Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Totally a crazy log this is.... I almost had a ride to Leh sitting in office.

Very well written and extensively captured. The action cam screen shots have covered almost everything you wished to capture.

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Thank you, many a times I wanted to stop and click pictures, but day's target and toll taking terrain didn't allow me to do so. Action cams comes handy during these times, credit goes to Siddhesh..

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

One of THE most definitive travelogues I've read on the website. It took me a couple of hours to go through it, so I would only imagine the time it would take for you to put it all together. This thread is a chapter of story-telling in itself. Kept me spell bound through it all, with each page being an experience in itself. Massive respect going out to you to go after your bachpan ka sapna.

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Yes it takes time to put together all the little things in the order of its occurrence.. And I knew sooner or later it will surely help people riding to Leh for the first time.. Thank you for the appreciation..

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Day 11
Tuesday - 16th June 2015



Today's ride was the most leisurely ride of the trip. Manali, which is 140 kms far from Jispa, was target destination for today. Woke up around 7:30 in the morning and came out to have a fresh morning breeze. It was quite refreshing outside so went back and brought the camera to click few pictures.






I would stay here forever..













Took a good half an hour walk around the area, it was beautiful and energizing. We were ready and had breakfast by 10:30 am. This place is called Padma Lodge, and on the doors and windows of its restaurant there were stickers of many riding groups from all over India. Riders had left their tyre marks at this place.

It was almost 11 am that we settled the bills and bade good bye to the owner of this place. Yesterday before reaching Jispa, visor of my helmet had come loose. I wanted to shoot a Product Review Video for my helmet which would focus on poor quality, and for the video I was looking for a beautiful backdrop. We did found the place few kilometres from Jispa and shot the whole LS2 review video which I later sent to the shop owner demonstrating poor quality material used and also got the required servicing done. Thank God I was carrying an electric tape, which I used to keep the visor in its place so it doesn't hang. Carrying an electric tape looked like a dumb idea 2 months back, but here at this very moment only that tape could solve the problem, nothing else. It did get us going for today but it turned into nightmare for me during tomorrow's ride, will tell about it as and when time comes.

















Keylong is 22 kms from Jispa and it is well developed compared to other villages. I had noise coming from my bike chain, it required lubrication and I also needed electral powder as the stock was over, so we decided to stop at Keylong and get things sorted. Keylong is a beautiful little town surrounded by high Himalayan peaks.









Once done with everything, I asked Siddhesh to ride at his own pace as I would ride very slow and would take lot of pictures on the way. We did not have much distance to cover today. He then started riding and I tailed him gradually, but later I realised that we did not decide upon the spot to re-unite. I did not worry about it as like every time he would keep a check on the road and signal me to stop whenever I arrive.















Today's ride was beautiful, in fact whole of the Manali-Leh highway is as beautiful as it can get. Road condition here is average with few rough patches here and there. It was Tuesday today, Rohtang la is kept closed for tourist vehicles every Tuesdays for maintenance purpose. There were hardly any vehicles coming from opposite side. It also meant that we wouldn't have any crowd at Rohtang la, thank God.

Tandi is 8 kms from Keylong. It is the last place where you get fuel while travelling towards Leh. P180 has 18 litres of petrol tank and an average of 40 kms per litre, it means it can easily cover 720 kms if it is fully tanked up. I had covered 360 kms since I last fuelled up and I could easily cover the same distance again without worrying about petrol. So I did not stop at this bunker and kept riding.





























I took n number of halts between Tandi and Koksar. I could afford to halt every now and then because we had time in hand. I reached Koksar around 2:30 pm which is 38 kms from Tandi. If Siddhesh hadn't jumped suddenly in between the road to stop me, I wouldn't have noticed him. It took me 3 hours and 30 minutes to cover the distance of 68 kms between Jispa and Koksar, little less than 20 kms per hour, which is quite leisurely ride. I did not dare to ask Siddhesh about the time he arrived here, it must have been more than an hour.

We had some chips and fruit juice here as part of lunch. There were few guys from Punjab travelling in an Innova, they were amazed to see guys from Pune riding on their own bikes here in Himachal.

