[Atom]

Amazing travelogue. The captures are just stunning. Wishing you many more epic travelogues with the Bimmer.

[worldcrawler]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

I have no words to express my feelings after reading this travelogue. This has to be one of the best and one of the most inspirational travelogues on the forum.

Taking a BMW to such areas takes courage. Such trips in these tough roads in a BMW is a rarity by itself. But well beyond that, your travelogue consists of absolutely brilliant pictures, and covers some amazing locations. A 30-day roadtrip is really an epic event, something that most of us always dream of. Your entire travelogue is a dream stuff!

Thank you for taking efforts to write this travelogue and for sharing this inspirational story and the brilliant pictures with us.

P.S. And of course, rated your thread a well-deserved 5 stars!

I am humbled! Have no words to express my gratitude. Thanks a lot for those lovely words and encouragement to go on

Originally Posted by ampere

No words to describe. I remember Mod @TSK and Rudra sending out such travelogues with a stellar camera Gear!

You should also add a note for the general populace like us on:

1. How do you mentally prepare for ride
2. How can normal folks like me and my family, cope-up with riding full day for 20+ days and plan such rides?
3. How are fatigue levels with daily ride? (Give we would stop more often than we drive for a photo-op)
4, Good there was no glitch. But then how do you prepare for that? (I know there are enough threads on this)
5. Finally something I ask every one who took a 20+ day holiday. How do you manage to get away from work!


To be frank, while we all would love to drive to Leh, #2 and #5 are real deal-breakers which take away this cake from our plates. We all drive a week or 10 days with more relaxation thrown in at places/resorts in between. Even a 10+ day all-days-driving we need to experience!

Thanks a lot!

While I can't really give answer to a couple of points here ( no objective answers possible ), will try to share my thoughts on them.

1. Excitement is the only driving factor here! Please note this is not our first long trip. We started with a 18 day MP trip back in 2018, a 14 day US West coast drive in 2019, a 23 days Rajasthan drive in 2020, a 8 day AP drive in 2021 and then finally this one.

2. My family is quite used to with this. We have been taking our kid for road trips when he was barely 6 months...

3. This is somehow related to the car we drive during these trips. We used to feel a little bit of tiredness after driving 150 kms in XUV 500 but with this bimmer we can drive 250 kms before we feel any discomfort. Moreover, me and my wife , we both drive during the longer distances. We take multiple coffee breaks ( normally every 200 kms or 2 hours whichever is earlier ). We don't drive everyday during this long trips. If we look at the day wise details, there were rest days when we don't even go near the car!

4. Hmm, luck plays a big role here, but, we try to follow all the instructions shared to upkeep the health of the vehicle. In this kind of trips, we give enough rest to the vehicle. Check for tyre temperatures and give time to cool down, navigate broken patches of road extra carefully, avoid multiple cold starts in a small duration of time, use features like hill descent control on sharp slopes, the list goes on.

5. We don't take ad hoc leaves and try to accumulate our paid leaves to use them meaningfully in this kind of trips. We have enough long weekends to make trips to local destinations . This trip is planned with a paid sabbatical ( 5 year service completion award ) for me, wife took paid leaves and it was summer vacation in school for our kid.

I know these answers might not be objective or applicable to every context, but honestly it's not possible to provide objective answers for couple of the points above.

Originally Posted by Atom

Amazing travelogue. The captures are just stunning. Wishing you many more epic travelogues with the Bimmer.

Thank you!

[Ikran]

One thing that you should edit in this travelogue is about your writing skills....You have captured your vacation very nicely in words....sure not 8500 words :-)

Enjoyed every bit of it and the picks...

[worldcrawler]

Originally Posted by Ikran

One thing that you should edit in this travelogue is about your writing skills....You have captured your vacation very nicely in words....sure not 8500 words :-)

Enjoyed every bit of it and the picks...

Thank you .

But indeed I am not good at writing and I have seen way better literature on this forum.

[GAPune]

Originally Posted by worldcrawler

What an amazing drive worldcrawler, Epic it is !
The pictures, specially with X3 and overall planning is meticulous.
Congratulations for being on the BMW's insta, you deserve it.

I have always dreamed of this trip and your travelogue has inspired me by 100X.

Glad to see the Bimmer performing so well in adverse temperatures, altitude, road, etc.

I own same colored X3, make year 2021 and planning to make this trip in next year May, 2023. I could do same route - starting from Pune.
I recently did Pune-Banglore-Coorg-Bandipur-Mysore-Bangalore-Pune : in May 2022.

[ChandrasekharG]

Thank you for the fantastic travelogue. Very inspiring. Though I have been to Ladakh many times trekking the high mountains and as you rightly said no camera can capture the beauty of that place.
Ladakh road trip is in my todo list and with the kind of excellent details you have provided on the route and timing of the travel, I might as well use your template to plan for one from Chennai. Thanks for sharing.

[worldcrawler]

Originally Posted by GAPune

What an amazing drive worldcrawler, Epic it is !
The pictures, specially with X3 and overall planning is meticulous.
Congratulations for being on the BMW's insta, you deserve it.

I have always dreamed of this trip and your travelogue has inspired me by 100X.

Glad to see the Bimmer performing so well in adverse temperatures, altitude, road, etc.

I own same colored X3, make year 2021 and planning to make this trip in next year May, 2023. I could do same route - starting from Pune.
I recently did Pune-Banglore-Coorg-Bandipur-Mysore-Bangalore-Pune : in May 2022.

