[ac 427]

Originally Posted by rrahul_2778

Woww...AC thats one awesome road to drive. Full on twistees . Been reading your travelogue, great stuff.

hey thanks a lot, will be putting up more exciting pics and blogs shortly,

regards

AC

[ramkya1]

AC: That Roadshot is surreal, is it some trick shot? The gradiant looks like they climb up 45 degrees and the surfaces look pretty smooth.

Awaiting more like this and your story.

--Ramky
=====

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

AC: That Roadshot is surreal, is it some trick shot? The gradiant looks like they climb up 45 degrees and the surfaces look pretty smooth.

Awaiting more like this and your story.

--Ramky
=====

hey all, Am back in mumbai, my car survived almost everything akin to the TG episode in which JC and team put the hilux to the test.

Will give a day by day update.

@ Ramkya: no trick photography here, what you see is what it is. I would rate this drive as one of my best drives ever.

Cheers,
ac

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by ac 427

Day 1: Mumbai to Nagpur.
Approx: 900 km.
We started our serious drive @ 5.30 a.m, our 1st Destination was Shirdi, we wanted to reach shirdi as soon as possible, so we hammered down on the highway, few sections of the roads still under construction, but over all Mumbai – shirdi is a pleasant drive.
We reached shirdi @ 7.40 a.m and took our first break for ‘breakfast’ after having our fill we started again @ 8.20 to go towards dhule. Guys the drive from Shirdi to Dhule is like a dream, the roads are 2 laned, even after rains the roads were in perfect condition.

Cheers
ac

AC, great travelogue there. Your original plan was Mumbai->Nashik->Dhule. Did you change that to Mumbai->Shirdi? Which route did you take to Shirdi? Also I am confused about Shirdi->Dhule route. Did you not go via NH3 (Shirdi->Manmad->Malegaon) to get to Dhule?

Waiting for more pictures and details of your trip.
-Biju

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

AC, great travelogue there. Your original plan was Mumbai->Nashik->Dhule. Did you change that to Mumbai->Shirdi? Which route did you take to Shirdi? Also I am confused about Shirdi->Dhule route. Did you not go via NH3 (Shirdi->Manmad->Malegaon) to get to Dhule?

Waiting for more pictures and details of your trip.
-Biju

My bad, i mean't nashik here.


cheers,
ac

[ac 427]

We woke up on sunday, filled with hope that we will get permits for restricted areas that we wanted to go towards. We had our breakfast at cafe tibet, and re-confirmed our plan for the next destination.

Here was the challenge - getting road permits for self driven cars in sikkim is considered next to impossible, especially since our car was a MH regd car, so, our whole trip hinged on this permit.

The expected answer we got from the permit and tourism office was that we would HAVE To go by local tour packages, there was no way we'd get a permit. it seemed unfair to us that we had to beg for a permit in our own country!!

Finally, being a Sunday, there wasn’t much more we could do, other than make a few calls and try to use some army contacts, and at the least get some more info. a bit dejected, we nevertheless decided to head out to rumtek monastery, about 12 km's from gangtok. not a very exciting visit, except for seeing some monks chase a guinea pig inside the monastery.

Trying to overcome an unsuccessful day hunting for permits, we decided to end the day on a good note by treating ourselves to some good drinks and food at pub 25.

However, an incident that occurred soon after seemed to very un-subtly tell us that perhaps we are not welcome in Sikkim…atleast not in our own car and not without tourist bookings.

Anyways Gangtok is a place which s a ‘haven’ shopping. And the place supremely beautiful. Attached are a few touristy pics.

killer breakfast at 'cafe tibet' but mind you it was pretty expensive, a breakfast for 4 of us cost around Rs 500.


Sikkim is a Smoke free state, so smokers beware, if caught you are fined Rs 200/- and here there is no getting away. Ask us.


lovely quote at a store.


a lovely tibetan based hotel, was way out of our budget.


thanda matlab cocacola


Rumtek Monastary

[ac 427]

