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Re: Chronicles of LADAKH
Day 2
Sunday - 7th June 2015
As expected, the train was running late and we reached Amritsar around 7:30 in the morning. And to our surprise, our bikes were sent as parcel and not as luggage. The agent in Mumbai who looked after it, had confidently told us that you will be able to pick up your bikes as soon as you reach Amritsar, but since it was sent as parcel, we had to wait till 10 am for the parcel office to open, and get our bikes released from officer. I just wanted to kill that agent who deliberately did this to us. He asked for extra charge so that we won't have to waste time here and we were doing the same even after paying for not doing it. Amazing! Lack of knowledge about parcel and luggage thing leads to this. We then got a room on rent for 3 hours right in front of railway station.
Quickly got ready and decided to visit Golden temple as we had only one and half hour with us before the officer comes. Paid 20 bucks to the rickshaw guy for a fully adventurous ride till Golden temple from railway station, the ride included sitting on the edge of front seat besides the driver itself, where you are almost hanging outside of the rickshaw, cornering through overcrowded narrow alleys, and running past red light at traffic signals where there are 3 cops pleading to people for following traffic rules, but nobody cared about them.
Golden Temple, Amritsar
Golden temple is actually known as Sri Harmandir Sahib. It is central worship place for Sikhs around the world, built from white marble overlaid with gold leaf. One has to cover his head properly before entering the holy complex. We did the same, washed our feet, and entered the holy temple. It was Sunday so there was lot of rush. It would have taken us at least 2-3 hours to get inside main temple so we skipped it, took a walk around holy tank, and after praying for the safe journey ahead, we left the place. Already running short of time, we couldn't explore the Gurudwara in detail. We would visit Golden temple again during our return leg.
Jalianwala Bagh
Then we visited Jalianwala bagh which is at walking distance from the temple. There is a public garden and a memorial to commemorate the massacre that took place here during British raj. One cannot stop his emotions after visiting this place, I did not take any picture here except one, in which a showpiece - made out of tree - which shows the cruel act of shooting at innocent crowd by the crew of General Dyer.
Paranthas and Lassi
Left the place as we had very little time with us. Asked a local guy there about the best place to have breakfast and he directed us towards this famous Brothers Dhaba. Known for its tasty and variety of paranthas, we quickly reached this place and ordered for the best thing that they have. I being No-Onion-No-Garlic guy, had difficulties ordering as they did not have much for me. I usually face this problem every time whenever I am out, so I am used to it and somehow find a way out of it. So here I ordered an aaloo parantha and curd with extra butter. Siddhesh went for the best thing that they had today - Amritsari Parantha with daal.
One cannot just miss the lassi being in Amritsar, we decided to skip the lassi part here and have it at some other place which is famous for it. After over filling our stomach with parantha, we dared to have lassi. Again a local guy directed us towards "Gyan di Lassi". This place is famous for its lassi that they provide in a huge glass, looking at which I knew I just couldn't have it all. There is no concept like half glass. I did not want to make fun of myself in front of all the Punjabi people for whom one glass is never enough, I ordered full. I could finish only half of it. We now were ready for ride.
Quickly we returned to the room that we rented, took the required documents and reached station to release our bikes. Within 15 minutes we were done with it and again there was this herculean task in front of us, to push bikes till filling station. Nearest one was a mile away. The summer at that time in Amritsar was at its peak. Push bike for a mile, with full stomach, with sun pounding on us, it was way too difficult than it seems. It reminded me of the Pune episode on Day 0. Thank God the bike was free of luggage and I was not wearing any gear this time.
Fuelled up the bikes, returned to the room and quickly we got into our attire. It was so hot outside that I did not want to leave the place in that killing hot weather. Had a glass of lemon sharbat, also known as Shikanji. Couldn't resist myself from having 3 more glasses of it as it felt like Amrit at that time. It was almost 12 in the afternoon by now and we were running late on our schedule. Asked the hotel owner for a way out of city and left the place saying good bye to the owner who charged us 432 bucks for 4 hours. Upon asking him about the funny figure, he said it’s lucky for him. I did not get it at all.
