A Journey To Heaven Through Hell

2009-08-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

2 BIKES, 2 SOULS, 12 DAYS, 3496 KMS, RAINS, ACCIDENTS, STORMS & FULL OF HIGHS AND EVEN MORE THAN "FULL OF LOWS"..........BUT STILL AN UNFORGETTABLE TRIP

HOW THE SPARK CONVERTED INTO A JUNGLE FIRE

After one month of my 1880 km "RAJASTHAN TRIP",on my Pulsar 220 dtsfi, i.e. in the end of Feb. 09, one of my friend told me ,"I will go to Ladakh in the last week of June."He sent me route map and the itinerary of the trip. Further,he asked me to be a fellow rider. I told him,"I will see", But i was desperate to go because I had heard a lot that people use to go to LEH-LADAKH on bikes so it was there in some corner of my mind that I, too, have to visit the same.

As the days passed, perhaps in the mid of 6th semester of my engineering, I was sitting in the lab and surfing the net. Infact, I was searching LADAKH in Wikipedia. After watching this, some of my classmates started discussing about Leh-Ladakh. One of them said,"He(Gaurav) will go to Ladakh this time on bike" and another guy said,"He can't do this on bike". At this juncture I agreed with him. But somehow his wordings pinched me and I took it as a challenge.

In between final exams,I asked three of my friends to explore the beauty of Ladakh. They all agreed. One of them denied after 3-4 days. Second guy neither denied nor confirmed .He kept me in dilemma. After exams,two guys were left,I and the third guy. Finally,we decided to go on a single bike with luggage,even,which includes the tent and two sleeping bags.

Mr. Nishant Jha spent one & half hour from his hectic life schedule with both of us just to clarify the route and the places to be covered. Thanks a lot buddy. On 25th,third guy also denied. I was left alone with scattered dream of dreamland. But a flame was burning in my head and I didn't let it lit off.

On 26th June,I put a thread named as leh ladakh tour in Leh-Ladakh community on Orkut. And in the evening an unknown person called on my mobile & told me ,"I saw your thread on Orkut. I wanna go. I have Thunderbird." and asked me about itinerary. I mailed him itinerary,route map and a list of goods to be carried. Within 15 minutes my cellphone rang once again and he confirmed me that he would be Raiding d Himalayas with me. At that moment I was extremely delighted and I was finding my dream came true. His name is Ghanshyam Thori. We decided to leave on 27th evening.

The riders were:

1. GHANSHYAM THORI on his Thunderbird 350cc

2. GAURAV GOEL with Pulsar 220 dtsfi

DAY 1 & 2 (27th & 28th June,09)

(GURGAON-DELHI-AMBALA-CHANDIGARH-SUNDERNAGAR-BILASPUR-MANDI-MANALI)

After packing up the luggage on both bikes,we left home around 8:45 pm.I did pray at a nearby temple and exactly at 9pm we started revving up our machines. We stuck in fucking jam after crossing Kapashera Border. It was almost 11 when we reached Karnal Bypass. As soon as we passed the Karnal Bypaas we got relief and we discussed to have a halt at Sukhedev Dhaba in Murthal as we both were hungry. I was insisting Thori to have the dinner at Gulshan Dhaba. He told Sukhdev is much better. Around 12 we reached Sukhdev Dhaba. There we got refreshed by washing our hands and face. It was over crowded....the pyaaj paranthas & mix paranthas with butter & tea were delicious....after filling our stomach,we started moving further around 12:30 am.

As the men & machines both were filled by the fuel we covered a much more distance in next stretch. In the way paaji with his dad in his Maruti 800 asked Thori to stop. As I was behind Thori I also stopped. He asked both of us,"Are you heading towards Ladakh? Are you having some kind of group or are you travelling by your own ?" Thori replied him,"Yes.But we are not having a group."Paaji said,"I will also go.I have Power Packed Graptor." He exchanged cell number with both of us. We said goodbye and started moving further. Just before Chandigarh,I found a problem in gear shifting. I stopped and saw the gear paddle in the light of Thori's Thunderbird,everything seemed to be fine. Later on,I didn't know how the problem disappeared. After crossing Chandigarh we took a tea-snack break for 20 min. We got recharged. We started revving up again. We reached Kiratpur Sahib around 6 am. It was beautiful morning & the sun was rising. We went 30 km ahead of Kiratpur Sahib,there we came to know that we have left the bifurcation 30 km behind which lead to Manali. We moved back 30 km and found a bifurcation.

