3rd November 2009, 12:22
| #46 |
| BHPian  | Hey Yamraaj! Very well written travelogue. I am sure that writing this travelogue would have been more tiring that the actual travelling itself.  Please keep the pics coming. |
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3rd November 2009, 15:42
| #47 |
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3rd November 2009, 16:24
| #48 | |
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3rd November 2009, 16:59
| #49 |
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3rd November 2009, 17:24
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4th November 2009, 15:29
| #51 |
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| Dan 9 - continued Day 9 Continued Rashi and I have an understanding about the way we drive on the mountains. Around blind corners, I am supposed to blow the horn. If I don't, Rashi goes "Peep, Peep" and then I blow the horn. After Barlachala, somewhere on the mountain roads, Rashi goes "Peep Peep". So I blow the horn, peeep peeeep. And turn around the corner. And we come face to face with a tanker going the other way. SLAM. I hit the brakes and so does he. Over the next few milliseconds that seemed to go on for eternity, there are two vehicles going SCREEEEEEEACH while inexorably drawing towards each other. We stopped barely a metre or so from the truck. Our hearts in our mouths, I quickly back a bit and allow the truck to go by. Peep peep works! Somewhere after Barlachala, there was this bridge across a stream. When I turned the corner, I saw the WagonR stopped just before the bridge and mamaji and jiju were hopping out. Wondering as to what happened, I walked over to them. Mamaji pointed out that there was something wrong with the bridge. Although the girders and beams were fine, the metal sheets that were bolted to the top had come loose and we would have to put them in place again. The three of us got down to pulling the metal sheets and trying to get them to overlap as much as possible. When we were done with the best, the WagonR was driven over the bridge slowly with jiju and I guiding mamaji. Next, it was my turn. I drove over the bridge a little gingerly. With a slightly wider footprint than the WagonR, Shararat didn't have any problems at all and took the bridge in her stride. A little later, we decide to open a bottle of pepsi to keep up the dropping energy levels. For some reason, Rashi was not able to open the bottle. I opened it, took a swig and then passed it to Rashi. Just as she was about to take a gulp, we hit a dip in the road, the car bounces out a little (not too much). And that is sufficient to make the pepsi think that it is some kinda champagne! Up the bottle blows and sprays all over the place. There is pepsi on the windows, on Rashi, on me, on the dashboard. Fortunately, it was mostly just spray. Not too much damage done. We call the incident 'fountain pepsi'. Soon, we hit the straight roads before Sarchu. Driving on them was a real pleasure after the mountains. Although there were a few dips and rises, one could see for several kilometers ahead in a lot of places. Besides the visibility, the roads were in a decent shape with just the odd pothole here and there. Soon, we were nearing Sarchu. The WagonR was ahead and we reminded them about petrol over the walkie. (side note: Aah the walkies! I must talk about that sometime. But maybe not here, this is about Sarchu! End note). When we reached Sarchu, mamaji and jiju had already located some petrol. After a bit of haggling, we bought about 6 litres of petrol from a woman there. Initially, we transferred the petrol to our can. Then, we decided that we might as well put it into the cars insted of having the petrol fumes in the car. We borrowed a cut bisleri bottle from the woman and transferred the precious liquid into our cars. Satisfied that now we would have sufficient petrol to take us all the way to Leh, we moved on. Soon, we hit a nice curvy loopy uphill road. Pretty well paved with several hairpin bends, the road was a delight to drive on. I thought that they were Gata loops but was not sure. Rashi mentioned that these were probably not those as we didn't see any sign indicating that the loops had started. Since Rashi had seen the sign on several BCMT posts, I thought that these were somewhere ahead. Climbing to the top of the loops, we saw the sign for the end of Gata loops. Ouch! We missed the sign below! Aaargh. I suppose the journey would have been more fun had we known the fun of the loops ahead  .Around 1:30, we crossed Nakeela pass. Another half an hour later, we crossed 5000m altitude (according to the GPS). Rashi had a little buzz in her head but nothing severe. In another few minutes, we were at Lachulungla. Mandatory photo stop! A little distance away, I could see a small patch of snow. Went over to pick some up and take photographs with a snowball.  The Broken Bridge  Men At Work  Here I Come!  Before Sarchu - Sandy Plains  Rockface  Conference Time!  River Valley  A Kid At Sarchu  Shararat Climbing Up  Near Gata Loops  Gata Loops  Fauna  Nakeela  The Road Into The Distance  Snowball !!  Chief Snowbutt ! To Be Continued.... |
