It had all started with a phone call from Himanshu in Jodhpur about a getaway from the mundane office grind.I, for one thing, wasnt too sure on the prospect, but then Leh seemed too tempting...and that too on a bike expedition. There was no looking back after that. It was all "bike trip to Leh-Ladakh" et all on google for whatever info we could lay our hands on. Invites were mailed to "potent mavericks", but seemed only 3 of us were sure shot on the trip: kenny, himanshu and yours truly. D -day was set for 3rd of September.Tents, backpacks, sleeping bags were booked; bikes duly serviced;kith and kin informed; supplies bought; medicines procured and leave applications forwarded to respective bosses!
Come August 28th, and Himanshu meekly informed us about a big honcho's visit to his office on September 6th or something like that and it was tough for him to get out of it. We all decided to postpone the D-day to September 9th, a week later.Well, it also made me complete my jobs at a comfortable pace and I was on my way to Delhi on 8th September.Himanshu had already landed in Delhi from Jodhpur and had collected his bike from the Railways parcel office. The whole day had been one hectic day, with collecting all the camping equipment, getting hold of plastic jerry cans for fuel, then making a dash to Nehru Place to get one more memory card for my digicam (thank god for that!) and then a sprint to my bike dealer to collect my bike's RC (yes, my bike is just 3 1/2 months old). It was 21.00 hrs by the time we got done with it. There was another friend of us waiting at Gurgaon to throw us a party for his brand new car, and he was getting impatient at our delay!! (god bless such noble souls!!).
It was party time then..(KRECians/NITKians have this generic trait- ANYTIME could be party time!).It was well past midnight when the beers (ahem!) finally got over, and we still had to pack our stuffs into our backpacks, and mounting the saddle bags onto our bikes. When it was 02.00hrs, we took a look at one another and somebody popped the question whether we would be able to start early morning. But a resolve is a resolve- we packed our backpacks in 20 mins flat, then made a detergent slush and we were onto cleaning the jerry cans/lube oil cans inside out. Sincere apologies to Kenny's landlady for dumping industrial effluents down the drainage pipe!
We were pooped after all the work and it was 03.30 hrs when we finally plonked onto our mattresses. Alarm was for 06.00 hrs!
5 comments:
hey..nilu..dat was a nice and ver nice trip u encountered...well my english mite be lke superman..but it was gr8 reading...and man..i feel like going to Ladakh after u guys went..its gr8 scene..and yoo man!!! nice pics too....
.....lots to tell!! bt i am going to have some APONG now so farewll buddy..see ya
u must visit Leh/Ladakh atleast once...its sheer heaven..
u take care too
Hmm!
that was one hell of a trip - the max that i did was 400-450 kms, and that too overnight! Under wind and rain and on mountains - so the felling - g@@nd phat gaya - was very much felt!
anyways it was a gr8 trip! hope someday i'll catch up with u guys, the KREC gang - and do globe-trotting on bike!
BTW - u did not write about the return trip?? Flight loi ghuri aahili neki! heh heh heeeeh!
Nice stuff n keep it up!
BTW - whats AMS??
the return trip was on our faithful steel horses!!no way were we gonna take a flight back!!
AMS is Acute Mountain Sickness, potentially fatal, caused by the extreme low levels of oxygen in the upper atmosphere.
welcome to join us dude, anytime.
next trip is next year...mebbe to zanskar, nubra and uri
Nilu n Himahsu, u have done it.
When ll i get chance to conquer himalayas.
Great trip n sticky write up.
Nilu: can u fwd me himanshu's contact no. at "snehmadhur at gmail.com".
Sneh Madhur
2k2 Krecian n ex-DRDO employee
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