Hi,

Feeling very tired and exhausted... You see, i just came from leh and that too in just a hour.. phewww......

No words to describe the photographs... i guess MG's comment just sums it up and excellent write -up.

Hopefully next year July i will also start a thread....

great man great...

Cheers
Sid

@Sid: MG is very generous Will be looking forward to your thread.

Thanks people! Its nice to be appreciated.

amazing, awe-inspiring, awesome, astonishing, beautiful, breathtaking, impressive, intimidating, magnificent, majestic, mind-blowing, , overwhelming, striking, stunning, stupefying, wonderful...out of the world !!!
My manager called me before an hour and I asked him to wait...

Next year June Leh...or there will be no July 2012 !!!

supercool pictures!

one of the inspiring thread!

Ha ha :-) You must have dealt with one pissed off manager. Let me stock up on the adjectives you mentioned. Will come in handy for the next part of the log :P

Thanks Satya.

Still Waiting for the Kargil Part!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apologies for the delayed log. Have been incredibly busy with some stuff which kept me from going online too much. Well here goes day 7

Day 7: .. And all came tumbling down.

Today, we had no illusions of an early morning start. Had our fill of poori and some pretty oily sabzi. Asked for the bill and packed up.
"Saab, bill ke liye manaa kia madam ne" - our hostess, Negis' coursemate and the officer in-charge there had decided. We protested, but to no avail. Bless the lady. Oh! now don't go on and cry that we feasted and slept on your taxed rupee.. which we did actually :-P
This one was shot out of the balcony of the guest house.

Mom had called out on the Bengali in me and asked me to visit the Kali mata temple atleast. Ummm.. i guess this is the one. Would a random click be counted as seeking divine blessings ?

The road from our guesthouse to the highway.

Out of leh the road is awesome. Funnily, we couldn't rip. My bike was maxxing it out at 70kmph. I feared for the clutch. Its only when we went some distance did we understand that it was actually a steep gradient.

We tested the magnetic hill and its claims. Bah! its just an illusion but a good story none the less.


The sun was beating down and it was getting a bit hot. We trailed the Indus river and a forgotten song played on in my mind "Mai der kartaa nahiiiii.. der ho jaati hai.. " Rishi kapoor in a gypsy in the mountains with the classic brake fail sequence. The movie was Heena , i think.
My brakes were ok, atleast the front ones. The rear brake pads were a bit worn out. The nicotiners went ahead while we followed.
"BOOM"

The valley reverberated with the explosion. Far ahead, there was a cloud of dust. Now what could that be. Friendly fire maybe! Nah, just the BRO at work. Ok, you need a primer in road widening now. Excerpt from the BRO Road Building Manual

Step 1: Choose the busiest time of the day
Step 2: Drill holes into the mountain.
Step 3: Fit in some dynamite and blast the hell out of it.
Step 4: Get that bulldozer to clean up.
Step 5: Let the bikers through
Step 6: Let the whole section get jammed.
Step 7: Move ahead and repeat step 1 to 6.
The clicking continued while we were stuck there.


I loved Step 5. The bulldozer driver motioned us through first after his clean up. As we made it through the rocks, faujis cheered and the tourists sulked. I, i just honked in delight. You won't find any dhabas on this section so better load up on the paranthas or on that oily poori when you go. Khaltse was our stop for lunch. Filled up with some delightful sabzi and rice, we moved on a few kilometers... and stopped. BRO at work again. This one was gonna take some time. As our group lined up and discussed, a gujarati lady got down and took our pic and said "Thankuu"
Ummm... Okie. We, in all our riding gear, were after all the anomaly in that road.
Time for some afternoon siesta.
The fauji needed some rest

Wifey just needed her shades

The workers needed dynamite

1.5 hours later, the BRO road building manual was invoked again and we were the first ones through, smiling and waving. Crossed Lamayuru and ascended to Fotu La. An apology of a pass with only four kilometers of broken roads.

Maybe Namik la would be better. A bit about the roads. At some places where the BRO was done with its deed, it was awesome.


Next year, this road will be a two laned black top delight.
Descended down the pass and then went upto Namik La, a pretty windy pass.

Its a barren, treeless world.

Stopped at a shop for some tea and snacks refill. For the first time, we got cheap tea. 5 Rs for some elaichi laced delightful chai. The chai walah assured us that the next 35 km had awesome roads and it was a bit bad after that.

