KETAN JOSHI
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  • Home
  • Three men on Motorcycles
  • Three men ride again
  • Three Men Ride South
  • Three Men ride the cliffhanger
  • Three Men ride west
  • One Man Goes Backpacking
  • One man goes trekking
  • One man goes on a bus
  • One Man Gets the Sack
  • one man goes cycling
  • One Man Rides Alone
  • One Man Rides North-East
  • The Man who washed his passport
  • About me
  • Get in touch!
  • Blog
  • podcast
  • YouTube channel
  • Free Book!
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Turtuk is the end of the road for tourists - the end of India 
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But we are not tourists - we are travellers! Lets see where we can go
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Though the area is known as 'Nubra valley' - it is actually the 'Shyok valley'
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What a place! It is a narrow valley, hemmed in by mountains on both sides
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A place of austere beauty
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No greenery - but the very earth makes up for it by bursting forth in many colours
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Punctuated by actual sandy deserts
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A treat for the senses - though you wouldn't want to be here in winter. 
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And we have reached the border! I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was manned by my fellow marathi-country men  -the Maratha Light Infantry! 
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The familiar symbols of Shivaji and maratha forts made me feel at home - though the locals must have been puzzling over them. We made a special request and they let us go a little bit further on our bikes to Thang - the final frontier. After all, we are not tourists - we are Bikers! 
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And bawa's bike celebrated by having a puncture! 
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Luckily a tyre mechanic was close by in Turtuk village
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We make our way back - the scenery...the scenery
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The colours of the very rocks...
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We are entranced. Bawa is still fuming over his tyre...
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But never mind - see these sights... the Shyok river
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We come to Hunder...and whats that on the road? 
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It's the Bactrian double humped camel! 
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What a beauty! See the colour, the musculature, the bearing,  the regal fur, the royal sneer...truly a prince among camels. The normal single humped fellow is a plebeian compared to these guys. 
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As we near Diskit, we again see the sea of sand - the famous Nubra valley desert
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This is really a wonder of nature. Where does so much sand come from - that too at such an altitude in the middle of the Himalayas? 
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The most unobtrusive petrol pump ever. we had to really keep our eyes peeled to find the Diskit petrol pump
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Must be the most awesome setting for a petrol pump ever
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The Diskit monastery with the giant Buddha looking over the mountains
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The sun is setting - but I had to stop to take a quick pic
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And bawa discovers that his petrol cans are leaking! oh no! they touched the spinning wheels and got a hole cut in them
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What a place for this kind of thing to happen. Bawa tries to save the petrol, but its too late
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And now its dark and getting bloody cold. We abandon our Panamik plans and decide to stay in Diskit for the night. Luckily we find a very nice family-run place. 
Leh - khardungla - thoise
diskit - yarma gompa - panamik
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