Day 3: Srinagar & Gulmarg / Gondala 20th June '16

Tired from the previous days trip, we got up a little late and headed for Gulmarg after a heavy breakfast. Since we were to return back to Srinagar for the night, we decided to take only 5 bikes and go pillion for the day ride. Its approximately 50 km one way through highway via Tanmarg Road. Once you leave the highway and start climbing the Gulmarg mountains, you realize how truly beautiful Gulmarg is.

Morning view from our youth hostel

Srinagar to Gulmarg Gondola

Beautiful Gulmarg

Mesmerizing beauty of Gulmarg

Mountains dotted with flowers

Gulmarg boasts Asia's highest and longest cable car project, the Gulmarg Gondola. The two-stage ropeway ferries about 600 people per hour to and from Kongdoori Mountain, a shoulder of nearby Afarwat Peak (13,780 ft). The first stage transfers from the Gulmarg resort at 8,530 ft to Kongdoori Station in the bowl-shaped Kongdori valley. The second stage of the ropeway takes tourists to a height of 12,293 ft on Kongdoori Mountain, a shoulder of nearby Afarwat Peak. 

Gulmarg Gondola

Getting ready to take the car at second stage

When we reached Gulmarg, we were surprised to find out that you have to book tickets online for the second stage, a day in advance. No tickets for the second stage are available on spot! Luckily we were able to find a tout who arranged the second stage tickets for us at an additional cost. 

ADVICE: Book your tickets in advance online itself! Its only worth if you go all the way the second stage. You can book tickets at www.gulmarggondola.com

360 view of base of Gondola ride at Gulmarg! View in any VR headset or scroll in window directly (click on the VR headset icon to change view)

We got lots of snow at the second stage and really enjoyed making and throwing snowballs at each other. There are also skiing and snow carting activities to do. Oxygen levels are low because of the height, so its advisable that you don't over exert yourself.

Goofing around with the snow

Atop Gulmarg Gondola second stage

Photo opportunities are aplenty. Suvinay posing against majestic backgrounds

Eating our packed lunch amidst the most breathtaking surroundings

Sumit striking a model pose

We spent a considerable amount of time enjoying ourselves in the snow, pulling each others legs and absorbing the raw beauty of the mountains, breathing the most pure air you can imagine. We must have easily clicked over 300 snaps over there. A few of us went further up while some of us stayed back for a lunch break and even took a quick nap. I must say it must have been the most peaceful sleep we ever experienced in our entire lives.

Komal catching a quick nap

Nikhil, Puneet, Nitin & Praveen standing tall at the highest point

 It was soon evening and we had to head back. We descended the cable cars with our hearts filled with awe and memories etched forever in our souls. The descent was quick and we promised to come back with our wives, children & families to this amazing place. We drank the local tea called Kahwa, which is essentially boiled water with saffron, tea and local spices.

The local Kahwa tea

 On the way down we spotted a 'buttawala' and stopped to indulge in the most juiciest corns. Another opportunity for a photo session with the flower strewn mountain sides.

Catching a quick corn break on our way back

Posing against the beautiful flowers

 By the time we got back to Srinagar, it was around 8pm and unfortunately Dal lake road was jam packed with traffic due to tourists. It took us well over an hour just to cross the Dal lake road to reach our hotel (it had taken us 10 mins last late night!). We excitedly settled into our respective rooms in anticipation of what lay ahead of us the next day.

Day 2: Jammu to Srinagar - 19th June '16

Day 2 is when our journey really begins! This day was a long day with a journey of almost 300kms from Jammu to Srinagar via Udhampur, Patnitop, Anantnag to Srinagar.

Jammu to Srinagar 294 km

The truck carrying our bikes was waiting for us when our train reached Jammu Tawi. We had coordinated with the driver to meet us at a petrol pump, so that we could fill up the tanks and get going fast. However by the time we unloaded the bikes, checked them, arranged our luggage and got ready, it was almost 12:30 pm! Actually it took a lot of time packing our luggage and loading it on the bikes since it was our first experience. We had to secure the bags on the bike using the bungee cords and also cover with the rain covers we had arranged. Believe me, its no easy task if you haven't done it before!

