Renooozz Story..

Shalini Chaudhari - Bangalore Ms Yak Yak Yak... kept us entertained thruout.... who had more chai than water on this trip :)
Priyanka Chinchnekar - Delhi Sleeping beauty who LOOVVESSS Chicken-in any form!!!(even when they are live being transported in the truck)
Abhinav Bakshi - Delhi Our Pilot - the amazing driver - who very sweetly kept checking that his wife Priyanka was comfy in the car :)
Anurag Joshi - Delhi Co-Pilot cum Mundu cum Pahadi-Bakri cum Tyre Expert!
Surjith Reddy - Delhi The totally chilled out 'In-love' dude who kept missing his wife, as she cud not join the trip.
Leonora Pinto - Mumbai Ms Prim & Proper wud just not let go of her camera - totally in LOVE with it :)
Renuka Manghwani - Mumbai Well.. Introducing me wud take a few pages, so we'll skip that ;)

That's wot the 'Stupendous Seven' Group was made of. As Shalini says, don't bother 'double clicking' on the details of formation of this group as it makes NO sense :) The only common Agenda was we all wanted to see LADAKH and were keen to have a rough, no frills, no luxurious trip! It was the 'Journey' that mattered in this trip and not the destination alone... yeah we drove about 3300 Km.. that explains :)
Ladakh : A land like no other...bounded by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Great Himalaya and the Karakoram. The district is bounded by Pakistan occupied Kashmir in the West, China in the north and eastern part and Lahul Spiti of Himachal Pardesh in South East. An amazing world of cold barren desert mountains... of various colors... different temperaments...rivers.. streams... stones... sand...glaciers...lakes... yaks... prayer wheels... age old monasteries... stupa's... momo's...Buddism... maggi noodles... basic living! This trans-himalayan district of Jammu & Kashmir has now become a favorite of both adventure freaks & culture enthusiasts and attracts travellers from all corners of the globe. We actually saw many more foreigners than Indians here. Enthu cutlets trekking, cycling, biking, camping for days together!
Our sojourn began on 1st Aug, Fri evening when we 7 met in Delhi. Our 8th pal, the Innova arrived at Bakshi's place at midnight, but we finally started off for Manali only at 3 am (Men I tell you, take forever to get packed :)) Since this was the first day.. errr nite... that we all had met, we were at our best behavior, trying to be decent, pleasant to each & so on. (Don't even bother to cut scene to Day 11... where anyone who opened their mouth, had their words stoned by the other 6...lol) It was a smooth ride to Manali via Chandigarh.. a few halts... a few picture sessions. We reached Manali on sat evening.. and all we enthu cutlets, immediately showered & were out in the Manali market in no time.. Agenda : Shopping!!!! Imagine!!!! After a nice evening in Manali, we left early morning on Sunday on one of the most amazing routes that one can travel.. the Highlight of the entire journey...Manali - Leh Highway: The 485 km route is open only for 4 months in the year, June to Sept. Every turn in this route offers fascinating, breath taking views, amazing landscapes, clear skies... unbelievable sights! Seemed like we were driving thru a "Museum" of the mountain ranges, they were of ALL kinds! Lush green terrain in Manali.. brown, black, grey mountains towards Leh... the colors though dull, were unique and pleasing to the eyes...a few of them seemed like god had painstakingly painted each one of them in various colour combinations.. neat strokes of brown, grey, rust, black, dark brown, amber, maroon a real paradise for any artist visiting Ladakh... a few of them were covered with snow, melting to form small streams of water that added even more life to the barren giant mountains... some were covered with sand , confusing the human eye if it were in the mountains or the deserts.... some seemed so calm & serene, lay there like a quite innocent baby smiling away... while some stared at us with vengeance, roaring and angry, like something was troubling them... some were in very different, weird shapes, wild mountains... some were dusted with the shade of the clouds, making the colour combination even more interesting... they seemed almost unnatural.. like someone had just painted these scenes and created a set around us... depicting the various 'Moods' of the mountains! Trust me.. NO pics, NO description, NO words can do justice to what we experienced.. to the pure, unadulterated, natural beauty that Ladakh has to offer. Adding more spice to the museum of mountains.... were the river streams.... desert valleys... glaciers.... green strips... dried river beds... layers of stones... sheep grazing... amazing clouds... all sprinkled in between the "Giants" only to make the entire look even more scenic! This route is a MUST DO... at least ONCE in a lifetime. Our next stopover was at Sarchu - which has only tents as accommodation, kinda adds to the adventure! We reached Leh on Monday nite as planned, but not without wading thru the serene village houses, gompas and Tanglangla - the SECOND Highest Motorable Road in the world.