As soon as we reached Sundernagar we were struck by a storm and we found drizzling. We stopped at a particular point and I started taking out all the big size poly bags which we took for covering our luggage. In the mid time Thori asked,"Its drizzling...its not the Lava."But I didn't listen him & I covered all the luggage with his help. Then I started taking out raincoats. He refused to wear but later on he wore the upper. I wore the upper and lower both. As soon as we left that point it started raining heavily. I found the raincoat completely useful.

It was not known to me that a tragedy was waiting for me after a few kilometres. In front of me,a Scorpio was being driven & in front of Scorpio there was Alto. The Alto driver suddenly applied brakes,Scorpio guy somehow managed to cross Alto but Alto was exactly in front of me. I had no other option except applying brakes. I did exactly the same what the situation demanded but the bike skidded. People ran towards me. I stood up and people helped me to lift the bike. I got scratches on right palm,right knee & right elbow. I saw that right front indicator & right rear view mirror were broken although the indicator was still hanging.....there were also scratches on right portion of fairing and silencer. I did not detach indicator until it got detached itself. Meanwhile Thori reached there and asked me ,"What happened ?" I told him the incident and asked him to move further. As we reached Bilaspur,Thori asked to have a halt. I agreed. It was extremely hot and we were almost burnt in the heat. We took a room there for few hours. We took bath and slept as we were completely exhausted due to night riding. Around 4 pm,after taking snacks,we left Bilaspur & we reached Manali at 9 pm. Manali was fully packed with tourists. In between Bilaspur & Manali we stopped at two places for tea-snacks break. After reaching Manali,it took us one hour to find a guest house which charged 250 bucks for a room and we booked it. After refreshment, we took our dinner in the Mexican Restaurant as we were famished. The food was not upto the mark. Thereafter we came back to room. After that, gossiping session continued till 1 am and we slept leaving behind a day with little mishap and excited about the next day because it was going to be a great day as far as the tough terrain was concerned.

DAY 3 (29th June,09)

(MANALI-MARHI-ROHTANG PASS-TANDI-KEYLONG-JASPA-DARCHA -PATSIO-MEHNDINAGAR CANTT.-BARALACHA PASS-SARCHU)

I woke up at 6 am and within half an hour I was ready for the day. At 6:30 am I made Thori wake up & in 20 minutes he also got ready. We packed luggage on bikes and started the ride at 7:15 am. On the outskirts of Manali we got our fuel tank filled upto the brim. The petrol rate was 45.38 Rs. per liter & there we saw the hot air balooning. From that petrol pump we got scenic view as snow on the mountains was very shiny due to sunlight. We were stuck in jam 2-3 times before reaching Rohtang Pass. We reached Rohtang Pass around 9:45 am. Rohtang Pass is in Kullu Valley and located at a height of 13,054 feet(3979 mtr.) at a distance of 52 km. from Manali. It was completely rugged and fully inhospitable terrain between Manali and Rohtang. Thereafter we had tea and bread omlettes as we had not taken anything since morning and continued the ride. We left Rohtang Pass around 10:15 am.
After a few kilometres I encountered the snow on road. People,believe me this was the very first time that I saw the snow on road. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't resist myself by touching the snow. Meanwhile I asked a guy to take some shots,he was from Mumbai with his Wagon r,as soon as he held my camera his own camera dropped down in water. I regretted. He picked his camera and said that it was ok and captured some shots. I thanked him and moved further.
Betwen Rohtang and Tandi we noticed few riders like us,trucks,taxis and workers whom we noticed upto a few starting kilometres(from Rohtang). We reached Tandi after a short ride. Tandi is popular place bacause there is an Indian Oil petrol pump which is a single existing petrol pump betwen Manali and Leh. There is a sign board which says.....NEXT FILLING STATION 365 KM AHEAD. I had heard a lot about that Tandi petrol pump 365 km sign board and I was in great felicity because this time I was not listening about that,it was right in front of my eyes. We got our machines and 4 five litre jerry cans filled with fuel as we had to cover Tsokar Tsomoriri lake circuit.
By this time our tummies were little bit empty we took a halt at Wet Canteen(after 5-6 km from Tandi),there we had bread omlettes and tea and had chit-chat session with drivers of fuel carrying trucks. We were feeling very happy and proud to tell them that we were coming from Delhi. Thereafter we found a signboard saying.....AFTER DRINKING WHISKY,DRIVING IS RISKY. Next stopage for us was Deepaktal. It was a superb view.We spent there around 10 minutes and started revving up our machines again. Let me tell you one thing,Thori had been telling me since previous night in Manali till we crossed Keylong that he could not cover 252 km stretch between Manali and Sarchu. I noticed a change in point of view of Thori after crossing Keylong.
The places that we left behind after Keylong were Jaspa,Darcha,Patsio and Mehndinagar Cantt. Between Patsio and Baralacha Pass we found Pagal Nala flowing on road.
After a few kilometres I saw a point on the road,where on the both sides I found rocks of snow of height 20-25 feet. It was an eyecatching view and I could not control myself from taking a halt. We were revving up our machines and suddenly we started noticing the decrement in temperature every km that we travelled and it was snowpeaked mountains all around. The road condition had become good. I saw a semi frozen lake named as Suraj Tal which was spectacular and also an accidental truck which was turned upside down. Soon we reached Baralacha Pass which was really majestic. Then Thori told me not to have any stopage before Sarchu. I agreed.

