HumbLeh’d

hvkumar · 29th September 2009, 15:48

How did the convoy form?

HVK (Scorpio non-crde) - started from Bombay on Sep 12, 300 am, reached Delhi at 630 am on Sep 13
Glenn F (GF, Scorpio, crde) - drove in from Bangalore a week ago, started along with HVK from Bombay
Anirudh Basu (AB, Bolero, crde) - left Hyderabad on Sep 11, reached Delhi at 230 am on Sep 12/13, joined the convoy on Sep 13, 630 am
Rajvinder Singh (RS, Pajero) - started from Delhi, at 630 am
Rajiv Menon (RM, Scorpio, m-hawk) - started from Delhi at 630 am
Dr Mandar (MK, Scorpio, non- crde) - left Pune on Sep 11, joined the convoy at Jalandhar at 230 pm on Sep 13
Vishal Bakshi (VB, Scorpio, m-hawk) - left Chandigarh on Sep 11, joined at Leh on Sep 16

So the convoy formation was complete when we left Leh for K-Top and Nubra V on Sep 18

In the meantime, after the 6 cars reached Kargil together on Sep 14, HVK/GF/RS branched off to visit Padum in Zanskar Vallety.

From Nubra V, the Pajero returned home direct to Chandigarh/Delhi

On Sep 23, except MK and AB, the other 4 cars went to Tso Moriri via Mahe, while the other two came to Tso Moriri via Debring.

From Keylong on Sep 24, the team split up, with HVK going it alone on the Lahaul-Spiti-Kinnaur loop, while the others went on to Manali-Delhi.

GF rejoined HVK at Delhi for the journey back to Bombay on Sep 26.

ramkya1 · 29th September 2009, 16:03

Lalu,

Good story and nice way to start.......... loved that.

Awaiting all those processed photos... fire away.

----

laluks · 29th September 2009, 16:59

Day 3, September 14th, 2009
Patnitop - Srinagar - SonaMarg - Zojila - Drass - Kargil (400Kms).

We started the day at 6:00AM. Today is going to be yet another long drive.

The road from patnitop.

The NH leading to Srinagar is heavily patrolled by the Indian Army. You can feel the urgency with which they protect these areas. It reminded me of an active war field.

Immediately after Patnitop we started having river Chenab along the side of the road. From this time till we said bye to Shimla, we had a river at our side through out.

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We crossed the Jawahar tunnel. This is roughly a 3km tunnel which is through the Banihal pass leading to Kashmir. The tunnel is at 1600m above sea level. Tunnel is only open from 7.30AM to 5.30PM. Do not ever try to stop near the tunnel, as it is heavily guarded.

Immediately after we crossed the tunnel we reached a view point called the Titanic View point(9:00AM). A small viewing area like the deck of a ship was there, where you could take a panoramic view of the beautiful valley below.

HVK's Scorpio at the viewpoint.

A little further we reached Qazigund, where you can buy various dry fruits, safron, apples etc. Most of the guys who picked up something were of the opinion that there is not much of a savings to get stocks. We tasted some apples and decided to get a carton. But as expected the top layer was good and the bottom ones were small. Anyways it means there are a lot of tourists travelling in this route and the vendors have found many ways to maximise profits. Best avoided as a pitstop. Near here you have some Petrol pumps if you'd like a refuel. Qazigund is nearly 1700m above sealevel.

From here we drove to Srinagar. Here is what we saw on the road sides. Beautiful isn't it?

In this drive you can see saffron fields. But this time of the year it was just a field. HVK told us that all these areas will be very colourful in the harvest season.

By 12:00PM we were nearly 8Km away from Srinagar.

We also sighted the Jhelum river here.

Continued...

laluks · 29th September 2009, 17:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by vkochar

One Leh Travelogue I've been waiting for desperately !!

Looking forward to this one eagerly.

Who's Pajero was it ? Not someone on TBHP I assume .

Thanks. Will continue to update as time permits. Today I was chilling out at home hence more updates.

