Glimpse: A Tale of Mighty Ladakh

[Awirsh]

This is going to be a long travelogue with some crazy incidents of two best friends on two Enfields while conquering Ladakh.
A glimpse of what you will be enthralling upon


In the year 2011 during my class 11th exam I had a dream, A Dream of exploring the mecca of every traveler-The mighty ladakh. And I remember exploring every single travelogue over web every single day resulting awful results for my exams. It's 2017 and now I understand- It was a glimpse of what my destiny had in store for me. Lot of things have been changed in last 6 years- I moved to Noida, Automobile Engineering,still single, bought a Thunderbird Et cetera but one thing remained the same and that's my lust for Ladakh.

Coming to the story-
As every college student will know that it's the exams which reminds us how important "other things" are in our life, So during my 6th semester exam I decided I
needed a break and I really need to find a getaway from chaotic engineering life. What a stupid idea to discuss it with your best friend who is also a rider,who also
owns a thunderbird .

Meet Abhijeet-(R)

He's the guy I can totally rely on, I remember once I messed up with few guys in our college and he was the one to handle the situation there and more importantly he always stood by me. That's what friendship is all about right? May be that's why we are known as- Thunder Buddies in our college.

Coming to machines-

• Abhijeet's bike- Thunderbird 350 Marine blue December-2015 with 9k on the odo.
• My ride- pet name Bullu TB350 Flicker(Black) December-2013 with 35k on the odo.

So more than exams it was our ride we were more concerned and nervous about. In between exam breaks we made numerous trips to karol bagh to make sure our rides are ready for all the torture they need to handle in the coming week. We opted for Ladakh carriers for 1700/- each, as per my calculation saddle bag were on the higher side for our budget ( yes we students need to save a lot for such trips). And we decided not to invest on riding shoe, biggest mistake I would call it instead we bought Rs.100 gum boots for carrying the duty at water crossings.

Vital ingredients to get Leh'd were-

• Carrier
• New tires
• Spare-fuses,tubes,air filter,clutch & accelerator cable, chain locks, engine oil, key etc.
• All the hathiyaar- wrench,plier,puncture repair kit,pump,araldite etc
• Chain lube
• Medicines
• Thermals
• Cuppa noodles
• snickers
• gloves(winter & everyday)
• Heavy duty Bungee cables
• XXL size polythene bags to cover luggage
• BSNL postpaid sim
• Rain coat
• Riding gears
• And lot of patience

More than preparation and planning the most important thing was to convince our family to let their some 20s kids to go on a crazy bike trip to remotest place of India for 2 weeks where we don't even have mobile network at some places forget about internet.
My Home-
Me- Papa, wo mere exams acche jaa rhe hai!
Dad- what do you want now?
Me- I was thinking of going to ladakh after my exams.... In bike( fingers crossed).
Dad- okay, make sure you go with your biking group.
Me- Papa, this time it will be just me and Abhijeet.
Dad- Are you kidding me?
Me- Papa going in group is not good all the time you don't have your own space blah blah blah.... Don't worry few riders would be joining us in Jammu blah blah blah...
So after some 20 minutes of explanation and some buttering and some emotional dialogues my stars worked out at the end. I got the green signal from my home.

Abhijeet's parents-

Here just a phone call is not going to work( Army personnel you know) so we prepared a proper ppt presentation with all the itinerary, planning, maps, routes, emergency contacts, weather forecasting and lot of permutations and combinations.

Voila ! It worked. Now no one can stop us from being Leh'd

D-Day
21st May
D-1

Plan-cover as mush as distance possible from Greater noida towards Mecca.
As planned I went to bed early in the evening with all the packing done and alarm set for 2 AM as our scheduled departure was 3 AM to beat the Delhi's traffic but as usual I got late due to adjustments required for my luggage as I was mounting my trekking & trolley bag for the first time.