But 10 km before Sarchu I found that I had entered a whole new world,too good terrain and wide open area. Seriously, it was mindboggling.
That was the last stopage which I took before Sarchu Police check post. I reached the camping area in Sarchu around 6:45 pm. It was chilling like hell. Thori was already there discussing with a guy from Delhi named Ashish Sacher. I got off of the bike and discussed with Thori about not setting up our own tent,instead,we decided to stay in camps.

I looked around mountains ,roads,nearby flowing river ,camps,vehicles and police check post and it was a fascinating scene. Thereafter we unloaded both bikes and put our luggage inside the camp. The charges for per day stay were 50 bucks. We were 3 guys in the same tent,the third guy,Ashish was on his Thunderbird Twin Spark and he came from Srinagar-Leh route. In between a lady,the owner,came and asked us about the dinner. We ordered dal,sabji and roti. Then started gossiping session,Thori took out whisky bottle so as Ashish did the same with rum bottle. I and Ashish had normal amount of drink but Thori got overdrunk. Lady came with dinner and she was bringing hot chapati one by one,she was treating us like her own son. She was really humble. The gossiping continued after the dinner,meanwhile I transferred the piks from cameras to laptop and we all slept as all of us had to leave early in the morning. People,that was not the end of the day......picture abhi baki hai mere dost. Around 2:30 am I listened gargling sound,I woke up and switched on the torch and I saw that Thori was vomiting on the bed. He had no time to go outside. He had fallen sick.His head was paining like hell. He took required medicines and we both slept hoping for the next day to be a good one. In this way that day ended with a sad note.

DAY4 (30th June,09)

(SARCHU-PANG)

I woke up around 6 am. Due to chilling cold,my nose was completely blocked and my head was paining as if someone was hammering. Thori was still sleeping. I went on the bank of river to get rid of nature's call,while returning I had to breath rigorously. As I reached to the tent ,I sat down ,my breathing was getting normal minute by minute. People,mind it,when you are traveling through such a high altitude area,try to avoid unnecessary physical strain. By this time Ashish was ready to leave for Manali he bid Thori & me goodbye. We exchanged cell numbers.

I entered the sideby tent where the food was being prepared. I saw a small kid who was handicapped. Later on I came to know he was suffering from Polio. The small kid was son of that lady,the owner.

I sat outside the tent and asked for a cup of tea and biscuits. After 5 to 10 minutes she brought the tea and a packet of biscuits. Meanwhile I asked Thori to have tea, He refused and wanted to sleep. I enjoyed the tea and biscuits. Thereafter I took altitude motion sickness tablet Diamox as my headache still continued. Thori asked me for Disprin I provided him & he kept on sleeping till 12 pm.

As on previous day some problem had occured in the bike so I thought to clean the air filter. Firstly I took out the tool kit & I did not find any instrument to open the air filter cover. I went to nearby mechanic who was Sleeping in Jhonpdi . Then I asked other truck drivers,one of them rendered me the instrument. By the time the lady gave the kerosene oil for cleaning the filter. I tried to unbolt all the 4 nuts but I succeeded in opening 3 of them and couldn't unbolt the 4th one due to less space. I put the cover and the nuts back to their original position. I returned the instrument and slept in the sideby tent.