Regarding the Pajero, I guess he is not on TBHP.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hvkumar

It was great team work all the way
Yes, we all had a great time.
We did not drop a stitch on the schedules
The cars behaved like they were possessed of tremendous zeal and none of them faced any serious problems

Quote:

Originally Posted by hvkumar

How did the convoy form?

HV Sir, you have summarised it so well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Lalu,

Good story and nice way to start.......... loved that.

Awaiting all those processed photos... fire away.

----

Thanks Ramky. I will fire my pictures asap. Processed ones should come from Saji, which will come as I update day by day.

laluks · 29th September 2009, 17:39

Day 3 Continued
Dal lake

We did not plan to have a stop in Srinagar because of the security situations there and any curfew would jeopardise our further plans. We took a road that goes around the Dal lake and further upwards to Sonamarg.

We stopped by the Dal lake and took as many pictures as we wanted and moved on. Dal lake is at a height of around 1600m above sea level.

Hari Parbat Fort

We saw Hazrat Bal at a distance

Scorpios lined up near the Dal lake

On the way we visited the temple of Khir Bhavani (Vaishno devi's sister) at Tulla mullah. This is a little off the road from Ganderbal. We prayed for a safe trip ahead and continued to Sonamarg.

Continued...

sj_koova · 29th September 2009, 17:53

Lalu, Good going.
Carry on with the travelogue. I will start adding mine from Padum trip.
If you are starting the Padum part tonight, I should have my pics ready. Call me if we have to synchronize with your write-up and my pics.

kaiserketkar · 29th September 2009, 18:13

hey lalu,
great to see the travellogue thread! keep the fotos coming.
and three cheers for kumar for planning such a trip!

mandar

laluks · 29th September 2009, 18:43

Day 3, Continued.

We left from Ganderbal by 13:30PM to Sonamarg (the meadow of gold). We reached Sonamarg by 3.45PM. The views on the roadsides was too good.

Now you know why the place is called SonaMarg!

There is a Glacier nearby to Sonamarg, due to time constraints the visit was not planned.

We crossed the Zoji La pass by 4.45PM. This is the only pass which you have to take to reach Leh from Srinagar. The road was in shambles, and to add to that there were almost 30 trucks waiting. We over took all of them before we started the climb, which really did help us achieving the schedule. The video of this I'd put up soon.

By 5PM we still had a good 96Km left to reach Kargil

Continued...

kesri · 29th September 2009, 18:46

Good to see everybody back safe in their respective hometowns.

I am glad I met you all in flesh on the tour first .... and now relating to the unfolding Team-BHP-Id-Names, one by one

. Was expecting the flood of posts & pictures to start after a few days.

But looks like the rub-off effect of 4:00am wake-up calls is lasting a lot longer, with LaluKS making an early start on the travel log

and others scrambling to pile on!

I am enjoying reading all the posts here ... and remembering the awesome thrill of my own first time visit to these heavenly places ... and the bigger thrill of uploading the pictures (which sometimes seem even more awesome, when you get back home) and sharing them with family and friends!

Cheers,
KS

laluks · 29th September 2009, 18:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by kesri

Good to see everybody back safe in their respective hometowns.

I am glad I met you all in flesh on the tour first .... and now relating to the unfolding Team-BHP-Id-Names, one by one

. Was expecting the flood of posts & pictures to start after a few days.

But looks like the rub-off effect of 4:00am wake-up calls is lasting a lot longer, with LaluKS making an early start on the travel log

and others scrambling to pile on!

I am enjoying reading all the posts here ... and remembering the awesome thrill of my own first time visit to these heavenly places ... and the bigger thrill of uploading the pictures (which sometimes seem even more awesome, when you get back home) and sharing them with family and friends!

Cheers,
KS

Absolutely, 4AM to 12PM for the last 16 days had got me!! Well let me finish before I get back to my normal schedules

Regarding the pictures, you are absolutely right.

Lukeskywalker · 29th September 2009, 19:28

Congrats guys on a trip well done, Lalu great narration and pics, I'm sure the experience is much more spectacular than what the pics represent.

