Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Travelogue Approved

Waiting for the rest now

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Beautiful; expectations are high here!!

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Superb pictures in the Menu. Waiting for the main course.

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Thank you for the approval! Rest is on it's way..

Thank you, I won't let you down.

Thank you!

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Nice start. Waiting for the rest!

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Amazing....don't keep us waiting for long

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

nice.
Waiting for the rest.

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Thank you, yes I will start posting now.
Pictures take time you know. Let me start with pre-ride context.

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The Chronicles of LADAKH
A factual written account of my dream roadtrip to Leh, Ladakh


Prologue

It was difficult for me to put on the shoes and tie laces. I was successful only after few failed attempts. Did my hair, picked up helmet, short jacket and got ready to ride. I had already washed my bike and it was glittering like newly wedded bride. I was so excited to ride my bike but to do that I had to get on it and that seemed like a herculean task. My tiny brain suggested me an idea, brought a stool near the bike, stood upon it and jumped, the only way to get on my bike you know. Thank god the bike had starter button else I would need someone to kick-start it. I was over-confident about my riding skills and I had a huge smile on my face, of course, I was riding in mountains.

The sun shone brilliantly and water in the river flowing on my left glittered invitingly. Fresh air filled my lungs and I felt refreshed and exhilarated. As I rode through small towns, serpentine rivers and snow-capped mountains all through the day, the beautiful day turned into a cold grey evening. The sky above was full of dark and ragged clouds. It was time to call it a day. I was sailing smooth without any difficulties, the problem emerged when I had to stop the motorcycle and get off it. For a school going kid with little height, getting off the motorcycle was a cumbersome task. Thunderstorm came marching from the east and it started raining in no time. I was all wet and soaked in water the very next moment.

It took me good 5 minutes to absorb the fact that I was not riding in the mountains, but in fact I was sleeping right on my bed at home. It was one of the most beautiful dream I've ever had. Plus it wasn't the thunderstorm, but a glass of water that my mum splashed on me to wake me up. Yes, mum tried to wake me multiple times but only a splash of water did the trick. I was riding in the mountains and I was brought back to reality in a fraction of second. I was a small kid that time but I still remember every bit of that dream even today. I had a long schooling session in front of me that day, having such a beautiful dream last night, I passed the whole day thinking about it. Since then I always wanted to turn that specific dream into reality.

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Inception
So here is how the idea of "Roadtrip to Ladakh" was incepted in my mind. It was year 2005, I saw this ad on TV and I was struck by it.



It featured Bajaj Avenger, and the tag line said "Feel Like God". The whole ad was shot in Ladakh, I believe. I was stunned by the beauty of terrain captured in that ad, and yeah by bike as well. I knew somehow this feeling was connected with the beautiful dream I had in past. I was too small to have such a big dream and at that time it seemed like impossible. I told myself, One day for sure!!!

Bajaj launched its cruiser style motorcycle, Bajaj Avenger. I fell in love with it. It was the first time I fell in love. No wait, it was second time I think, may be third as well. Aaahhh just forget it. So I decided to get Avenger as my first motorcycle, but for that I had to wait for 8-10 years more.

As time passed, my love for Avenger grew, and same for the place that featured in that ad. I used to go mad whenever I saw any movie or a song featuring such mountains, such roads, such terrains. Ladakh had made a permanent place in my mind, and I couldn't get it out, didn't want to actually.

During college years, I used to narrate this dream of mine of a motorcycle ride to Ladakh to fellow buddies, who used to say “Yes we will take this ride once we are done with college”. Time flew, college was over, all of us placed in different domains, different companies, and different cities. Interests changed and no one was thinking about it, except me, alone. Then one fine day I put this thought in front of all friends about living the dream. The dream of motorcycle ride to Ladakh. And response was too bad. As I said, interests changed. Other than me, no one ever was as excited as me about this ride. So I stopped asking them about the same.


Bible for a Biker
I used to Google about the ride. How to reach there? What is the best time to ride? What is the best route? and what not. While searching for all of these, I came to know about this online forum www.xBhp.com. A dedicated forum to bikers. "Of the Bikers, By the Bikers, For the Bikers."



I couldn't complete this dream ride if I wasn't introduced to this forum. It is bible for a motorcyclist. I quickly registered myself on this forum and started visiting it on daily basis. Need advice regarding bikes? This is the place. Need touring advice? This is the place? Any doubt regarding your motorcycle? This is the place. Planning a roadtrip? This is the place. Guys here are so friendly and co-operative, that you feel like home. Always there to help out. There is a dedicated place on this forum to share your travel stories. One can share his own or read others' for an inspiration. Since then I bypassed Google and used to log into forum directly as whatever info I needed was available here, that too from trusted sources, and full proof 100% true.


