Destination: LEH - Journey: An Experience for Life!!!

[junaidzsb]

Re: Destination: LEH ---- Journey: An Experience for Life!!!

Ladies/Gentlemen

I am sorry for taking a long time to respond to messages. I was caught up with usual last minute office work before the weekend. I shall try my best to put up the rest of the pictures soon.

@mumbaikar
@JazzSelect
@Surfer
Thank You So much for all the nice words guys

@AppU - Thank You, i will give all the details of travel at the end of the travelogue, hope that is ok

@Thetraveller - Yes sir, this is my first writing and thank you for those nice words.

 

[junaidzsb]

Now, let me quickly share the route and the reason why we chose this route.

While it’s observed the favorite route used by majority of travelers is the journey through Chandigarh-Manali-Leh highway, but there was a catch in our case, actually there were multiple catches (no, not referring to cricket)

1. Catch, we were traveling against time, since it was first week of November already, so there was a confirmation from reliable source that this route is already closed.
2. Catch, we just had 10 days, so in case we take this route and it is closed, I will lose out 4 days here going to and fro which means I can kiss rest of the trip good bye.

Now, we were prepared for this, so if Manali-Leh is closed then we will take the Delhi-Srinigar-Leh route which means a really looooooong Journey is ahead of us. But till end Manali-Leh was too tempting and playing games. Heart said Manali-Leh, Mind said Srinigar-Leh.

Which route do we take?

We went this way!!!!!

 

[truecitylover]

So, you listened to your mind finally? Would say it's a wise decision while travelling with your better half.

BTW, going by a lot of travelogues about Manali - Leh highway, Rohtang pass would be someone's nightmare. Everyone awaits for the all weather tunnel to be opened.
Eitherways, the mighty Zozila pass would have proved to be the worst too in your trip.

Just curious - What was your return route?

Do pour in more details and yes more pictures too.

 

[junaidzsb]

Now for me this is the first experience of riding the Bull like an Auto till we get out of Delhi city limits. Why?

See the initial Pics once with the luggage carrier and luggage attached, it’s almost an auto size, isn’t it? Now, this takes a lot of getting used to, this also means no getting into small gaps (wonder how auto guys do it) never mind that, this also means one needs to be careful not scrape any car, an
expensive car that too

We are out of Delhi in about 45 minutes (no surprises, it was a Sunday afternoon) and headed towards Ambala

After 10 kms ride on the highway i realize that Bull is not pulling us as its supposed to, I did feel this strange behavior while in the city but my mind was over occupied with the not scraping others and expensive Cars.
As we continued on the highway with higher speeds it started really bothering me and I was sure that something was wrong, I immediately stopped and did a quick inspection to realize that back brakes have been over tightened by mechanic. In fact while taking delivery of the Bull after test ride I told mechanic to slightly tighten the back brake and went inside shop to complete the formalities, but he merrily fixed it so tight that I need not use brakes to stop the Bull, any way it took just 5 mins for me to fix this, being a Bull owner this fix was like a piece of cake

After the quick DIY we are back on the road, and now it feels perfect.

 

[junaidzsb]

So, you listened to your mind finally? Would say it's a wise decision while travelling with your better half.

BTW, going by a lot of travelogues about Manali - Leh highway, Rohtang pass would be someone's nightmare. Everyone awaits for the all weather tunnel to be opened.
Eitherways, the mighty Zozila pass would have proved to be the worst too in your trip.

Just curious - What was your return route?

Do pour in more details and yes more pictures too.

We were not left with much choice when we put in logic together, as i mentioned in my post had i taken the Manali route we would have definitely returned heart broken which we realized after reaching Leh that it definitely was a wise decision.

Challenge in Zojila, wait till the story unfolds you will know why i began my travelogue with the line "Have you ever wondered how does it feel to spend a night in Zojila after it was closed by BRO due to heavy snow fall?"

 

[truecitylover]

Now for me this is the first experience of riding the Bull like an Auto till we get out of Delhi city limits. Why?

See the initial Pics once with the luggage carrier and luggage attached, it’s almost an auto size, isn’t it? Now, this takes a lot of getting used to, this also means no getting into small gaps (wonder how auto guys do it) never mind that, this also means one needs to be careful not scrape any car, an expensive car that too

Now, thats what we petrol heads want from fellow 2 wheelers. This is responsibility!