Reached Jammu Tawi

Our Bullets on the truck

Unloading the bikes was a challenge

Luggage loaded on the bikes, secured with bungee cords and rain cover

Nitrojains all ready for the epic journey ahead

Dark clouds loomed in the distance and we were expecting rain sometime later that day. Also there were some riots near Anantnag so we had to be careful not to enter any city limit. The route from Jammu to Srinagar is initially highway till we leave Jammu and enter the ghats. After that the ghat roads are not in good condition and you can expect to take 12 hours to cover the 300km distance. We stopped at a restaurant on the highway for lunch and then proceeded almost non stop for Srinagar.

Lunch at a restaurant on the highway

Once the ghats began, so did the gorges and valleys. It was initially unnerving view the 1000 foot drops to the sides, with hardly any barricades or fences, and the army convoys and other trucks plying down upon us from the other side. Even then we were spellbound by the natural beauty of the Himalayan mountains. It was fairly hot in Jammu and started becoming pleasant once we ascended the ghats.

On the Jammu highway

The majestic ghats

Since we had just begun our journey we frequently stopped for photo and rest breaks (to give our rears a little rest). Patnitop is really beautiful with pine trees lining the roads, which kept us going on in anticipation of whats to come. The road till Banihal is really bad and we encountered a bit of rain drizzle as well which made matters worse. It was almost 7pm and fairly dark by then. An incident to recall is that two of our friends (Amit & Gaurav) were riding along the ghats when supposedly a leopard or some kind of mountain cat jumped on them! Luckily none of the two were hurt or injured in any way, though it did scare the hell out of them!

Tea break

Soon we came upon the majestic "Nehru or Jawahar Tunnel"! Its a 2.5km tunnel built way back in 1956 connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the world. One of the tunnels was under renovation and luckily our side of the road was moving on so we didn't have to wait for our passage. We have heard that sometimes you have to wait for an hour or two till the one side traffic clears! Guess the gods were with us from the beginning itself! Riding in the Nehru tunnel is an experience in itself, just 2.5km of straight narrow tunnel in eerie silence broken by the sounds of engines only!

It was late night, almost 1am by the time we reached Srinagar. The ride along the empty Dal lake was really beautiful, even tough we were dead tired and just waiting to crash for the night. We checked into the hotel and everyone fell asleep almost instantly.

Moon view from Dal lake

Day 1: Pune to Delhi to Jammu - 18th June 16

We took the morning flight from Pune to Delhi. Delhi was scorching hot! We ended up drinking over 6-7 litres of water each. We had booked the night train Rajdhani to Jammu Tawi so we had the entire day to complete the bike rental formalities. We headed over to Ikerz office to sign the docs and submit our identify proofs. The bikes were already inspected the previous day and on way to Jammu.

We then indulged ourselves in a fabulous lunch comprising of chola bhaturas, kulfis, lassi etc at Bikanerwala in Karol bagh and later headed to the train station. Rajdhani is a very comfortable train and spent the night in great anticipation of the journey ahead.

Don't forget to try the kulfi at Karol Bagh

Our journey begins

Preparations: The final route

The route / stay team also got into action as we needed to book guest houses in some places on priority.

ADVICE: Do not book your hotels in advance. We recommend you reach the destination, search for stay and bargain hard! This will also give you flexibility in changing the route anytime you want and also helps in case you are unable to reach destination due to any reason.

Initially we had planned to start biking from Delhi itself but later decided to transport our bikes till Jammu and start from there. June would be very hot in Delhi and we did not want to bike in the heat and strain ourselves in the beginning itself. So we booked train tickets from Delhi to Jammu and arranged for our bikes (rental and own) to be sent to Jammu via truck.

