Trip #1: August 2007: Our first ever trip to Ladakh – this is how it all started!

In June of 2007, my dear friend Elly tabled the idea of doing a two week ride to Ladakh. Honestly, till then I never really knew about the place and may have never known but for that day! I had done rides before and most of them were crazy unplanned trips, but nothing that could match this one.

We had a couple of friends who had done this before and were going to join us on the mission, some more folks joined into the plan later on. Soon we were a group of 10 individuals and 7 bikes who were all set to explore the barren landscapes of Ladakh. Most of us had no idea on how to send the bikes out by train etc, but having experienced folks in the group helped in getting the logistics planned out etc.

Riding gear was bought from our very own friend at Cramster and we were all getting nervously excited about the whole trip. Tickets were booked and bikes were shipped three of days prior to our arrival at Delhi.

Finally the d-day arrived on July 28,2007 and we were all airborne to our first destination i.e New Delhi. While we successfully unloaded all the Enfields at the railway station, we had a bit of a nightmare when the one and only Pulsar didn’t show up. It was shipped from Mumbai and was sent on a train that terminated at Amritsar, we were told that they probably missed unloading it and it should be coming back on the same train the next day! While the initial search operation was painful, a journo friend pulled some contact with the station master and thereon we were attended like celebrities. It was an experience that exemplified how the slow moving government machinery can be accelerated through the right levers. 


We were running late by a day when we started, but we were all together and that was the biggest highlight of the trip back then. The stopover at Chandigarh was the most memorable one, all thanks to the Chandigarh Road Survivors who treated us like long lost friends and even escorted us out of the city as we left early morning only to be stalled by my bike that had an alternator failure. We finally left for Kullu that afternoon and had it not been for the help from Jojo and his boys, we would have probably lost another day in getting the bike fixed.



The excitement never stopped that day and we literally lost contact with one of our crew who rode from Mandi to Kullu without any halts after his bike had to be jump started due to a battery failure. Two others champions rode that distance with fused headlamps, using a Maglite as a light source. Finally we regrouped at Kullu and everything was okay!

Next day, we were going to climb our first pass – Rohtang! After a harrowing experience through the slush and with half burnt clutches we thoroughly enjoyed our first Maggi at Marhi and crossed the pass at around 5PM.

  

 After coming down from the pass and beyond Koksar, we were hit by the next hurdle. It was around 6PM and the road had disappeared, nobody had a clue on where to go since we had we had to cross the infamous Paagal Naala at around 6PM. Finally, it was a good team effort that saw us pass through the raging river like water crossing – our first water crossing and one of the most memorable too. It’s sad to see that the legendary naala doesn’t exist anymore, there was a bridge on it a couple of years ago which is now gone and we passed through it this time around, but it wasn’t like what you see in the pictures below.

  
 
The following day saw one of our riders getting hit by AMS – yet another first for us. We decided to stay another day at Jispa and help him acclimatize but he finally had to drop out of the group and turn back. With heavy hearts, we bade him goodbye and moved on!

Soon we were riding in the mountains like it was second nature and after passing through the biting cold at BaralachLa we made a quick photostop at Sarchu for some breath-taking views.



That day was the first time ever we stayed in those big tents at Pang for about 50 bucks per head. Though it got really cold in the night, it was an awesome experience to stay at such a basic place and yet cherish it like a 5-star experience. The open air experience for the morning rituals was a new milestone for many in the group.

  

The following day morning saw us ride through the 30kms of gruelling terrain at Moreh Plains, but this was also the best photoshoot opportunity we had encountered so far. This was the first time for most of us to be riding through such a long stretch of open land and even though it looks perfectly flat, the sand is treacherous enough to swallow half the tyres in some places.



The climb to TanglangLa was also quite a tough one and finally we were nearing our destination after crossing second highest pass in the world. We were so delighted to enter Leh that we took a long break at this sign board just to let the feeling sink in.



At Leh, we roamed around the city and visited the usual suspects like the Shanti Stupa, the Leh Palace, Shey Palace etc.





The next big event was going to be a ride to KhardungLa – the moment of pride for all of us!



Given that we were a bit behind schedule, we had to squeeze in a day trip to Pangong Tso. We decided to hire two cabs for the Pangong visit since riding up and down in a day would have been virtually impossible and extremely tiring. Pangong also used to have the raging Paagal Nallah just as you reached the lake which was like an urban legend at that time. There were stories which indicated that even the cabbies used to be scared to cross it after 3PM since it was said that the water flow could easily pull away a qualis or sumo.
The mesmerizing lake itself is incomparable in its beauty and grandeur and the two hours we spent there were truly satisfying.


  
With KhardungLa and Pangong covered in our first trip, we were out of time and we returned back safely to Delhi and got our bikes on the train after a lot of running around. Given that we were back just around the Independence Day, the railway stations weren’t accepting bikes as parcel and we had to get them onboard as accompanied luggage on general class tickets that they made us buy for no reason. The trip was and still is the most memorable trip to Ladakh, it had all the elements to make it successful and enjoyable.

PS> I've used a few pictures in the 2007 section that are clicked by my dear friends Elvin & John who were a part of this wonderful trip. 

Trip #3: June 2009 - My most leisurely trip to Ladakh!

In Oct 2008, I had another trip planned to Spiti with a friend and he had done major preparations for it. Sadly, I had to call it off just a day before we were supposed to leave due to a family exigency. But, to make it up for it, I promised to accompany him to Ladakh in the next season.

