Simplifying Trips NOIDA TO RAJKOT

Hi to all readers, hope you have enjoyed my previous posts of LEH-LADAKH.
So this new post belongs to my recent journey with my mom and dad from NOIDA to RAJKOT by road , Approx 1300 kms.

Day 1 - It was 25th March 2016, the very next day of  holi, my parents had come to our place and i was meant to fetch them back from noida to rajkot by road. We woke up at 7 in the morning did all our courses, had breakfast and left noida at 10.30 am. We knew today we had to halt at jaipur at my maternal grand-parents home as covering 1300 kms in a single day would be too tiring.
It was Friday and holiday too on account of Easter, so the traffic was not that much heavy and we reached dhaula kuan at around 11:00 am. We did find some heavy traffic at dhaula kuan because of its a bus stop and many people were heading there home.We kept moving along with the heavy moving and crossed gurgaon by 11:30 am and the newly expanded 6 lane highway is a pleasure to drive. The roads were in very good condition and smooth to rev up the engine hard. Only place when you had slow down were at the toll plazas and when you cross some small town. We reached Behror which is the midway for the Delhi-Jaipur at around 1:00 pm. We had a stop at the Shiva Oasis resort, had our lunch there and left that place at 1:30 pm.

 It was a smooth drive up till jaipur and many people had already experienced it so this part of the journey has nothing left me to describe.
We reached our destination at 3:00 pm and halted there for that night.
Next day was a sought of challenge to drive as we have to cover 950 kms.

Day 2 -  The mind was set to cover approx 1000 kms in a day so we planned to leave early as possible but we left jaipur at 7:00 am. We got late as my grandparents asked us to take breakfast along with us. However the first 90 kms upto kishangarh on Jaipur-ajmer highway is itself a different experience to drive, 6 lane highway with low traffic and the early sun-rise all added up to build a different and a mesmerizing experience. We covered that part in exact 1 hr and then headed towards bhilwara which is approx 250 kms from jaipur. The roads were now reduced to 4 lane, patch work and crests & troughs  made by the heavy moving vehicles but at some patches i was able to get past 120kmph. You do get a good scenery of the aravali mountain range and that is the only pleasure to drive.We halted at 8:45 am at one small dhaba and just had tea, as we were having breakfast with us.

We started again at 9:15 am and the next target was to reach udaipur during the lunch time. The weather that day was quite pleasant, the breeze was blowing and we did encountered with some rain drops when udaipur was almost 50 kms. We did reached Udaipur by 1:30 pm and hopped in natraj hotel at station road for our lunch. We departed from udaipur at 2:15 pm and the roads now were very good at some places and having patch work at some places. The next target was to reach gandhinagar by 4:30 pm. The ghat section is good to drive through and the moment you enter the gujarat state you can easily see the difference between the road conditions.

We did reached gandhinagar well in time by 4:20 pm and were satisfied by the target achieved, a very thanks to the gujarat government for making these kinds of roads you will not find a single pothole and the motto "safety with speed" truly proves to be true. Crossing the gandhinagar and bypassing ahmedabad is itself a task to do. Being a holiday it was not that crowded and we managed to crossed that by 5:45 pm. Now Rajkot was 223 kms left and the last lap was about to start.
As the mild and hazy sun was setting in the horizon, we were heading towards our destination with around 130-14 kmph.

We made a single halt at this patch just for getting the fuel tank full and there only we all get freshened up.We were now in a hurry to reach our home and it was getting dark, the cars crossing by had put on there headlamps and it was still 45 kms to go, it was 7:30 by the clock. We were now driving for more than 12 hrs. It was a feeling like when rajkot will come, when we reach our house when it will be all over , it was too tiring as i was the lone driver. At last we reached our house at 8:15 pm, where my 5 year labrador sherry was waiting at the door and she just jumped on each of us like as if there is no tomorrow.

It was such a great feeling to be at home and that too after a long tiring journey.

I hope you all have enjoyed this travel experience.

Coming up in few days my next travel blog on Road trip from Rajkot to bokaro.

Stay tuned for some more experience.

Simplifying trips LEH-LADAKH Episode-5 (FINAL EPISODE)

Day-6 - We all knew its time to go back from where we had started our journey, we all were tired but somehow managed to depart early in the morning from kargil, it was a very chilly morning. the hand gloves we were wearing hardly managed to block the chilly air from entering inside and the opening from the front of the helmets made our lips to shiver and they went dry. We decided to halt at some place for our tea but couldn't find any tea shop. We were left with no other option other than to move on we kept on moving and reached kargil war memorial. The war memorial is made beneath the TOLOLING mountains which was an important top during the kargil war.

