Yes..... I killed him...
Not that my confession helps him or wash out my mistakes.... I am doing it here just to help myself in getting a night sleep which I am loosing everyday....
I was not on the wheel at that time but was guiding him in reversing the car... Suddenly we saw some puppies playing and stopped . After confirming that all are passed we reversed the car only to see one small puppy dying in front of us... he must be just hiding behind the wheel and we couldn't see him.... I saw him dying in front of me and could not do anything.... I took one life ... there is no escape....
I love dogs... and I am not able to forget the scene of his blood ... and he dying there... God, I am not asking u to forgive but give me the right punishment for it..
Monday, December 08, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
LETTER TO PRIMEMINISTER
Got a fwd mail just now...... :
Dear Mr. Prime minister
I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.
Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bolywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India.
Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima.
We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.
Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?
I am born and bought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar. Look at all the politician, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next time terrorist can comfortably live in those house , enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.
Recently I had to purchase house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your finance minister are not aware of it. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.
If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politician has converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste only what I am not is INDIAN. You politician have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule.
Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such a intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politician didn't even spare him. Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politician feels they are supreme and there is no place for good person.
Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent person, most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politician. Ask Swiss bank to give name of all Indian account holder. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us. There will be political upheaval but that will better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day. Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.
Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?
Dear Mr. Prime minister
I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.
Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bolywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India.
Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima.
We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.
Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?
I am born and bought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar. Look at all the politician, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next time terrorist can comfortably live in those house , enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.
Recently I had to purchase house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your finance minister are not aware of it. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.
If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politician has converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste only what I am not is INDIAN. You politician have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule.
Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such a intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politician didn't even spare him. Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politician feels they are supreme and there is no place for good person.
Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent person, most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politician. Ask Swiss bank to give name of all Indian account holder. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us. There will be political upheaval but that will better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day. Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.
Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?
Monday, October 20, 2008
For Heaven's Sake !!
With Salute to my beautiful country... to the people who live in the extreme condition of Ladakh and to the Indian Army who is posted there.. here is trip report of my Ride to Ladakh.
The first thing which was in my mind when I got transfer to Gurgaon( from Bangalore ) was the trip to Ladakh... I was planning for the trip for last two year but was not able to make it from Bangalore because of various usual reasons ( leaves, deadlines.. blah blah blah )... once in Guragaon I had decided that I am doing it this year at any cost...
But Alas.. once again one of those usual reasons came up and I couldnt get two weeks leaves as per my plan... so it went back to planning stage and I planned for tight 9 days itinerary...
Did not get anyone who would like to join me on those dates and for such a tight schedule ... and my love for solo driving got a chance.....
Day 0 : Delhi -> Chandigarh : Started in evening after office... Plan was to reach Chandigarh and do Chandigarh -> Manali the next day.... but exactly when I loaded my saddle bag on the bike it started raining.... I waited for some time but didnt see any chance of it to stop... so I started my journey in rain itself... got completely drenched by the time I reached NH8.. crossed the toll gate and I was shocked to see dry roads in Delhi...I could still see heavy clouds over Gurgaon in my rear view mirror.... I was already feeling tired by the time I hit GT karnal road.... crossing Delhi was no fun... reached Chandigarh at midnight, found a cheap room and crashed for the night.... No pictures of the day....
Day 1 : Chandigarh -> Manali : I left chadigarh early in the morning and reached Manali by 4 o clock... with lot of breaks... didnt take any still picture on this route... I just have some videos from this route... had dinner at my Fav restaurant in Manali... "Mom's kitchen" it has been shifted to a new place now from a small shop to a big restaurant.. I had food here two years back when I visited Manali with friends and I could still remember the taste of hot and smooth soups cooked by Mom... it still tastes same... With the hang over of yummy food and dreams of travelling on my dream route next day.. I went to bed...
Day 2 : Manali -> Sarchu : plan was to reach Sarchu today with lot of photography break hence I started early from Manali to beat traffic to rohtang pass.. Filled fuel from to petrol pump at manali, only to witness the first view of snow capped mountains... I took out my still camera first time,composed the beautiful scene and pressed the release button... but no sound.. oops it was not in mood to click... and was asking me to format the card.. well I didnt have any picture on my card yet so I formatted the card... but still camera is in no mood to shoot... Changed the card but it's still same... I tried all the things I could do there but my dear Nikon was not responding in a positive way....well I did some video shoot and proceeded thinking I will try to format cards in some cyber cafe or whereever I'll get any computer..... Road to rohtang was not in very good shape and there was lot of mud at many places... I thanked to my new tyres which did a good job here....
