[abhayankara]

I would like to start this thread with heartiest birthday wishes to the legendary actor Dr.Rajkumar of Kannada cinemas on his 92nd birth anniversary today.

Dr.Rajkumar was a legendary actor and playback singer in Kannada cinema. He was honored by Padma Bhushan award in 1983, Kentucky Colonel award in 1985, Karnataka Ratna award in 1992, Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1995 and a Doctorate from Mysore university.

He has worked in over 220+ films performed variety of roles (including mythological and historical characters) in films. There is nothing that has not been said about this legend or there is anything left to say about. He is a legend!

Source: Wiki

[abhayankara]

Bengaluru to Leh Ladakh

This is the story of our road trip to Ladakh involving 7 friends travelling together in 2 cars from Bengaluru. The trip was planned and executed in 2019 between May 17th to June 2nd. This is a long pending travelogue from my end, for some reason I could not finish the blog. But now because of lockdown (Corona-virus effect) our company had planned week long shutdown globally, so thought I would utilize this ample time to pen down this blog and complete. I will try to keep this blog very precise and give as much information as possible about our trip.
The journey was truly full of beautiful experiences where we got to witness amazing attractions. Every person will have their own Wish list, a list of things that he/she wants to do or accomplish before “end of him/her”. Doing a Ladakh trip by road from Bengaluru was one of those to do list for me. Initially I had planned this trip with my wife, but I could not take her since we were blessed with a baby.

I am truly sorry for this my soul Deesha, but you are the best thing that has happened to me ever in life. I thank you for supporting me to execute this trip and help me guiding through every phase of the trip planning. I owe you a trip to Ladakh, hopefully it will happen soon.

[abhayankara]

Prologue and thank you note:

The Ladakh trip was long pending trip in my bucket list, once the plan of travelling with my wife was cancelled. I discussed the same plan with my friends Sandesh, Akhin and Nischal. To my surprise all agreed with no fuss, Nischal even promised to get his Fortuner in the same discussion I proposed the idea of travelling by our own cars. Next, we discussed the plan with few other friends and finally we had the complete 7 members team. I must say I am very lucky during this planning and executing trip. None of the confirmed members backed off from the plan, co-operated in all prospective including sharing the responsibility of planning the trip, sourcing essentials. It was decided that we will travel during the month of May 2019, plan the dates (dates were not confirmed yet) depending on the leave approvals, weather conditions, vehicle preparation, etc.

The actual planning started in the month of June/July 2018 which meant we had good amount of time to plan the itinerary. It was decided that we take Fortuner and S cross for the trip, and slowly started planning the itinerary, sourcing essentials required.I started to do research on travel blogs, listing all the places we wanted to visit. Off-course we were very excited! even with all that planning, we still don’t know what is going to happen when we start our journey, and that’s often the best feeling in the world. I live for this excitement.

A very big thanks to you my Ladakh trip mates Janardhan, Chethan, Nischal, Pradheep, Sandesh, Akhin for believing in me and my plans which helped me execute this trip without any issues. I must thank you people for keeping patience through the trip and equally putting your efforts in collecting/ working on the assignments and responsibilities shared to you during the planning/ execution phase.

Leh Team

It was all because of teams support, this is the complete team which stood together in all phases of trip very intact.we spent, ate, enjoyed to our satisfaction, kept our temper under control (most of you who have travelled for such a long time leaving your loved ones/family might know what I mean), and finally we never made any compromises in the trip. It is not that we never faced problems we had few issues with lodging, parking availability, we sometimes drove ~14 hours continuously with few pit stops, skipped breakfast/lunch, etc. Everything was a challenge for us, most of us had never travelled continuously for so long (~15 days). Everything was so well planned with Itinerary that, major places were covered. I appreciate we never backed off from the plan. We were prepared for the worst but fortunately nothing such happened by god’s grace.

Responsibilities shared:

Madhusudan – Itinerary planning, permits, sourcing few essentials

Akhin – hotels to stay, camera

Sandesh – complete responsibility of expenses (cash inflow/outflow).

We had planned, budgeted expenses for the trip and estimated a X amount for the trip. Hence, we all decided that we transfer ₹10,000 to Sandesh every month starting form January 2019. I must say this was a good thing we did in the trip which reduced our burden of arranging money at the start of the trip.
Any expenses other than personal was to be made through Sandesh. He did manage all the expenses, bills with no scope for errors, the calculations and break up were accurate.

