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No such thing if you are doing the regular circuit including just Pangong, Nubra and Tso Moriri etc from Leh. Only a self declaration form is required to be submitted enroute at many places, so carry 8-10 copies of the same (attached).



Inner line permits are required only for irregular routes (Hanle, Tso Moriri to Pangong etc) and for that you require a Photo ID, DL, RC, Insurance and PUC of your vehicle and that is got from DC office at Leh and takes about half an hour for the entire process. Fee is around 5-600 bucks per person for the Inner Line permit. That's it.

Cheers...

Any updates on the self driven rental cars situation now a days? Is it still a risk to drive them? Coming from Bangalore the ideal would be to hire a self driven zoom car at Delhi.
My plan is to travel next year (Aug/sep 2017) - so, I have quite a lot of time but still wanted to start some planning....

You can go only till Leh, and do the Zanskar circuit. For Nubra and Pangong as well as Tso moriri, you have to hire local taxi.

Thinking of a last minute trip away to Ladakh next week around the 18th.
Plan is to spend first day acclimatizing and going around the markets and just random walking around. Thinking of renting a bicycle from day two onwards. Can anyone recommend to me places I can visit on the bicycle. Plan is to do a to and fro trip from Leh. The places so far I have listed are:

1) Shanti Stupa
2) Shey Monastery
3) Thikse Monastery
4) Hemis Monastery
5) Tso Kar (Day trip)

Any more suggestions will be helpful :)

This trip is quite late for Ladakh (post 18th) is now into the off season as Temperatures will start to dip - in daytime temp at that time will be around 20 and nighttime will be around 5 degrees Celsius. The weather in Leh will be quite pleasant, but places like Pangong will already have received snow by that time and may be cut off already and you may not be able to go there.

If you are planning to cycle down to most of the places around Leh, you will need to be in prime health and also should have a minimum acclimatization of 2-3 days. Leh is at an altitude of almost 4000m (13,000 ft) and the oxygen level is 60% of the plains, and since you are flying down, the change in air pressure and oxygen will hit you quite badly with AMS if you are not careful.
What I recommend instead that you hire a Motorcycle instead and then you will be able to cover all these places that you wish you too.
I have seen many people bicycling too there, but most foreigners come for 2-3 weeks and then gradually visit all the places on bicycles.
There are groups of Indian bicyclers too, but most of them come for a week in Jul-Aug season, and stay for 9 days and also go in a group with medical support and transport backup in case of any emergencies.

Regards,
Behemoth

Thanks for the reply Behemoth.

I have considered cycling as I do cycle a lot every weekend and also the main reason being I do not know how to ride a bike :p
I am weary of AMS and with regards to acclimatizing, I was planning to keep a day, but might keep two instead. I am a regular trekker, also I cycle about 120 kms every week cross-terrain.

However, the weather will be a huge factor and as you have stated places like Pangong must have received snow by this time. So will mostly have to hire a taxi or something to cover the distant places.

Just wanted to know are there any places apart from the ones I have stated which I can cover from Leh, say a radius of 30/40 kms one way.

Yes, there are a lot of places within 30-45 kms which you can do on cycles within one day and come back the same day.
Places like Shey and Thikse are on the same route and can be covered in one day - If I recall, the one way distance till Thikse is around 45 Kms and Shey is enroute at around 20Kms.
Shanti Stupa is close to the city and depending on where you stay in the city it would be around 5-10Kms.
Some adventure cyclists do also go to Khardungla Pass on bikes too (when we were there in Leh in Aug this year, there was a batch of Cyclists who were going there on one day.)
They also went to Nubra (3 days trip) and 2 Days trip to Pangong, but that was in very good weather and they had support vehicles and were in a large group and had come to Leh for 9 days and were extreme pro-cyclers used to cycling 100+ kms in a day.

If you are alone, I would not recommend you to be so adventurous as the risks of AMS are very high.
I'll suggest you take it slow and only start biking locally from 2nd day with Leh City and then go a little farther on day 3. For all other far places, you can take a cab!

You can get some good tips from a BHPian who has done it and shared his travelogue here:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...mmit-trek.html


Regards,
Behemoth

Thanks a lot for all the tips Behemoth ! Will read through the travelogue to get more details. Appreciate all the suggestions :)

Dear BHPians, I've been planning for my first long road trip from my remote town in the hills of Assam to the famed Khardung La for quite some time now with my Renault Kwid. In this regard, I've read up on our dear moderator Tanveer's excellent guide as well here Leh, Ladakh and Zanskar - The Ultimate Guide. The initial interest began when I saw several groups from our town riding their RE bikes till Khardung La and sharing their experiences and beautiful pictures of the place on social media.

My Post-Grad is going to be completed by next year in the summer and I'm planning to head for Khardung La after that. Could any knowledgeable members who have done the trip help me out with the details like - where to stay, where to fill up the fuel, what preparations to take etc.(like water bottles, packaged food etc.)? I'm planning to avoid the cities like Kolkata, Delhi if possible because I'm not too comfortable with the rush hour traffic in those places and have never once driven out of the North East.

Are there any good routes that bypasses the cities like Kolkata and Delhi? I checked Google maps and its showing me two routes through Delhi only.

By the way, My town is in the hill district of Karbi Anglong in Assam. It is 300+ kms or thereabouts away from Guwahati. Thank you :)

Hi, Any update on the current road conditions from Chd to Manali, am planning to be there from 25th onwards, also if we could go upto Marhi? In May this year, they weren't letting anyone go beyond Gulaba..

Hi , I am also planning trip from Hyd to Leh by XUV . Could you share details of your trip.

What a wonderful thread tsk1979! You can't get more exhaustive than this. Precise, concise, to the point and yet so elaborate. Thoroughly enjoyed. Many thanks to SDP for introducing me to this wonder.

Since Ladakh is one of the favourite destinations of many TBHPians, I thought of sharing this article which I came across today.

Short version:
You get to stay at authentic Ladakh homes (sort of like a PG) and experience the Ladakh culture up close. And you are also helping the Ladakhi ladies gain financial stability.
A win-win in my opinion

Long version:
http://www.thebetterindia.com/65414/...hyang-village/

Has anyone noticed that Google Maps is not showing the route map beyond Srinagar? Anyone has any update on this? Planning a trip to Leh in last week of May, hence needed the route map please:

This happens during winters, Google Maps would show the last real-time situation recorded. Due to snow, the higher-altitude roads are all closed hence this confusion.

I am not sure how true is this info, but this is what I have noticed over the past several years.