Born to Travel, Live to Travel would Die to Travel.... Trips that Ive made since I learnt what is travelling.......

Road to Leh.....

INDIA | Thursday, 20 November 2008 | Views [461]

I was planning this trip since about 3 months. Finally got everything in place and managed to steal 16 days of leave.
Touring Members – Navnit Lekshminarayan owns a Bullet (Standard) and a Karizma.
Fabius Rebello ons a Bullet Electra.
Kunal Choksi owns a Karizma and Shogun (Stock 93)
Ritesh Singh Pillion.
In the first Photograph from Let to Right Ritesh, Choksi, Navnit and Fabious.

Cameras – Sony Erricson phone w810i
Sony DSC W35
Canon Power Shot SD630

Day 1 - Mumbai - Udaipur.
I woke up @ 2:00am with my alarm ringing in my ears and shouting Ladhak. Ladhak Ladhak. I woke up and picked Ritesh up from work and reached Navnit’s place by 3:30. We were supposed to leave by 4ish but while reaching Navnit;s place my bike’s RPM was shooting upto 3000 as idling which scared the shit out of me. I was like what the F*** why is this happening tried adjusting the air setting a bit but in vain dint really want to go with an average of 20 till Leh so I called my Mechanic (He is also a very good old Pal of mine) woke him and told him the problem. He asked me to come over to his place I went and he had a look and got the problem resolved in about 15 – 20 mins and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Now I left and met the rest of the Gang on the way and we stopped for fueling our bikes @ a petrol pump and that’s where disaster strikes. I toped up my Tank and moved a bit ahead and all of a sudden I hear someone screaming “Dost Petrol Leak ho raha hai” and I was like ehh my bike looked down and a river was flowing from my tank. Got down removed the tool kit and got the Tank open in no time and figured out that due to the presuure of the flow of the petrol from the pipe the packing beneath the fuel indicator lids has shifted. Removed it and put M seal and stuck it properly and then got her back on the bike. Problem got sorted but we wasted quite a lot of time on the first day itself had a look @ my watch and it was 9:00. Left outskirts of Mumbai around 9 and thn moved fwd. Our plan was to reach Udaipur on Day1 which looked a bit difficult specially after the late start we managed to reach outskirts of Ahemdabad by 21:00 and thought might reach udaipur by 2 if we go for it so we moved fwd and thn Navnit takes a bad Decision of going from the City (Not his fault though the state and the city doesn’t have any sign boards) Neway wasted abt 3 hrs hunting for the road but in vain finally we reached NH8 again and also managed to hunt a hotel down crashed there as we all were pretty tired.

Day 2 – Udaipur - Delhi.
We depart @ 08:15 and entr Rajasthan around 11ish (Boy wasn’t I glad to see the end of Gujarat). We thought we shall reach Delhi by 2ish or 3ish max but thn weren’t we wrong. We zoomed along the beautiful roads of this so beautiful state in the country. (I would rate the roads as the best in the entire trip) We reached Jaipur around 21:00 and thought tht delhi is only abt 250 kms away but thn Bad roads struck us road started to get bad and that’s when our friend Fabious had a fall. The road was scrapped to remake it again so the bike was fish tailing and down he went. He wasn’t really hurt the silencer touched the rear potion of his shine so just got a bit burnt but the headlight and the taillight broke but to our surprise the bulbs manged to surrive so he could still see the roads. We were pretty tired as were riding non stop so we took a hault for din – din (Dinner) and thought might as well take a nap thn when we woke up our eyes were stuck on the watch its was 4:00 am

Day 3 – Delhi – Manali.
We woke up and left for delhi and thought we shall decide what to do once we reach delhi. Reached Delhi @ 9 on a Monday morning got stuck in the bad Delhi traffic managed to reach outskirts of delhi @ around noon and we all were pretty tired coz we had slept for only like 2 hrs each. Saw a good dhaba on the way had lunch and again dozed of for about another 2 hrs and after tht is when we decided we shall go to Shimla instead of Manali coz Shimla was closer.
We start our bikes and head of in the direction of Shimla cross Kurukshetra and Ambala Camp on the way and managed to reached the ghat that goes towards Shimla @ around 21:00. The bad road strikes again the roads thtat goes up till Shimla which is for about 70 kms was in a very bad state there was no chance that we would reach shimla on time so we decided to take a hault below shimla and thn the next day take the state highway no 8 to Manali. We crash for the day.

Day 4 – Was supposed to be Rest @ Manali but due to delay Reached Manali on the 4th Day.
We leave and we take the State highway to Manali reach Manali by 10ish and dint really need to hunt for any places over there as Navnit knew a few people around. We got a cheap room again and we crash.

Day 5 – Manali – Keylong.
We leave for Keylong @ 09:00 when we left right in the backyard of the hotel we were staying in we found a Marijuana plant thought of plucking some and rubbing it and ummmmm. Anyway had riverside breakfast on the way and on our way to rohtang is when Navnit’s tyre got a flat and his bike wasn’t climbing the pass anyway as his valves were weak so he decided to head back and meet us in Delhi. (He later on decided to go to Punjab and after tht he met us in Delhi on the 13th day) Reached keylong around 7ish with Fabious haing 1 more fall in the muck due to fish tailing again.

Day 6 - Kaylong – Pang.
We depart from Keylong and stop @ Darcha for lunch and reach Pang around 18:00. We crossed Baralacha on the way and found it covered with snow. Now if im not wrong i hv never heard Baralacha covered with snow i might just be wrong but even Bhuvan paji told me (whom i meet the next day) tht Baralacha is rarely covered with so much of snow. Just before reaching Pang there is a small check post where you are supposed to show ur bike registration papers so tht the Army people will allow you to pass. Now just abt 2 kms before tht @ around 17:00 it started snowing and we started enjoying but in 10 mins tht snow transformed into rains and we all got wet in tht 1 degree temp. The rain water was Freezing. We reached the checkpost in another 5 mins and we all headed into the tank of the Army officer to protect ourselves from tht cold rain. We waited there for like 20 mins but the rains showed no mercy on us Pang was about hf a KM away so we decided to go for it. We left and reached Pang in abt 5 mins and as soon as we got of the bike we asked for stoves to heat outselves in the tent. After tht AMS hit Fabious and he crashed for the night and after a while so did I and Ritesh.

Day 7 - Pang - Leh.
I woke up with my head heavy and spinning and figured out it was AMS. Saw ritesh loitering and enjoying the heat and Fabious still in his bed cribbing abt the pain in his head too. We wasted time till abt noon and that’s when 2 more riders met us Bhuvan Paji (from Jaipur) and Umesh Soman (From Thane) Left with them around 13:00 after taking a tablet and head settling a bit started the climb to More Palins. What a beautiful place @ abt 16,000 feet you find 20 – 25 kms of plains. Nature @ its best. After tht we start the climb to Tanglangla and reched there uneventful we were there exactly for 4 and a hf mins as the wind blowing there was very high and the temp was freezing we had reached tanglangla around 17:00. the we started the downhill and reached LEH around 20:30.

We roamed around in LEH for 4 days saw the entire city shopped a bit and Tried to go to kardungla the reason I said tried is because we tried but it was covered with snow so we couldn’t gain accsess. On the 10th day we depart for Sarchu with Umesh with us as he had to head back to Mubai due to personal reasons but Bhuvan paji stayed. We road all the way back to Mumbai and reached Mumbai back on the 16th day @ 18:00.
One hell of a freaking trip with mind blowing experiences and ever lasting memories.
A lot more to see in Ladhak as I haven’t seen any of the famous and infamous places yet need to see a lot and need to explore a lot.