Exploring Ladakh Final

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Copyright 2007 Rajith Kalluraya Page 1

Exploring Ladakh

"We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are. " - Tobias Wolff, 'In Pharaoh's

Army'

Below is a writeup of my 2007 July Ladakh Expedition. I am publishing this after a span of 4

months since i returned from this trip. I have recorded most of the events as much as i remember.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as i have enjoyed writing it. Do leave your valuablecomments at the comment section which could be found at the bottom of every page. It will help

me in improving my future write-ups.

We were 7 people exploring Ladakh in 5 Royal Enfield 350cc Bullets.

I would like to list down the names of the 7 people..

1. Abhijith (My pillion rider)2. Sarvesh Dwivedi (Servo) (Pillion to Vijju)3. Ravi (Riding the RE Thunderbird)4. Rajesh (Riding the RE Thunderbird)5. Murali (Riding the RE Thunderbird)6. Vijendra Singh Purohit (Vijju) (Riding the RE Thunderbird)7. Myself, Rajith (Riding the RE Bullet Electra 5 speed)


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Day 1 : The Excitement Begins...

Bangalore to Delhi - 30th June 2007

My flight was on time. We left Bangalore at 11:30am. This was my second flight journey after aspan of over 10 to 12 years. I was not disappointed one bit, although i missed the free burgers

this time :)

We reached Delhi at 2pm. Stepping outside the flight, the weather confirmed me that i am in

Delhi alright. At 39 degree centigrade, i felt like burning all my winter gear inside my rucksack

which was waiting to see the light of the day.

Since we were warned about the ripping taxiwallahs, we managed to catch hold of a prepaid taxi

and after paying the fellow an extra 100 rupees, we dumped ourselves at Karol Bagh. Since we

had decided that we are going to hire bikes from Madaan Motors, we hired a lodge near Madaan

Motors and off we left for lunch. I was so damn hungry, i hardly had any energy to push myselfeven to the next galli (starvation courtesy, Spicejet).

But to my own displeasure, but in the name of team spirit, i dragged myself to Cannaught place. i

must mention the Beautiful Metro that connects the various places of New Delhi. The system hasshaped up marvelously. it took about 10-15mins to reach Cannaught place. After some hoopla

surrounding the decision about zeroing on a place to have lunch (all this when i am almost half

dead :-( ), we finally settled for the India Coffee House.

Back in Karol Bagh, we were given 4 somewhat decent Royal Enfield Bullet Thunderbirds and

one Bullet Standard in hopeless condition.

I had to ride the Bullet Standard. Looking at the Bullet Standard, my confidence of doing this

trip shattered that very moment. Let alone taking it to the trip, it was not in a condition to take it

to the nearest petrol pump. Add to that, the bike has no insurance. All the bikes looked like, as ifthey were assembled at the last minute with cheap local parts. All the Bullets had one common

problem. Kick starting each of them. Some bikes had starting problem and some others expected

some real Bullet kicking experience on the rider's part.

Later that night, we filled up the tanks of all the bikes. The Thunderbird holds approx. 16 litres

of petrol while the std holds nearly 22 litres !!!

The std Bullet started leaking Petrol and we discovered that the brakes of one of theThunderbirds were absolutely of no use. So we were left with no option but to get the bikes fixed(or replaced) in the morning and start around 12 in the afternoon. We stayed in a decent lodge in

Non-AC rooms for 1400 rupees (for 7 people, 2 rooms).

The day ended with lots of uncertainty, anxiety and frustration.


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Day 2 : The journey begins...

Delhi to Ambala- 1st July 2007

I woke up to the loudringing sound from the

room telephone. it was a

call from the reception.The voice on the other end

drops these words on myjibberish head, "Sir, Aap

ke gaadiyon ko raste se

hataakar parking mein

lagaa deejiye"

Bloody Hell !!! Pushingthose Thunderbirds is such

a pain. Grunting &

Groaning, I parked all thebikes in arbit parking (or

no parking) locations.

The day continued with the great activity of persuading Arun (of Madaan Motors) to replace theBullet Standard and fix the other Thunderbirds. To my surprise, i was provided with a 2006

model Bullet Electra 5 Speed. My confidence meter rose to an all time high & everything started

falling in place right on. :-)

The time was 2pm, we started from Delhi (even though some bikes had trouble starting) and we

hit the Kariyal Bypass which took us to the Chandigarh Highway. Slowly our riders started

discovering that the bikes have no brakes, no stability, no acceleration, and engine vibrations no

less than a tractor.

The highway was quite peaceful. I rode the Thunderbird for most of the journey in this highway.