Finally at 3.30 AM I left home and buddy was supposed to meet me outside my society but he was nowhere to be found then finally at 3.40 I saw him coming and after our customary fist punch two wanderers left for their destination. 10 minutes in to the ride I got all comfortable cruising at 80kmph on the beautiful tarmac of Noida expressway and I saw Abhijeet all happy riding by my side.
Oh wait! He's wearing his knee guards and why am I not wearing one. Comes 1st break of the journey Mr. Patra needs to go back to his apartment to get knee guards on. So finally at 4.00 AM we left Greater Noida with astounding excitement of conquering Ladakh and the dream I had six years ago is being turned in to reality.
God! I'm so lucky.
50 minutes on to the ride with some good average speed and light traffic we reached Sonipat and had our 1st fuel break.

We had our major breakfast break at Ludhiana, we were filling our stomachs on sumptuous paranthas meanwhile our bags were soaking in water, it started raining heavily and we immediately rushed to our bikes to rescue our bags from getting drenched so we covered 'em with the large poly bags we were carrying so after good 90 minutes of gearing up we started again and the next stop was 40 kms before Jammu for tea and fuel.

When we started riding again I realized my bull was making thud sound from the rear wheel, after 10 minutes of inspection the culprit was found to be the chain set.
So there was no point in continuing the journey with rattling chain so tried finding some good mechanic along the highway but no luck so we decided to continue
to Jammu then figure out a solution. Jammu has a authorized royal enfield service center and as 21st being Sunday it was closed so we decided we'll call it a
day at Jammu. We entered city at 3.00 PM and it took us 1 hour to find a cheap stay near bus stand for Rs. 6oo/day. After freshening up we had dinner at nearby market and called it a day.
Distance covered- 675 kms
Travel Time (Including all breaks)- 13 hours
Fuel break- 1. Sonipat Rs880 @65 per-litre odo-35110
2. outskirt of Jammu Rs900 @70.3 per-litre odo-35590

 

[generalmax]

Wonderful!!! Waiting for more...

 

[Awirsh]

continuing..
22nd May
Day 2

I wanted my bike to be repaired first so we left our luggage at hotel and left for Royal Enfield service center. After a test ride by technician he suggested it's time for me to get rid off my old chain set and I was okay with the idea as it had already done 20,000 kms but surprise-surprise they don't have chain set in their stock. So we asked for chain cleaning-tightening which partially solved the problem and we were ready to hit roads again. So we left Jammu around 11 AM with bikes refueled and plan was to reach Srinagar by 6 PM. Absolutely Wrong prediction! One should take note that mountains are totally unpredictable when it comes to weather. We first met with a major traffic jam. Initially I was just going with the traffic flow but it was not helping at all meanwhile we met a biker group coming all the way from Turkey and these guys were really good at navigating traffic & we couldn't resist ourselves and we joined their convey. It was really pleasing to see desert storms and Yamaha Ténéré with TR registration plates leading our convey. These guys were carrying lot of luggage right from tires to tents, it was amazing to see guys doing such great cross country rides.(Now it's on my checklist ) Coming to the massive jam it was due to none other than flock of cows bulls on the roads. Ultimately army had to step in and they made a way for vehicles, thanks to Indian Army.Finally we were happy to find ourselves in the mountains with light traffic to take some curves and enjoy our machines.We had this amazing opportunity to ride on the newly constructed 9.2 KM long tunnel between Jammu and Srinagar which cuts the distance by 41 kms to roughly 250 kms.




Clicked just before entering the tunnel

Happiness didn't lasted long as roads turned to potholes with few patches of tarmac

Combined with cold bad weather and dusk riding was getting difficult and around 7 PM it started drizzling. So we took a chai break at roadside dhaba and zipped rain liner to our jackets and hit the roads again. Finally around 8.30 PM we entered Srinagar with a snicker break in between. Found a decent hotel 'Shahjahan Palace' near Dal lake and we called it a day.

15 minutes into the room and it was all messed up with our luggage, bungee chords

Distance covered- 270 kms
Travel Time - 9.5 hours
Fuel - 1. Jammu city Rs.276 @67 per-litre odo-35700


23rd May
Day 3

The day started with exploring the beautiful lakeside streets of Srinagar to Royal Enfield service center where my experience was not so good. Guy in charge was not really interested in my bike, he was trying to avoid us for a reason God knows why and he rather asked to get our bikes washed from outside car wash first than he will see the problem. This made me really pissed off and we just bought 2 cans of RE chain cleaners and went straight to a local mechanic for chain clean-tightening job. Now no second thoughts on replacing chain set, I'm going to make'em work for my entire trip. Our machines required much needed wash from last days ride, but most of the car wash folks refused as there was power cut in the town and there was this 'Dreamz car bath' who had power backup and agreed for Rs.150/bike.



