Mumbai To Lakadh in XUV 500 (Part 4)

           

Day 13, 1^st July Pangong Tso to Tso Morir 208km approx. 

Good morning guyz and gals,it is 7 am and today we will be proceeding towards our next destination that is Tso Moriri. So let’s get ready and pack our bags and proceed towards the breakfast area, “Let’s do some bird watching during daytime, kal andhere mein aache se ladkiyan dikh nahin rahi thi”. Yaar ek bucket garam paani se nahane bhi nahin ho raha hai, kal usko 2 bucket bolna chahiyey tha per person. Swapnil and Amit are done with bathing, main manager ko bolta hoon mera wala paani extra boil karne taaki hot aur cold ka mixture karke 2 bucket ho jaaye. It is 8:40 am, morning chores aur packing karne mein 1 hour 45 minutes ho gaye and we are getting late for breakfast also, let’s have a heavy breakfast so that jayada food stop lene ki zaroorat nahin pade. These girls are going, oh shit man we are late yaar I had thought that atleast we would have some pilot vehicle infornt of us while going towards Tso Moriri. 

Chalo koi baat nahin it is a bus how far can they go, we will drive fast and cover up the distance which we will lose because of this delay. Let’s check out the breakfast, today they are serving us bread butter, tea, coffee, milk and poha, yummy having poha after so many days. The chef has made poha in authentic Maharastrian style and this is good because we don’t like poha in any other style. Before we proceed I would like to tell you some facts about the lake.

Tso Moriri or Moriri Lake is also known as ‘Mountain Lake’ because the lake is nestled in the middle of peaks with the height of 20,000 feet, completely shutting the lake from the outside world. The lake is mostly fed with spring waters and snow melting from the nearby mountains and the water of the lake is not having any outlet to the outside world other than its length of 26km. The lake water has a dark blue colour and the water is very clean. Bahot ho gayi information, 208kms ki long drive pe chalte hai bina jayada time waste kiye. Hum jo chalne lage chalne lage hai yeh raaste, haan haan haan mazil se behtar lagne lage hai yeh raaste hai and we have struck the clock. Finally we have found the place which was in 3 idiots where the last kiss scene was shot between Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

It is my dream to park the car in the middle of the lake and take some pics of my beast admist the beauty. This after Man Village. It’s time for some pics, humare co-writer sahab Amit ko pata nahin kya hua hai who gaadi se bahar nahin aa raha. Jaane do hum photoshoot karte hai, our photoshoot session lasted for almost 45 minutes.

There is another tourist car which has arrived and even they are clicking pics. Meanwhile we will talk to the driver as to where they are headed to. The driver is saying that they are also going towards Tso Moriri only and this is good thing as we will get company on this lonely route. While talking to him another car has arrived and guess what it is MH 03 passing private car we are also talking to them and they are saying they are from Chembur. These private car people have parked their car very near the lake where I wanted to park mine but Swapnil said that the land may not be very hard to carry the load of the car so we decided to park it here only.

Now it is 10:26 am so let’s not waste any further time and proceed towards Tso Moriri. We are doing off roading as there is no proper road over her just tire marks and with the help of my both navigators Swapnil and Amit I am driving the car. This lake is quite long, we have travelled more than 30kms and we are still driving by the lake only. We are going up the hill and still the lake is besides us the scenery is very nice, it looks like that we are driving next to a river and not a lake. Chalo the lake is saying goodbye to us and we are diverting from here and entering the army camp. The road is sloping downwards and suddenly we are hearing some noise from the car. “Oh shit agar break down hua toh idhar koi bhi nahin hai dur dur tak humari help karne ke liye”. We are getting down to check what is wrong with our beast, arey yaar this Mentokling Motors mechanics have not fixed the under body engine cover and it has again come out. I had said him that they need to fix few more screws as the space was empty but these people “china ke phone ke jaisa kaam kiya hai,chale toh chand tak nahin toh sham tak”.

Swapnil and I are trying to get under the car and trying to remove the cover completely but we are too fat to go under the car. So now I am reversing the car a bit so that we are on a steeper slope and will try to get under the car. No use of this, only Amit can fit under the car. From now onwards he is our navigator less Snacks distributor less DJ less a mechanic also. We are trying to figure out how to remove it but the other screws are tightened properly and the place where it is not screwed has come out. I have a seatbelt cutter let’s try and cut this part out, Amit is trying to cut but it is of no use the cutter is not that sharp that it can cut such a thick rubber guard. The tourist car that we had seen by lake and talked to the driver has come and they are helping us. The driver is saying that we should keep driving and the piece will automatically break off due to friction, so we are now again starting our drive without thinking about it.

Now I am giving the wheel to Swapnil and allowing him also to enjoy this scenic drive. We have again reached a diversion and the GPS map is showing a different route and the mobile map is showing another route, now we have to do a toss between both of them and we have decided to go with the mobile map as it is the latest one. We are taking a right and going towards the upper side of the hill rather than going to the down side towards the village.  We have reached a check post sort off a thing and it is also a kind off dead end as vehicles are not allowed beyond this point. The guard came and told us that we have to go back and take the other route this route is only open for army personnel. Oh damn yaar, they should put a sign board stating the vehicles are not allowed beyond this point or diversion to Tso Moriri is from here. Anyways let’s go back and take that diversion and pass from the village. This village seems to be a haunted one, not a single soul can be seen inside or outside the house, the whole village is empty. And within 2 mins we entered the village and we exited it as well, being so small no one was visible.

Now we have reached someplace where there is actually no road at all. We are in the middle of the desert and right now I can think of one line that is “My Life My Rules, My Car My Roads”, we are following the car GPS which is showing us some road and accordingly we are driving the car but if you look at the video clip actually there is no such road at all and there are no other tourist vehicles also who we can follow. It is just a big desert and our left side there is a fencing done and some warning board is put stating that "the land is reserved for sheep breeding". 

I wonder kaun itni dur aayegi sheep breeding karne.  We are still going and going and going and I guess we have crossed more than 40 to 50kms driving without any proper road and finally we have again reached a point where we have to drive up the hill without any road at all “pata nahin kya hoga humara”. At such a popular tourist place atleast these people should flatten the surface so that we can drive our cars, don’t make tar and cement roads but atleast flatten them so that we do not have to navigate the vehicles through these rocks.

Anyways we are trying to dodge these boulders and Swapnil is giving his best but our beast needs more power than what he is giving. The slope is too steep and the angle is around 45 degrees so we need to reverse down our mean machine and give a full acceleration inorder to conquer this mountain. I am getting down so that I can help Swappy to reverse the car and will first check where we should go from because we don’t want to get stuck between these boulders in this lonely mountain. I guess these tourist drivers do know another way as we are the only ones who is driving on this stretch from such a long time and we cannot see a single vehicle either coming or going from this direction. We have reversed the car and reached a flat surface beneath the mountain; now let’s mark some points from where we can drive up this hill. All three of us are now looking in different directions as to where the tires marks are or any other less risky way is available to climb this hill, and we have spent almost 15 minutes doing R&D on this but nothing came in our hand.

Swappy has also given up that he cannot drive the car. Now everything is on me because Amit has not driven a car in his life so it is either Swapnil or me. Even I never drove on such steep off roads and neither the car is 4*4 which will allow to maneuver easily, but we have to do something. Now we are changing our seating positions, Swapnil will sit in the co – driver seat, Amit in the backseat and I will have to take the steering wheel in my hand. Oh god, please give me as well as my machine the strength to conquer this rocky mountain. Even I am scared but I cannot show it to them because they have hopes on me. “Aaj ya toh aar ya fir paar”, I have rolled my cuffs up and now taken the driving seat, “Jo hoga dekha jaayega”.  I am reversing the car a bit more so that I get enough power before climbing the slope as lots of power will be lost while driving up as I need to tackle big boulders. It is hardly 1kms stretch but is very difficult and risky as the space between 2 boulders is very narrow and if we bash to either one the force will have very bad impact and we will be pushed down the hill and these boulders will come rolling down towards us and we can get crushed easily. With the maximum power and full acceleration we have started to climb this hill and my navigator Swapnil is helping me dodge these boulders as I cannot focus on seeing far more than bonnet of the car and he can concentrate further than that. Somehow we have managed to climb the hill without a single scratch on the car and now we have reached the top of the hill.

The off roading has not yet finished but we have managed to cross the most difficult patch of our life. The top surface is not that flat and we have to still navigate through big bumps on the road or rather say surface. I am still continuing the drive and giving some rest time to Swappy and later when we reach proper roads then he can drive the car. This rough patch is more than 20kms long and it has taken almost 45 minutes to cross. Now finally we have reached a proper surface where we can drive the car without any hassles. Still I am only driving because now I am enjoying the roads. After crossing Pangong this is the 1^st sight of a proper tar road because from the day we have entered Pangong Lake area we are driving without any roads at all. We can finally see a car and many trucks on this patch. I think so we have reached a proper highway, the road which we came from is a short cut as we were able to cut almost 70kms, because originally when I was planning back at home the distance between Pangong and Tso Moriri was around 280kms and now we are going to reach in just 208kms. We have crossed almost 100kms and only 108kms more to go.

