Manali-Leh Highway · part 4

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Pang

   Pang is not a village so much as a seasonal camp, a straggle of tents and tea stalls on a bare high plateau in the Himalaya, and it earns its place on the Manali-Leh road by being where everyone wants to stop. The altitude is somewhere above 4,500 metres, which means the air carries about half the oxygen of sea level, and the first thing a rider notices is a thumping head and shortness of breath on any slope. Hot sweet tea and a plate of noodles taste better here than they have any right to.

   Read the complete Pang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Pang is where the day begins. Next is Tanglang La.

2. 2. Tanglang La

   At 5,328 metres, Tanglang La is among the highest motorable passes in the world, and for many riders it is the day when the Himalaya stops being a postcard. It is the second-highest pass on the Manali-Leh Highway, after you have crossed Baralacha La and Lachulung La, and it marks the line between the high plateau of Rupshu and the Indus valley beyond. The air carries about half the oxygen of sea level, so even a short walk will leave you breathless, and the engine of your bike will feel the difference too.

   Read the complete Tanglang La write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Tanglang La comes up about 70 km into the recorded legs. Next is Leh.

3. 3. Leh

   Leh sits in the high desert of Ladakh at about 3,500 metres, in the broad valley of the Indus, with the Karakoram on one side and the Zanskar range on the other, and it is the end of the Manali-Leh highway, one of the great road journeys in the world. The last stage of that road is the best: you cross the Tanglang La, among the highest passes in the world, then drop to the Indus plain, through villages with whitewashed chortens and prayer flags, and the town appears below a hill crowned by the old Leh Palace, a nine-storey building of mud and wood modelled on the Potala in Lhasa. Behind it, the Namgyal Tsemo monastery and a ruined fort hang on the ridge.

   Read the complete Leh write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 177 km into the recorded legs you reach Leh. Next is back through Tanglang La.

4. 4. back through Tanglang La

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Tanglang La write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Tanglang La, about halfway. Next is back through Pang.

5. 5. back through Pang

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Pang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Pang sits at 186 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sarchu.

6. 6. back through Sarchu

   Sarchu is less a town than a seasonal camp, a flat, windswept plain at about four thousand metres on the border between Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. There are no permanent villages here, only a scattering of tented camps and a few simple dhabas that open in the summer months for travellers on the Manali to Leh road. In the middle of the Himalaya it feels oddly open, ringed by pale mountains and crossed by a stream that comes down from the snow.

   Read the complete Sarchu write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Sarchu comes up about 419 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Keylong.

7. 7. back through Keylong

   Keylong is the main town of Lahaul, a high valley beyond the Rohtang Pass, and it sits at roughly three thousand metres above the Chandra and Bhaga rivers. For anyone riding north from Manali, this is the first real settlement after the climb, and the place where the road finally leaves the green side of the Himalaya and enters a drier, starker landscape. The mountains here are bare and brown, topped with snow, and the air is thin and clear.

   Read the complete Keylong write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 539 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Keylong. Next is Manali.

8. 8. Manāli

   Manāli is where the plains give up and the Himalaya begins in earnest. The town sits in the Kullu valley in Himachal Pradesh, on the banks of the Beas, among deodar forests and apple orchards, with snow peaks rising behind. Old Manali, across the river, is the quieter half, a tangle of lanes, wooden houses and cafes, and in the cedar woods above the town stands the Hadimba temple, a pagoda-like wooden shrine built in the sixteenth century and dedicated to a figure from the Mahabharata. The valley has long been a stopping place for traders, travellers and, more recently, backpackers and motorcyclists.

   Read the complete Manali write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Manali. That is the ride.