We were not left with much choice when we put in logic together, as i mentioned in my post had i taken the Manali route we would have definitely returned heart broken which we realized after reaching Leh that it definitely was a wise decision.

Challenge in Zojila, wait till the story unfolds you will know why i began my travelogue with the line "Have you ever wondered how does it feel to spend a night in Zojila after it was closed by BRO due to heavy snow fall?"

Yeah, i saw that in the first post itself. So, mighty Zozila did not spare you too. I've got patience to wait and also read this blog many a times since this is trip of life IMO.

 

[tornado78]

First of all my big congratulation to
not to you first, but to your better half and than to you for completing such a hard circuit in this weather and on a TB not in a car. (hats off to both of you)

Iam also plannig this trip from last 4 years but still planning (may be this year with my new Safari Storme).

Nice writeup, would like to suggest one thing that kindly post your itineary and try to break your journey daywise (or two post/per day) so that we all can feel the actual travel of yours.

Nice T log keep the next pic and event coming...
God Bless both of you and wish you many more trips in life ahead..

 

[junaidzsb]

@truecitylover - Thank You.

@tornado78 - My better half is the strength behind this and more thank you on her behalf.

Congrats in Advance for your new Storme

Yes, going forward i shall break the journey day wise, what i wrote till now was just the background and introductions. Thank you for the suggestions and please do let feel free to give more inputs if the Travelogue needs change of writing style.

 

[junaidzsb]

Good straight roads, Cool evening breeze, Country side fields, Bull in the Hands and riding it are you with your Bellowed. Just perfect!!!

 

[junaidzsb]

I maintained a steady speed of 65 to 70 km/hr, and an occasional touch to 80km/hr depending on the visibility and road. Now, Bull is capable of doing speeds much higher than above, but we are on a Ride not in a Race.

We had decided that our first destination for the day will be Ambala (192kms), we reached Ambala fairly early and not all that tired too, checked on each other and we were OK to ride up to the next city, which was supposed to be Rajpura, after reaching this place we realized there were not good hotels, so it was then decided it’s going to be Ludhiana, before that checked about the condition of roads and traffic from the locales and got a positive response, so decided it’s safe to stretch till Ludhiana, and we continued, it was around 10.30pm when we reached Ludhiana and the search began for hotel Ginger. It’s around 11.30pm and we are still searching for hotel Ginger, so the best thing to do is catch a auto fellow pay him to take you to the hotel, and you follow the auto this works, this definitely works if you are doing this around humanly hours, but if it’s almost midnight and an unknown city, your Bellowed is along, then it’s definitely not worth the risk, even if we were to settle for another hotel. We continued looking and realized that we are slowly riding out of Ludhiana towards Jalandhar. At last to our luck we found a good hotel (sorry, don’t remember the name) good enough for the night stay for 1200/night. Requested for some food the staff was courteous enough to make some veg sandwiches respite kitchen being closed, now, those sandwiches I normally ignore, but that night they tasted like Grill Chicken and Biryani.
Ate our dinner, said prayers and promised ourselves that we are not going to take such risk ever through the trip, and finally called it a night!!!!

Total distance Traveled – 310 kms (Delhi to a little after Ludhiana town)

 

[TheG2]

Great going Junaid! Hungry for more...

 

[smooth rider]

wow ! just stumbled on this t log. kudos to you both for this daring trip and that too on a bike. just keep em coming. waiting with bated breaths for more.

 

[junaidzsb]

@TheG2 - Thank You, and welcome to TAI

@smooth rider - Thank You for the nice words. Will try my best to complete it soon.

 

[AppU]

we are on a Ride not in a Race.

If Every one realized these words, most of the accidents should be avoided..


Your TL is really Intresting.. waiting for more story

 

[junaidzsb]

We wake up to a beautiful morning in Ludhiana, surprisingly no body ache and feeling all fresh maybe it was the place or weather or could the excitement for the trip, what was it? Who cares…
We were just eager to hit the road again.

But not before breakfast.
Now this is something about us, we love to experiment with food, we are foodies basically and love to taste the local delicacies of that particular place, so what do you eat in Punjab?
Yes, the national breakfast of Punjab 'Aaloo da Paratha' with lots of butter…… and…..? Then what? Punjab’s national drink, 'Lassi'.
Man, what a delicious breakfast, just loved it!!

