Announcement

**Aryan** · 10-13-2009, 11:05 PM

Topic Approved.

**tourer_kashif** · 10-14-2009, 11:42 AM

Congratulations!!!

**archistar** · 10-14-2009, 12:42 PM

congrats man...

in which month you did? K La seems to be out of snow!!

**Ananz** · 10-14-2009, 12:45 PM

I just returned one week ago.

-Ananth

**yatishankar** · 10-14-2009, 03:28 PM

bring on the rest buddy....eagerly waiting for the rest....congrats for the sucessful ride and visiting the Mecca of Bikers.....

**moeed** · 10-15-2009, 03:44 AM

Congratulations buddy! Bring on the rest.

**Ananz** · 10-20-2009, 04:21 PM

sorry for the delay guys.. held up with office work.

**Ananz** · 10-20-2009, 04:31 PM

i'll leave you with some pics to feast over in the mean time.

First Stop : Delhi

**burnoutz** · 10-20-2009, 04:42 PM

good snaps... with small details... bring the rest bro !

**pistonheadz** · 10-20-2009, 04:52 PM

Nice composition.. really liked the concept.

**JOSH5898** · 10-20-2009, 05:48 PM

congrats dude.. nice pics... put up the blog soon.. pls try to put in more detailed so that we can get tips from your ride

**Ananz** · 10-20-2009, 05:57 PM

The Journey begins

The Journey Begins...
After much contemplation on how to begin this travelogue I finally have found the best way to do it. My Love for this beautiful piece of land called India and the urge to explore every single wonder that it has to offer. Since college I have had opportunities to quench this thirst. I had been on two different Cycle Expeditions, an 800Km one and the other 1000 Km covering the length and breadth of Tamil nadu. Once out of college I had to pack that desire off and keep it hidden deep inside me for a long time. Reason: No time!!! Not enough company!!! The usual excuses. Yes u guessed it. I’m a typical software engineer who talks big, dreams big but never had the guts to venture out of his comfort zone.

All this changed the day when one of friend told me about his plan to tour ladakh. We share a similar liking for rides…. (I mean bike rides) and instantly we agreed to do it on a bike. I was still cautious as many times in the past the plans that were made have just washed away without a trace and a part of my mind kept telling me that this one being the most difficult and dangerous could suffer the same fate as well. After a couple of days my fears just came true. The guy who had proposed the tour backed off, once again leaving me stranded without a company. I tried convincing a few other friends and my roommates, but all had their own reasons for not making it. Here we go again, this it was the second reason that I had mentioned above. Not enough Company. But No! This time I didn’t want to let it go that easily. I didn’t want to give myself these silly excuses for not chasing my desires. I tried even harder for convincing my friends only this time even if they don’t agree I was prepared to do it alone. That’s when the thought of my old chaddi buddy from the school days Ram Chaitanya came to me. He works in Bangalore and is quite keen about touring. I called him up to discuss about it and voila! He gave me a nod. That led me to the next big obstacle, getting dad's permission. I had no idea how am i going to explain it to him, especially the fact that only 2 people are going to make it. I knew even my dad was quite interested about these adventure trips when he agreed to the bicycle expeditions that i did during my college days( even thought it took a one hour begging and pleading session to make him agree), but this time it was different. There's no college staff to watch over us, there's not even a big group to take care of ourselves, it's just two of us. So I had to think of a strategy to get his nod this time around. Well to begin with, I just told him that nearly 5 of us are going to Manali. Then after a few days I told him we’re going to ladakh as well. Thanks to all the intrusion by the Chinese and the news channels which blew it up to a pre-war like situation, I hit my first road block. It took a long time to convince him about Ladakh. Then came the big bang. I told him we’re going on our bikes. Ta da … all hell broke loose. It was followed by days and days of more pleading and begging and finally he said yes! Hoof. Now what do I do about the count? After a few days I told him one of the member dropped out. Now the count came to four. After reaching Delhi I told him one more dropped out. Then finally I said the third guy gave us company only till Ladakh as well. I knew I made a mess of it and it was not too long before my dad figured out that only 2 of us were on the Trip. As I said he has a liking for this kind of adventure and I knew he was only happy for me. There was still one hiccup though, getting the leaves approved from our managers. Anyways I put that thought in a corner and started the preparations.My initial plan was to start the ride from my home in Mumbai. But that would take 3 more extra days for us. Since we were already sceptcal about our leaves, i droppped that plan and decided to board the bike on a train from Hyderbad to Delhi.

Well not much preparation is really needed apart from getting your bikes serviced and tuned for tougher terrains. But I wanted to make this a one hell of a trip and so we decided to camp en route whenever possible. We bought sleeping bags and since the tents were on the higher side of the price band we decided to rent them from Delhi.

All set and at the last moment even our leaves got approved. Only now I was beginning to get really excited. The thought of touring the Himalayas was just too thrilling to wait for. There was one thing that was lacking in my kit though, a proper camera. I’m on my maiden voyage and not having a good SLR camera to capture the moments was troubling me. So just the night before leaving Hyderabad I visited nearly half a dozen malls and finally bought a Canon 1000D. Now I’m finally good to go.

Friday, 18th Sep, 2009: Good Bye Hyderabad

Went to work early (10.00 A.MJ) – Left office early – Took the bike to the station early – Me and my Bike boarded the Train early. Wow! Trust me; I have never done anything more smoothly in my life before. It was a 24 hour train journey to Delhi. But I was not bored for a single minute. Throughout the journey the pictures of Kashmir and Himalayas were flashing on my mind. I could not believe that I’m actually going to go to these places that I had always dreamed of. Next day Morning 9 A.M. the train crossed Bhopal. This is officially the farthest away from home I have ever been.

