Athens and historic Marathon

Not even in my wildest dream I had thought about running 42.195 Kms. That too in the original marathon course, the track where its believed that Marathon got its name 2500 years back. In fact I didn't even know about history of marathon, until one day I read about Athens Marathon and history of marathon in Dilip's blog: Athens Beckons. For more information on history of marathon refer wiki.

I started running ( to be precise jogging ) some 4 years back, when one day in office I suddenly realised some thing very trivial in life - that I am sitting in front of computer almost all thru day and not getting any sort of physical work out ;) I initially started running in Bangalore University ( Jnanabharthi campus) over weekends. More than jog, I really enjoyed greenary, calm/peace nature around the campus. 40 minutes of running was max I used to do, and at the end of it I used have that feel of having achieved some thing in life :). I know 40 minutes of running was not big thing, but the whole package of getting up early morning, listening to ur favourite songs on ipod,   breathing clear pollution free air, sweat at the end of jog was some thing which I slowly started getting used to. I made plans of running in Cubbon park and lal bagh ( Most popular parks in Bangalore) too. When I shared it with my friends, even they got bit excited and made mini epic trip kind of plans with jogging as well. Our plans used to be like early morning at 6 AM be in Cubbon park or Lal Bagh. Jog for an hour or so, then try out some ayurvedic juices being sold outside park. Then head off for the most interesting part - sheep/goat leg soup + chicken palav at local military hotels in chickpet/balepet area. My friend Adarsh had very good idea about eating joints in whole of bangalore and each time he did took us to good places to eat. Finally its time for deserts and coffee. We head off to Hotel Udupi Krishnal Bhavan in Chickpet, have some kesari bath or so and finally the coffee. We used finish all this and get back home by 9 AM. Imagine doing so much on sunday morning. Some time my sunday used to get over by this time, because I would end up sleeping rest of the day ;)

So that's all that running had meant to me so far. I read Dilip's blog on day right after finishing Sunfeast 10K run in Bangalore, so I was quite excited and inspired to go for Athens Marathon. But by then I was very uncertain on what/where I would be after 5 months, that's during marathon. So I just safely brushed off the idea of running marathon. Once I got settled in UK ( 3 months back), I again started thinking about it, and called my friend Karthik, who had also registered for the same marathon. But marathon registration had closed long back in March itself :(, I got bit disappointed. But I kept exploring the marathon website: http://www.athensclassicmarathon.gr, found a loop hole in it to register, did some golmaal, a bit of risk and I registered :) and guess what??? it did work :). So next task was trip planning - flights tickets booked, hotels booked, applied for visa and I was all set for the Greece trip.

Meantime, with 3 months that I got of preparing for Athens Marathon I did tried to follow marathon training schedule as much as possible: http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/Mar00index.htm. Every time I finished long runs during practise I used to get more excited and aimed for running longer. Eventually just 2 weeks before marathon my right knee got injured pretty badly ( runner's knee problem or some thing, which is quite usual when one tries to sqeeze in 18 weeks marathon preparation schedule in 10 weeks) :(. I was really unsure on running marathon and had prepared for changing it to 10K run and enjoy the Euro trip. Couple of days before marathon, I tried to run 5KM and I did it quite comfortably. So I just told myself "I should try for full marathon and face consequences later" ( which I am facing even now ;) ).

With all the excitement around of running marathon, there was bad news as well. Dilip's visa got delayed and stupid embassy people called him for interview on the day after the marathon. So he had to back off his marathon and euro trip plan. I arrived in Athens on 30th Oct, day before Marathon. Karthik and Srini were in Athens by then and had attended Marathon expo and collected BIB and other stuffs for me as well. So we were all set for the big day. I was tired with journey and wanted to have good sleep before marathon. Incidentally that night day/light saving was getting turned off, so I was happy that I got 1 more extra hour to sleep. Karthik was frustrated because he had to kill one more hour :). He had travelled from US the previous day and was still in jet lag. He was wide awake all thru night. Next morning it was D day. I woke up and felt quite fresh, I said "thank god I had good sleep", keeping his head down  karthik said - "dunt talk about sleep man" :D

From Athens we were taken in bus to Marathon village, our start off point. We had to take back the same route while running. Oh Man!!! let me tell u guys... the driver could have as well turned off engine and let the downhill road do the job of turning wheels. From 10Km or so it was complete descend for good ~20 Kms stretch, and all that meant to us was to run  the same terrain back but for change it would be uphill :(. But that was fun part of Athens marathon :).