After such a mountainous ride we are now feeling very hungry and it is around 3pm and we have seen the 1^st home stay kind of dhabha and general store on this route. We have stopped here to refuel ourselves. They are serving only thalis over here which consists of Chawli Gravy, dal, rice and chapatti so we have ordered 2 thalis only and I am waiting to check whether it is edible or not otherwise I am going to have the snacks which we have in the car. Luckily we are receiving cell phone signals over her so we are making calls turn by turn and informing our families about our current location. By the time my call got finished Amit’s and Swapnil”s food has arrived and they are saying the food is quite tasty so even I am ordering 1 thaali for me. Meanwhile my thaali came; Swapnil and I have entered into a verbal argument. The place is not leveled properly so the place where me and Amit is sitting is bit on downside and whereas Swapnil is sitting is on a higher side, and I am trying to explain him that but he is not ready to listen at all saying that my height is small and the table is too big for me. I tried to explain him but this guy is going on doing the same thing and even I am getting frustrated and I have now started shouting on him and we both have entered into a heated argument right now. Amit is trying to calm us down and Swapnil has completed his eating so Amit is telling him to go make a phone call to his home as well till then even my anger will cool down. All this drama lasted for 5mins and now we are paying the bill and Amit wants to have some chips so he is buying from the restaurants shop itself.

We have started our drive and now we are reaching the 1^st official checkpost Loma. This is the most important check post on this highway as it lies on the INDO – Tibetan border and we are very close to the borders. We are not even allowed to click pictures over here due to security reason and only people living in this area can cross the bridge, others are not even allowed to go over there. But it looks very serene and we wish someone from our families would have been in the army and we could get the permission to see the border. I have not even seen Wagah border till today. I really wish to visit my neighboring countries or let me rephrase those countries which were once a part of India. It is 4pm and now after completing the process we are moving towards the next destination. Now I am handing the charge to Swapnil because it has become very tiring after driving for so long. It is 4:45pm and we have reached somewhere near Nyoma Village and on our left side we have Indus River accompanying us. The river is continuously running parallel with the road and on the map we can see to reach Karzok i.e Tso Moriri we have to cross the river.

Our co-writer Mr. Amit Patil wants to click some pics with the river so we have stopped the car. His photo session lasted for only 5mins. Now we are moving towards our destination because we want to reach the lake before sunset as we don’t intend to extend our stay over here. 

It is 6:30pm and right now we are about to reach some lake, initially I thought that we have reached Tso Moriri because I don’t remember any other lake which had shown in the map during the planning phase but Tso moriri is a big village where tent stays, guest house and Karzok Gompa is situated but this lake is situated in a very isolated place with not a single house around it. Later Amit said that this is Kyagar Tso it is small lake before Tso Moriri. It is 7pm and we have reached another checkpost which is at the entrance of Tso Moriri and this is also a small army camp. We are registering ourselves and proceeding towards the lake now. This army camp is setup very far from the lake as well as the main village.

TSO Moriri

It is 7:10pm and we have finally reached today’s sightseeing point Tso Moriri. Now is the time for some photo shoot and video shoot as well. We have even brought Indian Flag with us which we wanted to remove it when we had reached Khardungla but we had forgotten, now is the right time to remove it and place it on a pole and do some photo session with the INDIAN FLAG. Our session lasted for half an hour and now we are driving towards the Karzok Village. The village is more 4 to 5 kms in the interior and it has already got dark over here. We still need to find some place to stay overnight.

At the entrance of the village we can see some tents stay so now Amit and I are getting out of the car while Swapnil will be sitting in the car itself. We are talking to the manager he is saying they are completely booked, there is a hotel at some distance so we are inquiring with them also but he is also saying that they are completely booked. Let’s go further in and try our luck. We have reached the center of the village and trying our luck, Amit has gone to check the home-stay and the manager is saying that he has a room but the washroom is outside the room and it is a common one so we decided to skip that as we can’t use a common loo. Finally we have found a home-stay which has a private washroom. Though it is small but still it can be manageable. Now we are getting freshen up and then will proceed to have our dinner. There is restaurant just next to this guest house so we have decided to eat their only. We have ordered for dal rice and it is not edible at all because the dal is just turmeric water with a little bit of salt in it. So now we are ordering for some noodles and fried rice, let’s see if that can be eaten or not, this is still better than dal rice and they have chilli and soya sauce so we can add that and make it according to our taste buds. Now we are heading back to the home-stay and it is time for a nap. So good night Sweet dreams and see you all tomorrow.

Day 14, July 2^nd Tso Moriri to Sarchu 219kms Approx.

Good morning guys, yesterday night we had a really long sleep. And right now it is 9am. This is the 1^st time I guess we are waking up so late after Jalandhar because at Jalandhar we had planned to sleep that way but today it is all natural. So let’s not waste any more time and complete the morning chores and start the journey. 

It is 11 am and we are ready to start for the next destination either SARCHU or atleast our target for today is to reach PANG. Hey everyone we are on the verge of ending the trip as TSO MORIRI is the last official point on our hitinerary and the coming journey is the road trip back to MUMBAI. So I hope you have enjoyed this trip with us. We will also see few places in Manali and Chandigarh as well so don’t think that this is the last day kyunki “picture abhi baaki hai mere dost”. We still have more than 2500km to reach back to Mumbai and our plans can get changed at any moment of time so you people never know what is going to happen. So please stay tuned with us. We are now going to have our breakfast it is including the stay charges so let’s have it, they are serving us parathas, bread – butter and jam. It is good only “atleast peth bhar gaya aur kya chahiyey”. Now Amit has paid the stay charges to the guesthouse owner and we are proceeding towards the CAR.

We are saying a goodbye to this lovely Himalayan road trip. We all are ready to roll but let me tell you that our 1^st stop for today is the entrance of the Moriri lake as we want to click few more pics and spend some more time by the lake. We have reached the check post and completing our formalities, this is the same check post of yesterday and the route to Manali is from somewhere here only. Let’s ask the army people only they will give us the better guidance than any google MAP. They are saying that we have to take the route for Meroo so now we have to drive upto Meroo to reach the Leh – Manali highway. It is 11:30 am and we have finally reached the doorway to Tso Moriri, it’s time for some pichas manh. Our friend Swapnil Patil has turned on his Adventure mode, this guy is going to take a dip in the lake even I want to do that yaar but shit manh if I fall sick then how is he alone going to manage driving, nahin mere saath hi aisa kyun, mujhe bhi kudna hai paani mein. Last time aise Cannes mein kiya tha who bhi raat ko 11 baje kya thanda paani tha I was loving it, theek hai atleast let him go “mera bhai gaya main gaya ek hi baat hai”, he is saying the water is very cold - hot water spring thodi hai jo saala garam paani milega. Our activities lasted for around half an hour.

It is 12:05pm and now we have to make a move otherwise Sarchu kya Pang bhi nahin pahunchenge iss speed se toh, waise hi subeh late ho gaye. Chalo let us drive, this is kind of very upsetting, every day we are driving alone only no other car is going in the same direction we are the late comers everyday and that is our specialty. We have finally reached the highway, hip hip hurray. We are feeling like we are seeing this kind of road for the 1^st time in our life. This is like an expressway with no potholes in it. Now we are able to see some other tourists as well. Main toh thak gaya bhai sahab. Gaadi chala chala kar halat kharab ho gayi hai. I need a break coz I am driving since 12pm and now the time is 3:39pm need some rest. 

                           

These guys have found another photo stop so again photo session guyz. Our session are pretty long, now also 20 minutes have passed and we are still doing the session and guess what DSLR is out of its bag, “the kitty is out of the bag”. Chalo now bahot hui photos Sarchu pahunchna hai. Now swappy is going to take care of the wheels while I sit back and relax. It is 4pm and we have started our drive, we are travelling in between the mountains, it is a flat surface we are able to easily drive above 100kmph. After so many days the car is touching this speed and nice cold winds are making it a more pleasant drive. This drive is going to end soon as I can see on the map some zig - zag roads are coming and it is obvious that this will be a Ghat only and I am right we are about to reach Pang and this zig and zag is near Pang. We had met few people who had suggested us to stay at Pang as it has lots of good options so let us see the place and we may end our today’s drive here only.

