The Himalayas are home to the world’s greatest mountains and, unsurprisingly, also some of the world’s most stunning and highest roads. In particular, the northwestern Ladakh region of India is a famous destination that’s home to the world’s highest motorable roads. For that reason, it’s a top-of-mind international motorcycle riding destination, and from my own experience, it absolutely lives up to the hype.
Few if any places can match Ladakh for grandeur of scenery, diversity of riding, and accessible cost. For that reason, I’d put it at the top of any moto traveler’s or adventure rider’s bucket list—but it’s an absolutely attainable goal for most, unlike other places that are too remote and/or too expensive to visit.
Preparing to ride in the Himalayas
Of course, as you might expect, it’s not a good idea to embark on a journey like this right after you get your motorcycle license, especially if you don’t reside in India. In the video at the start of this post, I go over everything you need to know in advance in order to be fully prepared to ride in the Himalayas.
If you don’t have time to watch it yet, here’s a summary of what you’ll need to know:
Required Riding Skills
Riding safely in the Himalayas and enjoying it to the fullest requires a solid foundation and level of experience in motorcycle touring. While it requires no special skills, competence in riding will ensure both your and your group’s safety in this remote corner of the world.
You should:
have experience on all-day and multi-day motorcycle tours
be confident with low speed maneuvers to deal with tight hairpins without guard rails
be used to handling heavier, taller bikes (190kgs and up), especially with the many off-camber roads in the Himalayas
have a basic idea of riding off-road
The more skill you bring into this, the more fun you will have on this ride while staying totally within your safe limits. Don’t underestimate the effect altitude can have on your competence and energy, either.
Altitude
My girlfriend and I celebrating arriving at Umling La, the world's highest motorable road in 2023.
These rides are done at staggering elevations, with your lowest base at Leh (main city of Ladakh) being at 3,300m, and the highest road, Umling La, reaching all the way to almost 5,800m (19,024ft)! You must spend a few days acclimatizing, taking it as easy as possible, before embarking on the high passes. Everything takes more effort and mental concentration is compromised at high altitudes, so do not push your fitness or margin of error. Stay hydrated and take altitude medicine (Acetazolamide, called Diamox, also called Cetamid). Pushing yourself too hard too soon could result in Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), which could be fatal.
Cost and Tour Operator
The total cost of my entire trip, including flights, was 184,000 Philippine pesos, or USD3,230. That covered 12 days total of travel with 9 days of riding within that, and it includes flights, food, motorcycle rental, fuel, accommodations, shopping in Ladakh, repairs to the damage I did to the bike, everything except a few things I bought before the trip.
Of that amount, 163,500 of it was paid in advance to Philippine Moto Tours to cover the entire tour, with motorcycles, hotels, and fuel, the flights and some of the food.
Philmoto Tours, who is our friend Kannan, handled all of that in advance for us in coordination with his suppliers in Ladakh. I would definitely book with a good experienced tour operator rather than have to figure things out DIY, as there are constant changes in there because of the geography and because it is a militarized border region close to conflicts.
Another good provider that caters to international clients is Colokal.
I’m sure it’s also doable DIY if you’re willing to do the work. Motorcycle rental is abundant in Leh. But, with it being so affordable already, I didn’t mind paying the premium for a fully-organized tour. Moreover, doing it DIY also means you have to figure out permits, which you need to go up to Khardung La and to enter several places around Ladakh, along with details like knowing how far it is between gas stations, preparing entrance fees, and the like.
Your route will be predetermined by your tour operator, so check with them if there are some spots you’d like to hit.
Once in India, we had our money changed to Indian rupees by our tour guide, who gave us market rates. For the whole trip, 11 days minus travel, I only changed 15,000 pesos, about $260, and I didn’t spend much of it until the final shopping days because we had paid most everything up front already
Indian Airport Security
The number 1 warning I can give about flying through any airport in India is that security inspection is extremely strict about their policy of you to put every single electronic thing, not just the laptops, cameras, and tablets, but every cable, battery, charger, power bank, dongle, every little gadget had to go out of your bag and into the tray. This was, for me, with all my camera gear, extremely stressful in our transition from Terminal 3 through Terminal 2 for our Indigo flight. I had to dig all these electronics out of my hastily repacked carry on, and place them along with all my other stuff like my shoes and jacket into a total of 4 trays, all the while I had to battle locals with my elbows out, because they had no compunction about cutting the line. I was really taking so long though! And because people need to put so much stuff in trays, the trays run out, further delaying the process. Then once I was through, I was rushed to empty my trays so as not to hold up the line, and this is a recipe for losing valuable electronics, which is exactly what happened to one of us, whose Airpod Pros were left in his tray and then stolen! They were halfway to Nepal by the end of the day.
