[Incognito]

Well there are some write-ups that you enjoy tucked in a couch in the warmth of your home, and then there are the ones which makes you leave that comfort and hit the road. This one surely is of the second kind .. smooth write-up with exquisite pictures .. would love to read and see more from you

How about a write up on Royal Rajasthan and and a drive down the friendly neighborhood of Chambal in the dead of the night

Mod Note : Please avoid typing with excessive dots.........like................this.

Thanks

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by Samba

How how did i miss it for so many days! Nice informative and crisp travelogue. The pictures are nice too. I too want to do Leh Ladakh in the coming years but i don't own a SUV. I too will be doing from Kolkata. So do you think its doable in a sedan or a hatch back with cautious driving? Am mostly worried on crossing the streams with boulders underneath flowing over the road.

Thanks Samba. The GC of the Etios is not too bad, so you should be able to do most of the routes like Kolkata-Srinagar-Kargil-Leh-Pangong. Zanaskar will be a bit tough because there are stream crossings at several places and might hit the under body. Another place of trouble would be Rohtang Pass. When we were returning there was almost half a foot deep mud for 1 kilometer or more and they had stopped all the low GC cars before Rohtang. I have not been to Khardung La or Nubra, so cannot comment on them. There are many people on Tbhp who have done the routes in sedans, so it should not be a deterrent. Please visit Ladakh by all means

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

I am elated. Thanks Tanveer. Did the road building progress much?.

Nope. ITs still the same. Infact the update I got 3 days back suggests its the same and there has been no progress since last year. I guess the mining ban hit them too!

[Surprise]

Excellent travelogue, Beautiful pictures, wonderful crisp narration. Boat house - Tin shed accommodation. You are a TRUE TRAVELER Hope to visit Ladakh at least once in my lifetime driving down

[BlackPearl]

Here is one pic which I really liked but was unable to post previously as I was not able to reduce the size. Moreover I need help to identify this monastery as I have forgotten the place

[motomaverick]

Really well written and picturized travelogue. Was the 45 hour run done with two drivers? So Bolero is the most apt vehicle for the terrain is what I gather from this log.

[sheeniz]

Amazing travelogue, after reading it and going through all the pictures I feel like submitting a leave schedule to my boss for next month and driving down to Ladakh. Sadly I know that is not going to happen any soon, so for the time being enjoying your post.

[Nikhil_Kapil]

Excellent travelogue, crisp, to-the-point narration & beautiful pictures. I Envy you to have managed to get your hands on a military grade 4x4 and it looks like the Mahindra took good care of you.

It goes without saying that the Leh, Ladakh and Zanskar - The Ultimate Guide put up by Harsh(tsk1979) is indeed the ultimate guide for whoever dreams about getting Leh’ed (and beyond) a reality.

Cheers ~ Nikhil

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Really well written and picturized travelogue. Was the 45 hour run done with two drivers? So Bolero is the most apt vehicle for the terrain is what I gather from this log.

Thanks motomaverick. The 45 hour run was done with 3 drivers. I would not say that Bolero is the most apt vehicle because of the ride quality. Due to the leaf spring suspension all around, the ride quality is quite bad. It gets better with additional load. Another problem is the lack of power in transport section. As a result we tend to stop less. For example the Pajero was taking more breaks on the Kolkata-Delhi route but was still able to catch up with us. Once on the mountains it is not an issue as the torque is enough.

Originally Posted by sheeniz

Amazing travelogue, after reading it and going through all the pictures I feel like submitting a leave schedule to my boss for next month and driving down to Ladakh. Sadly I know that is not going to happen any soon, so for the time being enjoying your post.

Thanks sheeniz. Take your boss along with you

Originally Posted by Nikhil_Kapil

Excellent travelogue, crisp, to-the-point narration & beautiful pictures. I Envy you to have managed to get your hands on a military grade 4x4 and it looks like the Mahindra took good care of you.

It goes without saying that the Leh, Ladakh and Zanskar - The Ultimate Guide put up by Harsh(tsk1979) is indeed the ultimate guide for whoever dreams about getting Leh’ed (and beyond) a reality.

Cheers ~ Nikhil

Thanks Nikhil. tsk1979 is Tanveer. Harsh is Vardhan.Harsh (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/member...han.harsh.html) The articles on tbhp put up by both Tanveer and Harsh on Ladakh are extremely detailed.

[Nikhil_Kapil]

My bad, thanks for pointing that out & no offense to the gentlemen legends who took out the time to enlighten us with their travelogues.

