Most Diverse Ladakh Log is here !!!

[Prasham]

After my ladakh visit this june I wasn't able to write up a triplog and hence had just put up a link of the pics but now I will do it for Winning the DVD....

Wait for few hours and checkout the most diverse Ladakh Log here...




Yes another 2 points... and another century as well....

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Waiting and it better be good

[Prasham]

In my college days I had went on trek to Milam Glacier (Nr. Munsiyari) and Brighu Lake (Nr. Manali) and then new adventurous self of mine took birth in me…

In this part of the country (Gujarat) people aren’t very adventurous and hence until I came into contact with Indiamike and BCMT I wasn't even aware that something like Ladakh even exist…

I had decided to go to Ladakh but now the main problem was I didn't have any company… I had posted invitations to many guys to join me for the Ladakh trip on IM but nothing was fruitful… Finally on one fine day I come to know that a friend of mine was about to leave his job in about a month and was planning to take a leave before joining another job. I discussed with him about my plans and he promptly agreed he also ensured that he would bring one more fellow with him on the trip… Three is better than two… So the planning moved on…

Eventually I had planned to do the entire trip in Flights, Buses, Taxis but not bike, but as my association with BCMT grew stronger, I planned to hire bike from Manali and take it all the way to Leh and return. But then due to many different considerations and lack of time we dropped the plan and instead planned to hire bike from leh itself and roam around…. Then came a big blow the third fellow who was coming with us had to cancel the trip (We where thankful for his decision later on)

In few weeks all the planning was done and finally the day come where we left for the heaven…

Day 1:

Usual stuff… Packed stuff … left for airport…reached delhi…went to Raj Travels office kept luggage there and roamed in CP for some time… Bus was as usual late by 1 hour but was very comfortable… We slept after taking dinner at some hotel on the highway (I don’t remember what was the hotel’s name)

Day 2:

We were running late by 2 ½ Hrs and reached manali at 11:00 am. Now the hunting begins… We didn’t knew where we could get a shared taxi for Leh (Cannon Ball Run)… We enquired at few tourist agencies and mix replies came !!! Finally we found Manali-Leh Taxi Union’s office on Mall Road, when we enquired with the incharge he told us about the New Tempo Travellers with Push Back seats (That’s amazing we thought)… He asked for charge of Rs. 1200/- but then My Baniya Dimag told me that we could strike a better deal and came out of the office and started searching the driver of the Tempo traveller, finally I meet an old man named “Fauji”. It was his tempo traveller and after much negotiations he agreed at Rs. 1000/- per seat… He also arranged for a cheap double room for Rs. 200/- (worst room I have stayed till date).

Now that our tension was released we had other plans… We wanted to make sure whether we could really ride bikes on mountains and hence found a bike rental behind the Pagoda at the end of Mall Road… The guy charged Rs. 250/- for a shabby RX 100 but that was okay for a trial we thought (big mistake)… We took it and deposited our Voters Id Cards with him… Put some petrol in it and started for Rohtang at 13:45. My friend had apprehensions about the condition of the bike and it came to be true… As we were riding on the same bike due to load (75 + 70 = 145 Kgs + Ascent of Rohtang) bike was going very slow but I had decided to reach Rohtang no matter what…



Finally after clicking lots of photos enroute we reached Rohtang at 16:45 (yeah lot of time it took due to very slow bike)… But when we saw lot of people at Rohtang we were relaxed about being late… We went to the milestone of Rohtang and took a couple of pics here and there…






Enjoyed Paragliding enroute to Rohtang....


Pic of Rohtang while we were descending

Now that our first target was achieved we were very happy and confident but all of sudden on seeing a Makaiwala we realized that we didn’t had anything after morning breakfast at some shabby hotel outside mandi… But as time was passing very fast we decided to have something only after we reach manali… We quickly started to descend and within 1.30 hrs we were in manali… ate something on mall road and went to our room…. We decided to celebrate and went to a bar for a drink… then took dinner and went to sleep at 22:00


Will post rest in a few hours...