AarEmm · 29th September 2009, 19:29

hey guys,
glad to see this travelogue and getting all the details. Was looking forward to it after the brief meeting at Leh for dinner.
Hats off to all of you for completing this trip.
Rohit Mendiratta

laluks · 29th September 2009, 20:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

Congrats guys on a trip well done, Lalu great narration and pics, I'm sure the experience is much more spectacular than what the pics represent.

Hari, thank you. And exactly, the experience is wonderful. We all reached back home with memories that will last a lifetime.

lohithrao · 29th September 2009, 20:15

lalu lovely pics and travelogue and am waiting for more

btw loved the first post on this logue, a great start!

laluks · 29th September 2009, 20:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by lohithrao

lalu lovely pics and travelogue and am waiting for more

btw loved the first post on this logue, a great start!

Hey Lohith, Thank you. The first post was exactly what I had gone through,and it reflects my thoughts exactly. I am too lucky to be a part of that wonderful team.

29th September 2009, 15:48	#31
hvkumar Senior - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Mumbai Posts: 7,369 Thanked: 3,454 Times	How did the convoy form? HVK (Scorpio non-crde) - started from Bombay on Sep 12, 300 am, reached Delhi at 630 am on Sep 13 Glenn F (GF, Scorpio, crde) - drove in from Bangalore a week ago, started along with HVK from Bombay Anirudh Basu (AB, Bolero, crde) - left Hyderabad on Sep 11, reached Delhi at 230 am on Sep 12/13, joined the convoy on Sep 13, 630 am Rajvinder Singh (RS, Pajero) - started from Delhi, at 630 am Rajiv Menon (RM, Scorpio, m-hawk) - started from Delhi at 630 am Dr Mandar (MK, Scorpio, non- crde) - left Pune on Sep 11, joined the convoy at Jalandhar at 230 pm on Sep 13 Vishal Bakshi (VB, Scorpio, m-hawk) - left Chandigarh on Sep 11, joined at Leh on Sep 16 So the convoy formation was complete when we left Leh for K-Top and Nubra V on Sep 18 In the meantime, after the 6 cars reached Kargil together on Sep 14, HVK/GF/RS branched off to visit Padum in Zanskar Vallety. From Nubra V, the Pajero returned home direct to Chandigarh/Delhi On Sep 23, except MK and AB, the other 4 cars went to Tso Moriri via Mahe, while the other two came to Tso Moriri via Debring. From Keylong on Sep 24, the team split up, with HVK going it alone on the Lahaul-Spiti-Kinnaur loop, while the others went on to Manali-Delhi. GF rejoined HVK at Delhi for the journey back to Bombay on Sep 26.
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 16:03	#32
ramkya1 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Palakkad, Keral Posts: 1,826 Thanked: 431 Times View My Garage	Lalu, Good story and nice way to start.......... loved that. Awaiting all those processed photos... fire away. ----
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 16:59	#33
laluks Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 6,552 Thanked: 16,397 Times	Day 3, September 14th, 2009 Patnitop - Srinagar - SonaMarg - Zojila - Drass - Kargil (400Kms). We started the day at 6:00AM. Today is going to be yet another long drive. The road from patnitop. The NH leading to Srinagar is heavily patrolled by the Indian Army. You can feel the urgency with which they protect these areas. It reminded me of an active war field. Immediately after Patnitop we started having river Chenab along the side of the road. From this time till we said bye to Shimla, we had a river at our side through out. We crossed the Jawahar tunnel. This is roughly a 3km tunnel which is through the Banihal pass leading to Kashmir. The tunnel is at 1600m above sea level. Tunnel is only open from 7.30AM to 5.30PM. Do not ever try to stop near the tunnel, as it is heavily guarded. Immediately after we crossed the tunnel we reached a view point called the Titanic View point(9:00AM). A small viewing area like the deck of a ship was there, where you could take a panoramic view of the beautiful valley below. HVK's Scorpio at the viewpoint. A little further we reached Qazigund, where you can buy various dry fruits, safron, apples etc. Most of the guys who picked up something were of the opinion that there is not much of a savings to get stocks. We tasted some apples and decided to get a carton. But as expected the top layer was good and the bottom ones were small. Anyways it means there are a lot of tourists travelling in this route and the vendors have found many ways to maximise profits. Best avoided as a pitstop. Near here you have some Petrol pumps if you'd like a refuel. Qazigund is nearly 1700m above sealevel. From here we drove to Srinagar. Here is what we saw on the road sides. Beautiful isn't it? In this drive you can see saffron fields. But this time of the year it was just a field. HVK told us that all these areas will be very colourful in the harvest season. By 12:00PM we were nearly 8Km away from Srinagar. We also sighted the Jhelum river here. Continued... Last edited by laluks : 29th September 2009 at 17:10.