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4th November 2009, 16:40
| #52 |
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4th November 2009, 16:42
| #53 | |
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5th November 2009, 15:26
| #54 |
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| Day 9 - continued After satisfying our photographic needs at Barlachala, we moved on towards Pang. Saw some beautiful vistas and stopped several times on the way to take photographs. At each one of these stops, mamaji would admonish us and tell us that we were getting late. And would promptly stop at the next one, camera in hand. Better still was jiju's tactic: slow the car, pop the head out a little, hold the steering with one hand and take snaps with the other! One doesn't have to bother about stopping  View On The Way  Another View On The Way We reached a valley that had what looked like a dry river bed and tall tall mountains on both sides. The sun was hidden behind the mountains and the valley was simply lovely to look at. A few photographs of that and then we moved on. Saw icicles on the roadside five minutes later. A quick photostop without getting out of the car ensued. A few minutes later, we turned a corner and saw the road descending down. And there far away at the bottom was a beautiful natural arch. We handed over our camera to jiju so that some pics of Shararat could be taken on the descending road.  The Valley View  Here She Comes  My Experiment  The River Bed  Putting Things In Perspective  Mutual Photography  Icicles  The Beautiful Himalayas  Arch Enemy?  Shararat Grows Horns  Ancient Faces Embedded In Rock A few photostops later, we finally made it to Pang at about 3:20. Not much there except several tents. And some beautiful views. We had lunch at one of the tents. We had the eggs that we had with us ((Jiju and I had them while the others refused) as well as some dal and roti and pepsi. The dal was pretty good and we ended up ordering 5 portions of it in total! I suppose one for each of us travellers.  Clouds And Snowcapped Mountains Lunch Polished off, off we went on the next part of our journey. We entered More Plains sometime around 4 in the afternoon. Rashi told me then that this was the land of hurricanes! When I started laughing, she realized her mistake. She wanted to say tornadoes! What she really meant was dust devils  . This was one of the several what-she-said-what-she-meant moments of the journey!As soon as we entered the plains, Rashi managed to wrest the steering wheel from me so that I could get some rest. Grumpily, I agreed and took over the camcorder and camera from her. The drive through the plains was simply amazing. We got off road as soon as we entered the plains on the guidance of some cabbies/truckies as the road was under construction in several places. We cut across the plains raising massive clouds of dust in our wake. The dusty drive was a little challenging as we had to constantly avoid the soft sand spots as well as avoid getting into the dust clouds raised by other vehicles. 19 kms and 39 minutes later, I finally rescued my hijacked car from Rashi and promised to drive over these plains on the return journey. The return journey over these plains? That's another story altogether!  More Plains  More 'More Plains'  Some More 'More Plains'  Even More 'More Plains'  The Land Of 'Hurricanes'! Soon, we hit the climb for the might Tanglangla. And mighty it is beyond any doubt! The roads keep going up for eternity. And when you reach eternity, you realize that eternity does not have an end! We traced a tanker moving a few kms ahead of us. When we would turn a corner and see it far away in the distance, we would think that that's probably as far as we would have to go. Little did we know that the drive was an almost endless one! The road to Tanglangla is very very very bad. In fact, the tired two of us felt that it was the worst one in the entire journey. Cratered and potholed and dusty like the desert! We hated the climb. As we steadily climbed upwards, our morale spiralled downwards. Soon I started to become a little cranky. To top it all, the dust had gotten into the window liners and managed to scratch Rashi's window. Aaaaargh!  