Screw him! Just 3 km beyond the shop, the road broke up and our bikes now cringed. Some stodgy progress and a few kilometers of cornering nirvana later, we reached Mulbek. We saw the 9 meter high stone buddha there (no pics as its not allowed) Kargil was just 30 kilometers away.
A big lineup of vehicles on one side of the road meant only one thing. BRO was working extended hours to meet their targets. Damn! the software jargon was making a comeback. This one was bad. There was a huge pile up of rocks and it wasn't humanely possible to get this done quickly. Asked around and was told that they had been at it for the last 3 hours. The BRO worker assured us that the road will be opened by 10 pm. Damnation! What a botheration!
I wasn't enthused with the idea of riding in the pitch darkness to Kargil with wifey in tow. A habit that i have picked up is looking for accomodation options in every place that i pass through. There was a board of a guest house in Mulbek. We rode back and settled into the the lovely little guest house there.


This was no ordinary guest house. Beautiful location, a few cats purring about, sunflowers sulking and the moon rising. Parked ourselves in the garden for some bad photography and very good tea and snacks.





Terminator 5 -- The Ladakh Episode

"Dinner is ready. Please leave your shoes behind"
Ummm.. really. We might be dirty, but we didn't have a smell foot syndrome. Anyways, we complied sheepishly and went up to the dining room.
Wow! This was interesting.

Neatly laid out carpets and little stools. Lots of tibetan artefacts adorned the walls. We, the rowdy and dirty four, put up our best manners and sat quietly on the floor.
The food was made from home grown vegetables and was very simple to taste. Thats just a decent way of saying that it was a bit bland
Dinner done, we crashed into bed. No thoughts, no ponderings or a review of the day gone by. Just deep, sound sleep.

Its surprising how a small log can make your mood sway from bad to good in this boring office life.

Nice one Bro, keep it flowing.

Hey! Thanks buddy :-)

feeling like still in lakadk

Buddy - whenever I read your blog, I feel I am still in Ladakh. And really when I see this Bangalore life (Banga lowroo basically) it really sucks. Leh - Ladakh --- yes I really visited the heaven & don't care about my 19K zzzzzzzzzzz.

Waiting for for your next days.

Blog Maadi rey

Blog Maadi rey

Simply AMAZING writeup and pics!!
Too good!

Either I don't know enough english to express my feelings now.......or probably shakespeare doesn't know too.....probably there is no word in english......

A lot of people have done this trip but you sir......you have expressed it in the right way....like a BIKER should.....awesome....

Picture myself stuck to the thread with fevistick.......

Day 8: The Rock must go..

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Seven AM: This was a record of sorts. We had slept for 9 hours. I wasn't too perturbed. Sonamarg wasn't too far anyway. The travelogues had assured of a smooth Kargil to Drass road. We were truly in a holiday mood, eight day into the vacation. Breakfast and tea in a lawn of a charming guest house in the valley, with sunlight filtering through and a cool breeze was just wow. I even overlooked the oil in the paranthas. The house cat didn't mind it too. I could tell that he enjoyed the parantha bits we fed him as after having his fill, he rolled over and went to sleep. Bloody ungrateful *****.



Sunflowers and the bees were flirting with each other while we made some effort at capturing it.









Finally, at 8:30 am, we left the guest house reluctantly (I did toy with the idea of staying a day there and then doing a saddle sore to Delhi) Trooped out of Mulbek and saw a small line of vehicles at the scene of yesterdays blasting. Damn! the BRO was working early. The road just had some big stones blocking our path and we were confident of it clearing up in half an hour. Met up with the sardar ji supervisor to confirm the same.
"Woh badaa patthar jo hai na latka hua.. woh gir jaae bas. Tussi nikal liyo" Huh!

The supervisor


The supervisor and the superbiker :-P



The blasting hadn't been entirely effective and there was this huge rock hanging precariously by the road. Off and on, some little stones were getting dislodged while the big rock contemplated the slide down to the river below.
Half an hour passed and still, gravity wasn't looking like pulling this one off. Time for human intervention. Two bulldozers from either side started prodding about the rock, willing it to fall off. A small slip and a slide but still the rock held on. One dozer guy then took a risk, egged on by all of us selfish people. He started clearing the way on the road so that the rock could have an easy path to roll off into the ravine. He did that for some time but another slide sent him scurrying back. In bulldozer terms scurrying back take a good minute. Now the dozer from the other side prodded the rock one more time. Finally, it budged.

rock sliding - YouTube

Broke off into two, with one part falling off into the river below. From then on, it was a piece by piece breaking and nudging of the rock. This whole exercise took 3 hours.

