Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Kaydee - Very apt title for the log.

Very nice pic of the Golden Temple.

Waiting for the rest.

Day 0: Lucknow to Delhi


Thanks Here comes the next part.


........................

Lets call this day as day 0, I rode solo from Lucknow to Delhi to meet Mohit and Akshit and start our trip from there.

My bike had reached Lucknow safe and sound. As soon as I reached home took a small test ride to check for any issues. It was all good, the bumblebee was ready for the herculean task.

The day before the ride, HVK sir had created a Whatsapp group will all three of us and kept a record of our emergency contacts, and schedule. I had done Lucknow Kanpur stretch before but beyond that was gonna be a new experience for me. Most of all the things I was super excited to be able to finally ride on the Yamuna Express Highway(YEH).

I mounted the luggage the night before the ride itself, everything all set and I try to sleep; which always eludes me before the beginning of such amazing rides.

Woke up on time and got ready, parents also were equally excited for this trip of mine, more worried and concerned though. Cant blame them for that. Every other day we hear sad accident news. You could be a veteran of just a young rider like me, but when mom says : Beta dhyan se chalana, you can see a lot of emotions on her face, which motivates you further to ride safe.

With all the joy and excitement in mind I hit the highways at around 6:15am after fueling up and crossing the Amausi airport. From there on it is just a runway ride, good roads all throughout. Didn't click a lot of pictures in that stretch.

At the petrol pump, fed the bike.



River Ganga bridge before entering Kanpur.


Fully loaded bike, before Agra.



Then came the diversion to join YEH. Yaay, YEH dil maange more. It was good in the beginning, paid the toll, but after 20 kms got bored of ripping at full speed, YEH dil na maang aur. This highway is seriously inspired by the old 2D games like road fighter, same looking road throughout, same sign boards appeared in equal intervals. The lack of sleep last night was not helping at all. After two incidents of me feeling sleepy, stopped the bike and found shelter in the shadow of a large bush. Had a couple of snickers and lots of water and then started the whole mad rush again. After a distant sighting of BIC ( Buddh International Circuit) entrance, I continued and reached my Buaji's place in Vivek Vihar. Answered a lot of questions from family regarding this trip and communicated very clearly that how we always gear up and try to be safe.


Runway



When I took a break from the super boring expressway.





Delhi Roads - Thumbs UP

At 8:30 pm left for Akshit's place, where we planned to stay for the night and organise and pack stuff. I must appreciate the roads infra in Delhi, so many freaking flyovers helping you avoid traffic and signals. Akshit stays in Vasant Kunj, so that 27 kms of journey took me 35 minutes at 8pm on a saturday evening. The same distance in Bangalore would easily take me an hour or more.

This was the first time I met Akshit, we had only communicated on calls and chats before. The three of us discussed a lot of things about the ride, unpacked all the luggage and distributed keeping in mind our saddle bags. All this sorting, packing and chit chat continued till 2 am when we finally decided to sleep.


Surprise Surprise....

That is when Akshit breaks the news to me. On the date when we plan to be in Nubra valley, his brother was getting engaged, and since the trip schedule was finalized before the engagement date, Akshit decided to continue with this ride. Take that for commitment and the dedication to visit Ladakh. Hats off to him

We then went to sleep with some sweet buttery dreams of Amritsar.


Teaser for day 1 :

I was riding on slow lane, very sleepy, i guess i dozed off on the bike when suddenly I see a XUV500 coming towards me and bammmm...

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

I can smell a great travelogue with some great photos cooking here
can't wait to read the whole adventure

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Great pictures Kusumakar. Waiting for even more such gorgeous photos

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Hooked to this one. Great pictures and write up - bring them on!

It reminds me on my Leh travel back in 2011 where even I rode solo from Lucknow till Delhi where I met my friends and we rode together for the next 20 days or so
#Nostalgic.

Even i carried all the spares just like you since I used to ride a P220 then and never used a single spare which i carried but what happened in Nubra Valley was a disaster for me. Clip on handlebar nut got broken from inside leaving half the screw inside the clip on and half inside the handle bar. No matter how much you plan, up there something will happen which you would have never dreamt off. Rode from Nubra till Leh via Khardungla with a broken RHS handlebar :P

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Nice clicks there!