Earlier in 2009, my wife gave me wonderful news that we were expecting our first offspring later that year. Now, that meant that she couldn’t join for the trip and it took a bit of convincing before she dropped all objections about me going on the trip without her. All arrangements were made for her convenience and we had her dad at home while I was away. I even got a BSNL prepaid number and carried a spare cell phone thinking that I’d get better connectivity than the Airtel connection, but that proved to be a wrong idea – more on that later.

Now, this friend of mine, he isn’t a rider, so I had no plans to do a ride with him all the way. We explored options of hiring a cab for all days and that turned out to be a pretty expensive proposition. Finally we decided to go backpacking so that we retain atleast some element of adventure. The plan was to fly to Delhi and take a train to Jammu.

From thereon, we were supposed to be using local transport to cover longer distances and explore Leh and nearby places on hired bikes, returning through the Manali route.

Once we were at Jammu things started happening differently and we found ourselves hiring local cabs all through our journey rather than taking the bus.

We stopped at overnight at the Dal Lake in Srinagar and then hired another cab that would take us to Leh with a night halt at Kargil. That day there was a minor blast in Srinagar and when we left in the morning, the city seemed like it was locked down and under heavy patrolling. The jeep driver told us that such incidents are not very uncommon and even though the area around the lakes is fairly safe, tourists needs to take adequate precaution before wandering off into the interior parts of the city.

We stopped at the Lamayuru Monastery on our way to Leh and were lucky to witness the Yuru Khabyat festival. The masks worn by the lamas during the dances represent guardian divinities from the Dringungpa pantheon. As in the case of other monastic festivals, the sacred dance-drama concludes with destruction of the sacrificial offerings.




 
Our plan to ride around never materialized and I ended up enjoying a good one week in Leh without any agenda. All I did was to sit around at Gesmo for most of the day and then roam around the market for a couple of times. This was definitely different than all my trips, but I was experiencing what I hadn’t done in all these years….how to do nothing!

There was one day where we actually hired a bike to ride around the Shey Palace and also visited the Hemis Gompa, but that was hardly anything to call a ride.




Though we gave a miss to the Stakna monastery, I did manage to capture an amazing view of the monastery as seen from the Leh-Manali highway. The monastery is situated right at the banks of the Indus which flows through the mountains and ends it journey into the Arabian sea after covering most of Pakistan.



We did a day trip to Pangong Tso by sharing the cab with a bunch of college kids who were on their first visit. It was a sight to see those 3 young kids turn up at the starting point at 6AM in just a pair of t-shirt and jeans while we were all suited up for the cold.



Later we found out that the youngsters were mis-guided by the hotel guy that they won’t need any woolens on the way. Poor guys wore a frozen look at ChangLa as we stopped to click some pictures. We drove all the way with the windows rolled up to avoid them from freezing up.

The lake itself never ceases to surprise you with the varied colors and barren mountains and we had a good time walking around and clicking lots of pictures. At about 14000ft, it’s not a very easy thing to move around the lake on foot.

Though the lake doesn’t have many life-forms to support, it is often visited by the high-flying birds like the brown headed gulls, bar-headed geese and brahminy ducks in the summers. The lake gets completely frozen during winters despite the salt water and it’s said that the army guys can even drive their cars on it.





The next trip was an overnighter to Nubra valley and this time we had a mother and daughter duo sharing the car. We made the customary stop at Khardung La for a photoshoot and then proceeded towards Hunder which was going to be our night stay.



It was interesting to see how the elderly lady had all the energy and excitement to tour with her daughter who had returned from the US for a vacation. This was my first trip to the Nubra valley and while I enjoyed what I saw, I sorely missed the involvement that a bike ride has to offer.



On our way back, we made a quick stop at the Diskit Monastery which was quite a nice experience.



After whiling away a lot of time in Leh, we decided to head back and hired a taxi who would take us to Manali with a night stopover.



On our way to Manali, we had a night halt at one of the tents at Bharatpur which is right at the base of BaralachLa and it turned out to be a sleepless adventure for both of us. While we had enough insulation to cover us on top, the floor wasn’t well insulated and it felt like we were sleeping on a block of ice. Not once did we remember to use the sleeping bags that we lugged around all the way in our backpack!



The following day we reached Manali and then a bus got us to Delhi where we boarded our return flight to Bangalore. Overall, we accomplished all that we were set to do, but there was no sense of adventure in the whole trip. We just sat on the backseat of the taxi and looked out of the window as most of the tourists do. There was this one time we actually went to hire bikes in Leh and ride to Pangong Tso, but my friend backed out of the idea which left us with no other option than to hire cabs all our way.

After this trip, I realized how different it is when we travel on bikes versus being driven around in a car. When you’re on the bike:

• You’re a part of the environment around you and you’re in a much better position to experience those magnificent landscapes.
• Your eyes are always analyzing the road for the best possible route and both hands and legs are in perfectly coordinated rhythm – you’re constantly doing something.
• There’s a feeling of accomplishment each day as you cover distances and stop for the night. There are many stories to talk about as you make your way through the difficult terrain.
• You’re exposed to all the natural elements and you have to protect yourselves in order to stay the course.
• You’re independent and you can choose to modify your plans based on your choices.

Overall conclusion, taxi rides are not for me! They’re just too boring and even though we covered most of the places I’ve done before, there was no sense of accomplishment in the whole trip.

Trip #4: July 2010 - Yet Another Exploration Ride To Ladakh

After the leisurely experience in 2009, I had to somehow get over that feeling and get back to some adventure riding. The answer to that was a solo ride, but getting permission from the home ministry was next to impossible. Given that my wife had once again extended her courtesy in letting me go out alone while she managed the baby, I couldn’t risk the opportunity by trying to go against her wishes. That’s when my old time buddy Elly said he could join for company and the trip was officially on!