Thank you! Yes, feels great to be on BMW official channels. Bangalore - Coorg - Bandipur is a great route for any traveller, great road infrastructure and outstanding stays!

Originally Posted by ChandrasekharG

Thank you for the fantastic travelogue. Very inspiring. Though I have been to Ladakh many times trekking the high mountains and as you rightly said no camera can capture the beauty of that place.
Ladakh road trip is in my todo list and with the kind of excellent details you have provided on the route and timing of the travel, I might as well use your template to plan for one from Chennai. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you! My pleasure if this blog helps you in planning your trip. PM me if you need any other details related to stay or route…

[miharbe]

Incredible stuff Worldcrawler!!! Many dream but few dare!

Thoroughly enjoyed this thread as this is something I have been wanting to do for a while now. Hopefully soon (though with offices resuming a 30 day trip is increasingly impossible)

Just a few of questions if you don't mind:

• Not sure if I missed it but grateful if you could share the approximate costs for this trip
• Did you share any driving duties with the missus or was it a lone effort for the entire trip? Asking as driving stamina is the single biggest deterrent for me outside of leaves
• Did you carry fuel with you in the car as a precaution or were there enough bunks en route?
• How's the restroom availability for ladies in some of the remote areas?

Sorry for some of the noob questions!

One last lesson for me is that vehicles are way more capable and reliable that folks give them credit for!

[worldcrawler]

Originally Posted by miharbe

Incredible stuff Worldcrawler!!! Many dream but few dare!

Thoroughly enjoyed this thread as this is something I have been wanting to do for a while now. Hopefully soon (though with offices resuming a 30 day trip is increasingly impossible)

Just a few of questions if you don't mind:

• Not sure if I missed it but grateful if you could share the approximate costs for this trip
• Did you share any driving duties with the missus or was it a lone effort for the entire trip? Asking as driving stamina is the single biggest deterrent for me outside of leaves
• Did you carry fuel with you in the car as a precaution or were there enough bunks en route?
• How's the restroom availability for ladies in some of the remote areas?

Sorry for some of the noob questions!

One last lesson for me is that vehicles are way more capable and reliable that folks give them credit for!

Thank you so much! These are extremely relevant queries but a couple of them are extremely contextual and personalised, hence it was intentional to drop them from the write-up. I will share accommodation and fuel cost in PM.

• I will PM you a rough expense details.
• Yes, it was a shared job of transportation specially the longer ones. But it can be done alone.
• I didn't have to but I guess it will depend on the vehicle being driven, range on full tank and how it's being driven. Maximum distance one need to cover without a filling station is roughly 350 kms. This route is applicable only if someone travels to Hanle or TSO Moriri.
• This is the single most aspect that might deter me to drive again in this circuit. While the tarmacs are exotic, there is hardly any infrastructure. You need extra bit of planning and still can expect surprises like "the place doesn't exist although it's on map!". And yes, it's not just the mountains, our first disappointment started from Haryana and Punjab expressways.

One last lesson for me is that vehicles are way more capable and reliable that folks give them credit for!

Spot on! Ladakh is easy peasy for any vehicle as long as you have decent ground clearance.

In our case capability was never under question. BMW X Drive systems are extremely functional and does their job effortlessly. The latest generations of BMWs are not only capable, they are the most reliable of the luxury lot, IMO.

[kartikv1]

Hi Worldcrawler,

As I plan my 15 day roadtrip to Ladakh -

Had a few questions for you -

I have two cars which I'm considering for this trip -

1) Nissan Terrano (2015 make) - has A/T tyres as well
2) BMW 330i Sport (2021 make)

Just looking at your thread made me consider 330i just for once, I have it shod with non-runflats (decent ride quality). I have driven a lot of the hills - upto Chopta (Uttarakhand) recently with this. Can this car do routes like - Leh - Hanle?

If we decide to do only the regular tourist places - e.g., Hunder, Pangong Tso, Leh Local with this and hire a local cab for the rest - is it doable in this car?

Ofcourse, next thing - if you could share the places you stayed at with me, would be helpful.

FYI - I'm planning this trip from 8-21st Aug 2023. Will be driving to Srinagar Airport from Delhi and pick my wife and kid. Basically have the following itinerary in mind -


9th Aug Srinagar to Kargil
10th Aug Kargil to Leh
11th Aug Leh to Leh (local)
12th Aug Leh to Hunder
13th Aug Hunder to Hunder (turtuk - maybe local cab)
14th Aug Hunder to Pangong Tso - meruk
15th Aug Pangong Tso to Hanle (maybe go to Leh and take a local cab if we take 330i)
16th Aug Hanle - Leh

Then, Return back to Srinagar/Delhi.

[benbsb29]

Can't believe I missed this thread earlier.
Amazing writeup and pics to go with the narration. Your pics are truly spectacular.

Thanks a lot for taking the effort to pen this and share with the community. Added in 5 stars from my side as well.

[GAPune]

Hi Worldcrawler,
I'm planning a trip in my X3 in mid-Jun from Pune.

This is where (Fairy tale of a Bimmer - Bangalore to the land of high mountain passes) I thanked you and got inspired from you.

How can we discuss 1:1 for more details?

[worldcrawler]

Originally Posted by GAPune

Hi Worldcrawler,
I'm planning a trip in my X3 in mid-Jun from Pune.

This is where (Fairy tale of a Bimmer - Bangalore to the land of high mountain passes) I thanked you and got inspired from you.

How can we discuss 1:1 for more details?

Thanks! DM’ed you my details.