After about half an hour's break, we bade good bye to the guys from Punjab and left the place. Rohtang la is 20 kms ascending ride from Koksar. 6 kms from Koksar is Gramphu and from here onwards the road condition worsens, the road literally disappears. It is total dirt track ascend for few kms. I had heard number of times about Rohtang la and its treacherous roads, but when I was riding here after riding through unforgiving Zoji la, Khardung la, Chang la and Baralacha la, it was "Baaye hath ka khel" now. Rohtang la was different than other passes, it had loose dirt and lot of mud and slush, no hard surface anywhere, which did make riding difficult but since I now had learnt the "Art of Safe Riding on La", I managed to ride through it. People who are riding to Leh from Manali need to be careful, the first mountain pass Rohtang la can turn into nightmare for them. I did slid a few times but managed it well.





























Few kms before top, the dirt track changed into little round slippery stones track and then changed into proper tarmac. There was lot of snow around and it was melting at fast pace. There was water flowing around during whole ascending ride. It took an hour to cover these 20 kms and soon we were at the top.

Rohtang La
Rohtang la is high altitude mountain pass with an altitude of 13,050 ft. It is part of Pir Panjal mountain range in Himalayas. Being closes to Manali and easily accessible by tourists, it is usually crowded throughout the season. Rohtang la is infamous for traffic jams and huge crowd, We were lucky to be visiting this place on Tuesday, we did not face crowd at all, but during other days it becomes headache to come across Rohtang la because of large number of tourist vehicles. We were only few hundred meters away from the top sign but looking at beautiful snow walls around the road, we stopped right there to click pictures.
































I took this picture of Siddhesh while he was riding..



And his action camera took this picture of mine at the same time.. #HisaabVasool



After little photo break we reached the top. Within few minutes I heard roaring of REs and they were none other than Wardha guys. We all were happy to see each others alive after Baralacha la episode. They had stayed a night at Sarchu and came across Baralacha la this morning, and they too had horrific experiences. Bikers’ reunion at Rohtang la was very joyful.

Throughout the trip I came across many snowbound places but I never approached for snow. I found myself in the middle of such beauty that I have always craved for and it threw me off my feet. I did not want to miss this chance so all of us parked our bikes aside and got ready to have some fun. We trekked through the glacier and slid down multiple times. Clicked lot of pictures and videos here. Once we had enough of it, we came down and had hot coffee with biscuits to warm ourselves. My legs and hands had numbed and I wasn't able to handle that cold. I removed my boots and gloves and sat near the fire that shop owner had lit. Felt the life in my hands and legs only after sitting around fire for some time. Wardha guys took our leave as they had a week of riding ahead since they were riding till home. We happily bade good bye wishing them safe ride.














Siddhesh having fun with his action cam, me on left and Vardha guys all over the place



















We were here at top for more than one and half hours, it was around 5:30 in the evening and Manali was still 50 kms away. Just like before, I was tailing at slow speed stopping here and there taking pictures and Siddhesh throttled up. This side of the pass is really beautiful and even the road is nicely paved. I was stopping at every corner to click pictures, I could see the whole descending road from here having the beautiful valley in background, and I just couldn't have enough of this captivating beauty.

At one of the curve, I saw two guys sitting near the cliffside just staring at the valley. They were calm, silent and in peace. I stopped there and was trying to figure out what they are looking at. After sometime one of them noticed me and I waved at him. I asked them what is so interesting out there that has kept both of you adhered to it? His simple and straight answer amazed me. He said what is not so interesting about this place? He was damn right, the vast and exquisite valley, stunning landscapes, dazzling sun, magnificent clouds, fascinating sky, seductive curves and an invigorating cool breeze. It was indeed a very beautiful place.

We had a little conversation there about our native places and respective adventures. I told them about mine and pointed finger to the zigzag roads far in the mountains to tell them about my riding partner Siddhesh, he was visible in form of little black dot moving down the valley. These two guys were from Kerala, must be in their twenties, were hitchhiking in Himalayas. Brave guys I must say! I asked one of them to click a picture of mine and he happily did the favour. I thanked them, wished them good luck for their adventure and left the place.





