We are going down the slope and are going to reach Pang. Jissne hume yeh advice kiya tha Pang mein bahot stay options hai who sach mein gadha hai. Kuch hai hi nahin yahan par. Ek check post jaisa bana hua hai ek band pada petrol pump aur 2 ya 3 dukkan hai bas. Isko aache options bolenge bhai pata nahin kidaar se aaya tha who jo isko aache options bol raha hai. Swapnil has now decided that we are going to stop directly at Keylon as Sarchu will also be same, but Keylong is another 185kms from here and I am not having so much of guts to drive on such risky roads at Night Time. Again the quarrel begins, Amit and I are opposing it but this guy is not listening. I have clearly said him that I am not going to drive and if he wishes to reach Keylong then he has to drive till there and this guy is agreeing to it. Pagle ko nahin pata hai night time driving will be exhausting as well as risky and it will take almost 8 to 9 hours more to reach Keylong. We don’t want stress our bodies we will be able to convince him let him drive till Sarchu atleast baad mein aage ka dekhenge. The roads are again in pathetic condition. These people are not doing anything to maintain these tourist destinations, when are they going to wake up even god doesn’t knows that. These are very curvy roads unlike the other ghats the turns are very very sharp. We are about to reach 21 hairpin loops also known as GATA LOOPS, It is the most dangerous pass as back to back there are 21 sharp turns and there is heavy vehicle traffic from both the directions. We have to keep the car speed in control and these tourists vehicle drivers are maniacs so we need to be careful from them also. Jaise taise humne yeh ghat cross kiya and now we are close to reaching our today’s night halt place.

Swapnil is also tired because of this, yes now finally he will agree to us. Only 20kms more before we take the final stop for today. It is 7:30 pm and we are almost going to reach the Sarchu checkpost. It is hardly 5kms from here, we just need to cross this mountain and we will reach our destination. We are starting to see the tents stay options but they are not looking that good so we are driving past them. We are about to reach the turn for the check post and can also see a nice tent stay and rest are common dorm sort off where 1 tin shed is made and we have to share the shed with more 10 or 15 people and they are not even having proper washrooms, we can’t stay at such a place so this tent stay is looking better let’s check it out. The tent is quite good with ample of space but he is not having a private washroom with water. If we want water then we have to take it in a bucket from the tank which is outside the tent so that is not feasible as it is very cold over here.

Sarchu is the coldest region in the whole journey, we were also told about it that Sarchu ranks no 1 in terms of being highly cold. We didn’t find even khardungla this much cold though it was 18000 ft above the sea level and was experiencing heavy snowfall. So we have decide to go further and see  if we can find some good place to sleep at night or else GAADI zindabad. We have crossed another mountain and reached the check post and submitting the copy of permit for the last time as after crossing this we will enter Himachal Pradesh and away from all the neighboring countries of INDIA so no need for any kind of permit. It seems like half Sarchu lies in J&K and other half in HP. We are done with today’s last formalities and now our hunt for The Blood Orchids begins .i.e. for some good tent stay. We enquired from the officers at the check post they are saying after some 5 to 6km we will find N number tent stays, so CHAALO.

We are driving and driving and driving but na tents dikh rahe hai aur naa hi unki koi roshni and I am not at all interested in spending night in those dorms sort of place who bhi itni jama dene wali thandi mein. Finally we are able to see some lights yippie lets find out if they have availability for us. It looks pretty awesome tent stay they are not the same as Pangong, the tents are facing each other and there is huge space in between them so that if someone wishes to sit and make a born fire and have jam session then they can, unfortunately they are not having a single tent to-let. Chalo koi nahin aage koi naa koi toh mil hi jaayega. Now we are damn hungry as we only had breakfast and nothing since then. We need to find some restaurant so that we can have dinner 1^st and then proceed with the hunting.

Fortunately we can see another tent stay and only 1 scorpio is parked here so we may get a decent place to spend this cold night. Yes they do have availability and they having continuous running water within the private washroom of the tent but no hot water but the manager said that he will give 1 bucket of hot water tomorrow morning and the dinner and breakfast is included in the stay charges only. Now this is good. Chalo lets check inn and have some dinner. The place is very cold and windy we are inside the tent and it seems that the tent is going to blow away because of such pressure winds. It is so cold that I am not even daring to remove my shoes and socks will just change clothes to night track and tshirt but won’t remove shoes and socks. Guys please carry lots of woolen you may not require them in any part of the trip but I can bet you that you will surely need them over here. I can’t even type more so have a GOODNIGHT for today and tomorrow we will be going to Manali.

Day 15, July 3 rd Sarchu to Manali 223kms Approx.

Good morning Mumbai, it is 7 am and now is the time to fetch a bucket of hot water from the manager. These 2 have already completed their washroom visit let me also do it till they get hot water. Ohh man the water in the tap is ice cold, while washing myself, my back froze and so is the condition of my hands. Bloody how do these people survive over here 24*7 in such a harsh condition, god bless them. I wanted to have bath but because of this weather I am skipping and will just brush my teeth and clean my hands and legs so that they don’t stink and I feel a bit cleaner. This is the 1 st time in the whole trip that we 3 are not bathing, it feels yuck but kya karein majboori hai. “Manali jaate hi nahaunga main toh bc”.

Sarchu

It is 8am now and we are all freshened up and now proceeding towards breakfast, it is a beautiful place. During night time we just knew that we are surrounded by mountains but the scenery after sunrise is just breathtaking. Chalo breakfast area bhi aa gaya, they are serving bread butter,jam and parathas with achar, won’t have heavy breakfast this time as we have to drive through the ghats and we may fall sick because of heavy breakfast. Now we are proceeding towards the tent to pack our bags which we never opened so much and proceed towards our onwards journey. It is 8:30 am and we are all set to proceed to our next destination, Ganpati Bappa Morya and switching the ignition on “we hope the diesel has not frozen”. Yesterday we had met few bikers who were staying in the same camp and they were covering their bikes, we asked them as to why so they said that many a time at Sarchu the fuel in the tanks and pipes freeze during the night time so that’s the reason they need to cover the fuel tanks and if our car tank has frozen then we cannot even unfreeze it so easily and will have to wait till the evening again. By Gods grace the car engine is running perfectly well and even if some amount of diesel must have frozen it will melt as we start driving the car due to engine and tires heat.

It is 11 am and we are about to reach Zing Zing Bar, we have a joke on this place where our co writer Amit said to us that this is the highest place on the earth where a Discotheque is opened and Swapnil and I thought that he must have read somewhere so we said if that is the case then we will make a halt over there and will have some mocktails, but when we reached their we saw a shabby kind of place and a big resto or something made of tin sheets, Swapnil and I thought that this would be the bar but then when we asked him where is the discotheque Amit said that the name is Zing Zing Bar so this the highest bar on planet . I swear we both wanted to kill this person then and there itself but kya karein humara hi dost hai, ab tak toh hume pata chal jana chahiyey iski harkatein kaisi hai.

We have almost reached halfway and we all are feeling hungry again but right now we are passing through the ghats and can’t even see a small tea stall as on the right side it is mountains and on the left side a steep valley but the at the foot hill of the mountain we can see a very tiny village or say lots of tiny and beautiful villages which are scattered on the other mountain and a small river Bhaga is flowing in between the 2 mountains. 

We will have to wait till we reach Keylong as I have heard Keylong is a nice populated area and somebody has said that we may find fuel if needed and we are having less than 1/4 th tank fuel left with us. I hope my beast gives a nice mileage but due to mountainous roads we won’t get that good efficiency. Finally we have reached Keylong and guess what all our phones have started pinging and the message is Welcome to Himachal Pradesh. Yeah we can now finally contact our home and inform them about our current location, “2 din se unko call nahin kiya hai who bechare tension mein honge”. Now it’s time for some pait puja guys. Kabse bhuk lag rahi thi aur abhi 12:30pm ho raha hai aur mere dost aur humsafar bhuk se mar rahe hai. Chalo see you people after a lunch break.

Ahhh, what a nice lunch and moreover the rolled masala papad was awesome and we have received full network in our cell phones so we also called up at our homes. We have also enquired with the manager regarding the fuel station and he said that we will find one only at Tandi which is just 10kms from here so it is not at all a problem for us. We have finally reached the Tandi Petrol Pump and now car needs to do some pait puja for further journey. It is a very small fuel station and is in a very shabby condition.

The company people should make it bigger as this the only fuel station for people who are travelling towards Leh as the next station is after 365km. We have refueled the car and our beast has given a nice mileage as we had 10 litres of fuel with us before we started filling the diesel. The cans which we had carried did help a lot as only 2 litres of fuel was left what we had filled from Leh and the additional 8 litres we had filled it from the cans.

NOTE: - “Guys please carry more than required fuel with you because you will get fuel at more than Rs.100/litre", before you reach the next fuel station while travelling towards LEH. Chalo lets proceed to our next destination Manali and it is already 2pm over here we still have the mighty Rohtang Pass which needs to be crossed before sunset. Manali is another 110kms from here and the whole path is rough mountainous ghats. Now is the time to change the drivers, as Swappy had started driving from Sarchu and even needs some rest so now I am taking the wheels in my hand. The scenery is very serene and beautiful and now we are going down the hill, I think so we will have to change the mountain as we can see a bridge sort of thing very far. Yes we are crossing from one mountain which is sloping downwards and are climbing on the other mountain, this is a very rough patch and we need to be very careful. We are now travelling above the clouds and it is looking very serene and have almost covered around 50kms so this means that we are about to reach the final leg of the dangerous passes that is Rohtang Pass.