We reached start off point quite early, it was same place where battle of marathon took place 2500 years back.  The place looked pretty ordinary with barren mountains around, but the historical significance and so much hype had made it look physcologically different for most of people ;).

Finally it was D time, Race started and I started running slow and study. Trust me thinking about running 42 Kms in a stretch is nightmare for anyone, (I am not talking about crazy Kenyan or Nigerian who aim to finish race in 2 hours). All you got to do is keep fooling your mind and keep it diverted. Songs on Ipod is your best bet ( though I prefer not to use it during marathon), or look at crazy people running with you, get inspiration looking at senior citizens running same race, or do what ever you want but just don't let that number 42 get into your mind. Think about next fuel station ( our drinks/snacks point). Take 5 Kms at a time. Aim at reaching next water point 5 Kms away. Then all you got to do is to find 8 such fuel stations. Doesn't it sound simple this way, than thinking about running 42Kms? :D.

Some how I started race in block 3 ( it just means that all the people in that block had finished earlier marathons within 4:30 hours). They all looked quite serious runners and guess what??? I had to run contionously for first 20 Kms with out any walking in between. I generally walk for 2 - 3 minutes after every 5 Kms. But here if I had stopped and walked in between, the people behind me would have ran over me :). Every one was running at descent pace, after 10 Kms I tried going towards foot path to take a break and walk for few minutes, but few enthu runners were using footpath to over take other runners, so even that wasn't an option :(. So eventually I had good half marathon finish completing 21 Kms in 2 hours 8 minutes.

So far my knee looked to be in good shape and right when I started feeling happy about it, it started hurting at 26th KM. I slowed down a bit, tried to walk in between, tried applying spray, ice packs, pain killer gels on the way but all that made no difference to knee pain. After 35 Kms, it started hurting real bad, luckily I wasn't tired, I wasn't exhausted but it was just the severe pain I had to deal with. Luckily again uphill was over by then and we had entered Athens city, so it was pretty much flat surface to deal with. I had serious thoughts about backing off and stop hurting knee further, but some how I just kept motivating myself to finish race. I had put in so much time and effort to prepare for race and I just couldn't let myself down at the last stage. Crowd all along the way cheered us as well, few even read our names from BIB, hearing - "Bravo Harish Bravo" along the way was really inspiring to finish the race. As the finish line got closer, my knee started getting worse and I just wanted to finish it off.

The most thrilling moment was ofcourse entering the Olympic stadium in Athens. I knew I had done it by then, the last 170 meters run was inside stadium before crossing the finishing line. Inside the stadium there was loud inspiring music, people cheering all around and photographers taking pics as though we were celebraties. It was quite exciting atomsphere around and I was more excited for the fact that  timer was ticking 5 hours 6 minutes. Considering it was my first marathon I was quite happy with my effective finish time of 5 hours 2 minutes. I crossed the finish line with severe pain in my knees, but right after I crossed it I didn't feel any pain whats so ever. Guess it was just physcological :) Received my Medal, got some fruits and water to rejoice/refresh.

 I got back to stadium to receive Karthik and Srini. We were all excited to have finished race. After some photo clicks, it was time to get back to hotel and deal with our after marathon recovery :) Not to mention I was limping all thru while getting back to Hotel, but there was joy in that pain!!!

Tour De Leh

Here is quick travel planner for Leh trip. For travelogue on my Leh trip follow links at the end.

