Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Day 5:
Destination: Hotel Highway, Srinagar (Somwar bagh)
Route: Patnitop-Anantnag-Srinagar.
Distance 200 kms approx..
Cost: Rs 2100/room. (Very safe parking/awesome hotel garden/decent room/Great food/free wifi)

Today’s ride was easy going. We had been riding 600 odd kms every day for the last 4 days and it was time to let ourselves and the bike rest for most part of the day. We started off at 7 am from Patnitop. The road was wet, it was raining for a first few kms and there was traffic in the ghats. The road was in a good condition with a few wet and bad patches due to the construction going on. Also had a few minor traffic jams due to a lot of tourist vehicles and numerous convoys of army trucks, buses and jeeps plying that route. We reached a petrol pump in Patnitop and had our first stroke of bad luck. The moment we reached there was a power outage and the pump was off. We had to wait 25 minutes for the generator to warm up and get ready to pump some fuel. After a long wait and fuel top up we continued on the journey.
Hotel Highway is a good hotel, on the highway (good for early departure next day), a bit overpriced (being Srinagar), a very courteous owner, great food especially the coleslaw sandwich and tea.







Day 6: Srinagar-Drass-Kargil-Mulbekh
250 kms Approx.
Sharma Guest house: Cost Rs 500 room + 200 food ( included lunch dinner and snacks) = 700/ Total.


We had initially decided to stay at Kargil but then after a brief discussion with Vishwas Sir aka Vimo Sarkar we decided we would go and stay at Mulbekh. I had been to Mulbekh on my last ride to Ladakh and knew it was a safe and good place to stay for the night.
We started off at 6.30 am and continued towards our destination wondering what surprises the Zojila had in store for us.
And soon we were at Zoji la. A few pics:









So we were atop Zoji la and we met this Dutch guy who had been touring on his motorcycle a Yamaha XT Tenere’ 650 single cyl bike from Holland and had ridden through Europe- Bolivia-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India and was on his way to Australia next.
That’s how touring should be.



Zoji La was steep, muddy and occasionally wet. But the bike and its torque made it all easy. The road was extremely bad with many sharp stones and protruding’s in the middle of the road. The bike did bottom out quite a few times but the bash plate installed saved it from any damage. The max speed we could maintain in the pass was 20 kmph. Anything more than that would take a toll on our back due to the super hard suspension. And parallel to that the Dutch guy would cruise past us at 60 kmph on his adventure bike usually just standing on it most of the time. Made me think of the Triumph Tiger a lot of times on that route. Some day! ( Day dreraming)




Finally reached Mulbekh at around 12.30 pm. And this was the guest house for the night. Sadly there was no parking place and my bike was parked right on the road ( as seen in pic below). The owner re assured me that it would be safe and that he would park his Suzuki Gypsy right next to it so no would even know the bike was there.


Mulbekh is an awesome place. Very scenic, peaceful and the people are very nice and helpful.







The stay at Mulbekh turned out to be a nightmare. Turns out that place is the most popular place for the trucks, buses taxis and all tourist vehicles to halt and take a break. And trucks kept coming and people chatting all night right outside the guest house. We could hardly sleep because of all the commotion. It would be ideal to stay a little further ahead where they provide tents on rent for around Rs. 800/night.

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Lovely update!

Even we had a break at the very same place here so yes, you correct! Almost every vehicle stops here

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

superb pics..

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Nice pics and great trip. Must be nice to have wifey for company

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Hi Aniruddha (and Sayali), hello from Aniruddha and Nandinee We did this trip last year on a GS150R from Pune, but I took the bike directly to Jammu and started from there. Really interesting story, keep it going, and don't skimp on details.

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Indeed Tadka maarke.Beautiful places and awesome trip my friend

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Great to see your log is up - I had been wondering as to the delay in doing so.

Wonderful pics of the bike..... and riders!

Please post some details about the comfort levels for the pillion rider too. Gauri and I plan to do this some time after my NE trip and any inputs would be valuable.

Let it roll!

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Excellent thread sir.
Waiting for more.

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Wonderful journey, great photos and equally good narration. Congratulations to you both for completing this epic ride. And also for being probably the first one's in the country to put the Bonnie to such good use. Would love to hear as much about your experiences of the journey as about the bike Waiting for more.

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

An amazing ride. Getting leh'd as a couple is one heavenly feeling. Great bike and pics.

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

I can only imagine the fun you guys had on this trip .
BTW helmets off to that dutch guy , what resilience , patience

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!



This is one of those threads that pops out of all the noise and you get hooked onto more updates and experience.

First of all , kudos to both of you for making the decision to take it all the way (especially your wife as she chose to ditch the plane for a bonneville )
Would love to hear more about the pillion comfort on such long highway or bad roads ?

Hats-off to you for riding Bonneville 2 up all the way to Leh!

Waiting for more updates and pics...

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Great write-up and captures so far. Eagerly waiting for the rest!

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

[MENTION=11096]animeher[/MENTION] Hi Aniruddha. Have read many of your logs. You have been a part of inspiration to couples to take up touring. Keep riding!

Thanks Manish. I would add a part about the Bonneville's performance in the area not so favorable.

@Old Fox Thank you for your comments. Means a lot to be appreciated from experienced riders.

Thank you guys for your appreciation (those in quotes and also those not in quotes on previous pages). To answer quickly yes it is an out of the world experience to tour with one's wife. Such a long tour with your partner teaches you so much more about life and relationships. You have to stay positive throughout the ride, support and pacify each other at times of difficulties and keep a level of understanding that you would normally not be required to. All in all its a dynamically pleasant and fulfilling experience when you come through successfully.