It is 4pm and we are at Rohtang Pass, this was my dream as last time when I had come to Manali due to heavy snowfall we could not reach the top of Rohtang Pass as my mom and dad were scared because the roads had become icy, I have got this chance after almost 8 years to reach here. It is time for some pichas people, there is no sign of rain and snowfall at all over here. The weather and the mountain is clear and we can see clouds hanging around with us. We spent almost 15 mins clicking pics and not too many tourists can be seen here as most of them are coming from Leh. Those who come from Manali they start early morning and by this time they are back to Manali City.

Let’s go to Manali City as we need to find hotel for ourselves also and take bath and get freshen up. We can see many people doing Paragliding over here but the gliding area is very small, last time I had done paragliding at Solang Valley and that was much better than this. It is 5:30pm and we have finally reached Manali yippie, now we have to decide either to find a hotel to stay or stroll for sometime in the market and then proceed to hotel. But 1st we need to make calls at home and inform them that we have reached Manali safe and sound. We have decided that we will stroll in the market for sometime and then will find some hotel. We are again hungry now “hehe bhukkad kahin ke”, there is a small snacks shop and the Samosas are looking hot and tasty so we decided to have that, what a yummy snack it was chole and samose.

Chalo thoda market ghoom le humare co writer sahab Amit ko kuch khareedari karni hai. We saw a hotel in the market itself Hotel Kunzam it was okayish but was looking bit costly because it was in the market. Last time we had stayed on the other side of the Beas river and there are many good hotel as far as I remember so we will check it out their itself. Amit ko kuch acha nahin mila yahan pe so let’s go for hunting hotel because we checked hotels online but they were showing very costly ones and we are not feeling like to pay that much for those hotels. Chalo on the other side and find some nice place to spend night at. There is too much of traffic, it took almost half an hour to just cover 5kms and finally we have reached a nice looking hotel which is situated on the main road itself.

Hotel New Snow Bird

Hotel New Snow Bird it is a newly opened hotel and the rooms are amazing and spacious and are at a very reasonable or say pocket friendly prices. So without wasting more time now we are checking inn and I am running to the washroom as usual. Today’s very 1st task for us right now is to take a nice hot shower, “almost 1.5 days hogaye nahaye hue aur aacha feel nahin ho raha hai”. The view from the hotel is also very nice, we got a really good deal and I would recommend you people to do stay over here because it is the best hotel and you can check the images as well.

It is almost 9pm and we are not feeling so hungry but still will have something so as to avoid any problem later on in the night. So we have ordered for some soup and starters and the staff said that it will take half an hour to prepare the food so we asked them to give us a call once the food is ready and we will come down to the dining area. They have called us and now let’s do the tasting of food also. While having soup and starters we talked to the staff and they are quite friendly. They only informed us that this is newly inaugurated and that is the reason we have got such a good deal. We said to him that in most of our trip we have stayed at mostly news properties only and this also a coincidence. The soup and starter tasted great and now is the time to say goodnight to all of you as we are really very tired. So see you people tomorrow. Buh bye.

Day 16, July 4 th , Manali to Chandigarh 309kms Approx. Time Taken 9hrs approx.

Good morning guys, it is 8 am and today we are going to our next destination that is Chandigarh, so let’s pack our bags and complete with our morning chores. It is 9:30am and unfortunately our breakfast is not included in the stay so we will directly have lunch today but that will be after doing a little bit of sightseeing.

Today our itinerary consists of visiting the famous Hidimba Devi Temple which you might have also seen in the movie YEH JAWANI HAI DEEWANI. But we are not inspired from the movie and going to this temple as I have earlier visited this temple and this is the only tourist point within the city. We have paid the bills and now starting the car. The traffic over here is pathetic and the way to temple is steep slope and very narrow and crowded with shops and people. I would recommend people to drive very carefully as the slope is too steep and the car will resists to climb so keep a safe distance between your car and the car infront of you otherwise BANG BANG. Finally after so much of struggle we have reached the public parking lot. The parking lot management is worst they don’t even have proper entry and exits and the space for parking is very less, these people has asked to us drive the car in reverse and climb the slope and there is no proper road you have to drive it in muddy road with big potholes and these people are charging Rs.50 for such a bad area. Anyways India hai boss yahan sab apni mann maani karte hai.

Hidimba Devi Temple, Manali

We have finally reached the temple it is a very beautiful place in the lap of Mother Nature. The temple is covered with forest and there is a small bird sanctuary behind the temple. 
The Hidimba Devi Temple is also known as Dhungiri Temple. It is an ancient cave temple dedicated to Hidimba Devi wife of Bhima, a figure in the Indian epic Mahabharata. The temple is surrounded by a Cedar Forest called Dhungri Van Vihar at the foot of the Himalayas. The sanctuary is built over a huge rock jutting out of the ground which was worshipped as an image of deity. The structure was built in 1553.

After taking blessing of Devi Hidimba we proceeded further towards the Gatothkach Temple. The way towards the Gatothkach Temple is a very beautiful path which is surrounded by different vendors of fruits and souvenirs. There are many people who were having nice fluffy rabbits where you can pay them and hold in your hands and click photos with them and there were 2 Yaks also. Swapnil and Amit sat on them and clicked photos with them. After a short walk we reached to the Gatothkach Temple.

Gatothkach Temple, Manali

Vir Gatothkach was the mighty warrior who is son of Devi Hidimba and Bhim(Pandavas). He had the major role in the Kurukshetra Battle of Mahabharata due to which Pandavas won the battle. It is small temple made under a huge Deodar Tree with a very small figure of Gatothkach. 

We are now feeling very hungry and it is already 1pm, if we leave right now then we won’t get any food once we are on the proper highway to Chandigarh so let us find some nice restaurant over her and have our lunch and then proceed towards Chandigarh. There is a nice hotel just outside the Gatothkach Temple so we are trying our luck if we get a proper food otherwise there is lot of snacks eateries options along the way to parking. We have ordered for soup, 1 st we will try that and then proceed with full meal. The soup tasted good and now is the time for proper meal so see you guys after some pait puja.

It was a nice meal and now we are all set to say sayonara to Manali and proceed towards Chandigarh. Amit wants to do river rafting so we need to search a good river rafter who can fulfill his wish and he can take some good memories back home. I didn’t feel like going for rafting as I have already done once and now Swapnil has also backed out so this guy is dropping his plans too saying that he won’t go alone and as it is there is heavy flow of water in the Beas River so it would be a very rough and bumpy ride so we will do rafting at some other place on some other day. Now we also need to find a Mahindra service centre who can fix the underbody rubber of the car and finally we have even found one service centre so let’s try our luck and get the car fixed. Unfortunately this is a truck service center and not a car, let it be we will get it fixed at Chandigarh or once we reach back at home. Now we are on Manali Chandigarh highway and this road is in a way better condition than what it used to be 8years ago, we are able to drive very smoothly and without any much traffic. I want to click pics of the dam, last time the cab driver had not allowed to click the pics and it is the biggest DAM I have ever seen in my life till today. Unfortunately they have marked it as prohibited area, I wonder why they don’t allow as it is these things have been shown by the politicians during their inauguration ceremony and why aren’t the tourists allowed to click. “Jaane do kaun jhagda karega inse”, let us continue our drive. We have reached some bus depot area and it is too crowded traffic is going very slow and it is feeling like we are turtles. I am also very tired and pissed off due to this traffic and it is time to change the drivers.

Now Swapnil is taking the charge of the wheels and will continue as long as he can. We are driving over the mountain since we started our journey, god knows by what time we will reach the foothill and we can drive fast and reach our destination. People over here drive recklessly, the oncoming traffic is continuously driving in the wrong lane and due to which we have to apply emergency breaks. They are driving on high beams and that is also affecting a lot but I have a solution for this as I have 40watts LED lamps with white and yellow lights that will surely help us and make the drive smooth as cars which are at a distance of 1km can see the lights very clearly so now we are stopping the car and removing the yellow cap from the lights.

Finally we have reached the proper express highway and now we can drive smoothly. We are now very hungry and want to have food immediately but Amit and Swapnil doesn’t wants to eat at a dhabba, they want to have something like Mc Donalds so we are searching for something like that. On the maps it is showing that there is one just as we enter Chandigarh City and now the time is 9pm, chalo jaldi jaldi warna band ho jaayega. It’s a food mall of all international brands like Mc Donald, KFC, Dominos, etc, so they are having at KFC and I am heading towards Dominos apna sasta majboot aur tikkao Italian Paratha hehe. It was a nice and filling meal. Now our last stop is Sector 17 C, Chandigarh where we have already booked the hotel through Booking.com. Khanne ke baa dab thoda desert ka mood ban gaya hai kyunki humare dost ne Ice cream ki gaadi dekh li hai#. Ice creams were pretty delicious and now trying to find our hotel, Chandigarh is a bhool bhulaiyaa city as all the sectors look the same and we are not able to find the right sector. 

