[bhansali_hardik]

There are stories, there are emotions, there are dreams and there are a few who chase their dreams.
There are dreams and then, there is destiny for one's dreams.
This is a story of 2 young chaps, who were fairly 17 years of age and knew their destiny was the ladakh. The hues of pangong had enchanted them already and there were restless with the ideas and thought running through the head, for years to come. It took them 6 years, to finally realize the dream and when it did happen, it happened in the most graceful way - Road trip from Bangalore to leh.

I had been to ladakh region and leh for the chadar trek Chadar Which had it's flavor of it's own, however until I would actually have a road trip done, it wouldn't still count as being leh'd and added to it the bike ride is still on the cards of dreams.

So, to begin with this is more of a log with respect to the experience rather than a technical one as the specifics and details would be put up by the mate of mine 'zahoor23'in his log! *Which, he says is in the pipeline*

There were years which went by us to see the leh move from the bikers' mecca to the holiday spot for the people. In the years many developments took place and by every passing year we would have amazing logs put up on various sites. We would just gaze and gaze on them. In the mean time I did manage to get a classic 350 to have this big dream which was growing from a little insect into a monster. We have been avid travelers added to it thanks to self driving rentals picking up pace in bangalore, we did the whole south India's circuit in god's own country and then the goan visit a couple of times. The hunger kept growing and thanks to the Indian automotive market things picked up a lot in the past 7 years.

Who would have thought 7 years back that a monster would be the one we tamed and would achieve this feat :



So, here was the plan :
No of people : 4
Car : XUV500
Route : the longest possible
Places : as many as possible

Thanks a ton to Tanveer and other people on the forum it really made the whole trip look like a breeze. If not for you guy's I don't think this dream would have been released.

To give a gist of how maddening and a roller coaster with endless Indian flavor it was I will put down few teaser's :

a life where the morning tea came with a complimentary view

home away from home

home on wheels

the rather most scenic town I've ever seen, also happens to be the last indian village accessible by civilians - Turtuk

Darting straight roads to be kissed

The fastest life comes to a still here

prayers paid off

Patriotism rises in

A dream which I always hope,just keeps gliding on the roads



We had planned the trip days as follows :

Day00/01 : Bangalore to Mumbai
Day02:Mumbai to Udaipur
Day03: Udaipur to Amritsar
Day04: Amritsar to SriNagar
Day05: SriNagar to Gulmarg
Day06: Gulmarg to Kargil
Day07: Kargil to Leh
Day08: Leh
Day09: Leh to Turtuk
Day10: Turtuk to Pangong Tso
Day11: Pangong Tso
Day12: Pangong Tso to Keylong
Day13 : Keylong to Manali
Day14: Manali
Day15: Manali to Noida
Day16: Noida to Nagpur
Day17: Nagpur to Hyderabad
Day18: Hyderabad to Bangalore

So this might be a great feat that we have achieved, added to it the plan was not executed as per planned.

So here is the team who made it to this adventure :



Some say we are the youngest chaps who made it from bangalore to ladakh in this route by a self drive.

So, moving forward we had planned to leave bangalore on 26th September (Saturday morning). However we had a turn of events and there was a strike by the unions and the route what we had planned was Bangalore-Mumbai through Belgaum, which was a sensitive area and we decided to leave a day earlier on 25th evening. 25th was Bakri eid and we decided to move by evening 6 so that we could cross the karnataka border well before 6 in the morning. All in all the plan went off the mark, added to it a couple of days back one of our friend dropped from the plan as his father was admitted in the hospital and there was another chap, who had decided to join us from udaipur instead of bangalore.

Day00/01

So from 5 of us we were down to 3 and we scheduled our trip 10 hours prior to planned time and we had to pack things and get moving. So we had to move up quickly and also make sure that we do not miss out on anything. There a was long list of things which we cross checked and there was heavy traffic around the city, it was 10 in the night when we headed out of the city.

First stop was at the Deol Punjabi Hotel where we had out dinner and a there was an interesting bit of conversation which we striked with the guy there, who was walking around with a talvar(sword). We were nervous to approach him initially, but he turned out to be a gem of a person and we did end up spending good hour chatting with him... These are the reasons why we travel, don't we?