Around 12 pm Thori came and made me wake up. He was feeling better and told me that he was about to cancel the trip and return to home. I told him if he wanted to cancel it he could.

We had aloo paranthas and tea & we packed our luggage. We paid the bill. It was time to leave Sarchu. She kissed our hands and touched her forehead and said us to come back. It was really an emotinal scene. For them tourists are the only source to earn the livelyhood during their 4-5 months stay at such a high altitude area. Rest of the time they spend in low altitude areas because they can not stay permanently at high altitudes as there is no vegetation no farming and in winters everything is covered with snow and many areas are avalanche zones. We waved our hands saying goodbye to her and started our journey around 1:30 pm. We decided to stop at Pang,80 km from Sarchu.

Flat terrain near Sarchu was not available for the long time. As we crossed Tsarap river the road started climbing suddenly. We found sign boards saying........KNOW AIDS NO AIDS......
IF U ARE MARRIED DIVORCE SPEED.

We reached the starting point of Gata Loops,altitue 13780 ft(4201 mtr). There were total 21 loops . Gata Loops were the series of hairpin bends which took us up by more than 1500 ft within an hour. As I saw downside the hill I found trucks trailing below and layers of roads going back and forth at different heights. At the end of Gata Loops I found a view of vast planes of Sarchu much below and the roads to come up from there. It was really a spectacular view.

Further we found Nakee Pass,altitude 15547 ft.(4740 mt). I don't know why it was left out from most of the maps which I referred in research before the journey. After crossing Nakeela the terrain was very dry as there were no streams no rivers. The road went down in a dry valley and quickly climbed up towards the next pass Lachulungla,altitude 16616 ft.(5065 mtr).

Soon after descending down from Lachulung Pass,9km before pang,we saw a very heavy flow of water on the road which seemed like a small river. As I saw two people pushing a bullet which was stuck in water. I got worried but I crossed it without any problem. It was Kanglajal, altitude 16003 ft (4878 mtr).

There were amazing landscapes after Kanglajal,like arch carved out of mountain and arch with broken top converted to stacks and the mountains were epitomizing wind erosion. We reached Pang aronud 7:30 pm. We were exhausted. There we stayed in a tent named Saajan Hotel. Per day stay was 100 bucks. We unpacked our luggage and put it in the tent. We met with two guys whom we had met at Tandi petrol pump,they were from Noida. We had a cup of tea with them and had chit chat session. By this time it was getting dark.
After an hour I and the guy from other group came outside with cameras,I was totally speechless as the full moon was shining...cold wind was blowing.... sound was coming from the flow of river.....it was a mindblowing scene all over. We captured some hypnotic scenes. We had moong ki dal,aloo-gobhi ki sabji,rice and chapati in dinner.The food was really delicious.Then we went to bed and jumped into the valley of dreams.

DAY 5 (1st July,09)

(PANG-MORE PLAINS-TAGLANGLA-RUMTSE-UPSHI-

KARU-THIKSEY-LEH)

We woke up around 6 am. We were ready till 7 am. As we were packing our luggage on bikes we saw that other 2 guys started their back journey. We asked them why they were returning. They told us that they couldn't go further. They had wrong information about Manali-Leh track. We had plain paranthas and tea in our breakfast. We paid the bill and started the day's ride at 7:30 am.

Soon after crossing Pang,we came across the World's' Highest Transit Camp situated at an altitude of 15,640 feet. After 5-6 km ride from camp we entered a whole different kind of world...the mighty More Plains. It was vast,flat and grassy plateau that was surrounded by distant snow capped mountains. On the foreground were gentle undulating hills of many hues. It was so eyecatching during 45 km stretch of more plains that at some places my heart started skipping beats. I found a sign board saying.....BALLE BALLE HIMANK TERA NAHI MUKABLA. A lot of trucks were passing making the environment dusty. Sometimes it was so dusty that I could not see the terrain properly. While enjoying the ride on good flat tarmac I noticed few nomad camps,yaks and wild horses. At some points there was dry mud of 8-10 inches height.

At very first time when I was riding through the mud my bike got stuck,I was worried as I was alone because Thori was leading me. He was not to be seen anywhere. I prayed to god and tried to start bike,in the very first time bike got turned on. I was very happy and I proceeded further.I would love to ride here again and again because I loved this stretch the most.