Owner Mr. Fayaz was a nice chap and we indulged in a long conversation right from our studies to Kashmir and it was great talking to him and he gave his contact just in case if we need any help we could contact him. It was already past 12 PM and it didn't made sense to start for Kargil so we decided to explore this beautiful city of lake. We directly headed to Shankaracharya mandir which sits atop a hill with nice winding roads and offers magnificent view of the entire mughal city, only problem is cameras are not allowed but definitely a must visit(Riders take note to keep your phones and camera somewhere safe). Then we decided to visit Pari mahal which was on the adjacent hill. Clicked some pictures there. It was already 3.30 PM and poor hungry stomach started growling so we decided to have lunch and started towards city. While returning a Delhi registered Polo 1.6 was ahead of me and we were enjoying the winding roads and then suddenly the driver threw a redbull can on the road, I immediately slowed down and picked that thing, crushed and kept it in my pocket and continued towards city. And there I spot a Flash Red DL registered polo 1.6, nicely parked in front of Chashme Shahi gate driven by a gentleman of my age (Lets call him Mr. Moron- MM). I rushed to the driving side and Knock-Knock-
quoting the exact conversation:
Me: Excuse me sir! This can belongs to you.
MM: No, it's not mine.
Me: Please don't lie, I was right behind you!
MM: Okay, It's mine, I won't do it next time.
Me: I hope you do.
He looked away and started rolling-up the window and I stopped him right away and gave him his can of wings and asked him to throw it in the dustbin.
That look on his face just made my day.
Then we clicked few pics of Dal Lake and rushed to famous Lal bagh market to fill our tummies.













We went to this cool cafe which had my favorite Walter white poster on the wall.



Best pizza I ever had



Bean Box


I must say north Indians know a thing about pizzas, what we eat at fast food restaurants is crap. They had this creative way of presenting bill in a wooden box filled with coffee beans and place had nice ambiance. Owner was an amazing guy and we had great conversation about bullets, Kashmir, Delhi and his cafe. Turns out he works in Delhi and with his wife and friends they decided to open a cafe in Srinagar and the tasteful interior is done by them. Kudos! to them. While enquiring about good dinner places he suggested Ahdoos and route was bit confusing so the guy agreed to accompany us all the way to the restaurant in his RE classic. I'm really sorry but I'm forgetting gentleman's name and cafe's name.
Lal bagh market is an incredible place for shopping freaks and food lovers. Well We tried-


chicken chilli momos at- taste of Tibet



Extraordinary Tea experience



Beautiful Ambiance at Chaai Jaai, Lal Bagh



Kashmiri mutton rogan josh at Mughal darbar

After eating like maniacs we decided to go for a walk on the lake side and a thought came to mind- Srinagar aaye and shikara ride nhi li?
It was 11 PM city was asleep and we took a soothing shikara ride in the glistening dal lake. It was an experience in itself.
Finally we called it a day at 12 AM but excitement didn't let me doze off with thoughts of riding on dreaded zoji la. Super excited for next day.

• Distance covered - 60 kms Local

• Fuel- No refueling

 

[bhvm]

Awesome write up! We want Mo!
Yes some people are senseless about the environment and are really the bane of India.

 

[AppU]

Wow, Wonderful pics and Great start

waiting for tons of pics

 

[Awirsh]

continuing...
24th May
Day 4


My phone is playing 'Pashmina dhago ke sang' & I'm looking at the magnificent lake trying to capture every essence of this stunning creation of nature,suddenly a voice breaks my tranquility " You good to go?" Coming back to my senses I did all my packing and we left beautiful Srinagar with a mixed feeling of nervousness and excitement, it was the thought of infamous Zoji la playing with my mind. Road to Sonmarg runs alongside the entire Dal lake and it was a perfect way to bid goodbye to the city.



