CHAPTER #1 - LET'S RELIVE THE MOMENTS - A DREAM TRIP !!!

Let's Begin !!!

Hello and love to all the travel enthusiasts out there. My name is Jasdeep and I stay in Ludhiana, Punjab (India)  !!

I am going to talk and share my experience of probably the best travel destination in India and a dream for many. 

I am going to talk about Ladakh a place which everyone aspires to go to at least once in their lifetime.

I am going to give all tiny details, from the very beginning to the very end !!!

I hope you will enjoy this series !!!  

Please forgive any grammatical mistakes. I am not an English expert!

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July 6, 2019

On July 6, I purchased all the necessary items like Jerry can for fuel, some eatables, and gloves.

I got my ride serviced well with fuel change, both oil and air filter change, got tires checked for any sign of wear.

Let's talk about my ride - I chose to ride my Honda Activa - 4G. My friend ( Rathore) who was traveling with me was a little skeptical about it but I anyhow convinced him. I always maintained my Activa well with on-time service and proper maintenance. It still looks like new. One thing I must share before I go in detail that I did not carry any puncture repairing kit but I advise you all not to do the same.

Here is my ride with two bags secured at the back

For securing our bags, I did not buy any rope from the market !! We had one long piece of braided thread ( called Naala in Hindi) and it was extremely strong, so I decided to take it with me !!!

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July 7, 2019

It was July 7, 2019, and my excitement was at a whole new level. I was scared too because this was the first time I was going to such a high altitude and that too on a 110 cc bike !!!

I love mountains and have been to many places before like Hemkund (Uttrakhand), Dalhousie, Shimla, Mcleodganj, etc but this trip to Ladakh was different !!

I woke up early in the morning at around 2:15 am because Rathore who was coming from Delhi had already boarded the bus at around 11 pm on July 6.  I took bath, haD light breakfast, secured the Jerry can to the front number plate of Scooty ( Can was empty, so number plate was enough to carry it) and said goodbye to my parents and they, as usual, wished me best of luck and advised to stay safe !!

I started from my home town at around 4:15 am and Chandigarh is around 60 km from there and it took me 1:15 hours to reach sector 43 bus stand. Upon reaching there, I called Rathore who was getting refreshed after a night journey and asked him to come to the main gate of the bus stand. The weather was nice !!

We hugged as we were meeting after a long time since college and had little chat while planning for the trip ahead and then we realized our first mistake !!! Rathore forgot to bring his helmet and mind you, we were in Chandigarh. It is probably the most strict place in India when it comes to following traffic rules. People, there are so scared to break rules because of heavy fines and this is the reason traffic flow is smooth in Chandigarh except on some occasions but the other relief came from my side. I wear a turban so I am not required to wear a helmet. I can wear it if I want to but it is not mandatory. Please do not think of me as a rule breaker. I am a disciplined driver and always stick to the rules. 

Anyway, we decided that I will drive as long as we are in Chandigarh and then Rathore can take over. 

We finally started and with the help of GPS, we got out of Chandigarh in the least possible time and Chandigarh looked like heaven because of light rain and lush green belt !! Our final destination for the day was Manali.

Then we drove for like 1 hour until we reached the mountains. There we clicked some pictures.

Then we continued from there and did not stop until our tummy was shouting at us. Then we stopped at one roadside Dhaba and had aloo paranthas. To be frank, the paranthas were pretty big in size but not at all tasty but we needed some energy so we had to settle !!

Then, we drove and drove and reached Roopnagar. This small town is very beautiful and probably that's why it is called Roopnagar. Their police stopped us for paper checking and fortunately, I was driving at that time so we just escaped a hefty fine for not wearing a helmet. Rathore was like  " The first thing I am gonna do after reaching Manali is to get myself a helmet". 