This 50 kms descend from Rohtang top till Manali is a curvy stretch with lot of hairpin bends, most of the stretch is covered with alpine trees. Since there was no traffic at all, I descended fast and it was one beautiful ride to remember. It is heaven for the guys good at cornering, one can lean at every corner. I am not good at it and having heavy luggage tied to the bike, I refrained myself from attempting to do so.






I wonder what that guy was doing up there around top right corner..







Manali Traffic Nightmare
Manali is a beautiful hill station situated in the Kullu valley along the Beas river. It is among the top skiing destinations in India. Manali is heavily crowded during summer. Soon I reached the town of Manali and had a head-on collision with traffic jam. I was moving by an inch every minute. One needs patience to come across the slow moving traffic in Manali, which I had left home. I was angry, irritated and frustrated by the jam. I saw local taxi drivers having fun in traffic because it was a daily routine for them, but not for me. It took more than an hour to come across this traffic jam after lot of struggling and riding through little space that I got in between two vehicles. Many a times I was riding on opposite side footpath, I had learnt this art from the worst traffic of Pune.

I was repeatedly receiving calls but was not able to attend them. Once I was through the traffic, I checked my phone and it was Siddhesh. He was waiting at southern end of the town and I followed his instructions and reached him. We then started searching for a place to stay for a night, checked out many hotels but all of them were full, month of June you know.

We kept riding until we found this place which said Homestay, checked it out and it was good and well in budget. Though it said Homestay, it was no less than any well maintained hotel. The only problem we had was parking space, we had to park our bikes on main road itself which was at the distance of around 100 metres from the place. We had to agree with this condition because we did not have any other option.

It was around 8:30 pm that we settled down at this place. I was surprised when I put on the TV, "Thok da rahaa" was playing on Punjabi music channel Tashan, and it bought a big smile on our faces. Ordered typical Indian food which took some time to arrive. After good half an hour of Punjabi entertainment, I changed it to news channel to update ourselves with what is going on in this world. There was one thing that worried us a lot - heavy rain in Mumbai. Heavy rain had caused cancelling and delaying of trains, washed out roads and heavy jams. I will be riding to Pune from Mumbai and if the rain continues for 2 more days, it would create problems for me. I left worrying for later.

We were in Himachal now so my personal number could work here. Out of state prepaid numbers doesn't work in J&K. I was carrying a post-paid Airtel sim with me for J&K tenure but it was not needed now. I had not called home for 2 days so called up home to give our whereabouts, Pune too was poured with lot of rain. I was bombarded with messages and emails when I put on the internet. Around 3k WhatsApp messages and more than 50 emails. Went through the important ones and left everything else to take a look later sometime. Soon the food arrived and we had it leisurely watching TV.

Next day was a big day. We had to cover a distance of 400 kms to reach Amritsar, which was quite huge considering riding in the mountains for almost half of the distance until we enter the state of Punjab. We had a whole route map with us, so after having little discussion about it, we went to sleep to wake up early.


Jispa - Keylong - Tandi - Koksar - Manali
Total Distance Covered: 140 kms

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Beautiful clicks , keep going, hope next chapter is coming soon

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

No more..

----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

Next chapter will be up soon.. Thank you..

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Day 12
Wednesday - 17th June 2015



Woke up early, got ready and we were all set to leave by 7 in the morning. We had settled the bills last night itself so bade goodbye to the caretaker and left the place, we had a long day ahead of us. In case if we get stuck somewhere or running behind the schedule, so for a safer side we had booked return tickets for two days, Friday and Saturday. It was Wednesday today, we were on our schedule and had enough time in hand, we could split this long day into two and ride leisurely but we decided to ride it out today itself and rest for next two days. We kept the option open to break the day if we feel like it at any point of time.

Today we had set some rules to be strictly followed.
Rule 1 - Minimum breaks (only breakfast and lunch break).
Rule 2 - Maintain average speed.
Rule 3 - Keep running.