Tips for planning your travel:

1. At least reserve 2 weeks for the Leh trip from Delhi - Delhi, else you won't be making justice to trip
2. Try to avoid flying to Leh, so that you get slowly acclimatised to high altitude regions. More over Manali - Leh gets listed in one among the Top 5 Best Road trips in the world. Some thing not to be missed.
3. Leh should be your base camp. After reaching Leh, spend atleast 2 days in Leh getting acclimatized. Its also opportunity to explore Leh city and time for shopping.
4. Do not take mountain sickness for granted, neither take it too seriously. Just follow simple rules to avoid mountain sickness and carry enough medicines, just in case you need them. Try to avoid drinking cold water as much as possible.
5. Be prepared to see all four seasons in a day - sunny, rain, cold, snow... weather can change within 5 minutes.
6. ATMs: There is only one State bank of India ATM machine in Leh, and you generally see long queue. Try to go at night, if you dunt want to waste your time in queues. A couple of more ATMs might have opened by now, but do not expect to find any ATMs when you go out of Leh.
7. For visiting Khardung La and Pangong Lake you need permission letter from DC office in Leh. During your two days of acclimatisation in Leh, try to finish of this formality.
8. Leh is decently commercialised and you can buy anything that you might have missed to pack in your travel bag. But do not expect the same when you go out Leh. Carry basic needs like energy bars, water etc... when ever you are travelling.
9. Avoid renting bike at Manali/Srinagar for road trip to Leh. The bikes you get would be 3 - 4 years old with absolutely zero maintenance. Do not be surprised if it breaks down right after 1 KM ride :)
10. You can hire bike in Leh to roam around Ladakh. Take a test ride before you finalise. If you are riding around Ladakh, make sure you got good quality warm hand gloves, socks ( not just ordinary cotton once) and jacket. Your hands might just get freezed as you keep riding for long time.

General Itinerary for Leh Trip:

1. From Delhi either you can travel through Manali or Srinagar. You take Manali route for onward journey and return thru Srinagar or vice-verse
2. From Manali or Srinagar its minimum 2 days trip. Can be done in 24 hours in one stretch, but doesn't make any sense for traveller :)
3. Make Leh as your base camp. Travelling around Ladakh can be briefly be drawn like star map with Leh in centre. There are four routes going out of Leh.
a) Leh - Tanglang La - Serchu - Rohtang Pass - Manali route
b) Leh - Changa La - Pangong - spangmik
c) Leh - Khardung La - Nubra Valley - Diskit - Hunder
d) Leh - Lamayuru - Kargil - Drass - Sonamarg - Srinagar

Route (a) and (d) can be covered when you get into and away from Leh. Reserve atleast 3 days each for onward and return trip. At least 2 days in Leh, and 2 days each for Route (b) and (c). So thats minimum 12 days iternary. If you got more time then spend more days at your places of interest and time for your favorite adventure activities like Rafting, trekking, Cycling.


How to get there and away:


Bus: From Delhi/Chandigarh you get over night buses to Manali. Try to avoid private buses and your best bet would be Raj Travels ( you can book online). From Manali you get buses which reaches Leh in 2 days with over night halt around Keylong. Bus is not a bad option because I heard it stops at all exciting places and let people enjoy the landscape.Buses generaly leave early morning around 6 AM,  so make sure you are in Manali before that time.

The same is true when you going via Srinagar.

Train: No train service to Leh. Nearest you can find is Jammu station ( if you going thru Srinagar). From Jammu travel to Srinagar and then to Leh on road.

 For Manali route the nearest station is Kalka. Try to avoid this as much as possible. Because from kalka to Manali its good 200 Kms in ghats and u would doing this during day time, instead take a over night bus from Delhi itself so that morning you can be in Manali.

Air: 

2 flights every day from Delhi to Leh.

Stay: Tents and Hotels available along the routes and in Leh. No need to book in advance, just checkin where ever you feel like. But do not expect to find accmd at every 25 Km, some times it might take 100+ Km to find tents. So do your research well on where you intend to stay. Tents generally costs between 150 – 1500/- depending on your luxury and bargaining skills

Food: Maggie/Omlette, Maggie/Omlette, Maggie/Omlette :). That’s your safest bet all through the trip. You can find people setting up small tents along the way catering Maggie/Omlette for travellers. You will find few resto’s as well where you can get multi cuisine food. But when you are on road trip its more exciting to stop at Tents, talk to local people and have local food, then sitting in resto with all good ambience.

