[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Amit, brilliant TLog. Kudos to your Mum in law for taking up such a great cause. To the entire Lakshya Foundation- Great job. This is a great cause you people have taken up.

The pics are great and the narration is actually very crispy. Great journey.
The museam is amazing. The snap which is dedicated to the Armed Forces literally brings goose bumps.

Now thats it! After reading all the logs to Leh, I am going there for sure.

Thanks Swanand. I would pass on the compliments to MIL.

Way to go. You need to go there atleast once though once is never enough.

Next Tapri meet of Pune BHPians at Pangong Lake

[Swanand Inamdar]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

Next Tapri meet of Pune BHPians at Pangong Lake

Hehehe, Now that is an offer no Pune BHPians will refuse!
Lets actually plan one trip in August or thereabouts.

[nanduchitnis]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

Next Tapri meet of Pune BHPians at Pangong Lake

What an IDEA !!!

[Fauji]

Hi Amit,

Looking at the pics, it must be really tough to drive through the Manali - Leh route aftermath of rains. Right?

Nice to see you also visited the Army Museaum which is possibly the best in the country - in fact shame that Delhi does not have one - which many miss out.

We did the trip just before the floods hit the region and it was a trip of life time. Could not do Nubra as we were not feeling well. An excuse to go again

[dre@ms]

Truly inspirational. Your trip is adventurous and made us patriotic. Compliments to your MIL. Salute to our Soldiers.

Good pics too.

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by Fauji

Hi Amit,

Looking at the pics, it must be really tough to drive through the Manali - Leh route aftermath of rains. Right?

Nice to see you also visited the Army Museaum which is possibly the best in the country - in fact shame that Delhi does not have one - which many miss out.

This was my first time to Leh. So cannot really comment if the roads were better before the rains. But Milecruncher did mention earlier that the roads are pretty bad. During our trip it must have been slightly worse because of the rains.

Hall of Fame Museum is one place that should not be missed by any person going to Leh. By the way you still a Fauji or ex-Fauji now ?

I was going through your posts as well. The snaps from the airplane are really spectacular.

Originally Posted by dre@ms

Truly inspirational. Your trip is adventurous and made us patriotic. Compliments to your MIL. Salute to our Soldiers.

Good pics too.

Thank you dre@ms . I would pass on the compliments to MIL.

You are right visiting the regiments, Hall of Fame museum, Kargil Memorial is really inspiring.

[Fauji]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

This was my first time to Leh. So cannot really comment if the roads were better before the rains. But Milecruncher did mention earlier that the roads are pretty bad. During our trip it must have been slightly worse because of the rains.

Hall of Fame Museum is one place that should not be missed by any person going to Leh. By the way you still a Fauji or ex-Fauji now ?

I was going through your posts as well. The snaps from the airplane are really spectacular.

Thanks Amit. I am ex-fauji. The roads when we went in July - just before floods - were ok except before Rohtang which i understand is a land slide prone area and we had to stop for an hour due to land slide. Apart from this stretch, the road was decent except for small patches whereever there were streams. These guys from Border roads org are doing amazing job in keeping this link functional.

[amitwlele]

Day 9 - Leh to Kargil

Today was the day when we were going to leave Leh and start our return journey to Mumbai via Srinagar. It was sad that the stay was coming to an end.

On this leg enroute we paid our respects at Pather Sahib Gurudwara, saw the mysterious Magnetic Hill and viewed moon on the earth.

Beautiful scene and road leading to Pather Sahib





Pather Sahib Gurudwara





Mool Mantra



The Gurudwara was also affected by the flood waters. So they had to dismantle the gold dome to protect it.







Close to Pather Sahib Gurudwara is the Magnetic Hill. The driver did the normal routine of removing his leg from the accelerator, kept the car in neutral and showed us how the vehicle moved uphill. This is not a unique phenomenon. There are numerous such Magnetic Hills around the world. A quick google search would enable you to understand the phenomenon.

Road to Magnetic Hill





On the way we also saw the Triveni Sangam



From here we started making our descent. Check out the winding roads and the trucks on it.





Enroute we stopped for a brief while to view the crater like formations which is being marketed as Moonland Beauty





I found the Leh - Kargil stretch to be very dusty and not as beautiful as the Manali - Leh road.







As we were approaching Kargil we could see some greenery with the town in the distance.





We reached our hotel at around 6 PM in the evening. Kargil was also the last point till which we were going to have our Innova's. The Leh drivers were not comfortably in taking their vehicles till Srinagar because of security fears and it being a relatively unknown area for them. So we were going to make the journey from Kargil to Srinagar the next day in Qualis which had already reached the hotel from Srinagar. We quickly shifted our luggage into the Qualis as we planned to make a early departure from Kargil the next day.

Day 10 of the journey from Kargil to Srinagar via Drass would be covered in the next post.

[nanduchitnis]

Let me say there are some pics which are terrific. Post # 38.

Waiting for Leh -Drass report.

[fazalaliadil]

Oh! I just love the 'MOOL MANTRA', makes one realize so much.

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Oh! I just love the 'MOOL MANTRA', makes one realize so much.

Yes. It is so soothing and reciting it brings inner peace.

I had first heard this in the movie Rang De Basanti. But the full meaning of it was clear after visiting Pather Sahib.

[amitwlele]

Day 10: Kargil - Drass - Srinagar

Day 10 was going to be a long day on the road from Kargil to Srinagar. Enroute we also had a planned stop at Kargil Memorial.

Some snaps just after leaving Kargil town. On this route we encountered a number of Army convoys.







We reached the War memorial by 11 AM.





We were given a very informative and inspiring account of the war. Some snaps of the Vijay Stambh









Captain Manoj Pandey Operation Vijay Gallery









There is really a needto Stop, Pause and Reflect.





These were the mountain tops where the battle was fought.





Pictorial representation of the points



We left Drass in the afternoon and proceeded towards Srinagar after taking a lunch stop. In between i think before Sonmarg we had to wait for an hour as a Army convoy was expected from the opposite direction and they were not allowing any vehicles to go in the direction of Srinagar.

What better way to spend time then to play cards





We reached Srinagar at about 9 PM and headed straight to the house boats.

One more first for me - Stay in a houseboat.

The last day of the journey to be covered in the next post.

[amitwlele]

I forgot to cover one point during the initial posts. The Border Roads organization which maintains the roads do a tremendous job and should be acknowledged here. The task on their hand is not easy what with constant landslides and heavy traffic. But during our entire journey we had to stop only once because of landslide and at that time as well the blockage was cleared quickly.

Also during the entire journey we got to read some good road signs. Some samples below, while i stil try to recollect more

" If you love your wife divorce speed"

" This is a Highway and not a Runway"

Below was written at one of the Army Camps.

"Difficult is routine. Its only the impossible that takes more time"

[parsh]

Kudos to BRO. They are indeed doing a Thankless job. I remember the Sikkim and Rajasthan borders and whatever difficult terrain it may be they seem to make their job and outcome pretty high above any standards set. Just wish the inner road builders and authorities take some learning from them instead of just filling their bellys. Those are some pretty good anecdotes you caught. All the way superb log till now.

[ANUJ GEORGE]

amitwlele,
That was a unique trip and incredible writing. I wish, I could do that trip myself. Congratuations, and please post the remaining part of your trip.

If you do not mind can you share some more information about planning the stay at Pangong? Did you approached any travel agents to do the booking and sort?

And special appreciations for your Mother (In Law) for her noble efforts.