What I Ride??
Bajaj Avenger was love of my life. But I wasn't the guy who ride cruiser style. For these many years I used to ride one of my friends CBZ Xtreme as and when needed. Though I loved Avenger since childhood, I couldn't have it. I like to ride naked style or say standard style, and cruiser style was not my way of riding. So decided to get Bajaj Pulsar 180 for myself in the year 2014 as my first motorcycle as it fit in budget and also suited my riding style and it was the best bike in that range. So that is when and how Pulsar entered in my life and changed it forever. So yeah I ride P180 and I decided to take my dream ride with P180 itself.




Planning & Preparations
It was January 2015 when I decided that this year I am going to do this ride. I now knew that the best time to visit Ladakh is from June to October. I had only 6 months with me to prepare myself. I had no partners to ride with me. Though I had done a solo ride to Uttarakhand last year, I was looking for partners for a safer side. I was prepared to ride solo if there were nobody to accompany. I posted my query for riding partner on forum and received many replies and calls. But almost all of them were riding late July or August or September. I wanted to ride in June in early season. One fine morning I received call from @Adilkadri123 from Hyderabad who also was looking for riding partner, but after failed tries, he registered himself with a touring group. Adil was so courteous that he called me up and informed about a guy from Mumbai, who also was looking for riding partner. So here he comes. @siddheshparadkar. Siddhesh lives in Navi Mumbai, is a software tester and an enthusiastic rider. Next day Siddhesh called me and asked about the same thing that I was going to ask him, about Roadtrip to Ladakh. His riding period matched with mine and we decided to ride together. We had 4 months left with us to prepare ourselves. There were many people who joined and left the riding plan and at last we both were left to take this ride on our own.

We had done all sort of planning from travel itinerary, night stays, route to be taken, places to be visited, luggage to be packed etc. We also managed to get sponsorship for a part of the total budget. We had booked train tickets well in advance, serviced our bikes time to time, bought safety gears and luggage system etc.


Itinerary
Even after detailed study and reading travelogues on forum and concerning with experienced riders, we were still confused about our itinerary. We then finally decided to start our ride from Amritsar and end it at the same place, as it was convenient for us to transport bikes from Mumbai. Since the Manali - Leh highway was still closed because of continues snowfall, we had only one option, Srinagar - Leh highway. We went ahead hoping that Manali - Leh high will become operational by 14th June, the date we start our return journey, else we will have to return via Srinagar itself.



Here is the final itinerary that we followed throughout the ride. We had to make changes in the plan en route as and when required as nothing ever goes according to plan. We took it as part and parcel of the ride.





Essential Things to Carry on a Roadtrip
Here is a screenshot of the list of essential things that we carried for the roadtrip.





Safety Gear
With great power, comes great responsibility. Likewise, happiness of riding a motorcycle comes with great dangers. One small mistake, either your own or someone else's will have you sleeping on a hospital bed, or even worse. I explicitly emphasize on wearing basic protection while commuting in the city, but while on a roadtrip do wear a full safety gear. It's better to be safe than to repent later. Here is the list of safety gear that I used during the trip.

Helmet: I was carrying an LS2-FF352-1 helmet, popularly known as ATMOS. Weighing 1350 gms, it didn't feel heavy at any point of time. It comes with removable inner lining. I had to face a major problem relating to visor holding mechanism on helmet during my roadtrip. I will not generalise for the whole range of this product, but the helmet which I got had poor quality screws used. LS2 need to look into the matter very seriously.

Balaclava: I carried a cotton balaclava to wear inside helmet as I am used to it. It was very useful as it protected my face from wind-chill and maintained warmth all the time. It also stopped dust from getting in during off-roading sessions.

Riding Jacket: I was wearing PGS riding jacket for the ride. Made of 600D polyester, partly mesh riding jacket turned out to be very comfortable. It has cordura on the front and back, and mesh on both the sides and at underarms. It kept me cool during hot weather rides, it did cause some dehydration as it is partly mesh but not as much as full mesh jackets. It comes with removable waterproof & breathable inner liner which helped big time during high altitude rides. Dual density shoulder and elbow protectors plus 8mm thick back padding is not the best in the market but it serves the purpose. I would have brought riding jacket from DSG, SPARTAN or CRAMSTER but none of them fit me and were short of height, only PGS fit me well.

Riding Gloves: I used a full gauntlet sport racing leather gloves from PGS for the ride. It comes with carbon fibre armour on the knuckles, soft interior, reinforced abrasion resistant palm and the most important thing that is an extra impact padding on the hand before the wrist. This padding was quite useful during number of falls and it absorbed the first impact all the time, be it snow, mud or an asphalt. In addition to riding gloves, I had woollen gloves for wind-chill and surgical gloves for rain.