Of course these rules were specially meant for me since I have been tailing most of the times. We left Manali and decided to have breakfast at Kullu which is 40 kms far from Manali. Ride from Manali to Kullu is very scenic and it is total hilly ride. Roads here doesn't live up to the reputation that these two hill stations have got, I really hated riding here. Broad road with tarmac but mostly broken, potholes all around. I did not care about potholes and kept riding until we saw a petrol pump, last time I had fuelled up was at Karu. I could still ride for 250 kms more without the need of fuel but Siddhesh couldn't so I also topped up a little to reach Amritsar.







2 kms before Kullu I stopped for Siddhesh and asked one of the truck driver about the route for Amritsar, I already had it with me but just to confirm I showed him the route printout. I asked this guy because the truck belonged to Punjab and he would know the roads better. He said there are multiple ways we can reach Amritsar but the route we chose is perfectly fine. I was *****ing about broken stretch and he assured me of good roads from here onwards. Siddhesh had arrived so thanked the truck driver and took his leave.

We reached Kullu around 8:30 am and stopped for a breakfast break. The place that we stopped provided bird-eye view of the valley and town. Had paneer paranthas and cold coffee during half an hour breakfast break. Feld good and energized after having good heavy breakfast and I was all set to ride.









To follow the rules I had to get rid of the camera from my neck, put on the music and ride on. There is no better thing than listening to music while riding. I am used to listening music while riding, but I never did it during this trip as I wanted to look around, see the places and not get lost in thoughts. Music gets you thinking and you tend to miss the beauty around, that’s what happens with me at least. I ride fast and cover more distance while listening to music compared to without music. So for the first time I put on the earphones while riding.

I was feeling emotional at this very moment. I was leaving behind the most significant part of the whole roadtrip - Mountains. I knew I will not see these beautiful landscapes any time sooner and these are last few hours to enjoy them.

We started riding together and decided to re-unite at Mandi in case if we fall apart. Mandi is 70 kms far from Kullu and there was lot of traffic creating hindrance throughout the way. Crazy people jumping on the road from nowhere, never ending blind curves and n number of trucks - few of them were quite helpful while few were insane. It reminded me of riding through Patnitop.

Darkness at its Best
What would you do when you are smacked with danger right on your face without any prior sign of it? As you know, my helmet visor mechanism had broken and I had pasted electric tape on it so the visor doesn't move, but it also meant that I will not be able to open the visor. I had tinted visor on my helmet which was of great use at high altitudes but it gets difficult to ride in dim light. There was lot of traffic and I was riding through mountains, after one of the blind curve I saw a tunnel, known as Aut Tunnel. Length of this tunnel is 2.7 kms which is quite long and runs through number of curves, it is India's one of the longest road tunnel. This tunnel is infamous for its poor maintenance and dim light riding conditions. I love riding through tunnels and when I saw this tunnel I was again super excited. Until now I was overtaking all the traffic that I faced on the way but that was not possible inside tunnel. I was blacked out as soon as I entered inside the tunnel. In excitement I forgot that I had tinted visor on my helmet which I couldn't open at all. I couldn't see anything at all and I was riding in total dark. No way I could stop inside the tunnel and remove my helmet as there was lot of traffic behind and I had slowed down but couldn't stop because vehicles behind me were honking vigorously. SUV in front me of had zoomed off and I did not have any light to follow. What I could see is vehicles coming from onside going past me in a flash. Soon one motorcycle overtook me and I got a tail-light to follow. I was so damn happy to have someone in front of me to follow, I maintained the pace and followed the dim-light that I saw through my tinted visor until I reached other end of the tunnel. None of the lights work inside and officials really need to look after the matter. I thanked the motorcycle guy just for being there, he gave me a confused look when I thanked him.

I kept riding while overtaking all the slow moving cars and trucks. River alongside the road increased in size and as I munched few kilometres it turned into lake. This lake is reservoir of Pandoh Dam. Road is built upon the dam wall and I stopped here to click a picture of this beautiful lake.







