[bangarchand]

Background

I have been doing road trips for 30 years now. It was in 1993 I embarked on a trip to Mumbai from my place, Puttur in coastal Karnataka. We are agriculturists and then the tour was done in our maruti omni. After many small trips, we did a tour of north India up to Manali, Rohtang pass in the same omni in 1999. Then in the year 2000, we had brand new qualis and in it, we went to as far as Nepal and many north Indian places and the tour spanned full 20 days. We have visited almost all the hill stations of Himalaya many times in different vehicles. One such tour was in 2013 when we as family went to Leh. Laddakh in Nissan Sunny with five passengers. After we bought Innova crysta in 2020, the frequency of tours just increased but since my elder daughter and son in law are employed they are just not able to spare enough time for road trips. So presently my team just consists of I, my wife, and our differently abled daughter Chandini (30 years of age now). During the last four years our Crysta took us to Sikkim side once, then to Nepal, then Badrinath side and finally to Leh this June.

Presently I am explaining this particular tour to Laddakh.

I am presently 64 years old and my family opposes my long tours with only two above mentioned passengers because of age. So when i proposed Leh as the destination my elder daughter put her foot down firmly, pointing to my age etc. Finally we decided to go to Manali and then go up to baralacha LA to see the snow and ice. But as it turned out the hotel person at Keylong goaded us to change our mind and we proceeded to Leh also. The decision was taken at Keylong. Even though we had winter clothes as we were to go to Baralacha la, we had no other preparation. We did not even have post-paid SIM also and we had not much tools and such other items for that kind of a tough tour. But as it turned out, the tour was a very smooth and had no hiccups at all.

Preparation

Having done long tours many times, we no longer do thorough and detailed preparation nowadays. Actually I had taken my crysta for a 70,000 km service and that evening I suggested to my wife about a tour up to baralacha. Within three days, our tour actually started. I did not fix any new tyre as the two fronts were pretty new and the back ones were about 60%. However I bought one new tyre and fitted that to Stepney as a precaution. But I had no punctures all through the tour and we did not have to bring out the new tyre at all. Since crysta always has alignment problem I did it in puttur prior to our start and twice on the tour.



Day 1 June 19

We left our home by 5 am which is our normal practice and headed towards Mangalore, Udupi. We had our breakfast near Bhatkal in a small place called Shirali at Hotel Pakashaale and then took the road to yellapur. This time we did not wait till the actual deviation and took right turn much earlier on a village road going via Agasuru. The road was narrow but was very lively due to its rustic ambience.

At Kalaghatagi we took right towards Hubli and skipped it on bypass and headed towards bagalkot. We had our lunch at kolhar near Vijaypur. Then we crossed over to the state of Maharashtra at 3 pm and crossed Bheed. By night we were in Aurangabad and with some difficulty found an ordinary hotel for stay. For that we had to take a detour from the highway and enter the city.

Aurangabad is a big city and since we had entered the city, finding direction turned out to be tricky. However we were in our room by 7.45 and had our dinner by 8 pm in the same hotel consisting of Roti and Alu mutter.

The road was by and large very good and the distance covered was 1025 Kms.

Day 2

We left Aurangabad and the famous ellora caves was visible on the right side and where we had been last year. We had our breakfast finished at a very good food joint at Aurangabad and near our hotel. The joint is called Appas tiffin.The maharashtrian brand item vada pav was the main item in our tiffin

Then we headed towards Dhule and climbed up and down a beautiful Kannad Ghat road and then entered the rushy town called Chalisgaon. Police stopped us to check the document. When i was fumbling in mobile phone to show the insurance and could just find the previous years copy, the police was convinced and told me to go without worry, but asked me to delete the old insurance and keep the new one in an easy folder. Had vada pav again and crossed over to the state of MP and passed the city of Sendhwa and had our lunch in a food court on highway. Then we proceeded on a state highway which was bad and reached Ratlam. By 4.45 we joined Delhi Mumbai express way (8 lane). But then realised that we were very low on diesel and climbed down to state road to refill. After that we rejoined the express highway which is butter smooth and the drive was very fast. But again we deviated to get to the Kota road and by now it was 6.45. We found a hotel at gopalpura which was about 30 kms before Kota. The rooms were very good and dinner was excellent.

We did 723 Kms for the day..
KANNAD GHAT



Day 3

We left the room at 6.30 and went towards Jaipur. On the way we had our breakfast at a place called Beoli. By ten, we passed Jaipur on ring road and after a while got onto a good road. At 12 pm we were stopped by police for a bribe of 400/ (he had asked for full 2,000/) for so called over speeding. Had our lunch in a Sukdev dhaba.