Near Deepak taal I found some guys with some SLR cameras, To try my luck I went to them and asked if any of their cameras uses CF card so that i can try it in my camera and find out what is wrong with it... well no one had camera with CF Card but luckily one of them had laptop... we tried to format the card and it worked... I was so happy at that time as I found my lost partner back on the trip... and from here starts my photography journey ...
I was having fun on those beautiful curvy and colorful roads ... well only till I reached my first high altitude pass Baralacha La... right at the time I reached on the summit it started raining heavily... it was around 4 o clock and wind was very high.... more over I started feeling first attack of AMS... I didnt have any place to hide so I decided to drive slowly and somehow reach at bit lower altitude... my hands were almost frozen by the time I reachedbharathpur...... I put my gloves for drying in one dhaba tent and had tea...
after coming back in control I started again to sarchu... Road was nice and hence I got good speed.. I was in hurry to reach Sarchu and find some place for the night..... stopped on very first tent camp at Sarchu and was hidden under two blankets after half an hour.... it was 7 in evening... no more clicks that evening.... it was not an easy night for me......
Day 3 : Sarchu -> Leh : Day didnt start very well. Took some landscape shot at the camp... and started after having nice bread-omlet breakfast..... Met two guys from Holland and a group of Indian guys staying in US.... had nice talk with Holland guys about cricket in Holland...Spirits were not very high but this road had enough reasons to bring them up....
Grass field and beautiful sand formation changed my mood completely... and I did bit of offroading
Gata loops
best thing on this road was meeting different people.... Just when u start feeling tired you meet people who motivates you and you feel refresh and if that doesnt work... you can always have nice Maggie on the Dhabas.... Most of these Dhaba people are Nepalis who come here in summer and go back to other places in Winter.... met a lady who moves to Mathura ( my native town ) in winters.... It seems there is one tibetian market there..
south korean couple near Kangala Jal
My speed was real slow here as on every turn I had to stop.. take out my camera and click..... It was amazing and I enjoyed this route a lot....
lot of bridge construction is going on at moore plains so on every construction one have to go off road and drive in sand.... this was nice experience overall..... but I was more worried abt the heavy clouds ahead of me over Tangla.... I had already experienced rain last day ...and I really wanted to cross Tangla in good weather...
Anyways weather was not that bad when I reached Tangla
while coming down there was a army truck stopping way for all the traffic and there was huge queue of 4 wheelers waiting for road to be cleared.... I thanked my vehicle for having only 2 wheels and managed to escape from there...
Road from Rumpse to Upushi was like an award given to you for crossing all the bad roads .... a beautiful curvy newly laid road... Colorful mountains and crystal clear river flowing with you was surely a treat.....
finally I reached Leh while the sun was about to set..... All the pain I was having just vanished when Leh welcomed me in it's best.....
found a room for 150/- at changspa .... and kissed my bike for performing it's best and not giving me a single problem....
I was Leh'd Finally....
Day 4 : Leh : Early morning I climbed till Shanti Stupa and got first view of Leh city...I cant explain the feeling in words... Snow capped mountains and view of green small town was breathtaking....
My plan was to checkout from the room .. go to DC office and get the permit done and then to start for the Nubra valley.... but plan ruined when I found out that neither ADM nor DC is available at that time.... officer asked me to fill the form and come back at 2'o clock... well I was bit disappointed but I tought of utilizing the time to visit the beautiful town and Leh palace... well the place deserve that much
I reached DC office back exactly at 2'o clock only to find out that ADM is still not there... I found a nice friend who is travel agent in Leh and was arranging permits for a group of foreigner... had a nice talk with him on different topic like so many DL regestration bike in delhi and lack of indian tourist in Leh.... finally got the permit for nubra , pangong and mersimek La at 5:30 .. I had read in some travelogue that they are not giving permits for Marsimek la.... but I dont think they were even seeing what I had asked for.... neways I wanted to do Marsimek la and i had got the permit... I again went and got another room in another guest house for that night and spent my evening roaming arnd Leh Market.