The Road To Mighty-T  The Lack Of Road To Mighty-T  I Can't Believe We Drove There!  Black And White Pashmina Sweaters Anyone? At long last, we turned a corner and came across the might Tanglangla. A quick photo session was called for. Rashi wasn't feeling too well by now and had a headache. We decided to not spend more than a few minutes and hurried to the descent. In the Manali-Leh guide on BCMT (Rashi had a printout of it with her) it is mentioned that as you descend, the roads become better and your spirits start to rise. We were waiting for that to happen. For 17kms I kept wondering when the good times would start and whether the guy who had written that was on on some kind of OD! After those 17kms of descent, the road gradually becomes paved. With speeds picking up and altitude dropping down, our spirits did rise up. The guy was right! (Side note to myself: should find out who the writer was and say thank you for being our hope. End note).  Tired By The Might-T We were soon cruising along at decent speeds on the way to Upshi. There was a hair raising moment when Nandika's voice suddenly crackled over the walkie "GADDHA!". We turned the corner a little slower than normal and saw the WagonR stopped bang in the middle of the road amidst a bunch of donkeys. Those donkeys were - well, donkeys! What else do you expect out of such creatures. A little while later, we were cruising into Leh. Asked our way to the Air Force Station where arrangements had been made for our stay. 14 hours and 376 kms of mighty mountain passes later, we had finally arrived at our destination. We had a quick dinner and quickly bedded down for the night. Tired but happy that we were here, we caught ourselves some shuteye. Car Statistics: Distance covered: 376 kms Time: 14:13 hours. GPS stats: Trip odometer: 362km Moving time: 10:42 hours Stopped: 03:26 hours Max speed: 84.3 kmph Moving avg: 33.8 kmph Overall avg: 25.6 kmph Max trip elevation: 5331m |
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5th November 2009, 17:50
| #55 |
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5th November 2009, 18:20
| #56 |
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6th November 2009, 12:18
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6th November 2009, 14:56
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6th November 2009, 17:14
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9th November 2009, 16:00
| #60 |
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| Day 10 Day 10 - September 20th 2009 We were in Leh! Yipeee! With that thought in mind, we woke up. Pretty late that is. So late that it was beyond the mess timings! The place where we stayed had a little problem with the water supply and therefore had some massive drums in the bathroom to store water. When we had arrived in the night, the room in which Rashi and I had put up didn't have running water while the other room did. In the morning, we realized that something was wrong with the supply to our room. After scouting around a little and not finding anybody who would take responsibility, mamaji and I went around to the back of the guest house and found out that the outlet from the tank (set amidst some bushes) had been closed. One emergency taken care of!  Somebody Wash Me, PLEASE!  The Cars Get A Bath Finally!  Layers Of Dust! Waited for a short while to get our permits and then left for the city. The city market is situated about 5-6 km away from the AFS. We had asked the directions and when we reached the arch just before the market, we were pretty excited. So this was Leh. Wooooohoooooo! Landed up in the market, parked our cars and then the first thing to do was to look for a place for breakfast. We still had a couple of eggs leftover from the day before. While mamaji looked around for a "Sheru" to dispose them off to, Jiju quickly hopped into the nearest available shop to check out for some shoes and the rest of us just looked around. Since we'd heard so much about the bakeries (especially german bakeries), we decided that our first meal in Leh would be some croissants or rolls or buns. With the thought of cinnamon buns in our minds, we started our search for a german bakery. Any german bakery would suffice. We were directed to the next galli. And from there to the next lane. And from there to the next turn. This went on for a while till we reached the doors of Pumperknickel café. The closed doors of Pumperknickel café they turned out to be. Apparently, Pumperknickel had fled the onslaught of the hungry five to a more remunerative place. Goa. The season having ended, our baker had closed the doors and disappeared south for greener pastures. A little enquiry around told us that most bakeries had closed and that Pumperknickel