Sector 17, Chandigarh

Finally we have reached Hotel City Plaza 17, it is in a market area as it is in the shopping centre of sector 17. The attitude of the manager is very pathetic I don’t know how will be the room hotel is looking good only. The room is average condition this is the 1 st property in the whole trip where we are having such a cold welcome and the room is ok but the washroom is not that good. Let see sirf ek raat hi toh rukna hai already 12 am ho chukka hai aur morning mein checkout maarna hai aur Jaipur nikalna hai. Chalo then see you guys tomorrow morning.

To Be Continued.......... 

Travellers Dream

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        Mumbai to Ladakh in XUV 500 (Part 3)

Day 9 27th June Leh to Nubra 130km (approx) 

Good morning guys, it is 8 am and we are ready with our UNIFORMS that we had specially printed "T-SHIRTS" for this day and now we are proceeding towards the highest MOTORABLE ROAD in the world. 

Any guesses guys? 

Yes you guessed it right, KHARDUNGLA is 18,000 FEET above the sea level. I am so eager to have maggie at that point. I am not allowing these people to even have breakfast because I don't want to kill my hunger. So lets rock and roll guys. We have reached the fuel station and refuelling the car as we have planned to go directly from Nubra to Pangong Lake. These google maps are fake dude, in the beginning it was showing 3hrs to reach Nubra but its already 10am and we have just reached South Pullu, it is the 1st Check Post, where we have to submit our Ladakh permission certificate (Inner Line Permit). We have submitted the copy of the form and now we are proceeding forward. 

  

We started our drive and suddenly these desert mountains are changing into snow mountains. We can see thick layer of snow and its time for pics human, our co-writer Amit is tasting the thick snow. Amit and I also played snow fight, Swapnil is still not recovered completely but he had assured us that he is fine and that is why we resumed today. Oh such a lovely and mesmerising roads, till now we have not even reached halfway of the mountain and their is a long way to go.

The road work is going on and they are widening these passes. It will become more convenient for people who will be coming to this place after few years. It will get a much more safe pass. These roads are so bumpy, it feels like there is actually no road and we are driving directly on the mountain slope. As we are reaching the top it has started drizzling, the conditions of roads are turning from bad to worse it is very muddy and now wet as well. I am not able to handle the car properly, it seems that I am loosing control on my beast "please my machine be with me and let me take back the control on you". These local taxi drivers are making my life more hell, these people are driving so slow that I am loosing my engine torque and it is making more difficult for me to gain back the control on the wheels. Because these taxi we were about to fall in the Valley. We are stuck on a steep slope and infront of us the army truck is waiting to pass. I have lost whole control on the car and now we are stuck in the middle, on our right side huge boulders are present and on our left deep Valley, the front and rear windscreen of the car is fogged and I cannot see anything at all. We have to turned off the ac so that I can get more power but nothing is happening, still I am not getting enough power to drive up the slippery slope. For a moment all my fears are coming infront of me that due to my mistake they both will loose there lives, oh god please help us. The situation is very tensed and we need to think calmly and wisely. I have applied the breaks and roll down the side windows so as to get a better view of outside. I am now reversing the car a bit so as to clear the tires from mud and water and reach a harder surface towards the boulders, as this might only damage the car but we will not fall down the valley. Now giving a full rev to the engine and driving up the slope, this whole drama took 15mins and finally we are back on track. 

Khardungla Pass 18380ft

We have reached the top of the hill at exactly 12pm, finally after so much of struggle and life and death situations we have made to this place "Finally we are on top of the world yippie". It is very crowded and no place to park the car also, can't even step out aisa lag raha hai. But finally we managed to find a place and now parking the car. People have climbed up the mountain and they are playing in the snow.The air is thin over here and army has set up a medical assistance camp for people who are getting breathing problems. These army personnel are working on their toes, running the canteen as well as this camp, I wonder why people having such medical conditions take so much risk of coming here, if something goes wrong on the way then their is no medical assistance for another 50kms. But Agar "kahin Jannat hai toh yahin hai yahin hai aur yahin hai". Now its time for some pait puja haaye maggie khaana hai. Their is no place to stand inside the canteen, everyone is having hot hot maggie, it is cheap only Rs.30 a packet but line bahot lambi hai. Swapnil is still sitting inside the car as he is not feeling well. Kya pata kab theek hoga humara yeh bimar prani?

After eating now is the time for some photo shoot. We clicking pics with the sign board and our Co-writer has become a Shah Rukh Khan in the snow. We stayed at this point for a good long 1hour and now proceeding towards Nubra. Our original plan is to go to Panamik for hot water spring which will be a spa for us. We need it bro though we are excited about the trip but our bodies need some rest and this spring will help in refreshing our bodies. 

It took us 1 hours and 30 minutes to reach North Pullu, another check post where we need to submit our documents. After crossing this we are now reaching a curve where a small stream of glacier is flowing and its time for another "PIC STOP". 

It is so serene and beautiful "kaash yehi ruk paata shehar ki bheed se dur uss bhaag daud se dur, but I will definitely  miss my MUMBAI". By the time we came back to car after the session our friend Swapnil Patil also woke up and wanted to drive the car. I am handing him the charge to him because even I am tired and need some rest. Now it is my turn to sit at the back seat. Only few kilometres have passed and again we are feeling hungry, so now we are pulling up at homestay sort of restaurant. Their is a big family and they were travelling from Delhi. They are amazed by seeing our tshirts and enquired about it. We are talking with them and they are saying next road trip they are planning from Delhi to Goa. We said that if they need any help let us know we will guide them. We have ordered for some dal rice and it was good in taste. Finding tasty food in such a remote area is like finding pin in a hay stack. Swapnil again didn't step out of the car and didn't even wanted to eat anything so he slept till we ate. 

After lunch I am again on the driving seat so that Swappy's health doesn't deteriorate more because we won't be able to find any help in Nubra. We have reached a diversion where 1st road goes to Siachen which is restricted area and other 2 from which one leads to Nubra and other goes towards Pangong Lake. Google map ditched us and taking us on a wrong route towards the pangong lake. It is showing the route for Panamik was from here and after driving for 20kms we reached a spot where all the cars were waiting in queue. We went ahead and inquired as to where this road leads to they and they are saying that it is the way for Pangong Lake and we were like shit yaar one hour got wasted and a minimum of 5 litres of fuel also. We are also asking them why are they waiting here to which they showed us that the road is flooded due to heavy melting of glacier. These people are waiting since morning 11am and it is 3pm now, oh gosh these people have too much of patience. "Hum hote toh route change karke Leh chale gaye hote the". Now we are taking a u-turn and following car navigation system. We drove for another 40kms that 20km because of the wrong route and another 20kms towards the Hunder Valley we have now reached a point where the roads are diverting agai, 1st is leading towards Hunder and other is going towards Panamik and we are taking a chance and trying our luck. 

Bridge towards Panamik

I had got instructions from my sister ke Anushka Sharma ne jaise bridge pic click kari thi naa Jab tak hai jaan mein waise pic click karna so mujhe bhi waisa bridge mil hi gaya Nubra River ki upar so again photo session time. We stayed here for 20mins and again starting our journey towards Panamik. 

It seems that were the only one going towards Panamik as their are no cars coming from opposite direction as well.After 5kms we are again stopping to do a photo session as the mountains are looking very nice and we can also spot a waterfall as well. This time we are doing a photo session with the car, we have parked the car in the middle of the road as it seems nobody ever visits this place after half an hour we are driving towards the Panamik. On the way we found heavy water glaciers flowing over the road but it is still driveable. Only 10kms are left and to our disappointment the flow of glaciers have become too heavy and made it impossible to drive through it. Their are other tourist cars who are waiting for a longer time to pass through the stream but it was impossible and everyone had lost their hopes. So we all have decided to return to Hunder only. This was very depressing as we don't know that we will ever come back to this place and see these springs in our life. 

We are driving back and the streams have become too heavy at moment while passing through it, the car is literally pushed by the stream off from the road and we are about to fall into the river but somehow luck played a good role and we have crossed the stream. Now we have to reach Hunder and find a good hotel to spend night. All this time Swapnil slept, it was like he doesn't even knows "ke hum ne kya kya ADVENTURE kiye hai aaj". We reaching Hunder and the time is 9pm and searching for hotel. Everything seems to be occupied, we can hardly find any hotel and their are no street lights or sign boards. After lots of struggle we have finally reached a good hotel Hunder Eco Villa which has room available at a very cheap price with WIFI, Dinner and Breakfast included. These kinds of deals are making our trip worth it. The room is very spacious and tidy and it is beautiful. We have checked inn and now getting fresh till the dinner is ready. 

