Zishaan Hayath Ride: The Changthang Circuit

Route Map

Almost everyone who rides Ladakh rides the same four days: up Khardung La, a night in Nubra, a night at Pangong, back to Leh. This is the rest of it. South and east of the lake the road climbs onto the Changthang and stays there. Two hundred kilometres at a stretch between villages. Nothing below four thousand metres. A plateau that runs on into Tibet.

Eight passes, seven of them above 5300 m. Khardung La and Chang La are the famous ones and the busiest. Wari La is the same height, one valley east, and empty — it drops in switchbacks to Sakti with nobody on it. Marsimik La at 5582 m was shut to civilians for years. Umling La is the one everybody comes for.

A word on the numbers, because Ladakh is careless with them. The board at Khardung La claims 18,380 feet. It is about 17,582. Nothing up there needs the exaggeration.

Umling La is no longer the highest road in the world. The BRO finished a road over Mig La, further east towards Fukche, in October 2025 — 19,400 feet against Umling La's 19,024. Can a civilian ride it? Nobody seems sure yet. A question worth asking again nearer the time.

The Changthang is the reason for the ride, and it is not about altitude. Changpa herders moving pashmina goats between pastures. Kiang standing off at a distance. Black-necked cranes on the marsh at Puga. Villages of thirty houses with a hundred kilometres between them. The riding is easy by Ladakhi standards. The emptiness is the thing.

Two stops earn their nights. Rezang La, above Chushul, is where 120 men of C Company, 13 Kumaon, held a position against a vastly larger Chinese force in November 1962. A hundred and fourteen of them died there. Their commander, Major Shaitan Singh, was given the Param Vir Chakra posthumously. The memorial was rebuilt in 2021, and almost nobody stops. This ride stops. And Hanle, at 4500 m, has India's high-altitude observatory on the ridge and the darkest sky in the country — the village keeps its lights down to hold it that way.

The first two days are the ones people cut, and they are the design. Leh is at 3500 m; Khardung La is 1900 m above it. Riding high the morning after landing is how the trip ends in a hospital instead of on the Changthang. Day one does nothing. Day two rides west to Alchi and back, all of it low. Everything after that works because of those two days.

Day	Route	Distance	Highlights	Night stay
01	Leh	no riding	Land, and then do nothing at all — Leh is already at 3500 m and the day is spent on acclimatisation, not sightseeing. Collect the bike and the environment fee receipt in the afternoon if the head allows	Leh
02	Leh → Basgo → Alchi → Likir → Leh	120 km 3.5 h	A low day down the Indus on purpose, none of it above 3600 m. The eleventh-century wall paintings at Alchi, which are Kashmiri rather than Tibetan and the oldest surviving in Ladakh, and the ruined fort at Basgo	Leh
03	Leh → Khardung La → Khalsar → Diskit → Hunder	120 km 4 h	The first pass, and 1900 m of climb straight out of Leh. Down the far side into Nubra, the Diskit monastery on its crag, and the cold dunes at Hunder with the Karakoram behind	Hunder
04	Hunder → Turtuk → Thang → Hunder	180 km 5.5 h	Down the Shyok to Turtuk, Balti rather than Ladakhi, Muslim rather than Buddhist, and Pakistani until 1971. On to Thang, the last village India holds, where the line is visible from the road	Hunder
05	Hunder → Agham → Wari La → Sakti → Chang La → Tangtse	185 km 7 h	The hardest day and the best one. Up the Shyok gorge to Agham, over Wari La at 5312 m with the road to yourself, down the switchbacks to Sakti, then straight back up Chang La. Two passes over 5300 m before dark	Tangtse
06	Tangtse → Lukung → Phobrang → Marsimik La → Merak	130 km 5 h	North shore first, then the climb to Marsimik La at 5582 m — higher than anything so far and shut to outsiders until recently. Back down and around the lake to Merak on the quiet south shore, away from the camps at Spangmik	Merak
07	Merak → Chushul → Rezang La → Tsaga La → Loma → Hanle	180 km 6 h	The length of Pangong's south shore to Chushul, the Rezang La memorial, then off the lake and onto the Changthang proper over Tsaga La. Into Hanle in the late afternoon with the observatory domes visible from a long way out	Hanle
08	Hanle → Photi La → Umling La → Hanle	210 km 7 h	Out and back to 5798 m over Photi La, most of it now sealed. Start at first light — the weather up there turns by early afternoon and there is no shelter of any kind. Back at Hanle for the sky, which is the actual reason to be here	Hanle
09	Hanle → Loma → Nyoma → Mahe → Korzok	170 km 5 h	Back down the Indus to Nyoma for fuel, then up the Mahe road to Tso Moriri. Korzok sits at 4530 m on the shore — a monastery, a few houses, and Changpa camps on the flats behind	Korzok
10	Korzok → Tso Kar → Tanglang La → Upshi → Leh	230 km 7 h	West across the plateau past the salt flats at Tso Kar, onto the Manali highway and over Tanglang La at 5328 m, the last of the eight. Down the Indus to Leh and the end of the loop	Leh
11	Leh	no riding	A spare day, and not an optional one — Leh's airport shuts for weather often enough that a same-day connection out of a ten-day ride is a bad bet. Old town, the Hall of Fame, and somebody else's cooking	Leh

