Kahani khatam hai YA Shuruvaat hone ko hai ....

Well am not good a writer but than again ,who cares ....u gonna criticise anyway :P.

wo khte hai na
"Sawaar ho jaaye jab junoon sar par
ki kuch paanaa hai
reh jaayega phir kya duniyaa mein
jo haath nahi aanaa hai"

Fun of this quanta of life has come to an end. letz see what next quanta has for us. hadd ho gyi kya "quanta quanta" ...huh.

Leh the most amazing place have ever seen, adding flavour of joy to it, best pals.Of Course some junks were missed a lot as always, who could not make it.And thats one more reason of this post is to make them more jealous.

The views were awesome, the Pangong lake, all multicoloured Himalayas range, the snow, the highest passes of the world,Magnetic hills, Indus valley, and infinite series of incredible unnamed spots make you say "whoa" "Ooh My God!!!" u know better :)

The travel was mind blowing,Delhi to Manali very comfort volvo with screen at every seat the eye catcher.Than comes our weedy driver Neetu(may be Chintu for M.Y) who made rally from Manali to Leh,adding adventure to the trip was a situation where fuel was about to be over , where only cross fingers helped, Than Dawa the chatterbox. Finally over-conscious Tashi who would stop for even bicycle to cross.

The stay @Rafica hotel , MY chose MP as roomie , investigation is still going on why they wanted to be togather. Manish P takia kalam “abe tum to champ ho be ”, as usual a different for each trip remember “come-on Lalla”. Manish Y paneer butter masala for each meal pissing MP off. Amit the “Cap Changer” abe kitni cap hai be iske pass ,for each kind of lighting he has one. Still the left ones were very useful for us.aur mere bare me to sabko pata hi hai I am at observation mode. “maine to kahna hi chod diya hai” :P :P

May be next time we all be togather ,pulling each others' Legs

Love You guys

Julley Leh!

Early morning tomorrow we go back to the proverbial "mundane" lives. Has this been the trip of our lives? For me, this has been the most unforgettable experience. We have clicked  around 1800 photos on this trip. But we know, what are eyes have seen, captured, the digicams cannot. Leh definitely is one of the most beautiful places of the world, if you get a chance you should definitely visit the place. At diffirent times, this seemed a tough journey. I guess its nature's way of saying "you have to struggle enough to see such beauty". But I have to say we have been lucky, the weather has been not just kind throughout, but also perfect to visit this wonderful part of India.
Julley Leh! Will surely come back again :)

Today: The highest Motorable Pass in the world!

KhardungLa Pass:

Back from one of the most beautiful places on earth!

The Pangyong Tso:

Phunsuk Wangadu's Place Tomo!

Done by now: Sangam, Magnetic Hill, Hall of Fame, Shanti Stupa. Leh is definitly one of the most beautiful places!

It was tough, grusome and it was Amazing!!

We left Keylong an hour late from the plan in morning at 7:15. We had to travel around 360 kms today to reach Leh by evening, something which looked unlikely at different times during day. From keylong the journey was all downhill into the valley of Dercha. Well, there are two parts of travel through mountains, one is you travel uphill and then you have to travel downhill and that sequence repeats till you reach your destination. We must have gone though this uphill-downhill sequence four times since we started our journey from Manali. Four does not seem a like a large number, but these were spread over 473 kms!!

The journey to Dercha was nice. The sun was out, but we were traveling to the cold side of the mountains(the side of mountain were sunlights dont fall), so it was a bit chilly. The roads were mostly good, but on these mountains the good roads are mostly like teasers, you learn prettty soon they wont last too long, bumps are going to be just round the corner. Dercha is picture-perfect valley, like the ones we used to draw in our childhood, a river running through triangle shaped mountain, houses with triangle shaped roofs beside the river, a farm near the houses. :) :) This picturesque valley also had a smal bridge over the river. ;) So we had aloo parathas again for breakfast, and dint take disel for the vehicel something we wud regret later in the day. Once were done were off to Sarchu.