the best suggestion I can make is to find big ziploc bags and stuff your electronics into those to make taking them out and packing them back in as fast and easy as possible and to minimize the chances of losing something small but essential, like a battery, power cable, or AirPods. And of course, just don’t overpack.
For drones, you can only bring in drones below 250g, meaning you should stick to the DJI Mini series.
Accommodations and Services, Internet
Our motorcycles parked in front of Welkin High Hotel in Leh, Ladakh, India.
Hotels in Leh are roomy, clean, and well-equipped.
Our accommodations were all booked in advance by Philippine Moto Tours.
Hotels in Leh are surprisingly really nice, the rooms are big, clean, and new, showers are great, although some hotels the hot water wasn’t consistent.
We stayed in two different ones during our trip, Welkin High Hotel and Tara Palace Hotel. Wifi signal could be patchy but they both had Wifi.
Don’t expect Internet or much reception anywhere else aside from Leh, for which reason, I think it’s useless to buy a local SIM. We opted not to. For emergencies your local guide will have reception where it’s available.
For the rest of the trip, we stayed in a mix of simple but comfortable accommodations. Every one of them had electricity for some part of the day, until about 10pm or midnight, good toilets and baths with running water, and most had hot water at least some of the time. None of them Internet access, so don’t even think of trying to work remotely while you’re up there.
Motorcycle Rental
There’s motorcycle rental on nearly every street corner in Leh. The most popular and probably best choice of bike is the eponymous Royal Enfield Himalayan, which is ubiquitous around Ladakh. This is where you’ll learn just how perfect the Himalayan is to ride in the Himalayas. In our group, it was an all-royal Enfield affair, with most using the latest model Himalayan 411s with the switchable ABS, some Scram 411s, and one first generation BS3 Himalayan with 50ks. You’d think that that rider was unlucky to get that, but the carbureted Himalayans actually perform better at altitude than the fuel injected ones.
If you want to take another bike, I’ve seen guys rent the Royal Enfield Classic Reborn 350, which won’t be as capable as the Himalayan or Scram but offer a relaxed ride and distinct character. Recently, I also saw groups take the KTM 390 Adventure, which I personally wouldn’t choose for being a finicky bike, and just last week I saw some Filipino riders using the BMW G310GS. So you do have some options, be sure to ask your tour provider what the current bikes available are. If you’re lucky, if you go some time 2024 onwards, you might be able to get the as-yet unreleased all-new Royal Enfield Himalayan 452, which will offer a bit more power and capability.
Riding Gear and Cold Weather Gear
Specialized riding gear isn’t necessary. Just layer up in order to deal with the cold. See the video at the start for my approach to layering (navigate using the chapters). Be prepared to ride in temperatures (in July) of 0 to 23 degrees Celsius, less if you go closer to winter. But basically my layers consisted of:
Dri-fit tshirt underneath
One or two thermal base layers on top (depending on the cold)
A softshell water-resistant armored riding jacket. Any riding jacket will do, just layer up if you use a mesh jacket. No need for a winter jacket because it can get hot.
A tube neck warmer for the coldest passes
Balaclava
Mesh adventure pants with a removable waterproof lining. Again, any riding pants will do, just make sure you have rain pants or a waterproof lining.
Waterproof socks (for wet days) or lightweight wool socks (I used Lorpen Merino Light Hiker wool socks)
A hardshell waterproof jacket (Columbia) for the rain and extra insulation
I used an HJC Rpha 70 Carbon helmet with a Cardo Packtalk Slim intercom. Any good full face helmet will do. I prefer a touring helmet vs. a dual sport helmet for more quiet and warmth.
For gloves, you may want to invest in waterproof gloves and consider layering warm gloves underneath as the hands can get very cold. You can also consider getting handlebar mittens. I also used Hot Hands Hand Warmers (bought on Amazon) for extra warmth. I used old Columbia ski gloves, which were ok but weren’t warm enough for the coldest rides.