Day 5 : Leh - Diskit : Last night it rained heavily in Leh but morning looked clear.. I started early to avoid traffic to Khardung La... and found out that last night it snowed heavily on some of the hills.... was wondering if Khardung Top is one of those... well the road was heading to that direction only.....
My hand were already frozen by the time I reached South Pallu.... It took me 15 mins to gather all my motivating factors and start towards K Top.... the final stretch to K Top was not good and there was a land slide which was stopping the traffic.... I was driving on the snow first time... so was bit scared... I took some videos here but was not in a position to take any Still shot.... I reached K Top arnd 9:30 with my arms frozen and completely wet shoes.... Had 3-4 cups of tea and hot maggie to give me some energy and warmth... I stayed there for arnd an hour.... took some shots and moved on...
It was zero visibility on the other side and road was in bad condition... I had to drive real slow here... finally found some Sun rays at North Pallu... took a tea break here.... my plan was to reach Diskit and stay there... but a german lady suggested me to stay at Hunder itself as it has some nice guest houses. With that suggastion in mind I moved ahead... while trying to capture the beauty of Nubra valley...
Reached Diskit at noon and Had lunch there.... I wanted to give Hunder a try hence I moved ahead to find guest houses at Hunder and ended up in a nice guest house called "Snow Leopard" ... German lady who suggested me the Hunder was also staying in same guest house.... after getting fresh I walked up to the small monastery at Hunder and to the last point any non local could go on that road....
after coming back I had a nice Nap... Guest house guy had to come and wake me up for the dinner.... I met an english couple here and I was amazed to hear that they travel in India more than me... they were at Hampi in February and in Varanasi last year.....
After dinner I tried to shoot some start trails but couldnt get any good shot as I was not carrying the cable release for my camera.... But the view of star in clear sky is still captured in my heart....
Day 6: Hunder -> Panamik -> Leh : Early morning I took some shots of Camels and Sand dunes of hunder and visited Diskit Gompa.
Drive to Panamik was smooth . Met three sikh Army guys who were guarding the bridge on my way. and cant' forget their hospitality... I had three glasses of Real juice on that post .. ...
...
With overdose of energy from Juice I said bye to nubra valley..
And headed back towards K Top. Yesterday's experience was still bothering me but weather was looking lot better today.... When I reached K Top I was not able to believe that It's same Khardungla as yesterday.... it was sunny... and I saw some of the best landscape of the trip here which I couldnt see last day because of no visibility....
Reached Leh on time got the room and took rest.. It was my third guest house at Leh.
Here starts the cofusion... I already had the tight plan of the trip and I had wasted one day in getting permits... today was thursday and I need to reach Delhi by monday morning.... Did not want to take risk of going via Srinagar and Jammu... got the strict instruction from home for not taking that route....so I had to go back via Manali only.... which means I needed to start toward Manali next day... What abt Pangong Tso.. & Marsimek La... with all that in mind I was not able to sleep did all the calculation but it was not possible to do pangong Tso and reach Delhi on time... and somehere inside I did not want to go back via same route....
Day 7 : Leh -> XXXX : Day Started with new thought... should I try for Air tickets... If I get the ticket I could send my bike by transport and that would give me two days for Marsimek La and Pangong Tso and one extra day for lazing arnd Leh..... But I was not that lucky.. I checked all the airlines but all were completely full... I was seeing it first time.... Not even a single seat on indian aircrafts.. I went to one travel Agent and he suggested me to go via Jammu.... though the ticket was costly I badly wanted to go pangong Tso to give my trip a sense of completion... I got my tickets done 'Indian Airlines' from Leh To Jammu and 'Go Air' from Jammu to Delhi with enough time in between... I collected my tickets and headed towards mighty Chang La...
Road to Chang La was very nice almost till the end only the last 5 km was bit bumpy.. Discover performed it's best.. only at one place it could not climb and that too because I didnt change the gear at right time... had to give little push to climb . but overall trip was smooth and I loved it...
road from tanksey to Pangong was great..... passing through beautiful grass land with horses and yak was great....
It was arnd 5'o clock when I reached Pagal Nala.... Weather was cloudy hence Pagal nala was not at it's Best Pagalpan and I didnt face much problem in crossing it..
reached Pangong arnd 6 and found a room in one of the Eco huts.... Weather was getting colder and windy.... Clouds had covered Pangong completely ....
