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Old 4th January 2010, 16:10   #31
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Hey Rahul, very nice start to your log. Keep posting more photos. I am eagerly waiting for the Jammu section of the drive.

I couldn't help noticing that almost all pics were clicked from the driver's seat, i.e, by you. At least the angle of photography suggests so! I am totally confused! Please correct me, if I am wrong!

Is it safe to concentrate on clicking when you are at 90 kmph? A lapse of concentration for even one second can have disastrous consequences in the highway! I feel you should have let your wife do the clicking!

I do not even touch my mobile or my music system, when I am in the driver's seat!

This is just an observation. Do continue your story!

Last edited by Chevy_lover : 4th January 2010 at 16:11.
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Old 4th January 2010, 16:16   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chevy_lover View Post
Hey Rahul, very nice start to your log. Keep posting more photos. I am eagerly waiting for the Jammu section of the drive.

I couldn't help noticing that almost all pics were clicked from the driver's seat, i.e, by you. At least the angle of photography suggests so! I am totally confused! Please correct me, if I am wrong!

Is it safe to concentrate on clicking when you are at 90 kmph? A lapse of concentration for even one second can have disastrous consequences in the highway! I feel you should have let your wife do the clicking!

I do not even touch my mobile or my music system, when I am in the driver's seat!

This is just an observation. Do continue your story!
Point well taken sir. BTW All the safety points kept in mind while clicking.

Chapter 5 coming up later today.. Drive to Katra...

Last edited by Rahulk76 : 4th January 2010 at 16:22. Reason: typo
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Old 4th January 2010, 16:42   #33
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Hey Rahul, great story! Continue quickly. My eyes are glued.
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Old 4th January 2010, 17:11   #34
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It must have been quite interesting to be on the road for such a long time with two young kids. Hats off to you guys. I am glued to your travelogue. Please post the next installment soon.
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Old 4th January 2010, 17:44   #35
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Amazing, you did it buddy!!

Rahul,

Excellent story and great commentary, please keep it coming.

~Cheers!
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Old 4th January 2010, 18:25   #36
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Preview

In the meantime.. What happens when a clear early morning looks so cool like this.. This is with all lamps blazing on safari... not a UFO as someone commented ..



into this
Escape to Gulmarg-p1010043.jpg
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Old 4th January 2010, 18:31   #37
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hey Rahul, very nice travelogue with pictures, eagerly waiting for the later part of the sections. please continue.
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Old 4th January 2010, 18:33   #38
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forgot to mention Rahul, the last pic is awesome dude.
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Old 4th January 2010, 18:50   #39
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Rahul, great stuff. YOu have me hooked on to your travelogue.

Damn!! Still trying to convince my wifey that it is safe to go on roads on long vacations, but its not working so far :(
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Old 4th January 2010, 21:16   #40
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Welcome back sir. Great pictures and logs

-BJ
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Old 4th January 2010, 22:08   #41
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Rahul nice pictures and good narration. TFS.
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Old 5th January 2010, 02:13   #42
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Chapter 5 (Pipali to Katra)

Beep Beep Beep.. we wake up to the clocks alarm. Its 4:00AM.
Kids are still sleeping.

Today is 21st dec 09.

Quickly we refresh ourselves. Suddenly I see something next to my wallet a small squarish stuff. Then it all comes rushing to back. Its "RAMBAAN"

Chai comes by 5:00am and kids are waking up due to noise of metal and glasses. Elder one is still asking, when do get to see the snow. "Sweetie, wait for a day or so max we are almost there"

Everyone cherishes the sweet chai and we pack up and leave the hotel by 5:30 AM.

Ofcourse ram baan is put back to its org. status.The temperature is around 7 degrees and its sure is cold. As ususal the car heater shows its magic. The road is clear and I decide to focus the hellas and then
drive anticipating the fog.



Soon the a zen going ahead disappears from vision, and I wonder, wow thats fast maybe I should also speed up a little. Slowly i jump from 60 to 80. and still no sign.. Wow...

Then suddenly .. i see fog enveloping me and i can see that zen.. shucks.. & slow down.


