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**trustvishwas** · 06-27-2010, 07:24 PM

Originally posted by Ananz View Post

Nice log There Vishwas....

Would love to see you touring on your ninja soon.

Well, me and my mate did that last year .... simply stuck to each other even though the speed difference btw us was heavy at times.

Thanks for the wishes.

Good to see that you could stick to each other for 16 days in spite of heavy speed difference. I could not.

**spiderweb** · 06-27-2010, 10:16 PM

Originally posted by trustvishwas View Post

Please give an honest opinion. Supposing motor was cruising at 50 from Delhi till returning, would you have accompanied him throughout or went ahead and stopped for him every 30 minutes or so?

Frankly we did stuck to each other. Though we had differences of opinion & big fights which were dissolved in Rum each night.

But thats Perspective, different for each of us

**surojit** · 06-28-2010, 01:37 PM

Vishwas ji kaha ho? dont stop your log...

**RoadZilla** · 06-28-2010, 01:39 PM

okay now VISHWAS n INDER... chillax guys!!!

Please take this friction offline...

Please continue wid your respective stories.....

**trustvishwas** · 06-28-2010, 01:48 PM

Originally posted by ankit63 View Post

okay now VISHWAS n INDER... chillax guys!!!

Please take this friction offline...

Please continue wid your respective stories.....

What friction are you talking about?

**RoadZilla** · 06-28-2010, 02:31 PM

Nothing. vishwas... The Changla pics are just damn awesome!!!!

**kurtrules** · 06-28-2010, 02:59 PM

Vishwas, I know that you purely being transparent here with what happened, but the cribbing that's going on between you and Inder is bringing a bad taste to the mouth.

I don't know how often have you two ridden together, but what this thread depicts it that it was your first ride together.

Till the time you don't respect your fellow tourer, as an individual, it would be quite hard for you to adjust in groups.

And please don't think I am specifically targetting you. This goes for everyone.

Both of you are just spoiling what has been a wonderful thread till now, and just giving others masala to laugh. Sad, but true.

**ROCKRZ** · 06-28-2010, 03:13 PM

+1 on that
the thread is a wonderfull one

. but u are being blunt rather than frank

. as far as i know u, u r not this sort of a cribbing person but the thread is getting flooded with stuff thats not in the sense that u a taking it in.

Hats off to you for this thread

. I make it a point to this one everyday.
please post the further log!!!!

**trustvishwas** · 06-28-2010, 06:02 PM

Originally posted by kurtrules View Post

Vishwas, I know that you purely being transparent here with what happened, but the cribbing that's going on between you and Inder is bringing a bad taste to the mouth.

I don't know how often have you two ridden together, but what this thread depicts it that it was your first ride together.

Till the time you don't respect your fellow tourer, as an individual, it would be quite hard for you to adjust in groups.

And please don't think I am specifically targetting you. This goes for everyone.

Both of you are just spoiling what has been a wonderful thread till now, and just giving others masala to laugh. Sad, but true.

Your will find the disagreements have stopped. We had ridden together and will do so in future also. This was the first time we rode together for 15 days ride.

Originally posted by ROCKRZ View Post

+1 on that
the thread is a wonderfull one

. but u are being blunt rather than frank

. as far as i know u, u r not this sort of a cribbing person but the thread is getting flooded with stuff thats not in the sense that u a taking it in.

Hats off to you for this thread

. I make it a point to this one everyday.
please post the further log!!!!

If we met more often, you will find me rather blunt than frank. I call a spade a spade and not a bulldozer or a matchstick.

**trustvishwas** · 06-28-2010, 06:10 PM

Originally posted by ankit63 View Post

Nothing. vishwas... The Changla pics are just damn awesome!!!!

Thanks ankit for the compliments.

**RoadZilla** · 06-28-2010, 06:32 PM

Originally posted by trustvishwas View Post

If we met more often, you will find me rather blunt than frank. I call a spade a spade and not a bulldozer or a matchstick.

This is funny.....

**trustvishwas** · 06-28-2010, 06:53 PM

Originally posted by ankit63 View Post

This is funny.....

You can say that I am bluntly funny.