Day 6 Gangtok – Mangan.
Day 6 of the trip was the most topsy turvy day I have encountered for a while. Day 6 begun on a horrible note, I had parked my scorpio in a no parking zone for which my license and the car papers were seized by the traffic police. The traffic police in Gangtok is extremely rude and extremely strict. To reclaim my papers I was to go to the district court and pay the fine and then come back again to the police inspector who would then give me my papers back.
This put my whole plan in jeopardy. We had planned to be at the Permit office by 8.00 a.m, and beg for permissions, but for that we would require original documents, which were with the police…. An horrible start to the day.
So from here began the day, I ran to the district court only to find that it opens by 10.00 a.m, and the permit office closes by 10.00 a.m . So we eventually split up, my friends went to the permit office, I went to collect my license. At the permit office, it was the same story as yesterday, NO PERMITS for private vehicles…we tried to convince them about us, told that we have driven down from Mumbai, but still no permits, while all this was happening I was at the district court paying my fine and getting my license collected. The Gangtok police has a very unique way collecting fine, we have to directly go and deposit the money in the bank account provided to us by the traffic police, once we show then the money has been paid, they will give us a ‘parchi’ the same has to be handed over to the traffic inspector who has seized the license. I deposited the money in the bank, while I am doing that I get a distress call from my friend, he calls me saying that he is having car trouble. On reaching where my friend asked me to come, I found that he had tried getting the mhawk on a 40 degree incline on the second gear, because according to him the 1st gear was not getting engaged. So he tried to do the steep incline in 2nd gear. And by doing so almost burn’t the whole clutch plate and pressure plate.
It was going bad to worse for me, first the car papers and my license being sized, now the clutch plate / pressure plate almost burn’t…I was like ‘GOD THIS IS A HOLIDAY, it is supposed to be stress free and not the one that gives stress’. None the less I and my friend then drove the mhawk back to the district court (the smell of the clutch plate and pressure was pretty heavy) from where I collected my ‘parchi’, and again then went to the traffic police who had my license, showed him the ‘parchi’ and collected my papers.
Now we had only one option of getting permits, which was to visit the Police check post in Development area. By now it was already 12.00 p.m. We reached the Police point in Development area and eventually managed to get the permits by 3.30 p.m, almost whole day was gone, and we were still stuck in Gangtok. But on the bright side we had the permits.
Even with the burnt clutch, we decided to continue as per our plan, which was to reach lachen. The road from Gangtok to Mangan is BAD. We drove slowly but the smell of the clutch was giving us more and more tension. Eventually we reached mangan and decided that we need to show our car to the mechanic. We found this interesting mechanic, his name actually is ‘bullet’. He gave us the bad news that our clutch plate & pressure plate is completely burnt’ and we will need a new one. By the time we reached mangan it was 7.00 p.m, he said he will check up for spares in a shop at mangan. But to our dismay the shop did not have the spares.
Now the current situation is that we have the permits to go but our car needs repairs. Tommorows plan is to wait for the spares, get the car repaired and the head to lachen.

Stay at lachen tomorrow and attempt gurdongmar lake day after, but if we do that, we will have to skip other places.

The natural dense forest of Sikkim, enroute to mangan


Road block.


Road block.


Dark Clouds looming larger over our heads :(


Finally North Sikkim.


Don't mess with this vechicle.


Going high


The mighty hawk, doing what it loves to do, ride on.







My beautiful Mahindra Scorpio Gran Tourer







Cheers,
Ac

[ac 427]

Day 7.

The day starts @ 6.00 a.m with a call to the M&M Gangtok dealer to remind him to send the clutch plate from Gangtok to Mangan. He confirmed that the car part will be dispatched at the earliest. The part was expected to come @ 10.00, and the mechanic would take around 2/ 3 hours to put in the new clutch plate. And then from mangan to lichen is a 3 hours drive. And then from lachen we can launch our attack on Gurudongmar lake
That was the plan.

Anyways, as it is said, if you plan for something exactly the opposite will happen, we got the part by around 12.00 and the mechanic took around 4 hours to put everything together. We finally set off from Mangan @ around 4.00 p.m, while the mechanic was putting everything together, I thought of walking around the extremely small village, infact the population of the whole village put together is only 350. Is a nice peaceful small village, though with extremely bad English, you will see the same in my pictures. Food predominatly is vegetarian, and primary diet is momos and thukpa.

By the way when one is in Mangan one has to do this. At 4.00 a.m get up and have a look at the Kanchenjunga mountain, it apparently changes colors every 5 minutes, from stark red to purple to even blue. We missed it as we did not get up but if anyone of you is planning this itinerary again, do not miss it.

Anyways coming back to my trip, the car was ready by 4.00 p.m and we headed off to lachen, this stretch was very dangerous to drive on, the road was covered with muck and the car was sliding across the road, problem was on the other side was a deep cliff and the opp side a wall and hence here a 4 x 4 was required, sad thing that my scorpio was 2 x 4. None the less we reached lachen late in the night around 8.00 p.m and trust me 8.00 p.m is LATE. Like ‘hotels shut down late’. We managed to get a hotel for ourselves, checked in and wanted to settle down and crash early as next day we had to get up @ 4.00 a.m to leave @ 5.00 a.m.

But that was not supposed to be, our left rear tyre developed a puncture and in that extreme cold we were trying to change the try. We tried unscrewing the bolts but they did not budge, the weather was so cold that everything was just getting jammed, then I heated the bolts individually so that they expand and once that happened we changed the tyre. So now we were headed off to Gurdongmar lake with a brand new clutch and not even a spare trye with us. We were really pushing our luck.

Anyways we went in settled for dinner, there we found another traveler from Mumbai, exchanged pleasentaries travel stories.
After that we crashed, with Gurudongmar dreams in our heads

Cheers,
ac

Actual cutting in progress.





Living on the Edge.





Mining in progress.


