still we have to cover 3 hr of journey from thr. After crossing the pass, the slope of road was downward. We crossed Durbuk, Tangtse, Lukung and Spangmik.
Around 2 kms of patch on this road was very very bad, but we had to cross it. Next we reached to plane area. After driving for some 5hrs, we started getting a little bit frustrated,
we kept guessing for half an hour that lake should be behind this mountain, that mountain etc. but we kept going and going and going. And believe me when we got the first view of
Luckily while we were returning, all the snows on ChangLa have melted down, it was pretty sunny at that time, so we dint face any problem and we reached Leh by 8.00 pm.
Day 6: Started from Leh to Kargil (235 km) at 10.00 AM: We started late from Leh as we know we have to cover only 234 km for the day. And it is pretty achievable to reach Kargil before dark. As soon as we left Leh, we got cars tank full. In this area, there were lot of army camps, we gave lift to one of the army personal till kalsi. It was really nice chatting him on the way. After some 15-20 kms from leh, We reached at an area called Magnetic Hill. A billboard was posted over there, which says . Supposedly, it is said that you can steer upward this hill with an speed of 20 km/h with engines switched off. To our disappointment, we could experience this experience. But this is not fake, as most of people have experienced this and even experienced earlier.
Road from Leh to Kargil is pretty smooth, well maintained and upto date, as lots of army trucks keep going this way. There were few constructions, but we were quite fast on the way. We took our lunch on the way in some village again rice plate with rajma and two omlettes, which is the best meal we cud find over this route. During this stop, we met an American guy, Hirsche
Hirsche: He was quite an interesting person, we talked him for half an hour or so during our lunch and tea. He was really fond of tea. He is travelling all over the world over his cycle, he was in
Anyways, again this time the area is kind of dessert with sunrays on its full, we can not switch on the ACs this time, but air outside was cool so it helped us, our camera was still on, there is one stretch on this road where there too many curvy roads and makes a good scenic beauty. The river
Well, at around 4.30 or so we were just 5 kms away from Kargil, Kargil is down planes and we can see the Kargil city from heights. Suddenly, at this we heard an arbit khatar patar sound coming from downside of our car. We stopped and checked, we saw the metal cover which is placed for the protection of engine has fallen off and it is touching the grounds. It means we can not move ahead, until we fixes it. But we were bit relieved as we can c the city. So, Harsha and Kundan went to the city by taking lift to get some mechanic. During the meantime, me and Suamil started talking to some locals who were roaming with there cattles in the nearby area. He started telling us that, he staying in a mountain, in front of in a village. Before 1971s war, the front mountains were in the
We enquired with the locals, if there is anything to watch like war memorial, but nothing was thr in Kargil so, we just went to the hotel rooms, and went out for dinner. And we tried some local dishes such as Igyuma, Kharote, Kababs, kaleji Soup And I must say u shud try these things from local roadside vendors, those were delicious JJ
Day 7: We left Kargil around 8.00 AM, We had already enquired, the war memorial is in Drass, some 40 kms from Kargil, where we reached within as hour. 
It was 19th and there was some rehearsal going on for the Operation Vijay ceremony on 25th 26th July in the memory of 10 years of Kargil war, due to which we had to wait for 2 hours in the memorial. Again we chatted with some army men about local area. But that wait was worth, we saw Pakistani weapons which was captured during war, most memorable was the Bofors, amazing gun Dekh ke hi amazing feel aa raha tha. Other, was the wall on which all martyrs name was written, Overall it was an amazing feeling at that place, I was feeling very much patriotic. As from the memorial, u can tololing range, Tiger hill, batra top and other major locations. It was a superb feeling.
After spending 1 hour in visiting the memorial, we moved ahead, we visited the second coldest habitat in the world, It was near Drass, where temperature has reached -40o C. Again roads were not good, from Kargil to
In Srinagar, our plan was to stay at houseboat, so as we entered Srinagar, we asked about DAL lake and just reached there, well to my disappointment, I dint find the lake as beautiful as I thought or as I have seen in movies or other place. It was stinking a little bit, plus not so clean. Now comes the interesting part, as soon as we get down to ask about lake, around 20 people surrounded us and started tempting us in different ways, for 5 min we tried to handle them and agree with one person to go an watch his houseboat in a SHIKARA, as shikara wala told his price that it would be 100/- just for till lake, we lost our patience and just ran away from there and stayed in a hotel for that night.
In the evening, we went to the market and did some shopping, like AKHROT, ALOOBUKHARA, KASHMIRI SUITS, SHAWLS (all these stuff are good and quite cheap). We had our dinner in very famous restaurant named VAISHNO Dhaba, It was small but so much crowded that we had to wait for 15 min outside to catch the seat, but food was good, u can also try.
Day 8: Started from
According to our plans, we had decided to stay at
Well, once we reached pathankot, next was a straight plane road via jullundher, Chandigarh and smooth like cream.
We reached delhi by 7.30 in the morning. And we were feeling like we conquered something after such an adventurous trip...
General Information: There is lot of information available on the net regarding Leh trip. Here are the few points below:
- Drink a lot of water at high altitude to avoid the problem of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). Normally AMS occurs to everyone when you first reach at such a height, so best way to get away from this is don’t panic, just try to relax, it will remain hardly for 4-5 hrs. You will feel better automatically after some time.
- Bought a lot of items for eating on the way, like biscuits specially Parle G and Tiger, Chocolates mainly 5 star (for instant energy), few namkeen packets, A bottle of Jam, you can buy breads on the way, Maggi (we dint utilize those)
- Sun-screen lotion: heavily needed to protect your skin from UV rays
- Sunglasses: Sunlight is so bright that without shades you can get headache. So get a good shade before leaving.
- For your vehicle: 1. Make sure Hand breaks are very tight 2. Carry an empty can of 10L at least for carrying fuel in emergency 3. Carry one bottle of engine oil and break oil (these are not costly)
- Plan your trip in advance: I will suggest plan your trip like number of km you want to cover, where will you stay on route, places you want to visit in Leh etc.
- Night Stay: On a road trip from Manali to Leh, it is important that you need to plan where you are going to stay at night, because you are going at height of 14000 ft, and its not possible to acclimatize that height so soon. On this route, there are various places before Sarchu at a lesser altitude such as jispa, keylong where you can stay to acclimatize without experiencing much pains.
