The Tata Nano just after the Rohtang Pass

Driving to Ladakh in any kind of a vehicle (especially when the roads still have snow / black ice on them) can be a tricky affair for the most experienced of drivers. But when someone decides to venture out in a Nano (the ‘baby’ car from the Tata Automobiles stable with a reputation for catching fire without the slightest of provocations) and comes back in the same car to tell the story, it is another thing altogether. Sanjay Madan and Pankaj Chanana did just that: they left their Landcruisers home and ventured out in a Nano. The following is a story of their journey, as narrated by them. (we have done minimal editing to it). (Sanjay will be coming to the Kunzum Travel Cafe in August to narrate his story in person. If you want to join the interactive talk, let us know and we will inform you when it is scheduled). Read on…

It didn’t take too long to take the decision and finally add this little car to our fleet that includes the Land Cruiser. TATA NANO – much talked about as ‘the common man’s car meant to be driven on city roads’ made its way to the rooftop of the world and proved itself to be the “TOUGH TODDLER” that it is being called.

On 29 May, we began our journey to Leh – Ladakh from Delhi and reached Nalagarh Fort, about 285 kms north of the city. Fuel average on the 1st day was 20.4 kms/lts with the A/C running.

30 May – Drove to Manali (290 kms from Nalagarh). It was late evening by the time we reached. Since we were going uphill, the average was 16 kms/lts on A/C.

31 May – Started at 0530 hrs and made our way to Rohtang Pass at the height of 3980 mts. While this little car was scaling heights, heads continued to turn …everyone had that amazed, questioning look – is this the TATA Nano?

Made a stop at the Tandi Petrol Station (2573 mts) and got an affirmation from them that it was the first one to climb this height. In fact, they hadn’t even seen the car before that day… Fuel average at this point was 15.5 kms/lts.

Reached Hotel Ibex, Jispa late afternoon and heard that the roads further were closed. The next 6 days were nothing but a painful wait for the route to open.

6 June – Met an Army Colonel Mr. K.S Kajal, enroute to Ladakh who assured us that if the route opened then we would be able to make our way further along with their convoy.

Finally, late noon, we made our way towards Barlacha La Pass at height of 4892 mts.  It was a tough patch with 6-10fts of snow walls on both sides and we crossed this 20 kms patch with snow-clad hills with the help of the army personnel.

White Beauty!

Around late evening, we reached Sarchu (4253 mts height) and stayed in the Army transit camps – thanks to Colonel Kajal.

7 June – We packed our bags in the morning and drove on. Just after Gata Loops, we had a near death experience where the car skidded on black ice and went out of control for a microsecond. The tyres had to be deflated to get the traction on road.

Skidded on Black ice - Barely managed to save insurance company's money

After that we crossed Lachalang La Pass (5065 mts) and Tanglang La Pass (5360 mts), and finally reached Leh that evening. However, our journey wasn’t over yet – the aim was to drive this Lil’ Car to Khardungla Top, which at 18380 ft is the highest motorable road in the world. Fuel average here was 14.8 km/lt.

8 June Took the permit from Leh DC Office and headed towards Khardungla Top. Soon, the ‘tough toddler’ scaled new heights and proudly made its mark on the highest pass in the world! It was quite an achievement.

9 June – Crossed Fotu La Pass at 4108 mts, reached Kargil at 0400 hrs, and sank into the bed immediately. Began the journey to Srinagar at 0800 hrs. The highlight of this route was Zojila Pass at 3529 mts, famous for it’s difficult passage; even the regular commuters face difficulties here. As if this wasn’t enough, it started to rain, making the journey more challenging. Fuel average was 15 kms/lts here. Finally reached Srinagar by 1800 hrs.

The next day itself, we started the journey back home; drove straight for 26 hrs covering a distance of 900 kms from Srinagar to Delhi (another performance test for the car) and reached Delhi by the evening. The average here was 24 kms/lt.

Like they say – Where this is a will, there is a way! Cheers!

Contact:
Sanjay Madan / Pankaj Chanana
4241,D-4,Vasant Kunj,
New Delhi-110070.
Ph- 09717080066, 09868094254

The Team

Tough Toddler Leaving its Footprints on the Highest Mountain Passes

Who needs a 4x4 on this terrain?!

