World's Highest Motorable Pass with Four Friends: Sankalp's Ladakh Trip with Thrillophilia
Thrillophilia Verified Booking
PNR: BKDWBTKZEKE
Rating: ★★★★
Travellers: Sankalp Srivastava, Mitali Sahay, Tushar Kumar, Surabhi Shrivastava
Trip Duration: 8 Days | 7 Nights
Date of Travel: 20 May 2026 - 27 May 2026
Package Booked: Best of Ladakh | From Mountain Passes to Ancient Monastries
Some trips are about the destination. Some are about the people you take with you. The best ones are both, and a Ladakh group trip with three close friends tends to land in that second category more often than not.
Sankalp Srivastava, Mitali Sahay, Tushar Kumar and Surabhi Shrivastava had eight days across the high-altitude terrain of Ladakh in late May. The itinerary was not the standard Leh-Nubra-Pangong loop most travellers book. It went further and covered Hanle, the Indian Astronomical Observatory, and Umling La, the world's highest motorable pass at 19,024 feet. These are the kind of additions that turn a good Ladakh trip into a properly memorable one but, at the same time, can sabotage the whole trip if not handled properly.
Their review came back warm and honest. "The trip was really good and we made a lot of memories. One thing to highlight, the stays should have been better evaluated, otherwise everything was great."
The honest note about the stays is the line worth acknowledging. It is also the line that makes the rest of the review more credible.
Leh Gave Them the First Two Days to Settle
They landed at Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport on the 20th of May. The Eeco was waiting. Zypher Ladakh in Leh was the base for the first two nights, with the arrival day kept deliberately at rest.
Day two was the Sham Valley circuit. The Sangam viewpoint where the Zanskar meets the Indus, the two rivers running different shades as they merge, one muddy green and one turquoise, the join visible from the bank. Magnetic Hill, where the road gradient creates the illusion of the vehicle rolling uphill. Gurdwara Pathar Sahib, quiet and well-maintained by the Indian Army. The SECMOL Campus, which most travellers know from 3 Idiots before they know it as a genuinely sustainable school. The Hall of Fame War Memorial at the end of the day, where the exhibits on the Kargil conflict sit in the kind of respectful silence that outdoor memorials rarely manage.
Khardung La and Nubra Were the High Point of Day Three
The drive from Leh to Nubra via Khardung La is the day most Ladakh trips build everything else around. The pass sits at 5,359 metres, the road winds through switchbacks with snow on both sides in May, and the Khardung La Café at the top is one of the few places in the world where a bowl of Maggi at altitude tastes genuinely earned.
Diskit Monastery on the way down, with the 32-metre Maitreya Buddha watching over the valley floor. Then Hunder and the sand dunes, which catch most travellers off guard. A cold desert with white sand, framed by dark mountain ridges. The double-humped Bactrian camels that graze there are the other thing nobody is quite prepared for on a Ladakh trip. One night at Organic Boutique Hunder by the Shyok River.
Pangong Was the Night Nobody Will Forget
Day four was the drive from Nubra to Pangong along the Shyok River. The road runs close to the water for stretches, with the valley narrowing and widening as the river bends.
Pangong Lake in May sits at 4,350 metres. The colour shifts through the day — blue in the morning, green in the afternoon, and something closer to grey when clouds move across the sun. The bar-headed geese that migrate through here are unbothered by the small groups of travellers standing at the shore.
The Pangong Heights campsite was for one night. The four of them probably sat at the lake edge well past sunset.
Hanle and Umling La Were the Stretch Nobody Else Does
Day five was the Rezang La War Memorial and the Hanle Observatory. The memorial at Chushul honours the soldiers of the 1962 battle, and the walk through it in the thin air at 4,360 metres has a weight that stays with you. The Indian Astronomical Observatory at Hanle sits at 4,500 metres, home to the Himalayan Chandra Telescope. The night skies from Hanle are among the darkest on earth.
Day six was Umling La. 19,024 feet. The world's highest motorable pass. The road climbs through barren high-altitude plains with nothing on either side except rock and sky. Standing at the summit is the kind of moment four friends do not need to say anything about. The altitude says everything.
The Drive Back to Leh Closed It Well
Day seven was the return via Chumathang Hot Springs, Thiksey Monastery and Rancho School. The hot springs sit against cold mountain air, which is an unusual combination that works better than it sounds. Thiksey's 12-storey complex and the 49-foot Maitreya Buddha inside it were the last proper cultural stop before Leh. Day eight was the airport.
Thrillophilia's Management on the Trip
Sankalp's note about the accommodation is worth taking seriously. A Ladakh trip at this level of ambition, covering Hanle, Umling La, Pangong camping, and Nubra riverside, involves some genuinely remote properties where the options are limited.
That does not mean every stay should be accepted without scrutiny. It means the evaluation needs to be more careful, not less, because the traveller has fewer alternatives if something does not match expectations.
The support team made sure every trip aspect was monitored carefully and carried out with a focus on the travellers' comfort and ease of movement.
The feedback is fair. The rest of the trip, the route, the activities, the Innova across all those mountain roads, and the memories made at Khardung La and Pangong and the top of the world's highest pass held up exactly the way they were supposed to.