Till the time we visited the complete war memorial and felt proud for all the fighters and martyrs of the kargil war it was around 9:00 am and the sun was up enough in the sky and the weather went pleasant for a good drive. Without wasting enough time we started our journey and reached the deadliest zojila pass by 11:30 am.  We reached there in a fair amount of time and once again felt a little bit of pressure to cross that pass. As usual it was a traffic jam kind of a situation at the pass and all the four vehicles and trucks were piled up waiting for there turn to move ahead, We managed to pass through the gaps available and went ahead slowly slowly, there was a rain fall early in the morning and all the terrain was wet and muddy. I was on avenger which had only front disc brakes working, and because of which i had a fall on that muddy patch . I the moment i applied brakes I was lying on the mud and the bike lying on me.

This above pic of me was taken just after my fall.

Then i changed my bike with bullet and we crossed the zojila pass. It was a feeling of winning a war.

We came down till sonmarg and had our lunch. This time we were ahead of our time. After having lunch at sonmarg, we headed towards srinagar,  We were 50 kms short of srinagar and one bullet stopped due to an empty fuel tank. I decided to bring in some fuel from the next petrol pump which was aound 10 kms ahead,after covering 8 kms my bike also halted due to the same reason, I was totally disconnected from my friends as i was having a vodafone sim which was not working over there. A local guy came up to my rescue he allowed me to make a call from his cell phone and after waiting for 1 hr i was able to communicate them, the good news was they got some fuel from one of the near by homes where they were waiting, and now i was waiting for them to come and bring some fuel for me. They arrived and took the cans from me and bought some fuel for my bike. Phheww.... After all these hiccups we  reached srinagar by 5:15 pm, One of our friend departed to meet his family and now we four members were left. We had a word Mr Bashir from where we had taken our bikes on rent that we will be coming by 6:30 pm to return the bikes. After getting freshened up we went to his shop handed over his bikes and left for the famous DAL LAKE. The shikara ride is one the best experience of the kashmir , in the midst of that lake you will find boats selling tea,coffee, kahawa(famous kashmiri drink) and pakodas. Then you will find floating market where you can buy souvenirs and other local stuff of kashmir froms shawls to kahawa powder. It was 7:30 in the evening and we went to get our dinners packed. If you are in kashmir do try the LAL-MASS a very famous non-veg cuisine of kashmir.

We came back to our room and were thinking of the days we had spent here, tomorrow morning we had our taxi booked for taking all of us to jammu.

Day-6 -  The taxi was waiting downstairs and with a heavy heart we all had to move on, one more friend had a plan to leave us at jammu for visiting to Vaishno devi  and we were left only three guys to board the train from jammu. The entire journey back to jammu was not that enjoyable as we were leaving behind that place where we had spent almost a week far away from the busy life, that thought made us felt sad. By 4:00 pm we reached jammu station and waited for our train to arrive. Our train departed at 5:30 from jammu station and we reached Delhi somewhere around 4 in the morning. 

We all knew the amazing trip had come to an end and from the next day we will be joining our daily lives back, the same routine, same office ,same place.

This was the end of our trip to Leh-Ladakh, Hope all the readers have enjoyed reading it. Waiting for your comments and suggestions.

DO READ MY BLOG ON MY TRIP FROM NOIDA TO RAJKOT.

Coming soon. 

Simplifying trips LEH-LADAKH Episode-4

Hi all i hope you all have enjoyed reading the previous episodes, So here is the fourth episode of our journey.
Before starting of this days experience i forgot to mention one more thing to mention that we purchased customized T-shirts and got a map printed at its back "HOW I GOT LEH'D".
Day-5 :- After the mesmerizing experience at Pangong tso lake, it was our day where we have to start our journey back to srinagar, we lost two days due to our bikes and were not able to visit the famous Khardungla pass(the highest Motor-able road) and Nubra Valley. So we got up early , packed our bags and went to the mechanic's shop to collect our motorcycle. The bike was still in the same condition as we had left it the previous day, the mechanic asked us to arrange for a spare wheel as he was not able to get it, and the hunt started , we went to different shops in search of that part which was broken but were not able to find it as it was a part of flywheel and not the standard wheel. The shopkeeper asked us to visit some other mechanic shop in search of the same as they do keep some part in spare.
We found a shop where we found it but it was not exactly the same as required, it was a complete standard wheel, but at last we had something through which we were able to get our bike wheel fixed. We came back and handed over the wheel we have got. It was already 11:00 and were getting late. Me and one of my friend decided to stay back and asked others to start the journey and meet us at the Patthar sahib gurudwara where we had our lunch. we got our bike fixed by 12:30 and then we started our journey. But before leaving Leh we decided to use the army canteen facility and to purchase some liquor. The friend which stayed back with me is in Indian navy and he was the key to access to the army canteen. We purchased one VAT69 and headed towards the gurudwara. It was a different experience to drive that bike as it had two different wheels one the heavier-one and one the light-one.
We reached gurudwara at around 2:00pm, visited it and had langar over there. I would recommend you all who are planning to go there to have langar over there, for me it was the first time that i was eating in a gurudwara langar and that itself was a complete different experience. It was 3:00 and we had to reach kargil before the sunsets. We decided not to halt at any place in between and to cover as much distance as we could before taking our evening tea. We all had a thought that passing lumayuru hill section would still be a tough task as we had faced that earlier while coming but it went all and we didn't faced any issue during the uphill climb. After covering almost 110 kms we stopped at one place and had our evening tea.It was 5:15 pm and was getting dark.