**trustvishwas** · 06-28-2010, 07:01 PM

Day 9 : 8 June 2010 – Leh – Khardung La – Hunder/Diskit - I DID NOT CONQUER KHARDUNG LA

Aman reached our hotel room as agreed. This was the only day when me & rudra were late in getting up so he had to wait for 15-20 minutes till we got ready.

The night before, we had discussed about shifting hotels for cost reduction. Since Inder was not accompanying us to Diskit, he was loaded with the responsibility of finding another hotel and shifting our saddle bags to the new hotel.

Me, Rudra and Aman started towards Khardung La. For those who haven’t done this ride, the climb for Khardung La starts from Leh town itself. The climb continues for next 35-40 km or so. Your permits are checked at South Pallu. We met Kurt and his gang at south pallu. It was fairly cold and apprehension about my bike’s ability to climb was heavy on my mind. I was also emotionally overwhelmed because I was; at last; realizing my childhood dream of riding a bike to the World’s Highest Motorable Road.

Around 5-6 km before the top, road deteriorated considerably. This is common for nearly all the passes. The top 5 km from either side is bad because it comes under snowline. During cold, heavy snow falls on the road which needs to be dug out by bulldozers and during summer, all that snow melts creating puddles of water. Due to both these conditions, the roads falling under snowline are bad.

I dare say that Chang La was lot more difficult to climb that Khadung La (not because my bike couldn’t climb Chang La). Chang La is steeper than Khardung La. For Chang La, you have a climb of only 12 km to reach 17586 ft and here you have a climb of nearly 40 km to reach a height of 18380 ft.

The bike performed fabulously and we reached Khardung La Top without any hitch. My eyes misted up on finally realizing my dream and could not control my emotions for couple of minutes. We had reached before normal tourist traffic so did not have much crowd for photo shoot session. Did obligatory photo shoot session.

I have purposefully not posted solo photos of Aman so that he can post them in his thread.

I would like to claim that it was an extremely difficult ride and which can be done only by a rider like me, how our group dodged firefights between Indian Army and insurgents, how we overcame all the odds stacked against us etc.. but it would not be true. The ride was good, mildly challenging for climbing up part and fairly challenging for getting down part. I hate to burst the halo bubble but this ride can be done by any rider who knows how to balance his bike and whose bike has been reasonably cared for. I am absolutely, positively confident that all regular Pune xBhp riders (since I know their riding skills) will be able to do this ride easily. Khardung La road is a main feeder route for Hunder, Diskit, Panamik, Siachen glacier. Drivers of loaded trucks pass this road every 3-4 days and local tavera / quails drivers take tourists every alternate day during the season. So riding to Khardung La Top is not conquering it. You have just rode our bikes there.

Yes, it is a great feeling but I DID NOT CONQUER KHARDUNG LA OR LEH. I rode my bike there and enjoyed the ride, fulfilled my dream. That’s it….. nothing more.

We tried to buy some souvenirs at the world’s highest souvenir shop. Here you get unique items not available anywhere else. However, the shop was out of M / L size T shirts so just bought pen stands etc. and moved off after spending 15-20 minutes at the top.

Aman in action -

Rudra in action -

I fell down on a patch of ice while getting down but due to extremely low speed, nothing broken, bruised etc.Our permits were again checked at North Pallu and we moved off towards our destination – Hunder.

Photo from North Pallu –

Khardung village is around 20 km away from Khardung La top. I finally got one bar network there. I immediately sent off sms to a lot of friends about finally realizing my childhood dream and thanking for their support. We had some breakfast here and moved off towards Diskit. Received a call from Inder asking about weather conditions in Khardung La. But the network was very bad and we were not able to make sense of any talk. SMS also stopped operating.

The road from Khardung village to diskit is a beauty and landscape here is absolutely different than other parts. You keep on descending from Khardung La Top till around 10 km before Diskit.

All this time, I had a fear that my bike doesn’t have front disk fluid since I could not see anything in the fluid glass window. Complete descent from Khardung La Top was done without using front brakes so stopped in Diskit and purchased brake fluid first. On reaching Diskit, as it was quite early in the day and when we enquired about camel ride in Hunder, localities informed us that the rides start from 1 pm and as we were not hungry for lunch, we proceeded to the sand dunes.