Thank You Punjab for giving this world Paratha and Lassi

We check out of room and ensure to say thank you to the courteous staff for providing the life saving sandwiches previous night, and the nutritious breakfast for the morning.

It’s around 11am I do a thorough check on the Bull load the luggage and start the Bull, one kick and it starts. Super. Let’s go.

We did those extra miles the previous night means our journey for the day will be relatively shorter by about 65 odd kms.
Let me share some facts about the Bike journo here, additional 65kms is no big deal in terms of driving a car but if you’re doing the same on the Bike then it is a BIG deal, both for the rider and pillion, and i am sure our biker Buddies will agree to this part.

We are on our way and its sunny but there is a chill in the air which makes the ride a pleasure. Then I check on my pillion and she is happily clicking, so we are nearing towards Jalandhar and about 60 kms from Ludhiana and before entering the Jalandhar city we need to take bypass to head towards Pathankot, but instead we go straight through this pass and enter the city. Why? Lack of direction boards, there is absolutely no clue whatsoever to say that one needs to take that right to bypass Jalandhar city till one find themselves battling the main city traffic.
Sense prevailed for a change in me a little earlier than usual and I quickly realized if we continue then we will never be able to make out of Jalandhar, so I take a U turn at the first signal and return back 5 kms, en route asking every possible soul the way to bypass, somehow managed to get out and just before hitting the highway found a good clean bunk, did a tank full. TB drank close to 12 ltrs, was happy with the mileage too, since this was the first refill after we left Delhi. According to my calculations the mileage was about 42 or so. Got out of the city successfully, we are happily on the highway towards Pathankot, and it’s around 1pm.

Now, we reach a point where Amritsar is just about 45 odd kms from there, Wagah Border another 10kms added to it, so, that means we can go there to see the Wagah border ceremony, I have always been a big fan of this, and too tempted to see it, but due to lack of time we could not deviate from our main journey so with a heavy heart carried on riding towards Jammu.

Straight roads and lots of works happening around for making it a 6 lane highway, but in spite of construction the roads are fairly well maintained. Hoshiarpur and other small towns come and disappear and we are almost nearing Pathankot and its time for lunch, and where do we eat, Mc Donalds.
Surprised?
Well, I too was, this particular highway has left me speechless for couple of reasons one definitely is for the beautiful “Paddy fields and Sarso ke kheth” and second for the number of Mc Donald and Coffee Day outlets, it’s a big boon for travelers especially like us.
We finish a leisurely lunch considering this was our first break since morning and started the ride from Pathankot after freshening up, the time was 4.30pm.

Our destination JAMMU.
We take it slow as the initial approach roads towards Jammu highway is bad in fact nonexistent see the below Pic’s those were taken just before we start the journey towards Jammu highway. Once that’s crossed there is a beautiful tarmac laid ahead, that means the speeds increase and journey time reduces, we pass a number of bridges of small streams and then it started getting chillier. Come out the warm set of clothing for the first time in the journey.
Jacket? Check. Gloves? Check, Muffler? Check. Pillion? Check, Rider? Check, the Ride? Check.
All set to take the final kilometers it was already evening there was good load of traffic along the route, but we passed through those miniature towns on route and bang on target we enter Jammu town @ 8pm.

This town reminds me of our Commercial street and Shivajinagar side area, no kidding, it’s a nice small town with full of shops and bus stands and shops again. But once you enter the town it’s quite a nice place, we quickly check into Hotel Jammu International for Rs. 1700/ night. This was located in the main street with another 100 other hotels. Since this was also in the main street, my better half wanted to check out the shops, so I quickly park our bull in the hotel parking and say good night, Bull had to rest since tomorrow is a BIG day for all of us. Why? You will know soon.
So, after we check in to the hotel we freshen up quickly and walk out towards the market, wife takes some time to check out a few things and for the first time ever in my life I do not crib about it. In fact I was happy she could get to do this bit of shopping. We wind up as shops started closing since it was past 9.30pm, we head back to our hotel eat yummy dinner and retire for the night.

Total distance traveled 300kms (Ludhiana to Jammu)