We wanted to cover places that we hadn’t done before and a long list of places were put together that included Zanskar, Hanle, Marsimik La, Tso Moriri etc. Another college buddy, Anand, wanted to join in with his old gen CBZ and though we’ve known each year for years now, we never had a chance to ride together. This was his first big ride or maybe I should say, his first official ride ever and there were a lot of unknowns about how it will turn out, but that’s what makes things interesting. We had no history about how he rides and whether his bike will be able to make it, but we’re best of friends so these things are never really a consideration.

I had to make a business trip scheduled to Pune, Hyderabad and Delhi around the same time in July so instead of making two separate trips I decided to merge business with leisure and start the ride after I finished work in Delhi. That meant I had to lug around all my stuff on a three different flights till before the official flag-off and that I’d be out of the house for nearly a full month. Managing the luggage was a bit challenging since I had to pack clothes for the business visit and for the trip separately, plus I had to keep it under the 30kg limit to avoid excess baggage charge. I had to drop a few things like the tool kit for example and after a few iterations, everything was managed in 30kgs. It was interesting to see people stared at the saddle bags strapped on with gumboots on top at the airport conveyor belts.



The bike was shipped prior to my departure from Bangalore and I knew it would be sitting at the Delhi railway station for a few days before I pick it up. Anand reached Delhi the same day I did and we both met at the railway station to get our bikes out. He had loaded his bike as accompanied luggage on the same train he traveled while my bike had to be picked up from the parcel counter. It was pretty easy to locate the bikes and we were thinking it was going to be a pretty easy day after all, but then Murphy’s Law hit us - Everything takes longer than you think.

First, I had left the keys to my bike at the hotel, but that wasn’t such a big deal since it wasn’t handle-locked and I knew how to get it started without the keys. The one thing we’d have to figure out was how to push some fuel inside the tank since the fuel cap needs the key. Just when I had it all figured out, Anand accidentally broke the throttle grip and now there was another problem to deal with. I pushed the bike out to the front side of Nizammuddin station and was hoping to find a mechanic and luckily there was one young enterprising chap who came to our rescue. He managed to find a spare throttle grip in his Pandora’s box and also helped us get the fuel inside the tank. What looked like a 15 minute job took us more than a couple of hours but we were done and I was back at the hotel in time to get ready for work.

The next day all three of us met to discuss the plan and we found out that Elly’s bike needed some repairs which would take about a day. The schedule was to leave in the morning on the following day to Chandigarh but we decided to leave late afternoon once his bike was ready. There was another problem to think of, Rohtang was reportedly closed for the previous 2 days and it could remain closed for a few more days. Srinagar on the other hand was going through some serious issues and had a curfew situation too. We had two options, one to try our luck at Rohtang and wait it out at Manali as needed or do the Spiti route and bypass Rohtang altogether. Waiting at Manali wasn’t as exciting an option as riding through Spiti but we had to trade-off some of places from the schedule to make it happen, it also reminded me of my shoulder situation from the ride a couple of years ago. But this year I was in much better shape physically than the last time and I knew I could do it!

After a lot of delay, we finally took off from Delhi at around 6PM and reached Chandigarh at midnight. We were camping out at a friend’s house and after a lot of chit-chat we managed to get some sleep and start around 9AM on the next day. It was turning out to be a deja-vu ride since we stopped at pretty much the same places on the way and took the night halt at Narkanda (just like last time). Our next stop was going to be Chitkul, but we could only manage to reach Sangla since we didn’t fuel up at the right place and ran short on gas to go till Chitkul.



Next stop was at Tabo where we again stayed at the same place like last time and visited the monastery one more time.



On the following day, we had a problem with Elly’s bike which had developed a crack on the clutch casing and leaked out all the oil. Though we got it fixed at Kaza, it costed us a good 3-4 hours and our plans to get to Gramphoo were now put for the next day. We fueled up at Kaza thinking we’ll need fuel only till Tandi and there was no need to carry extra fuel even though we had the extra cans, this was a big oversight on our part (more on this later).



The road from Kaza to Gramphoo is the most treacherous with rocks the size of small boulders and plenty of water crossings. That day all three of us would have suffered from severe frost bites had we not found the PWD guest house at Chhota Dhara on time. We were riding with our pants and shoes drenched in freezing water of the streams and it was already post 6PM.



Next day we reached Gramphoo and were pleasantly surprised to have all the road to ourselves, Rohtang was still not open. We got to Tandi to fuel up for our rest of the journey to Leh - for both the T’birds, we would have needed full tanks plus another 5 liters each to reach Leh, the CBZ would have needed 2-3 liters spare. That’s when disaster hit us, the guy at the fuel station said he’d give us 2 liters per bike since he was in a rationing mode. The blockage at Rohtang meant that he hadn’t received his supply for almost 2 weeks and since he’s the only guy in that region he can’t let the pump go dry completely. We had already burned around 8 liters from Kaza to Tandi and we needed 5 more, so in total we needed 13 liters each for the T’birds and may be 10litres for the CBZ and all we were being offered was 6 litres in total. It took us about an hour to get him to agree for at least 5 litres per bike, this wasn’t enough but it was still better than the previous offer. We thought we could camp at keylong for the day and then come back next day for another 5 litres, but the guy was smarter and ruled out that option as well.