Nischal – Vehicle permits, Toyota service center contacts information collection

Janardhan – Vehicle permits, Maruti service center contacts information collection, medicines

Chetan - Vehicle permits, Maruti service center contacts information collection, medicines. He had got complete set of essential medicines listed in the document

Pradheep – Snacks, sourcing complete essentials required for the trip listed below for entire team

Thanks, tsk1979 for this wonderful write up which helped me planning our itinerary

tsk1979 : The ultimate Guide
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ate-guide.html

Thanks, Shreyas (team-bhp handle: SJM1214) for your wonderful guidance through the trip and support. Your help came to us at the right time, helped us in getting circuit permits at Leh, preparing itinerary. Thanks much for your help. He was in continuous touch over whatsApp till the end of trip supporting us.

Many thanks to HVK.
Your guidance was most helpful during the trip. I opted Chalo Ladakh plan from HVK and with a rough itinerary, I shared my plans with HVK. He made few corrections and suggested few changes in the plan for which we obliged. In the month April 2019 me and Nischal spoke to HVK on the plan, he shared few of his experiences and do’s/don’ts during the trip. It was clear from his side that we need to install RouteO app, maps would be shared prior to trip and create a WhatsApp group with his team including us, which can be used to track the progress of the trip, and sync ups. Many information like check list for the trip, few copies of instructions on handling High-Altitude Sickness, car preparation, permits and refueling were shared through mail.
Only condition from his side is to follow his instructions during the trip, follow his route not Google, update our location every hour, inform him in prior if we wanted him to book our stay. Many thanks to HVK.

Thanks to my EX-Manager (ME) for granting me leaves.

Finally, a big thanks to my parents, in-laws, sister, bro in-law for your moral support

[abhayankara]

Essentials, Itinerary & Vehicle authorization letter:

Below are the few list of essentials, medicines, and few templates we used in the trip. All these are the learning I got by reading many blogs listed here in Team-Bhp, few recommendations from friends/family. Posting here for the benefit of other travelers.

Fortuner was in the name of Nischal's father hence got a vehicle authorization letter attested, this was recommended by HVK

Final Itinerary and stay

[abhayankara]

Team-Introduction:

Pradheep


Janardhan


Chetan


Nischal


Sandesh


Akhin


It's me! Madhusudan


S-Cross


Toyota Fortuner


Complete Team

[abhayankara]

Coming to our experience from the trip..

Dates are set, and I was eagerly waiting the arrival of the big day. Expectations can be both a good thing and a bad thing. While we often find ourselves daydreaming about all the great things that will happen to us while we are away, and what about everything you are leaving at home - work, family, friends? Will everything be okay? No matter how excited I am, I don’t think I slept that night before I left on this trip to Leh Ladakh.Both the vehicles were serviced prior to the trip. Nischal and Chetan procured Fastag and recharged them with ₹ 3000, vehicles were filled with diesel to the brim.

Leh Ladakh Day 01 (May 17 2019): Bengaluru -> Mumbai
Total distance covered: 969 kms
Driving time: 16 hours 30 mins, including pit stops

It was decided that we will leave by 4:30 AM and target to reach Thane, Maharastra. As per plan me, Akhin, and Sandesh reached Nischal’s house by 4:00 AM, by then Nischal was ready with his luggage loaded in the vehicle. We loaded our luggage and said good bye to Nischal’s family, we were about to start and Nischal’s mom wishes him happy anniversary. Yes, it was his marriage anniversary that day and he had not told this to us. If this was in my case, I swear to god I would have not existed now jokes apart, we wished him and left home by 4:40 AM.

Fortuner ODO reading

On the other side Pradheep reached Chetan’s house. By then Chetan and Janardhan (Chetan and Janardhan are cousin's) were ready with their luggage loaded in the car plus they had procured few half liter (close to ~70) water bottles for the journey. Pradheep loaded his luggage too and they started. Chetan lives near Parle factory near Nelamangala and we had decided that we will meet for breakfast until then we are on our own.

Close to Tumkur


Close to Davangere

The roads were free no traffic, and the cruising was effortless. We soon passed Chitradurga and stopped close to Davangere near a stall for some bio brake and tea. It was around 07:20 AM and we were already close to Davangere (~20 kms to Davangere). In less than 10 minutes Chetan’s car arrived. We wanted to have Benne dosa in Guru kotreshwara hotel, Davangere but we were very early, and it would take some time if we go inside the city for breakfast so we decided that we will have breakfast crossing Hubli.