By 2.30 we got into the trans haryana expressway and drove for two hours. We had come in this road a year back while returning from Shimla. We crossed Ambala and Chandigarh on bypass. But after Chandigarh, and at a place called Karat, we were asked to use a village road as there seemed to be a big block on highway. After crossing Mohali, We found a lodge( sahil palace) in Roopnagar and had our dinner there.

This day we did 745 kms

Day 4

We left Rupnagar and had our breakfast in the famous Pardesi dhaaba. There are many new tunnels on this road towards Manali. Road was good. By 1 pm we had our lunch in a hilly highway at kullu by the side of river Beas. After that the road through Manali was very rushy with vehicles. We bypassed Manali and headed towards Solang valley which had a massive horde of tourist people. Then we passed the famous Atal tunnel and reached Keylong without any issues. We also had our dinner there.

As our destination was only Baralacha la and Shinku la we did not enter Manali, as we knew we were returning on the same road and can do site seeing then. As it turned out we proceeded to Leh and Manali sightseeing just did not occur.

The hotel person at Keylong told us that we can easily go to leh and need not go to shinku la because there is a lot of snow and ice on baralacha la road itself. I booked my permit to nubra and pangong side online by paying 1650/rs for 3 persons and converted my jio SIM to postpaid. But as it turned out the online conversion does not help. So our phones did not work in j&k for five days.

We covered 300 kms for the day..

MANALI BYPASS


Day 5

Keylong was very cold, especially in the morning. As the air was pretty thin we were getting tired pretty quickly. After Keylong comes jispa and darcha and then we climb the baralacha la. Some where in the middle a road deviates to Shinku la. The road was pretty okay up to Baralacha la. But the melting of snow had made the road extremely slushy. There is massive snow and ice all over and everywhere. The Deepak talk is on our left side. Although it is small it is very beautiful. Lots of tourists were at baralacha la and play on ice. It was milky white till yours can reach there. The very famous suraj tal is magnificent and looked heavenly. We climbed down and reached Sarchu. and had our lunch there. We met three bikers from Bengaluru there.

The road after baralacha la is very bad. It is not only potholes, there are many ditches and then few water crossings on the road. The water streams are also quite tricky. We passed zing zing bar, pang , whiskey bridge and gata loops on the way. The road continued to be bad up to Morey plains. Even though the road surface was smooth around morey plains, it was very bumpy. We then headed towards Taglang la which is very high. The road there also was very bad and and the temperature was 0 degree when we reached there. The cold breeze which was whipping past our face made our stay there very tough. The road is again slushy on the descent and with difficulty we reached Uspshi which is about 50 kms from leh. The road now turned out to be good. But since our phones were dead and with no maps we reached leh asking here and there for directions. At the leh gate we proceeded further and luckily found a decent hotel on the right side on the leh-kargil road and also had our dinner there.

Leh city hasn't changed much since our last visit. Today we covered 360 KMS

DEEPAK Tal


BARALACHA LA


SURAJ Tal


Day 6

We got up leisurely and had our breakfast in the same hotel. Around 10 am, we went towards the hall of fame of the military. But since it was monday it was closed. We took few photographs and then went to leh palace with the help of offline Google map that I had downloaded on previous night. The palace is on a rocky hill and car parking is tough. The palace is built with logs of wood which is normal here. From there we went to the famous Shanti stupa. Therewe met a a team from Karnataka and we had a brief chat with them. By the by I went to a jio shop to ask if I can get the postpaid jio new sim. But since the aadhaar OTP comes to my airtel number which is dead, it failed. Then went to the airtel office who directed me to another branch who told that she can do that with my driving licence. But then the licence number did not work properly and that attempt also failed.

In the evening we went to leh market which was very neat and immaculate. We had some pakoda,ice cream and then retired to our room, had our dinner in a different hotel and slept....

SHANTI STUPA


Day 7

This morning we left the room at 6 am and started our climb to khardung la. The road is OK or so it seemed in the beginning. but as we climbed higher, roads became tough, the weather chilly and heavy snowfall also. It was very difficult to control the car and make it climb. At one point I even thought of returning. Since it was early morning it happened because when we returned in the evening things were pretty normal.

At Khardung la we had few photos and since the chill overpowered us we quickly left the place and started our descent to North Pullu. Here also the road was full of fresh snow.