[Prasham]

Day 3:

We were having very nice sleep as we were very tired but then someone knocked at our door and when we opened the door it was “Fauji” he had come to wake us up for the drive to Leh… We had packed our luggage before we slept last night ??? (it was only 01:30 yet). We quickly came down stairs and adjusted the luggage on top of the Tempo Travellers and took our seats, pushed it back and again went to sleep… “Fauji” waited for another 30 mins till other travellers came and then finally we left manali by about 02:15.

I must say the drivers on this route, if trained well can surely make our country proud in F1 or similar races… We were fast asleep when we passed rohtang (very chilly) and reached Jispa in the morning at around 07:00 am or so… Luck left us as the bridge at Darcha was having some problem and we had to wait for 30 mins for passage… But finally we started moving and then stopped at Sarchu for Breakfast…


Bridge Under Repair at Darcha

After breakfast… the driver understood that he was moving slower and hence he picked up pace…. We quickly crossed all the passes Nakeela, Lachungla, Tanglangla and Gata loops…and reached Leh by 18:30…


Tanglang La

One more from Tanglang La

Sarchu

Sarchu

I must say none of us was tired (very tired) after this 16 hrs journey… The driver on request from a local took us into leh town instead of their regular drop point. I and my friend gathered luggage and after negotiation for about 1 hour at different GHs got a double room for Rs. 250/- with attached bathroom and 24 hrs hot and cold water… (Palace view GH, Nr. Polo Ground)… We checked in, dumped our luggage and went to city for dinner…We came back at about 21:30 and slept straight away…


View of Leh Palace from "Palace View" GH

Day 4:

This was going to be the busiest day of our trip… We got up early enquired with the owner about the ILP issues, bike rental and other things… Finally we went to a bike rental guy near SBI and hired a Thunderbird for Rs. 600/- P/D… We took it and deposited our Voter’s ID Card with the Rental Guy… Took the bike and went to DC Office for ILP’s (this is most useless procedure)… There were many other bikers on variety of bikes from BULL 500s to Yahama RX 100s…. After going through all the procedures we finally got our ILP for around 120 bucks…

Now we went for lunch and after lunch we left for Alchi & Likir… Roads are really good in these areas…


Army Unit registered in Guinness Book of World Record

First Striking point is some Army Unit who claims to be registered in Guinness Book of World Record for god knows what!!! As usual took pics and moved on… Then comes the much talked about “Magnetic Hill”….I am not giving any explanation of my experiences as I don’t want to start another heated discussion… But I was thrilled by what I experienced….


Magnetic Hill


Magnetic Hill


Pattar Sahib Gurudwara


After few kms we saw Meeting of Zanskar and Indus rivers. After few kms we saw a small track to the river few hundred meters down the road. We took the bike all the way to the river clicked few pics and were back on the road…



Zanskar meets Indus




We went to Likir Monastery and saw the amazing statue of Lord Buddha, again clicked few pics and were out of the monastery in an hour, we were fast running out of petrol and hence decided to drop alchi plans and started towards Leh… and reached Leh by around 19:00… By now we were highly impressed with the performance of TB and hence had decided to hire one more so that we can ride much more comfortably. We straightaway went to the rental guy and hire another TB at the same rate… Though the new bike wasn’t having very good rolling its rev was amazingly higher than the one we had used… We took both the bikes and went to the GH… Later had dinner at a joint boasting of Wood Oven Pizza – worst pizza I ever had…Went to sleep at about 21:30 as next day was really critical…


Likir Monastery



View from Stok Monastery

[Prasham]

Day 5:

We started from our GH at about 07:00 for Nubra. Took breakfast at a small restaurant near the taxi stand and started to climb the ascent at about 07:45…



Both the bikes were cruising smoothly and we were very excited to reach K-Top… We stopped at few places and clicked few pics… Soon we reached South Pallu and the exceptionally F***** roads started, got ourselves registered… And finally we arrived at the Gateway to K-Top (famous stone structure few kms before K-Top)… We stopped and took few pics…


By now we had started feeling the chill factor in the atmosphere… We started again, my bike seemed little slow initially but my friend smoothly went ahead and in no time he was out of view… Now my bike started giving problems… My bike wasn’t moving at all even in 1st gear… I remembered about Hitanshu’s tips on Power Loss at High Altitude… But I as determined to reach K-Top come what may!!! Soon I started pushing my bike but at such a high altitude I became exhausted after few hundred meters… But I kept repeating it and soon I could see the magical boards of K-Top…