Rock Falling - YouTube

The bulldozer in action


The bikers in inaction


The bikes giving no reaction


The frustrated ninjas


The mountain drillers aka traffic stoppers aka BRO supermen



Finally, at noon, we made it through to cheers from BRO personnel and the locals there. One of the most beautiful aspects of this journey has been the camaraderie a human being shares for another. Everyone is smiley smiley and genuinely concerned. Bikers get special respect as they are the most vulnerable lot on the road. Its a far cry from the "Big is Right" culture of NCR where as a biker you are always dodging innovas/SUVs/Killer Indicas to survive. I wonder, when was the last time a stranger smiled with you in Delhi.

The road was decent for sometime and then, true to its colours, disintegrated a few kilometers before Kargil. At the final descent, Kargil presented itself in all its barren glory. A pretty little town by the river, i wondered which side was the LOC.



We took a small break here for water and for some phone calls. Came to know that the Drass section wasn't clear with lots of loose rocks strewn about the road. Well, that wasn't new. Stopped at a vegetarian hotel just outside Kargil for lunch. Strictly average stuff.
Beyond Kargil, we ran into this famous sign.



Looked up at the mountain, said a hi to the imaginary soldier in the imaginary bunker, and went on our way.

BRO was at it here too. Can't they just take the day off, i sniggered. But trust me, next year, this will be a breeze. Drass was a nice valley. One peak had been inscribed with the words, Tololing.



I stopped. We had reached Indias' most recent theater of war. The Drass War Memorial was high on my to-see list. We went inside and were suitably humbled. A 15 minute quick dekko had turned into a emotional half an hour sojourn with the story of the brave men who fought like tigers.

The tiger hill




The memorial


The Kargil Kalash




The Param Vir Chakra Winners









The most famous images of the war





It is incredible that in such an inhospitable terrain, with such a huge topographical disadvantage, the Indian Army stormed up the mountains and flushed out the invaders.

Blood boiling with patriotic fervour, we crossed Drass, not before this pic.



Zozila beckoned. My mother had fed me with stories of how dangerous it was. Both my parents had been in the Army and as a toddler i had been over this pass many a times in an Army bus. The gradient was not much and we made fair progress through the valley. This was an extremely scenic pass and quite a departure from the barren moonscapes we had been passing through for the last two days.



A breather at a rivulet



The dirty sheep



The dirty sheep--er


The dirty sheep---est



Oh Yes, at the final section, it is very steep and narrow. At some points, there was just enough space for a truck to pass through. Add some slush to the equation and this could easily be more dangerous than Rohtang. But today, it was bright, sunny and exquisitely beautiful.





Beyond Zozila, we entered into the valley of dreams. All green with tall pine trees and snow at the top of the peaks. A fast flowing river gave us company. This was Kashmir!





Yes we were there :-D




I didn't know he was shooting. Would have leaned more :-P





Sarva Dharm Sthal flags





Checked out a few very pricey tents at the outskirts of Sonamarg. Saw some foreigners do the same and come back shaking their heads. Yup, Kashmir was costly. At the main market, we parked in front of Hotel Hill View (such a unique name) Went in and checked the tarriff, a freaking Rs 2800Rs a night. We said, 1500. He said, 1100Rs.. bas galti se nikal gaya muh se.. ab aur kuch na bolna. We smiled and shook hands. Welcome to Kashmiri hospitality. The room was excellent with carpets, hot water, LCD Tv - the works. Oh yes! a hill view too



Bathing with hot water after two days of dust and grime was nirvana. All fresh and hair neatly combed, we went to the market. Wifey had given permission for a few breezers and i was grinning.
No liquor here! What! Why! No! What a let down. Suddenly, Sonamarg wasn't all that pretty. A bit grumpy, we had our dinner and settled in and switched on the TV. England was giving India another beating. The government wasn't yet taking Anna seriously. Djokovic was winning yet another match.
Ok, so everything was just the same.

Its finally here. Come over in December. Auli beckons

Thanks for the appreciation. You made my day !