Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

drool, drooooll,, drrrrooooolllll, this is too much to handle , awesome pictures that describes your adventure!!

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

Thanks Mate



The route from Pangong Tso to Chushul is the MOST Beautiful as you get to ride for about 30 kms along the lake side, just mesmerizing beauty & wilderness.
Truly words cannot do justice to the place or the feeling. Plan was to visit Chushul and head to Hanly, but plans are plans what happens is a different thing!




This lake is a must see for all plan to spend one full day & night here, its THE most beautiful place around


One more Pagal Nala, Crazy Stream, notice the water has come till the rear end of my tyer


This is a kilometer wide flow fed by a Glacier above


A 4x4 Scorpio was stuck trying to cross it hours ago when the water level was low


in about 10 minutes when we were walking around to see if we can cross it, look how much the water level has raised & reached past the Scorpio now w.r.t the above picture!
That is the speed at which water level raises in these areas


Mohan Doss loves People Photography has a Canon350D & a 70-300mm

now that we cannot cross we were forced to go back & stay @ Pangong.

Some people decided to camp so close to water, by morning they had to shift out of there


This is Me, Pic from my 70-200mm F2.8 IS USM on a 400D Cannon


Prabhu Loves touring on two wheels Always ready for a Ride!!! Now in IR!!!


Sweet Sumith or Super biker Sumith Now Owns a Ducati Monster & a GT-250 comet, has done Solo to Himalayas in GT-250 & Again with his wife on the Monster creating a World Record!!


Chethan checking out my FZ-30 Panasonic






Bird near camping grounds




The lake changes color all day long more so during the sun set



tents at Rs 200 per person


One of the best pics of the trip. I Love this one, was my wallpaper for quite some time






Look at the true blue color man its just AWESOME


I spent some time here Wonder why others just rushed through this section as this is the most beautiful section








me bike at a cliff edge over looking the lake


One more Angle of the place


Thats Prabhu



Notice the Waves like in Ocean



The Scorpio can be seen at a distance


All four finally met up & had some snacks here


This is a Timer Shot wit all 4 of us



Thats Me without my riding skin !! Wow I am so so Fat Now


Thats Chethan


Sumith


Prabhu



Me Again, My wife always complains of no pics of mine in any trip so made sure have some this trip


Children en rout we gave almost every one a chocolate 5 star or a Dairy milk bought about 200 of them.


Parbhu took bath here, & we carried on, After the bath his cloths flew away in the wind, when he ran to get them, the Water gulped his tank bag While he was dealing with the bag, his other cloths flew to the near by hill, He was gasping for breath when chethan came back looking for him, we were worried and waited for like 20 minutes I think.


Chethan Watching Prabhu Bath !!! Why does he do that


Some kind of monument on the way to chushul made up of bones !!


The route till here was very sandy, I was playing in the sand riding hard & lock break my rear till the bike become horizontal & then let go for it to come back straight was real fun doing that almost riding in Water !!!! did that several times.


the Jet Lee family


Jacky Chain


Jet lees Sister

We reached Chushul the cops here caught us while we were having breakfast, they simply created fuss that we did not mention T-Saga La in the permits & so they will not let us go to Hanle via Chushul. IDIOTS We were forced to turn back to LEH via tungstay



Sumith was popular with the Gang


Now the rest wanted a pic too, looks like the kids were willing to Adopt our Riders


Chushul 1962 War memorial


Trushul parvath was part of India before now Occupied by China !!


On the way back to Tungstay


The roads were good on the way back & The views were unique


Straight roads Via some un known un named Passes


we were coming out op places where boards read No visitors beyond this point !!








Wearde Bridges notice the Goat head below the bridge???


Prabhu follows me to the frozen pond that we saw while going to Pangong from Leh, I was so happy to see this again


the Frozen pond that has now un frozen a bit




Cheers
Sunil

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

First time ever after reading your logs I am feeling like owning a GT250, earlier had a chance to buy one in good condition before GT250R was launched just for Rs 30,000 as model was closed. Today I regret a lot.