Day 10 28th June Nubra to Leh 130km approx

Good morning guyz, it is 8am and we are going for our buffet breakfast. Today's breakfast is included in the tariff, we feel lucky that mostly we are getting good properties at a cheaper price and many of them are covering food also in it. After having delicious breakfast we are now going back to our room as yesterday we were very tired because of the additional drive which we did, to go towards Panamik but at last night itself we decided to skip because it doesn't seems worth the drive. We wanted to leave around 7 am because the flow of glacier becomes heavy due to melting of snow during daytime, but some things are planned to be cancelled . Yesterday also people were waiting since 11 am and even we had got stuck while going towards Panamik. Now without wasting more time lets get ready and pack our bags and proceed towards today's site seeing.

Hotel Hunder Eco Villa

We have stashed our bags in the car at 11:30am and now is the time for some photo session. The hotel has its own mini farm which was not visible at all during the night time and behind the hotel there are snow capped mountains which are looking very awesome. I am in love with this place. I wish I could stay over here(Need to find a Ladakhee girl and get married to her, then I can live over here easily). After making the payment to the manager we are bidding farewell to this place or to say that this place is bidding us a farewell because technically we are going from here and may not be able to come again. We took a picture of this hotel and it seems like it is not a real pic just a fake digital photo. This hotel is so beautifully made that it seems unreal. "Chalo now bahot taarif ho gayi, yeh log hume sponsor nahin kar rahe hai".  

Nubra Cold Desert

We are now proceeding towards our 1st sight seeing point of today which is Diskit Monastery. On our way we found a nice secluded place where a barren piece of land was in between two giant mountains. We are going to touch and feel the cold desert for the 1st time in our lives. Oh man this is just awesome yaar, the sand is so so smooth and waves are created by sand, we wish we can sleep on it but don't wont to spoil clothes and car right now.

Tharkism Echo Point

We are just stopping by the lane and going down a little slope to feel the desert. It is very serene, who can say behind those mountains is the action zone where our army is stationed 24*7 to guard us. This is also an echo point which "We Discovered guys". So lets name it as "Tharkism Echo Point", you can hear the echo on our youtube channel or in the video but please wear headphones to hear the echo. It is a faint one in the video but in reality it is audible pretty well.

I want to see a 2 hump camel but till now we never came accross a single camel or a yak in this area. It seems all the animals have disappeared suddenly, jaane do ab woh humare haath mein nahin hai. Now lets proceed towards the monastery. It is 12:15pm and we have reached the bottom of the monastery after driving few kms uphill we came across a small collection booth sort off where a monk was collecting a parking fee for the upkeep of the monastery and we can see that these people are still making the roads and all properly to reach the other side of the monastery. After paying the fee we are now going up the hill and again my best friend Swapnil and me started an argument. Their are basically 2roads, 1leads to the meditation area of the monks and the other leads to the highest point of the monastery where one can park his/her vehicle and their are only few steps. He convinced me to take a left and drive towards the meditation area because that is the entrance to the monastery and the other road leads to the different part of the mountain. We reached the parking area and could find only one car, we thought maybe we are late so all the travellers have already visited and left. After walking and climbing up 100's of steep stairs we are short of breath and once we reached the top we saw a good amount of crowd. I am wondering how these people have come here and then we saw the other way which we did not take is leading to the nearest parking lot. I am really very angry with this guy but kya kare dost hai maar toh sakta hoon nahin jaane do ab saale ko, next time se khudka bheja chalaunga.

Diskit Monastery

Huge statue of Gautam Buddha is made, he is sitting on sort of table and chanting some prayer. This table is a temple which is closed for tourists. We can see the whole Diskit and Hunder area from here and mountains after mountains. After some quick photo session we are now proceeding towards Pangong Lake. 

After driving for 20kms we are reaching the diversion where the left road leads to Pangong and the straight one goes towards Leh. We are about take the left and the road is blocked by rocks. This is really nice because yesterday after driving for 20kms the road block was there due to the heavy flowing stream and now today the authorities have blocked it before hand so it is saving our drive, time as well as fuel and as it is we forgot to refuel the car at Nubra and now next we may get fuel pump at Hemis which is out of the way and we will have to go back to Hemis from Pangong then proceed our journey towards Tso Moriri. Now as the road is closed we have to redo the planning as today we will again reach back to Leh and then tomorrow will proceed towards Pangong. 

Now we are driving towards Leh and after a drive of 1 hour 45 minutes from the monastery we found our 1st landslide of the day. This time it is not due to snow fall boulders from the mountains have rolled down on the road and thankfully no person or car has got damaged in this. The army people are already clearing it and will take 15mins to get it cleared. The road is finally open and now we are driving up the hill and again their is a landslide but now it is snow. This is also getting cleared but our fellow travellers are not having patience at all. They just want to ride throw this snow and see one of them got stuck as well. Now the rescue team has stopped their work and helping this guy to get his bike out of the snow. I guess either they are dumb or they are doing it to show off but this is delaying the clearance work. It took only 10 mins to clear the road as only snow was their that too soft one.

Now again we are back on the way to Leh. It is 4pm and we are about to reach KHARDUNGLA top, it is approximately 5kms and another landslide oh god, and this time it is huge one and we are the 1st vehicle to see it from both the sides. There is no network in the cell phone so that we can reach for help, now god only knows kaun aayega humari madat karne. Half an hour went by and huge queue of cars and bikes can be seen on both the side of the roads. Finally a high ranked army car came and now they are calling to someone through satellite phone to get this thing cleared up. Finally the whole mess was about to get cleared but these bikers have again started to show off. This time it is girl who is trying to take her bike from the pile of snow and she got stuck. Her bike was not able to move front and back so her friends came to rescue and asked her to step down while one took the control of the bike and other tried to push it forward after 5 mins of struggle they were able to get that bike through the mess and the Snow Cutters resumed its work to get the whole pass clear so that cars can drivethru easily. 

It is 5pm and we are reaching the top of Khardungla, this time Swapnil is energetic and he even he wants to enjoy this. We stepped out of the car, Amit and Swapnil went to washroom and I am proceeding towards the canteen again. Pretty girls are present in the canteen which is making it more warmer here . We ordered for maggie and tea and spent almost 45minutes in the canteen and came out now to take some pics. 

After having such a lovely meal i.e. 2 plated of maggie I am taking back seat of the car and also while negotiating one of the land slide I think so the under body engine cover broke and it is rubbing continuously with the road and stones. I requested Swapnil to take the wheels while I try to search for some road side assistance who can help us out. Swapnil is a horrible driver man, while driving up the hill, car engine didn't get cut off and now while going down the hill the engine is getting a completely cut off and he needs to restart the car again and again. "God knows kab yeh banda gaadi chalana seekhega". We are the only 1 car who is going towards Leh city as rest have either already left or they are heading towards Nubra. The roads are flooded with continuous melting of snow and it is more slippery as their is loose mud small pebbles which is making the drive more difficult. While he is driving I am trying to contact roadside people. These people in the customer care are super useless and cant even understand anything. Let it be will find a service centre tomorrow morning and get the things fixed before proceeding for the onwards journey.

Meanwhile we are driving down 2 people riding on Avenger bike came infront of us and are trying to ride between the stones. Suddenly these people just fell infront of the car. Thank God Swapnil is driving the car because he managed to apply sudden breaks and we are driving at a very low speed. "Main hota toh yeh yeh log seedha neeche hi jaate the", because I cannot manage to apply sudden breaks. We stopped the car and now Amit is getting down to help them. He also asked them to ride safely to which they are saying they have fallen for the 5th or 6th time today. I will never take such a big risk by riding bike on such a road because I don't fear death but I fear of getting fractured or hurting myself and ending up in the hospital. Now we again started driving towards Leh. As we crossed South Pullu our car GPS is showing a short route to the Leh market so we are following that map. This is the biggest mistake of our life as this route is taking us from very narrow roads and it is taking more time than the normal route and people over here do not have patience for even a second. The driver of Tavera did see us still he entered the lane and blocked the path. I have to get down the car and we are navigating somehow without damaging either of the cars. Kudos to Swappy he didn't scratched the car and managed to get us out of that lane. Now we are back to the main market road and going towards the hotel. We wanted to try a new hotel this time so Amit and I are going to see the room. The hotel is nice and luxurious and the room is also very pretty but it is too costly and out of our budget so now we are deciding to go back to Nezer Holiday Inn only. We talked to the owner he gave us the room at same tariff as last time but the room is bit smaller this time as the hotel is full. We just dropped our luggage and freshen up ourselves and now going to the market as Swapnil wants to buy some dry fruits for his family and we are feeling hungry also. After shopping we are now going to the Hotel Blue Lotus which is in the market itself for dinner as Swappy wants to eat some good non veg dishes. Today finally he got to eat some good non veg and after such a lovely meal I am not feeling like to walk back to the hotel, par kya karoon gaadi toh laaya nahin hoon aur 12 baje raat mein kaunse local transport milna hai. Chalo chal kar hi jaate hai aur sote hai.