First selfie of the trip

We had our breakfast just after Hubli and stopped for lunch at Hotel Shree Ram restaurant by 1:40 PM. The service was very slow, and we got delayed here close to ~2 hours. We were informed by HVK that going beyond Pune was a challenge because of heavy evening traffic in Pune bypass and Bombay region.

Traffic just after crossing Karnataka border


We stopped for some refreshments before Pune bypass

I had bought few essential parts for my vehicle which I had to collect from Mumbai for my vehicle, hence I got in touch with my vendor in Opera house and asked him to deliver it to Thane. The target was Thane and we were not required to go inside city. Only to collect these materials we had to go, if this information was shared with HVK before he would have collected the material and given to us in Thane, since he works close to that place and lives in Thane.

We reached Mumbai and collected the materials at 11:20 PM from Dongri, Umarkhandi, and we finished our dinner from a hotel close to Marine drive. We spent some time here and booked a hotel near by and called it a day.
The driving was shared between me and Nischal. I drove from Pune till hotel.

Vehicles parked at hotel



Day 1 ODO reading

Leh Ladakh Day 02 (May 18 2019): Mumbai -> Halol
Total distance covered: 504 kms
Driving time: 12 hours 30 mins, including pit stops

Today the target was that we finish visiting SOU and later proceed till we can stretch. We quickly finished our breakfast and were ready by 10:00 AM. A message comes from HVK saying if we are this late daily, we will not be able to reach our destination in time. We started at 10:10 AM from Mumbai and stopped for lunch by 02:15 PM and continued our journey to SOU.

Filled Diesel to brim

The tickets were already booked by Akhin, we had taken 4-6 slot. The idea was that we finish the laser show and leave for our next destination. One can book the tickets online using this link https://www.soutickets.in/.

First sight of statue


Entrance










EV for transporting aged people








work in progress




Inside museum


View from balcony

We boarded lift to reach balcony. You can also see the parking available for visitors in the picture if you observe closely.

[abhayankara]

Day 2 Cont..

Around 06:15 PM we moved to food court had coffee and snacks. Laser show started by 06:30 PM, it was a great experience watching the laser show and listening to history audio of iron man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Facilities available in the SOU premises include clean rest rooms, wheel chairs with helping personnel who need them, snacks and more. Adequate staff present for crowd management. The project is still under progress so the final output is something we would be eagerly awaiting to visit again.

It’s Tall and Wonderful

After laser show we started from SOU at 08:00 PM, We discussed with HVK and decided that we stay in Halol. HVK shared new updated maps for us. The RouteO map is very crazy and sometimes gets hanged in the middle. Except that there were no issues in finding the route to hotel. We reached hotel by 10:30 PM, parked our cars and called it a day. The restaurant is attached to it and we had our dinner here and slept.

Our stay for the day

Leh Ladakh Day 03 (May 19 2019): Halol -> Bagru
Total distance covered: 667 kms
Driving time: 12 hours 30 mins, including pit stops

We finished our breakfast from the attached restaurant and started by 09:00 AM, HVK always insisted that we start early by 5:00 AM. Most of the times we could not start that early, but we used to reach our destination on time.

Today's diesel price! Filled to the brim


Sandesh tried his hands on filling the Air




















Most of the times we encountered people coming on wrong direction, we got to be careful driving we thought

The road widening work was in progress in Rajasthan which slowed our progress.We stopped for lunch at Hotel the rising just on the outskirts of Udaipur by 01:40 PM. Service here was very worst and we got delayed here too by ~2 hours.This day was only drive, and no sightseeing. Initially our plan was to go to Amritsar. But Chetan, Pradheep and Janardhan wanted to visit Jaipur. We had 1 buffer day in our itinerary, hence decided that we skip Amritsar now but we will visit it during our return journey. We discussed this with HVK, after few calls we agreed on the changes and finally knew our destination for the day. We had to target Bagru just before Jaipur. for the day. The stay was booked at The Hotel Highway King - Bagru, we reached there by 09:30 PM had our dinner at the restaurant attached to it and call it a day.