Here you are looking like some South side Hero!! "Yenna Rascala !!Mind it !!"
[QUOTE=hisunil;946337]









All time a different set of pics , really you are keeping glued to seat man!!

Awesome trip!! every word with pics are really kool!!

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

having a great trip along with you people.

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

[MENTION=9203]hisunil[/MENTION]
with every update you are making me crazy .............. the pics and captions are adding equally well to the toast

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

Awesome and spellbinding pics dude....I envy you for making such a wonderful trip...Thanks for sharing the pics and log!!!

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

Shall we proceed, its 'bout time now!!
LOL just kiddin'!! take your time, Sir!!

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

[QUOTE=somen1984;946385]First time ever after reading your logs I am feeling like owning a GT250, earlier had a chance to buy one in good condition before GT250R was launched just for Rs 30,000 as model was closed. Today I regret a lot.



Here you are looking like some South side Hero!! "Yenna Rascala !!Mind it !!"
Somen, I stock 70K INR worth parts for the GT-250 & you said no to a 30K deal!!
The Transition Glasses were a Must as I have short-sight, the frame is a basic rugged frame that still serves as a backup glass when I mess my titanium rimless frames.
The Jacket was bought in Bosten & was tired of wearing riding gear for long, all together the Looks, its not intentional & people who know me in person know that.

Thanks Sumitro

Thanks Mate, the pics of Hanle somehow do not look as good as I remember they look all dark!, will find them & re upload some time.

Sure sit Yesterday we took 20 Orphan kids to Wonderla a water park in Bangalore so was very tired & no updates,
You can find that thread here: http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/coffee-l...bangalore.html

Surprising that not a single Biking or Jeeping sole joined us, else I see very good participation from folks each year, I guess the weekday played spoil sport this time, but the kids had a Ball of fun.
Hear it comes:






The Next day we were to do to Nubra Vai K-Top, but as usual nature had different plans





India Gate near K-top (Kardung La)









@ K top 18380 feet highest motor-able road on Planet Earth



Me with my Riding gear & the neck/nose scarf



Beauty Vs Beast part 2







Road construction near north Paul, their was a BSNL excavator digging for cables, I was following a truck that stopped there, I over took the truck & in a urge to get past the excavator, was riding at around 50kmph, suddenly the excavator swung its arm All out in to the road & came right in my path, I braked Hard honking, it was a very close call. At the same time their was a land slide & a big Boulder came under Prabhus rear wheel & he fell down. Very reckless construction on this road, but they are working at such high altitude where we are not even able to stay for long doing nothing!! Hats off to the works, but surely need to be more careful.




A Strange thing Happened over the lunch. somehow my intuition after all the events said that we should scrap the Nubra plan & do the Hanle / Chumar that now got deviated as we were not allowed to reach Chumathan via T-sagala, we also lost 3 days due to Bike shipping / late start / water crossing getting flooded etc. Being a hard-core biker myself (if I can call that myself) and in mids of other like-minded guys, it felt odd but I did suggest that we leave the Bikes & go to Hanle in the Scorpio. But to my pleasant surprise all of them agreed at once! no second thought I guess all of us had enough of AMS, Offroad and continues Pass after Pass riding. so we all came back to Leh & decided to go to Hanle / Chumur the next day in Regzin Sir's Black Beauty the Scorpio.

Before I go a head, forgot to mention an other indecent, Near Pangong lake a Qulis was also stuck where you saw the Scorpio & our Regzin sir was in Ice cold water helping to rescue him without luck for 2 hours, that night he caught a fever. after repeated requests took half iMol Plus & he cannot believe that it helped him so much & was inquiring about the magical pill

Now back to Henly part





Brown land sandwiched between red mountains unbelievable



River running through a Vally, the view was for several kilometers



Small Falls crossing the road



Horses Wonder if they were wild !!