Sent from my Xperia L.

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Hooked! nice clicks

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Wonderfully beautiful pics..

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Awesome uploads, mate - some mind blowing captures.

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

You will not be disappointed

Thanks

True that, we always plan but learn and experience something new on the road.

Thanks everyone



Sorry for the delay, next post will be up tomorrow morning. Can't upload photos from office network.

Day 1: Delhi to Amritsar


I was riding on the slow lane, very sleepy, i guess i dozed off on the bike when suddenly I see a XUV500 coming towards me and bammmm....

It was Akshit trying to wake me up at 6:30 am. Such a bad dream right before the start of a ride. I decided to not let that trouble my mind much, I need 100 % concentration on the roads. And obviously I didn't tell about this nightmare to Mohit and Akshit. We were in deep sleep when our alarms went off, all the late night packing and talking resulted in us leaving Delhi 2 hours late than the previously agreed upon time.


Akshit's brother took this bird eye shot of us mounting the luggage and getting the bike ready to leave.



The planned breakfast stop when you are leaving Delhi for Amritsar has to be Murthal. On weekends Murthal is a famous destination for the yummy parathas, and because of that we got a good number of vehicles for company till Murthal. Having taken NH7 and NH4 many times on my previous tours that traffic was a lot for me.

After a sumptuous breakfast at Murthal we decided to push hard, else we would miss the gate closing ceremony at Wagah border. Just when we started to cover distances quickly Mohit started facing issues with his clutch lever(this issue crept in multiple time in the coming days) . When we stopped to check, it was hanging without any screw in place. Found a spare shop on the highway and got the screw fixed. This whole scene delayed us a bit more.

Lack of sleep and tasty aloo parathas are not a good combination. We had to stop for a tea break soon.



Now we decided to cover distance seriously and avoided stopping too much. Next stop was for lunch after 140 kms. It was hot on the highway like any other sunny day in the north of India is. Again after this lunch sprint, we did 170 kms without stopping in between.


Just before our lunch stop at Basantpura.


When its so hot inside, bikes have to parked in shade, else our bums will face the wrath.



The roads get narrow as you approach Amritsar, and we lost hope of reaching Wagah border on time. But there was something to cherish. We saw those green fields Punjab is famous for. With 60 more kms to go we stopped for a photo break. We cannot see all the places at the right times but that shouldn't stop us from enjoying the place we are at (Yes that's Deepika's dialogue from Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani).

Few photos from the photo break.

That's Akshit !



And that's me :P

And I was taking this shot :



Udtaa Punjab !!



We reached our room in Amritsar by 5:45pm , dropped all our luggage and immediately left for Wagah. Akshit decided to sit pillion on my bike and he took some amazing shots while we were on the move.

And the most confusing Selfie :


We met a couple of as always super helpful army folks at the checkpost, who understood our situation and let us through to at least see the gate as the ceremony was over. We saw the gate, stood there for sometime looking around, took a photo and came out to relax ourselves with some lemon soda.




Then for dinner we had the most delicious food of Amritsar, we found a famous dhaba near Golden temple and ordered a lot of food. After a sunny day on the road and a cold shower, good food can do wonders. We ate to our hearts content and went to sleep with a smiling face.

Sorry for these photos, they might make you crave for good food instantly !!




Important information for this day :

* If you want to visit Wagah(approx 28 kms from Amritsar), try to be there early; by 5pm, don't take big bags with you, even our riding jackets were submitted at the checkpost.

* We had our dinner at Kesar da dhaba, every local rickshaw wala knows the place. Don't miss out on the Firni and Lassi.

* Roads are good throughout, just some minor repairs here and there.



Ride to Patnitop in the next post !

Teaser Images :


Enroute Udhampur , via Mansar lake.



Sunset sky at Patnitop

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Great going!

Sent from my Xperia L.

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Beautiful updates KD. Pics are awesome and the write-up is lovely, especially the first two posts. Waiting for the rest.

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

Beautiful update, nice clicks

Re: #YahiToUmarHaiBe - Ride to the Land of High Passes

That's one hell of a Travelogue man, Kudos. Subscribed and hooked for the updates !