After trampling through More Plains the roads started climbing every kilometer that I travelled. The condition of roads was very bad as the roads were very narrow and slushy and tended to slope down towards the edge of the cliff. I met with BRO(Border Roads Organization) officers and workers I was really surprised to see them working in such inhospitable climate. By this time I was leading Thori. Soon we reached formidable Taglangla.

Taglangla is the Second Highest Motorable Pass in the World and Highest Pass on Manali-Leh road,after which the final descent to Indus Valley began. The descent from the pass was steady and long,losing the altitude all the way till Leh. There were dramatic changes in landscapes. We reached Rumtse where I had tea and biscuits and Thori had Limca. We started revving up again. The color variation of mountains was mesmerizing, Sometimes it changed from deep chocolate brown to reddish. From Rumtse to Leh the stretch was good and pleasurable. After Rumtse,we crossed Sasoma(13570 feet), Lato(13170 feet) and Meeru (12210 feet). I saw some sign boards saying.....ON THE BEND GO SLOW FRIEND.......ARMY HAI JAHAN JAHAN BRO HAI VAHAN VAHAN.

Then we officially entered "Mecca of Bikers Worldwide".After crossing Upshi,Karu,Thiksey and Choglamsar we finally reached Leh. Leh was paradise after such a tiring but exhillarating journey. We found a hotel after meandering for half an hour.

The name of the hotel was Chubi Hotel and Garden Restaurent. The charges for per day stay were 600 bucks. We unpacked the luggage and asked the hotelier to arrange permits for Khardungla and Pangong Tso. It was 4 by this time. He told us to go to DC office as soon as possible because the official time was till 4:30 pm. We took bikes and reached dc office in 10 minutes. We got permits in 15 minutes. How we managed to get permits in just 15 minutes that is a different story which I am not telling you right now. They charged 160 Rs. for two people for two places. Then we went to mechanics and got some work done. We roam in the market here and there. As we were famished we had food in Punjabi Dhaba. Thereafter we ordered Tshirts for customization. We spent lot of time in the market and finally went to hotel. We had gossiping session till 12 am. We were very excited and happy as we were going to conquer our dreamland Khardungla next day. As we were dozing off by this time we entered into sleepy world.

DAY 6 (2nd July,09)

(LEH-SOUTH PULLU-NORTH PULLU-KHALSAR-DISKIT-HUNDER)

We took enough time for rest and woke up around 10:30 am and got ready till 11:30. We had paranthas and tea in our breakfast. Around 12 pm we left the hotel for Khardungla and Nubra Valley. Firstly we went to Indian Oil Petrol Pump(Ladakh Filling Station) and got our fuel tank filled.

There we came across a board saying......ON TOP OF THE WORLD. As soon as we left Leh the road started climbing up every kilometer that we rode. After an hour or so we reached South Pullu. Initially the road condition was good. We found bad and slushy road before 10 km of Khardungla. We saw a group of people riding with pillion on splendors. After two and half hours we reached bewitching Khardungla. Khardungla is the Highest Motorable Pass in the World. Its altitude is 18380 feet(5606 mtr) above sea level. I have no words to describe how exactly I was feeling. Thori said to me that he wanted to leave for lower altitude area. I asked him to go and he moved further. There I spent half an hour. Thereafter I proceeded further. We had tea and bread omlettes in North Pullu and we left from there.After crossing Khalsar I entered in a wide open area. I looked back and I didn't find Thori anywhere. I waited for a while and moved further hoping that soon he would catch me.

Before 6 km from Diskit I was riding at a speed of 45 kmph parallel to army truck and I was about to overtake,the truck driver instead of turning towards left he slightly turned towards right and what happened was nothing but a mishap. The right portion of bumper touched to left portion of fairing of my bike,the moment it happened I was away from the bike and the bike skidded upto few metres. The only thing that I remembered was that my helmet was scratching against ground. As I stood up,I was blind for a few moments and when I saw myself....I found a hole in the jeans on left knee and there were minor scratches on my right elbow and a lot of scratches on right front portion of helmet. By this time the truck driver had stopped and all jawans had come to me..... they were 6 in number. The truck driver unnecessarily started snapping at me so as to hide his own mistake. I wanted to say a lot to him but couldn't because the words were not coming out of me as I was struck. By this time I glimpsed at bike,it was broken like hell from the front side and right side....it looked horrible. Then again,I looked myself and thought how did I escape only with minor injuries. I was in perplexity whether to feel lucky or unlucky. Meanwhile Thori reached and enquired me that whether I was fine or not. I said I was fine. He asked how did it happen. I told him the whole incident. I asked him where he was. He told me that he had chosen a wrong track. After this mishap the question was what to do ??

