Living on Leh's Edge

After the Nubra expedition, I came back to Leh, hoping against hope that the others will still want to go to Pangong Lake. The Russian brothers were not sure but they were not as obstinate as my German friend. So, we decided to forget about the German and, with the brothers in tow, I went to a bike shop and rented a motorcycle, as did the Russians.

It was already late and there was some convincing to do, because the people from the bike shop dubiously regarded my motorcycle abilities and I had to bend the truth a little and tell them that I only wanted to take the bike for a short ride around Leh the next couple of days. Little did they know that I intended – along with the Russians, who rented another bike – to drive up to Alchi monastery, a mere 90 km away from Leh and just keep the bike for one day.

So, after my successfully convincing discourse, I found myself driving back to the guesthouse, grinning all the way. The sources of my grin were, not as you might imagine, the happiness and joy of riding a motorcycle on the winding, partially paved roads of Ladakh, but the darkness and cold that inevitably makes everybody’s faces turn to clown’s smirks – it’s mainly facial muscles at work. A Bajaj chopper (Bajaj Avenger 220) feels pretty good, although it’s not a very powerful bike. Still, it was quite enough for the purpose I had in mind. Granted, it took me at least 10 minutes to be satisfied with my parking, mostly because the words of the people at the bike shop rang in my ears: ‘Look, madam, it has not been hit and any dents or scratches will not be the shop’s responsibility…’

The first thing I did in the morning, right after defrosting my limbs from the previous night, was run and take a look over the balcony at my newly acquired bike, the same one that had been guest starring in my nightmares as a broken, ramshackled, shiny motorcycle for which I had to pay the value of a kidney… But the bike was, obviously, fine and, together with the Russians, we paraded through the streets of Leh, being awfully proud (and not yet cold). We took our time at breakfast, imagining that it will get warmer outside (which it did; but not when driving 50 km per hour with no windshield) and then we assaulted the local market, first for some socks (preferably not the 200 rupees yak fur ones), and then, for some bags – yes, plastic bags, that one of the Russians used as insulating material for his feet.

Notice the 'socks' of the one on the back...
True technology

We then started our journey, quietly taming our bikes on the winding roads out of Leh. We didn’t have a destination in mind, because we started late anyway and we wanted to be able to get back whenever we felt like it, like rats abandoning a sinking ship, in this case the ship being Ladakh and the sinking being the cold weather.

So, 30 km later we stopped in a village on the road to regroup our nearly hypothermic members and we realized that there is a pretty interesting Buddhist monastery a mere 35 km from where we were. So, we decided to see that but got detoured on the way and ended up at the place we set out to see in the first place: Alchi monastery, a very old gompa complex, dating back to the 10^th century. To my genuine surprise, it took us about 2 hours to drive all the 70 km, which were supposed to be 90 and were the only ones there, but we did get to see the very special stupas, the spectacular ancient paintings and the awesome ‘beach’ next to the turquoise Indus river. All this situated at about 3100 meters.

Impressive, for sure, but quite speedy, because we realized that our way back will not get any shorter. And, of course, our way back became a lot longer because we were absorbed by a strange sight of an abandoned castle on a hilltop and decided to further inspect it. The derelict castle of Basgo and the gompa attached are a truly enchanting spectacle, quite more than what I expected. And it took us about an hour to explore everything but it was definitely worth it!

The only thing that was missing was me being safely (and somewhat warmly) home, and that’s the worse part of the story: not only was it quite cold, because we seemed to have been haunted by a dark cloud all day, but it was also getting dark and traffic was, for the first time in days, getting crowded and smoggy – in a word, shitty, so all the powers of nature (and man) joined hands to sabotage us. It seemed to take forever to get back to downtown Leh, where I finally handed over the bike and stiffly walked back home. With the same grin taking charge of my face.