Medical: Carry lots of glucose, vitamin tablets and mountain sickness tablets. Drink as much water as possible even if do not like it. As far as possible avoid cold water and have hot water. ( In tents you can ask for hot water). In Leh the only medical facility is government hospital. Its pretty descent and staff there are quite helpful and efficient. You can reach out for Amry camps, but have some considerations for Indian Army and approach them only if its case of Life and Death.

Links to my travelogue:

1.Bng to Leh - 3000 KMs in 4 days 4 nights
2. Biking from Leh to Lamayuru
3.Rafting and Pangong Lake
4.Silk route

Tour de Leh: Silk route

We hired Pulsar and Thunder bird for two days biking trip. Again set of early morning around 6, but still Chandra was getting bit worried that we might be late. So we skipped having break fast and set off to Khardung La, thinking we might get some thing on the way. Khardung La was one more highlight of the trip. Its the highest motorable road in the world at altitude of 18,380 feet. Riding bike towards Khardungla was thrilling and with each passing KM, we started getting desperate to reach the Pinnacle. Leh is at around 10,000 feet high, so you attain almost 8000 feet altitude within 60 - 90 mins of travelling. You can easily feel every 1000 feet altitude change... any guesses why? because there are sign boards indicating altitude level :D... jokes apart... as you go higher it becomes more windy, more cold, more snow, tough road and no need to mention that it gets tough to ride...

It was like dream come true for all four of us to reach Khardung La ( FINAL DESTINATION - 6) on bike. Spent some time at the peak, there was canteen serving yummy hot anda maggie and Kawa... till date its the best Maggie I never had in my life... more than the chef skills for making maggie, guess the place, challenging climate, empty stomach had made maggie more tasty :)

We continued our journey towards Diskit, passing through Nubra Valley. The route from Leh - Khardunga La - Diskit is part of popular Silk route -

"The Silk Routes (collectively known as the "Silk Road") were important paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between traders, merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from Ancient China, Ancient India, Ancient Tibet, Persia and Mediterranean countries for almost 3,000 years.^[4] It gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, which began during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE)."  - Wiki Zindabad

Nubra Valley is yet another mind blowing valley and I do not understand why our film people go on foreign locations to shoot, when there is so much beauty in our country. After passing Nubra Valley we continued out journey towards Diksit. We were again heading towards border, thus we were getting more and more remote. Tourists generally come up to Khardung La and head back, few even come up to Nubra valley, but very few attempt to go past Nubra Valley. Infact we did not see any tourists after Nubra Valley for 2 days, and there are few military camps on the way and few villages with barely 10 houses. So no option of getting any help if required, no option to buy anything, and no mobile singnal :)

For hours we did not see any vehicles passing by, any trace of civilisation, but the only good thing was that there was no crossings or option to turn right or left... so there was no way we could get lost :) But only thing bothered us was how long is Diskit? On our way we saw one straight road ( as good as some one drawing straight line), deep in the valley, which we later came to know that its route to Siachen Glaciar, the highest battle field in the world. It was around 50 KMs away and obviosuly public entry is not entertained. It just reminded me of some of equipments I had seen in Military museum in leh earlier. We had a good chat with one of military officer in museum and it was interesting to know the life of commandos in high altitude regions, and how important is Siachen Glacier for holding both Pak and China from entering India.Saluting Indian Army we continued our journey to Diskit. Finaly reached Diskit, found a place to stay over night... dumped our luggage and headed towards our last and FINAL DESTINATION - 7, Hunder. Hunder is small, but beautiful desert in Ladakh. You also get to see double humped camels here.