After sometime some kind of brigde comes and I find myself staring at nothing. Its pitch dark outside and all i see is the a white wall. Damn!

I cant see anything at all.

Slowly i decelerate to 5kmph in first gear and crawl. Soon i find a bunch of very dim lights following me. I decide that its time to pull in the hazard
lights and its extremely dangerous situation, lest someone rear ends me.

It gets worse near a brigde where the fog enters the vehicle when I open the driver side window to peek outside.

My vehicle lights have failed :(. I cant see anything. Even refocussing the hellas to fall to 5 ft in front of vehicle doesnt help.

I decide to switch off the hellas and try to concentrate on the road ahead.

Out of the fog, slowly crawling, I can see to the left Ambala Cantt Station and realise that I am crossing Ambala.

Memories of school come back to me as I tell it to my elder daughter, how I grew up watching Hunters and Jaguars and newMirage 2000 during early to mid 80's. Sighh.. those were the days I remember now properly. I am glad I touched base Ambala during my trip.

Suddenly I see a laura doing approx 30-40kmph in that condition followed by some taxi cabs pass on me from right. I wonder if they are really used to driving in these conditions.

I do manage to catch up with them, in next 15 mins only to see that laura failed to negotiate the diversion and has crashed and a taxi cab has rearended it..

After ambala we stop at a make shift dhabha where Kids have their milk and banana's and after around 10 mins we roll again. People have warned that fog is persistant until ludhiana. So I get prepared to drive slow.

Since I was engrossed in driving, the camera was completely forgotten.

We cross Shambhu toll plaza by 6:40AM after paying Rs. 47

The roads are fogged out completely.

"Did I see a pair of white lights" I say to my self..
Oh no, drat the brat, i swere into the left lane cursing the stupid Sumo wala, going in opposite direction in the wrong lane.
He is not alone, but few more cars..
This was the second close call I had in the trip. Phew...

Now we are crossing rajpura - mandi & Khanna and nearing Ludhiana. Sun is playing hide and seek with us and before Ludhiana, everything clearup like there was nothing. WOW..!

"Ok I need to go through ludhiana and take the elevated roads." I say to myself and tell my wife in the back to look out for any signs towards Jalandhar.
After good 45 mins, I am still traversing by lanes of the industrial area. Its around 8:30 am. "I am disgraced... I am lost again" I say to myself.

A rickshaw wala comes to my rescue and puts me back on the
elevated flyover to Jalandhar a KM away. Thank You Rickshawala...

We roll by, Phagwara.. I see lots of limo's and pimped up alto's as expected

Then comes Jalandhar BP. We spot the flyover from where we need to take a right turn under it.

My fuel is midway and we decide to tank up at IOC. Man.. 31.65/- to a liter am I dreaming.. "Hey put an extra 5 liters in this fuel can as well" is all i can manage to say to the attendent with a wide grin on my face.

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Escape to Gulmarg-p1010045.jpg

Soon dasuya, mukerian and beas go by.

We do stop at the Mc Donalds to refresh and rest for a while. Now I dont remember if it was before or after pathankot.

As i am nearing Pathankot, Tanveer calls up with a good news that, its snowed up there. Our fears are put to rest there and then itself.

Escape to Gulmarg-21122009008.jpg

Then comes slurry of calls from a friend in Jammu, who is waiting for us at the Jammu by pass. I say to him, that we are near pathankot and we should hit jammu bypass in next 2-3 hrs.. Little did I know what those two three hours would hold for me..

Escape to Gulmarg-21122009009.jpg

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Attachment 256746

Soon we are nearing the border, madhopura, where in the details of vehicle and license is entered and then we are off to Jammu.

Smooth Tarmac....

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The landscape is transforming from smooth tarmac to potholes. I cant speed up more than 50kmph. Lots of diversions and reckless bus drivers are around.

Ofcourse lots of dry river beds and bridges. I see a safari camping on the dry river bed down below.

Lovey Dovey's

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Next we are stopped by J&K Police who questions where and what, when did u buy the safari etc. All answered and vehicle checked, we are off again.