I used full-length ADV boots (from Ryo), but these are very bulky to bring in your suitcase. You can consider lower-cut ADV boots for more convenience and so you can wear them in transit to save luggage space and weight. But the tradeoff is that you don’t get full protection for the inevitable off-road spill (almost all of us experienced this). Don’t bring full MX boots as they’ll be too bulky and uncomfortable.
Getting and staying wet is your worst enemy in the cold. Make sure you have TESTED your waterproof gear on a ride. Even a little bit of rain at these elevations can result in misery or worse, hypothermia. You’ll be putting your hands on your engine in search of warmth, and it won’t feel hot at all.
Luggage and Packing
I used an Ogio Trucker 110L suitcase, a purpose-built, massive, wheeled motorcycle travel suitcase that includes a padded helmet compartment and a big boot locker. While this is great, it’s also very heavy, which makes it a challenge to meet airline weight limits if you, like I, pack your boots in your luggage. In contrast, my girlfriend used cheap canvas duffels (120L and 40L) that weighed little and could be packed to the brim. It’s up to you how you want to approach, but even a big sports duffel will do the job if you pack accordingly.
My girlfriend and I pose with our luggage prior to departing Manila for India to ride the Himalayas.
Your helmet may be carried on or packed in your check-in bag, but note that some check-in counter agents will refuse to allow you to carry on your helmet. To pack my helmet, I wrapped it in my soft clothes, bath towel, and surrounded it with the removed armor from my riding jacket and riding pants. Every helmet in our group made it to and from India unscathed this way.
You can also consider packing extra food if you don’t get on well with Indian and/or vegetarian food, but remember this will add a lot of extra weight for canned food or MREs.
You don’t need to carry full size motorcycle luggage because the trips nowadays are all supported by a chase vehicle, usually a pickup or MPV, sometimes both. I used a 20L Rhinowalk tail bag, this is basically a copy of the Kriega US-20 Drypack. This contained my tripod, water, rain jacket, food, and other daily essentials.
My carry on luggage consisted of an Oxford M30R magnetic tank bag, which can be converted into a backpack. Naturally, it was on my motorcycle tank during the ride. It contained a generic camera padded camera partition (sadly no longer available) so I could keep all my camera gear off my back. To go with that, I used an unbranded canvas messenger bag to contain my 13in laptop, hard drives, printed documents, and all my other essentials that didn’t fit into the tank bag/backpack. I brought my laptop in order to dump footage daily as I was shooting on several cameras in 4K resolution.
Camera Gear & Electronics
I shot the trip mostly on the DJI Osmo Action 3 in 10-bit.
So, I’ve already mentioned that because of airport security, you don’t wanna bring too many electronics. But more than that, it’s a motorcycle trip, and you don’t really want to be carrying a lot of camera gear because one, it’s prone to getting banged up; two, it gets in the way of the experience when you already have so much other gear; and three, you don’t wanna be carrying camera gear all day on your body in a big backpack.
My main riding camera is the DJI Action 3. This shoots 10-bit footage, which looks noticeably better than 8-bit especially with how it retains highlights, and the batteries last forever in the cold. Now that the Action 4 and newest GoPro Hero 12 Black are out, I definitely wouldn’t pick the Action 3—I’d pick the Action 4. I still wouldn’t pick the new GoPro because I’ve had too many reliability issues with them. In any case, the Action 3 never once failed to turn on and roll, never hung or stopped recording, and never lost a second of footage, which ALL continue to happen to many moto vloggers with various GoPros.
The GoPros, even old ones like the Hero 7, do have built-in GPS that you can use to overlay cool data on your footage, while the Action 3 doesn’t offer any way to do that, and the Action 4 requires a separate bluetooth remote.
I brought three batteries for the Action 3 in the included battery case for the DJI, which were more than enough for even the longest rides, although I did make sure to charge them using my power banks mid-ride.
To go along with that, I brought an Insta360 One RS, with only the 360 module, which I kept on the Insta360 motorcycle mount on my handlebar. I briefly used it on invisible selfie stick behind me, triggering it with the Insta360 GPS remote, until I realized the GPS remote is an overpriced, unreliable piece of junk.