 Just few Kms from Hunder is bridge after which Public is not allowed. Thats almost like border for general public. So the whole journey could be called as "Bangalore - Border". In 16 days trip, we had used all sorts of transport from train, bus, cycle, car, truck and now the bike. We had already started feeling bad about leaving Ladakh and getting back to Mundane life. we had our flight (only means of transport we hadn't used) back to Delhi next to next day.

We stayed night at Diskit and started off to Leh next morning. After about 30 Kms, that damn thunder bird broke down. And we couldn't see absolutely no soul what's ever to look for help. I guess for first time me and chandra got tensed. We had our flight booked for next day early morning, so we had to reach Leh that day at any cost. More than the flight thing, we were in middle of no where and if we can't get help means we have to spend night on road... in that f**k'g cold weather. Even Yogi looked bit tensed, but surprisingly Majid Khan Mohammed Zai, who generaly gets tensed for no reason looked very relaxed with huge smile on his face.  I realy do not understand how he had that smile? Anyway after failed struggles to get any kind of help, a truck came to our rescue, we almost pleaded him to get our bike on truck. Next big task was to lift that hulk and put on the truck... we four did the job as though some one had kept us at gun point.

Finally got back to Leh for the final time. Had heard lot about resto called "KC restourant". They served good food and they did had campfire kind of thingy, they also screened Movies... so it was perfect place for us to chill out the last night in Leh.

Tour de Leh: Rafting and Pangong Lake

After 3 days of exciting cycling, we got back to Leh. That evening roamed around leh city, did bit of shopping, explore special dishes, kawa chai ( Kashmiri Black tea) and more importantly finalised on our plans for the next day - Rafting in Zanskar (Its not Final Destination 5, because we had already crossed this point on our way to cycling ;) ). Infact the whole idea of cutting short the 6 days cycling was to get one extra day for rafting and one day for visiting Pangong Lake. So we finalised on our Pangong Lake trip as well.

Next day we started off early morning for rafting. I have done rafting in Sita River and Kali River in karnataka, but I knew Zanskar river (is going to be different experience. Infact we can not compare all 3 raftings, each one is unique experience. Sita river is rainy river, so its fun if u raft when its raining heavily. You can get more adventures by jumping off the raft, pushing others off the raft, toppling the raft ;)... but Kali river is more ferocious and got better rapids.... rafting is allowed only after Monsoon. In both Sita and Kali you pass through dense forest unlike barren mountains in Zanskar. In Zanskar the speed of raft and rapids are not comparable with Sita and Kali, but you can not even think of getting into water... because water is more chilled than chilled beer :).

Few of us wanted to be adventures and wanted to swim at least for milli second, but instructor didn't let us.  The finishing point was where  Zanskar joins Indus River and just around that point, there was plain stretch without any rapids or rocks... so the instructor let us get into river only if the person is confident about swimming... and getting back into raft. Like a professional I took proper position standing on raft and dived as much away from raft as possible, and as soon as I was in water, first reaction was to turn back and swim as fast as possible towards raft, since I was almost getting freezed. 

After thrilling rafting, we were back in Leh. Prepared our self for the big day and highlight of our trip - FINAL DESTINATION 5 - Pangong Lake, the highest altitude lake in the world. In fact what ever you find in Leh can be prefixed with - "Highest", Highest swimming pool in the world, highest golf club in the world, highest  chai shop in the world :). Its 5 - 6 hour drive from Leh. I had planned to do Pangong trip in 2 days but since we were getting short of time we had to cut it short to one :(. But if anyone planning Pangong Lake, then do spend at least a night in Pangong Lake, its completely worth it. We started early morning, on our way passed through Third highest motorable road in the world - Changla.

As soon as we got to Pangong lake, I was speech less. There are many places in world which are over hyped, and when you visit that place, you might feel its not worth the hype around it. It will be excellent place, but not worth the hype. I had fear of Pangong Lake being one such place, but I was totally wrong. Pangong Lake is class apart and any hype around it would always be understatement.

Pangong lake is very close to Aksai Chin, the China occupied J&K :(... they got 6 lane highway there it seems and we do not even have proper 2 lane road :(

Had good tibetian food at near by Home cum resto, spent some time and got back to leh by evening.