This was the second time in the trip that we were stuck with low fuel even after carrying those empty spare cans, all because we were being too optimistic. Now, with the given situation we calculated that we were roughly about 100kms short on fuel until we hit the reserve mark on the T’birds. The CBZ could probably make it if we emptied the tanks on the T’birds after it hits the reserve and pour that into the CBZ. That way we could possibly have one bike reaching Leh and come back with fuel, the trip was still ON, although it may cost us a day more. The other option was to look for fuel at the tents in Sarchu, most of the time you’d be able to buy it from them at a marked up price. Anyways, we were prepared for the worst and it was not going to dampen our spirit to carry on.

We rode to Sarchu that day and got ourselves into those luxury swiss tents for the night. It was freezing cold in the night but we all slept peacefully because we didn’t really know what tomorrow have in store for us. Luckily, we were able to secure about 20 litres of fuel at one of the tents on the next day and that put us at ease for the rest of the day’s journey. Given that Rohtang was closed for a long time, all tent guys also had run out of fuel supply but one, and it was our lucky day.



Soon we were lounging at the Gesmo bakery in Leh and firming up plans for the next few days. Anand was going to have his wife and sister fly into Leh and spend some time with them while Elly and me had plans to explore Pangong Tso, Hanle, Tso Moriri and reach Pang where we’d catch up with Anand for the rest of the journey.



Our T’birds were barely giving us a mileage of 20-22 km/lit and with around 250kms range we needed about 35-40 litres spare for each bike if we had to do Leh-Pangong-Chulshul-Hanle-Tso Moriri-Tso Kar-Pang-Sarchu-Tandi as there is no fuel station anywhere on the route and we didn’t want to rely on our luck again. So we changed the plan again and did an overnight trip to Pangong before we set off for our return journey which looked like this: Leh – Hanle – Tso Moriri – Tso Kar – Pang – Sarchu – Manali. I had about 50 litres of fuel strapped on my bike, just about enough for the two bikes to reach Tandi for the next stop.



Our ride to Hanle took us through some really stunning landscapes and even though there are no water crossing or passes to climb, it was a very satisfying experience. As we reached the village, we were a bit surprised since this was a completely non-commercialized place and had no signs of hotels or guest houses.



We directly went to the observatory where I spoke to the resident engineer about stay options either at the observatory or in the village. He guided us to the one and only option in the village that could offer us some basic accommodation and food. There was a bus full of high-school kids from Leh queued up at the observatory and we chose to return back the next day instead of becoming a part of that chaos.



The next day morning we made a visit to the observatory and then rode up to the Analy Gompa, but we couldn’t find anyone there to help us get an inside tour. We started our ride back to the Mahe bridge from where we had to take the left to Tso Moriri which was our next night halt.



The roads for the most part were pretty decent until the last 30 odd kms which was a pure offroading adventure. The Korzok village had quite a few stay options, we chose to stay at the Ladakh camps tent site which was a pretty nice place although a bit expensive at around 2500-3000 per night. But the experience was worth it and the food was quite sumptuous too. We rode around the lake for a bit to get some pictures and watched the sunrise light up the blue waters early next day. It was simply magical to be there!

The ride from Tso Moriri to Tso Kar was going to take us through some really desolate places and soon after we took the turn off from Sumdo village all that we could hear was the engines roaring and no other human soul was sighted for a long time until we reached Tso Kar for an early lunch. After witnessing the majestic beauty of Tso Moriri, Tso Kar was a bit of a disappointment and we didn’t really spend time at the lake.

About half hour after we left from Tso Kar is when we had the first big incident of the trip. Elly was riding about a km ahead of me but I still had direct line of sight because of the open plains. The road was tarred but narrow and was lined by the soft desert sand on both sides. And then it happens, Elly’s bike veered to the left and the next moment I saw him being thrown face-down on the tarmac while his bike did two somersaults and landed in a ditch about 15-20 feet from the road. I guess he must be doing around 50kph at the time and the impact on landing flat on the tarmac would have been quite a bit. There was a cold shiver down my spine thinking about the possible eventualities of the accident as I closed in towards the spot for the next couple of minutes. He was motionless for about 30secs and then sat up and was on his feet by the time I reached there, I was so relieved! His helmet was broken at his chin and the armored jacket torn at places, the knee pads were broken too. He was in a state of shock as he stood there looking around and trying to figure what just hit him. I made him do the regular drill of checking whether he had sensations on his hands and legs and whether he had sustained any internal injuries. With all the riding gear he had, he got away with just a few bruises on his hand between the jacket sleeve and gloves.

The bike on the other hand wasn’t that lucky, it had done two full 360 degrees flips before landing in the ditch. All the strapped luggage was thrown off the bike and that included his camera bag too. Luckily, because of the soft mud around, there was no collateral damage to his camera kit. I was suspecting that the front forks would have taken hit and the bike may not be able to run anymore. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the forks were able to take the fall without any damage. The front headlamp assembly and the dials were completely destroyed and the handle bar was in a bad shape with both sides bent in different directions. It took us a bit of an effort to pull it out of the ditch but the good news was that it started in a couple of kicks. Now, the two big questions were whether we’ll be able to salvage the situation and make the bike “rideable” and whether or not he could ride the rest of the distance.

The initial reaction was to just try and get some help and load the bike on a truck to either Manali or Leh. We were in the middle of nowhere and there was absolutely no traffic that we had seen on that road, but we could spot some traffic on what looked like a track about 3kms parallel to our road alongside the mountain ranges. After making sure that Elly was okay, I set off to look for some help and found a GREF camp about 5kms ahead. That’s when I realized that the track we could see alongside the mountains was the Leh-Manali route and we would have been well on our way to Pang had this incident not happened. Anyways, the camp had a few people around and I came back for Elly so that we could just get the bikes there and get him some medical attention.