The next 4 days were planned in and around Leh- the capital of Ladakh. We did not need the recommended one day rest at Leh to acclimatize as we'd driven for 3 days to reach the place... and yeah, we also had the 'Holy Diamox' (medicine for altitude sickness) which was taken as an OATH by all 7 of us... cause just in case any ONE faces altitude sickness, the rest have no choice but the return back to base... so no chances buddy.. Amen! Though a couple of people did experience a bit of vomiting, head aches, nausea here & there.. but nothing really much to write about ;) Its very much expected at such altitude. The 160 km, 4 hour rough and dramatic drive from Leh to Pangong Lake is via Changla - the worst THIRD Highest Motorable road in the world. Pangong Tso is situated at a height of 4,250 M, is 134 Km long and is shared between India & China. Two third of the length of this lake lies in China. In Winter, the lake surface freezes completely despite being salt water. The deep... bright... rich shades of blue and green can give Nerolac, Berger or Asian paints a run for their money... errr... their colour!!! It's a real Masterpiece... a true visual treat! A 150 Km, 5 hr drive via the Worlds HIGHEST motorable Road - Khardongla (18380 ft).... thru the spectacular ancient Silk route ... took us to Nubra Valley- famous for double humped camels, sand dunes, hot water springs, the Desert Mountains in the TRUE sense.This route also leads us to Siachen and we did get tempted to drive along and a wave a quick 'Hi' there (yeah rite).. but we lesser mortals - the civilians- are not permitted due to security reasons.. sigh!!! Btw, travelling to Pangong & Nubra also required special permits without which you wud be looked upon in suspicion and if lucky, only be packed back by the Army Jawans,who incidentally had a nice time taking our driver WANCHUNG's trip,asking him if it really was a name or something to eat!!

The next 3 days were slotted for the return journey from Leh to Delhi. Since the Manali-Leh Highway was : 50% No roads, 30% an apology for a road & only 20% was something that can be called as a road... we decided to take the longer route back via Kashmir - that's after evaluating the tense situation in J&K at that time. The highlight on this route was passing via Kargil, where I HAD to click a "Patel Snap" - as in a " We Were Here" kinda pic ;) The freakiest part was when we were passing Kargil & suddenly we see a sign board pop up to our right that states " Caution, you are under enemy Observation - Saawdhan, dushman aapko dekh raha hai"... suddenly the otherwise noisy Innova goes silent and all eyes move to the huge mountains laying behind the sign board... just wonder how many km.. or maybe meters away is Pakistan Border .. or a Pakistani soldier!!! Gulp! Dras, the next town, apparently is the second coldest place in the world, where the temperatures drop to -60C in the winters... how brrrrr is that??!?!? Our next halt was at Srinagar, yeah even though there was curfew imposed there! On asking directions to a hotel, we were greeted with very 'friendly' lines like " jao, khuda ke hawale jao... bedarr hoke jao... allah bharose jao " made us wonder if we shud FREEZE rite there or actually JAO!!! lol... nah, it was safe, we stayed opposite the famous Dal lake and even managed to click some pics at the lake the next morning. Our next halt was at Patni Top, a peaceful, serene hill station. As we moved out of the Ladakh sector towards Kashmir.. the landscape began to change ... from brown to green... from dry to lush.... from barren to rich trees.. Its amazing how ONE state which is completely mountainous still offers such varied views. Monday morning breakfast was in Jammu, at Bakshi's bua's place, where we were treated to some amazing home made parathas. Finally out of J&K, we passed 'Aavar (our) Punjab'.. Pathankot, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Ambala.. before we reached back to base, Delhi at 1 am on Tue morning, 12th Aug.. only to catch a flight back to Mumbai at 5:00 am.. imagine!!!

This 11 days trip had ALL the adventure that one can think of (enough to last me a lifetime) We had nature's force against us most times ;) Just when we think positive that all's ok now... nothing can get worse... there was ALWAYS a surprise in store for us :)))) But honestly, when we now look back, it all added to the FUN & ADVENTURE element big-time! Just a gist.... we got stuck in a landslide between Dras & Sonmarg for 8 hours... cud not move.. just had to stay rite there in the car. We had 2 punctures, so our car was stuck for 6 hours in the middle of nowhere in the manali- leh route where we have NO network, NO humans, NO fuel stations for at least 100 km around us... so while Joshi gets a lift to go fix the tyre, we have a semi picnic on the road, only till it gets dark, chilly, rains, thunders and we all get back in the car till 11 PM, wondering if we gonna spend the rest of the nite in there.. thankfully Joshi wud not let us down & he was back with help-Kwonchow & his van -of course Joshi was nice to him only cause Kwonchow has a pretty daughter...lol. Once, on a turn of a wet road, our car skid and performed a 360 degrees turn.. yeah.. and by the grace of god .. nothing happened! the car was not even scratched and except for the mild shock we 7 were in.. all our parts were absolutely intact! Of course we had 15 punctures in 8 days.. and that got the boys level on tyre puncture repairs to a complete different level.. and while they did the needful.. we girls wud merrily walk off for some site seeing or a photo session (heck whose complaining?;) With a terrain like this (see pics) wot else can we expect. Did I mention that the entire Kashmir route had a Army Jawan stationed with a gun at every 50 meters.. with his eyes piercing thru the Innova while we whisked past... of course they wud have thot "these tourists have lost it completely" but honestly, I think it just made it safer infact, having this kinda security around. Enroute, over a chai ( and of course a puncture) we got chatting to a couple of them. Also faced some flooding on the highway in Pathankot, due to which we had to take a 2 hr detour into the city. We missed the Jammu riots but did see a tyre or 2 burn on the side of the road. Yeah, so you now know what I am talking about ;)

We had one hell of a Lucky trip...a truly mesmerizing, memorable and pleasurable one! Tiring and exhausting but exhilarating and rejuvenating!
Till the travel bug bites again... ciao! :)

The Idea..

Dont remember where it started.. Mebbe it was a faint wish that we had to 'do a Laddakh' after Abhinav and me had come back from the Hemkund and the Valley of Flowers trip last year.. Generally I never plan and its mostly at the spur of moment that I make up my mind whenever someone is willing to tag along..

I never knew that this subconscious bug had hit other 6 people in this world who finally fitted in an Innova on the 1st of Aug 08.. Well dont ask me "HOW??".. but, we did !!... :)