We are now in J&K.

We have crossed Madhopur,River Ravi Bridge, J&K BORDER, Check Post, Kathua, Dyala Chak, Check Post, Samba, Vijaypur & Bari Brahma till now.

I pick my friend at Bari bramha and then using Jammu BP proceed towards Katra.

Finally, I pass by the place I was born . They say that our Janmbhumi calls you sometime or other. I comeback to the state after looooong 28 years.....@

Attachment 256746

The board depicts that all roads are a GO.

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Escape to Gulmarg-21122009013.jpg

We are heading towards Katra now.

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From a distance we can see the holy shrine of Mata Vaishnodevi.
A small video of drive to Katra.



Soon we pay Rs. 50 at Katra and checkin to Dak Bunglow Katra around 4pm


Some naive attempts

This is how Vaishnodevi looks like during daytime and one in night with lights.
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Attachment 256764

Jai Mata Di..

We start the climb up from Banganga after having dinner around 9.. Reach up around 1am, get the darshan in next 15 mins peacefully.
We spent approx 1 minute inside and the come out to have warm tea.

All the pain, cold, numbness is gone after having darshan
like they say and then start off to bhaironnath.

Prayers said and no horsewala around we comedown via stairs (kids on
pithoo) all the way to banganga at around 6am.

Our backs are screaming and the pain in the knees is just too much.. I dont know whether to laugh or cry. Every step down is like some experience. So we trot down 20 steps take rest and then 20 steps again

Visit to mata is a test of patience, stamina & will power.

The to and fro journey is 26 kms approx.

Jai Mata Di !

Yes....we have done it.All in All we are happy and glad we made it

A massuer soothens the pain at banganga and we are off to hotel now to take a well deserved nap now. I decide to take a look at the ride and am crestfallen. One of tyres is flat. Noooooo.

Nevermind, will take it up later. Time to take a nap.
I wake up around 2pm, kids and wife still sleeping to glory
Go down and try to unscrew the spare tyre.. huff.. huff.

Damn I cant. I dont have the energy to unscrew, leave alone to jack up the 2 tonnner.

Then I call up a hotel guy and open up the foot pump and request him to pump up. The tyre is completely flat. Magic, withing next 15 mins the tyre is inflated to 30 psi and i wait for a minute or so then drive into katra city to get it repaired.

That done, come back go out to the town in evening, fill diesel and back to hotel to catch the sleep.

Today we start for Tangmarg...Ya

Escape to Gulmarg-p1010062.jpg

Bundle of joys.. They were awake during darshan and after a
good rest are fresh.

Escape to Gulmarg-p1010063.jpg

Thank you my ride for the lovely darshan.. I have cleaned it usinf Jopasu

Escape to Gulmarg-p1010065.jpg

Here we come Tangmarg...

Last edited by Dippy : 5th January 2010 at 09:20. Reason: Deleting pic on request
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Old 5th January 2010, 05:04   #43
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Very very nice triplog ... waiting for the next instalment!
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Old 5th January 2010, 07:40   #44
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Hey Rahul,
Its 2:10 am and I have to wake up early tomm but still I couldnt stop myself from reading through the entire travelogue.
Amazing is the word!!

Waiting for the next installment. I will surely be checking the thread at work tomm.
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Old 5th January 2010, 07:49   #45
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Preview: Namkeen Parantha's and Namkeen Chai

Quote:
Originally Posted by phamilyman View Post
Very very nice triplog ... waiting for the next instalment!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lsp View Post
Hey Rahul,
Its 2:10 am and I have to wake up early tomm but still I couldnt stop myself from reading through the entire travelogue.
Amazing is the word!!

Waiting for the next installment. I will surely be checking the thread at work tomm.
Thanks for the motivation guys..Glad you like it.

Coming up next

Famous Namkeen Parantha's and Namkeen Chai of Qazigund and lots of pics.
Escape to Gulmarg-p1010105.jpg

Last edited by Rahulk76 : 5th January 2010 at 07:51.
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