Will be updating more soon...

Re: Ek couple's Ladakhi adventure. Tadka maarke!

Day 7
Phew!!...: At last comes the day we would reach our destination Leh.
Route: Mulbekh-Leh Distance: 190 kms approx.
Hotel Zamhala Inn Cost 1300/per night and 650/night when we would not be staying there but only keep our luggage locked in the room)
Food: great food, not authentic Ladakhi food but good food anyway. A bit pricey.

This was the day we had been waiting for and riding for.. Finally its time to reach our destination.
So we left as usual at 5.45 am sharp.. Waking up early had become a habit so much so I would not even require the alarm to go off. Had started waking up 10 minutes before schedule turn the alarm off and get packing. Me and Sayali would take turns on who woke up first and who gets to steal away a 10 minutes more of sleep by waking up second.

And so we set off from Mulbek and find that our Dutch rider friend whose name as we found out that day was Rinus was also mounting up on his bike on the road side. The moment we were passing him he signalled to us and we met up with him. As he was also heading towards Leh we decided to ride together.

We were riding leisurely knowing we just had to cover 200 kms and the road was in an amazing condition. The most ideal situation in such a heavenly place is to have very few kms to go and a lot of time to spare. That you could use to just look around the beautiful scenery, feel the curves of the road and capture each and every moment of the ride.

We made quite a lot stops on the way clicking away pictures at every beautiful landscape we could find.

I will let the picture do the talking now…


The roads the mountains and the greenery just awesome. Enough to charge Sayali up for the day's ride.


Cruising leisurely on the Bonneville was great fun on these roads. Wished it would never end.


Time for a group Photu.





There are also these occasional patches which turn up. You would not believe this belonged to the same road that you had just enjoyed so much. But a little variation never hurt someone.

This must be how the moon looks like.


A structure made by a collection of stones hanging from the slopes along the road.


These kids wanted a picture to be taken.


Taking a break....








This was one of my favorite landscapes I had seen till now..Mountain ranges as far as your eyes could see and the snake like winding road...


Rock cut roads... Very common..


What we had been waiting for all this time...


We took a break just on the outskirts of Leh. We met up with Rinus who already had some hotel where his friends were checked in. We had no reservation so just decided we would go into the city check out some hotels and stay whichever would suit us. We gave high fives to each other and set off on finding our hotels.

We decided to go along the Changspa Road. Last time I had stayed at Shanti guest. very cheap very clean and awesome food and people but the only problem was that it had almost no parking. Putting the Bonnie through those narrow gates would be a task for everyday and so we decided to find some other hotel on the same road.

This was our protocol for all the days. We had not made reservations for any of the places we halted and we would go check out the hotel and stay at the one we liked. Only one rule that the hotel should be clean within a range of 2000 Rs per night and should be safe for women. I am glad our plan worked very fine.

So we rode along the Changspa road and the first hotel we came across was Hotel Zambhala Inn. Looked like a newly built hotel. Initially we thought this would be out of the range. So I asked Sayali to check it out. It is owned by a lady who was extremely courteous. It was being managed by two other women and her husband. Sayali checked it out said it was great and so we decided to check in. The hotel is excellent. Safe parking, near to the market ( 10 min walk), has an awesome restaurant, laundry service, free wifi that worked pretty well all along and at 1300/night it was a steal. Also the owner on her own gave us a 50% discount on the days when we would not be staying as we would be at Pangong and Hunder. We would lock the room and take the keys with us.

So here's the hotel:


A view from the hotel:


And we had ridden 2956 kms just to reach our destination. Felt awesome, confident and happy.

And my bike completed more than 7000 kms on the odo.Triumph has an unlimited mileage, 2 year warranty so why not use it. :P



And after a long week we had some awesome food waiting for us.... We settled down on the sit out and ate the awesome food admiring the snow clad mountain peaks in the distance.


And with this food and rest we ended our day at Leh.


Day 8: At Leh (rest)
We were going to take a day off at Leh, visit local market, food joints have a stroll. A well-deserved break from all the exhaustive riding that we had done for the past 7 days.
I got my bike washed and polished at the Maruti service center on airport road at Leh. Cost Rs. 150 with pressure wash and wax polished. And the bike was shining like new. I had a lot of people in Leh Indians and foreigners alike who swore they had never seen this bike ever in Leh.

Many of them just came, took a few pictures had a discussion with me about the bike and went on their way.
The faces of the local bullet rental owners were worth seeing. :P

The next day was a ride to the famous Khardung La and from there to Diskit-Hunder and stay at Hunder.

On a closing note for this post a little about the bike:
The Bonneville has hard suspension that's no secret. You could tweak a little with the pre-load but that would make the ride only a slightly bearable.
I had the suspension on the third setting out of five pre load settings. The spring used on the suspension is too heavy. It doesn't compress much under light weight For ex: me + my wife (arnd 120 kgs). If you keep it too soft the bike will bottom out on uneven and rocky surfaces like on Khardungla etc.
We were wearing cycling padded shorts all the time which made our ride much more comfortable and saved us from the hard suspension.
On bad roads expect a lot of discomfort to the pillion.
On smooth to medium smooth roads the bike performs awesome. Its a pleasure to ride, cruise, take on corners and with the ample power and torque you have no difficulty on any inclination whatsoever with or without pillion.