[The_Warrior]

Hey Rejoyc!

Like all the other Travelogues to Leh/Ladakh am glued to this one too. Keep them coming.

Do also post about the Advance and the Cost per km that was charged to you for the Endy or KADAVAVAAR ( as u call it )

Cheers..

[Majic]

Rejoyc, i think the photos are wonderful. Especially the shadow of the mountiain had me thinking that it looks like the head of a man! do keep them coming

[rejoycjohn]

he_Warrior Hey Rejoyc!

Do also post about the Advance and the Cost per km that was charged to you for the Endy or KADAVAVAAR ( as u call it )

Thanks for the comments , the advance was 65K , and daily rent was 4K .

Rejoyc, i think the photos are wonderful. Especially the shadow of the mountiain ha

Thanks again Magic.. :-)

Let me continue with the trip
Day3
Keylong-Jispa-Baralachala-Sirchu-Lachungla-Pang
We always think of starting early , as we always reached the destination late . Especially while approaching Keylong , we were hardly able to see the road and there werent anyone whom we can ask directions for . Diversions always made us tensed especially during night . But drastic changes like this never on a day , we still
were lazy and started off at about 7 30 / 8 in the morning .
The road from Keylong was just amazing.They were well laid and the twists and turns made us think that we were driving on an NFS circuit . My friend was lucky enough to drive
through this stretch . Eveyone else was enjoying the beauty of the Himalayas . i feel that the best time to drive is in the morning ,anyone would just fall in love with the rising sun and
its rays that peep through the mountain gaps.

The ghat section ended at jispa . After a couple of kilometers , we saw a half dried river flowing beside the road ,and i was looking a way to get into the river . Well yea I found one and was asking my friends to take a pit stop there .
I also had plans to do some rookie offroading through the dried river , and a small river crossing .So with all these in mind , we took our 'Kadavaavar aka Endevour ' into the
river . It was amazing!!
I let free the Kadavaavar aka Endy to explore the river.I saw a small river crossing and thought of taking the Kadavaavar through it .
To be frank I was tensed if to do it or not , but then tried to measure the depth and the speed at which water is flowing so that I wont end up doing something very stupid .Wass 85 % convinced , and the rest on the passion to take the Kadvaavar ( Endevr ) across ! I did that , and again it gave me a great feeling of accomplishment though I did something which anyone hardly call as Offroading .
Took some pics again Kadavaavar ( Endevr ) was a common factor in all of them along with us . Kadavaavar ( Endevr ) looked as if it belonged to that place and not to those busy traffic out in Delhi .

We continued to Baralachala-through the famous Deepaktal lake . Well I am tired of using the same words to describe the beauty .Let the pics take over from now !

[Majic]

You do have a nice touch of photography, all the pictures are worth a second look any day, please continue posting more pictures.

[sbraj]

Great travelogue. I am now glued to the pics, keep them coming.

Originally Posted by rejoycjohn

Well point taken , mallus are good with tongue twisters , so we got used to it.

Well, inspite of being a mallu, I find pronouncing Endeavour easier than 'kadavaavaar'.

In the picture below, is that the road which is seen on the right side? No stoppers on the side?

[Majic]

Rejoy, please continue man, you are keeping me and a whole lot of people waiting...its worth waiting for but not for so long. I am giving you a deadline of today night..tomorrow morning i want to see the remaining pictures.

[rejoycjohn]

MajicYou do have a nice touch of photography, all the pictures are worth a second
whole lot of people waiting...its worth waiting for but not for so long.

Thanks Magic for those compliments , also apologies for the delay . Was not in Blore for the weekend . Again some deadlines for monday . The most irritating thing was to resize the pics , microsoft license was expired and so had to upload to net and then resize ! So apologies again for taking long to continue .

Well, inspite of being a mallu, I find pronouncing Endeavour easier than 'kadavaavaar'.

Point taken again , I have mentioned both the names for convinience :-)

