Day 17 Mon 29/7 - 3rd Rest Day in Leh

Today Temp: 17 -34c
Today spend: Rs 1190   Total spend: Rs 14160

Woke up to a disappointing morning to see our bikes in a mess position in the parking walkway of the guesthouse. Close inspection saw my right hand side mirror was broken.I started with 2 mirrors,the left side mirror was broken while on the roof of the bus from Keylong to Leh,and now the right side.So now a new problem surface,as riding a recumbent unlike upright,the rear mirrors are very important to see what is coming from behind,as turning our head back is very stressful to our neck. So my mission this morning is to apply for the inner line permit and also to hunt for a pair of mirrors. For inner line permit, the fee is Rs 400 valid for 5 days with once renewal of Rs 20 per day extension. 1st job settled,and now going to the Moti Market for the mirrors, luck again was on me, as i went to the Ali bike shop and i got a pair of motorcycle mirrors, and it fitted just nicely to my handle bar. The plan for tomorrow is , we will start early to ride up the Khardungla with minimum luggage, and leave most of it in the guesthouse,we will spend 3 days 2 nights in the Nubra Valley before coming back to Leh. We also met 2 Taiwanese sweet ladies at the same guesthouse, Melody Tang and Ejane Ho, we celebrated the birthday of Ejane Ho in a candle light dinner and sang her the birthday song. We also exchanged facebook contacts to keep in touch in the future.

Sorry for the Jalor Gemilang cos' gone with the wing,now the Tibetan flag

Anyone interested?

Bike Rental shop in Leh

Tibetan Arts

Ejane Ho and Melody Tang from Taiwan

Celebrating Ejane Ho birthday

Shanti Stupa in Leh

Shanti Stupa in Leh

Melody Tang fr Taiwan

Day 16 Sun 28/7 - Another Rest Day In Leh

Today Temp: 18 - 34c
Today spend : Rs 450   Total : 12970

Leh at night is very cold but very very hot in the day,and the air here is extremely dry,all in all the living condition here is very tough for even the lowland Asian like us,not to mention the mat salleh, but surprisingly most of the tourists are from mat salleh,very few Asian.Besides the hard weather,getting used to the food here is another big challenge, so for those interested to plan a trip here, be prepared physically and mentally. There is no point to wake up early here,as you won't find anything in town,the shops and restaurants only open late at 10am, by noon only you can see the town becomes lively.We skid our breakfast to browse on line and only went out for lunch in a Tibetan restaurant recommended by Chee,very good indeed,a very big bowl of Veg,egg Thukpa ( noodles soup) for Rs 80 ,with a glass of jasmine milk tea add another Rs 20 for a total of Rs100. Then we went to a tour agent to inquire about the inner line permit for our ride tomorrow to Khardungla and Nubra Valley. The fee for the individual permit valid for 7 days is Rs400,but being  Sunday,we can only get it on Monday, that  means our plan of leaving tomorrow is out,which also means another night stay in Ree-Yul guesthouse.