One thing i can remember from this ride is that we were bombarded with flies which hit our

visors badly, hindering the visibility partially. We had a very sweaty ride and managed to cover200km to reach Ambala. Although, as per schedule, we had to be in Chandigarh at the end of the

day, we were able to push only up to Ambala (Distance from Ambala to Chandigarh is 50 km, by

the way).

Later that night, we had Veg Pulao, a few curries and lots of lassies.. and we hit the bed at

12:30am. We had plans of waking up at 6am in the morning & make it to Manali by the end of

next day..


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Day 3 : Taming the Thunderbirds...

Ambala to Kulu - 2nd July 2007

This time i wake up to my alarm at 6am toanother hot day.

The day from now on starts with kicking thebikes (read beasts) ;-) The four Thunderbirds are

just some unique pieces. one has problem

starting, while the other has braking problem.Handling all these bikes takes lots of patience &

persistence. I got a couple of kick-backs from

these beasts. My Electra was in good condition

and i hardly had any problems with it.

Since we did not start at the scheduled time of

6am or 7am (we started at 9:40am), we had a

tough task of covering 370km to Manali.

Thumping and Vrooming, we reached

Chandigarh in the afternoon. Although we did not

enter the beautiful Chandigadh city, we did get a

glimpse of the well-planned city.

Ravi had some problems with the Disc brakes of

his bike. In fact, the disc brakes were not fixed atall. Just a few kilometers ahead of chandigarh, we

stopped by a dhaba. Me, Abhijith & Vijju were inthe front. But we had no clue where the other

guys are. At this time, Murali went missing. He had entered Chandigarh city. He managed topass by the dhaba without stopping. It happened such that he ran out of fuel too. He was riding

my Electra. Thank god, it had an extra can of Petrol in it. He was saved from the impossible task

of pushing it.

After hogging on Parathas & lassis, we moved towards Manali to make it by the end of the day.

One thing i noted during this day's journey is the faulty milestones. For example at one place it

read 264kms to Manali and the next milestone reads 275km to Manali !!! We caught up withMurali after sometime and upon his & Vijju's recommendation we stopped for another shot of

Lassi. The Lassis according to Vijju was God-level.. I could not agree more :-)

I exchanged bikes with Murali and we moved towards Manali. It was getting dark and we started

getting our initial suspicion of not making it to Manali by the end of the day. Later in the evening

Ravi's bike had an accelerator cable problem and after getting it fixed, we stopped by anotherbike mechanic somewhere close to Kulu. After a quick discussion and calculating the logisitics


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about the rest of the journey, we decided that we will put up at Kulu.Found a good guesthouse inKulu. I loved the view here. We did make some attempts to find food for dinner but as it was late

in the night, our efforts went in vain. Kulu is a small city and i loved the serenity of the place. I

managed to shoot some night shots of Kulu from our Guest house.


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Day 4 : Embracing the Terrains and

Mountains...

Kulu to Keylong - 3nd July 2007

We woke up quite late in the morning and started towards our destination for the day(Sarchu???? - which looked impossible - but we were all slowly getting used to chasing

impossible targets and failing miserably :D)

We had to cover the following route : Kulu -Manali - Rohtang Pass - Tandi - Keylong -

Sarchu

We reached Manali and after having our Brunch,

we started from Manali (Nothing much to writeabout Manali, as we did not spend much time

here) after purchasing Empty cans for filling up at

Tandi.

The ride from Manali started getting better as we

started ascending the peak. This is where i caught

the first sight of snow. I was all energized by the

very sight of snow.

As we ascended the peak, we started getting the

feel of the cold weather... There was quite sometraffic on the way to Rohtang as it is a homeymoon destination for most Indian couples.

Somewhere near the middle of the peak, Abhijith spotted a Vulture which was quite far... Istopped by for a snap, but as my luck would favor me, the vulture rested on a perch right next to

me at a small height... i had the time of my life and got my shot of a lifetime.

We passed Rohtang. There were people skiing and Parasailing at Rohtang. All this time, the onlyworry i had was to reach Sarchu. The roads started getting worser... Melted snow flows through

the road filling up the potholes and making the road slippery. Rajesh had a fall on the road who

was riding right in front of me. Abhijith & me witnessed it in awe.. Although Rajesh says it was

the bike which was responsible for the fall, we had a tough time explaining him to make use of

his legs for maneuvering in such slippery roads.

After a long journey of climbing down Rohtang to the other side, all of us met up at a small

dhaba where each of us had our experiences to share A fellow traveler traveling towards Manaliinformed us that the roads ahead are worse than what we just saw.It was late almost evening and

our chances of making it to Sarchu looked bleak.


