Leh, Ladakh via Manali in June End/July Start

arijitraja

Hi all..
As a part of my planning for LEh, i joined this site and found its amazin. Some members llike mridula, yogesh and guptaji have posted such good posts and i am happy to be a part of this indiamike community. I and a friend of mine are plannign in June End/July start. Two more can join in but they r a lil skeptical. We r on a shoestring budget. All of us work in IT companies so getting a big leave is an issue. So we are taking a week off and so we have 9 days holiday wherein we have to fit our Leh trip. Please gimme as much info as possible about the trip so that i am able to create a itenary for the trip. Some main issues i have in mind are -
1) what are the ways from Manali to reach Leh ? I have heard sumos charge a staggering 10k and that too for 4 ppl ? On the other hand i ave also heard that there are shared jeeps for around 800 rs. and there are buses too.
2) since i have just 9 total days can some1 jot me down the main things i shouldnt miss or maybe create an itenarary for me ?


If anyone has similar time constraints and wanna go for the trip feel free to contact me at arijit.ganguly@gmail.com ..

Yogesh Sarkar

Hi Arijit, shared taxi cost per person would come out to be between Rs.800-1200 (depending on the seat, front ones are the costliest and rear ones the cheapest). Not sure how much a bus ticket would cost.

Here is a sample itinerary

Day 1: Delhi – Manali

Day 2: Manail – Leh or Manali – Sarchu

Day 3: Rest in Leh and get the permits or Sarchu – Leh

Day 4: Leh – Khardung La – Nubra – Khardung La – Leh or Rest in Leh

Day 5: Leh – Pangong tso or Leh – Khardung La – Nubra – Khardung La – Leh

Day 6: A local tour of monasteries around Leh or Leh – Pangong tso

Day 7: Leh – Manali or Leh - Sarchu

Day 8: Manali – Delhi or Sarchu – Manali

Day 9: Manali – Delhi

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arijitraja

Thanks a lot Yogesh for taking out time and replying to my Query. You seriously seem to be an experienced Leh Campaigner.
Regarding the Shared Taxi said, what vehicle do they use ? A sumo ? and do ppl get down in the middle of the route if wanna shoot some pics. How many people sit in the Taxi. I am asking this because then i will try to get those many people and get a complete taxi so tat we can stop anywhere. Secondly if its a Sarchu break journey, the same 800 bucks taxi will work or thats again a different story ? Please gimme ur Yahoo IM id/gTalk id. That would be much convinient for me.
Reading another post i feel that rain in July start is a 25% chance, right ?

Yogesh Sarkar

Arijit shared taxis are mostly sumos and qualis. As for stopping in the middle to take photos, I really doubt that would happen. Especially since most of the shared taxis do manali – leh trip in 20hours. Mostly they will stop at few places such as Darcha, Sarchu etc for registration and meal breaks. I think the taxis take 10 passengers in one go. If you take a taxi that does the journey in two days then the night halt would be Sarchu and in the morning the same taxi and people will start again.

Beside this don’t know much about public transport did the last year’s trip on my motorcycle and most probably will be going there again in September on my motorcycle.

As for rains, that really depends on monsoon and your luck . My yahoo id is yogeshsarkar

amitdave

arijit,
if you can increase your group size to 8 you should take a full taxi on your own and go to leh in two days. while gonig to leh take the route of tso-kar, tsomoriri lake so that you can visit this enroute to leh. this way ,first night would be sarchu tents, second night would be tsomoriri lake and third day you will b in leh.cost would only increse slightly in comparison to directly going to leh.
also as for public transport is concerned there is himachal toursim bus which goes to leh from manali (two day journey,night ar sarchu) its cost is ard 1200 per person including acco at sarchu. they accomodate 4 person in one tent.

Yogesh Sarkar

but dont you need inner line permits to visit tso moriri?

amitdave

yeah yogesh you do need inner line permits for tso moriri but i have heard that the travel agencies in manali do manage to get it ,if told before hand.
ofcourse if they can not get you the permit then one can visit this lake on his/her return journey.

Yogesh Sarkar

hmmm... dont know how they can arrange permits like this, unless they are bribing the official and forging the travel documents. coz every one needs to sign the permit application

vistet

I`ve done the Manali-Leh route thrice, I love the road ..and I´ll do anything to avoid the cannonball allnight run for Leh.
Getting stuck for hours at the highest sections seems fairly common, I´ve been in that position twice and also heard others with the same experience.And this is a serious situation, even with an acclimatisation stop .
Taking a acclimatisation stop in Keylong (I prefer Manali and Keylong) will dramatically increase your chances of enjoying the road without splitting headaches and vomiting, not to mention more advanced stages of AMS.

ravi4you_live

hi arijitraja. let me tell you that schedule given by yogesh is not possible to follow. there are more than one errors in details. exp. leh to nubra is one day journey and you cannot come back same day as traffic is allowed only oneway a day to nubra. another thing you will be wasting your time if planning to come back same day from pangong tso. its heaven man and worth living atleast for a day. from there you can go further to tsomoriri and then reach Pang or sarchu without going to leh again. try or fing some group from manali or leh who will be taking this route. we r going for the third time in a group of 6 members on qualis via kaza kunzum keylong leh nubra tsomoriri tsokar pang manali delhi (15 days) for shooting a documentry.
all the best and try to increase your shoestring and time. atleast 12 days.

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Ravinder

Yogesh Sarkar

Hmm… last I heard there were tours which did leh – Khardung la – diskit – Panamik – Khardung la – leh in a day. Not sure about it though since I traveled in ladakh on my motorcycle, as for leh – nubra – leh its quite possible to do since the roads for the most parts are quite good and the whole trip would come out to be around 400kms. One of my friends had done the same on his motorcycle in 2003.

As for Khardung la, as far as I know there are multiple slots for traffic from each side. On the return journey we had missed the slot at 12 o’clock and had to take 2o’clock slot instead.

nevilleb

I'm leading a photo tour there in July this year:

http://www.nevillebulsara.com/Ladakh-Itinerary.pdf

Anyone game?

nevilleb

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ravi4you_live

Hi Yogesh,
We were in Leh last year in june when PM Manmohan Singh was there and security was very high. May be this could be the reason for traffic regulation. But we did faced this problem last year. But another reason is that if you are going just to touch the valley "not fair" you`d agree to that. Nubra is so beautyful.
any way we r leaving on 2nd june evening via shimla, kaza kunzum (trekiing at Chandra tal) then to leh and all.
we`ll definately share our views. we be staying in Leh for 6 days at ITBF camp.

Yogesh Sarkar

quite ture, one needs to spend atleast two nights in Nubra and Pangong, but the OP only has 7 days. in that case its upto him to either see either nubra or pangong properly or rush through 3-4 places.

rushir

Hi Arijit,

Me and my wife are leaving for manali from ahmedabad on 24th June. From manali was have booked two seats on a taxi on sharing basis with a night stay at sarchu and will be leaving on 27th early morning from manali. We have booked the seats through antrek travels in manali. They charged us 2500 Rs per person becuase of the night stay at sarchu. Their contact details are given below. From leh to srinagar we will be going by local bus with night stay at kargil.
Antrek Tours and Travels Pvt. Ltd.

# 1, Rambagh, The Mall, Manali - 175131,

Himachal Pradesh, India.

Telephone: + 91 1902 252292; 254006

Fax: + 91 1902 252786; Mobile: + 98 160 22292

Website:www.antrek.co.in

Regards,
Rushir Shah