People of Punjab
While exiting the main city, confused, looking for a way to get on Pathankot highway, two local guys came up to us and asked us if we are looking for something. They too were heading towards Pathankot and they asked us to follow them till highway. Once we were on highway, I thanked them and bade good bye. I wonder why did they came up to us and asked if we needed help. This is Punjab. The help is at your hand all the time. People here are so courteous. There is one more incident that makes me so proud about people of Punjab. On the Amritsar-Pathankot highway, at an interval of every 10-15 kilometres, people belonging to local villages make a hut kind of shelter alongside the highway, and stop each and every individual vehicle that passes from there, and ask them to have a glass of water or a light pink coloured juice called Shabbil. WHY?? I asked the same question to the young guy doing this courteous act in the middle of afternoon when the hot weather is killing everybody around. He answered, FOR YOU! I was astonished to hear him and asked him to get another glass of Shabbil and also asked to fill my bottle that I was carrying. He told me that summer here is killing, and one hardly cares to keep himself hydrated while on highways. There were around 20 guys, with 2-3 tractors filled with drums of water and Shabbil and a good loud music system that keeps them motivated. Every 10-15 kilometres I saw such group. They jabardasti stop you and hand you a glass of water. Group of 20 people, loud music system playing popular Punjabi songs, guys dancing and having fun and serving the passing vehicles. To some it seemed irritating, to me it was lovely. I stopped at each of the places, and received the act of courtesy even when I was full. At one such place, even I got off my bike and was dancing with them wearing all my riding gear with God knows on what song, but it felt nice. My camera and mobile phone were deep inside the saddle bags so couldn't take picture with them. I regret.
So by now we had actually started our ride. I was cruising at 90-100 kmph without any disturbance. The Pathankot highway is awesome. Proper marked 4 lane highway with straight and butter smooth road. We passed through Batala and Gurdaspur to reach Pathankot. Though it was very hot outside, I was feeling good while riding. The partly mesh riding jacket that I was wearing was serving its purpose. At one long straight stretch, I signalled Siddhesh to accelerate full. He riding P220 was of course riding ahead of me. My speedometer showed 127 kmph at one point of time and I was so happy to see that number. Yes it was real fast for an 180cc two wheeler. Even after trying number of times in Pune, I was not able to cross 116, and when I saw 127 I was mad at it. Slowed down after some time and I told Siddhesh in sign language that I did 127, to which he said 130, I was so jealous of his bike. It was the best road that I have seen after NH8. Enjoyed riding here a lot. (Taking unnecessary risk and riding out of comfort zone is not advisable.)
Upon reaching Pathankot, we had to take a bypass but missed it, because of which we had to ride through the crowded city, bad roads with animals in between and what not. Wasted around 45 minutes here. There was a group of riders coming from Kerala, one of the guy from that group told me that we should have taken the bypass and that’s when I came to know about bypass. Anyways these guys were doing K2K. Kanyakumari to Kashmir Roadtrip. That killed all the proud feeling that I had inside me for doing Amritsar-Leh-Amritsar roadtrip.
We started cruising at regular speed once we were back on highway. In no time we reached the famous Lakhanpur Toll Post saying “Welcome to Jammu & Kashmir”. Since start of the ride I had not taken any picture so took out the camera and clicked few pictures here. We have been riding in Punjab since few hours and now were about to enter Jammu & Kashmir. The feeling was amazing. The feeling of riding through states is awesome. It was 3:30 by the time we reached the state border. Too late than expected.