"ACCIDENTS CAN BREAK THE MACHINE NOT MY SPIRIT"

A mini truck loaded with vegetables was passing from there.It was heading towards Thoise army camp,which was few kilometres from Hunder. The army jawans loaded my bike in their truck and unloaded it in Diskit. From the place of accident I started travelling as a pillion with Thori. After that I made a settlement with same mini truck driver in Diskit that next day he would drop my bike to Leh. He agreed. I gave him 150 bucks and told him to get rest of the money after reaching Leh.

We moved further and stopped at view point in Nubra Valley. Nubra valley is a high altitude desert with sand dunes that stretch for miles on end,with numerous rivulets and patches of green surrounded by dunes and snow clad mountains. I wasn't fully normal yet as thoughts of accident flitted through my mind and I couldn't think of anything else. I was trying to distract my mind. We were getting view of sand dunes from the view point but I didn't enjoy it much. Then we reached Hunder around 6:45 pm.

Firstly we saw Royal Explorer camp,there the charges were 500 bucks for one night stay ,dinner and breakfast. We saw two guest houses also in which the charges ranged 300-400 bucks. By this time I was getting recovered mentally I preferred to stay in camp. Inside the camping area a stream of water was flowing beside the tents. It was an eye catching view. The surrounding environment was extremely pleasant. We unpacked the bag as we had put rest of the luggage in hotel in Leh. We went inside the tent and we got 3 beds at cost of 2 beds. We were very famished and exhausted as well. We had dinner around 8 pm and I must say that it was the best meal among all the meals that we had during the entire trip. It was 3 course scrumptious meal. We moved to the tent. We discussed about the day and soon we slept.

DAY 7 (3rd July,09)

(Hunder -Leh)

As the mobile alarm rang at 8 am,we woke up and we got ready for the breakfast within half an hour. We had bread,butter,apricot jam,paranthas and tea in our breakfast. It was the best breakfast of the trip. We paid the bill and left for Diskit where we had kept the damaged machine. We reached Diskit around 9:30 am. As soon as we reached Diskit I ran to see the bike whether it was there or not. I found the bike exactly at the same position. Then we asked people that any mini truck driver had come to see the bike. People said no. I requested a bus driver to give his mobile to me so that I could call truck driver. I called him and found his phone out of reach. We waited there till 12:30 pm. Then we saw another minitruck coming from Hunder. I made settlement with him in 600 bucks that he would drop the bike at Delhi-Manali transport in Leh. He said he would reach Leh in four and half hrs. As we had to catch up with truck we did not take much halts. One of the halts was at North Pullu. There we had tea and biscuits and moved further. We reached Leh around 5:30 pm. After crossing North Pullu we did not see him even once. After reaching Leh we enquired at Delhi-Manali transport and Leh minitruck association,they said the truck hadn't arrived so far. Meanwhile we went to our hotel and put the bag there and came back to Delhi-Manali transport with 2 sleeping bags and tent. That was the extra luggage that we had to send with bike because there was no chance to travel with whole luggage on one bike.

Around 7 pm,the truck driver came and bike was unloaded. I paid him 600 bucks. I fixed a deal of 2100 bucks with Nitco Roadways for carrying bike and extra luggage upto Gurgaon.(Delhi-Manali transport carries the luggage upto Delhi ) Thereafter,we went to main market,took our customized Tshirts,bought some medicines. We had dinner around 9 pm and we went back to hotel. We discussed about next day's plan of Pangong Tso and we slept.

DAY 8 (4th July,09)

(LEH-KARU-SAKTI-CHANGLA-DURBUK-TANGSTEY-LUKUNG-PANGONG TSO)

We woke up at 9 am. We were ready to leave around 10:30(after having paranthas and tea in breakfast). We went to petrol pump and got the fuel tank filled. Thereafter we started revving up for Pangong Tso(about 150 km from Leh). We reached Karu within an hour or so as the road was in pretty good condition. From Karu,we had to take left turn for Pangong Tso. Soon,we reached Sakti village. The ascent of Changla started from Sakti village. We were asked for an Innerline Permit at a police check post before Changla.