uncle was the last of the german bakers that had held out against the onslaught of the famished seekers of buns. Ravenous by now, we walked around a little and after looking at various restaurants, we zeroed down on Dreamland restaurant. Close to the taxi stand, this place was on the first floor and looked pretty decent to us. Climbed up a staircase to a roomy room. Sat next to the window (to let me observe the goings on in the street below) and then placed our orders. Thukpa, rogan-josh, spaghetti and pasta were quickly served. The thukpa was a delight and came in extra large portions! Our first encounter with thukpa was a very encouraging one. The rest of the grub was pretty delectable as well. The washbasin of this place is situated on the terrace. When we went there, we realized that the terrace had some seating arrangments as well. And the place and the view was much much better than below! All in all, we had a very good meal. During lunch, we also discussed the return journey that we would have to take. Mamaji was not too keen on going back via T-la again and we thought we would explore the option of going back via Srinagar instead. We had initially planned to go to K-top and then proceed to Nubra valley the next day. We confirmed that K-top would be closed as it was a Monday and decided that we should do Pangong Tso instead then. With our tummies filled, it was time to wander around the market place. An interesting incident happened here. The insole of my shoe was slipping a little. I asked a cobbler to put a little gum on it and stick it to the bottom of the shoe. A jiffy later, the work done, I asked him about the price. Twenty rupees came the reply! A little astounded and a little amused at the way these guys tend to fleece outsiders, I finally bargained it down to ten bucks for something I wouldn't have paid more than five for in normal circumstances! We sauntered around in some of the tibetan refugee markets next to the taxi stand. Rashi bought a pair of keychains over there. Next, we stopped over at the taxi stand to ask about the run to Pangong Tso. We decided to take a taxi the next day as we were a bit tired with the drive of the last couple of days as well as unsure about Pagal Nullah. Plus, this way we would all travel together in one car. Fixed an Innova for the next day and then we went shopping around at the refugee markets. It's kinda fun to go there because of the way they quote prices. Stratospheric is the right word for the quotes that they give! We didn't buy anything at all from any of those stands. While walking towards the main market road, we came across this shop on the left side that had some pretty decent looking stuff. When we stated seeing the price tags, we had to rub our eyes! The prices were really really cheap and down to earth compared to what the others were selling. We were pretty interested in this place and started asking the price of most of the things. Initially, the proprietor didn't warm up to us thinking that we were one of those who just enquire but don't purchase. Slowly, our stock of purchases started to build up and the gentleman started to warm up to us. A fixed low price seemed to be his mantra. And the stuff was pretty decent as well. We took the business card of the place so that I could post it here. The shop is "Lhasa Crafts". It is between the taxi stand and the main market road. Do visit if you want to buy decent low priced stuff. From there, we wandered around in the market. Mamaji bought some rechargeable batteries while I picked up an mp3 FM transmitter for my car. Pretty cool stuff that - you stick in a USB thumb drive into it, and then stick it into the car's 12V output point. And you have music streaming over FM to you car's audio player. Neat trick! You don't need a front USB port anymore  .We did a little bit of shopping and photocopying (we were asked to take three copies of the permit for each location that we wanted to visit) and then turned our thoughts to Leh Palace. We all got into the Palio and drove towards the palace. After a quick stopover in the market to pick up apricots and golden apples, we reached the Leh Palace. (Side note: Those apricots and golden apples were really really yum! End note). The Leh Palace is a tad dilapidated and is under renovation in some parts. We wandered around a bit there and chatted with the Lama in the temple. The lama told us that although we are supposed to pay some entrance fee, they don't normally charge us Indians for it. We took some photographs inside the palace and then decided to leave. There is another palace a little higher up the hill but for that one has to climb a very dusty path. None of us was in the mood to get anywhere close to even a spot of dust after the last day's drive!  