Next day morning the Nav-Jawan team was about to get split, with everyone getting back home, except for 3 Idiots from Bangalore and 1 from Pune. We four finalised on renting bike for our next motor biking expedition to Diskit via Khardungla and Nubra valley

Tour de Leh: Biking from Leh to Lamayuru

After reaching Leh we stayed at YHAI camp for 3 days, getting acclimatized, roaming around Leh city/market area, few warm up biking sessions and making sure our bikes are in good conditions ( cycle repair works :) ) for 6 days biking expedition.We also met 5 other guys part of biking expedition, so we formed Navratna/Naujawan team :)

Morning Walk

Navratna/Naujawan team for Biking expedition

Shanti Stoop - Leh

Finally on D-day we started off from YHAI camp for our supposed to be 6 days biking expedition covering ~220 KMs. 

Cycling in Ladakh was not as easy as cycling in low altitude regions ( like Bangalore :) ), at least it was for me on the first day, guess it was mainly because I started feeling un well on the wrong day. Oxygen is less, its cold and windy all the time, making it physically very challenging. We could easily feel even 1 degree of inclination on the road as pedaling becomes tough... and soon we realised that newton's law of velocity/momentum doesn't holds good in Ladakh... when you go downhill with full speed and then if its uphill, under normal conditions, the momentum makes it bit easy to pedal at least some distance of the uphill... but in Ladhak, no matter at what speed you get down the hill, as soon as there is uphill, cycle wheel just stops until u pedal hard again...

We stopped at Gurudhwar on our way, which was maintained by Military. It was lunch time and we ditched YHAI's packed lunch and had good food at Gurudhwar. I was almost dead at that time. My condition just got worse with tiring cycling. Food and rest at Gurudhwar had induced some energy just enough to reach our next camp site... but Waheguru had planned some thing better for me ;) my cycle gear got jammed and there was no way I could ride... right at that point a lorry was about to leave and within few seconds me and my cycle both were in lorry... I reached first campsite - Bosco (FINAL DESTINATION 2) , well ahead of other folks... Took a long walk along the river side and experimented with self portrait pics... The pic tells how tired I was... Guess the beauty of campsite made me take a walk than resting at campsite...

 

 Next day we headed off to second base camp - Nurla. Morning I had completly recovered and was full energetic for Day 2 cycling. Route from Bosco to Nurla was not as tiring as first day track, because it had flat roads, ascend/descend in between unlike one continous strectch of ascend and one descend on first day. Cycling in Ladhak is experience in itself and guess best way to enjoy the majesty of ladhaki mountains..... 

By around 3 PM we reached our FINAL DESTINATION 3 - Nurla Camp. Again the camp site was very scenic. I have done 4 expeditions with YHAI and best part of being with YHAI is camp sites they provide, apart from the scenic trekking trails they take us to. Till now I have never been disappointed with any of the YHAI campsites, and every camp site is an experience which none of 5 star resorts can fullfill. 

Day 3 we set off early in morning towards Lamayuru...stopped at resto on the way, called Samyas for yummy pakodas.. had heard lot about resto and they didn't disappoint us. Its near place called Khaltse on Leh - Kargil highway. If you happen to pass though this village then do stop at Samyas. After certain point it was complete uphill to reach Lamayuru and YHAI itself had suggested us to dump cycles at store room at foothill or carry cycles on bus top to reach camp. We managed to dump all our cycles on the bus top and headed off to our FINAL DESTINATION 4 - lamayuru. I preffered sitting on bus top along with Chirs, Jital and Ravi and it turned out to be once in life time experience :). Imagine sitting on top of bus, which is going uphill with atleast 60 degree ascend... passing thru ghats... right next to road is dead deep valley/cliff... and scariest of them all is to watch out for rocks that obstructs like the branches of road side tree does in normal roads... 