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But it turned out that the roads were not really bad and we reached Tandi by 7pm. The station

was closing for the day and we made it just in time.

All the bikes except Murali's

(Murali had misplaced his bike

keys...Although he could start hisbike with the other bike's key,

opening the fuel tank was not easy)were filled and the cans were filled

too (The next Petrol station is at

Leh which is about 700kms from

Tandi).

Murali left with a localite to locate

the Royal Enfield showroom in

Keylong. We were supposed to

meet him later in the night as wedecided we would put up Keylong

fo the night.

Around 8km from Tandi, is a small

village called Keylong. We put upfor the day in Keylong as our bikes needed repair before it can do the much difficult Sarchu Leh

journey. After dinner, Me & Ravi ventured into the streets of Keylong to take some night shots.


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Day 5 : The Bike Repair Day

Keylong to Darcha - 4th July 2007

This day was a total waste as we spent most of the time at Mechanic Yogesh's garage gettingRavi's bike fixed.

Murali rode back to Tandito fill up fuel in his bike

We got the bike carriers

welded.

Ravi's bike suffered from

major problems with the

engine as his bike would

not cross 2000rpm.Yogesh tried his best to

fix the bike but no matter

what, the bike would notrev beyond 2000rpm. At

the same time, i got my

bike handle replaced as it

had a major bend.

We were grounded in Keylong till 3pm with no hope of reaching Sarchu by the end of the day.

We finally started from here and kept on riding till we reached Darcha. Darcha is a nice placebetween the mountains with a few tents(read Dhabas) put up to facilitate the regular truck

drivers. I loved this place. The unforgettable thing about darcha was the moonlit mountains andthe open skies hosting a zillion stars. I took out my tripod and we spent lots of time shooting the

night skies.. It was really cold outside and i managed to sleep only at around 1am.

The stay at Darcha costed us Rs. 500 totally for food + stay for 7 people (can you beleive it???Itwas decided that we are going to make up for all the unexpected delays by waking up at 4:30am

the next day :-D


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Day 6 : A long cold night....

Darcha to Rumtse - 5th July 2007

To my surprise, everybody woke up at 5am and we were up and ready by 5:30am and we kissedGood Bye to Darcha and shot our Bullets to Leh (which still looked impossible).

Roads were Good with small river streams crossing the roads at some place. From here, westarted witnessing the Beautiful Ladakh Landscapes. The Bright Blue skies and the white

snowcaps on the mountains were a common sight.

During the day, we crossed the Baralachala Pass (Our first Pass after Rohtang). The whether was

very bad on the pass.

We somehow reached Sarchu by afternoon. After lunch we decided to load Rajesh's bike by a

bus and send it to Leh as it had air filter problem and was not performing well even with a singlerider.

Rajesh made the the journey upto Pang in the bus. We started from Sarchu towards Leh. Theobjective at this point of time was to cross the dangerous Tanglang La pass during the day as it

will become extremely

cold in the night making it

impossible to cross it.

We followed the bus to

some distance and after

sometime Ravi's bike'sclutch wire snapped. The

view from the place where

we stopped was awesome.The 3 bikes started and we

started towards Tang Lang

La (i was a bit freakedabout the idea of crossing

the peak in the night.. I

hoped against all odds to

make it during the day..

but it somehow lookedimpossible).

Before Tanglang La pass, We crossed the second and third pass, Nakeela and Lachulung La.

It was sometime in the afternoon when we crossed Lachulung La. I felt the low oxygen level

here as i was hardly able to breathe. I decided i have to slow down on all activities. Even kicking

the bike was tiring. Although I managed to shoot enough pictures at the pass. In fact i even shot


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some pictures for a foreign couple whom we met at the pass. All along, Abhijith was with me as

a pillion. At this point we were seperated from the group.

We moved from here to avoid delay and reached Pang. This is the only civilized place before

Tang Lang La. We decided that we would do Tang Lang La at any cost and continued our

journey.

We followed the bus until we hit the infamous Moore Plains. We lost the sight of the bus. TheMoore Plains proved to be very scary. There are n number of roads on the Moore Plains leading

to different directions. And no sign boards and no people to ask directions. It was late in the

evening and it was getting dark and we are stuck in the middle of this desert. We lost track of theother bikers too. Although we met some truck people, each of them gave different directions

which confused us even more. Finally we followed one path and sighted the other bikes and with

great effort escaped from the deathly Moore Plains.