As I reached there my friend started enquiring me about the problem but none of us knew how to repair it… So we were helpless… Took few pics and started to think about future course of the journey… But when I saw on the other side of K-Top I found only descent and hence was very much interested to continue instead of backtracking to Leh…





I descended upto North Pallu with my bike’s engine switched off… Finally at the small dhabas at North Pallu I found a Biker Group and asked them to help and to my luck one of the was a mechanic he told me that there must be some problem with Air-Fuel Mixture… He tried something but wasn’t much useful as the screw was jammed…. He told me about some mechanic in Diskit and left… Now we had lost much altitude and hence my bike was again cruising… We stopped at Khardung village for some snacks (maggi as usual) and continued towards Diskit… Roads after North Pallu are exceptionally well maintained and a bikers delight…


View enroute to Diskit

Soon we were ripping and I reached Diskit at about 13:30 but my friend wasn’t there with me he was riding little slower and I thought he might meet me at diskit (a big mistake)… I waited at the entrance of the town for about 20 mins but he didn’t came and my heart started pounding…



I started backtracking on the same route and couldn’t find him for almost 10 kms… But finally a Jeep stopped seeing me and told me that a guy was waiting for me with punctured bike about 2-3 kms back… I then ripped off and soon reached the spot… rear tyre was flat… my friend had used “Gulf’s Repair and Inflate” spray but wasn’t helpful as the puncture was pretty large… The worst tragedy starts now… When I enquired him about tool kit he said he had left it at the GH… Now I was in middle of nowhere without a tool kit to remove the wheel… But to our luck we found a guy from diskit on a bike, we stopped him and got his tool kit, removed the wheel and went to diskit on my bike…






Now finding a mechanic was really difficult in Diskit… But guy helped us and escorted us till the mechanic… Mechanic inspected the punctured wheel and told us that we would have to change the tube but now even that wasn’t with us as it was kept with the tool kit… We tried to search it with the local stores but couldn’t find but then mechanic told that some alternate size of tube can be fitted on temporary basis and we did accordingly…. We took off and reached the spot where the bike was lying, fixed the wheel and bike was ready… Now the problem was that we had lost much time… it was about 15:30 and we had planned to reach sumur after seeing Diskit and Hunder but that wasn’t possible now… Also we weren’t carrying any petrol assuming that we shall fill it at Diskit but the Pump at Diskit didn’t have any petrol and wasn’t expecting till another 2 days… Hence we dropped Diskit and Hunder out of our plans and left for Sumur…





reached sumur at about 18:00…. Checked in at A. O. Gardens GH for Rs. 250/- or similar for a double bed & bath attach room… A Canadian couple was the only other occupant in the GH besides us… Must say the lady was very charming… After 2-3 shots of OMR we had a candle light dinner with those fellows and finally went to sleep at about 22:30… This GH is surely charming and the views are also very good… Pretty long day wasn’t it ???

[Prasham]

Day 6: -

This was the most tragic day of our trip… We started at about 07:30 for panamik which is about 28 kms from sumur… We were expecting hot springs like the ones in Manali but were extremely disappointed at the sight of the hot springs in Panamik… Now signs of altitude and fatigue had started showing on my friends face… We went to our GH in sumur and after bf left for leh… As we were low on fuel, we requested a English biker (riding bull) to give us some petrol as he can get it from diskit where he was staying for 2-3 days and he happily give us 4 lts, we paid him and bade him good by and were on our way to Leh again…













There wasn’t any problem till few kms after North Pallu but then the Air-Fuel Mixture problem started surfacing again and I was sure this time that the top wasn’t anyway nearby… Hence I stopped my friend and started thinking about our options… But a Bull rider stopped and asked us if we were having any trouble… We talked about the problem and he suggested to take out the filter itself but then the problem was that we weren’t carrying any tool kit and the that we had borrowed yesterday was returned to its owner in diskit… By the time we could recollect these thoughts the biker had already left …. We stopped a taxi and borrowed a screw driver from him and promised to give it back in Leh… We then removed the filter and finally the problem was solved… I was then cruising again… This time we stopped at the K-top and checked out for the offerings at the shop for memorabilia… We weren’t willing to carry the plates all the way back and hence asked for keychains but they were out of stock… Badluck… But then altitude started showing its effects on me… and we quickly left…



This time we descended quickly and without any stops enroute when to the taxi stand handed over the screw driver to the owner, thanked him and went to our GH….