KHARDUNG la


khardung la road


But once we reached north pullu, things improved. Had our breakfast in a small roadside hotel and reached Diskit at noon. We climbed the hill where we find the famous statue of Maithreyi Buddha. The statue is very beautiful and the surrounding area was very neat...

MAITREYi BUDDHA


sand dunes hunder


Then we went to Hunder sand dunes which is about 9 kms from there. The camels were taking rest. The place is completely different here. We had few photos and then started our return trip to leh.

We stopped at a place called kalsar, had diesel for the car and food for us. From here you can deviate and go to siachen base camp. The road was very good and by evening we came to the same hotel and had the same room. We did not intend to visit pangong as we had done it earlier and mainly because of its high altitude and remoteness. Since my daughter, Chandini, is slightly disabled we did not want to take risks again.

We did 240 kms for the day

Day 8

This morning we left the hotel and headed towards Srinagar. The road was smooth but Chandini was vomiting and head ache. This could have been due to mild AMS. I washed the car on the way. We went to lamayuru monastery which is on the way and one which we could not go during our last trip. We had our lunch at Drass, passing kargill. We stopped at the famous kargil memorial and spent some quality time. The place hasn't changed a bit in last ten years. As Chandini was omitting and dull, we just forgot to stop at Magnetic hills even though it is on the road itself.

Then comes gumri and then at 2.15 we were at Zo zilla. Here the vehicles are allowed on one way with a shift of 6 am and 2 pm up to Sonamarg. Luckily at 2 pm that day vehicles were to climb down from kargil side. We were just there when the road was opened and we were in front of most of the trucks. Cars are normally allowed to break the queue and go further. At Zo zilla there was not much snow. The road, as expected, was rushy but the surface was pretty okay. But it was very tough to make way for our ar among huge number of trucks, probably more than 5,000.!

We reached Sonamarg by evening. Viewing the beautiful scenes on either side, we proceeded towards Srinagar. Last time we had a brief stay at Sonamarg itself. There was a roadblock on the way and reached Srinagar by 7 pm. But we had a lot of difficulty there as the hotel I had marked in google turned out to be non-existent. It was already 8 pm and we were on a narrow one way road. The local youth, sensing that we were outsiders, asked us to turn around on the road itself even though it was one-way and forced the local vehicles to make way for our crysta and guided us till we reached Dal lake gate. We thanked them profusely. Once we were on the banks of Dal lake, we easily found a good room in hotel malik which is on the frontside of dal lake. We had our food there and went to the room. The view of dal Lake is very impressive from our room itself.

The days journey was pretty tough and we did 445 kms...

Day 9

This morning we left the room at 8.30 and headed towards Gulmarg. Since it is summer we did not expect to see snow there. We had our breakfast on the way and reached Gulmarg at around 10 am. The lush greener was an excellent view for us. The road is good and traffic was not heavy as we had come much earlier than the routine flow of tourists.

In Gulmarg we hired a Scorpio and he showed us around the gondola, hindu temple, places where film shootings are done, golf ground and Raja's palace. I had a short horse ride(100/) and then returned to our car after an hour and half. I paid 1700 for the Scorpio, had tea there and came down to Srinagar. We had our dinner in a so-called udupi hotel on the way. Before going to the hotel, we went to Lal chowk which is very neatly maintained now unlike 10 years back. Had some juices there and then came to our lodge. After parking, we ambled across to the lake side and bargained hard for a boat ride for 15 mnts only for 300/.

Then we took some rest in the room. In the evening we went to the other end of Dal lake and visited Nishat bhag garden. The other garden namely shalimar was also nearby but din’t go there as we had been there earlier. By 7.30 we went to a Punjabi dhaba near our hotel for dinner, met a Kerala couple and then slept early.

Day 10

This morning we left the room early and headed towards Jammu. We knew that it was the first day of Amarnath yatra vehicles arrival and were expecting blocks enroute. Before Banihal there indeed was the road bloc by local administration to facilitate the flow of yatra vehicles. The block was on since 5 am and we had to wait till 12.15 at qazigund in the block with thousands of vehicles. It was an exasperating wait for nearly six hours and then we were allowed to proceed further. We had our lunch at Banihal and fresh roadblocks stopped us on the way. We initially wanted to reach Amritsar for the night halt but finally by 8 pm we found a good hotel to stay on the outskirts of Jammu only. We had our dinner also there.

Today we covered only 250 kms

Day 11

The morning traffic was very sparse and we sped past Pathankot and headed towards Amritsar. On the way we had our breakfast near Gurdaspur.