Left Punjab behind and entered in J&K now. The road for few kilometres was plain with occasional potholes and then it was all ghat section. Siddhesh was riding ahead of me, I needed a break so I tried catching him but he was nowhere to be seen. For once I thought he must be riding behind me so to confirm I asked one of the local rickshaw driver about a guy riding P220 wearing all the safety gears and he said he went past him few minutes ago. I kept riding at higher speeds and eventually caught up with him and asked him to take a short break. He had slowed down as he needed a break to settle down things, we stopped here where Siddhesh took a jungle visit and I clicked few pictures.
Took samba bypass as we had no plans to visit Jammu and halted some 25-30 kilometres before Udhampur at road side dhaba to discuss about the riding plan for rest of the day as it was around 6:30 in the evening and we did not want to ride at night. It was quite cold here compared to Punjab. We had left behind the hard hitting hot weather. We had planned to reach Srinagar today itself, which was still 230 kilometres away. It was already 6:30 in the evening, valley and ghat had already started, average speed was reduced to 30-40 kmph. Had discussion with Siddhesh and decided to keep riding till there is day light. We were continuously climbing ghats since afternoon. Thank God that the roads were real good here, except the fact that you will see a huge buffalo or a dog or cow right in the middle of the road when you least expect it. It will not make a move even if you honk, and when you are about to go past them, they will get on you and you don't know how to react. I saw a car in front of me and this act of animals and I went past them carefully.
It was now getting dark by every minute. The road condition had deteriorated and same was the case with weather. I had started feeling cold now. It was around 8 pm, the sun had disappeared, visibility was too low, and I could sense that it is going to rain now. There was no place around to stay for the night. Asked Siddhesh to take out raincoat and when we were doing that, damn, it started raining. Wore raincoats and enquired about the place for night stay at nearby shop, he asked us to ride for 20-25 kilometres more to reach Patnitop. There was no place before Patnitop where we could halt for a night.
I was using a tinted visor on my helmet, riding with tinted visor at night without street lights, that too in ghats, with lot of mud on the road, was the best recipe for disaster. I had no other option so started riding keeping visor open. Weather was chilling out there and it was turning difficult by every passing kilometre. I was simply following P220's taillight. I took a tinted visor with me for the trip and did not take a clear goggle. What a blunder!
After riding for an hour, we finally reached the top, Patnitop. It was quite late, around 9:30 pm I guess, there were few agents roaming around and they told us that all of the hotels in Patnitop are full and there is no place to accommodate. Wow!! Can you imagine how happy we were to hear that? Then one of them asked us to checkout Hotel Greenland, half a kilometre away from there. We went past them in agony. We were riding since afternoon and had covered 280 kilometres, one third of which was pure ghat.
The Mysterious Hotel Greenland
Fully exhausted for the day, we were searching for Hotel Greenland. There were no street lights, mud everywhere, and there was no sign of humanity around. It was total dark. According to that guy, the hotel was situated around half a kilometre away from top. We had already searched a mile from the top and did not find anything. We again went up there and again started the search operation. We did it for 3 times and found none. Where did Hotel Greenland disappeared? Was it even there? While doing the same task for the 4th time, saw a guy there coming upside from the cliffside, he showed us a way to this mysterious place, hidden in the jungle. It took us half an hour to search this hotel.
Finally we reached and to our surprise there was a room available for two. Didn't care to check the room once, we quickly parked our bikes and got into the room. It was decent and cozy. Ordered Roti Sabji Daal Rice. Had specifically told him not to add onion and garlic in anything, he forgot that and brought the food. I then again politely asked him to bring what was ordered. It took him another half an hour to prepare that.
Tashan
I was surfing through TV channels until the food arrived, and there I saw this Punjabi Music channel called "Tashan" playing only Punjabi songs. "Thok da rahaa" was a song that was playing repeatedly at that time, since then it had become our favourite song, and we were humming it throughout the trip. You must listen and see this Punjabi song and I am sure you will love it too.
Soon the food arrived, ate it all and went to sleep with a promise to wake up early and start riding as soon as possible.