I fixed the handlebar to a good extent using a stone for a hammer and we rode slowly to the GREF camp where the guys were more than helpful as always. We also met Anand who was on the way to Pang which was the agreed upon meeting point. Now that we were regrouped, we talked about various options of continuing the trip but finally decided that we’ll just keep riding on slowly and reach Manali.

Finally we set off from there thinking we’ll take a night halt at Pang which was about 40kms away, but ended up riding until 8PM to reach Sarchu for the night. We couldn’t believe that despite all the events and the fact that Elly was riding with a crooked handle-bar we were able to make it successfully. The night was going to be a deciding factor for the next day’s ride plan since we’d know if Elly had any internal inflammation/injury that showed signs after a good night’s sleep.



The morning had some good news for us that Elly was all fit and fine and we could continue our trip as planned. After a grueling climb to Rohtang La through all the slush, we were finally on the other side and slowly descended towards our destination for the day, Manali. It was a big sigh of relief once we parked our bikes at the hotel in Manali coz the difficult part of the ride was over. We got Elly’s bike fixed up with a new handlebar and a few other necessary repairs and things were pretty much back to normal.

From Manali onwards we were going to split up as Elly and Anand were going towards Amritsar while I was going to return back to Delhi. What a ride it was, lot of action, drama and some pretty scary moments too, but in the end we all thoroughly enjoyed it!

Trip #5: July 2012 - Pozu's First Trip to La'L'akh

Well, you must be wondering who’s Pozu and what’s the deal with her first trip (doesn’t everyone go to Ladakh these days!).


Pozu is our lovely 2.5 year old daughter who’s turned into quite a traveler by now. She just finished a good 8500km long road trip with us starting from Bangalore going up to the northern-most state of the country and back. She’s also the one who’s been so excited ever since we took off from Bangalore that everyday she’d ask us in her baby-lisped tone whether we’ve reached La’L’akh yet. And finally she did see and experience what the whole deal was about!

I had a similar trip planned for last year which had a lot of people perplexed about why I’d want to do such a thing. Deep within, I knew that it can be done if necessary precautions are taken and that Pozu will be able to do it without any trouble. Unfortunately, the trip could never materialize due to work pressure and my plans had to be pushed out. Now that I’ve done the trip I feel good about how easily she was able to cope with long travel hours, extreme weather conditions and an irregular food schedule.

Since early this year, we were pretty kicked about the idea of doing a road trip all the way from Bangalore so when the time came to get our bags packed, we had them ready a couple of weeks before time. We also raked in an extra week of holiday to get enough time and cover all places that we had listed out.

The plan was to do the Srinagar-Leh-Manali route since Gozu hadn’t done it yet and also since we’d be able to do Zanskar on the way which has been on my list for a long time. We were thinking of making this our last trip to the region and wanted to cover almost everything so that we can look elsewhere from the next year onwards.

The original plan for the trip looked something like this:

• Day 1: Bangalore – Mumbai – Surat – Vadodara
• Day 2: Vadodara – Ahmedabad – Kishangarh – Hanumangarh – Abohar – Amritsar
• Day 3: Amritsar – Jammu – Srinagar
• Day 4: Rest day at Srinagar
• Day 5: Srinagar – Kargil – Rangdum
• Day 6: Rangdum – Padum
• Day 7: Padum – Rangdum
• Day 8: Rangdum – Kargil – Leh
• Day 9: Rest day at Leh
• Day 10: Leh – Hunder/Turtuk (Nubra)
• Day 11: Hunder – Leh
• Day 12: Leh – Tso Moriri
• Day 13: Rest day at Tso Moriri
• Day 14: Tso Moriri - Sarchu
• Day 15: Sarchu – Losar
• Day 16: Losar – Kaza
• Day 17: Kaza – Chitkul
• Day 18: Rest day at Chitkul
• Day 19: Chitkul – Solan
• Day 20: Solan – Agra
• Day 21: Rest day at Agra
• Day 22: Agra – Nagpur
• Day 23: Nagpur – Bangalore

The first two day schedule was a very aggressive and/or optimistic and I knew that we may not make those 2700kms to Amritsar in two days given that we had short stopovers planned at Pune and Mumbai. With enough rest days built into the plan we could be quite flexible with our plan and accommodate such delays easily.

At the end of the trip, the final route was:

• Day 1: Bangalore – Pune – Mumbai – Surat
• Day 2: Surat – Udaipur – Ajmer – Pushkar
• Day 3: Pushkar – Kishangarh – Hanumangarh – Abohar – Amritsar
• Day 4: Amritsar – Jammu – Srinagar
• Day 5: Rest day at Srinagar
• Day 6: Srinagar – ZojiLa – Drass – Kargil
• Day 7: Kargil – Rangdum
• Day 8: Rangdum – Padum
• Day 9: Padum – Rangdum – Kargil
• Day 10: Kargil – Lamayuru – Leh
• Day 11: Rest Day at Leh
• Day 12: Leisurely Stay at Leh
• Day 13: Leh – Chumathang – Mahe – Tso Moriri
• Day 14: Tso Moriri – Tso Kar – Pang – Sarchu – Jispa
• Day 15: Jispa – Rohtang – Manali – Mandi – Ghaghas – Brahmpukhar – Subathu – Solan
• Day 16: Solan – Chandigarh – Delhi – Noida – Agra
• Day 17 & 18: Agra – Jaipur – Chittorgarh – Udaipur – Ahmedabad – Vadodara – Mumbai
• Day 19 & 20: Family time at Mumbai
• Day 21 & 22: Family time at Pune
• Day 23: Pune – Hubli – Bangalore

You’d notice that we never really covered a few places off the original plan, but that was since midway through the trip we decided to convert the trip into a family vacation rather than some kind of expedition. Afterall, we’d been to most of the places before and the weather conditions weren’t all that great either. We also wanted to give Pozu enough time to play and get into a proper eating schedule since she wasn’t burning enough calories to feel hungry on the days we did the long drives.