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 17:39	#35
laluks Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 6,552 Thanked: 16,397 Times	Day 3 Continued Dal lake We did not plan to have a stop in Srinagar because of the security situations there and any curfew would jeopardise our further plans. We took a road that goes around the Dal lake and further upwards to Sonamarg. We stopped by the Dal lake and took as many pictures as we wanted and moved on. Dal lake is at a height of around 1600m above sea level. Hari Parbat Fort We saw Hazrat Bal at a distance Scorpios lined up near the Dal lake On the way we visited the temple of Khir Bhavani (Vaishno devi's sister) at Tulla mullah. This is a little off the road from Ganderbal. We prayed for a safe trip ahead and continued to Sonamarg. Continued... Last edited by laluks : 29th September 2009 at 17:46.
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 17:53	#36
sj_koova BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 673 Thanked: 620 Times View My Garage	Lalu, Good going. Carry on with the travelogue. I will start adding mine from Padum trip. If you are starting the Padum part tonight, I should have my pics ready. Call me if we have to synchronize with your write-up and my pics.
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 18:13	#37
kaiserketkar BHPian Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Pune Posts: 182 Thanked: 82 Times	hey lalu, great to see the travellogue thread! keep the fotos coming. and three cheers for kumar for planning such a trip! mandar
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 18:43	#38
laluks Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 6,552 Thanked: 16,397 Times	Day 3, Continued. We left from Ganderbal by 13:30PM to Sonamarg (the meadow of gold). We reached Sonamarg by 3.45PM. The views on the roadsides was too good. Now you know why the place is called SonaMarg! There is a Glacier nearby to Sonamarg, due to time constraints the visit was not planned. We crossed the Zoji La pass by 4.45PM. This is the only pass which you have to take to reach Leh from Srinagar. The road was in shambles, and to add to that there were almost 30 trucks waiting. We over took all of them before we started the climb, which really did help us achieving the schedule. The video of this I'd put up soon. By 5PM we still had a good 96Km left to reach Kargil Continued... Last edited by laluks : 29th September 2009 at 18:52.
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 18:46	#39
kesri BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Mumbai Posts: 82 Thanked: 43 Times	Good to see everybody back safe in their respective hometowns. I am glad I met you all in flesh on the tour first .... and now relating to the unfolding Team-BHP-Id-Names, one by one . Was expecting the flood of posts & pictures to start after a few days. But looks like the rub-off effect of 4:00am wake-up calls is lasting a lot longer, with LaluKS making an early start on the travel log and others scrambling to pile on! I am enjoying reading all the posts here ... and remembering the awesome thrill of my own first time visit to these heavenly places ... and the bigger thrill of uploading the pictures (which sometimes seem even more awesome, when you get back home) and sharing them with family and friends! Cheers, KS Last edited by kesri : 29th September 2009 at 18:49.
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 19:28	#41
Lukeskywalker Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,397 Thanked: 1,243 Times View My Garage	Congrats guys on a trip well done, Lalu great narration and pics, I'm sure the experience is much more spectacular than what the pics represent.
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 19:29	#42
AarEmm BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 46 Thanked: 7 Times	hey guys, glad to see this travelogue and getting all the details. Was looking forward to it after the brief meeting at Leh for dinner. Hats off to all of you for completing this trip. Rohit Mendiratta
	() Thanks

29th September 2009, 20:15	#44
lohithrao Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Kudla/Mangaluru Posts: 3,204 Thanked: 225 Times View My Garage	lalu lovely pics and travelogue and am waiting for more btw loved the first post on this logue, a great start!
	() Thanks