G2G at Mandi
I reached the town of Mandi around 10:30 am and saw Siddhesh at one of the shops, he had just arrived. There was an RE parked over there, looking at the MH12 number plate I asked the guy about whereabouts and he belonged to Pune. His name is Tanveer Taj, he was here to attend a family function. He took a roadtrip to Lahaul valley on his own bike and we accidently met up at Mandi while he was on his way back. Tanveer is a Wanderer and has been on various roadtrips across India. Back in Pune, on every Wednesdays we have bikers meet event called as xBhp G2G. Today it was Wednesday and guys from Pune and Mumbai meeting in Mandi - Himachal Pradesh, it was our G2G in the foothills of Himalaya.

I had started to feel the heat. Until now I was wearing 3 layers of clothes inside other than riding gear and I was soaking in sweat. Had a chilled coke here but it did not make any difference. I asked the shop owner if I can change clothes inside his shop, the young guy invited me inside and asked me to consider it mine. I removed all the extra layers that I was wearing and then I felt better. Drop in altitude had caused rise in temperature and it was only going to get worse as we ride ahead. Bought two bottles of water, bade adieu to Tanveer and left towards chaotic Ner chowk.

As per shop owner, we had to ask for direction after reaching Ner chowk as it is very confusing to come across this chaotic place. Traffic doubled on this 14 kms long stretch, I asked one of the traffic police about road to Bhota and waited for Siddhesh to arrive. I was centre of attraction here as everybody around were looking at me as if I were an alien, of course I looked like one while standing alone wearing all my riding gear. Siddhesh arrived in sometime and we marched towards Bhota.

The day was getting hotter by every passing minute. Even 3 glasses of lemonade were not enough in Amritsar and then there was a time where I did not feel the need of water and again here I am dying for it. We started our roadtrip under scorching heat of Amritsar, enjoyed cool breeze of Kashmir, rode while it was snowing at Chang la, came across bone chilling temperatures of Tanglang la and again here we are sweating like anything. My partly mesh jacket kept me dry while riding, it did cause some dehydration which I managed to balance by having water every now and then.

Road condition here is truly commendable. Wide curvy roads for next 140 kms until we cross the state border, and then it gets even better. Had to ride at limited speed as the whole stretch is made up of Ghat like roads, reminds me of Lavasa. I had with me only the names of towns and cities that we had to go through but not the distance between them. I was told by the traffic police that Bhota is around 20-25 kms far from Ner chowk. After around 20 kms of riding I asked one local guy about how far is Bhota and he too said it’s around 20-25 kms from here. We kept riding through number of small towns and number of empty stretches. After another 20 kms of riding again I asked one of the local guy about Bhota and again he said it’s around 20 kms far. Now it was getting on my nerves. We came across 40 kms and still there is no sign of Bhota. People here have no knowledge of distance.

We reached Bhota around 1:30 in the afternoon which is actually 57 kms far from Ner chowk and I asked Siddhesh to take a halt for some time. The scorching heat was taking its toll on us and we were not able to go beyond 20-25 kms an hour. We stopped beside the bus-stop and sat there for some time. We were continuously riding without any break since last three and half hours in hot weather and it was much needed break for my saddle. I laid down myself on concrete structure under the tree and it felt so good, for once I felt like to call it a day. Looking at us, all geared-up and fully exhausted lying on roadside with MH bikes having luggage, a guy came up to us and asked whether we are on roadtrip or something. He is in army and was posted in Lahaul valley sometime back, and he was more than happy to hear that we stayed a night in Lahaul valley day before yesterday. He was kind enough to offer all kind of help but we just asked him about the roads ahead and he asked us to take Una route which according to him is 60-70 kms far which eventually turned to be true as it was 68 kms far. I thanked him for the advice and he left us.

There are two ways to reach Hoshiarpur which leads to Amritsar, either via Una or Hamirpur. There is hardly 2-3 kms of difference between two but Hamirpur route takes more time compared to Una as it is mostly broken. We decided to have lunch at Una and started riding after 10 minutes of rest.