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The table they wanted is the one next to the ground sitting. Click on image for a larger view.

Soon after I checked in to my camp at Sarchu (located at the border of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh) a strange incident took place: a group of people came to the camp in a small truck and asked the manager for Rs. 2,500. He said he was not authorized to do so and they should contact the owner.

The owner does not stay at the camp. And there is no way of contacting him from Sarchu. There are absolute no telephone links of any sort in this desolate high altitude cold desert. And who were these people? They had come from the Gram Panchayat (the local village Government) to collect an arbitrary, unofficial tax from the camp. Seeing the manager adamant in not paying up, they then made a weird sounding request to take the table I was having coffee on. Now why would they want that? So they don’t go back empty handed? When the manager refused again, the villagers left with no collections to show. When I asked the manager why they wanted the table, he had absolute no idea and could only laugh at the absurdity of the demand. He added that these villagers keep dropping in like this and he has perfected the art of shooing them away.

A word about the table: It is a low rise (maybe 18 inches), beautifully carved table with Bhutanese and Buddhist motifs. I wanted to buy one of these while in Leh in the following days but the idea of carrying it an already overloaded car did not seem a good idea. Next time.

Stuck in a minor traffic jam on the way from Jispa to Sarchu en-route to Ladakh, I found the sight of a road roller being carried on a pick-up truck very interesting. The truck was under contract with the Border Roads Organization (BRO) and was transporting the road roller to a road construction site. The BRO is a division of the Indian Army responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads along the country’s international borders.

The jam had started because another overloaded truck had got stuck in the soft wet ground and could not move around a steep bend on its own. A JCB construction loader was trying to pull it up. Not much progress was being seen till the truck with the road roller appeared. A tourist taxi driver standing next to me commented, “Now everything will get cleared fast. A BRO truck has to pass. The BRO rules in these parts and everybody has to make way for them.” Sure enough, within a few minutes we were all on our way.

A toast to BRO!!

The name itself has a ring to it. Located between Jispa and Sarchu on the way to Ladakh, Zing Zing Bar serves many purposes. It provides a pit-stop to refuel the body with some food and beverages. Or to rest in one of the multi-purpose shacks which provide both board and lodging, even if of a communal kind. Or to even sit comfortably and roll oneself a joint as many travellers were spotted doing. Not as brazenly as one would see in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh though.

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The Peace Zone at Zing Zing Bar

It is also a place where one can seek peace. After all, it is in search of Shanti, as it is called in Hindi, that lures many westerners to India including to the Himalayas. The signs all around this place were testimony to the search for peace by the while travellers. I remember meeting a girl in Triund, a four hour trek from Dharamsala, from Switzerland who identified herself as Shanti.

If you are in Ladakh, you only have to want it. The region has peace written all over it.

Peace on the rocks at Zing Zing Bar

A Peace symbol painted on the ground at Zing Zing Bar

A shack at Zing Zing Bar

Travellers seeking peace and a possible high at Zing Zing Bar

The Baralachla Pass on the way to Ladakh between Jispa and Sarchu

The first very high pass I crossed on the way to Ladakh was the BaralachLa (La actually means Pass). At 16,500 feet I had never been on higher ground – the closest I had been to the skies was at the Kunzum La (where I got inspired to start and name this blog) at about 15,000 feet in the Lahaul Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh.

Click on any of the images to see a larger version

What was it like there? It was cold and very windy – maybe this is where altitude sickness may have started kicking that made me suffer later in the day. But it was more than worth getting off there and admiring the landscapes stretching into the horizon. You don’t want to leave such spots ever but for the promise more like these waiting ahead.

This is also the spot where two major rivers originate: The Chandra and the Bhaga. They merge to become the Chandrabhaga at Tandi, a few miles from Jispa when you start the journey back towards Himachal Pradesh in the opposite direction. It gets renamed the Chenab in the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir. From where I was standing though I could see no river though.

Buddhists seem to attach a lot of religious significance to these passes. Invariably you will find some colourful Buddhist flags tied and fluttering in the wind. I had seen these before too but not stones stacked atop each other. Each such stack had about seven stones in decreasing size. It is also a sort of a religious symbol for Buddhists and you can expect to see these all over the region. Not just at high passes but even along roads.