Right on the outskirts of city we realized that we haven't bought jerrycans for our journey, began the search for jerrycans and thankfully we spotted a shop just before a petrol pump who had variety of jerrycans(Plastic bottles I would say) in stock. We opted for 5 Ltr one which sits perfectly in our carrier. It was relatively cheaper at Rs.35/can here as compared to Rs. 100/can in Delhi. After refueling we left for Sonmarg and I must say the roads were absolutely amazing with nice surface coupled with some great curves, it was bliss to ride on NH-1 D and as a bonus you get beautiful scenery. In four days of riding I was finally enjoying my Thunderbird, appreciating the extra padded seats with superior thigh support(custom made seat) and the relaxed riding position made me feel like the king of roads. Thunderbird really proved this statement true "when you have an Enfield under you as* the world is yours" because I was already feeling home 1000 kms away from home, it's such a beautiful machine. I completely agree Enfields have fare share of unrefinement as per modern bike standards, but keep those things aside and it makes you feel connected to the bike when you know there's this massive 350cc single cylinder working under your bum and the sweet thumping is music to ones ear. I can confidently say if you want to experience anything close to classic old day charm- It's the Enfield.









Lost in these thoughts, in no time we reached sonmarg and decided to continue towards our to be first experience of high altitude, snow, water crossings- The Zoji La. Right after crossing Sonmarg town a sign board caught my attention which goes " Be gentle on my curves". I remember back in my school days when I was a huge overdrive fan and bought an issue of 9th anniversary edition of overdrive featuring '9 hatchbacks to Ladakh' story and this board was also a part of the story. Reminisced with my childhood memories a photo break was must.








Once we had our photo and snickers session we started riding again and finally we started ascending Zozi La. Road was good with few potholes here and there and it was completely doable, 10 kms on to the ride and temperatures dropped abruptly and we took our first Zoji La stop at a temple to gear our thermals,rain pant and gum boots. While Abhijeet was shooting a time lapse I prepared cuppa noodles and it was so pleasing, slurping on thin hot noodles while enjoying breathtaking mountains. There we met a couple who were driving their new Elantra in Zoji La! Hats off to these people. And we followed the Elantra for few kilometers and she was actually taking the roads quite well, good to see people venturing out on such adventures. Well few kilometers in to the ride and scenery changed drastically, we were surrounded by huge snow windrows, there was literally no road it was just pebbles,rocks and slush. We crossed few deep water crossings and actually enjoyed making through them without letting our foot down. And then we stopped right in front of a patch which was fully submerged in ice cold water and there was absolutely no way to predict which part is safe to ride, we stared each other and said Jai mata di! and we hit silencer deep water crossing struggling to balance our bikes and it was literally filled with boulders(I scraped my belly twice), God knows how Elantra would have managed here, This was the longest water crossing we had in our journey and was close to 400 meters. This completely drained our energy and we took a stop right after the crossing to sip on glucose and eat snickers and some dry fruits. Soon weather started turning bad and it started raining followed by hailstorm and there was no place to take shelter whatsoever. We were riding in middle of nowhere with cold soaked gloves and no phone network, situation really made me scared. Finally around 7 PM we reached Drass, the second coldest inhabited place in the world and thankfully this place had a STD PCO, I made phone calls to my parents then we had some eggs and tea at roadside Dhaba. We spent good 40 minutes here warming our body to get senses back to our hands and decided to continue towards Kargil. The only reason why we still wanted to continue riding was because the roads condition improved drastically. It was a super smooth dual carriage way with proper road marking and sign boards and we could not resist the temptation. So finally we reached Kargil around 8.40 PM, checked in to a decent hotel who was asking Rs.1600/Night and we applied all our Dilli wala bargaining skills to bring down tarrif to Rs 800/night. I was having this sense of achievement, as we crossed Zoji La without any issues, It was a moment to cherish. Soon after a warm refreshing bath we went for a walk and had dinner at a restaurant called Las Vegas which is operated by a couple in their 60s and they served us amazing mixed veg with dal and roti. It was sad to know that they have very few foot falls throughout the year, We wished them best of luck and got back to our rooms and slept for 9 hours in peace.