I used to open the throttle as and when I got a straight stretch for few hundred meters, otherwise there were only twists and turns all the way. At few places I had to deal with blind and deaf drivers as well, blind because they did not see me coming from behind even when I was giving pass number of times, deaf because they did not hear my honking at all. These local drivers were driving on roads as if it was their own, driving right in the middle at a slow pace, and when we went pass them they used to race with us. Few times they missed an accident and few times us. I remember Siddhesh missed kissing tail of another motorcycle at the speed of 80-90 kmph, that guy jumped on the road on his motorcycle to cross, and Siddhesh riding at 90 kmph had no time to slowdown so he just kept going and missed the tail by few inches. Even I had a near miss accident, at one of the ascending curve I was asking for the pass to the car in front me, he was continuously ignoring me and wasn't letting me pass, and when I got a window to overtake, that guy pushed me far offside and went ahead. He was psycho, I don't know what was wrong with him. Siddhesh later told me that the same car bothered him as well.

I was desperately praying for plain roads and I knew my prayers were not going to be heard until we enter Punjab. Soon we reached Una, we were tired and looking at haywire place we decided to ride ahead and halt at some better place. We rode for some 5 odd kms in search of good place and finally stopped at a roadside dhaba. Getting off the bike never felt so good. First we had chilled coke and then ordered Dal makhni, Roti and later ice-cream, had all of it in the open seating arrangement outside the dhaba. I did not feel like leaving after filling our stomach, both of us agreed upon taking rest here for some time. We reached here around 4:30 in the afternoon, we covered 290 kms since morning and we still had 110 kms more to reach Amritsar which seemed doable. We decided to take rest till 5:30 pm and then start fresh. There was a Police ground behind the dhaba. We went inside, checked and found it good to rest for some time. I was so damn tired that I dumped myself on playground and went into deep sleep within few seconds.

Two bikes with lot of luggage parked in their property and two guys lying on ground unconsciously, looking at such suspicious activity a Policeman came up to us to check out what actually is going on. He had a huge gun on his shoulder but he was kind enough to politely ask us if we are tired and taking rest. I told him about our roadtrip and he allowed us to take rest. He was so kind that later he brought chilled water for us. It was a sign that we were nearing Punjab, you don't find such courteous people anywhere else.

After good half an hour of rest, I walked up to their office to return the water bottle, and there we had a long discussion. Around 5 retired officer were sitting over there, when I told them that I belong to Pune, three of them literally came up to me and shook my hand. All 3 of them were posted in Pune in 80's, they made me sit there and asked lot of questions about Pune. I gave them all the latest update about Pune and they relived their memories. They asked me to take Hoshiarpur - Adampur - Kartarpur route as it will save lot of time. They were really happy to have me and I felt honoured to have spent time with them. I took their leave as we had much distance to cover for the day. Returned to Siddhesh, he was all set to leave whereas I still had to get into my attire, asked him to carry on and meet up at Adampur.

Road was as-usual great since morning, and now after this short refreshing break I was again all excited to rip my engine. I was nearing state border, the road runs through some thick forest and few ghats, the border passes through this ghat section itself. Encountered hundreds of monkeys on the road while passing through this area. I was greeted by a road sign saying "Welcome to Punjab" as soon as I was on the other side of this ghat. From here onwards it was all straight plain road with farms on both the sides.

I hardly came across 10 kms in Punjab, and I started witnessing the great people of Punjab. You remember about Amritsar episode during first day of the trip, a bunch of people stopping every passing vehicle on the road and offer them water and juice. I was glad to see such guys again. This time I did click few pictures of them. While I was clicking pictures, the guys sitting over there were inviting me to join them, I told them I have to reach Amritsar today itself so I had a glass of Shabbil - the pink coloured juice - and left the place. Reached Hoshiarpur which is 40 kms far from Una.















Came across crowded Hoshiarpur and headed towards Adampur. Hoshiarpur to Adampur is 24 kms which I came across in a swift. We had decided to meet at Adampur so I was looking for Siddhesh but did not find him. Called him and came to know that he is yet to arrive. Hoshiarpur was quite chaotic, I must have overtaken him over there.

