Waves

On the other side of Khardung La lies the famous Nubra valley – the land of the sand dunes (Hunder), double humped camels (Hunder), beautiful monasteries (Diskit, Sumur), hot water springs (Panamik) etc.

It snowed when we were at Khardung La. Being from the hot-hotter weather of Chennai, it became extremely cold for us to bear it any longer. We quickly made a move. Gloves and jackets were of no use. The cold pierced through every fabric and sent shivers through everyone’s spines. The road to North Pullu from Khardung La was bad. Small melt-water streams made sure the bad roads turned in to slush in no time. Frozen and irritated, we made our way towards North Pullu. Sun peeked from behind the clouds after a long time and the warmth was very soothing. We stopped our bikes and soaked in the warmth … sun bath if you may say. Beyond North Pullu and until Khalsar, the roads were fantastic. Zipping through those curves was super fun.

Icicles near Khardung La

It was about 4 PM when we reached the Khalsar village and I was quite hungry. There were only 4 shops in the town of which only one was a hotel. It was a cozy home-cum-hotel, handled by a small family.

A drop dead beautiful Ladakhi girl, wrapped up head to toe, in nice warm clothes was standing outside her hotel. Insanely gorgeous. Her scarf was damn cute too. My bike suddenly seemed to have a mind on its own. It leaned on one side and stopped right outside the shop. Apparently, my jaws had dropped and took a lot of time to recover. My eyes were fixed on her and didn’t move an inch away. My lips had automatically curled in to a smile. She smiled too … SHE SMILED ! Wow!

Chubby Ladakhi baby

She turned around and walked inside. Minutes later, she stepped out again and in her arms was an ultra cute kid 😀 … I heard a loud POP sound. Probably that was my heart 😛 … The world came crashing down and I was back to my normal self. One and a half years later, this moment of the amazing bike trip remains unforgettable 🙂