The drive to Sarchu can be divided into two parts. The first part is through the Switzerland-like-mountains. The sun was out in its full intensity and the view was beautiful, absolutely breathing-taking. Once the drive through the mountains was through, we were onto the plains, the second part. The plains are flanked by mountains on both sides. The view is majastic, much like the view in "khwabon ke parinde" song from ZNMD, where the horses running run beside their open-roof car! Well we dint have the open roof car or the horse running beside us, the view was wonderful none the less. We reached sarchu, at around 11:30, the HP-JK border. Our next stop was going to be Pang, which seemed to take forever to reach.

(To be continued..)

Amazing Travel in Pics

The journey till Keylong, in Pics

..On the way to Manali

We arrive at manali!

Nice sunshine. Mast view outside our room!

Near Sundernagar at 5 in the morning

step up

relieved to get a fundu bus to manali..wid d bus speeding at its full throttle on a busy highway..we all thudded in our place..wid d bus flying away wid d passing of each second, i thought d best way to keep d tempo high was to watch step up..there is another reason too..dis is much liked by sumone special n what else u want..d dancing steps reminded tht sumone,sumwhere too is passionate abt dancing...
so dis show ws dedicated to d passionate dancing souls...time to get busy on sum punjabi tracks...oye chak de phatte..

Off to Manali

The perfect day in delhi.. Half an hour late at 6:30, thats when the Rajdhani left us at nizamuddin. An absolute relief to see some sun after so long. That also meant that weather had cleared  up after the cloud burst in delhi yesterday. Today it was all clear and warm in delhi.

Also today we were joined by Anu on the trip. So now we are a quatret, all geared up, excited!

We went straight from the station to his house...then messed up a bit his well arranged house (sorry dude, then we know we are always welcome.) But seriously dude, u r leaving my dream. Such a big house, well arranged, big flat sreen tv...all to urself!! love to trade places. But u wudn't, wud u??

Ok we ticked off some stuff shopping-for-the-tour list.. n some stuff still remains..hmmm..we will see at Manali now.
Metro travel was nice again.. its cool. Isn't it?? Lets see how they do it in bangalore.

Now travelling in the volvo to manali, me watching "step up" and anurag is watching "murder 2".. dont know what the two manish are watching.. restricted stuff?? Newys, cool bus.. n as MY wants me to say it.. "Thanks" :P

Train journey ends!!

Train journey was nice..as the places,rivers,and attire of d old civilisations we were passing by ..i was reviving the old gold memories..actually ,i believe train journeys give u enough time to gel- well with ur past life..
and wid the end of d train journey..n reaching delhi , i can only say.."Abhi toh dekhi hai mutthee bhar Jameen, saara aasma abhi baaki hai''..hope that coming days will help in fulfilling our Great adventurous dreamz of all time...
time for breakfast at Anurag's place..he is a master Chef!!

ATM Info

Yes, since a few years there are atm's available in Leh. So you don't need to carry too much cash in your pocket.
Otherwise the atm's are not always working, and some times you need to wait about one hour in a line. So bring some cash, too!

what actually it says, we carry or we not carry.

Highlight of Day 1: Rabdi at Bhopal station

Day 1 was ...well, like I expected, a breather before the tougher journeys ahead. Hopefully luck would be on our side as we move ahead. Tomo will be nostalgia time all over again at delhi. We have some shopping-for-the-tour to be done. And then some nice delhi food again :) .
Bbye. Gn.

life in train

mann kuch thakaa sa hai..masti ka sailaab toh hai par behka sa hai..aane wale samay ke liye jagruk hai par jhunjhlahat si hai..saayed koi khayalon mein reh reh ke aa jata hai..apni dheemii meethii awaaz mein kuch gunguna jata hai..jab tak yeh ehsaas rehta hai..mann khil uthta hai..par ehsas dhundhalate hi phir soch mein pad jata hai..saayed, man thakaa sa hai...