Amritsar - Pathankot - Samba - Udhampur - Patnitop
Total Distance Covered: 285 kms
Day 2
Sunday - 7th June 2015
As expected, the train was running late and we reached Amritsar around 7:30 in the morning. And to our surprise, our bikes were sent as parcel and not as luggage. The agent in Mumbai who looked after it, had confidently told us that you will be able to pick up your bikes as soon as you reach Amritsar, but since it was sent as parcel, we had to wait till 10 am for the parcel office to open, and get our bikes released from officer. I just wanted to kill that agent who deliberately did this to us. He asked for extra charge so that we won't have to waste time here and we were doing the same even after paying for not doing it. Amazing! Lack of knowledge about parcel and luggage thing leads to this. We then got a room on rent for 3 hours right in front of railway station.
Quickly got ready and decided to visit Golden temple as we had only one and half hour with us before the officer comes. Paid 20 bucks to the rickshaw guy for a fully adventurous ride till Golden temple from railway station, the ride included sitting on the edge of front seat besides the driver itself, where you are almost hanging outside of the rickshaw, cornering through overcrowded narrow alleys, and running past red light at traffic signals where there are 3 cops pleading to people for following traffic rules, but nobody cared about them.
Golden Temple, Amritsar
Golden temple is actually known as Sri Harmandir Sahib. It is central worship place for Sikhs around the world, built from white marble overlaid with gold leaf. One has to cover his head properly before entering the holy complex. We did the same, washed our feet, and entered the holy temple. It was Sunday so there was lot of rush. It would have taken us at least 2-3 hours to get inside main temple so we skipped it, took a walk around holy tank, and after praying for the safe journey ahead, we left the place. Already running short of time, we couldn't explore the Gurudwara in detail. We would visit Golden temple again during our return leg.
Jalianwala Bagh
Then we visited Jalianwala bagh which is at walking distance from the temple. There is a public garden and a memorial to commemorate the massacre that took place here during British raj. One cannot stop his emotions after visiting this place, I did not take any picture here except one, in which a showpiece - made out of tree - which shows the cruel act of shooting at innocent crowd by the crew of General Dyer.
Paranthas and Lassi
Left the place as we had very little time with us. Asked a local guy there about the best place to have breakfast and he directed us towards this famous Brothers Dhaba. Known for its tasty and variety of paranthas, we quickly reached this place and ordered for the best thing that they have. I being No-Onion-No-Garlic guy, had difficulties ordering as they did not have much for me. I usually face this problem every time whenever I am out, so I am used to it and somehow find a way out of it. So here I ordered an aaloo parantha and curd with extra butter. Siddhesh went for the best thing that they had today - Amritsari Parantha with daal.
One cannot just miss the lassi being in Amritsar, we decided to skip the lassi part here and have it at some other place which is famous for it. After over filling our stomach with parantha, we dared to have lassi. Again a local guy directed us towards "Gyan di Lassi". This place is famous for its lassi that they provide in a huge glass, looking at which I knew I just couldn't have it all. There is no concept like half glass. I did not want to make fun of myself in front of all the Punjabi people for whom one glass is never enough, I ordered full. I could finish only half of it. We now were ready for ride.
Quickly we returned to the room that we rented, took the required documents and reached station to release our bikes. Within 15 minutes we were done with it and again there was this herculean task in front of us, to push bikes till filling station. Nearest one was a mile away. The summer at that time in Amritsar was at its peak. Push bike for a mile, with full stomach, with sun pounding on us, it was way too difficult than it seems. It reminded me of the Pune episode on Day 0. Thank God the bike was free of luggage and I was not wearing any gear this time.
Fuelled up the bikes, returned to the room and quickly we got into our attire. It was so hot outside that I did not want to leave the place in that killing hot weather. Had a glass of lemon sharbat, also known as Shikanji. Couldn't resist myself from having 3 more glasses of it as it felt like Amrit at that time. It was almost 12 in the afternoon by now and we were running late on our schedule. Asked the hotel owner for a way out of city and left the place saying good bye to the owner who charged us 432 bucks for 4 hours. Upon asking him about the funny figure, he said it’s lucky for him. I did not get it at all.
