Meraj Shah 
Motorcycling in Leh isn’t just about the natural beauty.
With stunning monasteries and pretty villages embellishing this spectacular landscape, there’s no dearth of destinations that tick all the boxes and make for fascinating day trips.
The roads are mostly wide and well-made, a real contrast to the tough sections on the road from Manali to Leh. Ladakh’s first city Leh and surrounding villages are valley oases of green, sequestered from the world by craggy snow-capped peaks with precipituous passes that need to be traversed to go from valley to valley.
Those who surmount the famous pass of Khardung la to the north are rewarded with scintillating views of the larger-than-life landscape of the Nubra Valley.
The Lakes, especially Pangong Tso, are every bit as gorgeous as you imagine, but Pangong’s beauty has lately been threatened by Bollywood-related tourism. Three idiots are all this pristine lake can handle, it doesn’t need two more. Meraj and Johan meet Stanzin Sonam runs Venture Third Pole, a motorcycle rental and tour company in Ladakh. When they ask Stanzin to recommend a ride, he suggests they check out the less-visited Chemrey monastery, a 90-minute ride from Leh, and even agrees to loan them a couple of motorcycles. Chemrey Monastery is typically not on the tourist map in Leh and is lovelier for it. This gorgeous structure, like other monasteries in this region, commands a vantage point on top of a hill northeast of Karu, on the road to Pangong Lake. Built in 1664 by followers of the Drukpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism this monastery is well-known for its collection of ancient scriptures.