They Ran away as we alighted from the Van



This Place was Picture Perfect man, Smooth Oil painting types


Wild kiggar or Mule at a distance notice its reflection in the slow moving river



Sumith Matrix style



Our Super Charged Driver Regzin What a company we had man Love this guy



Prabhu Bravo



Notice the smooth curves so so smooth & the colors change so drastically & so often



Notice the alternate Red & Yellow formation wonder whats with it how did they get formed in alternate colors !!




Super color compositions



another Alternate red cream & Brown formation how did this happen ?



this is the bridge we came out of when we returned form Chumar Monistary Via a short cut, is this Mahe Bridge?



Missed a wide angle or a fish eye lens



Neyoma Junction Some shops here



En Route to Hanle



Look at the sky's reflection on slow moving river



Proper Desert like sand with the wind carving sharp peaks out of smooth sand



en Route o Hanle, New roads being laid



Like I Said the familiar board that says no visitors beyond this point



Military Bunkers very close to China border (some 20Kms)

I think this is the point of current conflict. not sure tough







Don't know hat to call this, It was like the gods had opened up a channel to Earth, the locals were saying its preparing for a rain fall. in the rain Shadow region!!



this is Hanle Monistory that got looted recently by a group of people who came here pretending to take a film, fortunately a local driver helped catch them.



First glimpses of the WORLDS HIGHEST OBSERVATORY at Hanley, You need permits to stay there that we had obtained from Bangalore, Mr Tushar Prabhu was kind enough to help us get the permets, Thaanks a Ton sir for permits & hospitality of your staff in such inhospetable places.



You are not suppose to use High beam or even headlight at night as that would clutter the light in the atmospheric and interfere with the observatory operation (some thing like adding white noise) couldn't believe how people can drive without light, wait-up for the next day!


he is the man who cooked us Maggie at his residence without Which we would have starved.



The are Telescopes used to measure Gama rays from Suns flairs they were recently installed





this is the view form the base.



This is Hanley Village



Gods open up a communication channel !!



Our Gang waiting to be let in to the observatory, all the boys there were on a leave & so no body to fix the place for us to stay, I was talking to Sonum the engineer in charge & showing him My email thread with Tushar prabhu the director here in Bangalore for IIA, had my Iphone hooked up to their WLAN !! internet in the mids of nowhere after like 10 days



What a View during sunset, the Shadow of a range of mountains falling on an other range of mountains this was out of world experience the transition



The 2 meter telescope that can be remotely controlled from anywhere, usually from Bangalore. this is the worlds Highest telescope & another one lies in USA exactly opposit side of the planet, together these two help cover the night sky always



The Sun is about to set & we have come up to see the telescope from inside, after refreshing bath, Hot & Sour Soup down at the base in a Bunker



this is the electronics at the base of the scope, that help it rotate & point to faint objects in sky also help it stay geo stationary to cancel earths rotation by compensating it & hence making the Object / Subject relatively stationary



The Slit that opens up for positioning the scope



The 2 meter wide primary reflection mirror ( I was surprised to see how dirty it was) a professional team comes to clean it periodically I believe.



Secondary reflection on top



Inside the control room Sonum (very nice polite & hospitable) guy explain us what is what. Don't expect to see the moon or the planets using this scope This is usually pointed at very very faint objects in a different galaxy or nebula



The Gang in side the control room Me Sumit Prabhu Chethan & Mohan Dass

That Night My First experience staying inside a D shaped half-round Bunker!!
After many days we got good food other than Maggi!!

Cheers
Sunil

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200



Next day en-route to Chumur Monastery, we tagged along one of the guys working at Hanley observatory, he was married to the daughter of the village head at Chumur I believe, he knew the route & lot of other details about the Monastery, he was alos mentioning a horse route that can be done in a 4x4, wanted to do this in 2012 bu alas didnt get permits for Chumur in 2012!!



Murmuts lots of them en route











I believe even NGC folks were not allowed to enter the Chumur Monastery as its concidred very secrate.
Here is a status of Lama in a Glass box and its Nails still grow & on a festival day every 4 years are so the box is opened and the nails cut!!

