[gostel]

HVK Dada, I missed this year's humblehing experience and hope to be ready to go for next year's drive. I was glad to read that there was a baby Alto in the convoy. Hope to hear some more details of the Alto experience by @on-da-enthu, that would be inspiration for me. @bolbolero sir seems to be busy for the moment, but hope to hear more from him.
Thanks to all you guys for the inspiring travelogues and for enticing pictures.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by gostel

HVK Dada, I missed this year's humblehing experience and hope to be ready to go for next year's drive. I was glad to read that there was a baby Alto in the convoy. Hope to hear some more details of the Alto experience by @on-da-enthu, that would be inspiration for me. @bolbolero sir seems to be busy for the moment, but hope to hear more from him.
Thanks to all you guys for the inspiring travelogues and for enticing pictures.

Gostel, Baby Alto no enthu da is your neighbour from Kharghar!

As we drive into Day 4 of our drive, BolBolero is still in Bombay with a different drive plan set on a rendezvous with our team on a later date....

[gostel]

Yes HVK sir, I will certainly sit with my Kharghar neighbour one day to learn details. I did have a small chat with BolBolero a few days ago. Hope to soon meet you guys in Mumbai. Fare ye well.

[LongDrive lover]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Maybe the reluctance to post further must be because of poor member response. I find apart from the tbhpians who went on the trip, no one seems to be posting in this thread anyway! I am not surprised at the tepid pace!

Yes, member response is poor, and its very surprising!! One reason I could thought is that many have seen/shared the trip on Facebook. BUT, in my view that should be taken as the trailer only, details and photos coming up here are important insight into the trip and will serve to the wider member community. Also may be many are checking the updates but not posting comments!

Anyway there are plenty of die-hard followers and even for their sake, the IPHE 2011 team got to post full details of the story here.

[hvkumar]

Quick Tips


1. Carry at least 2-3 days of food & water provisions in the car, to save yourselves in case of a breakdown or dislocation in roads. Even if you are stuck in a dhaaba halt like Sarchu or Pang, they will soon run out of stocks.

2. Carry your full trip cost estimate in CASH. No one accepts Credit Cards. The only ATMs are in Manali, Leh. They often run out of cash.

3. No drinking hard liquour, dehydrates the body and dulls out reflexes in high altitudes.

4. Outside Leh, you won’t get bottled water easily, hence carry your own stocks.

5. Carry essential medicines, ensure that what the driver takes is free of side-effects. Check out my medical chest for ideas on what to carry.

6. To avoid AMS, pop in a Diamaox tablet daily from the time you leave Delhi. And have 1 daly till you come out of Ladakh.

7. To avoid AMS, keep drinking water and munching on high-calorie chocolates, dry fruits.

8. There are hardly any toilets on the trail. Women, start looking at the sun and stars.

9. Trying out exotic cuisine is fine, but be restrained. A stomach upset can ruin not only yours, but everyone else's holidays. Fill up only 60% of your stomach capacity, don't over-stuff yourselves. The trail is bumpy, rough, twisty and hilly.

10. Doing OTR in Ladakh? I suppose you have your families and jobs to go back to? Don't try anything foolish, you are there to see what a beautiful place it is, not to test your driving skills or the mettle of the car. If you have suffered one breakdown even 10 kms away from somewhere, you know what I am talking of. On a serious note, do not try OTR without support vehicles and determination that you will fly back if you hurt your car badly.

11. No night driving. All high passes to be ideally avoided after 4 pm.

12. Familiarise yourself with the route and all facilities. Even that 1 army hut can be your saviour in an emergency.

13. Mobile networks don't exist. You should get some connectivity in Manali, Keylong, Leh & Kargil.

14. Carry Black Coffee powder:
- No coffee available in these parts
- Good to fix stomach upsets and diarrhoea

15. Rock Salt:
- Some 5-10 kgs
- Helps melt black ice on the road

16. Thermos Flasks:
- Carry them along
- useful to store hot water or hot tea, which you can buy at only some places en route

17. Cotton Wool:
- Use to stuff your ears
- protects you from cold and high altitude sickness, disorientation

18. Anyone with medical problems like High BP, Diabetes, Arthritis, Asthma, Vertigo?
- Special precautions required

19. Keep your head & ears covered whenever you get off the car, especially in windy places

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Quick Tips

@HVK Sir - That is years of experience talking. Wonderful tips.

Diamox bit was interesting. I thought once you start taking them in Delhi till the time you reach Leh and have stayed in Leh region for 1-2 days there should not be a need to take them. Sorry i have not taken those anytime hence no first hand knowledge. I depended on lots of water and sniffing camphor.

And in the earlier posts you mentioned that the response to the thread is low. I for one am religiously following the thread for updates. Keep them coming everyone.