Hoshiarpur - Adampur road leads to Jalandhar and meet NH1. Police officers back at Una had asked me to take diversion from Adampur and go via Kartarpur which also meet up with NH1. This shortcut saved 20 kms of riding through traffic of Jalandhar.

Khet Experience
I was feeling uneasy with upset stomach. I was looking for a public convenience but did not find any. I was getting restless so I took Kartarpur route and came across few kilometres looking for a place to put things at rest. I stopped at a secluded place where there were lot of bushes, suited perfectly to my requirements. I was up for an adventure. I think, lucky are the ones who get to experience such an adventure. ;-)







Later I called up Siddhesh and gave my coordinates. Soon he arrived and we left for Kartarpur. This shortcut is beautiful. Plain straight road till your eyesight reaches, I was sailing smooth at 90-100 kmph. Adampur to Kartarpur is 22 kms which we covered in 18 minutes. We reached Kartarpur around 7:30 pm and got onto NH1 which leads to Amritsar. Amritsar is 65 kms from here. It was getting dark now, we took halt at a roadside dhaba.











Ladda Pahalwan
I can't forget this funny place. This roadside dhaba is owned by a local richie rich, known as Ladda Pahalwan who is fond of Bollywood. This place is quite huge and is covered with his photographs, every corner and every wall in the dhaba is covered with his photograph with some Bollywood star. None of them were real. I was laughing looking at each of the photograph, all of them were poorly edited. He had himself clicked or say edited his picture with every single Bollywood star, from Katrina to Kareena and from Salman to Sunny, both Deol and Leone. All of them had the same guy, same face and same smile. I asked a little kid looking after cash counter about this guy and he said he is his father, and then I had to control on my laughter. We had Samosa and Lassi here.

Crazy Stupid Ride
It was 8 pm and the broad daylight that we enjoyed since morning had vanished by now. It was a troublesome matter to me. I had pasted electric tapes on my helmet visor so that it doesn't move, dance or fall off while riding. Riding with tinted visor during night time on overcrowded NH1 is a dangerous thing. To tackle this problem, I removed all the electric tape, opened the visor and again pasted electric tape on it so it stays open and intact in its place. I had to ride in dark without visor for next 65 kms until we reach Amritsar. I asked Siddhesh to ride together so that I can follow him. There was lot of traffic, and it was not usual but in fact it was insane, maniac and lunatic traffic. There were so many vehicles on the road, driving like its doomsday. It was quite difficult for me to ride with open visor as there was lot dust around, and vehicles going off road to overtake made it even worse. Traffic was fast moving and so do we. There were at least 10 incidents where I had a near miss accident. Every now and then I had to rub my eyes because of dust, wish I had clear goggles with me. Though it was a dangerous ride, but when it comes to tackling traffic, I am game. The highway had turned into two lane road without dividers because of road widening work, which caused traffic on this 15 kms long Kartarpur - Dhilwan stretch. We were back on 4 lane highway once we crossed Dhilwan toll plaza and then till Amritsar it was one Crazy Stupid Beautiful Ride. I really enjoyed riding on this 50 kms long stretch, it was total dark out there and I was riding at the speed of 80-90 kmph without visor. I would strongly advice against it and I myself wouldn't have done that if I were alone. I did not ride at higher speed out of my comfort zone and followed Siddhesh with a 2 seconds gap rule.




This is how I managed to keep my visor open while riding in the dark.


We reached outskirts of Amritsar around 9:45 pm and took the flyover which led us towards railway station, the same place where we stayed on the first day. That place was shady and wasn't well maintained so this time we checked into Hotel Mehra Inn which is right in front of the railway station. We booked it for two nights and dumped ourselves onto bed. Rooms are nice here and staff is courteous, only problem we had was parking space, we had to park our bikes on main road itself and watchman of the hotel did looked after it the whole night. None of us were hungry. I took a hot water bath and got into blanket, it felt so good and heavenly after riding throughout the day.

