Thursday, March 17, 2016

Simplifying trips- LEH-LADAKH Episode-1

Hi to all the readers out there, this is my first blog about simplifytrips.com where i will share my personal experience to all the places i went and yes I like to travel by road and with my own car.
So folks today i will be describing about my trip to leh-ladakh a heaven on earth.
It was year 2010 i was in 3rd year of my college and I and friends were planning to visit this heavenly place very soon. During those days 3 Idiots(movie) also released and that last scene compelled we people to visit that place even more. But we were in 3rd year of our college and things didn't went according to what we have planned ,we all had our industrial training and then the final year in which an extra pressure was also there to clear all our back exams and get a job. Hopefully we all did well and got the jobs and were scattered in all the directions post our college days.
But that urge of visiting that place was still there and we all again decided to make things now go according to our will, we all were doing good with our jobs and now have enough bank balance to spend on this trip. All information were collected regarding the area, during which months the road opens for general public and so on. Generally the road opens up from May to August and if the weather remains all right that gets extended also. So We planned it in the month of june and got our tickets reserved from delhi to jammu. As we were not having enough leaves we were not able to plan that via rohtang pass, which itself is mesmerizing experience to go through that pass and u cross lahaul spiti where the movies paap was shooted. However we were 05 friends and every one had a role to play one was assigned the job of booking hotels, one was allotted booking of bikes and taxi, one was given the responsibility of buying some hard drinks and train tickets and i was left with the job of cashier.
Day1-We got adhered at the station and suddenly it started to rain and the weather just went from being so humid to awesome. We all had our dinner and were trying to get a sound sleep but the excitement of escaping to the unknown land didn't allowed us to have a nap, next day was meant to be tiring as we after reaching jammu we have to travel to srinagar which was about 175kms by road. It took us about around 8hrs to cover it. But the scenic beauty was amazing and in a moment we all forgot that we havent slept the whole night. The roads were good but the jam was very heavy. If you were willing to go, do stop at Patnitop, there are very good spots were you can park your vehicle and can enjoy lunch or outing with your family. Moving ahead we all were having small naps in between and then we stopped for our lunch. In kashmir region do try Rajma-chawal (kidneybeans-rice), this is the famous(Veg) dish of that place and you will really enjoy having it. Jawahar tunnel is also one of the longest tunnel you will go through and the time when you cross that tunnel you will find yourself in a totally different place. Para forces deployed and you will pass thorugh heavy checking. Somehow after experiencing all these things we reached our destination place where we had our booking. We all had few pegs had our dinner and dozed off.
Day2-This was the day we all have been waiting for, we all got ready get our bags packed and we left to meet Mr. Bashir who was the owner of Kashmir bikers from where we will be leaving on our Bullet Enfields.
All the formalities were done,he handed us two Bullet and one avenger, he gave us the tool kit and idea about the route and terrain and places to visit.
We got our bikes checked, loaded it with our luggage and went on.As you leave the city limits you will find the natural scenic beauty so awesome that you will have a feeling of staying back at this place. We went on for few kms and halted for our breakfast. Till that time I had some doubt with the pillion tyre of the bullet which i was riding and it was a bit shaky. But we had our breakfast and started back our journey. We were now heading towards the deadliest pass and that was zojila pass. But before reaching zojila pass we had our lunch at Sonmarg a beautiful place where u can play with snow and can enjoy the mountains, the greenery, the river side. We were getting late as we have to cross the Zojila pass before the sun sets and the weather worsens. En-route we found army convoy movement and we were diverted to different route which was meant to be used by the local public in case there is some army movement. We reached the top of the hill and there was infront of our eyes the deadliest pass which we all had to pass. There were long queues of Vehicles and we also stopped there, then a taxi driver who was also waiting there to go ahead came up to us and said two wheeler can go and only cars,jeeps,trucks were meant to be stopped.We all started slowly, there was no road only mud,gravels and pebble of all sizes. When we moved ahead we came to know why the traffic was halted, it had rained and there was a landslide and the army was trying to clear it. Half of the route was cleared from where the bikers were allowed to go. We found many bikers like us who were coming back and all we exchanged with them was a thumps up(Y). We somehow crossed that pass and too a deep breadth, we halted just after crossing the pass where tea/coffee were available, we exchanged our bikes and two of us came on avenger in which only front disc brakes were working.
We again stared our journey and it was still clear had abundant  day light and we moved on. We stopped at matayen where we had our evening tea and it started to rain, we were having only three rain coats and everyone decided no one will wear it and instead we all will be using it cover our luggage. The weather went too chilly for us too ride now as our fingers went freezing and we all had issues in driving, Slowly slowly we kept on moving and reached drass sector where you will find army cantonment. The riders exchanged and we started our journey towards kargil our first place for night halt. On the way we saw Kargil War memorial which we decided to visit while returning back. At last we reached Kargil we found our hotel and hopped into our rooms. Got freshened up and were ready to enjoy all day long memories of our trip with some light music and drinks. We had our dinner and dozed off.










This was the end of Episode-1.
Do keep visiting this blog for more episodes.      

5 comments:

  1. चलते-चलते थक गए पैर फिर भी चलता जाता हूँ!
    पीते-पीते मुँद गए नयन फिर भी पीता जाता हूँ!
    झुलसाया जग ने यह जीवन इतना कि राख भी जलती है,
    रह गई साँस है एक सिर्फ वह भी तो आज मचलती है,
    क्या ऐसा भी जलना देखा-
    जलना न चाहता हूँ लेकिन फिर भी जलता जाता हूँ!
    चलते-चलते थक गए पैर फिर भी चलता जाता हूँ!

    ReplyDelete
  2. My dream tour..very well described

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you....keep sharing and do read other episodes as well....!!

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  3. Thank you for sharing this blogs
    all good & nice place http://www.kashmirbikers.com

    ReplyDelete