[abhayankara]

Leh Ladakh Day 04 (May 20 2019): Jaipur, Bagru -> Behror
Total distance covered: 160 kms
Driving time: 2 hours 10 mins, including pit stops

Today's plan was to visit a few places in Jaipur and travel to the next destination till we can drive. We were a bit relaxed since there was not much driving today, we hired an Innova so that we can travel to places collectively. We finished our breakfast in the same restaurant attached to the hotel by then we had our driver waiting for us. We loaded our luggage into our car and parked them on the outskirts of Jaipur.

Our stay at Bagru


Breakfast for the day

We first went to Jantar Mantar, which is like an outdoor museum with a collection of a number of astrological instruments. It is a collection of huge astronomical instruments that make up this observatory. The most significant among these is the Samrat Yantra which is the largest sundial in India.

Most common sight outside Palace










That's my Zodiac sign

Next, we visited Jal Mahal, it is a great sight to watch a fort standing in the middle of the water. We did not spend much time here, later we proceeded to City palace and stopped at a hotel for our lunch.

After lunch we went to City palace, hired a guide (paid him ₹ 400) It is a lovely palace at Jaipur city center. Guide took us to the palace complex and shared information about the palace history. The Palace is beautifully decorated and houses textile museum, art exhibits. We visited a few shops there and bought a few souvenirs.

After visiting City Palace, we went to Albert Hall Museum. The museum was not open, we took a few pictures here and proceeded towards Birla Mandir.

Birla Mandir: Beautifully carved white marble temple of Lord Vishnu & Goddess Laxmi. Our experience of the temple was great and there was not much rush. The experience was absolutely divine.

It was already 05:00 PM we finished our visit to the temple, later we were dropped to our car parking. We checked with HVK about our next destination and decided that we drive till Behror. Reached hotel by 07:30 PM, checked in and call it a day. We were tired, ordered food to the rooms finished our dinner and slept.

Filled to the brim

[abhayankara]

Leh Ladakh Day 05 (May 21 2019): Behror -> Jammu
Total distance covered: 598 kms
Driving time: 12 hours, including pit stops

Today's target was Jammu, we started from the hotel by 06:40 AM. "Good food day - enjoy your food in the dhabas of Haryana and Punjab" was the message from HVK. Also we were informed to drive cautiously to avoid interceptors. We stopped at Parveen di dhani dhaba for breakfast and ate our stomach full of rotis, dal. Later we proceeded towards Jalandhar, here we took our Toyota Fortuner for regular check up. Once the service advisor was informed about our travel to Leh, he made sure that the car was checked thoroughly.

After we cross JK prepaid will stop working, hence Nischal had procured a postpaid BSNL number and Akhin, Janardhan had their postpaid Airtel numbers which are our lifeline for next few days.

HVK also informed us to take cash as much as possible before we leave Jammu. Hence we withdrew ~ ₹ 60,000 before we reached hotel. Rest of our journey was uneventful, it was only driving. We reached hotel by 06:15 PM, spent some time roaming around near the hotel. Meanwhile Sandesh was busy with his accounts. We had our dinner and slept, tomorrow we had to start early by 05:00 AM.

Fastag saved us time, most of the times we passed tolls less than 1 min










Filled to brim

Leh Ladakh Day 06 (May 22 2019): Jammu -> Srinagar
Total distance covered: 340 kms
Driving time: 13 hours 30 mins, including pit stops

We got up early and started our journey by 05:30 AM, while we were loading our luggage we met Chandru who drove all the way from Bengaluru with his wife, 2 kids. Chandru also had HVK guidance, we were informed about this by HVK earlier day. We got introduced ourselves and started our journey together, from here our itinerary was more or less same. Target for the day was Srinagar passing Shopian, Pulwama. This day was very exciting for us!

We spotted FOX

[abhayankara]

Once we heard about passing through Shopian and Pulwama, it reminded us of Pulwama attack. I still remember while preparing itinerary we were worried about doing this trip due to tensions between two countries. But after few discussions with HVK we decided to do this trip. A salute to all those soldiers who were martyred in the terrorist attack in Pulwama.

We stopped for breakfast in a small hotel close to a river, we were very hungry. We ate bread omlet, and maggie here. we spent some time here taking few pictures.

Chetan trying his selfie skills












We were delayed here by 1 hour because of the accident
















Our first sight of Himalayas








And it is Nischal now


And finally Sandesh trying his skills












Second sighting for the day

[abhayankara]

Mughal Road - A journey to remember. We were guided to take this route by HVK, but we were little apprehensive taking this route due to news we keep hearing about Shopian. The road was filled with excitement, mystery and lovely weather. There were no place to stop for tea, snacks, except in Peer ki Gali.

