Re: Endurance ride - Ladakh

Crazy endurance ride approved!

Waiting for updates on this one. You've me hooked.

P.S - Edit your post and rotate the pics.

Re: Endurance ride - Ladakh

Ya, Sounds crazy DS..

Anurag, no doubt you would have enjoyed the ride/place to the fullest and everyone who rides there feels quite difficult to leave the place or the thoughts of it.
I missed hard ladakh and kashmir even after our 12 days of intimacy.

How did you overcome that dreadful feeling the day you were exiting manali???( might help people later..) And it doesn't matter "no. of days" cos even a month is not enough, but you always get a great feel after reaching Leh, and just before leh.. share your feel and of course PICS..

Re: Endurance ride - Ladakh

First Post is always the BIG post, what an entry !!!... You have kept us all waiting for more.

Re: Endurance ride - Ladakh

Looks like a good start but try to rotate the pics if you can.....

Re: Endurance ride - Ladakh

Thank you all for your encouragement!!

PROLOGUE:
Ladakh was in our dreams from 2009-first time when we heard about this place and seen photos,plans were made every year but never reached final stage.It was like distant love which was always there in our hearts,longer the time-greater the attraction towards the place.

Well..time flew and came 2015 when finally Ladakh materialised..we booked tickets for September first week, We were 6 people (more like family trip),cabs were arranged,we flew to Srinagar and then by road went to Ladakh, visited normal tourist circuit-kargil,KTOP,Nubra valley,Pangong lake and came back happily via Manali.

We enjoyed each and every moment like hell..but..as a rider i felt "adhura", even our cab driver was very friendly-we developed a bond with him( he will come later in this post) but still we cannot ask him to stop everywhere, and you can see only through windows of car-a motorcycle gives you 360 degree view,the feel of air,temperature outside,feel of road-good or bad.
Guys..I am ameture photographer-I had my equipments with me, but i couldn't take photos as soon as we crossed Sonamarg, I was like a 5 years child-looking this side ,that side-completely forgot to take photographs,when we came back all images were in my mind-luckily on that trip my motorcycle partner Saswat was also with me: we decided enroute to Manali that we will come someday again to this place on motorcycle,nothing much just we will come from srinagar side and go out via Manali,simple eh.

Long story cut short: I was not able sleep properly-eat properly-work properly ( answer to above about my experience),channelise my funds-bought bullet 350 in one day - 16 Oct( lying to showroom people that i have to gift it to my brother, so they gave me same day bike),ran it for 1000km, took the bike to bangalore to show my friend Saswat my new possession(i have not told him i bought the bike)-that we are ready for next year as soon as road opens.

2016:
From march started surfing-road condition Srinagar-Leh road,may again lots of work for both of us we thought we will punch it to September again.May 29 my friend got his leaves approved,he cam down to Hyderabad from Bangalore on 1 June morning.
Going Ladakh back again just in 10 months..Wow..nothing sounds better than this in life..not even " Salary aa gayi "

Preparation: well..from my last encounter to Ladakh- I knew whatever you do you are always underprepared for the place( that proved true this time too).We had one Cramster tank bag, one via terra saddle bag, we stuffed with our useful items, warm clothes,t-shirts,some spares-clutch cable,spark plug,other tools,one spare tyre tube,camera,one tent ( as we prefer night drive in summers-so we can sleep anywhere in day) sat on bike went to station ,book the vehicle on NIzamuddin-Delhi bound train one hour before( we were boarding same train).

Saturday,June 4:
Train reached Nizamuddin 3 hrs late-9.00 PM,took another 2 hrs to take delivery( very far luggage godown at Nizamuddin station), we suited booted then and there itself,went directly to petrol pump, filled full petrol and started our journey- 12 AM ...hurray!!

Saswat at delhi petrol bunk,see the shine of freshly services motorcycle, which will eventually go away with each day.

We were hungry so we thought we will take dinner once we are on highway-i am less GPS man( still old school)- ask people direction( its fun-more interaction),use your instinct,follow boards and in no time we were flying towards Sonipat.In June it was still hot but night time cool breeze made our ride enjoyable.Our plan was to reach Srinagar by Sunday night.

