This morning, I woke up at around 4.00am as I needed to catch a long distance bus for my trip to Manali, 434km from Leh, departing around 5.00am. Lugging my backpack and a hand carried bag and walking up the Leh street towards the bus station was quite strenuous as the air was thin in the early morning . I had to stop every 5-10 mins to catch my breadth before walking any further. It took more than 20mins for me to walk a short distance of 50 meter ! I called this as a "spaceman" walk.
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The mountain scenery was spectacular and after a three hour ride, we arrived at the Taglangla Pass (17,582ft), the world's 2nd highest motorable pass. All the bus passengers were excited and we were given a short time to alight from the bus and took some pictures at this highest point in Ladakh. A day earlier on our way to Pangong Tso lake, our jeep stopped at the top of the Chang La pass (17,000ft), the world 3rd highest motorable pass. So within two days, my body had indeed overcome the high altitude sickness - no doubt this was a natural test of my mental and physical strength - "unbelievable" as written in the marker for those we got to the top.
We passed the Sarchu security check point and as usual, all passengers were subject to the normal protocol checks and had to provide I/D and passport details etc. Earlier , we passed an army depot so security in this region was tight.
Not far from the check point, there was a small shop selling liquor & wine. After the security checking, I walked towards a hand-hold water pump and tried my skill to pump out some water from the ground.
At around 10.00am, our bus stopped at a resting place pitched with tents and tables for passengers to have light refreshments or stretching their legs.
By evening, we arrived at Keylong, a small country town in Himachal Pradesh. As our ticket price (Rs1,600=Rm144) was inclusive of a dinner and an overnight stay in tents, so all the passengers had to camp here for a night. In the bus, I met a Taiwanese traveler who became my travel buddy in Manali & Mcleod Ganz.
Some nice pictures on mountain scenery taken along the route from Leh to Keylong:
" Throughout the journey, it was all about the height that matters: lunch at Sonamarg (2,740m); overnight stays at Lamayuru (3,390m) and Leh (3,505m); jeep safaris passing Zoji La Pass (3,529) , Rohtang La Pass (3,978m), Changla Pass (5,289m) & Taglang La Pass (5,328m) - you can walk tall if you step on Mt Everest (8,848m) during your life time"
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