And then, to my horror i remembered that i had slept only for 4 hours the previous night (Thanks

to that night photograph yat Darcha). And hence I was quite hesitantabout doing Tang LangLa inteh night. The time was around 9:30pm when we arrived at a place a few kilometres below Tang

Lang La. The temperature was less than 5 degrees or somethin. And calamity struck, i was out ofpetrol. Abhijith was pillion. It was pitch black and we could hardly see anything.. There was an

Army tent nearby and we just rushed inside. After a hot cup of Tea, we welcomed the other two

bikes.

Vijju & Servo had

followed the bus and had

ventured into theLachulung La. So they

were nowhere to be seen.Ravi had lost his Bike

papers as he hadunknowingly kept his

backpack open and

everything inside has

fallen off.

The time was 10pm. and

we had no option but tocross Tang Lang La. The

3 bikes moved with

uncertainty. I was riding my bike half asleep :-(

We reached the pass and it was unimaginably cold. I just wished i get to a comfortable placewhere i could cuddle up with a heavy blanket. But facing reality was the toughest task at that

point of time.


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The sight of moon light illuminating the snow on the sides of the road, my half dead brain not

functioning and my body battered by the cold.. I was riding my bullet almost automatically.

Abhijith was sent in a Truck which was in front of us as he had his jacket in the bus and he was

freezing sitting pillion to me.

Somewhere near the peak i fell asleep while still riding my bike.. I stopped my bike to catch

some sleep :-o And then Murali came to my rescue. He took over my bike and i sat pillion and

dozed off to glory. :-)

It was obvious that we will not make it to Leh by 1am. We spotted the bus and Vijju's bike

parked at a small town called Rumtse. Rumtse is about 3 hours from Leh. We crashed in the half

layed down beds in Vijju & Servo's room. Once again we had skipped dinner.

What an adventure. I could not believe i had just survived all this. i had just pushed myself to the

limit.


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Day 7 : An Accomplishment....

Rumtse to Leh - 6th July 2007

The next day, we woke up late to compensate to the Tanglang La nightmare. Everybody hadtheir stories to share. I was happy that i had my share of sleep. Had good breakfast and we

started towards Leh. Thedrive from here was

smooth and we reached

Leh by afternoon.

Once in Leh, we dumped

our bikes at a repair shop.

Surprisingly, the bus felladid not ask for extra

money. (we had decidedfor 1.2k)

We had taken 6 days toreach Leh from Delhi.

Reaching Leh sure was an

accomplishment for all of us :-)

While the other guys waited at the Repair shop, me & Abhijith decided to enter Leh city and

search for accomodation. There are couple of good lodges in Leh. Since we had about 3 days t

ospare in Leh, we decided to go for a not-so-expensive lodge.

The lodge was good and we settled for the day. Abhijith went to collect the permits for visiting

the rest of the destinations. In the evening we went for a stroll. Leh is a small town and itsmaintained quite well. It was decision time. We had to cut down on the places decided earlier to

be visited from Leh.

It was decided that we will be going to Pangong Tso lake the next day.


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Day 8 : The day when everything went

wrong....

Leh to Pangong Tso - 7th July 2007

Pangong Tso is a lake shared by India & China. Pangong Tso is about 140km from Leh.

We had plans of visiting Pangong Tso and returning back by night. But everything went wrong

during the day.

We left Ravi's bike in Leh and decided to makethe journey with 4 bikes. The scenery is amazing

and we reached Chang La peak by noon or so.

The climbing down of the peak to the other side

was easy but somehwhere near the base, my bikehad a puncture in the rear tyre.

We had left the hand-pump back at the lodge in

Leh. But thankfully, there was a army campnearby. Initially we did not approach them for

help and so Rajesh was sent to find a mechanic in

the nearby town which was about 30km fromwhere i was stranded. After he left, we met a

Biking group who were returning to Leh. They

offered us their hand pump and we gave them

some petrol as they were going low on fuel. Thearmy people fixed my tyre puncture in no time.

Since we were done with the puncture job, vijju

& Servo left the place to stop Rajesh from getting

the mechanic.

The roads were quite dangerous and the roads

were not safe as tiny rocks from the mountains

settle in the middle portion of the road.

As we proceeded further, I was shocked to find Vijju's bike in terrible shap. Vijju has had an

accident and fortunately nothing happened to both of them, but the bike was totally out of shape.

We waited for Rajesh to come back, but later i started towards Tang Tse to find Rajesh. We

managed to find a Mahindra pickup and persuaded him to take the bike to Tang Tse for a jolly1k. We somehow reached Tang Tse and after dumping the bike at the mechanic shop, we had to

plan our next course of actions.


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We were left with just 3 bikes and we were 7 people. It was decided that we check out Pangong

Tso, no matter what. I decided to take two people as pillion in my bike.

