Where the air thins and the road keeps going

Ladakh is the trip people rush and then wish they had not. Two days doing nothing in Leh at the start is the difference between a good journey and a headache at 5,000 metres.

The stretch towards Pangong is the postcard, but the Nubra side felt more like discovery — cold desert dunes with a monastery above them, and villages where a guest is still an event.

We travelled as a couple, which changes the rhythm. You stop for things you would otherwise drive past.