The Journey Begins

DAY (-1), DAY 0

DAY 1, DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

DAY 7

DAY 8

DAY 9

DAY 10

DAY 11

DAY 12

The Journey Ends

**Ananz** · 10-20-2009, 08:25 PM

Day (-1), DAY 0

Saturday, 19th Sep, 2009: Namaste Delhi

I reached Delhi by 6 P.M. The railway wala said it would take another 2 hours to offload the bike from the train. Since Ram would reach Delhi only at midnight, I had to find the accommodation and I had no clue where to go. Picked up an auto and he suggested a place somewhere near the Red Fort. It sounded good to me. But after reaching the place crossing a big traffic jam It was difficult to find a proper accommodation. Luckily Ram called me at the right moment and told me about the Youth Hostel http://www.yhaindia.org/ . This is a Hostel chain across the world used specially by extensive travelers. You need to be a member of this group in order to avail their facility and thankfully membership is available on the spot. I went straight to Youth Hotel @ chanakyapuri, registered myself and checked into a Dorm since rooms were not available at that time. On the way to Youth hostel I figured out that Chanakyapuri is the epicenter of Delhi. All the politicians house that I used to see in the TV were right here. The Hostel was surrounded by International Embassies. The India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan were all at a few minutes distance. Hmmm good start to the trip I thought to myself. Quickly got back to the railway station and brought my bike back. Ram reached the Hostel by 12 midnight. He had shipped his bike through the packers and movers, something which I clearly advised not to as these guys never ever deliver it on time. Anyways now is not the moment to trouble myself with these thoughts. We quickly slipped into our beds hoping to start the tour of Delhi tomorrow.

Sunday, 20th Sep, 2009: Yeh Dilli hai mere yaar

Ram and Gaurav

Gaurav, Ram’s friend was here to take us around Delhi. Gaurav brought his car along, so we couldn’t tour Delhi on our bikes yet. The first place we stopped by was Palika Bazaar. If you’re not good at bargaining then Palika Bazaar is definitely not the place for you. Unfortunately All three of us are really bad at this. I was not really hoping to buy anything here, but Ram was pretty eager to get a pair of boots for the trip. We entered a Shoe shop and spotted a boots but were quite literally shocked with the price he quoted, 3500 Rs. Even my Woodland didn’t cost that much. Since all 3 were bad at bargaining we simply got up and decided to leave the store. And this moment we found a new bargaining method without even opening your mouth. Every step that we took away from the shop, the shop keeper kept reducing the price by 500 bucks. Wow. We decided not to stop just to check on how much more he could lower the price. To our surprise he came down till 700. Phew from 3500 bucks to 700 bucks. 20 % of the original price. Lol. By then we had our share of fun and anyways didn’t want to return to the shop. We picked up a few tools that may come handy during the tour and left palika bazaar.
Next Stop; India Gate.

What a majestic structure it was. Went around the Clicking snaps for a while before we moved to the Rashtrapaty Bhavan and Parliment. It was a wonderful feeling to have finally seen the places which i always used to watch in awe for their magnificent architecture in the television. It was already noon and we still had many places left to see.

We quickly left the Raj path and decided to head to Red Fort.

Red Fort, Also known as the Blessed Fort, built by Shah Jahan and the place where Jawaharlal Nehru unveiled the Flag of Independent India on 15th August, 1947.

I kind of like visiting ancient forts and palaces and that made me spend a lot of time at the Red Fort.

By now Delhi’s heat was starting to take a toll on us and that made us rush for the restaurant inside the Red fort.

Inside the Red Fort Restaurant

Right opposite to the Red Fort was one of the most famous streets in Delhi, or perhaps in whole of India, Chandni Chowk.

Chandni Chowk would be a delight for photographers. It just has so many colors and faces to it.

Kids @ ChandniChowk

We walked on the streets of Chandni Chowk for a while and Gaurav showed us another land mark in Chandni Chowk, The Paratha wali Gali.

Gaurav suggested we treat ourselves some of the paratha delicacies of this place. I could not refuse the offer to treat my taste buds with the as they say “poori dilli mein world famous” parathas.

Soon our day came to an end. Chandni Chowk was the last place we visited in Delhi and we decided to head back to our hostel. That’s when Gaurav invited us to his home for dinner and we gladly obliged.

Our First Day of the trip was wonderful. Thanks to super cool guy Gaurav. Without him I’m sure we would have had a hell of a time figuring our way through the roads in Delhi.

Monday, 21st September, 2009

I wish this day never happened. As I feared the Transport wala did not deliver Ram’s bike on time and we were stuck in Delhi for one more day. Things got even worse as those people were not even clearly mentioning if the bike has reached Delhi or not. I was always prepared to for unexpected delays but didn’t think it would come even before the ride has started. Luckily Youth Hostel had Wi-fi in their premises which helped us pass some time. We uploaded a few pics on Facebook, chatted with few friends and I even managed to pay a few bills online.

The Journey Begins

DAY (-1), DAY 0

DAY 1, DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

DAY 7

DAY 8

DAY 9

DAY 10

DAY 11

DAY 12

The Journey Ends

**ankitmohan** · 10-20-2009, 10:39 PM

nice write up bro. and nice pics....

Announcement

Just another Leh'd back ride - Not for me though

[Photo Feature]: Just another Leh'd back ride - Not for me though

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment