Motorcycling To Ladakh


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dear friends just returned from our ride to ladakh on 2 wheels. oh! boy what a trip it was. here are a few teasers for a start

HOW THE IDEA WAS BORN - way back in 2013 when i had toured ladakh in my bolero with my family and suresh the sight of the bikers in the circuit really hit a cord in my heart. the thundering hordes of bulleteers was a sight you had to see. silently i too wished to make a trip on 2 wheels to the land of high passes one day. then ramji came around with a wild passion to tour ladakh someway or the other. when i came back i bought a bajaj avenger and started biking after a gap of 14 years. ( had a hard time to convince wifey though )
 

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Hi SR, I was still under the impression that the ride was still on the drawing board.

Pleasant surprise to see its completed.

Great lets have the story flowing
 
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Enough for waiting. Keep posting.
Did any impact of the recent incident on your travel?
Is that place near to your way?
 
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I'm waiting for this TL eagerly from the day you guys back to KL.

post more and more pics without any hesitation. Hope you guys will help me when I plan for a trip to LEH[:D]
 
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sorry mathew work pressure of the 3 weeks leave keeping me busy, unable to post.sure appu will post lots of snaps. will definitely lend our hand in planning your trip.
 
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first of all a big SORRY for keeping you all waiting. first of all i would like like to thank all who had helped us in planning & executing this trip.
1) almighty for safeguarding me and my co riders
2) our indian army
3) BRO for the roads
4)the ladakhi people for their hospitality and love ( tsering & sonam our hosts in Leh and the unknown lady at sarchu in whose tin shed we stayed a night )
5)Dheeraj sharma @ DOW
6)Yogesh sarkar @BCM touring
7) all you guys
Next i would like to introduce my co riders
Suresh - is a lawyer by profession and he had accompanied me in my 2013 kadakh trip
satish - is suresh"s younger brother and is a agricultural officer
AR Ram is a TAI ian
 

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first of all a big SORRY for keeping you all waiting. first of all i would like like to thank all who had helped us in planning & executing this trip.
1) almighty for safeguarding me and my co riders
2) our indian army
3) BRO for the roads
4)the ladakhi people for their hospitality and love ( tsering & sonam our hosts in Leh and the unknown lady at sarchu in whose tin shed we stayed a night )
5)Dheeraj sharma @ DOW
6)Yogesh sarkar @BCM touring
7) all you guys
Next i would like to introduce my co riders
Suresh - is a lawyer by profession and he had accompanied me in my 2013 kadakh trip
satish - is suresh"s younger brother and is a agricultural officer
AR Ram is a TAI ian
SR you missed out intoductory picture of a certain Rajiv.

Also please introduce your respective rides along with the pictures.
 
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Next i would like to introduce my co riders
Suresh - is a lawyer by profession and he had accompanied me in my 2013 kadakh trip
satish - is suresh"s younger brother and is a agricultural officer
AR Ram is a TAI ian
Also please introduce your respective rides along with the pictures.
Introduce all with their Names. Then, introduce the respective vehicles.
 
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oh my i forgot to post my snap.

IMG_0291.JPG

my ride.jpg

ramji's bike.jpg

suresh's ride.jpg

IMG_0661.JPG

my bike is the Royal Enfield Himalayan- just 900 kms old.
suresh ride is a bullet classic 350 just 1000 odd kms old
satish's ride is a bullet classic 350 10000 kms old
Ramjii's bike is a pulsar 150, 10 years young !!!

PREPARATION - when the idea of the ride was put into words there were many friends who wanted to come along. one by one they opted out citing different problems. ramji, me, suresh and satish were confirmed from the beginning.
the himalayan was launched in the mean time and i fell in love once again. read a lot about it in the internet got deeply in love. decided to book one. hinted it to wifey and she vetoed the idea immediately. tried to get a TD from ss motors kannur. since they had the monopoly in RE they treated me like...... yes that 4 letter word. next tried to get a TD at calicutwith no luck. then lady luck smiled and a new RE showroom opened in kannur. went there clandestinely one day with satish and my daughter, TD ied the bike and booked it. when wifey was informed later BOOM!!![gun]. some how pacified her. suresh too didn't have a good bike so me and satish forced him to book a bullet classic 350.(he had been thinking of buying a bullet 350 but was undecided )

