Leh Trip Log:

Day 01: 29th-May -2008 Jammu – Pathankot [Broken Bridge]
Day 02: 30th-May -2008 Pathankot – Manali
Day 03: 01st-June-2008 Manai
Day 04: 02nd-June-2008 Manali – Keylong [bike oil leak]
Day 05: 03rd-June-2008 Keylong – Sarchu [AMS]
Day 06: 04th-June-2008 Sarchu – Leh
Day 07: 05th-June-2008 Leh
Day 08: 06th-June-2008 Khardungla
Day 09: 07th-June-2008 Pangong Tso
Day 10: 08th-June-2008 Leh-Kargil
Day 11: 09th-June-2008 Kargil-Srinagar
Day 12: 10th-June-2008 Srinagar – Pathankot [Rains + water crossings]
Day 13: 11th-June-2008 Pathankot – Chandigarh
Day 14: 12th-June-2008 Chandigarh
Day 15: 13th-June-2008 Chandigarh – Delhi
Day 16: 14th-June-2008 Delhi – Noida

29th-May -2008 Jammu – Pathankot [Broken Bridge]

After reaching Amritsar we took a cab to Jammu in order to reach fast. With things deteriorating in Srinagar due to the Amarnath Shrine Land issue, our plans of taking the Srinagar route seemed to go down the drain. The only alternate was to do it via Manali.
After reaching Jammu around 01:00PM we took bath and lunch and decided to leave for Pathankot. My CBZ had some starting issue. It was nothing but some minor issue. I noticed that my bike’s leg gaurd had some wear and tear. It was that Sravanth’s bike had come off the stand and fallen on my bike. When the truck guys put it back in position, they didn’t notice that our leg gaurds were touching. And with jerks and all the leg gaurds had worn out each other.

We left for Pathankot around 03:00 PM and after withdrawing cash etc.. I think we left Jammu around 3:45- 4:00PM.

Sravanth was quick to pace out. We were ripping on the Jammu Pathankot road. I decided to stop for some water and then Hrishi noticed that his bungie came off. Luckily we had stopped for fuel else things could have gone bad for us.

After reaching Pathankot we wanted to cross it and ride one hour before stopping. But later on we came to know through someone that the bridge that we were going to take had collapsed. And since Hrishi didn’t want to ride at night, we decided to halt at Pathankot.

Day 02: 30th-May -2008 Pathankot – Manali

The fun ride. Pathank to Manali was fun ride. Good roads, low traffic and best of all hills. I made quite a few videos on the move. We also stopped at a river. It was off route but it was fun. Stopped and took some pics before we marched ahead.
The argument- I was feeling hungry after riding so much .. but Hrishi wanted to skip lunch. It was around 5:00PM and I started feeling hungry. I didn’t realise that when Hrishi said no riding in the dark he meant no riding 1 hour before it goes dark. For me dark would mean at least when you need to switch your lights on – sunset time at min. But for Hrishi it started even when sun was visible ahead. This roughed up things between us which later came up when we were looking for a Hotel. We stopped at Himachal tourism guest house, though the place had booking for the next day – which meant moving to a different hotel, Hrishi was adament about staying there despite himself making agree on the fact that they would not stay at anyplace which required changing rooms in the morning. I didn’t ask much, Hrishi had either an ego issue or he was dead tired.

Day 03: 01st-June-2008 Manali

Since we had to change the room, we spent half the next day shifting. Sravanth couldn’t do rafting and I could do para gliding which I wanted to. We did some shopping though.

Day 04: 02nd-June-2008 Manali – Keylong [bike oil leak]

Keylong and our first pass “Rohtang”. Hrishi and Sravanth took Dimox, high altitude sickness medicine. Doctors whom I had asked said it wasn’t required so I didn’t take it. We packed break fast from the resort and left for Keylong early morning around 6:00AM. Again me and Sravanth were quick to reach up. Taking pics and making videos on the way. Rohtang was a good place. I had taken only two bread slices and in the mean time Hrishi and Sravanth ate the whole pack :(

The clouds were coming up and so we decided to move. If the clouds would come on the road then riding would be an issue. 2Kms from there we were riding down. There was a group of Israeli cyclists. They were riding like hell.. one of them overtook Hrishi on the way down.

The army convoy. I had seen convoys before, but convoys here were huge. 10 trucks – no, 20 – no, 30 – no.. these seemed like 50 (donno if that was the case). We were stopped by the MP (Military Police) to let the trucks pass first. After they crossed, we started. We had to overtake a whole 50 of those. I let Hrishi and Sravanth pass. Halfway through the convoy I saw Hrishi standing. His footpeg had come off. Again the trucks over took us. We started to ride and over take them. Then we saw Sravanth standing and taking pics. Now Again we had overtake them. THis was getting irritating. With virtually no road, the trucks were

To be continued…