This time we didn't faced any issue and it was a smooth ride till kargil, the scenic beauty of this complete part of the world is totally a different world to mesmerize, and covering this world on bike is all together a different experience.

It was 6:45 pm and we were at the outskirts of kargil, the small town was looking beautiful with the mild rays of the setting sun,We did some photo sessions at that place and it was treat for our eyes.

We had our same hotel booked the one in which we had stayed earlier while going go leh, hopped in our rooms got freshened up and had that bottle which we had purchased earlier in the day.

So this is the end of Episode-4.

Read the next episode for our visit to the KARGIL WAR MEMORIAL and crossing ZOJILA PASS again.

Simplifying trips LEH-LADAKH Epsiode-3

Hi all, i hope you enjoyed reading the previous episodes, now in this episode i will describe you about our exploration.
Day-4  Now it was the time when we have to explore the near by area(s). But before we started our exploration we took our bikes for a complete check up and mainly to check my bike for that shaky pillion wheel. The mechanic was a good and experience man, he at once dismantled the rear wheel and found why there was a shaky movement. The bolt which holds the rear wheel has a bend and thats why it was shaky. He asked us to wait for few hours as he have purchase a new bolt and was also burdened with work of other bikes, and we were left with no other option. So we decided to explore the town first on foot. It was a holiday and only few shops were open, there was a festival-The Kalchakra

going on of Buddhists and dalai lama was about to visit the same. We went towards the taxi stand where we can have some breakfast. So we found one and ordered thukpa, momos and tea. If you are not a foodie and are choosy with the taste you might not be able to have it, You have to develop that kind of taste.

After spending few hours roaming around we finally got our bike and we decided to head towards the Pangong Tso lake. After going around 30 kms or so the weather started to get worse and we had dual minds whether we should continue or should come back. We met some travelers who were coming back and they told us that it was not the right time to visit as it was raining at the mountain peak and we will not be able to view the beauty of the lake, and moreover we have to come back to leh. It was already 3:00 in the after noon and that lake was about 150 kms from leh. So we dropped that idea and started to descent. We stopped at some place in between for some photo session and came to know some shocking news from one of our friend the bike which had its maintenance in the morning was not doing good, the rear brakes went off, and we were like WT...... We again started slowly slowly and reached leh and went to that mechanic and its was closed by that time, but we had one thing to do,we went for shopping to near by market and bought some souvenirs.

We came back to our hotel, boozed had dinner and dozed off with a planning that tomorrow morning we will get our bike issue fixed and will head towards the places where we have planned.

Day-5 As planned we all got ready and went to the mechanic, he came up and asked "Ab kya ho gaya" - Now what has happened??, We said about the problem we faced and he again opened the rear wheel and found the spoke where the rubber pieces are placed and  gets coupled up with the mounting had broken, It was a setback as now we have to purchase a new wheel. We all saw each others face and the mechanic came up with a solution, he said you people can hire a taxi and visit the lake till then i will find some spare wheel, if possible. We all agreed to what he said and got a taxi booked left the bike with him and headed towards Pangong Tso lake. The route to the lake is breadth taking in both ways the kind of terrain and beauty and you have to cross the changla pass which is the third highest motor-able road in the  world. The changla pass is named after Changla baba and there you will find snow where you can halt and can enjoy being at the third highest pass. Army medical medical aid is also available there as the level of oxygen is quite low over there and you can definitely feel the oxygen deprivation as you step out of your taxi/car.There are few guidelines for the tourists and try to follow those. After spending almost 30 mins we started again our journey and as you descent from the peak you will hardly find any road for few kilometers. And then there is a stretch where the water is flowing with ni proper roads and you have to drive only through the pebbles where the half of wheel of our xylo got immersed. Moving ahead you will find the natural scenic beauty and to its best with many good sign-boards from BRO. 

And at last there was it infront of our eyes the panagong tso lake. As we reached it was bit cloudy and if u have to see the clearness and the beauty of the lake there must be a sunshine. But as spend some time over there the clouds started to flow and there was a bright sun light, and the we can clearly see the three colors in the lake.Blue, green and muddish brown. That was a treat to all of us.

This was a mesmerizing experience for all of us and for a moment we all forgot our bad experience with the bike and got completely lost in the environment, Wind was quite heavily blowing and then 03 friends of mine said they are going have a bath in that chilling water. Don't know how they were able to get there clothes off and went that chilling water but they did it, then we had our lunch and came back to leh. This was one of the most memorizing experience that still when i am writing this blog i can feel the goosebumps. On the way back we were thinking what about the that we had left with would he had fixed it or we have to fight an other war. It was 7:30 in the evening and his shop was closed,we came back to our hotel and were thinking about the experience we had in whole day.

This is the end of episode-3.

Do read the next episode, how we got our bike wheel fixed and our journey back home.