Riding Pants: I am very thankful to [MENTION=69962]Aurobindo[/MENTION], a friend from xBhp Pune chapter, who lent me his riding pants for this trip. The pants too come from PGS, made of polyester 600D, with removable waterproof liner, knee protectors and thick memory foam padding on lower back. It survived thru number of falls and saved me big time.

Boots: I was wearing high ankle boots from MAGNUM for the ride. These boots are waterproof and comes with steel toe cap. It has foam padding which was quite comfortable. It saved my feet from falls and also kept them dry during light rain. It cannot substitute proper riding boots, but the features it comes with, it serves its purpose very well.

Saddlebags: I used Stacker saddlebags from Rynox. With capacity of 46 litres, 2 outer pockets which can accommodate two 1 litre bottles, and straps to carry sleeping bags or tripod, these throw over waterproof saddlebags from Rynox were very much reliable throughout the trip. Loading and unloading it from bike was very convenient.

I would like to thank [MENTION=69962]Aurobindo[/MENTION] for lending me his riding pants. Auro, I can't tell you how grateful I am to you for this helping gesture. Thank you brother.

I would like to thank Mangesh Jadhav as well for helping me in getting a camera for the trip.

I would also like to thank [MENTION=73375]thunderRider[/MENTION] (Anirban Das Deb) for lending me his amazing 70-300 Tamron zoom lens. Credit for the long shots goes to Anirban. Thanks man.


Practice Rides
I never have had any motorcycle ride and I was advised to get experience from few rides. That’s when I decided to have my first motorcycle ride. It was month of October 2014, when I did this Solo Bike Trip to Badrinath & Mana. It was one hell of a bike trip. It was my first long distance bike trip and I had managed to do it solo. Badrinath trip had ignited a fire inside me and had opened the doors for new adventures in my life. Then in the month of May 2015, with two other guys from xBhp Pune group - [MENTION=73437]prasadkool123[/MENTION] and [MENTION=73375]thunderRider[/MENTION], I did Pune-Baroda-Daman-Pune ride. By now I was pretty sure that I am good to take the dream ride.

By May 2015, almost all the preparations were done, except one. Meeting the co-rider. We decided to have a ride together, to get to know each other and to know each other’s riding style. I from Pune and Siddhesh from Mumbai, Lonavala seemed to be a good place to meet up and have a short ride. Rajmachi is close to Lonavala, so we decided to ride to Rajmachi. There was a reason behind riding to Rajmachi. From the reviews heard about Rajmachi, it was total off-roading stretch. We wanted to experience some off-roading before actually doing it during Ladakh ride. Met up Siddhesh and had this small ride.

Two weeks before the D day, this news flashed on TV that Gujjars in Rajasthan have blocked the railway track and they are not going to stop their agitation until their demands are met. It had been 5 days that trains were cancelled and diverted through different routes. Only a week to go and all preparations done and I see this. Gujjars wanted 5% reservations in Govt. jobs. I don't know how feasible their demand was, what I was worried about is, when will this agitation end and when trains will run according to their schedule. Luckily it all came to an end and everything was back to schedule 5 days prior to the D day.

Time was passing by and I was getting restless. Number of friends knew about my ride and I was receiving well wishes from many of them. Few even met and wished me good luck for the adventure that I was going to be part of. I was feeling lucky to be doing this.

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Shaandaar, Zabardast, Zindabaad..

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

let the story coming

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Great narration. Please carry on!

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Used fevicol and sticked to thread. Don't make us wait for long.

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

I already know that this is going to be epic. Very well documented prologue and stunning captures ! Please update faster. Rated 5 star and subscribed.

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Thank you guys..
Please excuse me as I won't be able to update the travelogue for a week, I am riding to Hampi tomorrow onwards.
I'll try to come up with day 1 though.

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From here onwards whatever I pen down, will be my own interpretation of what I experienced and NOT a general statement about places and people. Sure I will cover as much as I can. I will try to keep this travelogue simple and informative. So step in my boots and see through my eyes for the rest of the journey.




Day 0
Friday - 5th June 2015


In no time, the D day arrived. I was all mad since last 2 days and wasn't getting proper sleep. The bags were packed, riding gear was fully developed, all the important documents were taken and I was all set to leave. It was heavily raining the night before and it was drizzling since morning. I had to leave home at 12 in the afternoon as per plan, it was 2:30 pm and I was still home. Though I had packed everything, I was still feeling that something is still remaining. Every time it happens. Is it only me or it is a universal problem? Touching mum's feet and taking her blessings, I left home with her best wishes.