Notes

Acclimatisation is the whole plan and the first thing people cut. Two nights at Leh before anything high, no alcohol for the first two days, and a real willingness to turn around. Headache with vomiting, or breathlessness at rest, means going down immediately — not tomorrow. Diamox is worth discussing with a doctor before leaving; it is a preventative and does nothing once things have gone wrong.

Indian citizens no longer need an Inner Line Permit anywhere in Ladakh. It has been replaced by the Ladakh Environment and Development Fee, paid online at lahdclehpermit.in — Rs 400 one-time, Rs 20 a day, plus Rs 50 to the Red Cross, so about Rs 650 for this trip. One receipt covers Nubra, Turtuk, Pangong, Chushul, Hanle, Umling La, Marsimik La and Tso Moriri, and it is valid 21 days. Carry printed copies; the checkposts keep one each. Foreign nationals still need a Protected Area Permit arranged through a registered Leh agent.

The bike has to be registered in Ladakh. Anything rented in Manali or Delhi is turned back at the checkposts for Nubra, Pangong and Hanle — the rule has been enforced since 2014 and it is not negotiable at the barrier. Rent in Leh, on an LA plate. A Himalayan 450 runs about Rs 2500 to 3500 a day at union rates, which is the right bike for this road and a familiar one.

Fuel is the other hard constraint. Pumps at Leh, Karu, Diskit, Tangtse and Nyoma — and then nothing. Tangtse to Nyoma the long way round, which is what days 6 to 9 do, is roughly 240 km of riding between them with the Umling La day on top. Fill at Tangtse, fill again at Nyoma, and carry five litres for the Hanle leg. Hanle sells petrol out of cans at a premium when it has any. Nyoma, at 4170 m, is the highest fuel station in the world, which is the sort of fact that stops being charming when the pump is dry.

Mig La is the open question. The BRO finished the road over it in October 2025 at 19,400 feet, taking the record from Umling La, and it runs from Likaru to Fukche — a day out of Hanle if it opens. Civilian access was still awaiting clearance from the defence ministry as this was written. Worth checking before booking; if it has opened, day 8 becomes two days and the ride becomes twelve.

Hanle keeps its lights down deliberately. The Dark Sky Reserve is a working arrangement with the village, not a slogan, and the homestays have red-filtered lamps for the purpose. Point the headlight at the ground and leave the phone in a pocket.

Photograph nothing military. Chushul, Rezang La, Hanle and the whole Fukche side are within sight of the line, and there are signs where it matters. Put the camera down at the installations and nobody has a conversation with you.

Late June to mid-September, and the shoulders are real. Umling La and the Changthang roads take snow into June and again from late September; Khardung La and Chang La clear earlier and close later. August brings the tail of the monsoon over the Himalaya as flash flooding in the gorges — the Shyok road on day 5 is the one that washes out.