Can't talk right now Ma, busy in a critical meeting - Trip to Rohtang

[SamuraiJack]

I hope my comment on D being a "He" has not offended the ladies here- all I mean to say is, Diesel engines are noisy (which compares to a guy's voice than that of a sweet sounding girl!) that's the first and main reason why I would not refer to the car as a "She".

[Irish]

Originally Posted by SamuraiJack

I'm bang in the middle of this strech!

Hey! What happened next? Please continue.

[SamuraiJack]

So, the situation I'm in could be due to two reasons..

1. Time of day- it was about 6 in the evening now and I think this contributed a lot to the wet conditions around.
2. Altitude- You know, not much oxygen supplied to the engine to respond as quickly as it usually does under normal circumstances.

Getting back to the situation- I can see the BRO guy waving frantically asking me to keep moving, I crank again, D responds and gives out a low grunt , I have the clutch held (I usually hold the clutch when starting cars) and floor the throttle to see if D responds.. he does but slowly, Shift to first and use the same half clutch method, I feel the wheels struggling to grip not that D is spinning but I can feel him swaying not too strong but just enough to have your 'you know what' in your mouth, but he chugs along.. out of this mess, phew!

[SamuraiJack]

Originally Posted by Souvik

Hi SJ,

Come out of the blood freeze state. What did you see? What happened? My hands are sweating now. Tell fast.

Also a question: Did you have under body cover fixed to D before you took him?

Souvik

Hey Souvik- nope no cover what so ever, trying looking under your car sometime.. there is no need for a cover.

[vinaydas]

one more thing.
any issues with the authorities while traveling , any unexpected police stops ?.

[SamuraiJack]

looks like it..

[Majic]

Hey SJ, what happened to all the pictures? Are they coming? I am looking forward to the rest of the blog over the weekend

[WDM007]

A,B, C,D,

Where are the updates & pics?
Its long time now, no updates

[Souvik]

Hi,

You know what? Office is quite boring, especially if I don't get to start with the usual "Leh" dose! Please, updates soon.

Souvik

[sen2009]

Originally Posted by SamuraiJack

Sen- I had to look up "impromptue!" I will take it as a compliment for now, unless you confirm otherwise.

By all means.
I can confirm if it's otherwise only after your story is done.

Originally Posted by SamuraiJack

As for the shovel and gumboots- how come it makes sense when a jeep has a shovel for offroading! And I'm really glad that guys like you are enoying this story.

I guess jeeps are "light" and hence they can be shovelled out of a pit of ditch.

[CorsaLove]

Do you have a Turbo in you as well???

Zoom ahead brother. Waiting for you to continue.

[SamuraiJack]

Was not easy- We reached the top and it was a beautiful sight, but we were shaken up by the experience and since light was fading at a rapid rate I was getting worried about the road ahead and being able to find a spot to rest for the night.

We drove down to Khoskar, the roads continued to be depleted barring just one strech once you reach on top of ROHTANG and enquired about rooms in a Dhaba, the caretaker took us behind the dhaba and showed us a shoddy place for 200 bucks, we were not interested. There was a PWD rest house on the opposite side but was full.

Upon seeing us enquire about a place to stay a Sardarji came up to us and mentioned about a PWD guest house being available in the next town calle d 'Sissu', he said he had come here as there was no food available in that town. We did not show much interest in this guy as we were not too keen on taking another person along with us in case he asked, anyway- we ordered dinner in the Dhaba and were sitting outside when Sardarji approached us again and asked us to join him inside the Dhaba.. at one point he had mentioned about coming to Khoskar in a vehicle and also commmented about D not being a perfect car to do the drive till Leh as there were boulders on roads, I was a lil irked at his comment and was inquisitive to know what vehicle he came in and asked him as well- for some reason he was taken aback by my question and replied saying he walked up!! this was one reason why we did not want to continue the conversation with this person, but as soon as we entered the dhaba we found another reason, Sardarji had another companion sitting inside, well built sitting in a meditating position and literally had a glow around him.

Since we had accepted the invitation decided to just have dinner and move on, but this Sardarji was actually very helpful.. he even went into the PWD rest house and enquired with the juniour engineer and gave us the name of the caretaker of PWD in the next town.

We drove till Sissu which is about 20KM from Khoksar, (good roads between these two towns) woke up the caretaker who stays a lil away from the PWD building, an elderly person was probably enjoying the last drink of his day.. came out a irritated, we told him the JE had given permission to stay here, luckily he did not ask any further questions and let us in the room. It was already 9PM now.

Woke up the next day and looked around- wat a place!!!

We stayed back the next day and decide to go around and probably trek.

The highway runs through this town and it has a river and ofcourse Mountains sorrunding it.

The fall we trekked too..



Some magnificent sights!




Dil chahata hai?


The bridge we had to cross to get to the falls, breathtaking views from this bridge

[pjay_in]

Nice report, and fantastic photographs. I am left wondering how many irresistible Rohtang/Leh/Lahaul/Spiti travelogues I will addictively go through before it becomes impossible for me to sit here anymore and I find myself packing bags and driving northwards.

[smooth]

Good going SamuraiJack.
Nice to see all the beautiful pics and cool narration.

Keep it going man. Good stuff.

[ramkya1]

Lovely pictures and gripping narration. Every time you read a Ladakh travalogue, you get a new angel to see something new to learn.... keep the story flowing.

=====