Drive to Manali through Tanglang La, Lachung La and Rohtang La

                        The 10th day was all about riding through various passes and multiple viewpoints. Starting off from Rumtse where we halted the previous day, the first pass we covered was the Tanglang La, situated at an elevation of 17,480ft. Even though the temperature was below 10°C, the roads were better which made riding comparatively easier. 

                        There was only a little snow here and there on top of the pass, but it gave a closer view of the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. After the customary click near the sign board with the pass name and height, we continued the ride.

                        We had breakfast from a small hotel run alone by an old lady. One thing that most of the hotel owners here did was, whenever any rider arrives at the hotel they’ll immediately bring the stove with flames from the kitchen, so that the riders can warm their hands. We had similar experience in almost every villages we stopped at. One noticeable thing was that, the local guys in these villages were far more friendly than vendors in towns who were trying all possible ways to empty the pockets of the travelers.

                        By noon we reached the next pass on the way, the 16,600ft high Lachung La. This pass located between Sarchu and Pang on the Leh - Manali highway is also an easier pass to ride on. Another major place we came across was the Gata Loops, a series of 21 hairpin bends which takes to the top of 15,547 feet high Nakee La. There was a place where we found a dump of water bottles, but only later I came to know about the story of the Ghost of the Gata Loops.

                        The road through the valley alongside the Tsarap River was really bad for almost 50kms, where roads were just tracks filled with dirt and rocks. We also had to drive across water streams, which at some places turned into torrents right in the road itself. Our plan was to stay at Jispa, however we managed to reach Keylong that night and stayed there.

Keylong

                        

                         On the 11th day we left Keylong to Manali. The ride was quite tough obviously because of the bad road conditions, the main villain being the slush formed because of the rainfall there on the previous days. However, the mountains in this region were lush green, with plenty of tiny waterfalls. The small homes on these hill slopes added more grace to the landscape. 

                         By noon, we reached the famous Rohtang La, the last pass of the ride. This 13,050ft high pass was crowded with people unlike the pristine untouched mountains of Ladhakh. Activities like paragliding were going on there, but we didn’t have the luxury of time to try any of those.

                         We reached Manali by 4PM and were not interested in spending much time in the crowded town. We however did some shopping in the Old Manali Street, but I must stay the short shopping experience we had here was just terrible. The vendors were behaving in a strange manner such that they even don’t look at your face. Felt like they were interested only in foreign customers. We stayed on a hotel at Bhuntar for the day. We had an interesting dinner that day from a small wayside hotel which served delicious Tandoori; we however were more excited of the Fish Tandoori. After having a very satisfying dinner we retired to bed without spending much time in the town, since we had a long ride awaiting us the next day, back to Delhi…