Changla,located at an altitude of 17586 ft(5360 mtr),is Third Highest Motorable Pass in the World and it is the main gateway for the Changthang Plateau situated in the Himalayas. We took a halt at Changla.

It was extremely chilling there. We did not stop for much time,we moved further. The terrain 9 km before and 5 km after Changla was extremely rugged and inhospitable. After crossing Changla we reached Tangstey. The road construction work was going on at many places. Thereafter we reached Lukung. We could see the beautiful scenery alongside,wild horses and asses grazing around. At some places,the sand present on the road rumpled our ride and also there were nalas on the road.

Then we came across a sign board saying.....FIRST VIEW OF WORLD FAMOUS PANGONG TSO LAKE. We were very delighted as we were about to reach our destination. Two third part (80 km) of this lake is in China and one third part(40 km) is in India. Soon we reached Pangong Tso. It is located at an altitude of around 14000 ft.

I was speechless for few moments as I just saw it first time. I was getting a spectacular view of blue water with the barrent mountains in the background. Only one thing came in my mind

that it was completely worth to travel 150 km only for this lake. Then we had 4 bread omlettes and 2 cups of tea which cost us 260 bucks. We left Pangong Tso around 4:30 pm.

As we had to reach Leh before getting dark,we did not stop anywhere on the way. We reached Leh around 9:30 pm. We had dinner in Punjabi Dhaba and we reached our hotel around 10:30 pm. We were little sad as well as little happy. Sad because we had to leave this paradise next day and happy because we would be returning to our home. As we were very tired soon we dozed off.

DAY 9 (5th July,09)

(LEH-LAMAYARU-FOTULA TOP-KARGIL)

We got up around 10 am. We were ready to leave the hotel by 11 o'clock. We packed our luggage on bike and paid the bill of 2726 bucks. After getting the fuel tank filled at Ladakh Filling Station,we started zipping on Leh-Srinagar highway. After crossing a few kilometres the first thing which I noticed and made me feel proud was World's Highest LPG Bottling Plant (Indian Oil). After covering a certain distance we came across Pathar Sahib Gurudwara. It was built by Buddhist Lamas nearly 5 centuries ago to commemorate the visit of Guru Nanak,the founder of sikh religion,to Ladakh.

We stopped there for maximum of 2 minutes and moved further. Soon we reached Magnetic Hill. Magnetic Hill or Gravity Hill is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces the optical illusion that a very slight downhil slope appears to be an uphil slope. After Magnetic Hill we took our first halt for tea and biscuits.

First 80-90 kms were excellent. Indus river was flowing besides the road and the sun was shining infront of us. Enroute to Lamayaru we met 61 year old French cyclist.

We had little chat with him. He had cycled 50000 kms across the world and that too 3704 kms in India. We said him goodbye and wished him goodluck. The stretch of 30 km before Lamayaru was horrible,the road was very bad.

After Lamayaru we reached Fotula Top,situated at an altitude of 13479 ft. It is the Highest Point on Srinagar-Leh road. There we saw Prashar Bharati board as well as an antenna set up. We were passed by amazing landscapes of different colors. Then again we had a stopage and we had tea ,maggi and biscuits.

After revving up for 2 hours we reached Kargil around 7:30 pm. We went to petrol pump and got the tank filled. The name of the petrol pump was Kargil Filling Station and it is run by Indian Oil. The petrol rate was 50.48 Rs. per litre. We decided to stay in Kargil and booked a room in hotel named as Tibetian For U and charges for the room were 250 bucks. We unpacked the luggage and rested for 10 minutes. Then we had Thupka (Tibetian dish),vegetable soup and fried rice in dinner as we had no other option. We went back to room,it was 10 o'clock by the time. Soon we were in our beds.

DAY 10 (6th July,09)

(KARGIL-DRASS-GUMRI-ZOZILA PASS-SRINAGAR-

JAWAHAR TUNNEL-PATNITOP)

We woke up around 5:30 am,got fresh. Around 6 am,we left Kargil. It was the first time in our journey that we woke up and left a particular place so early. We didn't take any breakfast. Enroute to Drass we saw a board saying.......YOU ARE UNDER ENEMY OBSERVATION........which meant that Pakistani soldiers were having a clear view of road from high mountains. It was really a different kind of feeling. Soon we found another board saying......YOU ARE OUT OF ENEMY OBSERVATION......I felt a big relief. Before 5-6 kms of Drass,we noticed some celebrations being celebrated at Drass War Memorial. Later on we came to know that civilians were also allowed to become a part of the celebrations. The occassion was 10th anniversary of Kargil Vijay. We stopped there for 15 minutes and then headed towards Drass. Soon we reached Drass and found a board saying.......SECOND COLDEST INHABITED PLACE IN THE WORLD TEMP(-60 DEG. CEL.) ON 9 JAN,95 .We had tea,paranthas and biscuits in our breakfast. I was very happy and excited to see Tiger Hill and Tololing Hill as I had heard a lot about the same but never got a chance to see.

