Nubra Valley, Ladakh

To get here as a foreign visitor, I needed to be in a group of at least five people to secure an inline permit. Then we hitchhiked up from Leh and got a ride inside a truck. The vehicle had to crest the Khardung-la Pass at over 18,000 feet in elevation, making this road the world’s highest motorable one for civilian traffic. Nubra is incredibly beautiful and relaxed. It’s said that one can get both a sunburn and frostbite at the same time if you’re there in winter and sitting half in the sun and half in the shade. Cars that make this journey will sometimes have their engines cough at this altitude, particularly if they’re older models.