After a small distance, Murali's bike broke down. The engine was working, but it was not turning

the tyres. We waited in despair for some help when we found the "India On Bike" group

approaching us. These people had a mechanic accompanying them. he used to work for MadaanMotors. The moment he heard the name Madaan, he started abusing Madaan. After some

persuation, he opened up the rear tyre of the bike and to everyone's disbelief, therewas nosprocket in the bike. Teh break shoes were making contact with the tyres and were burnt out

totally. He told us that the bike is beyond repair and asked us to dump it in Leh and ask Madaan

to collect it from there. We knew all that is not going to work out.

We had only 2 bikes now :-( The "India on Bike" guys made an offer to take our people to

Pangong Tso so that we can get accomodated somewhere.

So the bike was left there and we proceeded towards Pangong Tso. Ater a small distance, due to

heavy resistence from their group members, we were asked to put up at a stay house on the way.

This place was nice and we tried to put the sorrow behind and ease up for what has to be done

the next day. The inn-owner had a jeep and hence we planned to visit Pangong Tso in his Jeep

early in the morning next day.

Sleeping in my bed, i was thinking, everything had gone wrong that day and i was waiting to see

a better tomorrow. The mesmerising beauty of Ladakh was the only motivation that kept me

going.


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Day 9 : My First encounter with Snowfall...

Pangong Tso to Leh - 8th July 2007

Ravi woke me up early to catch the sunrise. Drinking a cup of tea, i got ready. The others gotready too and we started towards Pangong Tso. Sunrise was over but still, it was a very good

sight.

Pangong Tso is vast and

has a calm environment

making you all spiritual.

After taking some shots,

we came back to our inn.

Breakfast was done and

now we had to get thebike fixed.

There were two tasks in

hand. Get Vijju's bikefixed (which was not

possible) and tow Murali's

bike to Tang Tse. The innowner helped us by

towing Murali's bike to Tang Ts in his jeep. Meanwhile, me &

Servo reached Tang Tse before the other guys to make an

arrangement for carrying Vijju's bike.

Also, Vijju's bike sprockets and brake shoes were installed inMurali's bike. and hence we had 3 bikes in condition to make

it back to Leh.We somehow managed to persuade a Truck going back to Leh

to carry Vijju's bike. Abhijith & Servo were sent in the truck.

Me, Ravi, Rajesh, Vijju & Murali started in the 3 bike. It was

raining lightly and the whether was getting bad. Climbing

back the Chang La peak was difficult as the Bullets needed

pushing. As we reached the previous day's puncture place (thearmy camp), it was snowing badly. I could hardly move my

hands as it was frosted. I doubted a frost bite but thankfullynothing happened. The whether was getting worse. The

temperature was -5 degree Centigrade. We rushed into the

army camps where we were greated by the friendly armymajors and jawaans. We were put to comfort by the heater


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and hot kichdi's and tea. After a brief chat with the Major Pratap Singh, we decided to leave the

place and cross Chang La before night and reach Leh.

It was getting colder by the minute and snowfall frosting every part of my body, we crossedChang La peak in -5 Degree Centigrade. An experience not worth forgetting.

After a hot tea at the pass, we reached Leh by evening. We had the task of getting Vijju's bike

repaired which was not an easy job. A mechanic agreed to do his best.

We checked out Leh market and planned for our Kardung La visit the next day.

There was still hope.


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Day 10 : The easiest day...

Leh to Khardungla and back - 9th July 2007

Khradungla is the highest motorable pass in the world at an altitude of 18380 feet. Khardungla isjust around 37km from

Leh. It can be covered in a

single day.

First thing in the morning,

we had the task ofchecking out the status of

Vijju's bike. The mechanic

informed us that it cannotbe repaired i nLeh and

insisted that the bike betaken to Delhi. We tried

our luck with anothermechanic (his name is

Juma. A very good

mechanic in Leh). Heassured as that he will fix

it by evening.

By 12pm or so, we left to Khardung La. The Khardung La pass is open for tourists from Lehonly between 9am to 1pm and from 1 pm to 5 pm for tourists from the Nubra - khardungla - Leh

direction.

Since we reached the entrance only at 15 min past 1pm, we were in trouble. After Rajesh's

efforts to persuade the concerned person there, we somehow managed to sneak in.

The ride to Khardung La was unforgettable. It sure is paradise out here. We met some White-

skinned cyclists on the way.

Although we had some problems with the bikes, we somehow made it to the World's highest

motorable pass. What an accomplishment!!! Also, Abhijith had his share of riding on the World's

highest motorable road. We spent some time in Khardungla photographing group photos and

everything. I must say, Khardungla is really beautiful.

