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Ladakh dairies
Prelude
Life can be hard sometimes. In 2014, had different plans for my life. But life had different ideas for me. Went through bad breakup, had a realistic realisation of life. It changed my perception and I thought of doing something for me.
That time was kind of change in biking scenarios and RE bikes were getting famous. I liked the way bike looked and it supported my tall, lean frame superbly. Back then I had no ideas about bike performance and biker community. So I went for the good looks, called the showroom, they had the bike available (At that time waiting period was minimum 3 months). Booked Classic 350 over telephone on Saturday evening and on Sunday evening I was riding a Classic 350 lagoon. It was out of world feeling for me. Later on, did many tours of the bike. But that is another day’s story. Today I’ll share my journey experience of “Leh Ladakh 2018”. So tuck in, tie your seat belts and experience my experience. (Sorry if I’m doing it wrong, my first travelogue and second xbhp post, although I have read most of the stories here, I don’t think I’m a good writer like some other, much more experienced people here. Ignore if I make mistakes and please correct me.)
Trip planning
My some friends and me were planning for this trip for last one year, but our job is too hectic and getting leaves are the toughest thing you can imagine, superiors think that allowing us leaves will make the organisation go bankrupt. Somehow, lied, faked some other urgencies and asked for 11 days leave and after much consideration and negotiation, it was confirmed. With me my 2 other friends were to join. Lets call them Dutta and Singh. Dutta drives Duke 390, Singh drives his RE Classic 350 and I was on my RE Thunderbird 350 (don’t get confused, yeah I had Classic and thunderbird, both bikes). Dutta is posted in Mumbai and he was coming from there, other two members were to depart from Bihar, darbhanga. 3 of us decided to meet in Delhi and drive till there, Dutta had to cover 1400 kms before delhi, that too, alone (Yeah, he is bit maniac, but kudos to him, he had done this same trip a year before). Me and Singh had to cover 1200 kms to delhi. We were to halt in Lucknow and Dutta decided to stay first night in Udaipur. So after extensive planning, so many lies, time constraints, everything was done and we were ready. We choosed the Manali Leh route for our to and fro journey as we were not sure about Srinagar leh as it takes one day extra and local disturbances makes it tough to cross.
Day 1
Oh boy!!,,, what one can feel before trip of Ladakh, was totally unable to sleep, didn’t had appetite for dinner. Somehow managed to feast on some rotis before mind boggling, body killer first trip of Ladakh. Did last minute packing and went to bed by 12:00 AM. Alarm was set to ring on 4:00AM, left bed by 04:30AM (I know, lazy me). Did the morning rituals by 04:30AM, did some more last packing as didn’t had time to do it before. Started loading bike on 05:30AM and left my humble abode on 06:00AM. Met my first partner on Delhi mod, near darbhanga town, we were still in denial, were we really doing this?
But after starting bike at that point, we were sure, we are doing this, this time. And our ride started. Rode some time and stopped for breakfast somewhere near Kushinagar in UP, had oily paranthas. Weather was also favouring us it was cloudy day, it was very hot but less sunny. So we enjoyed ourselves riding our bikes and some really needed time out break from our regular lives.
Roads were good, traffic was medium, we were riding around 80-90 kmph speed. Had lunch somewhere around Gorakhpur. We were taking too many frequent breaks as scorching heat was tough on our bodies and we needed to hydrate our bodies frequently. Crowd in UP is definitely interesting, so many jugaads and innovations were witnessed by us. By evening 07:00 we were in Lucknow. Went to our booked hotel, Hotel JBR grande, Gomtinagar. Nice hotel, parking facility, good service but costly. Dumped our luggage in room, and went straight looking for bar. (I know it seems outrageous, but understand our pain of living in a dry state). Couldn’t find one in nearby area as it was already late. Went to hotel bar, it was packed, went back to room and ordered stuff to our room.
Anyway, not going into specifics, set our alarm for 05:00AM, had some dinner and slept peacefully.
Distance covered Approx 608 Kms
Road conditions through out 4 lane
Ride difficulty 4 (On scale of 1 to 10)
Moderator is requested to see if the post is fit for the forum and approve accordingly.