The View From Leh Palace  Another View  Inside The Temple  (Dusty?) Path Leading To The Castle  Another One Of Those Experiments After Leh Palace, we left for Shanti Stupa. Came back to the market and then went on towards Changspa area. Came to a T-junction and then didn't know which route to take. We could see Shanti Stupa right ahead and above us there. A kind uncle indicated to us the directions without us even asking for them. Thanks uncle  A nice narrow curvy road led all the way up to Shanti Stupa. Got out of the car and saw a big signboard reading out the directions to the loo: "Urine <---". We wanted to take a snap of it but somehow didn't. Instead, we took the below snaps. Outside Shanti Stupa  View From Shanti Stupa  Leh Polo Ground  A Tale Of Two Palaces  The Grass Is Green On The Other Side  View From Shanti Stupa  Shanti Stupa We entered into the Shanti Stupa compound and visited the temple at the entrance first. Then, we went to the top. A beautiful 360 degree view awaited us there. While Rashi got busy taking photographs, I took advantage of her focus in another direction and hopped to the edge. When Rashi saw me, she totally freaked out!  Rashi, Don't Freak Out!  The View, As Seen By Me  Meditation Time  Another View  Layered Mountains  Shady Mountain!  A Mountain And Three Lamps Sunset and lots of snaps later, we left the place and headed back to the market for some snacks. We stopped over at Jeevan Café (a place recommended by the propreitor of Dreamland restaurant) for some croissants and rolls and buns. Which was not to be since the baker there had left a few days ago! Dang! There goes the last chance of having that cinnamon bun! We ordered some humus and pita bread (which was decent), tea (which wasn't too good), schedzwan potatoes (which were pretty spicy and not so good), mixed fruit pancake (decent), chocolate shake (good), cold coffee (so so) and honey lemon tea (good).  At Jeevan Cafe After Jeevan, we decided to call it a day. We decided to fill petrol on the way back but the one right outside the market gate had a long line of waiting cars. We decided to skip this and instead go on to the one near the air force station. That one was completely empty! Those of you who plan to go to Leh, please take note of this fact. I opened a new bottle of SystemG and the thing almost burst in my hand with the pressure built up inside. This was one thing that I noted about most things. In the mountains, when you open an item packed in the plains, it is bound to spill forth. The relative loss of pressure on the outside makes the bottles swell up inside and spill out whenever you open them. My SystemG bottle burst, my deo spilled out and there were lots of other things like that. Interesting stuff that. The next time, I will depressurize these things and take them there. A thing to note - we could have done the Manali -Leh journey on a tankful of fuel in both cars. We had enough petrol to run us through at least another 100 km at the end of the day. We had to resort to the black petrol as we weren't too sure about the distance that the cars could cover in the mountains. When we tanked up at the petrol pump, I had to put in 37.47 litres into Shararat's belly. A quick calculation showed me that we had got an astounding mileage of 12kmpl in the mountains! We reached the station and went to the mess for dinner. We had baingan, dal and alu+kundru sabzi. And some apples for desert. (Side note: I must write about those apples but then this is a little early for that. End note). Post dinner, we sat in mamaji's room and chatted for a while. All of us had started getting serious static shocks by now. Touch the car and you get zapped. Touch the room's door handle and you get zapped again. And not your regular simple static shocks! These were massive ones that would make us jump. When jiju mentioned the shocks, we said that his was a different story as he uses electric balm. (Side note: if there was a way to harness this electricity, we could probably end up solving a lot of woes in India!! End note). A lot of electrifyijokes later, we went off to bed in a hurry as we had promised the cab driver that we would get up and out early for our drive to Pangong Tso the next day. Tomorrow is another day, still far away!!! Car Statistics: Distance covered: 30 kms Time: Didn't record hours. GPS stats: Trip odometer: 23.2km Moving time: 0:59 hours Stopped: 0:53 hours Max speed: 62.1 kmph Moving avg: 23.5 kmph Overall avg: 12.3 kmph Max trip elevation: 5331m Note: Today's GPS stats are a bit incomplete as I forgot to switch on the GPS once for a short distance. |
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