The morning towards Pune got really hazy and fog filled, the proceedings slowed down and we took a quick break.
It was really was fogged up



First things first, we had a vadapav near the toll the moment we in Maharastra,we then had a couple of hours spent at Pune where we met few of our folks and had a break fast.

The things moved really fast, I mean the real fast!


Yes! we were on the express way and were really as fast as I could think of, in India.


Traffic was decent, not as crowded as it might have got on a weekend. We were mesmerize for the whole drive!



A tunnel



Darting straight roads



Another tunnel



Through the curves into the valley and



another tunnel and out!



It was the most exciting drive and we were just few hours into it!

We took a quick shower at the mumbai hotel and decided to hit the streets. We decided to take the experience of the local trains and oh! my, it really gets mushy in there. As it was just a day before the ganesh cisarjan the city was filled with flowers and fruits. The customary vada pav followed by the marine drive



the choupaty





and then we headed to leopolds. We called it a day and headed to our hotel.

Day02

Fairly lazy early morning followed by the buffet spread at the GCC made sure we would breaking for lunch late. The roads from Mumbai to gujrat were amazing we would have had reached udaipur by evening but the plans as usual had it's own course! Our inbuilt GPS was broke and we were out of the mobile network range for quite some time (we did have offline maps), but when asked the people for udaipur they kept helping us out in the right direction (So, we thought) only after 50-60 odd kms when we found out the direction which we traveled in was opposite and the roads were way too bad for a highway we realized they were all pointing us towards Udaipur but which was in Madhya Pradesh! Damn that was a big blow! And we blew up good 2 hours. However, the detour did give us the flavor of the gujrat visarjan, they had huge speakers as good as 2 stories high deployed on the trucks and there were colors all around, it was fun however it meant we would reach udaipur rather later than expected as there was jam on the highways near Ahmedabad and by the time we reached the resort it was well past the dinner time.

The roads were tremendous


The varodra Ahemdabad expressway was breathtaking!



The view of the resort was enchanting and it was udaipur-isque!



It did give us the feeling of a maharaj



We caught up with our fourth chap and had a long bakar section and called it another day filled with experiences. Were on our toes as next day was the longest drive of the whole trip! From Udaipur to Amritsar!

Day03
It was good, sunny morning


We did take a dip for a while



The Club Mahindra resort was good!



Having a folk dance and a shoot out there!



We kicked off fairly late from udaipur and had ETA to amritsar 2AM. The advantage was 4 of us now and all 4 could rotate the drive and keep up the pace. We had a horrible start on the Rajasthan highway, the roads were barely there we were just pushing through hoping the roads would get better. Hour after the other we kept driving but the craters on the highway did not subdue we were looking for mega highway and anticipating it, little did we know the mega highway was mini, a two laned highway with out any marking or ledges! The drive was sucking out all the energy and the ETA was just moving away from line of sight.

[MSMILES]

Keep it coming. Cant wait with the lipsmacking teaser. This might unfold as another epic travelogue. When was this accomplished.

[bhansali_hardik]

The mega highway was was not much of a help, there were craters and craters which were to be negotiated added to it was the heavy vehicles traffic and the dust made it worse to negotiate. If this wasn't enough, one of the tire got punctured! We inflated the tire from the electric pump we had just to check if it was a leak. Negative! We had to take out the spare tire and put it on in middle of the night.

Day04

We were hungry, exhausted and there was no sight of amritsar yet. We had entered punjab and stopped at a dhaba. For breakfast we had the most amazing food! Hot rotees and dal, the serving guy comes and just puts in a huge chunk of butter! Well, that's punjab giving us a welcome.

We finally reached amritsar it was almost 7AM and we had a punctured tire. a couple of em stayed back to freshen up and take a nap, while the 2 of us went to get the tire fixed. Amritsar was very busy at the morning. We headed back and the two us were sleep deprived and wanted to be really quick to go to the Golden temple.


It was a magnificent sight!

Serene, peace was not to be found it was there everywhere amidst the crowd.