The handsome lad.





Indias 'angel falls' can't even tell you how high / grand this water fall was


Indias 'angel falls' can't even tell you how high / grand this water fall was


the muck covered roads i was talking about


sit down dinner @ lachen.





View from my hotel




that is some ones residence. Not a hotel.


this boy was riding his imaginary bike. A future bhpian


thats an actual street dog.


have fresh stay well...


pizza paratha


I did not dare ask him for directions


for ladies only and for gents only ?


emly restaurant ?


Lather jackets ?


voda fone recharge card avalibal hear ?



The view from my hotel room.


The view from my hotel room

[ac 427]

Day 8.

No long stories, no mincing of words, no beating around the bush. One of the most memorable days of my life.

Here sharing a few memories with you guys.

Enjoy & be inspired to visit this magnanimous lake.

cheers,
ac

[ac 427]

More Pics.

cheers,
ac

[ac 427]

More of the lake.

Am sure you guys will not be bored. This is driving haven for true petrolheads.

cheers,
ac

[BolBolero]

@ac 427,
Lovely snaps sir. You and your beloved M-Hawk, seem to have had quite an adventure and come out of it unscathed. Kudos to your never say no spirit.
Looking forward to more snaps from your sojourn.
A small request: if you did maintain a trip log, would it be possible to upload the same here.

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by BolBolero

@ac 427,
Lovely snaps sir. You and your beloved M-Hawk, seem to have had quite an adventure and come out of it unscathed. Kudos to your never say no spirit.
Looking forward to more snaps from your sojourn.
A small request: if you did maintain a trip log, would it be possible to upload the same here.

yeah i did maintain a log.

much more pics to come.

cheers,
ac

[sierrakamat]

nice work awesome pictures neat write up somehow the terrain seems very much like the leh drive the beauty of these places is the silence that greets you and the magnitude of the place really can really make you rethink your life and you wonder whether all that you are doing back home is really worth it.

[ac 427]

Day 9 Lachen – lachung

The day of recuperating, the day of getting back to senses, the day of realizing and the day of actually believing that we did visit Gurudongmar lake. A car that drove all the way from Mumbai, over came all the problems and actually visited Gurudongmar lake.

This was the day to leave lachung, go back to mangan and then head towards east Sikkim to lachung. We planned to visit katau peak.

The day started early with we bidding adieu to Lachen, road conditions as usual were horrible, but my mhawk lapped the uneven roads out. The drive to lachung was uneventfull except for the fact that we were blocked by a land slide

Then we saw the BRO working and planting real dynamites (another first for me) and blowing the pieces of rock away from the road. The drive to lachung took us around 5 odd hours. IT was a very scenic drive, with us giving lifts to locals.

We reached lachung around 12.30. Checked in to this sweet hotel / lodge whose name was ‘Aku’s nest’. Lachung is actually a winter destination and it apparently goes ‘housefull’ during winters. Since we had the whole day to us we decided to explore the small town and what better way than to do it via on foot we finished exploring the town in maximum 60 minutes, that’s how small the town is. We came back hungry and entered ‘iceberg’ hotel where a few patrons were having a full fledged lunch, we asked for lunch and the answer came sir we have not cooked for you and we can only give you ‘maggie’. We questioned why the other guys were giving a full 4 course meal and why we were served only Maggie ? They replied ‘sir we have not accounted for you guys and hence did not cook’ and the food that we have is enough only for our current patrons. So we then figured that the guys who were eating were from a ‘tours and travels bookings’. So we requested them to cook food for us in the night, to which they gladly obliged.

These are the kind of small niggles one has to face while not travelling with a tours and travels company in Sikkim. But we put all that behind and started our sojurn on foot. Another unique thing about Lachung is the way they sell Fuel, fuel is not sold from a petrol pump, but like a FMCG. They sell fuel in cans over the counter We bought 20 litre fuel from there at a v cheap price.

Anyways that day we were very chilled out, had lovely dinner and drinks as the weather was complimenting it, shared paranormal experiences with the locals and had a nice time.

Attached are a few pics of the locals and our trip.




'I'm going to blow you away' this guys fav song i guess.


Dynamite


Explosions..Galore


Waterfall and fall and fall


'Bitchu' I wonder if the movie was inspired from here.


Such positive thinking, they are sure we will not survive.




The hotel we stayed in 'Akus nest'


Our Backyard


Our backyard


Katao or Yumthang?? Where do we go now ?


Respect : Indian Army - motto - Faithfull untill dead


Girls Take NOTE !!!


Waterfalls and falls and falls


National Integration. India is ONE, if anyone doubted this.


Faces of Sikkim


'ICEBERG INN" The best maggie in the world !!!


BMW Racing, here there everywhere.


Sign of things to come ??


More signs ??


Faces of sikkim


Are you talking to me ?


Happy faces


Fuel Station: The house








The indian army is genuinely the 'Mountain Tamers'



Cheers,
ac