It was sometime in the afternoon, we started our journey back to Leh. On the way, we were

greeted by hundreds of Army trucks. Me, abhijit and Vijju were in the lead and it was decided

that all of us will be meeting at the Thiksey Monastery in Leh.

As we reached Thiksey, we got a call from Ravi. We were alarmed by the news that the other

two bikes had an accident on somewhere near the base. The accident was minor but they were


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not in a state of joining us at thiksey. So we decided to visit the monastery and return back to our

lodge.

I loved the monastery. It is

very scenic and i loved

shooting everythingaround this place.

Returning back to Leh, wechecked out Vijju's bike

and i was amazed to see it

all fixed. Juma had done a

good job.

Had dinner at a nearby

restaurant (Lassies i cant

forget).

After some minor bike

repairs in the morning, wewould be leaving Leh, the next day.


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Day 11 : The longest journey....

Leh to Mulbekh (40km to Kargil)- 10th July 2007

I woke up at 7am in the morning as me & Ravi had planned to visit the Thiksey Monastery (Ravihad not come the previous day). The morning time was the best and i ended up shooting

awesome shots at the

monastery.

We were back in Leh by

9am. Here was our route-

plan..

Leh --> Kargil --> Dras --

> Srinagar --> Jammu -->

Delhi

According to our initial

plan, we had avoided the

last day from riding as ourpeople had their flights

from Bangalore to Delhi

at 1pm.

But since we were one day behind schedule, we were left with no option but do ride on the last

day.

So here was our plan.

Leh --> Kargil

Kargil --> Srinagar

Srinagar --> Ambala (The critical day to compensate for all the delay)

But we had the fear of not making it to Delhi in time to catch our flights. But then we just startedfrom Leh. I got my brakes replaced first thing in the morning. (It was not working even after the

replacement. But i had got used to the absence of rear brakes. Disc brakes are good enough).


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The journey back was a bit hectic but i loved the landscapes as it was even more beautiful thanthe ones in the Manali-Leh route. My carrier broke somewhere in between. We moved towards

Kargil with hope of making it in decent time. But the chance of that looked bleak. We kept riding

and riding. I remember this for the long day & the long night it was. We crossed river streams,mountains, passes, small

towns, narrow roads...

There was a deviation toget to Lamayuru

somewhere between the

mountains. And at this

time Ravi was in the leadand had not noticed the

deviation. So we lost sight

of Ravi, The four bikescontinued on this scary

road cutting through themountains almost on thecliff. I used to be in the

front leading the other

bikes as i had very

powerful headlights. After3 hours of ride we started worrying for Ravi as kargil was still far away and there was no sight of

Ravi. The time was around 11pm and the night ride continues in the dark roads under very cold

weather conditions. One thing i liked was the truck drivers. The truck drivers were very polite.

The truck drivers used to great us by stopping their vehicles, switching off the headlight and turn

on the left indicators to let us pass by them.

All this while i was very very sleepy and my bike was set into auto-pilot mode. The changing ofgears and the applying of brakes were happening almost automatically. Abhijith used to help me

stay awake by guiding me to take left,right, slow down...

After a long night journey, at around 12:30am while crossing a deserted Mountain, Abhijith

sights a parked Bike and he asks me to stop. And we take a turn to see if it is Ravi. To our

surprise, Ravi had parked his bike, and slept peacefully on the roadside. We wake up Ravi andassure him that we will be halting at a nearby place which is about 30km from there and we

continue. Ravi had waited for us for an hour at that place.

It was a long night and finally we spot a village. This place is called Mulbekh. Its a very tiny

town.All we could see is closed doors but no people. Finally we locate a J&K tourismdepartment guesthouse. Me & Abhijith check with the warden for some place to rest. Initially he

insisted to find some other place as there were no beds.


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After assuring him that, all we needed was a place to spend the night and all of us had sleeping

bags and that we dont need his beds., we were offered some space in a room and we dozed off

peacefully. I felt like i had earned that sleep. Never had i got that feeling before. :-)


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Day 12 : The day of uncertainity, frustration

and Adventure...

Mulbekh to Srinagar - 11th July 2007

The morning was fresh. Although we had a tough time with the morning activities because of the

hopeless hygienic conditions there.

We were served with good breakfast and tea.

Rajesh's bike had developed a new problem.Dripping oil from the engine. This was noted the

previous night.

The warden tried fixing it but our only option was

to reach Kargil to get it fixed properly. So Rajeshhad to carry extra engine oil. We tried at a local

petrol station but there were no engine oil in

stock.

We started towards Kargil. We were there by

afternoon. The roads were good but nothing

worth shooting. Upon reaching Kargil, we filledour tanks and found a mechanic to fix Rajesh's

Thunderbird. But it was a much bigger problem

involving welding the engine shell. So the only

solution was to keep filling up engine oil fromtime to time.