Yup! That really amazed me.

The various seva offered by the folks was tremendous and truly heart touching.

The langar

Just another average day, where the average people were part of the seva/langar.

Punjab de khet

Yup!

We initially had planned to reach srinagar and still had the eyes set on it when we moved from amritsar.

Beautiful roads.

The networks were out as most of us had a prepaid connection and just one was postpaid. A good thing which made us all involved more into the surroundings and the roads.

India has bad infrastructure they said! We have such amazing construction said no one!

The sun was going down.

Picture Perfect!

The lights were off

It got dark and the road was filled with heavy vehicles and the traffic got really thick as we on the jammu srinagar highway. We decided to stay at patnitop and get some rest as we were sleep deprived and did not want to exhaust us totally!

[bhansali_hardik]

Day05:
We were done with the most hectic days of the journey and here on we knew, every turn every nook and every corner would surprise us we were in the most beautiful state of India! For the day we had to travel from Patnitop to Srinagar and then Gulamarg.

The amazing view of the valley from patnitop


The hues of sun were there and the moon was up too! Well, the deodars of himalays were a sight to wake for



The first ray hitting the valley and we were ready to move



The morning regular cup of tea, well it was wood fired! It was sweeter than the usual, but the kashmiri guy the was really happy to know where we were from and was happy to tell us how good the 'jannat' is



Well this is the highway and need to squeeze the vehicle really to park it up



The usual reasons for jams on these highways! Yup! They migrate from one part to another, based the season, for food



Behold! This was the most magnificent sight we came to and we were just out of words! Every little turn, every little move, we were mesmerized



We reached srinagar around lunch time and had lunch at adhoos. The food was amazing and for people who think the hotel will be bad on the inside looking at it's exteriors, well you are in for a surprise. We were eating the local delicacies of each state, now that we were in JnK the 2 vegetarians thought they will have nothing in the store for us! Guess, what we had an option of apple curry known as 'Bhum-shoont' and it was really worth savoring. It was odd to see people leave their chicken and fight over the apple curry for once.

The lunch had us all filled up and now we headed to the dal lake. Probably the most talked about and the major attraction which I've been hearing of since childhood. I sure was excited for the shikara ride. We walked up and there were many vendors trying to lure us with their offers and we picked up one among them and were off.

This was the first look, from across the road pretty ordinary right?


It might look like another boat ride, but be behold your senses and breath, just few moments later it turns magical! It mesmerizes you and you for sure become the shikar there. There are vendors who come in boats trying to sell you artifacts and fruits and flowers. Apart from those little moments there is absolute peace, you just drift away into the magical place.




For whoever had told us that the lake is hyped were proven wrong just a few moments into the ride.

The fruit vendor



The lotus garden, no flowers though!



Evening time chai aur pakode! What else would one want? on a chilly evening in middle of a heaven descendant lake!



The sun was going down and the show that was put up by mother nature took our breath away.



Like poetry in motion



The breath,the words were snatched out



Down we go...



We then headed down to the market and in the interactions we did get to know how devastating the floods were. It really was sad, the people had to start their lives all over again and most of them were making their living through tourism and were luring us to buy more and more.



There was no time when, the lake was less beautiful than the other time



It was dark and we had to still reach gulmarg, it was a short drive and since we would be using the same route to get back to kargil the other day we knew, we wouldn't be missing much of the serenity.
The moon was out and we drove through the moon lit roads to gulmarg.
Star filled skies and cold was creeping in, as the night came upon us.

Day06
We woke up early on this morning, we wanted to do the first gondola ride and head towards kargil. As we knew there were many, many photo stops on route. Sadly the gondola does not start before 11 and we had good stroll in the meadows of the valley. It truly was as lush as they are in the posters! We then took up the gondola ride, which again was a mess! Before we got in, there was a queue to take the tickets and there were agents running around. They would get the ticket earlier for you, we had already lost time and needed to catch up with the road, so we fell for the knowing trap and did manage to escalate the line by good half hour. On the ride we were educated about the shepherds and the tribes around. We spent a little time around halfway and headed back.