the waiting period for the himalayan was 4 months and the bullet classic 350 red was 2- 2.5 months. we begged , pulled strings etc to speed up the delivery and had the bullet delivered in 6 days and the himalayan in 1 month. next the registration of the bikes was another problem. here in kannur you can lay your hands on the rc in minimum of a months time. again we begged then pulled strings and had it in our hands in 6 days. RC was needed to book our bikes in the railways.
we then booked tickets to delhi for 5 people.
GETTING PERMISSION - I was sure that my wife would insist on coming along that i made satish book 5 tickets to delhi. when i told her about the ride she was BOOM BOOM !!!! she started fuming. all hell broke loose at home.she tried to dissuade me in many ways. its too dangerous what if you had an accident ???? who is there for me and our kids ?? what can i do all alone when you are not at home ?? but my daughter was on my side[:D] she tried her hand in getting her mom to let me go. and then one fine day one of my pals rang me up to tell me about his drive to ladakh. when i told him about the situation at home and the possibility of me skipping the ride he told me -" rajivetta onnukondum pedikkenda. ente veetilum ee bookambam okke undayirunnu. pakshe ellam thirichuvannappol shariyayi" (brother rajeev don't you worry. i too had the same earthquake at home . but it all got sorted out on my return) well that was it come what may i decided to go.
satish did a master stroke and got his wifey's permission. he took her to a jewellery shop and bought her a heavy gold chain while she was in cloud nine and was in a very loving mood he told her about his dream of going to ladakh. she consented without much resistance. he didn't tell her how he was going to ladakh though.[;)] when she came to know about it later she too tried her level best to get satish off the ride. there was emotional tactics too. one fine morning satish' elder daughter rang him up an cryingly told him not to go to ladakh. but satish told her that it was his life's dream and wouldn't drop it. next it was the second daughter who asked him the same.he could hear his elder one crying in the background. then the second daughter gave back the phone to mama saying " patti parangittu kelkunnilla "[lol] ( dog he isn't listening )
 
Thread Starter #13
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i had read that permits were needed to go to and beyond Rohtang pass. contacted a travel agency in manali - M/S Himalayan mountain trails, PH 9805098040, O2, Govinda complex,Old manali road, dist. Kullu, HP and had the permit made before our arrival at manali. the documents wattsapped were -
1) copy of RC
2)drivers licence
3)PUC certificate
@ INR 300 / bike.

Booked train tickets for onward journey for 5th september and return on the 24 th of september.
All 4 bikes were booked for shipping on the 3rd of september.
THINGS BOUGHT/PROCURED -
1) cramster breezer 4s jacket
2) cramster Tundra gloves
3)Helmet i already had
4)dirtsack longranger pro neo saddle bags
5) Rynox tank bag
6) shinguard
7)electric tyre inflator
8) puncture repair kit for tube type
9) medicines
10)4jeans & t shirts
11) sweater
we had installed sockets for connecting the inflator to satish & suresh's bikes. ramji had fitted a socket to charge the GPS. he also installed a stand for the GPs
 
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Hi friends

I am so sorry!!!

Virtually I am still in Himalayan ranges, looks like it will take some more time for me to wake up from dreams....

More than 1500 mind blowing pictures

Horrifying roads, water crossings, off road riding etc. etc. Challenges on daily basis!!!

Astonishingly Pulsar is getting younger and younger after every ride/rape!!!
 
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we shipped our bikes on the 3rd of september itself as we were not sure if all the bikes would travel together to delhi. in fact my bike travelled with us on the 5th. the price for shipment came to INR 4800 per bike ( the REs for ramji it came to only INiR 3000/ ) for the packing we had to pay INR 400 per bike. we ourselves packed the bikes before the railway guys did as we wanted to make doubly sure that our bikes wouldn't sustain any injury.we removed the indicators of all the three bikes before shipping.

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we boarded our train on the 5th 5.30pm. we were seen off by my wifey nad suresh's uncle and son. the 2 days in the train was boring with nothing to do except eat and sleep. one incident in the train hit me real hard. we were in some station in mumbai suburbs when two kids came in. we had just finished lunch and one of the boys asked for the chicken bone that was left in my plate. the longing in his eyes for that chicken bones was heart wrenching.[frustration] i forbade him from eating the left over and ordered a meal each for the two boys from the pantry. but alas non veg was over and the boys were given veg meals. some random snaps from the train-

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the send off party

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