I cant forget telling abt four interesting ladies I met over dinner ... they had made the group in Leh Itself and were staying in the hut next to me... One of them was very interested in indian Culture, Yoga and sprituality.. She was from Holland and is a mother of son of my age... we had nice talk over Indian influence on Europe...two of them were beautiful galz from Polland.... One of them a violinist and other one a shoe designer... fourth was again a motherly figure from Australia. they went to sleep early and I kept taking tea after tea while talking to some cab drivers...
Day 8 : Pangong Tso -> Leh : Previous night I slept with the dreams of Capturing Pangong early morning and then conquering Marsimek La....
But that was Just previous night.... when I came out of my room early morning... I was disappointed to see rain outside.. there were heavy clouds in the sky and no clours at all... Pangong Tso was not even visible properly.... when rain stopped for some time I decided to take a walk along Pangong and enjoy it's beauty... but I had to come back very soon as rain started again... and it was more aggressive this time... all hills top arnd was covered with Snow.... I took a very unfortunate decision of dropping the plan of Marsimek la..... and headed back to Leh......
but this was not going to be easy... Bad weather was not leaving me.... It was snowing heavily all the way to chang La .... zero visibility and chilled winds made my journey a long one... and I reached Leh in evening......I crashed to bed after having dinner....
Day 10 : Leh : I had good breakfast and enquired abt some transport to send bike back to Delhi... Got Chinar transport who was not ready to take bikes earlier but convienced later.. when Vishal ( who also wanted to send his bike back ) met me and we both approached him..... I spent evening on the Shanti Stupa... and witnessed the last sunset of my trip..... I had to catch my flight early morning and supposed to be in office next day....
Day 11 : Leh to Delhi : got a taxi to airport... airIndia flight to Jammu was on time and I was going to catch another spicejet flight to Delhi from Jammu..... the journey which started with such an excitement can end in such a simple way..... when i enquired abt my next flight at Jammu I came to know that it got cancelled because of some army operation on Delhi airpost due to August 15th preparation.... after long argument and no fruits with spice jet people.... I went to only avaibale flight of airIndia... but I had to wait for 5 hours on the Jammu airport for that flight... which also meant that I had to miss my office that day.... i opted for such an expensive flight just because i wanted to be in office that Day.... I met an interesting Biker on Jammu airport.. She was from bangalore and had to drop off her trip and go back because of some personal reason.... we killed time sharing our experiences at Leh...
I reached Delhi in evening... NH8 to gurgaon was looking very boring in front of curvy, bumpy, beautiful roads of Ladakh.... This was not the end of journey... its just started .... I left lot of unsettled business at Ladakh... and wil have to go again and again to settle them.....
Cheers,
Prasoon
The first thing which was in my mind when I got transfer to Gurgaon( from Bangalore ) was the trip to Ladakh... I was planning for the trip for last two year but was not able to make it from Bangalore because of various usual reasons ( leaves, deadlines.. blah blah blah )... once in Guragaon I had decided that I am doing it this year at any cost...
But Alas.. once again one of those usual reasons came up and I couldnt get two weeks leaves as per my plan... so it went back to planning stage and I planned for tight 9 days itinerary...
Did not get anyone who would like to join me on those dates and for such a tight schedule ... and my love for solo driving got a chance.....
Day 0 : Delhi -> Chandigarh : Started in evening after office... Plan was to reach Chandigarh and do Chandigarh -> Manali the next day.... but exactly when I loaded my saddle bag on the bike it started raining.... I waited for some time but didnt see any chance of it to stop... so I started my journey in rain itself... got completely drenched by the time I reached NH8.. crossed the toll gate and I was shocked to see dry roads in Delhi...I could still see heavy clouds over Gurgaon in my rear view mirror.... I was already feeling tired by the time I hit GT karnal road.... crossing Delhi was no fun... reached Chandigarh at midnight, found a cheap room and crashed for the night.... No pictures of the day....
Day 1 : Chandigarh -> Manali : I left chadigarh early in the morning and reached Manali by 4 o clock... with lot of breaks... didnt take any still picture on this route... I just have some videos from this route... had dinner at my Fav restaurant in Manali... "Mom's kitchen" it has been shifted to a new place now from a small shop to a big restaurant.. I had food here two years back when I visited Manali with friends and I could still remember the taste of hot and smooth soups cooked by Mom... it still tastes same... With the hang over of yummy food and dreams of travelling on my dream route next day.. I went to bed...