So here were the meadows



The lush greens, little would someone believe that it get humongous amount of snow in the winter



Up we go in the gondola



The screens were dirty! But the views kept getting better though



Every damn book that I have read, which had the description of himalayas was ringing in my head!



The open fields on the mountains



The stops were frequent as expected. We stopped at the apple farm, photos, apples and more and more apples!



The tress were studded with em



Sweet juicy!



The next stop was at an handicraft store, where miniature shikaras, kesar and other things we shopped for. Looking at the vehicle the shop keeper exclaimed : "Kya banglore se chala ke aa rahen hain?"(Did you guys drive down from bangalore?)
We : ummm yeah!

As the conversation proceeded we realized that the chap was one pf my friends neighbor! Small world!

We had tonnes of apples in the car and we were on the way to kargil! There was a sense of patriotism which prevailed and we were numb and curious. Of you are wondering why? It's cos there was the mighty Zoji La to be scaled on this day! This was the lifeline which the pakistan wanted to get hold of. Oh, my we were holding onto the seats for our lives out there on zoji la.

The road was good and, well scenic would be an understatement! Sonmarg had our eyes popped out! Little did we know, each day which went by would have us amazed more and more.

[bhansali_hardik]

There were winding roads, there were the scenic background and just like movies there were shepherds with their stock too



It was a good drive and there were many stops for the FB profile pic maniacs and there were photo stops and being a banglorean it was hard, as we were looking for tea shops for a chai!



Look wherever : Scenic




The pines, the roads, the snow capped hills and perfect winding roads!




Everyone ought to pose!




The traffic was as thin, as thin as one could think of and the gushing serene blue waters added to the melodrama as we were approaching drass.




We were munching the kilometers a little faster now and every few kilometers we would have the army camps in the game between the sun and shadow.




there was a stretch of road which was horrible and by stretch of road what I mean is this




The dust had kicked in from the heavy vehicles, which still did not settle






The road is in a very bad state and there are no ledges or the shoulders! The road was abruptly cut off in the middle!




I'm sure you would have guessed what I have been talking about! If not, this will surely help you out



Yup, the road edges without ledges



The dust kicked in from the truck! You could barely see a few meters



On the left a heap of construction materials and to the right a fall of hell



Still confused what is this? Look closer...




Look close to the extreme right, close right? Yup, this was zoji la!



The moment we kicked the dust and were through, we were ecstatic! What more, we ran into the jawans and the tea shop for gup shup! It was interesting bit at the chai shop, where we 4 people par Look at happiness we had, the moment we were done Zoji la.



The Sun was going down and the play with the clouds made it even more perfect



Well the BRO's gave us a warming welcome!



the camps were set up in middle of no where, hardly winter on us and the temperatures were giving us a chill through our spines, I wonder how they would camp through the year!



The Zoji la war memorial, since we were late we could not get through!



It was dark and we were on the way to kargil. On any other route, this late through the sections of ghat we would be sweating hard to negotiate the curves. But here, it was a easy peasy walk on the cake. The reflectors and the maintained roads gave us a feel of a runway!



We ran into a huge jam as we approached kargil at the checkpost



We thought the checking would be real tough here and there would be a lot of army deployed, more than that of srinagar. Well, we were in for a surprise! The town was bustling and there were a few folks rejoicing with loud music on the roads! We checked into the hotel and had a good dinner followed by amazing sleep!



DAY 07
Next morning we were up fairly early and were basking in the winter sun, sipping on tea. After quick shower for ourselves and the car we had to make a journey back to drass and then reach leh by night.

The majestic sight


The mighty one



Who would believe army could have such scenic cafes!



The flag up high and keeping the pride.



Well, the army have real good souvenirs out there for display!

[bhansali_hardik]

After watching the documentary and the the tales of bravery, we were off, we had a long way to cover and we had to make it to leh. We were off schedule, as we ended spending more time in the memorial (worth it!) and had to catch up ground to make it to leh.


It was noon by the time we were off from kargil and we knew we would have long way to go to leh. However we were anticipating good roads and we did have good roads for almost 3/4th of the journey.