This is a Room where the remains of which are kept, I have learnt that she killed 6 lama's and the 7th Lama got her. notice her hand hanging on two ends, looks like she was meditation or something. we were not allowed in this room, took the photo from outside, the room was locked & as we knew the person who came with us from Hanle to Chumur, he go the room opened & we finally got to see what we came so far for.

This place is kind of spooky don't know why had a very different feeling here, not able to describe it.



The Lama whose nails still grow!!










He is the current Lama & is in the U S of A currently (as of 2008) I believe



All these are Butter statues and they do not melt as the temperature is so low always.







This is the Village



Notice the Thrishul & Shivling, something is very different about this place



As we approach the village



Man No roads, not even path or trail, just some markers very small mettle rods kept every few kms to notify you are in the right direction!!, dust sand and more dust, heat dunes and rocks that's all there is all the way. NOWAY we could have found the route on our own!!



Our man Busy cleaning the Dust.

A kid in the Village



The Monastery





Plan was to get back to Leh as Quickly as possible, but then again Nature has other plans as always ...

Lots of Kigger on the way



Regzin just Enjoys, honking and watching them run



Military base, possible point of confrontation place


This is how its all the way, a shot from inside the car



Vally where the red necked cranes are to be, didnt see any tough



Possible Marking of our border milestone or something!!





The vehicle was getting so-much heated-up that we had to keep the bonnet always open, something like a BIG Scoop, so we kept a small bag & tied it like this & were Driving, used to stop & restart several time each hour.











Notice the Twister at the far end, looks small, but the base is bigger than a Truck

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-GrveIXykJvk/SKZX_NEZejI/AAAAAAAABzo/4Ilz5_0cYbI/s512/IMG_2250.jpg[/IMG]




WE saw Many such Twisters.

Our man at it again, any time he gets is spent in cleaning the vehicle inside or outside



Some more



The trail looks easy, but actually the sand is very tricky & cannot go straight, its very smooth & fine grain.



Quite a challenge for a Two wheel drive with AT tires to cross this slush pit on with sand and no recovery vehicle for many many kms!!

WE were told of a water crossing that can possibly be an issue to reach the road at Chumur, that's why we didn't stop at the lakes found before to save time & cross the water.



WE got down, checked & crossed it, only then did we have food too, it was almos 3 pm I think





Checking the water for depth by pelting stones or rocks









More crossing



After these we thought we are done & barely got to cross them all, celebrated too

Now comes the actual one, mother of all crossing, one more pagal nala!!




Notice the Military folks with there 4x4 407 are not able to cross so they are at the other end of the stream & ww are at this end, Totally unprepared for a Night cam, Regzin sir says by now the water leave in the stream that we crossed would have gone too high and we cannot even mack it back.

Stuck we are without Food or clean water or proper camping gear in middle of nowhere no cell nothing!!

The Military Guys, killed a Hen made food Ate & went back, we were sitting and watching, cannot even communicate with then as the stream was roaring and could hear boulders rolling under it continuously.



IF we had 2 4x4 we could have given it a try.

We are now forced to camp.


Luckly we have 3 sleeping bags & one tent

Me & Prabhu slept in the tent while the others slept in the car, Sumith didn't get have a sleeping bag, poor thing was shivering most of the night & his shivering woke up Mohandas who tough the Car was moving back in to the stream & woke Regzin sir too proper nightmare!!

I felt something surely brushing the tent, had seen foxes Yesterday, did go out with the torch twice but didn't find any Animals, but to my surprise, Never in my entire life even dream of seeing so so many stars.

Do not have a pic, but the entire sky was lit & can prominently see the milky.
In fact cannot se a spot without a star!! hard to believe it right but its true. you can only see bright stars or dim faint ones but just so many that the entire sky is Lit & this is now enabling to see as far as one can see clearly at mid night!! no lights needed you can see everything just like in the day. Again many would thing I am excruciating but no its the truth. I wouldn't believe it myself if hadn't experienced it on a No moon day.

