This photo is from the Leh to Manali road and taken in 1995 or 1996. I’d spent a few weeks in Ladakh and decided to leave overland rather than fly in, as I’d done to get there. And, I thought the road more reliable since bad weather frequently means planes (like mine going to Leh) aren’t allowed to land in Leh and have to return to Delhi or Srinagar. The road was more than a bit hair-raising as there are long stretches where the steep cliff mean if you do tumble you tumble hundreds of meters. And when you look out the window you iften can see straight down which made many of us wonder how indented was the wheelbase. Nonetheless, it was an amazing journey. Initially, some travelers went rooftop, but they soon came back inside, maybe because if they dozed off and then fell off, they’d wake up in the afterlife.
Roaming Wide 