Day 2 : Manali -> Sarchu : plan was to reach Sarchu today with lot of photography break hence I started early from Manali to beat traffic to rohtang pass.. Filled fuel from to petrol pump at manali, only to witness the first view of snow capped mountains... I took out my still camera first time,composed the beautiful scene and pressed the release button... but no sound.. oops it was not in mood to click... and was asking me to format the card.. well I didnt have any picture on my card yet so I formatted the card... but still camera is in no mood to shoot... Changed the card but it's still same... I tried all the things I could do there but my dear Nikon was not responding in a positive way....well I did some video shoot and proceeded thinking I will try to format cards in some cyber cafe or whereever I'll get any computer..... Road to rohtang was not in very good shape and there was lot of mud at many places... I thanked to my new tyres which did a good job here....
Near Deepak taal I found some guys with some SLR cameras, To try my luck I went to them and asked if any of their cameras uses CF card so that i can try it in my camera and find out what is wrong with it... well no one had camera with CF Card but luckily one of them had laptop... we tried to format the card and it worked... I was so happy at that time as I found my lost partner back on the trip... and from here starts my photography journey ...
I was having fun on those beautiful curvy and colorful roads ... well only till I reached my first high altitude pass Baralacha La... right at the time I reached on the summit it started raining heavily... it was around 4 o clock and wind was very high.... more over I started feeling first attack of AMS... I didnt have any place to hide so I decided to drive slowly and somehow reach at bit lower altitude... my hands were almost frozen by the time I reachedbharathpur...... I put my gloves for drying in one dhaba tent and had tea...
after coming back in control I started again to sarchu... Road was nice and hence I got good speed.. I was in hurry to reach Sarchu and find some place for the night..... stopped on very first tent camp at Sarchu and was hidden under two blankets after half an hour.... it was 7 in evening... no more clicks that evening.... it was not an easy night for me......
Day 3 : Sarchu -> Leh : Day didnt start very well. Took some landscape shot at the camp... and started after having nice bread-omlet breakfast..... Met two guys from Holland and a group of Indian guys staying in US.... had nice talk with Holland guys about cricket in Holland...Spirits were not very high but this road had enough reasons to bring them up....
Grass field and beautiful sand formation changed my mood completely... and I did bit of offroading
Gata loops
best thing on this road was meeting different people.... Just when u start feeling tired you meet people who motivates you and you feel refresh and if that doesnt work... you can always have nice Maggie on the Dhabas.... Most of these Dhaba people are Nepalis who come here in summer and go back to other places in Winter.... met a lady who moves to Mathura ( my native town ) in winters.... It seems there is one tibetian market there..
south korean couple near Kangala Jal
My speed was real slow here as on every turn I had to stop.. take out my camera and click..... It was amazing and I enjoyed this route a lot....
lot of bridge construction is going on at moore plains so on every construction one have to go off road and drive in sand.... this was nice experience overall..... but I was more worried abt the heavy clouds ahead of me over Tangla.... I had already experienced rain last day ...and I really wanted to cross Tangla in good weather...
Anyways weather was not that bad when I reached Tangla
while coming down there was a army truck stopping way for all the traffic and there was huge queue of 4 wheelers waiting for road to be cleared.... I thanked my vehicle for having only 2 wheels and managed to escape from there...
Road from Rumpse to Upushi was like an award given to you for crossing all the bad roads .... a beautiful curvy newly laid road... Colorful mountains and crystal clear river flowing with you was surely a treat.....
finally I reached Leh while the sun was about to set..... All the pain I was having just vanished when Leh welcomed me in it's best.....
found a room for 150/- at changspa .... and kissed my bike for performing it's best and not giving me a single problem....
I was Leh'd Finally....
Day 4 : Leh : Early morning I climbed till Shanti Stupa and got first view of Leh city...I cant explain the feeling in words... Snow capped mountains and view of green small town was breathtaking....