The journey to the top of the world was well under way.

Prayer stones at the Baralachla Pass on the way to Ladakh between Jispa and Sarchu

Prayer stones at the Baralachla Pass on the way to Ladakh between Jispa and Sarchu

Hozer and his wife at their 'Cafe' on th way from Jispa to Sarchu

A true entrepreneur will go anywhere to service his customers. This includes Hozer who runs a food shack at Deepak Tal (Lake), about 23 kilometers (15 miles) from Jispa.

Actually he does lots more than that. Not only will his Hozer Café serve you dishes including Siddu, Veg Momo, Chowmin and Meggi (actually Maggi instant noodles from Nestle) but also provide a bed. The shack, a makeshift one, has a ceiling like a parachute with beds inside. This provides the right kind of night shelter for the adventurous who are out exploring Ladakh on foot, cycle or a bike. The rate varies between one to two dollars per person per night. He even has a yellow boat available for a round trip of the lake for just a dollar. Although a local from the area, with Tibetan (almost similar to Spiti and Ladakhi) as his mother tongue, he was comfortable talking in Hindi to me.

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Deepak Tal (Lake) where Hozer's Cafe is located. Seen is the boat he rents out too.

Located about 13,000 feet above sea level, Hozer and his wife set this business up for only the 4-5 summer months in a year. And had been doing so for five years when I was passing through. The conditions are too harsh for anyone to venture in these parts looking for a cup of tea for the rest of the year.

I met similar entrepreneurs a few miles ahead at an interestingly named place Zing Zing Bar. Some of the owners here came from Manali and other further away regions, making enough in the four months from tourists to pay for a mostly unemployed status the rest of the year. Interestingly, the Indian Army base at Siachen Galcier has a watering hole in the officers’ mess named Zing Zing Bar too. The only difference is it is open all year round, with many a nervous soul finding solace when fireworks start by their Pakistani counterparts from across the border.

Such hospitality can be found all over the Himalayas. Thank God for it. I may not have been able to survive the starvation to write this post.

The inside of Hozer's Cafe where you can sleep for the night

I reached Sarchu en-route to Leh from Jispa for a night halt at the Blue Poppy Camp here. The setting of this camp was highly picturesque – but the conditions equally harsh.

Getting out of the car, I was greeted by the camp’s managers warmly. And lots of chilly winds hitting the head straight, the warm Mountain Hardwear Dome Perignon hat made of Polartec 200 fleece and Gore Windstopper fleece picked up from REI of not much use in the conditions.

Located at an altitude of about 14,300 feet, my travel planner had advised me to break journey here on the way to Leh to get better acclimatized to the altitudes. Turned out to be a bad tip. For one, I could have done Jispa (where I stayed the previous night) to Leh in one day had I started early – provided of course the journey did not see any unexpected delays. More importantly, Sarchu was at a higher altitude than both Leh and Jispa. Why stay here then? The only reason why one needs to stay in Sarchu is if one is going to Tso Moriri from Jispa; Sarchu is the only place to stay en-route during the long journey. Else one should make a straight run to Leh. (Sarchu is technically in Himachal Pradesh, located on the border with Ladakh. But for all practical purposes, it is like being in Ladakh only)

Anyway, the manager asked me to take it easy and not walk around much. And stay indoors. I obeyed him as much as I could but it did not help matters. I got hit by Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) by the evening. Making it the longest night of my life. It was cold, and the howling winds were threatening to blow my tent away. I was lying in bed, with the body in a state like it was suffering from a flu or a viral fever. I was asleep and awake at the same time – and counting the minutes in my watch waiting for morning to come. I was supposed to be drinking a lot of water – but it had become very cold to drink in this weather. And how was I supposed to go out in the cold in the dark to discharge all the fluids I was taking in? The Catch 22 situation punched me in all ways it could. And this was all in the summer month of July.

Dawn did break eventually, and I was on the road as soon as I could after breakfast. Only for my troubles to continue till I reached Pang where an Army doctor helped me get back in shape. Even now, thoughts of the night in Sarchu give me the jitters. Not that it’s going to stop me from going back though.