Early Morning Drive








In the morning it was still hard to cross the river, but we made it wit some boulders & empty car, Sumit somehow got his feet wet & was in sever pain for quite some time, poor guy didn't have a good sleep and got his leg in ice cold water too.

Later we came to Chumathang, we were all hungry without food the previous day I could eat a hole cow! tough I am a Veggi

Post lunch we headed to leh, checkout the same day & reached Rumsthey Base of Tanglan La for The Night.










A smaller Twister, we saw many

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

I believe even NGC folks were not allowed to enter the Chumur Monastery as its concidred very secrate.
Here is a status of Lama in a Glass box and its Nails still grow & on a festival day every 4 years are so the box is opened and the nails cut!!

This is a Room where the remains of which are kept, I have learnt that she killed 6 lama's and the 7th Lama got her. notice her hand hanging on two ends, looks like she was meditation or something. we were not allowed in this room, took the photo from outside, the room was locked & as we knew the person who came with us from Hanle to Chumur, he go the room opened & we finally got to see what we came so far for.

This place is kind of spooky don't know why had a very different feeling here, not able to describe it.



The Lama whose nails still grow!!


GOOD!!! ssssppooooooky!!!- the part I was waiting for.
Sir, any special aftereffects - visions, hallucinations, dreams etc. after visiting the otherwise restricted chamber??
Or you forgot about it just like another stone on the road . LOL!!! Man,, that is so me

Beautiful pictures yet again - guess Mr. Regzin had a tough time

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

I just finished reading all the pages in one go. Mind-blowing pics and well written. This is one trip of a lifetime with places you guys have visited like Chumar monastery and world's highest observatory. Glued for more

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

amazing... superb ride ..

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

Thanks pincyfly the last installment is here.

The Place felt very different, may it It was the High Altitude or the lcak of good food I dont know but surely Chumur is a VERY DIFFERENT place

The Entire Himalayas trip is itself very transforming, it kinds of humbles you if I can say that.

Thanks Prince



On the way Back we stopped at Gya just before Tanglan-La

















Much better at these passes now











This bridge was broken & we had tough time crossing it





Road bikes on the Narrow rods you can see








I think this pic was taken while returning fro Chushul, the rods were so HOT that the Tar was melting, you can see my foot print on the tar









Checkthis local kid toeing at high altitudes one MP vehicle













BE Careful here when you see the falls near Keylong I guess



The roads are suddenly butter smooth, but suddenly you have a BIG cut in the road with a Ditch like thing that is not seen, very dangerous, May be its fixed now, but should control the urge of speeding in unknown roads always .



Some day I will get to the falls, now we didin't have the time.

Some Bird Pics
















Notice the Red Face





Horses never sit I believe!!



The Super Cool Rothang again







Finally we were back in greenery























We packed the bikes & sent them via Gathi to BLR from Ambala

These are pics in Delhi












We were back in Bangalore and The best trip on my Life was OVER !! Guess all good things after-all come to an END, Had promised myself that will take my family to the same Places & did take them in 2010 we flew in to Srinigar & did a Trip for 17 days from Srinagar to Srinagar with Regzin Sir My Son was just 3.5 years then, This log is yet to be written, Again Visited Leh in 2012 with my Jeep the Trax Gurkha, With My Wife & Kid about 5000 kms 32 days around Spiti, Leh & back via Mogul Rout & GQ all the way to BLR you can find this log here

Report on Leisure Pilgrimage :: Crawl around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh :: 2012


This Trip log is also Narrated by Sumit Sir in More detail at The Touring Diary


Hope you enjoyed the log & Hope I can write the 2010 one some time too.


Cheers

Sunil

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

Mindblowin',, nice one,, will wait for the next installment.

Re: Untold Story of the Best "Dream Ride" around Cold Frozen Deserts of Ladakh in 200

awesome pics...................loved it