[gostel]

Member response is poor? This is a drop-jaw humbling account from you guys. The expected first reaction would be: what the heck am I doing reading this? I should have been out there with all you guys!

My own knee jerk response is to start planning for endurance building: exercising and long drives. Already done Kaas, now what's next?

[no_enthu_da]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

To avoid AMS

HVK sir, adding this:

cover your legs fully!! Wearing shorts is definitely comfortable when driving (personal opinion) but can land you in AMS territory!!

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

@HVK Sir - That is years of experience talking. Wonderful tips.

Diamox bit was interesting. I thought once you start taking them in Delhi till the time you reach Leh and have stayed in Leh region for 1-2 days there should not be a need to take them. Sorry i have not taken those anytime hence no first hand knowledge. I depended on lots of water and sniffing camphor.

I guess opinion may be divided on this matter of continued use of Diamox. I used Diamox on all days even after we realised that we were fully acclimatised to the higher altitude and did not feel any health problems. Just being extra cautious. I find drinking water regularly helps more than just Diamox, and I also stuck to a diet of lots of water. Camphor - someone in our team mentioned its use, but I did not use it, am told that it is a good alternative to Diamox?

[Naturalist]

Originally Posted by LongDrive lover

Also may be many are checking the updates but not posting comments!

Anyway there are plenty of die-hard followers and even for their sake, the IPHE 2011 team got to post full details of the story here.

I am one of the many. I am loving every bit of it. I refresh the page every 15 minutes in office to check if there is any update. I will do this sort of trip in future. Great inspirational trip, please keep them comming champs.

[motomaverick]

Thanks HVK for sharing these tips, pretty valuaable, speciall when it comes from someone who has been doing leh circuit for quite sometime.

As far as member response goes, i think we all are waiting for the threads to complete and not interrupt the series of posts.

[hvkumar]

Vehicle Documents, Spare keys, Identity Cards

1 Car Service Book
2 Car Owners Manual
3 Updated PUC Certificate
4 Original Car RC Book
5 Original Car Insurance
6 Original Driving License
7 Spare Car Keys
8 Spare Gear Lock Keys
9 Photocopies of ID Card, Car documents, credit cards
10 BSNL/Airtel Post Paid connection
11 Addresses/Phone numbers of people en route
12 Maps
13 Hotel Directory
14 Yellow Sticker in right car head lamp for GJ & PB states
15 Contact info of senior army personnel you may know

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Maybe the reluctance to post further must be because of poor member response. I find apart from the tbhpians who went on the trip, no one seems to be posting in this thread anyway! I am not surprised at the tepid pace!

HVK Sir, Laluks, no_enthu_da, BolBolero and others.
Please keep on posting .
We are very keenly following your travelogues and are looking forward for your posts and complete details.
It's just that we are so much in awe of it, that our jaws are in constantly dropped position and thus are not able to utter out any words that we can write here.

For people who haven't been to Leh/Ladakh, can't add anything valuable other than "fantastic trip, great photos, etc". Atleast I had refrained myself from posting due to this very reason.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

My brake systems were fine when I left Bombay. I think an episode en route may have contributed to the problem. Approaching Kishangarh in Rajasthan, I had to do an emergency braking to avoid a car which suddenly darted into my path and that braking action was very severe with the Scorpio skidding badly. I suspect that the brake calipers or pads may have got dislodged or mis-aligned at that point and must have started wearing out the brake pads and wheel discs. Brakes worked fine but by the time I reached Panchkula, I started hearing the squeaks/ abrasive noise from the wheel disc which prompted me to investigate.

If my recent drive on this sector was anything to go buy, the culprit may be dust.

My car's brakes were perfect when leaving Mumbai but by the time I reached MGEW after passing through the flyover construction zones, I would hear a racket akin to an aeroplane braking after landing whenever I braked hard from high speeds (was necessitated because of sudden lane-changing manoeuvres by cars/autos/tractors/buses in front of us -- happened at least 5 times between Surat and Ahmedabad!).

The vehicle wouldn't fishtail or skid luckily but braking distances increased a lot and there would be a slight shuddering of the steering wheel. Not very very confidence-inspiring (and frankly, very worrying).

It continued in this manner until I dropped the car in for its 20k kms service where I asked for this thing to be checked. They just cleaned the pads and discs and the brakes are back to normal again.

Regards,
spadix

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Camphor - someone in our team mentioned its use, but I did not use it, am told that it is a good alternative to Diamox?

I am not sure about it being a alternative to Diamox. But it definitely worked for me. I generally avoid taking medicines unless absolutely necessary so took this approach. But as you have mentioned it has to be supplemented with other things like - plenty of water, not overeating, protection against cold etc.