People of Punjab
While exiting the main city, confused, looking for a way to get on Pathankot highway, two local guys came up to us and asked us if we are looking for something. They too were heading towards Pathankot and they asked us to follow them till highway. Once we were on highway, I thanked them and bade good bye. I wonder why did they came up to us and asked if we needed help. This is Punjab. The help is at your hand all the time. People here are so courteous. There is one more incident that makes me so proud about people of Punjab. On the Amritsar-Pathankot highway, at an interval of every 10-15 kilometres, people belonging to local villages make a hut kind of shelter alongside the highway, and stop each and every individual vehicle that passes from there, and ask them to have a glass of water or a light pink coloured juice called Shabbil. WHY?? I asked the same question to the young guy doing this courteous act in the middle of afternoon when the hot weather is killing everybody around. He answered, FOR YOU! I was astonished to hear him and asked him to get another glass of Shabbil and also asked to fill my bottle that I was carrying. He told me that summer here is killing, and one hardly cares to keep himself hydrated while on highways. There were around 20 guys, with 2-3 tractors filled with drums of water and Shabbil and a good loud music system that keeps them motivated. Every 10-15 kilometres I saw such group. They jabardasti stop you and hand you a glass of water. Group of 20 people, loud music system playing popular Punjabi songs, guys dancing and having fun and serving the passing vehicles. To some it seemed irritating, to me it was lovely. I stopped at each of the places, and received the act of courtesy even when I was full. At one such place, even I got off my bike and was dancing with them wearing all my riding gear with God knows on what song, but it felt nice. My camera and mobile phone were deep inside the saddle bags so couldn't take picture with them. I regret.
So by now we had actually started our ride. I was cruising at 90-100 kmph without any disturbance. The Pathankot highway is awesome. Proper marked 4 lane highway with straight and butter smooth road. We passed through Batala and Gurdaspur to reach Pathankot. Though it was very hot outside, I was feeling good while riding. The partly mesh riding jacket that I was wearing was serving its purpose. At one long straight stretch, I signalled Siddhesh to accelerate full. He riding P220 was of course riding ahead of me. My speedometer showed 127 kmph at one point of time and I was so happy to see that number. Yes it was real fast for an 180cc two wheeler. Even after trying number of times in Pune, I was not able to cross 116, and when I saw 127 I was mad at it. Slowed down after some time and I told Siddhesh in sign language that I did 127, to which he said 130, I was so jealous of his bike. It was the best road that I have seen after NH8. Enjoyed riding here a lot. (Taking unnecessary risk and riding out of comfort zone is not advisable.)
Upon reaching Pathankot, we had to take a bypass but missed it, because of which we had to ride through the crowded city, bad roads with animals in between and what not. Wasted around 45 minutes here. There was a group of riders coming from Kerala, one of the guy from that group told me that we should have taken the bypass and that’s when I came to know about bypass. Anyways these guys were doing K2K. Kanyakumari to Kashmir Roadtrip. That killed all the proud feeling that I had inside me for doing Amritsar-Leh-Amritsar roadtrip.
We started cruising at regular speed once we were back on highway. In no time we reached the famous Lakhanpur Toll Post saying “Welcome to Jammu & Kashmir”. Since start of the ride I had not taken any picture so took out the camera and clicked few pictures here. We have been riding in Punjab since few hours and now were about to enter Jammu & Kashmir. The feeling was amazing. The feeling of riding through states is awesome. It was 3:30 by the time we reached the state border. Too late than expected.