There are no big restaurants in Kargil. We had

lunch at a small restaurant. The Biryani that wasserved sucked big time. I hardly had anything.

And the Biryani costed a bloody 80 rupees. I was pissed off totally. Maybe they just raised the

prices for us as we were tourists. Whatever it was, we did not have the stamina to argue.

Post lunch, we started towards Srinagar. This journey was one of the most memorable journey of

my lifetime.

During the first part of the journey we passed through the Kargil-Dras road which boasts the

popular Kargil war memorial and this is the stretch where the Kargil war had happened in 1999.

Shelling had taken place on this very stretch as Kargil is situated almost near the LOC. Weencountered signs which read "You are under Enemy Surveillance". The whole business of

passing through Kargil was a bit risky but we had other things worrying us. Getting to Srinagar

by day-break.


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By evening we were out of Kargil and we had the big task of crossing the Zoji La pass. The passis at a height of 11570 feet. The mountain range is very beautiful and quite dangerous because of

the narrow roads.

We somehow crossed the Zoji-La pass witnessing the beautiful Himalayas at its most scenic

locations. One thing that bothered us here was the trucks. There were too many of them.

The roads are so narrow here that trucks go in only one direction in the morning. In the

afternoon, they come from the other side.

All this while we observed thousands of tents at the bottom of the mountain range. We had no

idea what they were. The view was spectacular. We had a long journey climbing down the peak.We finally reached

Sonamarg which happens

to be at the base of the

peak.

Once in Sonamarg all of

us joined together for

checking if everybody issafe. Got the news that

Rajesh had fallen down a

couple of times on theroad. All minor ones (and

one which was just short

of a major fall down the

cliff)

I enjoyed the tea at

Sonamarg more than

anything. It was sunset time in Sonamarg. I clicked some snaps. At this time i found out that thecamps we saw were that of the Amarnath base camp fecilitataed for Amarnath yatries. And then i

realised that i was closeby to Amarnath.

We continued to Srinagar through Sonamarg. Sonamarg was the most beautiful town i had everseen. Beautiful Greeery surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Horses grazing around. I had the

time of my life passing through this town. Roads were awesome upto some distance.

We kept riding to reach Srinagar. Roads started detoriating. At one point, after filling up petrol ata station.. Servo went missing. We found him after searching for him for half an hour.

The journey continued and it was 9pm when we reached the city limits of Srinagar. Srinagar wasfull of Police and the military. Every half a kilometer, there was checkpost who would ask us

about our identities, about our bikes and everything.


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The problems with the bikes had escalated by this time. Ravi's bike and Rajesh's bike had majorstarting problems. I remember stopping and kicking their bikes 2 or 3 times. At one place near

the checkpost, we did not switch off the bike engines and we were asked to switch it off by the

police.

I told them that we haveproblem with the engines,

and the army personneltells me, "Bund karo,

Gaadi start karna Hum

sikadenge" ("Switch off

the engine, we will teach

you how to start it")

At this time I was totally

pissed off with the bikes. I

just wished we reachSrinagar somehow. Th

bikes would die one afterthe other. I remember

kicking 2 bikes one after

the other. About 30 kicks per bike , 3 times. (Total of 180kicks !!!)

We reached Srinagar town and the tome was 10pm. The hunt for lodges began. I was struggling

to start Rajesh's bike on the road right next to the Dal Lake. Some army people suspected us and

started enquiring. I was losing my patience by every passing moment.

Some people near the Dal lake promised us to find us accomodation in a boat house. Wefinallysettled for the night in a boat house which was a little far from Dal Lake.

I left the place with those people to get dinner from a a nearby restaurant. I had taken 2 of themon my Bullet (Riding trips in the middle of the night in Srinagar with strangers.. How cool is that

:D)

After a fresh shower and dinner, i was relieved from the entire trauma. The next day would startby finding a mechanic in Srinagar and leaving to Delhi as soon as possible. I started thinking,

there is no way we are going to cover Srinagar to Delhi in 2 and a half days. The distance from

Srinagar to Delhi is 876 km. We can do it if our bikes were performing well. But looking at our

bikes, all i can think of is "We are doomed".

And then, my tiredness got the better of me and i fell asleep in no time.


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Photo courtsey : Wikipedia (I did not click shots here, as i was paranoid about

getting to Srinagar as soon as possible)


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Day 13 : The day of reckoning...

Srinagar to Patnitop- 12th July 2007

The boathouse family served us with excellent tea and Bread-Butter toast. We started ourpacking and Rajesh went out to get his bike repaired. I later got my rear brakes repaired (but still

it was not usable).