What a Start!
I was riding in reserve state for last two days, and I had to tank up before leaving for Mumbai. I took old Pune-Mumbai highway and was looking for petrol pump, missed one and went ahead and that’s when my bike went off. Can you believe? I just started my ride which is going to last for next 15 days, and on the first day itself, only after riding for few kilometres, my bike went off. Guess what? The tank was empty. I did try and tilt bike to use that 1 litre of "unusable petrol" that Pulsar petrol tank keeps with itself for God knows what reason, but I just couldn't use it. Unusable means strictly not usable. I had to push my bike for 3 kilometres to get to the filling station. Wearing full riding gear, bike loaded with all the luggage, pushing bike for 3 kilometres was I believe a real adventure. Those 3 kilometres felt like 30 with all that attire. Somehow after half an hour I reached filling station and got the required amount of petrol to reach Mumbai. What better start could I get for my dream ride??

I was running almost 3 hours late by now. I had to reach Siddhesh's place - Kharghar, Navi Mumbai at 4 pm and then head towards Mumbai Central. Called up Siddhesh who was waiting for me at his place, asked him to go ahead and reach Mumbai Central and talk to agent for booking bikes as luggage. One has to reach at least 3-4 hours in advance before train departure time in order to book bikes as luggage in train. I had never ever rode to suburbs of Mumbai myself before so I had no idea how to reach Mumbai Central. I knew the route only till Panvel. Now when Siddhesh had already left for the station, I had to find my way on my own. Reached Kalamboli Phata in a swift and then at every diversion I asked for the direction to not to get lost and reach on time.




That's my bike getting ready for the train journey. Notice few bottles behind the bike? We gave up litres of petrol even before starting the ride. Charity begins at home you know..

Reached station and found Siddhesh's bike getting wrapped as he already had had a word with booking agent and arrangements were done. Thank God. Once the wrapping part was done, the booking guy came up to us and was asking for extra money. Almost double. The reason he told us that the amount that was told to us previously was for parcel thing and not luggage thing. We had no option but to do as he said as there was no alternate way to this. It was drizzling here as well but because of humidity I was feeling too hot. Booking guy took the money, registered bikes for luggage, and bought the receipts.

We had to wait for an hour for train. I had mentioned about Adil Kadri from Hyderabad before, he was in Mumbai these days, he was coming to see us at station. It was so good of him that he came to see us tackling Mumbai's evening traffic in a drizzling weather. If he wasn't there, I would be riding solo for this trip. Soon he left and the train too had arrived on platform. The bikes were loaded carefully in the luggage compartment in front of us and then we were relieved. Found our berths, settled all the luggage including riding gear and had a sigh of relief. It was time for dinner now, I had brought thepla and Siddhesh had no-onion masala rice in his tiffin, thanks to his family for considering that I don't eat onion and garlic. Had dinner and I was good to take some rest.


Pune - Mumbai
Total Distance Covered: 155 kms





Day 1
Saturday - 6th June 2015


I pinched myself first in the morning to make sure that it’s not a dream and I am really, finally on my way to Leh. The excitement level was above the sky. It was a train journey day. We'll reach Amritsar the next morning. It was boring to sit at same place the whole day doing nothing. There were amusements in surrounding compartments, with so eye-catchy and disturbing outfits, but all of them reserved, so we had to just seat and kill time.

We had a young army guy, two students from Punjab studying in Pune, and a lady with his son to accompany us in the compartment. The army guy was telling us about his job and kind of difficulties the north most India's people face in getting a good job. He used to do something else and was not earning worth living. He joined army later, where there is a job security and good pay as well. One of the two students, was fond of playing pool and snooker, same interest as mine. We passed good 3 hours playing pool matches on our cell phone.

Siddhesh and I had a small discussion and at the end of it Siddhesh was appointed as a banker for the whole journey. I am not good at numbers and Siddhesh has good experience of group travelling and has looked after group expenses before. We both would deposit a certain amount in the bank as and when required, bank as in Siddhesh himself, and he would keep a check and note down all the expenses for our reference. He did his job wonderfully and I never had to worry about it at all.

After having dinner, and not feeling sleepy at all, I was watching Haider movie that I had on my cell phone. I had purposefully planned to watch it a day before I start riding, to see the beauty of Kashmir valley on screen, and later witness it live. But it all turned negative. The movie is all about internal problems that locals here face. The dark side of Kashmir, which I had not expected to see at this time. I was now feared after watching this movie. There was even an article in newspaper about chaotic situation in Srinagar and riots taking place at Lalbaug chowk. We had to deal with whatever comes up during ride as we were already up for it.

If train is running on time, we should reach Amritsar 6:30 in the morning next day. The plan is to visit Golden temple after getting fresh and leave for Srinagar ASAP.