Left Punjab behind and entered in J&K now. The road for few kilometres was plain with occasional potholes and then it was all ghat section. Siddhesh was riding ahead of me, I needed a break so I tried catching him but he was nowhere to be seen. For once I thought he must be riding behind me so to confirm I asked one of the local rickshaw driver about a guy riding P220 wearing all the safety gears and he said he went past him few minutes ago. I kept riding at higher speeds and eventually caught up with him and asked him to take a short break. He had slowed down as he needed a break to settle down things, we stopped here where Siddhesh took a jungle visit and I clicked few pictures.
Took samba bypass as we had no plans to visit Jammu and halted some 25-30 kilometres before Udhampur at road side dhaba to discuss about the riding plan for rest of the day as it was around 6:30 in the evening and we did not want to ride at night. It was quite cold here compared to Punjab. We had left behind the hard hitting hot weather. We had planned to reach Srinagar today itself, which was still 230 kilometres away. It was already 6:30 in the evening, valley and ghat had already started, average speed was reduced to 30-40 kmph. Had discussion with Siddhesh and decided to keep riding till there is day light. We were continuously climbing ghats since afternoon. Thank God that the roads were real good here, except the fact that you will see a huge buffalo or a dog or cow right in the middle of the road when you least expect it. It will not make a move even if you honk, and when you are about to go past them, they will get on you and you don't know how to react. I saw a car in front of me and this act of animals and I went past them carefully.
It was now getting dark by every minute. The road condition had deteriorated and same was the case with weather. I had started feeling cold now. It was around 8 pm, the sun had disappeared, visibility was too low, and I could sense that it is going to rain now. There was no place around to stay for the night. Asked Siddhesh to take out raincoat and when we were doing that, damn, it started raining. Wore raincoats and enquired about the place for night stay at nearby shop, he asked us to ride for 20-25 kilometres more to reach Patnitop. There was no place before Patnitop where we could halt for a night.
I was using a tinted visor on my helmet, riding with tinted visor at night without street lights, that too in ghats, with lot of mud on the road, was the best recipe for disaster. I had no other option so started riding keeping visor open. Weather was chilling out there and it was turning difficult by every passing kilometre. I was simply following P220's taillight. I took a tinted visor with me for the trip and did not take a clear goggle. What a blunder!
After riding for an hour, we finally reached the top, Patnitop. It was quite late, around 9:30 pm I guess, there were few agents roaming around and they told us that all of the hotels in Patnitop are full and there is no place to accommodate. Wow!! Can you imagine how happy we were to hear that? Then one of them asked us to checkout Hotel Greenland, half a kilometre away from there. We went past them in agony. We were riding since afternoon and had covered 280 kilometres, one third of which was pure ghat.
The Mysterious Hotel Greenland
Fully exhausted for the day, we were searching for Hotel Greenland. There were no street lights, mud everywhere, and there was no sign of humanity around. It was total dark. According to that guy, the hotel was situated around half a kilometre away from top. We had already searched a mile from the top and did not find anything. We again went up there and again started the search operation. We did it for 3 times and found none. Where did Hotel Greenland disappeared? Was it even there? While doing the same task for the 4th time, saw a guy there coming upside from the cliffside, he showed us a way to this mysterious place, hidden in the jungle. It took us half an hour to search this hotel.
Finally we reached and to our surprise there was a room available for two. Didn't care to check the room once, we quickly parked our bikes and got into the room. It was decent and cozy. Ordered Roti Sabji Daal Rice. Had specifically told him not to add onion and garlic in anything, he forgot that and brought the food. I then again politely asked him to bring what was ordered. It took him another half an hour to prepare that.
Tashan
I was surfing through TV channels until the food arrived, and there I saw this Punjabi Music channel called "Tashan" playing only Punjabi songs. "Thok da rahaa" was a song that was playing repeatedly at that time, since then it had become our favourite song, and we were humming it throughout the trip. You must listen and see this Punjabi song and I am sure you will love it too.
Soon the food arrived, ate it all and went to sleep with a promise to wake up early and start riding as soon as possible.
Amritsar - Pathankot - Samba - Udhampur - Patnitop
Total Distance Covered: 285 kms
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