We started from Srinagar sometime around 11am. We had the

impossible task of making it to Jammu by midnight.

It was a long journey tackling army traffic through narrow

roads. Rajesh's bike was troubling all the way.

Sometime in the evening i had my first bike- fall in my entire

13 days of bike riding. We fell inside a 2.3km long tunnel.The road inside was slippery as oil had spilled all over.. I hada couple of bruises while Abhijith did not suffer from any

bruises.

Later, Murali & Servo had a fall. By this time bike- fall had

become a common misadventure. As there was too muchtraffic, we were 110 km behind Jammu. Rajesh had severe

problems with his bike as it was not pulling on the terrains.

We decided to put up for the day at a place called Patnitop.

Patnitop is a hillstation and there are lots of resorts and lodges available. We found a decent

lodge and with no options left, we rested for the day.

1 and half days left and we had to cover 600km. Impossible!!!


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Day 14 : The day when things actually did

not go wrong...

Patnitop to Jammu - 13th July 2007

We started quite late fromPatnitop as everybody was

tired. We decided that we

would reach Jammu assoon as possible and try to

send our bikes to Delhi by

train.

It was a short journey and

we reached Jammu by12pm.After a small

search, we reached JammuTawi Railway station.

After enquiring about the

trains, we were relieved tohear the news that the

bikes can be sent to Delhi

by a train starting

sometime in the afternoon.

We had another problem. Ravi's bike had no documents and this would be a problem as therailway authorities ask for the original documents. After negotiating with the officer of the parcel

department, he agreed to send it by his private parcel van which would be attached to the train.

We booked tickets for ourselves in a different train and the bikes were loaded to go. We were

informed that the bikes will be reaching at 6am, next day. As our train would be reaching almost

the same time next day, it will be just in time to collect the bikes, return it to madaan and catch

the flight.

We had the entire afternoon to spare. After dumping our luggages at the railway platform we

took turns to have lunch. I had a Masala Dosa at a eat-out.

The train journey was comfortable.

We (me & Abhijith) were not worried as our flights were at 5:30pm next day and we had ample

time to freshen up.


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Day 15 : The Rush hour...

Delhi to Bangalore - 14th July 2007

We woke up quite early because of the hot whether of Delhi. It was around 8am, we reached theOld Delhi station.

The first task in hand was to find the status of the bikes. It so happened that the parcel vancontaining the bikes had reached Delhi station but it has not come to the parcel delivery

platform. we were informed that it would be dispatched as soon as possible. After a lot of

frustration and persuasion, we managed to get the bikes out on the road only at 12pm. Ravi,Rajesh & Murali had their flights departing at 1pm. We started riding towards Karol Bagh amidst

the heavy Delhi traffic with the wildest hope.

Rajesh, Murali and me somehow made it to Karol Bagh by 12:30pm or so while ravi was

nowhere to be seen. I went back searching for ravi and i find Ravi pushing his bike. I took thebike from him and boarded him on an auto along with the other two to the airport. All of us were

looking like rag pickers. Ravi, rajesh & Murali made it to the airport just in time. Later we found

out that their flight got delayed, which i think helped them to catch some breath.

Meanwhile Me, Abhijith, Servo & Vijju had a tough time bargaining with Arun of Madaan

Motors for the trauma his bikes had put us in. He is a businessman and knows the game of the

trade and we ended up paying heavily for the damages of the bikes.

The time was 4pm and i had to freshen up. We rushed to our lodge (which was booked by

Abhijith & Servo, while we were taking the bikes from the railway station to Karol Bagh).

Took a city taxi and made it to the airport just 15 min before departure. We rushed to the checkin

counter and once our luggage got checked in, we had a sigh of relief and i saw a smile on

Abhijith's face.

We had not eaten all day and we hogged like 2 beggars at the airport. the flight was on time.

Since we had booked our return tickets with Air Sahara, I got some more food to eat during my

flight journey.

As time passed by and as I was recollecting the events of the day, i was overwhelmed to see the

city lights of Bangalore from the window.

We reached Bangalore by 9:00pm. I bid goodbye to Abhijith and returned home to tell a long

story to my bro and my mom who was waiting at home.

Those 15 days had taught me a lot of things. Those 15 days had tranformed my mind to adifferent state. I had learnt to cope up with challenges. now i now my limits. Now i know how to

aim for the impossible. Now i know the meaning of Persistence.


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Now i know what it takes to do a 15-day bike journey through one of the coldest deserts in the

world.

The beauty of Ladakh will keep me in peace forever...

Documents

Exploring Ladakh Final