It was one long and tiring day, we just concentrated on riding and munching kilometres, and did not do any sightseeing. I wasn't able to believe in the fact that we just returned from a Roadtrip to Ladakh and we are back in one piece. I congratulated Siddhesh on this wonderful feat and went to sleep. I had one of the best sleep of my life that night.


Manali-Mandi-Una-Hoshiarpur-Kartarpur-Amritsar
Total Distance Covered: 400 kms

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Great narration!

Sent from my Xperia L.

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Thank you..

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Day 13
Thursday - 18th June 2015


We woke up quite late as there was nothing to do other than roaming around in Amritsar city. We decided to have a good Punjabi lunch and later visit Wagha border in the evening. We freshened up and came out in the market around 12 in the noon, asked hotel owner about the best place to have good Punjabi lunch and he suggested us "Brother's Dhaba" and "Kesar da Dhaba". We already had visited Brothers Dhaba before commencing the roadtrip, so this time we went for Kesar da Dhaba to celebrate the accomplishment.

Parked my bike at hotel itself and took Siddhesh's bike for a ride, me being pillion rider. Kesar da Dhaba is located in the heart of heavily crowded market around Golden Temple. It took us half an hour to locate this place. It is one of the oldest food joint in Amritsar operating in the same old ambience. We ordered the famous Parantha thali which comes with two paranthas and paneer sabji, I asked the guy to replace sabji with Dal fry since I had only one option that comes without onion and garlic. Later we had lassi as well. If there is any place to have pure Punjabi food in Amritsar, this is the place. The food was real good and yummy and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was difficult for me to stand still after filling my stomach to its full.

Wagha Border Fiasco
We had planned to have lunch, roam around in the market and ride towards Wagha border by 3:30 pm. The food was so heavy that we were not in the condition to roam around, we went back to hotel to take rest for an hour and leave for border in the evening. In no time we were deep into sleep and I was in a state of shock when I woke up, it was 9 pm in the night. We slept for 7 long hours in the day time. I wanted to visit Wagha border so badly and it was impossible now, I really regret for wasting a day sleeping.

After sleeping throughout the day, we had to deal with long sleepless night. I checked out BMS on my phone to see if there are any shows running out there and having any seats available. "Dil Dhadakne Do" and "Hamari Adhuri Kahani"Once in a while you have to travel, roam around in deserted places, to learn and appreciate the value of little things around us that we take for granted.

We came out of theatre at 1:30 in the midnight and headed towards Golden Temple. We couldn't take darshan on the first day of our trip because of rush. Temple is open in the night as well so we thought of visiting it and pass sometime in serenity. I rode on empty streets of Amritsar city, which otherwise are always crowded and chaotic. Riding through silent, dark streets in the witching hour gave me a feeling of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. We reached temple in no time, parked bike outside and entered in the holy complex, took a walk around lake and took blessings from Sri Harmandir Sahib. Finally I took darshan here and I was more than happy. What better way to conclude the trip?











Later we took a walk around the complex and visited the holy kitchen. It feeds 1,00,000 people every single day. There were so many people even at this time of the night. Passed some good time here, returned to hotel around 4 am and went to sleep.


In and around Amritsar
Total Distance Covered: 30 kms

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Awesome TL rakesh Bhai. The Golden temple looks equally mesmerising throughout the day .. Had I been aware that you are going to this ride I would have joined you. But I had a c chance to ride with you and others to the Suzlon windmills ride by our Pune group . I was riding the red r15 v2.0 while riding a d was behind you I guess you remember .. Great ride .. The pics of this TL are one of the best taken in ladakh. Ride safe and hope to see you soon. ...

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Ofcourse I do. Great breakfast ride it was. Thanks for the kind words man. Hope to see you soon.

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Yeah it was indeed a nice ride . Sure bro will try and attend the weekly g2g if time permitts ... And soon ride again with experienced riders like yourself.. Till then godspeed and ride safe.. Cheers

Re: Chronicles of LADAKH

Hope to see you at g2g..