Day 1: We are taking the weather with us

Ever since I got up in the morning, view outside the window has remained much the same - all greenery outsde, cloudy sky with the promise of rain around. Much like the gloomy bangalore weather. We hardly get to see sun in bangalore these days. Luckily or unluckily (i m not sure) we haven't seen much rain though on the way... It seems like we just have enough speed to stay of ahead of rains at all the places. Speaking of speed, the train seems to going at a snarling pace.. These rajdhanis are supposed to be fast. right?? The talk between both the manish has been that how we are sure to miss the right time at delhi station. Manish P insists though that he "knows" we will be on time. Lets see...

Expected "highs and lows" of the trip

[Place.               Height/Altidude             Distance from manali]
Manali          (1950 m or 6398 ft)    
Palchan                                                   10kms
Kothi                 (2530 mts 8300 ft)         15kms
Marhi                (3320 mts 10892 ft)       39kms
Rohtang Pass (3980 mts 3980 ft)    51kms
Gramphoo         (3200 mts 10498 ft)       62kms
Khoksar             (3140 mts 10301 ft)       67kms
Sissu                  (3130 mts 10269 ft)       80kms
Tandi                 (2573 mts 8841 ft)        105kms
Keylong         (3350 mts 10990 ft)  113kms
Jispa                   (3142 mts 10308 ft)      138kms
Darcha               (3400 mts 11154 ft)      145kms
Patseo                (3820 mts 12532 ft)      159kms
Baralacha La     (4892 mts 16049 ft)      190kms
Sarchu               (4253 mts 13953 ft)      222kms
Brandy Nalla                                           242kms
Takh                   (3950 mts 12959 ft)      255kms
Lach2ungla    (5065 mts 16657 ft)  275kms
Pang                   (4630 mts 15190 ft)      299kms
More Plains        (4703 mts 15429 ft)      323kms
Tanglangla     (5360 mts 17585 ft)  363kms
Rumse                 (4325 mts 14190 ft)     395kms
Gya                      (4100 mts 13451 ft)     398kms
Upshi                   (3384 mts 11102 ft)     426kms
Karu                    (3963 mts 13001 ft)     437kms
Leh                 (3506 mts 11502 ft) 473kms

The iternary

15 Sep, Thu, 8:20pm : Leave bangalore for delhi by train (done!)
17 Sep, Sat, 5:50am : Reach delhi (wander about in good old delhi)
17 Sep, Sat, 5:30pm : Leave for Manali by Bus
18 Sep, Sun, 6:00am : Reach Manali (have parathas for breakfast :) )
18 Sep, Sun, 11:00am: Leave for Leh by taxi. Enjoy!
18 Sep, Sun, 6-8pm: Halt at Keylong for the night (MP says he wants a tent. We will see)
19 Sep, Mon, 6:00am: Resume for Leh. ( Enjoy)
19 Sep, Mon, 4-8pm: Reach Leh!!! Rest.
20 Sep, Tue - 23 Sep, Fri: 3days of  ultimate joy at Leh.
24 Sep, Sat, 6:30am : Start return to Bangalore by flight.
24 Sep, Sat, 3:30 pm : Bangalore.

The bet

The bet going around between manish and manish is if we wud reach hyderabad at 7:25am. Rest assured a manish will be giving a coffee treat  tomo morney :)

Rains are good omen. Right??

The d-day has arrived :) We have to leave now and it decides to rain :) just fretting about the "majestic" mess :(
-------Update---------------------------
Suprisingly the traffic at majestic was not so bad, despite the rains again. We made it through in one hour!! We started later than planned (as is usual with all plans).. and just as we did, the rains made sure we were on edge of the seats throughout the bumpy auto ride to the station. But the big traffic jam i was dreading, never came :) We were well on time. Well begun :)

Did somebody say "Leh calling"??

This was last time around. The Himalayas call again..

Planning from Delhi to Manali

Planning in process for Delhi to Manali