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The Journey Begins...
After much contemplation on how to begin this travelogue I finally have found the best way to do it. My Love for this beautiful piece of land called India and the urge to explore every single wonder that it has to offer. Since college I have had opportunities to quench this thirst. I had been on two different Cycle Expeditions, an 800Km one and the other 1000 Km covering the length and breadth of Tamil nadu. Once out of college I had to pack that desire off and keep it hidden deep inside me for a long time. Reason: No time!!! Not enough company!!! The usual excuses. Yes u guessed it. I’m a typical software engineer who talks big, dreams big but never had the guts to venture out of his comfort zone.
All this changed the day when one of friend told me about his plan to tour ladakh. We share a similar liking for rides…. (I mean bike rides) and instantly we agreed to do it on a bike. I was still cautious as many times in the past the plans that were made have just washed away without a trace and a part of my mind kept telling me that this one being the most difficult and dangerous could suffer the same fate as well. After a couple of days my fears just came true. The guy who had proposed the tour backed off, once again leaving me stranded without a company. I tried convincing a few other friends and my roommates, but all had their own reasons for not making it. Here we go again, this it was the second reason that I had mentioned above. Not enough Company. But No! This time I didn’t want to let it go that easily. I didn’t want to give myself these silly excuses for not chasing my desires. I tried even harder for convincing my friends only this time even if they don’t agree I was prepared to do it alone. That’s when the thought of my old chaddi buddy from the school days Ram Chaitanya came to me. He works in Bangalore and is quite keen about touring. I called him up to discuss about it and voila! He gave me a nod. That led me to the next big obstacle, getting dad's permission. I had no idea how am i going to explain it to him, especially the fact that only 2 people are going to make it. I knew even my dad was quite interested about these adventure trips when he agreed to the bicycle expeditions that i did during my college days( even though it took a one hour begging and pleading session to make him agree), but this time it was different. There's no college staff to watch over us, there's not even a big group to take care of ourselves, it's just two of us. So I had to think of a strategy to get his nod this time around. Well to begin with, I just told him that nearly 5 of us are going to Manali. Then after a few days I told him we’re going to ladakh as well. Thanks to all the intrusion by the Chinese and the news channels which blew it up to a pre-war like situation, I hit my first road block. It took a long time to convince him about Ladakh. Then came the big bang. I told him we’re going on our bikes. Ta da … all hell broke loose. It was followed by days and days of more pleading and begging and finally he said yes! Hoof. Now what do I do about the count? After a few days I told him one of the member dropped out. Now the count came to four. After reaching Delhi I told him one more dropped out. Then finally I said the third guy gave us company only till Ladakh as well. I knew I made a mess of it and it was not too long before my dad figured out that only 2 of us were on the Trip. As I said he has a liking for this kind of adventure and I knew he was only happy for me. There was still one hiccup though, getting the leaves approved from our managers. Anyways I put that thought in a corner and started the preparations.My initial plan was to start the ride from my home in Mumbai. But that would take 3 more extra days for us. Since we were already sceptcal about our leaves, i droppped that plan and decided to board the bike on a train from Hyderbad to Delhi.
Well not much preparation is really needed apart from getting your bikes serviced and tuned for tougher terrains. But I wanted to make this a one hell of a trip and so we decided to camp en route whenever possible. We bought sleeping bags and since the tents were on the higher side of the price band we decided to rent them from Delhi.
All set and at the last moment even our leaves got approved. Only now I was beginning to get really excited. The thought of touring the Himalayas was just too thrilling to wait for. There was one thing that was lacking in my kit though, a proper camera. I’m on my maiden voyage and not having a good SLR camera to capture the moments was troubling me. So just the night before leaving Hyderabad I visited nearly half a dozen malls and finally bought a Canon 1000D. Now I’m finally good to go.
Friday, 18th Sep, 2009: Good Bye Hyderabad
Went to work early (10.00 A.MJ) – Left office early – Took the bike to the station early – Me and my Bike boarded the Train early. Wow! Trust me; I have never done anything more smoothly in my life before. It was a 24 hour train journey to Delhi. But I was not bored for a single minute. Throughout the journey the pictures of Kashmir and Himalayas were flashing on my mind. I could not believe that I’m actually going to go to these places that I had always dreamed of. Next day Morning 9 A.M. the train crossed Bhopal. This is officially the farthest away from home I have ever been.
The Journey Begins <<<<
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The Journey Ends
We tried negotiating a bit but that didn't seem to work. It was a pretty bad way to end our beautiful visit to Srinagar. Nevermind. Move on.
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