The rain gods played havoc at a lot of places through the region this year and we were lucky to be a little ahead of the chaos and had narrow escapes.

• As we crossed out from Srinagar and reached Kargil, all news channels were flashing reports of a flash flood situation in the Tawi river and the Jammu-Srinagar route had to be shut down.
• Later when we were in Leh, there were reports that the Manali-Kullu highway had caved into the river due to heavy rains and that was shut for a couple of days. Later it was opened with regulated traffic but by the time we reached Manali, the situation had improved quite a lot. However the road section that had caved in couldn’t be repaired easily and the whole highway had reduced to half size for about 50meters or so.
• Just about a month earlier, there had been flash floods near Kaza and the road to Pin Valley was closed down completely. As we were crossing Rohtang we met some guys who told us that they had to turn back on the Spiti route from Shimla to Kaza at Rampur due to heavy flooding. We were lucky to have decided against going through Spiti since otherwise we would have gotten stuck at Rampur.

Three days before we were supposed to leave, I had a minor accident with my car when some guy failed to brake on time and broke the rear bumper beyond repair. I guess this was the event that keep off bad luck through the trip and using all the contacts possible I was able to get the car fixed in less than 2 days – in time for the trip to begin.

On July 27th, I tried to finish all the work as soon as possible, but like the Murphy law suggests – Everything takes longer than what you think, it was not until past midnight that I shut down my laptop. The original plan was to leave at 1AM but we finally hit the road at 4.30AM and were on our way to Pune which was the first pitstop for lunch. Meeting family is never a quick affair and swe finally were out of Pune at 6PM or so and reached my parents’ house at about 7.30PM. After a lot of convincing that it’s okay for us to still carry on, we left for our destination in Gujarat. That day’s plan was to reach Vadodara but at around 1AM, I just pulled over at a hotel by the highway and we called it a day.



Next day we were sure that it was impossible to reach Amritsar which was 1600kms away and decided to wrap up the day at Pushkar in Rajasthan.



A slow start on the following day was still good enough to get us to Amritsar on Day 3. We got ourselves a hotel and ordered the most atrocious food of our trip, but given the limited choice we just ate enough to keep our tummies filled up and hit the bed. The next morning we were going to visit the Golden Temple at about 4AM and leave for Srinagar.



All my experiences at the Golden Temple have been very satisfying and this was one was no different. The early morning kirtans and the dark sky added to the peace and serenity of the temple and we had a refreshing start for the morning.



At about 5.30AM we were out of the city and marching towards Pathankot on the potholed highway, the roads dramatically improved after Pathankot though. Soon we crossed into Jammu & Kashmir at Lakhanpur and thereon we had planned to take the Samba-Udhampur route where we were denied access by the local police. They cited reasons of the road condition being bad but weren’t really able to give a convincing answer. I conceded to their argument to avoid conflict and moved on to take the Jammu bypass instead. Though the roads were good, the traffic was slowing us down quite a bit and we were averaging around 40kph or so. To add to that, the cops stopped our car at Anantnag because of tinted glasses and insisted that they’d have to strip them off immediately. I had retained the tints for this trip and was going to take it out anyways, but this event accelerated the process anyways. With the sunfilm gone, the sun felt like it was out there to burn us down and it was unbearable at certain times, but there’s little that we could do.



We reached Srinagar at around 8PM and checked into the houseboat which was already booked for us by my uncle. The houseboat was a pretty nice one and we had it all for ourselves which was the best part. The next day we planned to do a customary Shikara ride and then go around the lake a bit to get the car fueled up etc.



The morning Shikara ride was a very scintillating experience as we passed by the Lotus and the Lily gardens toward the Dal market where Gozu made herself happy with some shopping. Rest of the day was spent lounging at the boat.



The next day’s stop was going to be at Rangdum in the Zanskar valley, but we left a bit late from Srinagar and reached Kargil only at 5PM. Instead of taking a chance and driving in the dark, we chose to stay at Kargil and proceed to Rangdum on the next day. Now, Kargil has very limited stay options but we managed to find a really nice hotel D.Zojila which had good rooms and food albeit at a slightly higher cost.

On the way we visited the Kargil War Memorial which is symbolizes the victory and sacrifice in the war that took place in 1999. It’s a must visit place for anyone traveling on this circuit to pay homage to the brave soldiers who got us the victory in the war against the evil infiltrators.

The Amar Jyoti was a recent addition to the memorial as I hadn’t seen it on my last trip in 2009. The war museum had exhibits of various remnants of the weapons that were used and also pictures from the battlefield. This time they also had a short documentary film that was playing on a projector screen. Overall, this was a very enriching visit and just standing in front of the massive tri-color makes you feel humble about the freedom we enjoy while these soldiers brave difficult conditions to keep the nation at peace.



