Friday, July 20, 2012

A small ride to Leh - Ladhak

4 riders – 4800kms – The journey to heaven on earth.



It’s the D day..!!  the day of our life time journey begins in few hours, all were pretty excited for the mega ride, yes Its Ride to Mountains LEH – LADAK, after years of dreams and months of planning its time for execution. Everyone was very eagerly waiting for the time to tick so that we can board our bus to the journey of dreams.

Plan is, myself(Chetan), Puneeth and Shushruth, travel from Bangalore to pune, where Avinash will join and we board the train to Jammu from Pune.
On 22nd june Friday night at 9 we boarded bus from Bangalore to pune.

Pune : 24th June 2012

Today was one of the beautiful days.... It’s drizzling outside, weather is cool, humid.... Thanks to Rakshith for dropping us to railway station in his car. He left dropping us there back home. Shivaprasad and Ashwath Prabhu, Avi friends were with us to wish us happy journey. Standing outside the station with all luggage pile up, Puneeth and Avi went inside the station to verify about the train and tickets which were still in waiting list(1,2,3,4 position in WL). We went to platform and saw our train already standing in platform 1. We ran towards 2AC bogey and searched for our names, we were mentioned as ABSENT!!!. Enquired with the station master if we have any chance of getting tickets confirmed and he told not possible as the chart is already prepared and confirmed. That moment we realized that the Jhelum Express is one of the busiest trains in the country. The time was nearing us when the hope-full turned hope-less!. Thinking to go in general compartment, oops to cover 40hours journey in general compartment would be really a bad idea ! We were suggested with an idea of starting travel in general compartment and later check with the TC if any seats are available in sleeper or higher categories. Later, once saw the amount of luggage we had. Decision was not to accept this suggestion but to think of something else. After getting dejected not getting seats confirmed :-( thought of plan B to Z which included traveling in buses, flight(fare was 3 times more than 2AC train fares :-o), taxi and etc... Confused and finally booked one more ticket on the same keeping faith in God.... And lastly  very happy to see the seats are confirmed with help of some friends in railways ;) Its  2 AC 37,38,39,40.



Day 1 Jammu, 26th June

Reached Jammu safely, comfortably Enjoyed very much. Saw so many stations like chambal, Agra, Mathura and Delhi  which we were crossing for first time. Food was pretty good, met the almost expectations of a metropolitan corporate!!! Kudos to Indian Railway for giving so many people jobs... People clean both inside and outside train when stopped... Amazing to see so many people work with dedication.
 Somehow managed to convince where we need to go with the taxi driver and landed in GATI Jammu. Pretty co-operative like before. One of the bikes had some minor damages on its cosmetic part and I had my front tyre flattened, fixed up quickly and we are ready to roll.
Not able to withstand the heat at Jammu  added to that the thick riding gear what we were wearing , made people to stare at us thinking "kyon ye pagal log , ithini garmi par ithana jackets pehana hai"  The heat which we are facing after 40 hours of journey in controlled envt  was horrible to withstand .!!! both us and bikes were very hungry!!! :-P filled bikes with full tank petrol and entered a Punjabi dhaba.... Authentic taste  of punjabi thali , enjoyed to the heart....

Started the journey and after  20 kms when Shushruth was down coz of the temperature!!! Later even puneeth was feeling a little out of energy ,gave a pretty big stop in the next petrol bunk and  after recovering started once again with a vision to reach atleast anathnag... I told it was our vision.....!!! ;-) roads were good but the scenery was the best if my life (still more, better to come....I know!!!) Enjoyed the curves road of the valley.

 Some agitation were present on the way coz of Amarnath yatra which happens every year at this time. We were checked by the police twice or thrice but when we told our plans, they were convinced that we are not going to create any problems and were allowed to ride further....!!! Got an opportunity to talk to real heroes who fights for country....!!! 

So many military barracks, hoardings which shows the patriotism that should be present in an army personnel (ofcourse every Indian should have possess these qualities) saw those old phirangis, tanks, missile launchers(WOW)....
Came across the Jawahar tunnel, which is 2 and half kms and I saw tunnel for the first time, was fun riding inside the Tunnel.
Reached panitop it was getting dusk, we were having talks on where to stay tonight, favorites were Ananthnag or any place before it...!!! It would be very late if we have to reach srinagar and therefore planned to have dinner in Ramban...A small town on the way to Srinagar, Later decided to stay here itself which is 130 kms away from srinagar to avoid night ride and take rest. :-) 

Could not cover much just  173kms at the end of the day. In hotel met 4 bulleters from Rajasthan surprisingly one guy by name santosh was from Karnataka, he explained few road conditions in leh region. ended the day at 11 30pm, hitting bed dreaming about next day :)


Day 2: Ramban to Srinagar June 27th


Started early in the morning as decided, Dawn looks so beautiful in these part of India, I was awestruck looking at the rivers which flow in the Valleys surrounding with lush green, lots of coniferous trees, Chenab river which flows in the valley had little water,it is the starting of  monsoon..!!


 Loved the corners from Ramban to ananthnag, roads are pretty good some potholes and bad patches here and there, We already had got news of the curfew that was declared in Srinagar due to some agitation happened the last day,it was said that a mosque was on fire so some agitation. Took many photography stops and came across few security check-posts providing security for the very famous yearly Amarnatha yathra tourists,

Welcome to paradise on earth : Kashmir valley

Another photo break

Came across breath taking views of the beautiful valley lush green and at a distant we can see the snowcapped mountains.
The bridge on the way to srinagar

Titanic view point

First view of Snow capped mountains

Reached Srinagar by 12 pm and did some inquiry about Gulmarg and Sonamarg, everyone there said Gulmarg was not a worth visiting, so we decided to drop Gulmarg, Now the confusion in where to stay as it was all band in srinagar, thanks to that man who met us near the entrance of Srinagar....!!! He told us about the boat house which made Me and Shishu curious about and decided to stay in boat house. He quoted 1500 per room which is the cheapest of all kind of room, and pretty good, Never mind we have come to enjoy holidays

Our boat house.

Discussed about what we can do in Srinagar with the boat house owner and he offered a package which included all the local sightseeing incising Dal lake and other floating garden, market etc. it was 3 30 by the time we had lunch and decided to dump lugages at boat house and went to look around.
 We visited Shankar mutt which is one of 3 famous Shiva temple which were erected by shankaracharya himself who went walking from his birth place kaladi to Amarnath....!!!


 From the top Srinagar looks so picturesque, the city is so well designed that the river flows everywhere inside the city.

The Floating market  view from temple.

Then we went to mughal gardens(i can say it is a no compare to our Bengaluru's Lalbagh), clicked photos of flowers, birds, candid photography of people around ,believe me girls of that locality look very pretty ;)

 saw sunset at Dal lake, many shikara’s were floating on the lake an amazing view of floating market and the plain water of Dal lake and colored fountains.  



Shikara at Dal lake
Sunset at Dal Lake

Did  some shopping of famous kashmiri silk sarees, sweaters at Silk emporium,
and day 2 concludes with dinner at boat house.

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