Tuesday, August 29, 2006

[Day 13 14 15 16] Leh - Sarchu - Manali - Delhi

Trip Log at http://jayansr.blogspot.com/2006/08/himalayan-motorcycle-expedition-2006.html
This was our return trip back to Delhi, i.e. we covered around 250kmts in a day average. but that 250kmts on the mountains take easily 8 to 9hrs of riding. First day we rode from Leh to Sarchu, ended up riding at night to Baralacha La. because of excess photo stops.

Sarchu is in Himachal Pradesh, but looks more like Ladhaki landscape, very windy at night and cold.

Bye Bye Leh! (but where is the zen?.. maybe next year I will find it :-) )

Near Sarchu

Next day ride was Sarchu Manali, The roads were worse in this part becuase of the recent rains in Himachal. That was a back breaking ride, Sojish had a small toss from the bike, nothing serious just a small on on the bad road.

Gatta loops!

More Plains all washed away

Reaching manali at 6pm and checked in Hotel Beas. me being a regular visitor we were give a good double room on a discounted rate :-) We could have spent a day in manali, but somehow we did not and decide to ride to Chandigarh the next day. That ride is a long one with around 250kmts of mountains and then 100kmts of plains, We could start only by around 12.00 pm because of some wiring problems with GK's bike. Reached Chandigarh by 11:30pm..

Green Manali
Day 16 was the last day of our trip, I was sad :-( I woke up early morning at around 6am and I left the hotel to meet some of my old buddies in Chd. GK and Sojish were still sleeping. I was back to hotel by 8 am and they were still sleeping. I decided to ride and reach Delhi before the afternoon heat. Reached Delhi by 12:00 Went to my friend's house at Karwaria Saria. chit chat there and took rest. GK and Sojish reached Delhi by around 6pm.

Day 17 was also part of the trip but not ride.. We rode to Okhla to ship our bikes to Bangalore. That was easier that we imagined and got the things done by 12.00pm. We were back in the Hotel slept off and next morning took a flight to Bangalore.....

BTW I got my bike in Bangalore yesterday, I took it to the service station directly to get it washed and fix the loose nuts :-)

Bike's condition after the Ride: Great... :-) engine is as crisp as when I started the ride.
Damages
During Ride : NONE
Transportation : broke the Tail Lamp and one indicator
Puncture: 2 times rear, one nail and another a screw.
Things TODO
Change Chain/Sprocket
Change Indicator and Tail Lamp.
Change Oil
Change Rear Brake Shoe.

Trip log at jayansr.blogspot.com

Some more pics at jsrleh2006.fotopic.net

[Day 10 11 12] Leh - Pangong Tso - Leh

Initially we were thinking of making it to Pangong Tso and leave to Sarchu the next day from Pangong Tso, but because of the unavailablity of fuel we had to ride back to Leh and ended up staying a night in Leh.
Leh Pangong Tso ride was cool, crossing the mighty Chang La was fun, the ascend Chang La is steep and long. Chang La is very beautiful always snowed, and lots of nala's to cross on the way. BTW there in one big nalla to cross, man that was dangerous, I crossed it half way got stuck and pushed the bike out and took a different route.
We rode ahead of thantuk to Spangmik a very small village and camped there at night, Sojish's tent and our sleeping bags were useful there :-)
Next day afternoon again rode back to Leh.

Enroute Pangong Tso (a narrow valley.. very windy)
Sheep!
Mighty Pangong Tso
Pangong
Chang La
Camp at Spangmik
Jeep tracks to Spangmik

[Day 7 8 9] Leh - Nubra - Leh

Day 7 was a rest day in Leh, didnt do much just hiked around Leh, visited Shanti Stupa. Evening was good we had dinner in a good hotel had Tibtian food and some beer.

Shanti Stupa
Leh Palace
Leh Town


Day 8 was destination Nubra Valley, started off from Leh at 9am, climbed the freezing Ktop to recah Nubra, checked in a hotel in Sumur (the only hotel in Sumur) Places to visit in Nubra Valley is the Hot Spring (a very small one), the Hunder desert and the bactrian camels.