Zoji La temple


Cuppa Noodle, I seriously look goon with this self trimmed haircut


That's me posing


Tough Elantra(This was the best section of road at Zoji La though)


Right after crossing the treacherous water crossing



Victory Selfie


Energy Break



Customary shot

Distance covered- 220 Kms
Fuel-

• Srinagar Rs. 500 @70 per-litre odo-36008
• Jerry cans gulped fuel worth Rs. 650

*Folks please feel free to suggest any improvements, correction you want regarding the travelogue or anything which you don't like about my posts, I will try my best to ensure everything is perfect.

 

[Chandranath]

Awirsh, great going so far. Waiting for more

 

[VR Shenoy]

What a Beautiful Narration of your trip. The Photos captured by you are very nice. Reminds me of my visit to Srinagar in 1969 during my final year Educational trip to North India which was compulsory without which we were not allowed to write for the final year papers those days in 5 yrs Engg Course.

All the Best Awirsh and Abhijeet in your Adventurous Trip on Bikes.

Take care.

 

[souvikjana83]

Brilliant and Gorgeous. This probably is the only Bike Travelogue in TAI. At least I haven't read any. I really congratulate you that you have parents who supported you to take this trip at such a young age. I know a lot of parents would have never allowed that. (Remembering the trip I read sometime back about a guy who took his Ecosport to Darjeeling from Kolkata and his parents almost disowned him. Forgot his name).


But coming to your post its amazingly written. Looking forward for more.

 

[Awirsh]

What a Beautiful Narration of your trip. The Photos captured by you are very nice. Reminds me of my visit to Srinagar in 1969 during my final year Educational trip to North India which was compulsory without which we were not allowed to write for the final year papers those days in 5 yrs Engg Course.

All the Best Awirsh and Abhijeet in your Adventurous Trip on Bikes.

Take care.

Thank you so much sir for your kind words and I'm glad I could remind you of your time and it sounds really interesting to know that it was a compulsion to visit Srinagar to give exams. I would love to know more on this

Brilliant and Gorgeous. This probably is the only Bike Travelogue in TAI. At least I haven't read any. I really congratulate you that you have parents who supported you to take this trip at such a young age. I know a lot of parents would have never allowed that. (Remembering the trip I read sometime back about a guy who took his Ecosport to Darjeeling from Kolkata and his parents almost disowned him. Forgot his name).


But coming to your post its amazingly written. Looking forward for more.

Yeah It's all because of my parents that I made this trip happen. Update is coming soon it's just that life is keeping me busy with something, I will try to complete this travelogue as soon as possible.

 

[@shri]

Awesome travelogue, you made my late Friday night..i like the Walter White part :)

 

[Awirsh]

Continuing....
25th May
Day 5


Even after crossing Zoji La I was feeling as if something has been left out, a part of me was saying- how can you skip 'Kargil War Memorial' bro? Wise option would have been us staying at drass then visiting war memorial rather than going all the way to kargil and returning back to war memorial munching 100kms to & fro from kargil. While having breakfast we thought why do we need to think soo much, we are on an unscheduled road trip and let's enjoy the roads again. With this thought we roared towards war memorial with our thumping Enfields. While riding I felt something wrong with the throttle response at uphills, she was not pulling at all at 5th gear with rpm needle lugging around 2000 rpm so checked with Abhijeet and he had the same issue as well so we decided to check our bikes while returning. With one photo session break in between we made it to war memorial in no time, after all we were riding on the runways of Ladakh.
The War memorial is something on it's own you can feel that magic in the air, A strong feeling of pride in our nation. I literally went speechless while entering the war memorial. Every single object there has a story to tell, the sacrifices our brave soldiers made to save our mother land. I cannot explain the feeling in words here, one has to visit this place to understand the emotions , sentiments attached to one's country. I 'll let the pictures do the talking:


Runway of Ladakh


Beautiful roads to War Memorial



Grand entry gate of Kargil War Memorial



War memorial standing 10,000 ft above sea level






Martyrs Board






Every object has a story to narrate



Beautifully maintained museum



The shraddhanjali kalash( One of my favorite picture)






A letter by our brave soldier to his pal



Poem bestowed by Mr. Harivansh Rai Bacchan



Our Super Hero- Captain Vikram Batra







Ammunition of Pakistan army captured by our soldiers:











Parting shots:











Post lunch time we decided to start towards Leh and cover maximum distance possible before that air filter replacement was due so we took a pit stop right after war memorial under a tree shed. It was nice setup with river flowing by the road side and flock of sheep grazing on the river side. Well it was a time consuming affair to change the air filters as fitting of the side panel have really bad design I would say, once we were done with the replacement I slided my bike off the main stand and was looking down to see if I left anything on the road and everything looked fine so when I lifted my eyes what I saw was horrifying, I see that Abhijeet's bike is 180 degree flipped upside down and I can't see him ,God! I thought he's under the bike! Thankfully the gentleman was standing all perfect on his own feet so without wasting any time we tried lifting the bike but it was so difficult as bike had all the luggage mounted & was stuck on a ditch while surface was too slippery, so we called some 5-6 passersby to help us to get the bike back on her wheels. Once done with the task we bid bye to the gentlemen and checked for any damages on the bike, well she had a broken tachometer and nothing to worry about. What exactly happened was- He was trying to get his bike off the main stand and the moment he kept his right feet on the ground , his feet somehow slipped in a ditch and the center of mass shifted to the right and rest is a story to tell our kids *in future*. With the new filters on the bikes results was evident, lot better torque delivery in the mid range while riding uphills. So we continued towards leh and somewhere near Lamayuru AMS finally hit Abhijeet. He had this severe headache and it was bound to happen as we were breaking the rules of hills-

• 1st we didn't had lunch, we were riding empty stomach
• 2nd we were not keeping our body hydrated
• 3rd we were riding continuously

And with bit of rainfall temperature were down to single digit and didn't made sense to continue the journey so we decided to call it a day. We stayed at Shangrila home stay, rooms were super economical at Rs. 500/night. After having eggs,tea and thupka Abhijeet eat a diamox and dozed off and it was around 8 in the evening and I wasn't really feeling sleepy so I went for a stroll in the town and man the city of monastery was already asleep, It was difficult to spot a single soul in the streets so I got back to our home stay and met the owner of home stay Bhandari bhai for some random chit-chatting & came to know that he works at multiple tourist places throughout the year, like in Lamayuru he works from May to September in this Shangrila which basically belongs to his in-laws then he will work at Goa shacks for few months then he will move to Udipi and back here. Amazing right! About the town- Lamayuru is sparsely populated town with famous monasteries, moonland and offers amazing view through day and night. For the very first time in my life I saw too many stars in the sky which are so difficult to spot these days from the concrete jungles we live.


Few more clicks:


Air filter session


This is where chaubey ji lost his balance


Life saving Nescafe latte break somewhere near Kargil


Beautiful Lamayuru town


Shangrila hotel offers a great view from their roof top restaurant


View from our window was to die for




Bullu posing with mighty mountains


Distance covered- 220kms
No Fuel break

 

[Awirsh]

Awesome travelogue, you made my late Friday night..i like the Walter White part :)

Thanks @shri. Your words actually encouraging and yeah I'm huge follower of sir Walter White .

 

[VR Shenoy]

Hello Awirsh, the photos at "Kargil war Memorial " are excellent with Broad view. With this thread. we got the chance to know more about this place. They have maintained it very well in the memory of those Brave Hearts.

The Lamayuru Town looks like some great Fort area and I am sure must be a very peaceful town with Buddhist Monks.

As regards my visit to Srinagar : You may perhaps be knowing that till about 1974 or 1975( I am not sure about the year) the Engg Course was Integrated 5 yrs course, after doing 11 yrs in the High school and 1 yr PUC. At that time it was compulsory for 4th year Engg students to go on Southern India Study Tour for minimum 2 weeks and for Final yr( 5th yr) students to go on Northern India Tour. Unless we attended these Tours, we were not permitted to appear for the Exams( exceptional cases were hardly one or 2, if a student fell sick at that time and to provide all the proof by the parents to the Principal) . So in 1969 December that too in the severe cold we had to go on North India Study Tour including cities like New Delhi, Kanpur, Missouri, Chandigarh and finally to Srinagar. We could see only the Frozen Dal Lake at that time and also Shalimar Park (?) . But it was enjoyable moments in a group of about 70-75 students and 2-3 Lectures and one professor. Had Rajmah masala and Tandori Roti for the 1st time in life in Srinagar. Ate few dry fruits which were available easily.