continue..
After the offroading at Jispa , it was time for us to climb up to Baralachala .2 days into the trip and one day through the Himalayan roads , we were out of hopes for any good roads.We wouldnt have bothered about the condition of the roads if we were just 5 of us or if the vehicle was less bumpy .Driving through those roads considering the comfort of everyone made the journey slow . We were not having much time to waste as we dint know how the route was in front of us .
of the condition of the roads . And then we had already come to know that connecting the distance to be covered and the time required
to cover it just dont work in these Himalyan roads. After all those trouble and not that comfortable ride , we reached Baralacha
Baralacha was the first place which gave us some view of ice .
Many things that look beautiful from a distance neednt be that good looking when you view it close or feel it . Glaciers / Ice cladded
mountain peaks just reinforce this saying . The glaciers when seen close was not pure white in colour , it was mixed with small chiseld rock pieces and mud .
But then we were thrilled , it was again a first of its kind in our life. Took some snaps with different poses .
All through the trip we felt that the view that every pass give us is worth the pain that we take to reach there .
Before I go to the pics, lemme describe the journey till Pang .
We drove down , as per the plan given suggested by Mr Sha we had to stay at Sarchu ,but then that was supposed to be on day 2 , but due to the traffic jam at Rohtang we were only able to reach Keylong on Day 2. So we thought of going further to reach Pang . But it just turned out to be not a very good decision for some of our health condition.
We saw a lot of decent tents at Sarchu , but to stick to our decision and we went on from Sarchu after having Omlette .
It was again time to climb up , even our kadavaavar ( endy ) started showing signs of altitude sickness . Black smoke was coming out of the exhaust and those inclinations that our kadavaavar ( Endy ) used to take in 3rd hear or 2nd , now we had to down to 1st gear . One of my friends was driving and we took a break before Lachungla . I cannot miss mentioning the Gata Loops that we drove before reaching lachungla . Gata loops and its pics have a lot of importance in our decision to head for this trip .Those places which we had only seen in pics , well we were actually travelling through them , a feeling which is pretty hard to express in words .We were getting high on those feelings .
We stopped to get ourselves acclamitised with the height and climate . I got out and just after a minute or two , I felt very cold and dizzy and so wore a sweater and jacket and jumped to the driver's seat .We drove up to Lachung la and headed to Pang . The route was getting more and more beautiful on either side of the road / path , as more and more beautiful pics were getting caught in the camera , I was just realizing that the road is getting bumpy. I was trying to get very
much involved in driving and enjoy the scenic beauty to fight back the altitude Sickness .I feel that best time to go to Leh will be in peak summer , the clean mountains revealed its true colour and contour . Winter and Glaciers chisel these mountain over years to get them these nice contours .
The purple couloured mountains , those which looked like sand dune and with those golden colour , Wow!! that was our expression till pang .
Even though the pics are good , It can never match the actual sight at these places !

[rejoycjohn]

sbraj
In the picture below, is that the road which is seen on the right side? No stoppers on the side?

Well except for places near Leh and Manali there wasnt any place / road where we saw side stoppers!!.In fact at times we used to feel that the defintion of road is more like an area made through the side of a mountain where vehicle should try and move !!

More pics - till Pang though

[Majic]

Hey Rejoy, i think the wait was worth it , nice pictures and would be looking forward to more of the photos which are to come in soon.

[Lalvaz]

Amazing photos Rejoy. You seem to have had a blast. Look forward to hearing more about your travels.

[srikanthpotluri]

Amazing pictures dude! what camera are you using?

keep it coming!!!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by srikanthpotluri

Amazing pictures dude! what camera are you using?

keep it coming!!!

You asked my question ! Terrific snaps ! Really very nice.

[sbraj]

Great pics.

Appears as though whichever way you look, there is a photo-shoot opportunity. Striking scenery all around.

[rejoycjohn]

Majic Hey Rejoy, i think the wait was worth it , nice pictures and would be looking forward to more of the photos which are to come in soon.

Danke Magic , I shall be uploading the rest from Monday as I wont be available on weekends :-)..maaf karo

srikanthpotluri Amazing pictures dude! what camera are you using?
keep it coming!!!
Lalvaz Amazing photos Rejoy. You seem to have had a blast. Look forward to hearing more about your travels.

@ Srikanthpotluri , thanks dood.. We had Canon S5 IS . Camera as well the scenery complimented for what you see here :-)
@ Lalvaz , definitely we had fun . When I browse through these pics in my lap , i just get reminded about the climate over there , the lack of oxygen , the way we used to gasp even after a small walk !!! Everything just comes to me scene by scene .

For any other trip one goes to , its said that normal scenary pics wont be seen again and again and they just be lyin somewhere in the corner . But may be due to the experience one goes through / due to the extreme beauty of the himalayaas one never gets bored . And when I say experience , I mean it in every way , for all those difficulties that we had to face , those bumpy rides , those altitude sickness everything !
Hope I had a different word to express

sbraj Great pics.

Appears as though whichever way you look, there is a photo-shoot opportunity. Striking scenery all around

.

thanks Sbraj , good to hear that you guys enjoying the pics

In fact most of the time I was behind the wheels so the appreciation goes majorly to my friends who did catch these sceneries without fail

[SDP]

Hi, great going Rejoy!! Leh is definitely a dream destination for a lot of people including me. The pics and the narration is amazing. Keep it flowing.

the advance was 65K , and daily rent was 4K .

I have always deliberated whether it makes sense to buy a 4x4 vehicle as a normal car. In fact a few months back I was seriously considering buying a Safari. Sure a 4x4 can go where nothing else would venture, but how many days in a year - or for that matter in a lifetime - does one really venture out to such places? In that case, I was thinking that possibly renting (without a driver) makes more sense financially. But with the numbers you are quoting, the rent for a 15 day trip would weaken this 'making financial sense' argument. What do you guys think? How about buy second-hand and then dispose off once the need is met?

BTW .. how were the other options priced? (Innova, CRV etc)