The sand dunes are amazing. I never expected to see something like this popping up in Ladakh.

Waiting for camel ride –

We spent a lot of time, sitting on sand dunes, grass and chatting. By 3 pm, wind had started picking up. One group from Mumbai had come in a mini bus. On looking at the registration numbers of bikes, an old guy came up and enquired with us. Later we found out that he is RTA at Mumbai RTO. One from his party was swearing profusely in Marathi due to cold weather. We all were rolling around laughing uncontrollably.

Kurt & his team also reached sand dunes after dumping their luggage in a hotel room.

Once the rides started, we moved towards the staging area. Rudra was the first to reach there and he immediately turned off saying-
Rudra : Aare bhai ye camels bahot hi gande hai. In pe baith bhi nahi sakate hai.
Me : Aare ssare oont gande hi rahate hai. Abhi yahatak aaye hai, do ghante raah dekhaneme bigade hai to savaari karke hi jayenge.
Rudra : Dekho bhai lekin oont bahut bahut gande hai.

When we all three moved to see the camels, we found them in absolutely pathetic and dirty condition. I couldn’t even contemplate going near one; forget about sitting on one. So we all did a small photo session in front of camels and started back. Ooh.... did I mention that these are double humped camels not found elsewhere in India?

While going back, Aman was going ahead of us. I thought I saw a short cut and rode my bike through it. Within 10 meters, the rear wheel had stuck in soft sand. Bike was standing on its own without using any stand. I had to frantically wave to Rudra to come and pull it back. He helped me in pulling bike back and we reached main road without any further incident.

Initially, we had planned to reach back to Leh on the same day so as not to leave Inder alone. However, looking towards Khardung La, we found heavy black clouds in that direction. So we reached back Diskit and started hunting for a guest house. I went in two guest houses to find them really good but the funny part was that no one was in sight. I called out, rapped door etc. but no one turned up. So our search continued. Aman & I split to find out available options. I went inside J&K PWD bungalows but found only guest there and no one to give us any answer.

In the mean time, Aman came with a news that good quality rooms were available at Siachen Guest House. I still insisted on seeing one more guest house before taking a final call. Checked at Sangam Hotel. There the rooms were 2000+ for a night so we retreated to Aman’s choice.

Please don’t laugh. This is the only entrance to guest house.

The entrance of the guest house goes through a stable and one donkey, one horse and one cow accompany your bikes during the night.

This is the actual guest house –

Dining hall of the guest house –

By the time we reached this place, some other bugger paid money for 3 rooms to the guest house owner so we had to settle for a smaller and cheaper room. The room cost was 300 per night for 3 people. No attached toilet but the toilet next door was locked and key handed over to us. Absolutely clean and really a good place to stay.

The address is –
Siachen Guest House
Double Room with additional person Rs.500 – Fully carpeted room with attached toilet bath
Triple room Rs.300 - Fully carpeted room with next door toilet bath
Owner – Mr. Norway – Cell No. 9419372016 or his wife’s Cell No. 9469291280

In the evening, we roamed around the market and finished our tour on foot in five minutes flat. Nothing in the town except Chinese goods.

In the night, Mr. Norway told us about a new road opening which leads directly to Pangong. Aman had not seen Pangong so wanted to go there. Norway said that some portion of the road was not complete but one crucial bridge had been completed only a week or so back. The road starts from Khalste and reaches Durbuk without going through any pass. In effect, you save at least one day. So Aman decided to go to Pangong next day and we decided to ride back to Leh. Since Aman did this ride solo, let him detail about the road instead of me.

**RoadZilla** · 06-28-2010, 07:12 PM

Lovely! The pics have just come out awesome.
All these snow claden mountains are actually making me jealous of u for I have never seen snow in my life and you were actually lying on it.

**rachitkohli** · 06-28-2010, 07:16 PM

just outstanding pix vishwas.. out of the world.. Proud to have all this in India & Proud to be an Indian...

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My first ride ever - Khardung La ďż˝ 18380 ft. Riding to the Worldďż˝s Highest Motorabl

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