As the sun went down and there were thousands of acres of open space around and the deserts in sky truly showed it's way of having it's sky roof studded with stars. We were lost in the stars through the journey and there was a little wildlife we came across, there were the mountain foxes crossing the roads as we made progress. We reached leh around 10ish at night and lucky for is there was a Indian cricket match going on, so the restaurants open and we were served till 11. We had booked hotel Kidar and we retired for the day, still gazing at the stars!



Day 08

After such a long run the white elephant did need some pampering. The service was booked at leh and this day was dedicated for the permits and the service. With local shopping in between.

First things first, going to get the permits and beauty strikes there too



We then head out to the market and oh my the market has the charm of the typical leh region. This was my third visit in the year and I was not taken away that much, but my other folks who were seeing the goat being cut, the wool of yak being sold and many such local things on sale for the native ladakhians and the blingy stuff for the tourists like us!



We spent a good long time on the streets, eating at the famous eateries and picking the local pool vehicles to get to the service center at late evening post visit to the war memorial there was the stupa waiting.


At the stupa


The stupa


The city of leh of beautiful and was just breath taking. The cold was creeping in and it indeed was really cold up there.



Day 09

Which Brings us to the next day. We were under the gloomy clouds which were setting the atmosphere around to be snowy and we were to do khardung la today.
Of course we were nervous and we were at the edge the whole morning, picking the the cans of diesel for further travel. Topping up the tank, picking up the groceries and making a move away from the city of leh.

The chase from the clouds



Phew, any place is scenic out there





the dark clouds are setting in


It's all hazy, possible to scale khardung la ?



The game of shadows and light



The brave ones



Questionable, should we go ahead?



Oh, the snow is here and the army convoy!



The road got really tough and the snow was coming in,we were getting on the edges of our seat, there were nervy moments and guess what, this was just the beginning of the climb and we had to make it across, as we were heading to turtuk on this day!



The whole setup can spook one up, the mountain men are the real life heros!



The beast took on to all the challenges very easily and comfortably without a hiccup.



The trucks were approaching us and we had to move towards the ledge, with the snow below the tires, it was getting nervy yet again!



To the left was this



yup we were that close



The light was out and there was more snow. The ascend just became trickier



We finally made it there and there was sheer joy and snow there. We had a cuppa or two and the souvenirs



and then there was a long snowy road to descend

[bhansali_hardik]

The descend wasn't easy either! The snow was still falling upon us and there was no sign of sun, most of my folks were worried about it! But, I had a similar experience prior, well not in a car but on foot while I was walking on the chadar few months back, I recollected my guide telling me to be more careful when the sun was out! How? Well, the snow melts, it is semi solid it's icy, it's slippery! No sun would mean it doesn't melt but sticks! Which is good!

So, we were going away from the world's highest motorable road!


Very few moments where the respect for the beast was coming out bhar bhar ke (usually behind the camera) guy was posing for a snap! That's,
me


We had some twists and loopies to negotiate on snow!


There was a army gypsy approaching us and asked us to stop!


We were obviously scared! Then one of em approached us and spoke to us in kannada before we knew it was a lil bakar session in the middle of the road!


After negotiating the snowy curves and having a little stop at one of the few taprees open for lunch a.k.a maggie, we fed our lil tummies and started moving towards turtuk!



At one particular point we could see the mountains were rather not usual than the rest!
Do you see it?



Well, we had to go up close to find out it was



If you see the pic above this one, you would find hundreds of them and they are little black dots, the dots which your eyes have not seen all this while at all, this is new contrast of colour in nature, this shade did not exist all these days and once it did, it was game all the way through all the mountains we would count the dots and yes it was fun!

We did not know what was around the corner, it sure did look a little scary!


The road leading towards turtuk was a bit mystical and as it was almost time for the sun to go down the whole scene changed, changed as in there were huge clouds of mist or sand or what?



Well, it was a mixture of both! The temperatures were close to 5 degrees and the winds were harsh carrying away the sand as well!

Where there were no winds, there was a mystical surrounding and a little creepy nature around!