We reached the temple premises around 11 am. The surrounding areas of the temple have improved vastly over the years. Here we have to park the car in the parking complex where it was very daunting to enter and then find a slot also.

We went inside the golden temple, passing the famous jallianwala bagh. The temple was thronging with devotees. It is still very magnificent. The queue was serpentine. We spent useful time there and went to the langar to have our food. While going inside and also while coming out we had famous Punjabi lassi....

golden temple AMRITSAR


From there we got onto the express highway (amritsar-jamnagar) and alighted it after driving vigorously for nearly four hours. By 8 pm we got out of it to proceed to Bikaner and found a beautiful lodge/resort which was booked by our daughter Padmini online from Bangalore for us. Our dinner was done there

Today we covered 840 kms

Day 12

This morning we got up leisurely as the fort was opening at 10 am. We went there early, visited the museum at 9.30 and were ready for the entry into the junagarh fort. Fort is very big and well laid out. Chandini was not feeling quite well and we had some rest there for some time.

After that we had no other agenda at Bikaner and headed towards our home. The road again continued to be the express highway and we deviated from it by evening and got our rooms in Palanpur in Gujarat. It was raining copiously all through the evening. Palanpur seems to be a big city.

Today we did 535 kms.

Day 13

We left the hotel early and headed towards Ahmedabad, went in and hopped out quite quickly and sped towards Vapi in gujarat. Just before we entered vapi, we deviated to the right for 15 kms and went to Daman city which belongs to the Goa administration. Daman is a small town and its beaches are very excellent and pretty famous also. Since liquor is very cheap here like Goa, tourists come there in large numbers.

After exiting Daman and vapi we sped towards Thane. But the road blocks were plenty and massive. The rains which had started the previous day continued. Hence we had to stop at Virar (north of Mumbai) where we found a good hotel. On the way I had damaged the front fender of the car while reversing at the hotel and luckily we found a good Denter who rectified it easily to our relief.

Day 14

Today we left the room in the wee hours and passed bhiwandi and thane. Pune express highway was quite easy this time unlike last year when the traffic there was just crawling. Even Pune city did not pose any challenge. But the road since then has been a big let down. Right after Pune and till Belgaum road work was posing serious challenges with frequent blocks, long drives in service roads. It virtually sapped us of our energy and by evening we could just reach dharwad where we had tea.

At dharwad we deviate to kalghatagi, then yellapur and the ghat road for nearly 160 kms. Road surface was good but the rain was heavy and the drive was very slow. So without much thinking, we got rooms at Kumta at hotel Panduranga international where we had stayed on our previous tour also. It was 10 pm and we just about managed to have our dinner there.

Day 15

This morning we left the room at 5 am and raced towards home, passing Kundapur and Udupi. At Baikamapdi we had beautiful idli and coffee and by 9.30 we were in the bypass of puttur and were home by 10 am.

Conclusion

The tour of leh ladakh is very challenging even now. The high altitude, cold weather, bad to worst roads will make you very low in spirit. But the totally different Himalayan mountains there, massive landscape of white and white ice and snow makes it very thrilling and memorable. For the curious tourists, leh and ladakh region in itself is nothing extraordinary. But the roads leading to it and then going toward Kashmir are fantastic and very unique. For that the trip by road is the only option. But it is definitely not for the faint hearted.

Innova crysta behaved excellently and competently. It is in fact it's fifth tour to Himalayas. My fellow passengers had no issues of concern at all although the duration.

more photos are as below...

highway somewhere


SURAJ TAL


LEH CITY


LEH MARKET


HALL OF FAME

[hothatchaway]

What a wonderful journey and an equally endearing write up! You made it sound so simple sir. Just proves that it's the mind behind the wheel that matters, nothing is impossible.

Keep driving and keep writing

[nareshtrao]

Hats off to your spirit and courage Sir. Absolutely beautiful write-up. Lovely family too which shares your enthusiasm. Wish you many more miles. Keep driving and keep writing.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[GTX+]

You are an inspiration sir for someone (like me), who only dreams and makes paper plans that one day I will just get up from sleep, load my luggage and drive out for a pan India trip, but in reality keeps delaying due to the routines of daily life. I think its about time.

This was a fantastic write up of a trip which I am sure you enjoyed to the hilt. I hope you continue to travel more and cheer us up with such wonderfully written travelogues. And last but not the least, hats off to your family for supporting & participating with you in your adventures.

[Kashi053]

Thats an awesome adventure road trip. As always unplanned journeys are the best experience.