Re: Raiding the Himalayas - Swift style! Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Liner Absolutely mindblowing pictures. And I love your narration. Devoid of all the literary crap that we see around here a lot these days. You just get to the point and leave it there.
Rated this thread a super 5 stars. Hope there's more! |
Thank you very much. Quote:
Originally Posted by Rajain Hi
At some stage if you have not already planned, please do list out what stuff/equipment you had and what you should have had (and did not have). I mean tow rope, shackle, air pump, spare tube etc.
Also, did you carry any spare fuel or you came back via Kargil? We will wait for the part on Swift's performance.
Great going. Nice pictures and always lovely to see another Leh TL.
Cheers
Rajain |
Yes, That will come up in the end. An entire do's an don't along with what to carry on the trip and lessons learnt. Quote:
Originally Posted by Nonstop-driver Some excellent photographs with good narration there Humyum. Every Leh TL is unique in itself and I never get boared to read them again and again. Also, thanks to the good samaritan in you that helped the M800 back on the road.
There are certain things, which possibly I do not like the way you drive, but then it's my own opinion and apologies in advance if you don't agree.
1. Your car seemd to be aquaplaning quite often. Is it related to the high speed driving tendency?
2. The tinted glass issue. It has been over an year that this has been implemented. Ideally you should have stripped off the tint long ago and if required, there are 2-3 threads in the DIY section to help you with.
3. Attempting to pay bribe and actually paying it as you've admitted isn't setting good example.
4. Driving on the wrong site in the event of a jam - this is something which aggrevates the jam situation and quite often we've seen situations where the jam could have been avoided altogether. Then think of the situation when you've yourself caused the jam!
Enough of preaching now, let the further log and pics come! |
Thank you. Let me answer your questions point by point
1) I need to figure out why it aqua planed so much this time as I have driven a lot of 1000 and 1500 km trips in a day to Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bangalore before this trip in all seasons with my parents over the years and it has never aqua planed. All the times the speed maintained have been 120's and 130's as with the Michelins, the Swift Diesels power and handling characteristics, it has always been a comfortable experience along with the fact that its never felt strained at those speeds. The swift when it inches towards 140 and beyond it feels strained but otherwise 120 and 130 is an extremely comfortable cruising speed. Also the fact that we do trips which involved reaching places like Mumbai to Junagadh, Mumbai to Bangalore or Mumbai to Jaipur in one day, it makes it boring for me to drive at 80 and 100's. I need to figure out the 'WHY it happened this time and that too multiple times on this trip. Trust me, I am a very safe driver, have not had a shunt in almost 2 lakh plus kilometres I have driven in my life.
2) About the tinted glass, this travelogue dates back to september 2012 when it had just got back from UK like 15 days back before this trip. I thought like always the law will be ruled back and also that since we will be travelling on such a long trip from states like Gujarat and Rajasthan, I thought of letting the light tints be. Completely my mistake, but seizing my car was not the right thing to ask from me as I possibly would have not gone to court in a place like Kashmir when I was on a vacation and got my car out. The next possible thing I did was 'circumvent' and hence the bribe. I agree its not setting a good example, but I was just being honest. I would not usually bribe my way out in Mumbai, but the situation here demanded extreme measures.
3)Well, In these areas I realised, that is how the traffic is diverted. The smaller cars take the outside path and duck in as directed by the cops during events like a landslide or a conked truck on the highway. Quote:
Originally Posted by Schoudhury Wow man, this is simply superb.
The narration is excellent and to top it up with crisp snaps is just icing on the cake.
Could you please share with me the full resolution picture of snap of the India flag on your car, if possible.
Waiting for the rest of the log to unfold .
Cheers |
Thank you. Yes, of course, PM me your e-mail id and I ll send you the high resolution picture. Quote:
Originally Posted by Jignesh Hello,
Great travelogue & equally great photos.
You have set the Driving & photography benchmark a step above for us. These travelogues to Ladakh only motivate me to undertake this jounrey this year itself. Thank you for these spectacular pictures & crisp narration.
Regarding altitude sickness I believe it is advised to take Diamox tablet everyday during the trip. Did you followed this schedule? Also generally it is Air travellers to Leh who suffer from altitude sickness. People who visit by Car are already used to high altitudes.
Thanks, |
Thank you. Yes, we did start taking Dimox from the moment we left Srinagar, Atleast 3 times a day the pill was taken and we chose the Srinagar route only because of the reason that we get acclimatized but I guess the hectic tiredness and stress of driving long distances over the days in a hatchback must have played a part in us not feeling well for the first some days at high altitudes. |