Day 8. 1st november
Posted by sarathkumars | Filed under Uncategorized
we have finished ladakh and are moving to kashmir. We started at 6.30am in the morning in three scorpios (different from the ones of last 3 days). They say that ladakhis are great people and kashmiris are not that helpful.. We really started experiencing that in our journey).. Our drivers bypassed magnetic hill and sangam even though we had told them about our interest to visit these places. They told about this only when we stopped for breakfast at around 8.30. With anger we continued towards kargil and had our lunch there at 2pm.. These drivers were amazingly slow at the speed of 30kmph in smooth plain roads.. I didnot know what they were doing.. We reached drass at 4pm and they tried to make fool of us by telling that there is no war monument there and the 10th anniversary was celebrated on roadside even though i kept on asking as i had seen the program on tv.. Luckily paul spotted the entrance gate which was around 300m in front of us and we all went in to spent around 45 minutes in there.. We continued for zoji la and crossed it to reach sonamarg by 8pm.. Had our dinner from a punjabi dhaba and reached our hotel which was prebooked by around 10pm.. The taxis cost 8500 each.. we stayed in hotel rocks in dal gate for 3 nights at a rate of 650per triple room. The rooms are average and looked like being kept for renovation.. The stay was arranged by mr. Irfan a kashmiri bachelor who was a front of vaisakh’s uncle who is a major in indian army in kupwara.. He arranged taxis also for us..
Day 7. 31st october..
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Day 7
today we are going to nubra..
Its the meeting place of himalayas and karakoram ranges..
We started at around 6.30am from leh.
Mani created a tmc record of shitting in open at the highest motorable pass in the world when he could not find a toilet at khardungla..
We reached the khardung village at 10am and had our breakfast..
Proceeded to the hot springs in panamik along the nubra river through the nubra valley..
Continued clicking the camera to obtain numerous wonderful wallpapers.. The spring was a wonderful one..
Then we proceeded to hunder to see the sand dunes of ladakh and all of us had camel rides through the sanddunes..
Returned through diskit, had the worst lunch of our whole trip there and reached khardungla at 5.30pm.. It was extremely cold on the top and it was really an experience to feel bone chilling temperature of MINUS 20 degree celcius..
Returned to our hotel and rested seeing the india australia match..
Day 6. 30th october..
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Day 6
Woke up at 5 am.. Went outside with just a single layer clothes on and it was really freezing. Called all the guys and got ready to start for pangong at 7am..
Our driver anchuk is a very friendly guy and he gives a lot of advices and tips for efficient travel in ladakh.
The drivers had their breakfast from karzu, and there occured something which was a sign of things to come.Sarath had this first time experience of attending the call of the nature in the open.He claims he did it quite hygienically. who knows.?
We crossed the third highest motorable pass in the world- the Chang la- of height 5360metres at 9 am. We enjoyed the snow out there and played in it.. It was really cold you know..
as the sun became brighter the mountains glowed in their full splendour to give us a magnificent view..
We had to cross a stream which was frozen and it was done with our hearts in our mouths..
11.30 am.. There we are, we got the first view of the pangong tso from around a kilometre away and the water was really blue..
We were 15 minutes late than the others as we had stopped to snap the yaks and pashmin goats which we spotted on our way..
Wow the pangong lake is really amazing. They say the colour of the lake keeps on changing as the day goes on.. We could see dark and light blue colours and also a green s colour in the lake. The lake is 135 km long of which 45km is in India and the rest in china.. They say the lake is 9km wide.. Its surrounded my mountains and what lies beyond the north eastern side mountains is china. Its a salt water lake and freezes in january.. Boating is possible in the lake only for army men.
We returned from pangong and reached our hotel by 5pm..
Day 5. 29th october..
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woke up at 8am after an extended night sleep and got ready for the day..
Our hotel guy had arranged 3 scorpios for us for the next 3 days..
Went for a leh round trip at around 9.
The places were lonely and there were only 2 tourists other than us.
we went to see hemis and thiksay monasteries and also the stok palace but it was closed.
Went to the sindhu darshan, had a few snaps there and proceeded to the shanti stupa from where the whole leh valley was visible..
a few of us hired a taxi after coming back to the hotel and went to the army general store and some of us got good deals for jackets(200rs) balclava and gloves..
But you got to go through the whole store and check all the items to get some undamaged articles..
Our driver took us to a budget restaurant in moti market and it was a really wonderful place..
A good meal for rs 30 including rice, roti, sabji, dal fry , pickle and curd.. Jitna bhi khao sirf 30 rupees.. Would really recommend that..
Tomorrow we are going to pangong lake and need to leave at 6am..
Day 4. 28th october..
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Yesterday night we arrived at the IGI airport in new delhi.. All of us except edwin and sami had the check in at 3am..
I finished all the account works till then and found some space on the floor to sleep at around 4.30am..
Somebody woke me up at 6.10 and our flight was at 7.10.
In the rush for getting ready for boarding i damaged a part of my brand new fasttrack sunglass..
How desp i was..
We got on flight at 7.00 and it took of right on time..
The air was quite calm and clear and we had our break fast on board served by the wonderful hostess..
After around 30 minutes we started seeing the himalayas down there..
The rest of the time on the flight was spent clicking the camera numerous times to capture the aerial view of the mountains- some covered and some not covered by snow..
We saw shimla, keylong, karzu etc from the flight..
By the way forgot to mention that we are flying to leh..