I also noticed that the hyperlink for Leh, Ladakh and Zanskar - The Ultimate Guide updated on my post is incorrect.

Mods - Reaching out for a little expert help to correct that.

[rahulya007]

Originally Posted by Samba

How how did i miss it for so many days! Nice informative and crisp travelogue. The pictures are nice too. I too want to do Leh Ladakh in the coming years but i don't own a SUV. I too will be doing from Kolkata. So do you think its doable in a sedan or a hatch back with cautious driving? Am mostly worried on crossing the streams with boulders underneath flowing over the road.

Most of the roads are doable in a sedan/ hatchback. We did a motorcycle ride from Mumbai-Leh-Mumbai in July 2012 with 8 riders and had a Getz 1.1 as a backup vehicle with lots of food stuffs, toolkit and spares along with a mechanic dumped into it. It did not give us any issue but we were advised not to take it to Pangong via the Chang La pass and we later realized it why was it so. We could do K-Top easily till Diskit and returned the same route to Leh. We even saw Maruti 800 and Alto and Omni doing that route. Only thing is you should be mechanically aware of the vehicle you are driving and how to make ur way over the boulders, slush, water and what not..

Regards,
Rahul

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by Incognito

Well there are some write-ups that you enjoy tucked in a couch in the warmth of your home, and then there are the ones which makes you leave that comfort and hit the road. This one surely is of the second kind .. smooth write-up with exquisite pictures .. would love to read and see more from you

How about a write up on Royal Rajasthan and and a drive down the friendly neighborhood of Chambal in the dead of the night

Thanks[/b]

Thanks! Yes need to write about the Rajasthan trip and many more

Originally Posted by rahulya007

Most of the roads are doable in a sedan/ hatchback. We did a motorcycle ride from Mumbai-Leh-Mumbai in July 2012 with 8 riders and had a Getz 1.1 as a backup vehicle with lots of food stuffs, toolkit and spares along with a mechanic dumped into it. It did not give us any issue but we were advised not to take it to Pangong via the Chang La pass and we later realized it why was it so. We could do K-Top easily till Diskit and returned the same route to Leh. We even saw Maruti 800 and Alto and Omni doing that route. Only thing is you should be mechanically aware of the vehicle you are driving and how to make ur way over the boulders, slush, water and what not..

Regards,
Rahul

That is why I had written that many of the routes can be done in a sedan. But one should not be misled that one can do the entire Ladakh area in a sedan, in fact a high vehicle will also fail at places and only a 4x4 can help in those places. The sedans will be able to go to most of the popular places with a few beatings here and there, but one needs an SUV to be able to go anywhere and with peace of mind. When I used to drive a Baleno, most of the trip went in thinking about coping up with the low ground clearance. That becomes very tiring over a long distance.
Maruti 800 and Alto are legendary vehicles, their short wheelbase along with relatively higher GC and low weight help in tackling difficult terrains better than many vehicles. They are fun to drive on the hills as well . Even the Nano is getting good fan following on the hills.

[SS-Traveller]

BlackPearl, you are not allowed to go into hibernation before you share (at least a substantial part of) the rest of your pictures. Leh travelogues stand out because of the photographs, and yours are really good!

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

BlackPearl, you are not allowed to go into hibernation before you share (at least a substantial part of) the rest of your pictures. Leh travelogues stand out because of the photographs, and yours are really good!

I am not going into hibernation, just trying hard to find pictures that are up to standard. The problem with taking too many pictures is the same as that of quantity vs quality

And thanks for liking the pictures, so posting a few more...

On the way to Kargil


Playful Monk


The WhiteTusker


Hats off to these riders

[shyamkrish]

Hi All,

I have been planning to make my first trip to Ladakh for the last few years. Finally decided to do it this year. After lots of research i have planned to cover Zanskar valley from Srinagar and then travel out of Leh from the Manali side. I would like to visit several villages on the way (layamuru, Kanji, Dah etc).

I dont have a hard time limit and want to keep my stay a bit flexible. Iam looking at least 3 weeks or more. My mode of transport will be by road on my Gypsy which is new (bought last year) and has only 8k on odometer.

Would love to be a part of a larger group since iam currently solo. I know the Zanskar route is very very challenging/unpredictable and iam not very familiar with my car . Iam planning to do the trip in early june 2018.

Just wanted to check if anyone else would like to join me??

Thanks
Shyam