We finally reached our stay for the day, house boat in Srinagar by 07:00 PM. It took us some time to settle down here, unloaded our luggage and after a sip pf Tea we got freshen up. Chetan, Janardhan went out to see the city and we asked them to have dinner outside and get parcel to us. Meanwhile we spent some time with Chandru and his family listening to their experience till now. Chetan got us parcel, we had our dinner and call it a day. Remember I had mentioned about buffer day, yes that day was supposed to be tomorrow and the plan was to visit Gulmarg. But we skipped that and target for tomorrow was decided to be Kargil.

Few pictures from the journey,

One of the toughest route we traveled during the trip


























Peer ki gali


Akhin pose












And finally it was Janardhan's turn


SAM - Today was his 1st death anniversary


You were my hardest GoodBye ever

[abhayankara]

Leh Ladakh Day 07 (May 23 2019): Srinagar -> Kargil
Total distance covered: 205 kms
Driving time: 12 hours, 30 mins including pit stops

We were getting ready at 08:30 AM and HVK asked us for the update, we said we are getting ready and will leave soon. But HVK informed us to take the schedule seriously since we might get jammed in Ganderbal and miss the 11:00 AM convoy starting from Sonamarg CP. We quickly settled our bills and started, by then Chandru was also ready and left together.

We skipped our breakfast and thought to have it on the way. By 12:15 PM we were in Sonamarg, decided to have our brunch here but we were informed not to stop anywhere else our road will be closed. So we just continued, by this time our stay was booked firm in Kargil.

Zoji La pass: I have watched many videos of Zoji La and was very excited to experience myself. The roads are not that good and we got to be very cautious about land sliding. The view was very scenic and beautiful with lots of snow all around. Due to land slide we were stopped for few minutes in the middle, it started raining heavily here. We were sitting inside the car having some snacks, some random person comes and knocks at our window. I was driving the Fortuner, he came and asked me whether we were from Karnataka seeing our Car registration in Kannada. We spoke for sometime about our experience and departed, during conversation I learned that they had hired a cab. By then the traffic was cleared and we started to proceed towards Zero point.

Zero point: Amazing place covered with lots of snow. We stopped here and spent some time here playing with snow. Nischal was feeling feverish hence he did not come out, he stayed back in the car.

[abhayankara]

We spent some time here playing, and we continued our journey. All were very hungry, we stopped after a check-post for our lunch and it was
already 04:00 PM. We had bread omlet, maggie and roti curry. After this we proceeded towards Kargil war memorial.

This was in Sonamarg. We stopped here for few pictures.

Kargil war memorial: We reached this place around closure time, We paid respects to Kargil war heroes, also visited a small museum with some video show, which has details of this war and people who laid their lives, fighting for India. A must visit attraction.

We reached hotel by 09:30 PM, we finished our dinner made few calls to home and slept.

[abhayankara]

Leh Ladakh Day 08 (May 24 2019): Kargil -> Leh
Total distance covered: 220 kms
Driving time: 08 hours, 30 mins including pit stops

This day was full of driving, we finished our breakfast in the hotel and started by 09:00 AM. We visited few places en-route to LEH like Gurudwara Shree Pathar Sahib, Mulbek monastery, Lamayuru monastery and Sangam.

Few pictures from the day..

Mulbek Monastery










































Road work in progress
















Akhin getting ready for the photo shoot

[abhayankara]

Day 08 cont..

And the outcome


Chetu feeding a dog of T shop where we stopped for some refreshments






Nischal trying his photo skills


Pradheep checking his photos




It was very cold! so we lit a fire




It's the turn of Nischal now


and it is Pradheep's










Lamayuru Monastery








Akhin at his best!










Magnetic Hill


The wind was so heavy that we could not get down of our vehicles








It is confluence (Sangam) of river Indus and Zanskar. The colors of the two rivers (Indus - green and Zanskar- grey) can be distinctly seen at the confluence!

We reached our hotel LEH by 05:30 PM, we checked-in to hotel, and requested the Manager to collect our permits. Shreyas had given me contact of a person, so I had got this done before start of the trip. We took some rest and went to LEH market for some shopping. Tomorrows plan was to cover LEH.