Then we got a full view of leh from the flight and the 2500bugs spent for the flight was well worth it..
we landed at leh airport at around 8.30am and the pilot announced that the temperature outside is minus 2 degrees..
We got out and got a real taste of the freezing temperatures..
Got three cabs to take us to leh city and after some time of enquiring got our accommodation at hotel tsokar in the fort road.. The rate was 1600 per room which accommodated three people each..
All the other cheap hotels had closed because of the off season and hence there was only limited accommodation available which was quite costly..
Took a full day rest with the diamox tablets to acclimatise to 3800m height.. Even then i had some vomiting and headache.. Met an english couple liam and lisa in the restaurant who were moving to kerala after finishing kashmir and we shared advices..
a few words about hotel tsokar- this is a B class hotel in leh and provides double rooms worth rs. 1500 at present..
They provide room heating with gas and also hot water in bathrooms.. There is a courtyard and they serve really good food which is a little bit costly than the outside hotels..
A perfect place for couples..
The owner is very much friendly(the one whom we met at hotel yak tail nearby where we first enquired for accommodation was very much rude and would not recommend that hotel to anyone) and the housekeepers mr. Tomchuk was there for any need of ours. He arranged the taxis for us and provided a 15 percent discount on them.
Day 6. 30th october..
Posted by sarathkumars | Filed under Uncategorized
Day 6
Woke up at 5 am.. Went outside with just a single layer clothes on and it was really freezing. Called all the guys and got ready to start for pangong at 7am..
Our driver anchuk is a very friendly guy and he gives a lot of advices and tips for efficient travel in ladakh.
The drivers had their breakfast from karzu, and there occured something which was a sign of things to come.Sarath had this first time experience of attending the call of the nature in the open.He claims he did it quite hygienically. who knows.?
We crossed the third highest motorable pass in the world- the Chang la- of height 5360metres at 9 am. We enjoyed the snow out there and played in it.. It was really cold you know..
as the sun became brighter the mountains glowed in their full splendour to give us a magnificent view..
We had to cross a stream which was frozen and it was done with our hearts in our mouths..
11.30 am.. There we are, we got the first view of the pangong tso from around a kilometre away and the water was really blue..
We were 15 minutes late than the others as we had stopped to snap the yaks and pashmin goats which we spotted on our way..
Wow the pangong lake is really amazing. They say the colour of the lake keeps on changing as the day goes on.. We could see dark and light blue colours and also a green s colour in the lake. The lake is 135 km long of which 45km is in India and the rest in china.. They say the lake is 9km wide.. Its surrounded my mountains and what lies beyond the north eastern side mountains is china. Its a salt water lake and freezes in january.. Boating is possible in the lake only for army men.
We returned from pangong and reached our hotel by 5pm..
My name is EDWIN GEORGE
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This time the highlight is on edwin. This incident happened in the Delhi airport wen everyone wus using the toilet. Rafees nade edwin believe that ther wus a automated computer system in the toilet which requires u to tell ur name inorder to flush it..
Edwin didnt believe it in the beginning..he used the bathroom..and then there wer sounds comin frm somewhere..
for a second edwin believed that Rafess told the truth..He suddenly replied ” MY NAME IS EDWIN GEORGE”…
Destination DELHI !!!!
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Finally after 45 hrs (50 for sarath) we finally reached Delhi at 2PM..
but before gettin out of the train..we wer ambushed again..and yes u guessed it right..hijadas…again..
but this time it wus kunjachan and rafees who wer the lucky ones. Rafees managed to get a bit of tickles while kunjachan was a whisker close to a kiss..
Delhi railway station wus jam packed. Only after meeting the station master we were allowed to use the waiting room. We then left our baggage after some bargaining in the cloak room..
We were literally ‘thending’ for food..After havin lunch we went to ‘Palika Bazar’..Its probably the only place in this world were u start wit 4000 for an item u wanna buy…then u end up payin rs.500.. probably palika means to bargain..;)
The shoppin lasted for quite some time..more than anyone expected..had dinner at KFC..then boarded the Delhi metro to central Secretariat..had o walk bout a km and a half to see the India gate..it wus worth the walk. Then went back to the railway station collected our baggage and off to the the airport. still in the airport waitin for the leh flight..none of has slept today..im feelin a bit sleepy..i’ll catch u later in leh..till then as ciao…sk signing off…
KAALI ka dosth
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Right now everyone wants to be in good terms wit kaali..if u r still wonderin why…then its coz we will b goin to his headquarters…i hav a really strong feelin tat he has already informed his gang bout our whereabouts and our activities..i hav noticed him talkin to someone wen all of us wer busy playin cards…so right now ther r only 2 options for us either v get a friendly introduction to his gang or an unfriendly one..so if u readin this pray for us..jai kaali..tats all v can say now…kaali ka dosth signin out..
Day 3-Still in the train
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Last nite wus really a cold one..and believe me..wen i say cold i mean freeeezing. It wus bout 1 5 degress and made me wonder wut -10 degrees wud feel like. just cant wait to feel the chill up my spine..the morning wus also cold and the first stop of the mornin wus jhansi(U.P.) That wus probably the only visit to UP coz the next stop wus Gwalior in M.P. Someone rumoured tat Taj mahal or rather its tip being visible frm the train but on reaching Agra at 10:30. the Breakfast wus also frm our aunties. Reached Mathura at 11:30 and it wus time to repay our lovely aunties by helpin them unload their baggage. next stop or rather our destination is DELHI..will scribble once i get ther..till then ciào..sarath signin out