Later the strict rules were changed once the Semister course were introduced. At that time even the High school was for a total period of 10 yrs and PUC for 2 yrs and Engg Course was for 4 yrs.

 

[Awirsh]

Continuing
26th May
Day 6

"Leh'd" written on the fuel tank of my bike was finally going to make sense now, as the milestone reads Leh 120 kms. Leh sticker on the bike worked as a reminder to Mr.Patra to make this trip possible. As Leh was hardly 120 kms so we had a lazy morning with typical Dilli wala breakfast- Parantha with Dahi. While leaving for leh we met 4 riders from Bangalore who were returning from Leh and one of the rider misplaced his luggage somewhere near Leh fuel station so we asked them if we could help them in anyway and they politely refused, So we started for Leh with a maniac grin plastered on my face after all my dream was finally turning into reality. And the roads Masha Allah the best I have driven so far- Beautiful tarmac | pleasant weather | low traffic | stunning beauty. Wished this road never ends. One suggestion for this route-carry food items with you as you wont be finding lot food joints en route, So we had to manage with snickers n dry fruits. Contrary to previous day's 'Outside-inside-Outside' riding style we took things rather peacefully cruising at 50 kmph enjoying the scenery. We encountered the famous magnetic hill and gosh bike actually pulls back when parked in the marked line on the road, but I'm still skeptical about the optical illusion here but anyway it doesn't matters as I enjoyed the experience and we continued, just after crossing Pathar Saheb ( World's 3rd highest Gurudwara) there's a downward sloping road towards Leh which reads " Check your brakes" and the road is long and inclined enough to take the speedometer needle northwards of 100 kmph in no time, you really have to work on your brake to control speed of your vehicle. I am totally exhilarated by the kind of experience Leh ladakh offers to it's travelers, it's definitely once in a lifetime experience which everyone should experience at some point in their lives. Leh welcomed us in it's own charm as things got dusty and visibility reduced to 100 meters followed by extreme crosswinds making riding bit difficult and there was literally no place to take shelter on the road so we decided to proceed slowly and finally around Leh airport the desert storm halted.


Every time I ride her she says "Leh'd"



Arrow straight road as far as our eyes can see



Action Kamen pose(Ones who have watched shinchan will know what I'm talking about )


This shot took us 30 minutes as we were just two of us and using tripod in the middle of the road gets dicey



For everything she did in last 6 six days



This is what happens you visit Ladakh



Candid click by Mr. Chaubey



The moment I entered the city I was super disappointed- It was too dusty, insane traffic filled with taxis, you can smell diesel fumes wherever you go and top of that some construction work was being carried out on the road & it was full of life size potholes, at places roads were one way only making things worse for already jammed packed city. This really made me sick thinking " I did't rode all the way from Delhi for this " and then suddenly I recalled that Hunder guy Mr. Bhandari mentioned us about Changspa, a place on the outskirt of the city where probability of getting a decent home stay was high. so we directly headed to Changspa skipping overcrowded market place and luckily we found one Amazing home stay away from crowd settled in midst of farms between Shanti Stupa and Tsemo Gompa , access to this place is bit confusing as it's away from the main road but once you reach here you will forget everything, it was Dawa homestay,Shankar Leh.
This bargaining line "We are students, we have to manage lot of things. I hope you understand" Voila! this works every time and we settled for Rs.700/ night for a well maintained room with 24x7 hot water and the view from window which was worth travelling thousands of kilometeres. Finally happy with Leh we went to Leh-Market for some shopping and dinner, it's really a resourceful market I would say because you get everything from hardware stores to software stores. Whenever in Leh market, Brazillian Cafe is a must place, they sell most amazing pie in India and the staff is awesome. We got back to our home stay and had the most peaceful night of our journey as we finally conquered Ladakh and we didn't really planned where we will be heading to and with absolutely no network on my vodafone life just got simpler and easier. No phone calls. No whatsapp. No emails. Absolutely no worries.



Met this cute kid 'Hamm' at some army check post



Comfortable room of Dawa guest house



Had this thupka at Namoh cafe, Leh market



The famous Leh Market



The sinful pie



Spot Thunder Buddies


Total distance covered - 127kms
Fuel breaks- Jerry can refuel at Hunder