The drive from Kargil to Rangdum was pretty interesting and after the initial 30odd kms, the roads are nothing but dirt tracks all through. Morever, there’s a lot of construction work going on which means that there are road blocks at various places too.



Rangdum has only one PWD guest house with about 2-3 rooms in total. On that day, there was just one VIP room available and the care-taker told me that I’d have to vacate it if any govt official landed in later in the day. On our way, we had met a trekking group who were on going to do the Padum-Darcha trek. They told me that they’d camp at Rangdum for the night and that we could join them. Instead of taking a chance with it, we decided to camp along with the group and pitched our tent at the camping site about 4kms outside the village.



The trekking group was led by a Nepali guide and had a Nepali cook along with a few other Ladakhi men. They were very hospitable and when I inquired if they’d be able to help us with food, they were more than willing to accept our request. They were taking a group of 12 French nationals on the trek who were all excited to be there.

We had a couple of boys visiting the camp site who were very amused looking at Pozu and wanted to make friends. They stayed at the Tashi village which was about 4-5kms from the place and were returning back from school.

The camp site was simply amazing and so was the weather until after dinner time. It started raining after 8.30PM and the wind picked up speed as well. Initially I thought it would be a short drizzle but it continued all through the night. At one point in time, we even moved to the car for shelter for about an hour but it wasn’t comfortable to sleep and finally returned back to the tent. Gozu and myself were all covered up from head to toe and had the sleeping bag to keep us warm too. Pozu on the other hand had taken off her woolen cap, gloves, woolen inners and slept peacefully with just a sweater and a fleece blanket. The temperature outside showed -5 Deg C and even though inside the tent it was a bit better, it wouldn’t have been more than 4-5 Deg C.



The next day we drove up to Padum which was a bit of a disappointment since we couldn’t find any camping spot and there were no good hotels as well. We finally found a guest house which was just about okay but we were expecting something more spectacular.

The Drang Drung glacier on the other hand is the one big reason why we wanted to move ahead of Rangdum and we were absolutely stunned by what we saw. The glacier is just about 15 mins ahead of the Penzi La pass which is the highest point you have to cross to start descend towards Padum. I’ve seen pictures where the glacier is in its full glory and the whole mountain slope is covered with absolutely white patch of ice, but given the time of the year most of the ice had already melted into the Doda river that emerges from it.



On our way back, we made sure that we left Padum early in the morning so that we could drive all the way to Kargil and even try to get to Leh if possible. But we made a stop at Kargil since it was 4PM by the time we reached and it wouldn’t have been wise to drive for another 6-7 hours.



We stopped by and visited the Rangdum Gompa which is one of the well-known places in the Zanskar region.



The following morning we left Kargil early and visited the Lamayuru Gompa which is right on the way.



We reached Leh a little after lunch time and checked into Hotel K’sar which offered a decent room at budget price. It had a dedicated parking space for the car which was a priority since I could just leave a lot of stuff in the car without worry. Soon we found ourselves at Gesmo for our first big meal for the day.



We extended our stay at Leh by a day by ditching the plan to visit Nubra so that we could get Pozu to get into her regular food schedule and also get ample rest before we start the return leg of the trip. Given the conditions at Rohtang/Manali, we wanted to make sure that we don’t end up getting stuck on our way back.



Just to make sure we don’t land up in a fuel shortage situation like the 2010 trip, we roamed around a bit in the Leh market and procured two army jerrycans so that we had around 40 litres of fuel in case of a contingency. We were going to take the Leh – Tso Moriri – Tso Kar – Pang – Sarchu – Manali route and even though theoretically the stretch could have been managed with a single tank of fuel, I preferred to carry that extra fuel just to have some peace of mind.



The roads to Tso Moriri were pretty good until we turned off at the Mahe bridge and there on it was decent roads till about Tso Kiagar which is 30kms from Tso Moriri.



At Tso Moriri, we chose to stay at the same tent camp where I had stayed before. We went for a drive around the lake and Gozu and Pozu enjoyed themselves at the shore throwing stones in the lake.



The weather was pretty unpredictable and we had a quick drizzle from a dark cloud that moved from one end of the lake to the other, also creating a nice rainbow in the whole process. It was a very exciting experience to be there, but I was a bit disappointed from a photography standpoint since there was hardly any light.

Had there been enough sunlight, the water in the lake would have put up a brilliant show displaying different shades of blue and aqua just like Pangong Tso.



The next day we drove upto Sumdo where you have to turn left towards Tso Kar. This is one of the most deserted route and like in 2010, we didn’t encounter even a single car/jeep on this road until we reached the intersection with the Leh-Manali route. The route has the Pologong La pass to cross which is one of the lesser known places.



This was also one of the times where we had the signature blue skies of Ladakh showed up for about 15 mins or so. Unlike our first trip where blue skies were a regular scene, this time it was pretty cloudy at most places and photography was a bit tough since the while clouds caused a lot of under exposure in the pictures.



Once we were on the Leh-Manali route, we continued our journey through Sarchu and BaralachLa to reach Jispa for the night. The Padma hotel we had stayed in 2007 was now a much bigger place and offered quite nice accommodation and food. This is where we emptied the fuel from the jerry cans even though there was still some fuel left which I think it was enough to reach Manali but didn’t want to take any chances.