Lamayuru was nice little village. Visited popular Monastery near by. Had enough time left in the day, so we had good chat with local people. One more interesting highlight of Lamayuru is the Moon Land. A stretch of mountain glows during full moon night and is brighter then rest of land, giving feel of it being moon. 

We had good fun chit-chatting and pulling each others leg at night. We were pretty relaxed that night because we had decided not to cycle back to Leh. The reason was simple - we had to take the same path back to reach Leh over 3 days time. Which didn't make sense because we preferred exploring more places in Ladhak then tracing back same path for 3 days. Hopefully now YHAI might have changed route to go in circular path.

So with that we ended our supposed to be 6 days 240 Kms biking expedition in 3 days 122 KMs and reached back Leh on 4th Day, ofcourse with little adventure by taking truck, bus and Tata mobile van. 

Tour de Leh: Bng to Leh - 3000 KMs in 4 days 4 nights

Had heard lot about Ladakh and I knew its going to be once in life time experience. Its always exciting to take off 16 days leave and roam around northern part of India, THE MIGHTY HIMALAYAS!!!. Our train was scheduled to depart at 7:30 PM on Thursday night from Bangalore central railway station. As usual I worked from home that day ( best part of being ciscoite ;) ), and I reached station on time. Majid and Chandra joined me for the trip and the journey of 3 Idiots started ;) It was second time for me on train from Bangalore to Delhi. It’s a tedious journey, but its truly worth an experience. For almost 40 hours, you live in the small compartment, keep seeing same fellow passenger’s faces around, same rail café guys and by the end of journey you almost feel like you know them from long time, but within 1 hour of getting down from the train you almost forget them. Now there are 2 ways of travelling in train 1) keep a map with you, keep looking at what’s next train stop is? How much journey is left? And keep getting frustrated :D or 2) forget what you are? Where your are? How you are? Keep singing “

Musafir Hoon Yaaron Na Ghar Hai Na Tikhana
Mujhe Chalte Jaana Hai Bas Chalte Jaana” and keep enjoying each and every moment that passes by… that’s what true traveller does :)


So after ~36 hours of journey our train reached Delhi almost on time. We met Yogesh from Pune at the railway station, had a quick breakfast session and went towards ISBT, to continue our journey. Evening we boarded Volvo bus to Manali.


Sunday morning when we woke up in bus, we got magnificent, gigantic views of Himalayan mountains. Bus was passing through Bunter ( ~10 KM before Kullu) which is almost start point for YHAI’s Sarpas trek. That’s when I started making plans for the Sarpas trek for next year J. Bus passed through Kullu where I mesmerized few nostalgic moments of our Saurkundi Pass trek we did couple of years back. Finally at around 9 we reached city of Manali. As soon as we got down bus, we hired Tata sumo for road trip to Leh. We did not had much time, so had quick stop at near by Paramount Lodge to freshen up. Within 1 hour we started of with one among the TOP 5 ROAD TRIPS IN THE WORLD – MANALI TO LEH.

 

Before reaching Rohtang Pass we had to face huge traffic pile up, it took around 3 hours to clear it ( Our Pratap was one among the key persons to clear the Jam :) ). It’s a very common scene on that stretch, its very narrow road good enough for Truck and Car to pass by at a time, and if any one vehicle breaks down, vehicles pile up very easily. And in the ghat section there is very good chances of vehicle break down.





Right after we passed through Rothang, we got first views of Snow cap mountains. So it was time to take pics




Our Initial plan was to stay over night at Serchu, but since we lost lot of time in traffic jam, we had to change our plans. The Manali to Leh route is maintained by Border Road Organisation (BRO) and they restrict traffic movement after 6 PM. We could only manage to reach Jispa before 6, and got a tented accomdation to spend the nite. The staff were very friendly and food was average, but we were least bothered about it and were very happy that we got some thing to fill our stomach in that no man's land :)

That evening when we got to Jispa, it was bit dark and didn't get to see landscape around our tent. When we woke up in morning, we were stunned to see spectacular views of the mountain around us.

