Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

re experiencing it again after a month... your end date of trip or 3rd august is exact 30 days from mine.. 3rd july.. kudos bro and those pics are fabulous.

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

As always, I am late to the party, but have to admit - one hell of a party this is.
Spellbound by the narration and those pics, ufff too much ho gaya yaar (translation - a lot to digest). that milky way shot, the historical lane shot and that pleasure hotel story, awesome write-up. Informative, entertaining and enlightening all at the same time, this has to be on the top of all the trip logs ever written. Bring it on bro !! Yeh dil maange more. Kudos.

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Subscribed. Enough said. Lovely pics & words.

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Nice log and pics. The pune hotel incident is epic on so many levels. LOL

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Got time to read whole. ..simply superb:thumbup::thumbup:

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Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Waiting for the rest!

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

No words!! Subscribed

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Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Simply Superb Buddy.. amazing Solo trip you have planned... The PICS shows how madly you loved the place. You have added life to my dream.. Awesome dude..

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Thanks Udy bhai , getting lathi charged was the nightmare I had

It was really hard bro, I have laughed my ass off after getting to the room.

Thanks a lot

Thanks bhai, your trip was kind of an inspiration , and thanks for the tips and confidence that CBR can handle the terrain with ease

Thanks Shashank bhai . Hope you get back on the saddle soon.

Thanks a lot guys, really happy that you liked the log and pics. Was stuck up at work so couldnt make time up to continue. Will be posting the next part now.

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

that made my trip more worth it..

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Day:5 Amritsar to Udhampur:
The start to the day was chaotic. The traffic in Amritsar was so ugly, it took me lot of time and sweat to get out of there. The fact that I forgot my phone in the hotel did not make things easier and I had to go through the same hell twice. The roads were good, but the driving or riding habits in Punjab got me nuts. I have even told people that I will never drive or ride in Punjab again. People will come in front of your nose and expect you to avoid them hitting you.

Any ways enough ranting about traffic, lets talk about food! There is only one word, amazing. The paranthas, lassi and all the delicacies, they feed you enough to make you sleepy and then offer you place to sleep too. Hospitable people and the saving grace for a frustrating ride.

Udhampur toll booth brought in lots of joy to me, I was waiting to see this board from 4 days and here I was in front of it, being enquired by people on where I was from and if I am in the right state of mind to do such things. From here I changed my answer for are you alone from yes, to no there are people coming behind, I reached a bit early.



I had to visit my Aunt in Jammu and it was already noon and I rushed a bit to get there. The roads were nice and Jammu came soon. Had food there any bid good bye to them.

Here is my little sis who wanted a pic of me in full gear



Now the roads turned awesome. For the initial part, the roads were curvy and single lane. Please be careful In this stretch. There were lots of stones kept on the road, probably from the vehicles that broke down and saw an alto lose its front bumper and screech to halt with a big stone stuck to its front axle.








Stopped at Udhampur as it was turning late and it was getting cloudy. The first hotel I checked said 2.5K for a night, second one was better and offered 1.5K. I went into the third and got a room for 600Rs and settled for the night.


Day 6 Udhampur to Aru:
It rained heavily in the night and the rain had become a drizzle in the morning. Went to the nearby shack for the morning tea and met this old uncle. We spoke about politics, money and lots of other things. He is a retired policeman and he refused to take money from me! He said that I am coming from such a long distance and I am his guest in his place and money is not important but love! Please do visit his shop, it’s a torn tent kind of structure, left hand side of the road in front of Singh Shine hotel in Udhampur.

This man was a stark contrast to few other people I met and who demanded 60Rs for a cup of tea!
Patnitop was the next destination and the fog was so thick, even the vehicles coming with their headlights on would be visible only when they reached within your arms length. Rode carefully and clicked a few pics on the way towards Srinagar.

Had a traffic jam due to couple of land slides and the roads were full of mud and slush. Met a group of riders from Chennai and we rode together till Titanic view point.






Spot the vehicles challenge :P















Got stuck in Batal for over 2 hours in the noon. There was a man who had blocked the road in protest of his dad being hit by a policewala and was blabbering some stuff sitting on top of his jeep. After lots of thoughts, we pushed our bikes through a small gap and fled the scene. The whole road was empty and had a blast riding through them.

My lifes first snow capped peaks













Met [MENTION=66432]joshi.varun91[/MENTION] (Varun) who was also riding from Bangalore. I am waiting for our pic from him as it was clicked in his cam.

It was getting late and I was riding towards Pahalgam. It was getting dark and rain was showing its presence slowly. When I stopped for asking directions, one army guy asked me to stop. He was pointing to my rear wheel when I asked him what happened, and I was looking if the tyre was flat, or if the saddle bag was touching the wheel. Then I met an army jawan from Hubli who was posted in Pahalgam for duty. We had a long chat; he forced me to have biscuits and even offered stay in army mess if I did not find accommodation ahead. HE was so courteous to invite me for lunch the next day in the mess. Thank you sir.

Reached Aru by 7 and found a good place for stay. It was cold and I ate what ever they gave and dozed off.

Continued in next post due to image overload

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Day 7 Aru to Srinagar:
Hiking was the order of the morning and I wanted to walk around. I did infact, climb the mountains and get down the valleys to the rivers. This is the best place I have visited in Kashmir valley and I will definitely go again for a longer duration next time. The people need a special mention here. They are very friendly and helpful, which makes the stay even more pleasurable.





























































There was a gang of kids who pestered me for money, had to shoo them off at the end as they were getting a bit too touchy.
Reached Srinagar in the evening and after the hotel owner promised to allow me to check out at 2 PM, the next day, I paid up and headed to the Dal lake. I did not like the lake, its like more of a floating market and less of a lake. The water was black and there was garbage everywhere.
















Day 8 Srinagar to Gulmarg to Ganderbal:
My plan was to keep the luggage in the hotel, visit Gulmarg and come pick up the luggage and head out to Sonmarg. However, the owner refused to let me check out at 2 and asked me to pay for 2 days if I wanted to do so! So I had to pack up stuff and headed out to Gulmarg.

Boy, this place is so true to its name. There are flowers everywhere and every place. I rode around happily, but missed the gondola ride due to the stupid hotel owner in Srinagar.






































Headed out towards Sonamarg, completely unaware of the things in store for me. Met these friendly chaps at a place where I stopped for tea. Learnt a few Kashmiri cuss words and gave gaali to lots of people in Kashmiri. Had lots of fun and I bid adieu to them.


The first sign of trouble was when a policeman stopped me asked me to go back to Srinagar as the situation was not good ahead. I quickly cooked up a story that my friends are in Kangan and asked them to let me through. Shortly after 10Kms, I was stopped by army who were wielding machine guns and asked to park.

Next up, A night run to save ourselves

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Should I say exquisite?
Superb pics!

Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Thanks Krishna, theres lot more to come Will post soon

Cheers
G1

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Re: Tale of a solo ride into the dreamlands and the lifetime of memories

Ending provided like you're writing a crime/suspense novel. lol! Enjoying every part of it! All the best!