Sunday,June 5:
We halted at Panipat-2AM for dinner, full of lively crowd, good food ,we took simple roti and daal.People came in cars stopped by our motorcycle and asked are we going to Ladakh-what is our plan,which all places we are going, we answered them -this is fun of motorcycle you get to meet so many people,interact with them,they were happy for us( one old man told i wanted to go but couldn't,best of luck !!go enjoy ),so many people see themselves in we bikers-they somehow have a unfulfilled dream to go see the world on motorcycle-which we are fullfilling for them,so they appreciate us.
Rest drive was uneventful, we changed driver every 100 KMs-morning rising sun,field on both side of road,fresh air,motorocylce beat in your ears: cant ask for more.


somewhere near Rajpura-Punjab.

10 AM-about to reach Pathankot: what a hot day it was, thanks to trees beside the road, where we took shelter every half and hour and drank a lot of water,sugar cane juice.People were calling to their sugar cane juice stalls, we took rest in one such shelter-it was fresh from their own field-they told you can even night halt here.


Sugar cane juice shelter


Its me..exhausted from heat


Long way to go.

We entered J&K..bypassed Jammu-road from samba was very bad, but we enjoyed, we came all the way to this point only to enjoy the beauty and we headed towards Udhampur, our target Srinagar was looking far as it was already 2 PM when we reached Udhampur and now onwards we have to climb ghat sections.First tourist season-it was huge rush at Patnitop,there was traffic jam of around 5 kms, but anyhow we managed to traverse it,all vehicles were stranded on both lanes, and it started raining a little bit,fuel was low just after patnitop we got Petrol bunk on left side of road and refilled.Till evening 6 PM we rode on mountains like crazy,the terrain was muddy,slushy sometimes,lot of trucks,but we carried on enjoying scenes,talking about lot of things from nature to people.


Kita duur hai re ,Samba


Shikanji-best remedy in hot weather


Patnitop


Dharti sunehri ambar neela,aisa desh hai mera


I don't mind bad roads if it takes you to this "nazaara"


7-PM, It was dark,we stopped for tea-break, we were charting our plan, when a sardarji came to us and started talking,from where you are coming,where going??he was very jubilant,talked us about a lot of issue -like how india great our country and their people are,people of Jammu/kashmir/Himachal ( he himself was born and brought up in Jammu), I like this-best part of motorcycle ride is meet new people, get to know their views on current affairs,our surroundings, we enjoyed his company - thank you Sardarji-he even guided us that roads after banal is great-we can push upto Srinagar and he will coming behind us in truck-in case of any issue we can call him( he gave him number too). God..world is so wonderful.


happy..happy..

Soon we were cruising through Banihal tunnel e.g. Jawhar tunnel-what a marvel it is,long tunnel, after sometime you will feel it is never going to end.. we reached Qazigund just before Anantnag, we both were exhausted so decided to take a halt and not to push further, we should be fresh for more adventurous journey tomorrow from Srinagar onwards., on the same day there was small encounter between militants and armed force in Anantnag, there were armed forces every where, well - that makes you feel safer and stronger, met army guys after Jawahr tunnel and they also suggested to take halt in Qazigund, found a hotel on highway - 400 bucks, they gave us parking inside hotel premises, so we didn't took luggages off the motorcycle, took dinner of simple roti and chicken and crashed on bed by 11 PM. Eventful Sunday passed with 765 KM, was not bad for us and we were looking for next day with more enthusiasm and energy..

Next day- Unpredictable Zozill pass-my first fall from motorcycle, Our "kasam" to see LOC this time in Kargil ( well it took our whole to find LOC- who complains ) , night halt with retaurant owner in Drass, met our old driver Nurbu Bhai in Leh, spent night in Leh in Rs 150 for 2 people : Buckle up..more to come next.
Teaser:



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



Hi All,

i am attaching pics as straight, but after attaching it is rotating itself, not able to get anywhere feature to rotate it ..please help if i am doing something wrong.

Re: Endurance ride - Ladakh



Please rotate some pics

Re: Endurance ride - Ladakh

Monday, June 6

7 AM-Our target for today was to reach atleast Kargil.we started fresh from Qazigund and started run towards srinagar,four lane work in progress, too many diversions plus heavy traffic, last day shootings: heavy army presence-every 20 mrs we can see one army person and heavy patroling.We reached Dal lake for customry photo ops around 11 AM. Breakfast cum lunch was done here to save time later as we were going to start the most important leg of our journey.