We crossed Gumri and reached mighty Zozila Pass. The terrain on Zozila pass was extremely tough but after crossing this we felt victorious. Then we had a first view of Baltal. We took second halt after crossing Sonamarg. There we had tea and biscuits at Taaj Hotel. The road condition was excellent between Sonamarg and Srinagar. Jhelum river was flowing besides the road. After riding for some hours,we reached Srinagar. We started feeling heat and we removed our jackets. I was worried as I knew that Srinagar was a militant area. After crossing Srinagar,we had daal,sabji,roti and salad in our lunch at highway dhaba and moved further. But the bike got turned off after a few kilometres and did not start even after kicking many times. It was 4:30 by the time. We found a mechanic in nearby area and it took him almost 45 minutes to detect the problem and to fix it. The mechanic cleaned he spark plug but it did not work. Later on he changed the wire of spark plug and it worked. Thereafter we rode for 4 hours without taking any major halt. During this stretch we crossed Jawahar Tunnel. Jawahar Tunel or Banihal Tunnel,named after the First Prime Minister of India,was constructed for round the year surface transport. The length of the tunnel is 2.5 kms situated between Banihal and Qazigand. We reached Patnitop around 9 pm and soon we booked a room for 500 bucks. We had dal makhni,kadhai paneer,roti and salad in our dinner. The meal was really good. We discussed about the journey covered so far and the stretch which was yet to be covered. Soon we entered into the world of dreams.

DAY 11 & 12 (7th & 8th July)

(PATNITOP-KUD-UDHAMPUR-SAMBA-PATHANKOT-JALANDHAR-CHANDIGARH-AMBALA-PANIPAT-DELHI-GURGAON)

This was the day for final stretch of our journey. I woke up around 9 am. I got ready and I had tea and aloo pyaj paranthas in the breakfast but they were not upto the mark. Around 10:30 am,I made him wake up,he was ready by 11 for the breakfast and we left the hotel around 12.

We took our first halt before Udhampur Bypass and this was the first time that I had cold drink instead of hot tea. After few hours of continuous riding,we had lunch at Lakhanpur. We took paneer chhole,dal makhni,rajma,roti and salad. I had never heard a dish named as paneer chhole but it was delicious.

I do not remember the name of the place but it was near to Pathankot,I tried to withdrew a amount of 3000 Rs. from J&K bank atm but atm didn't dispense the cash. In Pathankot I did the same with SBI atm,I was shocked to see the words......insufficient amount....flashing on atm screen. The amount which I could get from atm was 500 bucks only. Later on I came to know that I had lost 3000 bucks due to fucking atm error.

We had tea and flavoured milk before Jalandhar around 11 pm. As we were crossing Jalandhar,I saw Jalandhar Haveli and Rangla Punjab,these were the places which I visited in November 2008 during my "WAGAH BORDER TRIP." Now we were on NH-1. We were revving up to an average speed of 75km/hr. Then we had a cold drink break before Kurukshetra. We kept on riding whole night. Thori had paranthas and tea around 5 am. We reached Delhi around 7 am at Thori's home and unpacked the luggage. I took his bike and came back to Gurgaon around 10 am. As I reached my home in Gurgaon,I was extremely delighted and victorious that I have done it. On the other hand I was sad as my bike was damaged. As it was on its way to Gurgaon,I called several times to Nitco Roadways(transport company) to locate my machine and finally it arrived at Gurgaon on 20th of July.I took it to Bajaj Probiking service centre and got it back on 10th of August. The repair work cost me around 55500 Rs. Thanks to the guys those who helped me in need.

Sincere thanks to Mr. Ghanshyam Thori,Assistant Commissioner (Income Tax) for being a part of these unforgettable memories. We will meet again for another ride.

JULEY !!!

I'LL BE BACK ON ROADS AGAIN.

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