After clicking few pics and morning routines, we continued with our journey. One important tip while travelling around Leh is that, you get going as early in the morning as possible, before 6 AM. Because you never know when its going to get dark and also as the day passes it becomes more challenging. Like water starts melting from snow mountains and passes across the road, so its better if you cross all such points before it flows full fledged.


We crossed Baralacha and reached Serchu by afternoon.

After reaching Serch we realised that previous day traffic jam was blessing in disguise. For 2 reasons - 1) Serchu is at 14,000 feet high, so its not good to stay at such high altitude region on first day in the Ladakh region. Few people we met in Leh echoed the same. They stayed over in Serchu and had serious medical conditions like severe head ache, blood in nose etc... 2) You can only reach Serchu from Manali just before 6 PM, and BRO check post right after Serchu restricts vehicles from moving ahead. So you will only be left with an option to stay over night at Serchu. The Tent providers in that area know that fact very well and make unusual demands anything between 1500 - 2000/- per night.


Right after crossing Serchu we hit the HP and JK border. We kept stopping at all scenic places and continued our journey.

Most interesting part of Manali - Leh route is the stretch popularly known as “No road stretch”. Its around 20 Km stretch, and its like open flat ground, there is no traces of road.

Best would be to follow traces of vehicle ( if there are any) that would have passed before. Else wait for another vehicle and just follow them.  After crossing no road stretch, our Pratap had become adventures and started taking short cuts going on hills instead of staying on the road

 Our next exciting stop was at Tanglangla, the second highest motor able road in the world. We just couldn’t wait to cross Khardungla Pass, the highest motor able road in the world, which was scheduled at almost during end of our trip, so had long way to go :(. Continued our journey passing through Upshi, where we had first view of Indus River. After couple of hours of journey, we started getting close to Leh, as and when distance to Leh got reduced, our excitement increased.

 Finally around 6 we were at FINAL DESTINATION - Leh. It was indeed long journey from Bangalore, and we deserved good sleep. We checked into YHAI camp site and all we wanted to do was to sleep sleep and sleep.

Travel Info in case you planing:

Travel: Depending on where you stay, either get to Delhi, Chandigarh or Manali. From Delhi/Chandigarh you get over night buses to Manali. Try to avoid private buses and your best bet would be Raj Travels ( you can book online)

From Manali you can either take a bus which reaches Leh in 2 days with over night halt around Keylong or hire vehicle. Bus is not a bad option because I heard it stops at all exciting places and let people enjoy the landscape.

Stay: Tents and few lodges available along the routes. No need to book in advance, just checkin where ever you feel like. But do not expect to find accmd at every 25 Km, some times it might take 100+ Km to find tents. So do your research well on where you intend to stay. Tents generally costs between 150 – 1500/- depending on your luxury and bargaining skills

Food: Maggie/Omlette, Maggie/Omlette, Maggie/Omlette J. That’s your safest bet all through the route. You can find people setting up small tents along the way catering Maggie/Omlette for travellers. You will find few resto’s as well where you can get multi cuisine food. But when you are on road trip its more exciting to stop at Tents, talk to local people and have local food, then sitting in resto with all good ambience.

Medical: Carry lots of glucose, vitamin tablets and mountain sickness tablets. Drink as much water as possible even if do not like it. As far as possible avoid cold water and have hot water. ( In tents you can ask for hot water).

Better late than never :)

Here is my first blog post!!! I wanted to start blogging from time immemorial :D, well its bit exagerrating but I did wanted to start blogging ever since I started my engineering. thts almost a decade now :) but finally here im with my first post. So the saying Better late then never!!! Initally, thats when I was college kid I wanted to blog on tech stuff and now… that's after 6 years of college I have lost interest with techie things... guess its all coz of amount of time i spend on coding in office. People write about their passion, now tech stuffs are more of work than passion for me... 

so what should I write about? 
From past few years I have been travelling a lot and it has become my passion... I have been enjoying travelling more than anything else... so obviously when I thought about blogging, first thing that came to my mind now was travelogue… so here it goes… 

My blogs will be mainly on my travel experience… in between I will also try to write about anything interesting around me J