Hunder Desert

Bactrian Camel

Thursday, August 24, 2006

[Day 4 5 6] Srinagar Kargil Leh

Day 4 was a rest in Srinagar at Dal Lake.. lots of Kasmiri Tea, Kashmiri Rotis butter and honey.. We were chilling out in the House Boat for the Day 4 first half, in the afternoon we decided to ride to Gulmarg, Gulmarg was a nice little rain ride.. and by the evening we were back in the House Boat, had dinner with Max and Torson.. and slept off early. [no beer in Srinagar, it was difficult to find]

Some photos of Srinagar Dal Lake and Gulmargh...
Dal Lake view from the House Boat..
Shikara!
Kashmiri Roti/Tea/Fried eggs and butter ... Yummy!!!
Max and Torson chilling out on the House Boat...
Luxurious House boat :-) but cheap.. Rs300/per person with food..
Checking and cleaning the AirFilter before the real ride Srinagar - Kargil - Leh..
First view of the snow capped mountains!
ZojiLa... greens fading away.. and grey and brown mountains
ZojiLa
ZojiLa

Reacing Drass

Finally We were very happy to see the Welcome to Leh board!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

[Day 2, 3] Ludhiyana - Udhampur - Srinagar

Day 2 and 3 we were taking in easy, since GK was running a new cylinder and pistons.. GK was running-in the bike, and myself and Sojish was crusing at 60 - 70Kph.. and we took enough breaks so that the new bull could rest and chill out!!!Breakfast stop...
Waiting for GK to catch up!

"Guys take it easy on the muddy water"
First view of the mountains after Pthankot. Water logged because of the rains the last day, we were really really lucky, because as we reached the rains stopped..

We hit the mountains.. from here on it is all mountains for the next 12days :-) untill we reach chandigarh.
Misty mountains, enroute Srinagar...

Well almost there a caught another flat here..

Met Torson and Max on the way.. Torson caught a flat, fixing it..

Some local chaps surrounded the bikes and in the crowd we managed to lose the wheel nut :(
Where is the Wheel Nut?? Anyways there is lot of grass, so the bike can run without it :-D

First View of Kashmir Valley.. We spend some time there, and we met Max and Torsion again then decided to ride to Srinagar together..

From Left JSR, Sojish, GK, Max, Torson

After and hr from here we reached Srinagar and got a House Boat at Dal lake, before that there was some drama in Srinagar with the cops.. some misunderstanding.. but we were all fine got into a good house boat negiotiated for Rs900 for 3 of us for a day. and 900 for max and torsion with breakfast and dinner.. not bad :)

[Day 1. Delhi - Ludhiyana] Trip Log

There are around 1000+ snaps, most of them good and some awesome.. :) Have to reduce the size of the photographs before I upload it.. BTW here are some of the snaps.
[Day 1] Delhi, All set to go, packing luggage
Almost out of the Delhi's maddning traffic..



At a Dhaba! roti/paneer burji/ dal makhni :-)

GK's bike siezed...
"You blew the engine of your BullBull man... What now?? "

This happened just 30kmts from Ambala.. GK siezed his engine.. It was claterring like hell. Then we rode to Ambala and got the cylinder replaced in just maybe 30mins.. those guys are really fast.. Was it not a Bull then GK's trip would have ended there.

Fixing the Bull is easy :-)

After fixing GK's bike we rode to Ludhiyana (according to plan we had to reach Pthankot by evening) We ended up riding till 11:30pm, as I caught a flat just before Ludhiyana and that too took around 1hr to fix it in night. Fixing the flat took some time as we had to remove the luggage and again reloading the luggage..
That was a real tiring day!

Forunately we got a nice (very nice) hotel at Ludhiyana (Le Classic) Excellent service, food rooms .. and cost us 1.2K for 3 members, not bad for a centrally Airconditioned good hotel..

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

22 August ( day 18)

JSR: [18:10] Back in Bangalore :) after one hell of a trip! catching up with e-mails and other pending things.. and sorting/uploading pictures of the trip..