Ladakh dairies
Prelude
Life can be hard sometimes. In 2014, had different plans for my life. But life had different ideas for me. Went through bad breakup, had a realistic realisation of life. It changed my perception and I thought of doing something for me.
That time was kind of change in biking scenarios and RE bikes were getting famous. I liked the way bike looked and it supported my tall, lean frame superbly. Back then I had no ideas about bike performance and biker community. So I went for the good looks, called the showroom, they had the bike available (At that time waiting period was minimum 3 months). Booked Classic 350 over telephone on Saturday evening and on Sunday evening I was riding a Classic 350 lagoon. It was out of world feeling for me. Later on, did many tours of the bike. But that is another day’s story. Today I’ll share my journey experience of “Leh Ladakh 2018”. So tuck in, tie your seat belts and experience my experience. (Sorry if I’m doing it wrong, my first travelogue and second xbhp post, although I have read most of the stories here, I don’t think I’m a good writer like some other, much more experienced people here. Ignore if I make mistakes and please correct me.)
Trip planning
My some friends and me were planning for this trip for last one year, but our job is too hectic and getting leaves are the toughest thing you can imagine, superiors think that allowing us leaves will make the organisation go bankrupt. Somehow, lied, faked some other urgencies and asked for 11 days leave and after much consideration and negotiation, it was confirmed. With me my 2 other friends were to join. Lets call them Dutta and Singh. Dutta drives Duke 390, Singh drives his RE Classic 350 and I was on my RE Thunderbird 350 (don’t get confused, yeah I had Classic and thunderbird, both bikes). Dutta is posted in Mumbai and he was coming from there, other two members were to depart from Bihar, darbhanga. 3 of us decided to meet in Delhi and drive till there, Dutta had to cover 1400 kms before delhi, that too, alone (Yeah, he is bit maniac, but kudos to him, he had done this same trip a year before). Me and Singh had to cover 1200 kms to delhi. We were to halt in Lucknow and Dutta decided to stay first night in Udaipur. So after extensive planning, so many lies, time constraints, everything was done and we were ready. We choosed the Manali Leh route for our to and fro journey as we were not sure about Srinagar leh as it takes one day extra and local disturbances makes it tough to cross.
Day 1
Oh boy!!,,, what one can feel before trip of Ladakh, was totally unable to sleep, didn’t had appetite for dinner. Somehow managed to feast on some rotis before mind boggling, body killer first trip of Ladakh. Did last minute packing and went to bed by 12:00 AM. Alarm was set to ring on 4:00AM, left bed by 04:30AM (I know, lazy me). Did the morning rituals by 04:30AM, did some more last packing as didn’t had time to do it before. Started loading bike on 05:30AM and left my humble abode on 06:00AM. Met my first partner on Delhi mod, near darbhanga town, we were still in denial, were we really doing this?
But after starting bike at that point, we were sure, we are doing this, this time. And our ride started. Rode some time and stopped for breakfast somewhere near Kushinagar in UP, had oily paranthas. Weather was also favouring us it was cloudy day, it was very hot but less sunny. So we enjoyed ourselves riding our bikes and some really needed time out break from our regular lives.
Roads were good, traffic was medium, we were riding around 80-90 kmph speed. Had lunch somewhere around Gorakhpur. We were taking too many frequent breaks as scorching heat was tough on our bodies and we needed to hydrate our bodies frequently. Crowd in UP is definitely interesting, so many jugaads and innovations were witnessed by us. By evening 07:00 we were in Lucknow. Went to our booked hotel, Hotel JBR grande, Gomtinagar. Nice hotel, parking facility, good service but costly. Dumped our luggage in room, and went straight looking for bar. (I know it seems outrageous, but understand our pain of living in a dry state). Couldn’t find one in nearby area as it was already late. Went to hotel bar, it was packed, went back to room and ordered stuff to our room.
Anyway, not going into specifics, set our alarm for 05:00AM, had some dinner and slept peacefully.
Distance covered Approx 608 Kms
Road conditions through out 4 lane
Ride difficulty 4 (On scale of 1 to 10)
Moderator is requested to see if the post is fit for the forum and approve accordingly.
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