Dal Lake


Riders, finally was able to rotate pics


kashmiri kehwa

With heavy traffic we left Srinagar on highway towards Leh, lot of bikers joined us on that road,every one was waving to one another,nice weather,beautiful roads and scenes around,pure bliss.Somewhere near Ganderbal we saw school children marching on road: guess they were marching to save water-well you have to take care of your generation yourself , we stopped and talked to children and teachers, they were happy to take photographs with us and ask us it to post everywhere to spread the cause,here it is friends:



With beautiful 360 view and nice cool breeze we marched towards Sonamarg, weather started changing by this time,we tok out our thrum inners and were ready for cold:what a place Sonamarg is, high mountains,greenery everywhere, but his time traffic started as everyone was going in this direction:



After small tea break we started for Zozilla, last time we crossed Zozilla without even knowing , this it welcomed us with full traffic jam, hundreds of trucks on both sides, mud,slush, broken roads, thanks to this motorcycle(bullet 350) : it takes whatever comes in its path very calmly and sweetly, no "thad thad".We breezed pass all stranded vehicles and trucks ( thats fun part of motorcycle) and then there was large broken section of road full of water, misjudged and bang!!


Dont laugh man..come lift the bike !!


Lets celebrate our first fall from motorcycle.


Met another group from Delhi at same point, we share some light moments together.

Met another group: they also stopped at same point to measure water level and road condition, we discussed lot of things from plan to roads and how they were enthusiastic to explore this region.We started again,crossed all potholes full of water, as soon we crossed mozilla we saw a place full of tourists,it was full of snow,people were serving hot tea,they were calling for ski (beware of these people, they will tell 150 per point but for 50 mrs they will tell you have covered ten points,so 1500 rs), we had heated argument with them as my partner went for skiing, we agreed on 150 rs and they told you went for 10 points so you have to pay 1500 buck,finally with so much mastering they took 500 rs , place was full of tourists, snow turned into mud and from white to black, totally turn off for me, took tea and started for next leg of journey.


Too cold..too hot


Ice man


Roads

Due to cloudy weather it was already dark, we were enjoying ride-snow on both sides on road, humming song-ye ishq haey,baithe bithaye janna dikhaye..haey , we took one turn and saw 3 bikes (Royal Enfield) stranded on one side of road and they were all working it, now we were anyways having all time of universe so we decided to stop and help them. There was puncture in rear tyre of classic-Man ,with total 6 bikes and their all equipments we were not able to take the tyre out of the rim, guess what there is pin to defeat the tyre completely which no body was having,we both were thinking in our mind-if these people having all the 200 kg equipment with them are not able to deal with a small puncture what we will do if stranded in a place like this-with only one spare tube , alas..no such thing happened with us..one truck stopped by and offered to take them to nearest town in 1000s, well help comes but it has a cost finally they decided they will somehow tow it and manage and thanked everyone, we again started towards our next destination - DRASS, it was already around 6 PM by then.

DRASS- a very small town, when we reached there it was full dark, all bikers and tourist taxies of the world decided to halt there, that is town with one single road with shops and hotels beside it, we asked everyone, not available everywhere ,some bikers moved to Kargil,there were no wine shops after so much cold and ride no OLD MONK- how we will survive ,then my partner went inside this restaurant called Darjeeling Hotel, he spoke to owner sometime and later they both were talking as if they were childhood friends ( don't know what was exchanged), when my partner came back he gave me happy news-we will get rum,we will get home food and we will get shelter too!! the owner Mr Wangchok- very nice man from Darjeeling,he is a kickboxing champion( his father-martyr of Kargil war-gorkha regiment), he arranged military rum for us, home food which his mother cooked and offered his room above restaurant free of cost , he and his full staff sat with us till night 12 and entertained us with his jokes,what a lively and lovely man, when we slept we don't know ,we slept in our full gear , but thanks to him and his family to give us such nice experience of life time, his thoughts-we all are indians, we should help each other, live for friends not for money,be happy. Morning we deliberately gave him 500s ( he was reluctant to take),said alvida to his whole family and started, he gave his number and asked to come again if possible:


The room..


Way to room..


Superstar man..


Family photo time.

Re: Endurance ride - Ladakh

During Ladakh ride you always meet helpful persons like Mr Wangchok , which makes you feel at home

Re: Endurance ride - Ladakh

Nice ride. But, feels bad to see the condition of Dal Lake.