Veg,Egg Thukpa in Tibetan Restaurant

Potato Mo Mo Soup

Something for you to think about

Tibetan women selling their products by the road corridor

Tibetan women selling their products by the road corridor

                                                    I turn the wheel of fortune for a change of luck in my coming ride

Main Baazar street in Leh

Mosque in Leh

My new rim Rs 450, I will frame it up on the wall if it last the whole trip

Ree - Yul Guesthouse, highly recommended

Day 15 Sat 27/7 - Rest Day In Leh

Today Temp : 17 - 34 c
Today Spend : Rs 850  Total Spend : Rs 12270

We went for searching for a better and cheaper guesthouse from the old bus stand to the main bazaar in the morning,as Chee is quite familier with, there are lots more choices here as a tourist hub,my priority is free Wifi, as i need to communicate with friends who helps out to send the spare rim. After merry hunting for a few, we settled for a quiet nice guesthouse in Ree-yul with clean room,attached bathroom,hot shower and most important is the free Wifi for Rs 400,after negotiating down from Rs 500,as we might need to stay extra days here while we go sightseeing in Leh. After breakfast we went to the Moti Market,as Chee mentioned there are 2 bikes shops but are not confident that they have 20" rim. The 1st shop we went,surprisingly i saw there is one or two 20" rims there,but the owner was not there,most likely went for his lunch break,after waited for 30min, the owner came back only to my disappointment that,he is not going to sell the rim,as he need to setup another bike, no matter how hard i persuaded him to let go, Chee advised me to try the 2nd shop, as he too had bad experience with the same owner,very cocky fella. The 2nd shop owner named Ali is a young man and speak ok English, he has 2-3 rims that are steel chromed,looks pretty strong,but i wanted my original spokes and quick release hub, he was patient enough to switch over and true the alignment of spokes to the rim, but the hub is not compatible with mine one is 32 holes, the new rim is 28 holes.So now i have to carry 2 extra spanner to open my front wheel,if there is a puncture. The whole process took 2.5 hour
and cost only Rs 450. With this biggest problem solved,i quickly send a message to Victor in Malaysia to cancel my earlier plan of courier a new rim which for sure will be more costly. I am glad everything is back to normal and hope the new rim will last till the end of my trip,for that I am very thankful for those who have help out especially to Victor,Darly,and Foo and others,i definitely owe you all a meal when i get back. The 1st real test of my new rim will be day after tomorrow when Chee and I will attempt to ride up the mighty Khardungla 5602m , the highest motorable road in the world.Can you imagine that with a cheap basic 20" rim?

Moti Market in Leh

The 1st cocky bike shop

The 1st cocky bike shop

The 1st cocky bike shop

The 2nd very good bike shop

The shop owner Ali is working on my rim

The busy lanes of Moti market 

The busy lanes of Moti market 

Our room in Ree-Yul

Day 14 Fri 26 Jul - Keylong Public Bus to Leh ( Cracked Rim )

Today Temp: 18 - 32c
Today Spend : Rs 750  Total spend: Rs 11420

While arrangement had been made to send a new rim from Malaysia to Led, for me it is too risky to ride with a crack rim with only the rear brake,although I had done a mcguyver job of using 5 cable ties to hold the crack. So I went to the bus station to check out the bus to Leh, a distance of 300km from here, fortunately there is one bus leaving at 5am with a ticket costing Rs 525 + Rs 275 for the bike. Chee decided to follow me on the bus, so he can also buy time to have more days to ride around leh,particularly the Nubra Valley. The bus journey started sharp at 5.10am and arrived in Led 7pm ,a solid 14 hour thru' the  Himalayan mountains over the many high altitude "La" namely Barachala,Nakeela, and many small towns some only with Parachute tents, like Jispa,Darcha,Sarcu,Pang, and the famous Gata Loops,follow by the 2nd highest motorable road of Tanglangla of altitude 5300m , there is nothing on top here except the only landmark of Tanglangla with lots of flying Tibetan prayer flags, The bus driver on popular demand,stop only 5 min for us to take pictures cos' the wind is too strong,and the cold is near unbearable, the bus driver then speed down on the descent,and taking some daredevil stunts to go off road,short cutting the normal longer switchbacks, The passengers mostly foreigners were glued tight to their seats as the bus swing left and right with the uneven terrain. We can only pray that he knows what he is doing,with our lives solely on his hands.Down to the valley and now we say goodbye to the State of Himachal Pradesh and enter into another State of Jammu & Kashmir. the Airtel broadband which i bought in Himachal was totally useless, as we are now in an area very close to Pakistan ,the tradition enermy of India,where access to certain areas needs to appy for inner line permits. After Upshi, the road is flatten with traffic increasing, houses built with earth bricks were common scene on both sides with many white stupas. We arrived the in Led old Bus Station at 7 pm,just about getting dark,and hurrily we unloaded our bikes to look for guesthouse. As the bus stand is located about 1 km from the Main Bazzar where the tourists hangout, we had no choice but to stay in a lousy,expensive hotel near the station for Rs 500.Tomorrow will definitely looking for a better and cheaper stay.