We kept moving towards turtuk with barely any breaks or any mobile signal, it got dark quite fast and there were star litt roads, the roads which would scare one to death was rejoiced by us, we were indeed taken back by the beauty, there were a few moments of being scared but there were army camps after few hundred kms who would assure us that it's just mountains and the calmness we are not used to and we are in hands of indian army! Nothing to be worried about, through the checkpost and to the turtuk holiday resort which was the only one having electricity running on generator of course!

We go directly to the dinner like the hungry hounds and eat away all the organic home grown food!



This was the most simple yet most satisfying meal of the journey!

The host was a nice chap and turns out he was in bangalore for schooling, we started chatting up about how things are around the village and how happy he was being there! He had amazing pieces of stories to tell, one where he says aap ekdum safe hain, uss paar humaare mama hain! Translation : You are safe here, on the other side of the border is my maternal uncle!

He made clear that those little villages surrounding turtuk and turtuk itself are not a part of India or Pakistan but are a part of Baltistan! He did look not so happy with the way the govt's have decided to take away their identity but was making sure through tourists and tourism he would educate us!

Day 10

The gang with the amazing host!


We moved towards the border and the village. There were rifle ranges and many boards telling us not to take any pictures, respecting that we did interact with the elite gurkhas! Of indian army at the border had a couple of teas and started moving back, as the destination for the day was pangong!

Looking back



The most beautiful village perhaps!



The most beautiful sky too!



Beautiful everywhere you look



The trees adding the greatest of all contrasts!



Oh these were dangerous curves!


All glorious sunshine and beast smirking!



The nature is always playing the game of shadows



Afterall, it is the desert in skies

[bhansali_hardik]

So we start moving away from the last accessible village to the tourists (debatable, yes!) and we are on to darting straight roads again
into the mountains quite literally



This was a huge day and everything ahead was based on what happens today, for the ones who have attempted this route have their devil horns out and they know where I am getting to, oh yes! It is right, either the longer wari la or the shorter, dangerous almost not attemptable by the 2WD cars, non existent route - Agam Shyok! Well, now that I have given so much of a momentum to the matter isn't it quite obvious, we chose the latter!

Oh yes! With a FWD XUV we chose Agam Shyok route to Pangong.
How did we?
It's simple we reached a point where you right to move towards leh and take the warila route else you take the non existent road and believe in people and your luck. Also, the driver! Yes! The man here zahoor23! Who was in to take the cheetah to what ever the terrain had to offer.

We took the left and then thought let's ask people for the route, if it's accessible, if a convoy went? If we should try? If we can....
Well we drove and drove almost half of a ton kms before we found a home and a couple farming out in their yard. They told us to go ahead as the weather was good from past few days and there was no way the river would have come on to the path so go.

Honestly, I just have 6 of thousands of snaps from this leg of the journey which is through agam shyok into pangong. You would want to know why?
Sacchi bolta hun g@$D phati hui thi!

The initial stretch of road was acceptable, after a few kms you realise there is no road! There are just a few rocks which are stable for some reason (the convoy went over it) and you have to make sure the tire stays on the track, well, you should hope that you can make sure your car's tire track stick to the one that convoy made!

If you look to your left you would find a tree, only lone warrior in the cruel harsh nature here, similarly you are alone too, all alone a group of humans, perhaps only 4 humans in the radius of 100 kms!


We marched on with a pace which was way below any average and did succeed to push on and on, there were sign boards in middle of nowhere for some random names, we would think ok! We might get tea, let alone roads, but we would come to a realisation that there is nothing and the boards are just a mirage perhaps! I wouldn't lie your brain does start giving up looking at the mountains around and the sheer vastness of the mountains is beautiful at the start but after a few days it just cannot take in the fact, the fact that humans are a tiny winy pieces in front of the mountains!
After settling the mind down we cracked the meaning of the village x kms boards,



Well, the coes in the picture actually gave it away, wherever you find a bunch of trees that's a village, a bunch of trees with monastery is a town!