Day 11, 29 th June Leh to Pangong Tso 156km approx.

A very good morning to everyone, it is 7 am and today the very 1 st task is to get the under body engine guard re-fixed. Yesterday night itself I did a research on the service centre of Mahindra in Leh. The service centre is on the way to Pangong , so 1 st we will refuel the car tank and we have got 2 can of liters each to carry extra fuel as their will be no fuel station till Tandi and we have to cover a total distance 700km before reaching the next fuel station. Let’s get ready and start our journey. It is 10 am and now we are saying SAYONARA to LEH. We have reached the fuel station and now getting the car ready for onwards journey as there are no service centre till we reach Manali which is approx 800kms from here (we will be going through Pangong, Tso Morir and then Manali). We are also getting tire pressure checked so that we don’t get any puncture issue. Mentokling Motors is the official service center of Mahindra vehicles and is only 3kms from here so we are about to reach their. Here is a long queue of Maharashtra passing Mahindra cars these are the Ladakh expedition cars which is managed but the Mahindra Expedition team. I had read about it but it is very expensive tour. We have

registered the complaint yesterday itself on call but these people are not having any information regarding the issue. We have to again register the complaint and do the paperwork.

Mentokling Motors Leh

It is already 11:30am and we don’t know by what time we will reach to Pangong. The manager over here is not even looking into the problem and is not ready to tell how much time it will take. It took almost 4 to 5 hours to just tight 3 screws. Very rude and useless staff, if they would have said us that it will take so much time then we would have got this fixed by any local mechanic or else I would have bought screws from local shop and fixed it myself. Damn these people my whole good and positive review about this place has suddenly turned into a very negative one. They wasted so much time and for fixing 3 screws they have charged us Rs.700, "wow 10 rupiye ke screw ke liye 700 diye maine". Isliye normal spares lekar jaana recommend karte hai yahan par log kyunki oil, filters, etc ka pata nahin yeh log kitna charge karenge. Utne mein toh shayad Brand New Car aa jaayegi. Anyways jo ho gaya so hogaya lets proceed Pangong abhi dur hai.

It is 3 pm and we are again back on the journey to the Pangong Lake, we have not eaten anything since we woke up and are really very hungry now, but can’t even take halt to eat because then we will get late and we have to reach their before sunset or cover maximum distance during daylight so we have decided to have snacks which we are carrying. We are now reaching the 1 st check post for Pangong, it is around 15kms away from the city, we are now submitting the copy of permit and there are no other vehicles on this route so our work is done pretty fast. We are about to sit in the car the guard came to us asking for a help, he said that the on the way we will find another check post near Karu before Tungtse, he wants to send some parcel to his colleagues over there, we said that we will love to help him out. He gave us a packet which had Chicken in it and said that his colleagues will love to eat it. He also said that he will inform them that so and so person is coming with the parcel and took the details of the car. 

It is 5pm and we are about to reach Karu Check post where we have to deliver the parcel. We reached the check post and informed the guard that his colleague from the previous check post has sent a parcel for them, he became very overwhelmed listening to this because in this region very rarely non-veg dishes are cooked in remote areas as we have already experienced when we were at Nubra and Amit and Swapnil wanted to have non-veg. The guard offered us to come with him to the army canteen but we thanked him for his gesture and said that we need to reach Pangong before sunset. He wished us for our journey and we are now proceeding further. I do feel that we should have gone with him to the army canteen not for eating but just to see how the camp and the atmosphere looks like and should have shot a video with him, even he would have felt very nice. 

Tangtse Check Post

We reached Tangtse Check Post around 7pm, and now are registering ourselves and submitting the copy of Permit. During the whole journey till now we couldn’t spot a car which was going towards Pangong. Finally we saw some bikers who are travelling towards the lake, we are talking to them about their journey and they said that their friends are still somewhere behind so they are stopping here for the day and are waiting for other to reach and will proceed towards lake tomorrow. 

Frozen Lake

So now we are continuing our journey, "kyunki dilli abhi bhi dur hai". On our way we saw a very beautiful Frozen Lake oh this was looking so amazing as live snowfall is going on and this the 1 st time in our life we got to witness a frozen lake. I desperately wanted to stop and touch it but then there was no place to park the car and also we are getting late. 

We have travelled just 10kms from Tungtse and now we are stuck in traffic jam, don’t know what has caused this as we are not exactly on a mountain but a sort of flat land between 2 mountains, a sort of junction. It has passed almost half an hour waiting here and nobody has moved even a single inch. Now I am getting curious and asked Swapnil to take over the wheel and let’s find out what exactly is going on. Arey yaar!! These people, why do they come to such places in Alto and such kind of cars? This guy is stuck in a stream which is almost 1 foot deep and huge pointy stones are their which are not allowing him to negotiate through the stream. It took almost an hour more to just get out of the stream and few localites helped him and are instructing others to follow the said path only otherwise they will also get stuck in this thing and will be really very difficult to get them out. I was also standing in that running stream and getting wet because of rains, guiding people who are going towards the Pangong Lake where to steer from. Our car is the last one so Swapnil drove till here and is asking me to take the charge but then who will guide me so I asked him to drive I will guide him. 

Finally we cleared this patch and now I asked Swapnil to continue the drive as I am very tired now and my whole clothes are wet and shoes and socks feels like they have been just removed from washing machine, fully soaked in water. We drove for another 20kms and are again stuck in a traffic jam. This time we are driving uphill so I can bet it is guarantee a landslide as it is raining continuously and there is high chance of this happening. Finally we saw many cars and buses which are travelling towards the lake. Jaan mein jaan aayi ab humare. It took almost 2 hour to get that landslide cleared and some tourist drivers came to us asking for money as they need to pay to the person who cleared this landslide as this was not an army help. We don’t know how much truth they are saying but Rs.100 is not a big amount so we gave them. Till the time we were stuck in this jam we were playing cards. Mast andhere mein cheating kar rahe the sab. We didn’t want to drain the car battery so we were using mobile torch for playing cards. 

As soon as the road got cleared another car got stuck at that same place, what nonsense yaar. I don’t know how these people got their license? You know that the road got cleared just now so you should manage your car speed accordingly while passing it because there are high chances of people getting stuck because some amount of wet mud is still on the road and that might not allow driving in low speed. Now the army was called to rescue that car. 

The army tow vehicle had to come from somewhere near the Tungtse Check Post so it took more than half an hour just for the vehicle to reach the spot and then the rescue operation began. We were stuck in the same place for more than 3hours and now the time is 10:30pm and we have to find the place to stay also. We still have to drive for some 15to 20kms to reach the Lake. This time I took over the wheels so that we don’t get stick in this patch. It is 11pm and now we are searching for hotels, most of them are pre booked by tours and travels people so there is no occupancy in them, but we don’t have to worry about the stay as there are N number of homestays and tents. I have done a thorough homework before starting the trip. There are homestays and tents at Spangmik and very nice hotels at Man which is just 9kms drive from Spangmik. 

Finally we found a homestay and checked inn. It is a not a five star but is not that bad, a nice place where we can sleep peacefully. We are very hungry so we asked the owner if there is anything to eat, he informed us that only maggie is available so we decided to order 3 plates but then we ordered 6 plates because we are very hungry and even the owner said that he was going to close the kitchen for today after this . We also have Maggie with us but the problem is if we cook that on our own then we won’t be able to boil water as there is no hot water facility available, people use solar water heaters only, so till the time maggie came we boiled 3 bucket of waters so that we can bath and use for washroom purpose as well because water over here is freezing cold and it is very difficult to use that for any purpose. 

Swapnil and Amit didn’t like the Maggie but I am damn hungry so I am eating. There are light timings over here, electricity is available from evening 7pm to 11pm only to the tents and is available at homestays but even they cut off the power after 11pm. But the owner is nice so he said that he will keep the main switch on till 11:30pm but after that he cannot keep it on. So we agreed and used that time to charge our mobile phones so that we can use that for clicking pictures. There are 3 individual beds and Swapnil slept at extreme right side Amit was sleeping on the centre and I took the left one. When the power was cut we went to sleep as we were also very tired to talk to each other and the whole time in the car we were talking and playing cards. We were doing jam session in the traffic jam.