My plan was to checkout from the room .. go to DC office and get the permit done and then to start for the Nubra valley.... but plan ruined when I found out that neither ADM nor DC is available at that time.... officer asked me to fill the form and come back at 2'o clock... well I was bit disappointed but I tought of utilizing the time to visit the beautiful town and Leh palace... well the place deserve that much
I reached DC office back exactly at 2'o clock only to find out that ADM is still not there... I found a nice friend who is travel agent in Leh and was arranging permits for a group of foreigner... had a nice talk with him on different topic like so many DL regestration bike in delhi and lack of indian tourist in Leh.... finally got the permit for nubra , pangong and mersimek La at 5:30 .. I had read in some travelogue that they are not giving permits for Marsimek la.... but I dont think they were even seeing what I had asked for.... neways I wanted to do Marsimek la and i had got the permit... I again went and got another room in another guest house for that night and spent my evening roaming arnd Leh Market.
Day 5 : Leh - Diskit : Last night it rained heavily in Leh but morning looked clear.. I started early to avoid traffic to Khardung La... and found out that last night it snowed heavily on some of the hills.... was wondering if Khardung Top is one of those... well the road was heading to that direction only.....
My hand were already frozen by the time I reached South Pallu.... It took me 15 mins to gather all my motivating factors and start towards K Top.... the final stretch to K Top was not good and there was a land slide which was stopping the traffic.... I was driving on the snow first time... so was bit scared... I took some videos here but was not in a position to take any Still shot.... I reached K Top arnd 9:30 with my arms frozen and completely wet shoes.... Had 3-4 cups of tea and hot maggie to give me some energy and warmth... I stayed there for arnd an hour.... took some shots and moved on...
It was zero visibility on the other side and road was in bad condition... I had to drive real slow here... finally found some Sun rays at North Pallu... took a tea break here.... my plan was to reach Diskit and stay there... but a german lady suggested me to stay at Hunder itself as it has some nice guest houses. With that suggastion in mind I moved ahead... while trying to capture the beauty of Nubra valley...
Reached Diskit at noon and Had lunch there.... I wanted to give Hunder a try hence I moved ahead to find guest houses at Hunder and ended up in a nice guest house called "Snow Leopard" ... German lady who suggested me the Hunder was also staying in same guest house.... after getting fresh I walked up to the small monastery at Hunder and to the last point any non local could go on that road....
after coming back I had a nice Nap... Guest house guy had to come and wake me up for the dinner.... I met an english couple here and I was amazed to hear that they travel in India more than me... they were at Hampi in February and in Varanasi last year.....
After dinner I tried to shoot some start trails but couldnt get any good shot as I was not carrying the cable release for my camera.... But the view of star in clear sky is still captured in my heart....
Day 6: Hunder -> Panamik -> Leh : Early morning I took some shots of Camels and Sand dunes of hunder and visited Diskit Gompa.
Drive to Panamik was smooth . Met three sikh Army guys who were guarding the bridge on my way. and cant' forget their hospitality... I had three glasses of Real juice on that post .. ...
... With overdose of energy from Juice I said bye to nubra valley..
And headed back towards K Top. Yesterday's experience was still bothering me but weather was looking lot better today.... When I reached K Top I was not able to believe that It's same Khardungla as yesterday.... it was sunny... and I saw some of the best landscape of the trip here which I couldnt see last day because of no visibility....
Reached Leh on time got the room and took rest.. It was my third guest house at Leh.
Here starts the cofusion... I already had the tight plan of the trip and I had wasted one day in getting permits... today was thursday and I need to reach Delhi by monday morning.... Did not want to take risk of going via Srinagar and Jammu... got the strict instruction from home for not taking that route....so I had to go back via Manali only.... which means I needed to start toward Manali next day... What abt Pangong Tso.. & Marsimek La... with all that in mind I was not able to sleep did all the calculation but it was not possible to do pangong Tso and reach Delhi on time... and somehere inside I did not want to go back via same route....
Day 7 : Leh -> XXXX : Day Started with new thought... should I try for Air tickets... If I get the ticket I could send my bike by transport and that would give me two days for Marsimek La and Pangong Tso and one extra day for lazing arnd Leh..... But I was not that lucky.. I checked all the airlines but all were completely full... I was seeing it first time.... Not even a single seat on indian aircrafts.. I went to one travel Agent and he suggested me to go via Jammu.... though the ticket was costly I badly wanted to go pangong Tso to give my trip a sense of completion... I got my tickets done 'Indian Airlines' from Leh To Jammu and 'Go Air' from Jammu to Delhi with enough time in between... I collected my tickets and headed towards mighty Chang La...