Rounding out my camera setup were my Sony A7IV, mainly for stills, although I did shoot a few spiels on it with the Deity V-mic D4 Duo attached. This mic points both directions, making it perfect for close-range vlogging.
I brought only a single lens, my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, due to space constraints. It would have been nicer to bring a Sony 24-105 f/4 G lens, but for my money it’s too expensive.
Another pro videographer, Myther, was on the trip, and he shot incredible b-roll on his tiny 1in sensor Sony ZV1, so I can recommend that as an all-around vlogging and cinematic b-roll camera for motorcycle trips, for big weight and space savings.
One of my most used cameras on the trip was my trusty old iPhone 12. If you already have an iPhone 14 or 15, especially the Pro models, these might be good enough to do everything you need from vlogging to b-roll.
Power and Electricity
For power banks, I brought three small ones instead of one big one, because I was paranoid about my fast charging 20,000mAh power bank running afoul of airlines rules. A fast-charging big power bank like that technically exceeds the allowed capacity, but they look exactly like regular power banks so I think they are rarely stopped. Let me know in the comments if you’ve experienced that.
So I have two compact 10,000mAh fast charging power banks for my phone and camera gear, these have two USB-A and one USB-C port each, and a small 5,000mAh fast-charging power bank to charge my intercom or to lend to others. These were enough to keep all my electronics and gear powered through each riding day.
All of our accomodations had electricity at least some of the time, so it was no problem to use my extension outlet to charge everything upon arrival.
I use an extension that has three universal plugs and a bunch of USB-A slots. Plugs in India are standard two-prong round 220v, so adapting from flat to round was easy with no change in voltage from the Philippines.
Other Clothes and Accessories
My girlfriend and I enjoying some post-ride downtime at Leh Market in Ladakh.
For non-riding clothes and accessories, I brought 7 days worth of underwear, mostly quick-dry Uniqlo Airism boxer briefs.
Then I had a North Face down jacket I bought in 2015 that gave a lot of warmth but could pack nearly flat. I placed this in the big boot locker in my suitcase.
Other cold-weather clothes included one beanie, one cashmere scarf from many years ago in Mongolia, and a Buff neck warmer. I didn’t need both, but it was nice to have a clean one for hanging out, the cashmere scarf, and a “dirty” one for riding.
For the rest of my clothes, the idea was for everything to be multi-purpose and layer-able, so I could mix and match according to the situation and avoid bringing any bulky sweaters.
My base layer tops were an Element Pure Ultrafine TENCEL crew neck, Patagonia Capilene Midweight half-zip, and an REI Coop lightweight half zip.
I had one Adidas dri-fit t-shirt, which I wore in transit, and one cotton t-shirt for sleeping.Then I had a pair of Nike jogging pants, which I also wore in transit for comfort and were perfect for sleeping.
I also had two base layer bottoms, one Element Pure TENCEL base layer bottom, and the other a Icebreaker merino wool base layer bottom I’ve had since 2014. I also had a pair of knee-length shorts for hanging out, and I’d wear the wool base layer bottom underneath it.
I brought another pair of shoes, waterproof low-cut Timberland boots that I bought in 2017. I wore these in transit but frankly didn’t need them at all. It would have been nicer to wear my sandals in transit and just bring socks for the cold plane But I brought them too in case I had any problems with my riding boots or if the boots got too wet. The sandals were Earth Runner Circadian grounding sandals, which have thin, totally flat soles but are very durable.
Keeping with the theme of using stuff you already have, these were all are comfortable, familiar, and are proven to travel well.
Of course, don’t forget to bring your basic medicines and a compact first-aid kit if possible. We were lucky to have a doctor in the group, but the meds we used aside from altitude pills were diarrhea medicine, antihistamines, painkillers, and cold and flu medicine. Consider packets of hydration salts as well to help with the altitude.
CONCLUSION
I had so many questions before going on this trip so I answered as many as I could remember in the video and this post.. I’m sure there that despite that, there were a few important things I forgot, in which case feel free to ask me in the comments about that. Be sure to check out the video at the start to see all these concepts illustrated with footage!
For now, thanks for reading this, and I hope that with this information you’re able to make this dream of riding in the Himalayas come true!