Worst part of the journey had started… I wasn’t much tired after all that happened in last few days but my friend wasn't much happy to continue with the biking idea… But then I struck with the idea about covering distance to Karu or Sakti today itself so that we might be able to stay a day more at Pangong or Leh… but then my friend wasn’t in the mood to continue any longer and asked me to return the bikes to the rental guy… All my dreams went down the drain but then my friend’s condition was also worsening so I decided to return the bikes and leave for manali tonight itself…

We went to the bus stand where taxis for manali are kept… But to our hard luck we couldn’t find any taxi with 2 vacant seats… soon an Innova with DL Passing came to the stand and fortunately asked us about the office of Manali-Leh Taxi Union… We in return enquired him about his plans and the deal was struck… He agreed to carry us upto Manali for mere Rs. 1000/- per person in his innova… We went to the rental guy handed him the bikes and the filter went to the GH packed the stuff, had dinner and at 22:00 took a taxi and reached bus stand… Found our Innova and arranged the luggage… Driver told us that he would start only with other taxis so that if some problem is there we can quickly find some help…. That meant that we would not start before 01:00…

Day 7:

Finally we started at 01:00 along with other taxis… Initially we felt that the driver isn’t very good at driving with the other expert local drivers but then he managed to keep pace with them and finally reached Pang at around 09:00 or so… had breakfast there and started moving towards Manali… Now the ride was non-stop upto Manali…. Roads after sarchu were extremely bad shape and due to soft suspension of Innova we were thrown up in all directions… Finally we started climbing Rohtang and fate struck us again….







Clouds ran in and it started raining heavily at Rohtang…. Traffic was jammed and all the vehicles moved at ant’s pace… But after another 6-7 kms from Rohtang Top traffic eased and finally we picked up the pace…



We reached Manali at about 18:20 and immediately went to Raj Travels office at the end of Mall Road… The guy told us that a bus had left 10 mins before and had 2 seats vacant in the last row…. We went for it… A local auto dropped us to the bus (which was stoped by the manali office)… Took our seats in the bus and dozes off….
During the time (01:00 and 18:20) my friend was constantly sleeping for about 14 hours… he didn’t even pee. We stopped for dinner at some highway hotel at around 22:00… I ate something there but my friend wasn’t still in the mood…



Bus started at about 23:15 and everyone dozed off….

Day 8:

We reached Delhi at about 10:00 and checked in at a hotel in KB… my friend again rested in the room and I was roaming in the market for whole day… Came to hotel at night for dinner… finally my friend had ate something after about 36 hrs… After words we had couple of shots of OMR and then again dozed off as we had to catch plane next morning for ahmedabad…

Day 9:

Usual stuff… wake up early, went to airport, caught the flight reached ahmedabad and then caught bus for my home town that is 120 kms from ahmedabad….



Hope everyone will agree that this was most diverse trip log of any body till date…

[anupmathur]

That is truly interesting triplog and the photos are wonderful!
Thanks, really enjoyed it.

[darth_lucifer]

Nice triplog.Thanks for the treat.

I guess 95 % of all 'active' BCMT members have been leh'd Thats a pretty good ratio *thumbs up*

PS:The DVD carrot is really getting out some golden quality stuff on forum and lets hope we get more and more stuff to read

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Fantastic trip log, I know you like the canon ball run. But I feel that if you guys had acclimatized enroute to Leh (I know its tougher that way), you wouldn't have faced problems at Khardung La and Nubra. As far as I know, none of the guys in our group faced any problems at Khardung La, even though we were there for more than couple of hours!

[Prasham]

YS

You might be right regading the acclimatization issue... But we were always short of time and hence had decided to spend a day extra in leh if required instead of staying at Keylong/sarchu or pang...

and thanks to everyone for spending time reading my triplog...