Road to Chang La was very nice almost till the end only the last 5 km was bit bumpy.. Discover performed it's best.. only at one place it could not climb and that too because I didnt change the gear at right time... had to give little push to climb . but overall trip was smooth and I loved it...
road from tanksey to Pangong was great..... passing through beautiful grass land with horses and yak was great....
It was arnd 5'o clock when I reached Pagal Nala.... Weather was cloudy hence Pagal nala was not at it's Best Pagalpan and I didnt face much problem in crossing it..
reached Pangong arnd 6 and found a room in one of the Eco huts.... Weather was getting colder and windy.... Clouds had covered Pangong completely ....
I cant forget telling abt four interesting ladies I met over dinner ... they had made the group in Leh Itself and were staying in the hut next to me... One of them was very interested in indian Culture, Yoga and sprituality.. She was from Holland and is a mother of son of my age... we had nice talk over Indian influence on Europe...two of them were beautiful galz from Polland.... One of them a violinist and other one a shoe designer... fourth was again a motherly figure from Australia. they went to sleep early and I kept taking tea after tea while talking to some cab drivers...
Day 8 : Pangong Tso -> Leh : Previous night I slept with the dreams of Capturing Pangong early morning and then conquering Marsimek La....
But that was Just previous night.... when I came out of my room early morning... I was disappointed to see rain outside.. there were heavy clouds in the sky and no clours at all... Pangong Tso was not even visible properly.... when rain stopped for some time I decided to take a walk along Pangong and enjoy it's beauty... but I had to come back very soon as rain started again... and it was more aggressive this time... all hills top arnd was covered with Snow.... I took a very unfortunate decision of dropping the plan of Marsimek la..... and headed back to Leh......
but this was not going to be easy... Bad weather was not leaving me.... It was snowing heavily all the way to chang La .... zero visibility and chilled winds made my journey a long one... and I reached Leh in evening......I crashed to bed after having dinner....
Day 10 : Leh : I had good breakfast and enquired abt some transport to send bike back to Delhi... Got Chinar transport who was not ready to take bikes earlier but convienced later.. when Vishal ( who also wanted to send his bike back ) met me and we both approached him..... I spent evening on the Shanti Stupa... and witnessed the last sunset of my trip..... I had to catch my flight early morning and supposed to be in office next day....
Day 11 : Leh to Delhi : got a taxi to airport... airIndia flight to Jammu was on time and I was going to catch another spicejet flight to Delhi from Jammu..... the journey which started with such an excitement can end in such a simple way..... when i enquired abt my next flight at Jammu I came to know that it got cancelled because of some army operation on Delhi airpost due to August 15th preparation.... after long argument and no fruits with spice jet people.... I went to only avaibale flight of airIndia... but I had to wait for 5 hours on the Jammu airport for that flight... which also meant that I had to miss my office that day.... i opted for such an expensive flight just because i wanted to be in office that Day.... I met an interesting Biker on Jammu airport.. She was from bangalore and had to drop off her trip and go back because of some personal reason.... we killed time sharing our experiences at Leh...
I reached Delhi in evening... NH8 to gurgaon was looking very boring in front of curvy, bumpy, beautiful roads of Ladakh.... This was not the end of journey... its just started .... I left lot of unsettled business at Ladakh... and wil have to go again and again to settle them.....
Cheers,
Prasoon
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Awesome weather here...
Awesome.... I dont know what happened to Delhi... for last 3-4 days there is great weather here... it's Cloudy all day... a good relief from heat and dust.. and guess What ?... It's reminding me my beautiful and unforgattable day of Bangalore... Yes Bangalore I am missing you and missing you a lot... Not That I am not happy for coming here or I am not liking Gurgaon... there are different advantages here and they are important but Bangalore is a city where I spent the best part of my life till now... 6 years in Bangalore were the days when I learnt living life... My first Job, my first bike , my first ride , my first travel , my first camera and lots of friends, lots of love, lots of Masti.. all these memories makes Bangalore a very special place for me.. I feel more comfortable in Bangalore than in Gurgaon... hope this feeling will go soon and I'll start feeling Gurgaon and north India as my own place but it'll surely take time.
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