Day 12, 30 th June Pangong Lake, 10kms

Pangong

Good morning everyone, today we are extending our stay as we reached very late yesterday and “Pangong aaye hai toh aisa khaali haath thodi wapas jaayenge bina kuch dekhe”. So the 1 st task is to refuel the car so that we can empty those cans and don’t need to worry regarding the spilling of diesel in the car. So now Swapnil and I are going to fill that till then Amit will get ready. We are taking out the refuelling kit which includes a funnel and a pipe so that we can fill diesel without wasting or dropping too much. We are trying to fill it but as this our 1 st time so approx half a liter is spilled out from the 1 st can. Now it is 2 nd can, but these cans have become very heavy to be lifted till our chest level so now I am asking Swapnil to pour the diesel from the can while I will hold the kit in place. Again half to 1 liter diesel is dropped on the ground but that is not an issue because still we have approx 8 litres of fuel that means we are having around 58 litres in the tank and it is more than enough for another 580 kms approx. and by then we will find another fuel station. We did talk to the owner of the guest house that if we need more fuel then where can we get that from, so he informed us that villagers do sell diesel and petrol and the price of Diesel is around Rs.120 per litre that is almost double. Though it is costly but still if in need we will get diesel and won’t have to get stuck over here itself, but that’s a good idea if we stay over here “I don’t want to go back”. All our hands and clothes have got dirtied and Amit has also come out of the bathroom. Now we are taking hot water from the solar heater so that we can get fresh and start our today’s exploration in the region.

It is 10 am and now we are ready to proceed but now we are having a second thought of either to stay in this homestay or to stay in a tent, because we will not get a chance to do camping nearby the Lake. So now we are packing our bags most of it is already packed because we didn’t removed lots of things yesterday night as we were very tired. Now let’s begin the hunt for the ‘Blood Orchid’ - I mean a nice tent nearby the lake. We started our drive towards the lake so that we can get some tent stays near the lake itself and there are plenty of tent stays but we need to find the right one. We are checking them driving nearby them and how far they are from the lake. 

 Himalayan Retreat, Pangong

We have reached Himalayan Retreat and Amit and Swapnil are going to check the tents while I am at the wheels. They are now calling me to see the tent so let’s go and check it out. Wow it is an amazing tent,it is quite huge with 3 beds, 2 are together and 1 separate leaving some distance between both and at the entrance there is a small seating place with chair and table so that we can sit and look over the lake. 

The washroom is attached with the tent so we don’t have to run out in the open area. We are bargaining with the manager and this bargaining is not for the money but for the bathing water. We are demanding 3 buckets full of hot water for tomorrow morning and he is willing to give only 1 because I guess he is not having Solar Water heaters I guess and he will have to heat the water over the gas. But guys we are hygiene freak while I take bath once in a day but these both bathe twice so we are firm on our demands. Finally this guy agreed to our terms and condition and we said him we will pay him half amount tomorrow morning because what if this guy won’t provide with hot water then what are we going to do. So he is agreeing. Now our package includes stay, lunch, dinner, breakfast and 3 BUCKET FULL of HOT WATER.

Now we have lots of time till lunch is ready so we are looking to explore this place. We even want to talk to our family and inform them that we have reached Pangong safe and sound so we need to call them but unfortunately our cell phones are not receiving any signals so we are going to the Manager because we saw him talking on the cell phone so he might be able to help us. The manager is saying that there is an STD booth 2kms back from this place and we can make calls from their#.

So now we are going to that place, it is hardly 5mins drive from our tents. This is in the centre of the place with communication tower and wire and satellite dish with an office surrounded by heavy fencing.We are trying to find the entrance to this office and finally we have found the gate on the back side which is facing towards the lake, but unfortunately the office is closed. Ahhhh these government employees, “yahan par bhi inka yehi haal hai 12:30pm baj rahe hai aur sab gayab hai, wapas manager se hi baat karte hai who kaise calls kar raha hai aur usko kaise aa rahe hai calls”. Now we are back at the Himalayan Retreat and finding the manager. Finally we found him; he is chilling out with other tent managers. He is saying that only BSNL network works over here so we said we have MTNL which should work but it is not receiving any signal at all. He is saying that smart phones are useless over here, only those old handsets which are not having latest tech work here because they are able to receive strong 2G signals in this region and we can make calls but his cell phone is not having enough balance to make calls outside the state so we are telling him that we will only give missed calls at our home. He said that to make calls we need to go in a particular area where we can receive signal and then only we can make call. He showed us the place and also the technique to how to call. We have to place the cell phone on the window pane and put the cell phone on a speaker so as to make calls and talk. We are now going to that place, it is a restaurant of another tent stay and that guy is his friend so he allowed u to go inn and make calls. Oh man he is not even having balance to give missed calls to our family, what nonsense yaar our last hope is also gone. Now how should we contact them? I have got an idea we will try to insert our sim card in his cell phone but another issue yaar, these smart phones have micro and nano sim slots and these old hands use the whole thing and we are not having sim adaptor for that. But Amit came to our rescue this guy is our chalta firta gadget man, he is carrying sim adaptor in his wallet, “bhai ek phone bhi le aate toh sone pe suhaga ho jaata tha”. Now let’s try if this works, EUREKA it is working, finally we will be able to call and our hard work of buying a new sim connection became successful as this is working hurray. Now line by line we are calling our family members, finally they are relaxed because it has been almost more than a day that we have contacted them they were really very tensed. We have also informed them that we may not be able to contact them again for more few days until we reach Manali.

Now it is time for lunch break and we are proceeding towards the dining area. They have nice variety Mutter Paneer, Dal , Rice and hot Chapati and we are the only customers right now and they have prepared so much for us. Amit is asking if we can get papad also and the waiter is bringing that for us. Aur kya chahiyey hume zindag mein. Wow it tastes so great but Swapnil wants to have chicken because he is fed up of eating Paneer. We are now enquiring with the cook that if he can cook some chicken dish. The cook is saying that this is pure veg hotel but if we want to have non-veg then there are some other hotels which do serve non-veg and we can have it over there, but they have canned chicken so that wont taste as authentic one because here nobody has whole hen and only canned non-veg is available. So now Swappy is dropping the plan to have non-veg over here. 

We are now feeling bit lazy after having such a heavy lunch that too after so many days and also we had only maggie yesterday so this was the 1 st proper meal in 2 days. Now we are going to sleep for sometime then we will leave for site seeing and some photography session. We slept for almost 2 hours from 3pm till 5pm and now is the time for exploring the area. We want to go that place where the last scene of 3 idiots was shot where there is path which is surrounded by lake from all the 3 sides so let’s find that out and click some Dhinchak Photos. 

We are starting our drive to find that location but it seems we are the only tourist right now at this side of Pangong Lake. We can see people on the other side of the lake and that too in the photos which we had clicked while calling at our home and right now not a single tourist can be seen over here. We are driving and now have crossed almost 6 kms without any proper roads just driving alongside the lake and now don’t want go further just to find that place as we are having fuel for only 580 kms approx. so now we have stopped at a nice spot with less rocks so that we can click nice pics with the lake and car as well. 

                                

We have even made wishing stone pyramid let’s see if our wishes come true or not. Our photography session lasted for almost 1 hour. It is such a lovely scenary. Guys, Zindagi mein EK baar yahan Par Zaroor Aana. Warna yeh life waste hai tumahri. It is 7pm and now we are again driving back towards our tent stays. Kaash koi yahin rok le mujhe, wapas nahin jaana hai uss zindagi mein. Hey there is a group of girls which have arrived at our tent stay only. Minibus bhar ke ladkiyan aayi hai yaar, kya baat hai banjar zameen pe phool khil rahe hai. Let’s see koi hume line bhi deti hai ke nahin. Chalo dinner time bhi ho gaya hai let’s go. Ayye haaye kya nazare hai saari ladkiyan hi hai sirf ek tour guide male hai baaki sab female hai who bhi sab youngsters. All are in their twenties, and all the pretty ladies have made the dinning tent warmer. Ya allah yeh ladkiyan hume ched rahi hai? They are singing "Yehi umar hai karle Galti se Mistake",  not possible koi hume chede ya hum par line maare. Let us concentrate on "Mutter Paneer". Aahh such a lovely dinner, cook has come to ask how the food is and we are giving him with the best review till date. We are talking to the cook and he is saying that he is also from Maharashtra only, he is from Aurangabad and 8 months he works in some hotel at Goa and during rainy season he works here at Pangong as it is dull in Goa and full peak tourist time over here.

After chit chatting with him now we are going to our tent as the lights are going to be switched off at 11 and we need to pack some stuff from our luggage so that tomorrow we do not have to rush. 3 of these girls are staying next to our tent only and they are sitting outside their tent. I wanted to talk to them regarding from where they are and how are they finding this trip, what all destinations have they covered in this trip but that would be too awkward for me as they are unknown and not a single guys is accompanying them so I thought to leave this and now we are inside our tents. Oh I forgot to tell you people that in the tents only 1 bulb is in the room and 1 in washroom and nothing else, so if you want to charge your gadgets then around 7 pm you will have to talk to manager and ask him to put them in charging. We also did that and these people had charging points in the Kitchen so we gave them our cell phones. Now we have enough battery for the whole night so its time for a Jam session, we are ready with cards and playing music on the phone. Arey we forgot to shoot our day 12 video, please excuse us for 10 mins while we do that and I will comeback to you people. 

Hey guys were are back and done with the video and it is 11pm and lights are also out but we do have torches in our phones so we will continue with the game and see you people tomorrow. Goodnight Sweet Dreams and Sleep Well

To Be Continued..........