With 3 hours more into driving, we were finally approaching Manali when we faced first incomplete tunnel means tunnel was operational but it had no lightning, no solid walls and as a result, it was too dusty inside the tunnel and the moment we got out of the tunnel, our faces were all white and black due to dust and concrete dust in the tunnel. We were looking horrible...HAHAHA

Anyway, we cleaned our faces and continued as we did not want to reach Manali at night.  On the way to Manali, we stopped at one place which is like a junction. If you take right, you will reach Kasol, Manikaran and if you keep going straight, you will reach Manali. 

So, we kept going straight and on the way, we had some nice and hot kulchas ( bun stuffed with white channa) and a big glass of sugarcane juice.

It was around 3:30 - 4:00 pm when we entered Manali. It was so full of life and the weather was soo awesome !!! We again turned on the GPS and followed the way to the hotel. I had already booked the hotel on Booking.com.  The manager was so nice and gave us on the spot discount of 200 Rs, so we had to pay a total of 900 Rs for two persons ( including breakfast). The room was pretty nice and warm and cozy and the view from Balcony was mesmerizing and out of this world. It was snowing in the mountains and we could see it very clearly. As we were dead tired after 8-9 hours of driving, we decided to take a nap before we go out and explore Manali !!

Here are some pics of the hotel room and the view from Balcony

                                     In picture -  The Hotel room

In the picture - A panoramic view from the Balcony

we woke up after one hour, got refreshed, wore new clothes and went down the stairs, and had a little talk with the manager. He asked about the further journey and he helped us getting the online permit for crossing Rohtang pass and all we had to do was just to get its print out. Remember, the permit is a must if you are going to Leh via Manali. If you are going only till Rohtang pass, you do not need the permit but if you are going beyond the pass, you will have to get it.

We took our lovely Activa and went on to explore the Mall road of Manali. It was too crowded but we barely found a parking space and that too was for 3 hours only. We thought 3 hours are more than enough and paid the parking fees of 20 Rs per hour. 

The mall road of any hill station is the central hub for tourists. The mall road of Manali is relatively smaller in size but is much vibrant and classy as compared to Shimla.  There we had a plate of hot, steaming momos and the taste was so good that we had to get one more...Then we started our hunt for an internet cafe so that we can get the print out for permit. Believe me, it took us around 35 minutes to find the only printing cafe on the mall road, and there also, the boys were busy playing PUBG, so we had to do all the work by ourselves.

Task completed !! We got the printout and now it was time for some delicious dinner. When it comes to food and traveling, I do not give a second thought about spending money, however, I am not into materialistic things like expensive phones, clothes, etc.  

We found a nice looking hotel and had to wait for 15 minutes before someone vacates the table. We ordered Paneer, daal, raita, rumali roti, and mix veg and a cold drink. It was time to attack the food then I suddenly noticed a nice, cute girl looking at us. She was cute and the whole time, I could not stop myself from looking at her once in a while even she was looking back. Those were some moments of lovely eye contact :-) 

Then, we paid for the food and went back to the parking space, paid the rest amount of 40 Rs, and got out ride back.

From there, we started searching for the most important thing - Yes, Helmet !!

We asked so many people about helmets on rent but most of them had no idea, In the end, we had to buy a brand new helmet and the cost was around 1700 Rs. There, we enquired about bikes on rent and were surprised after listening to the rate. They were charging 1000 per day without petrol for basic bikes and 1200 for Royal Enfield. There we realized that we are going to save a lot of money.  

The other thing which I must tell you right now and right here is that if you have your personal bike with all the documents like RC and insurance, nobody is going to pose any problem or question you otherwise if you rent a bike in Manali ( Himachal) then you are going to face problems in Ladakh as they have their own rented bike union and they will not allow any rented bike from any other state to cross the check post on the way to Khardung La pass. You do not have to worry about all this if you have your personal ride registered in your name. I will talk in detail later on. The Journey hasn't even started yet.

Please give your views, suggestions, and please do comment on the blog itself. I will be happy to read your comments. 

The next post will be full of details, pictures, and videos.

Thank you for your time !!!

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