The struggle was real after sever kms and a couple of underbody hits we made it to a group of people! Yes a group of people! They were working for BRO and they were having their lunch, we asked them if we can still go ahead and venture or go back? There was absolute no road and there were just stones and stones resting on pebbles and balancing the lives which were in a car.
The guys say : "A1 road hai aage humne abhi banayi"
We just made the road, it's awesome
We were out of our minds and literally started celebrating, little did we know what their A1 meant.

It was this



Well, the upside however was we knew, if we get stuck in middle of nowhere we have a bunch of people who can help us pull car out (who would be accessible after a day's trek!) but this was still better than getting stuck and waiting for help to arrive!

We had many situations where we thought the cheetah might not endure, but it did rove us wrong, pulled us out of the one of the most deadliest route there is, the agam shyok and made it to the pangong by night. We pitched our tent, rented out a basic room to charge the electronics and freshen up. Had a good meal and the night under stars was all ours!



Day 11

We had endured a lot in this trip, more than that of what was anticipated. Be it the long never ending drive from udaipur to amritsar or the longest U turn to go to the actual udaipur. There was this moment of pangong which made us soak in all the days hard work and made us change the plan. The mountain sickness had set into a couple of folks who did not want to drive and then we decided to cut a few places, stay an extra day at pangong and drive after a day directly to as close as we could to manali.

These days were most relaxing and most soothing days of my life!

The pangong had shown it's beauty already and the way you click your photos here would change the whole perception of the viewer!

Here is a boring plain sight



Click click clak and clank a 100 settings and using ML the results are :







The actual beauty of it can still never be described, none of the pics can actually do that!


It changes, literally every minute it changes!
The Gang!


I had spare time, spare battery and canon running on ML. attempted this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7E6rNFAE04

We then had to find a new place to pitch our tent for the night and we found an amazing place to pitch the tent, cook our own food (yes, we did have all the supplies, enough k ghar basa saken.. remember?) This was located very close to one of the tent operating hotel, which was about to shut down in a couple of days. The advantage of charging all your gadgets and a clean hot shower does feel like luxury!



So, there goes my second attempt :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6zaExPlGNY

By the starry night again!



Day 12

Today was a day where all were charged, there was a long run to be made, there was a lot of ground to covered, the aim was 500 kms in ghats, the gata loops the killing serai and the whole temperatures dropping really did not help the cause but we had to make it happen, we were off!

Greeted by the sunshine and his majesty



Then came the majestic creatures



Majestic from every angle



We had to to then go through the chang la and it indeed was tiring the whole mountain sickness was setting into the folks and folks wanted to move out of it! There were signs of sickness and hence lesser photo stops and more of making up the ground

The ascend :



At changla


The descend



The drive was good and nicely paced, we moved swiftly.

We had amazing roads and there was something above us, soaring high, higher than we would think of

It was a Himalayan eagle



Following the eagle, before we knew we had reached tanglang la

When we look behind it was indeed beautiful



The controversial sign



The descend was amazing too



The roads were what we call makhan and we had encountered the kiangs, we knew where we were, you got it right, the planes



every little scene around was poetic



The beast high and proud



The roads were really good, until you start coming close to the infamous whiskey nala, the roads shrink out, the temperatures drop, there are ice popsicles popping out of the mountains, there is absolutely no greens, there is no sign of life, the winds are harsh and there are corpses of dead animals. These things start getting to you, especially when you are not from the mountains and you have been there for so long away from the social world!

We were desperate to see a sight like this :



The whole drive went for a toss emotionally looking at the surroundings and the way the animal corpses were lying around, it did creep us out!

Somewhere before whiskey nala



The sheer harsh nature



We pushed through and took a break at sarchu, there were very few tin boxes were there were people and looking at the bikes we chose a tin to have tea. The temperature was close to -5 and we were desperate to get a warm bed to sleep! However, the tea stop in that tinned box changed the story. A chap called amit and his fellow bikers told us about the mountains and the stories of what they have done and also the way they have pushed themselves when they were young, they told us to move to keylong and get some good rest there, they also gave us tips to make it there and what things are to be taken care of! Not only that, they did not let us pay for the tea which we had, such little gestures are story of motivation for people like us! We were on, we conquered the keylong pass and moved ahead of the keylong's bus stop to find a hotel with clean accommodation and called it a night.