The next day we left early morning since we had to cross the dreaded RohtangLa and get to Manali. After some quick breakfast at Koksar, we started our ascent to the pass and soon the roads turned from bad to worse. The 10kms on either side of the pass are in a pitiful condition with about 1-1.5 feet of slush all across the road. The good thing was that the Safari never struggled at any of the stretches and even though there were some scary moments where the road was really narrow, we made it quite easily to the top. Coming down was not difficult, but we had quite a few stops because of road work being done. I realized that the local Rohtang tourists are no longer allowed to the top and all the cabs are now stopped at Marhi, that actually helps a lot while navigating through the slush which extends all the way from the top upto Marhi.

We crossed Manali at about 12PM and decided that we’d continue towards Solan and make it there by night. While the roads were pretty good until Ghaghas, they turned pretty narrow after that and we were able to reach Solan by 9PM or so.
Our agenda in Solan was to visit baby Myrra who’s the newest member of our group. And what a delight it was to see her. She’s like a super cuddly himachal apple and Pozu was all excited to meet someone smaller than her.

The next day morning, our friends’ father gave us the shocking news that someone had deflated all 4 tyres of the Safari. Had it not been for the portable air compressor, it would have been a really difficult task to get out of the situation since the car was parked on an incline and putting it on a jack would’ve been very risky. With the compressor, I was able to quickly pump enough air to get to the petrol station and fill it up to the recommended pressure. Later, the parking attendant told us that there were three local men who did this sick thing in the middle of the night. They even put up some ugly scratches on the bonnet which would now need repainting to take them out.

Now I agree that I had parked it outside the parking lot, but it wasn’t in a position to block anybody’s way, moreover I had parked it with just about 9 inches from the wall so that there’s maximum space left on the road. The road was pretty much a small lane with a dead end and didn’t see any traffic except for the people who came to to the parking lot. There was another HP regn car in front of me which had gone by the time we saw this in the morning which means that my car was targeted only because it had outside state registration plates. Anyways, whoever did it didn’t really succeed in their plans since it didn’t upset my trip schedule and I was able to get it fixed without sweat. As far as the scratches are concerned, they’re superficial in my opinion and no action is required immediately. I’ve already gotten plenty others as well so it doesn’t really bother me now.

We were wondering if we should just proceed towards Jaipur or go to Agra as per plan. Since we were anyways ahead of our plan we decided to go to Agra as we had tried doing it on the past two trips and it never happened. We took the newly launched Himalayan Expressway and reached Chandigarh in less than two hours from Solan. We reached Delhi about 6PM and were able to make an exit to Noida within 30mins, my fastest ever exit from the city. The Yamuna Expressway had been opened for public just a couple of days ago and they were doing free test runs until August 15th. The road is simply amazing with the whole stretch perfectly leveled, I’m sure a lot of people will be able to set personal land speed records on this stretch of 180kms.

Once at Agra, we checked into our most luxurious stay of the trip, the Taj Gateway Hotel. Given that this was pretty much our last big stop, we wanted to stay someplace nice and even though we missed getting a Taj facing room, we were happy that we got the last available room for the night. That evening we all enjoyed the food and slept really nice too!

The alarm rang at 5.30AM in the morning and we left to visit the magnificent Taj Mahal. It was really a nice experience to be there and we were surprised to see enough crowd there even at that hour in the morning. While the rest of the city isn’t somehing that I’d want to remember, the Taj on the other hand is simply the most beautiful structure I’ve ever seen. We had hired services of a guide who gave us quite a bit of information about the place and I got quite a few shots of the majestic marble structure. I just wished it wasn’t all that cloudy on that day, but again, I’m sure there will be a better time that I can be there again.



We left at 12PM from Agra and drove through Jaipur and reached Udaipur at about 11PM. We thought we’d check for some hotels to stay for the night at Udaipur but couldn’t find a good option on our way through the city. Finally, we just carried on towards Ahmedabad which was about 200kms away. At about 2AM, I started feeling very drowsy and we decided to pull over at one of the highway dhabas and rest for some time.

After catching some good sleep for about 2-3 hours, I was all set to drive for the day and we decided to reach Mumbai directly rather than making another stop for the day. As we reached Ahmedabad, we were greeted by some really huge craters hidden under the water logged road. Even though I slowed down quite a bit, it still managed to hit the transmission guard which had already been slightly bent by the rocks in Zanskar and then Rohtang. This time it had completely folded downwards and the ground clearance was reduced to half because of it. I called up my service advisor at 6AM and I was pleasantly surprised when he answered my call promptly. He confirmed that there was no issue if I drove the car carefully but recommended that I could either take it out completely or get it replaced. Now the options were to either wait in Ahmedabad until 9AM for the service center to open or get to Vadodara which was the next big city where I could get it done. Since there’s a nice expressway between the two cities, I decided to continue till Vadodara where we drove directly into the Tata service center and got the transmission guard replaced in just about an hour. The service advisor was very helpful and even though they didn’t have a new part, he quickly came up with a solution to use one of the old discarded transmission guards that was lying unused with them. With the car sorted out, we were all set to continue for the day and were able to reach Mumbai just before 6PM.

The adventure trip had officially ended and what was left now was to spend some quality time with our family in Mumbai and Pune. For the next 3-4 days we just gorged on food and spent time talking to our loved ones before returning back to Bangalore in time for our work to begin.

This was one trip that was very special since we had Pozu with us and we were glad that she enjoyed every bit of it with us. There was not one moment where we looked back on our decision to drive up all the way. The three weeks that we were out helped us with some good quality family time. It also reinforced our faith in my trusty Safari that behaved so responsibly and never gave us any trouble through these three weeks.

Overall, it’s been one of the most memorable trips and now that Pozu’s done this trip, we have no reason to doubt whether she can cope up with any of our future travel adventures.