Day 13

It was a total turn around to wake up in keylong! We peep out of the window to witness this



It was green, it was filled with life, we were in the greener parts, there was just another pass and then we were into the lap of himalayas where things are much more greener, commercialised and for once seeing people around you was comforting, we were next to our fav destination - Manali!

[bhansali_hardik]

We had an emotional rollercoaster for past few days, it was fun it was great it was amazing! There was sense of accomplishment, we were 3000 kms still away from home, yet we were home!
Why wouldn't we, when the sights were like these



The highways were right out of the movies sets



There were clear signs of human settlements



There was something fresh, to be plucked and eaten, right out of the ground



There was a mask of green put up



There were bad patches of road, drivers driving idiotically over the loops and the tourists getting mugged to buy the thick jackets to pose near the non existent snow at rohtang



We reached our fav food places to get quick lunch

To take deep sleep with a view and have long hot showers



To visit the usual places


To rejoice the best days out there and survive them at one of the best places I've been to, again and again - the lazy dog!



Day 15
Noida - Nagpur
The trip did feel like it ended, it was hard to part away from manali and we were on the road back to bangalore, all we had to do was hit the road and get home. No more stops.

We covered the ground as intended, we reached noida and were put up in oyo rooms. Neat, clean and in budget.

Day 16
One of our mates would stay back in noida and another one fell sick making the situation a little tricky! I took the sick one to the hospital and got him treated, the altitude, the driving and the food made his body give up and he started with a bad vomiting and we were off track from Noida. We moved from noida once he was ok to travel along!

2 drivers and a patient on the road back, the patient did feel like he's sleeping comfortably at home, when the road was this good!



We hit home to nagpur and stayed up one night there!

Day 17
Nagpur - Hyderabad
The next day, my mates body gave up to the heat of nagpur and his health became worse in nagpur. We took him to a hospital, got him drips injections and treatment and were back on road!
Before we knew the nawab had recovered, so well, that we stopped over at paradise in hyderabad for biryani!



Day 18

We saw the morning with the mist filled highway and when we hit the speed breakers we realised we were in karnataka!
Adar jotte Filter Kappi!

Nothing felt better to be home while the sadness was already setting in, the sadness of having such an amazing journey which will be the pinnacle and the benchmark to all the journeys made from this day, this was the mother of all the journeys!

" People don’t take trips, trips take people. "

I really want to thank each one of them who could make this possible, the first and obvious is TeamBhp The whole keeda which bit years back was because of you guys and love you for everything that you do for the folks out there, special thanks to Tanveer!
The indian army and the govt!
All our families for believing in 22 year old idiots!
And best of all "the gang" who made this trip!



I don't know where it began, but I know, I don't want it to end....

[Aditya]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[GKMahajan]

Dear bhansali_hardik and gang,

This is a very well presented article. Are you a professional writer by chance? I have given it a well deserved 5 stars.

Is it possible for you to share the car expenses incurred by you?
Also, could you share the hotel expenses?

Thanking you in advance,

Girish Mahajan

[venkikewl]

nicely articulated & picture perfect clicks, thoroughly enjoyed reading this & infact asking my colleagues to go through this, so that we can plan something similar too.

[LoneRidder]

Hello Dear,

Very well written, 6 months to complete, shows in the quality. Beautiful Photographs too! Some get bitten by the travel bug, some chase the travel bug! Way to Go!

[Dieselritzer]

Wow, your words came straight from your heart man. Amazing journey and beautifully presented. No where did i see negativity or criticism, you see the positive side of life and this habit will take you to greater heights in life, both in physicality and in prosperity.

The current situation in Kashmir is really worrisome, especially knowing that their dependency on tourism is so high. I hope better sense prevails, both in the minds of the people and the government and the situation becomes normal.

Thanks for sharing man. Sitting at office with multiple pivot tables all around me, your travelogue got me some refreshment.

[trucksingh]

Note from Support - Post deleted. Please do not post one liners that add no value to the discussion.