The final route we decided upon was as follows:

Day 1: Reach Delhi and night train to Jammu

Day 2: Jammu to Srinagar (all routes on bikes only from now)

Day 3: Srinagar local (Gulmarg)

Day 4: Srinagar to Drass

Day 5: Drass to Lamayuru

Day 6: Lamayuru to Leh

Day 7: Leh local sightseeing
Day 8: Leh to Nubra/Diskit

Day 9: Diskit to Pangong Lake (Merak)

Day 10: Merak to Hemis

Day 11: Hemis to Keylong

Day 12: Keylong to Manali

Day 14: Manali to Chandigarh / Ambala

Day 15: Chandigarh / Ambala to Delhi

Day 15: Delhi to Pune by flight

Advice: There is another route to Leh from Delhi and thats via Delhi - Manali - Leh. Pretty much reverse of what we did. The disadvantage with Manali route is that it becomes steep pretty quickly and chances of getting AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) is very high. That route is not recommended by most bikers unless you are fit enough and also want to risk it. 

Preparations: Renting bikes

We all decided to take Enfield Bullets for the trip (hardcore look and all eh!). Two of our members (Puneet & Praveen) had their own bullets so we needed to rent 8 bullets from Delhi. We had finalised on 4 thunderbirds and 4 classics. We all wanted to ride solo so we had total 10 bullets with us on the trip.

Renting bikes from www.ikerz.com

The bike / gear team shortlisted www.ikerz.com for our needs. Its a highly respected bike rental outfit in Delhi's Karol Bagh run by the young and dynamic Rahul Trehan. They have their own fleet of over 60 bikes ranging from scooters to even Harleys! Rates are very reasonable, bikes in excellent condition and the support given by Rahul is unbelievable. If you ever need to rent a bike from Delhi, then Ikerz is the go to place!

Initially we had planned to ride bikes from Delhi to Jammu to Srinagar but later decided to start riding from Jammu itself. Rahul coordinated transport of the bikes from Delhi to Jammu (for nominal transportation charges) and even sent a mechanic along so that we could inspect/ fix bikes at Jammu, if required! Again really good service by the Ikerz team!

Rahul Trehan (owner of www.ikerz.com - bottom right specs guy) with us after the trip

ADVICE: You can take any bike to Leh/Ladakh. Its not necessary to take a Bullet. Any bike above 150cc will suffice. If you have your own bike, we would recommend you take that. For bikes other than Bullets, mechanics in Leh do a small modification which costs 60 INR to enable them to scale Khardungla pass. No matter which bike you choose, do rememeber to get it checked up by a mechanic at Leh. They will do a good job checking cables, brakes, engines, oil etc so that you don't face problem later. The best mechanic for Bullets would be mechanic Tashi (on fort road in Leh - 9419242643).

Contact: 

RAHUL TREHAN 

www.ikerz.com

1749/55, Naiwala Street,

Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005

Preparations: Stay places

As mentioned in previous post, we had prebooked stay at a few places. We are sharing details of the places we pre-booked, finalised on route and recommended them to bikers on a budget.

SRINAGAR:

Kashmir Holiday Inn

CONTACT: Amin: 8491071246 

Address: Harwan, Rainawari, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir 190025 

Phone: 0194 246 1350

View from Kashmir Holiday Inn 

DRASS:

J & K Tourist Guest House DRAS

Mobile: 9403683599

View from Drass JKTD Guest House

LAMAYURU:

Hotel Niranjana

Next to Lamayuru Monastery (Gompa)

Phone:01982 224 555

Contact: Captain Tashi

View from Hotel Niranjana

Hotel Niranjana right next to the Gompa

LEH:

We had prebooked The Gurgu Homestay on main Tukcha Road but for some reasons could not stay there. Instead we ended up staying at a guest house right next to their property by the name of Shani La Guest House. It has nice spacious rooms, a beautiful garden and some amazing rose bushes!

DISKIT:

There are a few stay options at Diskit and they are comfortable. You can even do camping at Diskit or Hunder though they are more expensive. The highlight of our hotel was a stream flowing right next to the hotel. The owner had used the water for drinking and it was a joy to drink mountain fresh mineral water directly from the flowing stream!

ADVICE: We would recommend you try staying at the Monastery or near it. We did not get the chance but would highly recommend it. They have all basic facilities, individual rooms with solar heaters and power. Plus you get bragging rights that you stayed in a monastery!

SPANGMIK (near Pangong Lake)

We had prebooked our stay at Dorjay Delbu Guest House at Merak but were unable to make it there as we reached Pangong pretty late at night. It was risky going a further 20 kms as the road is pretty bad and we didn't want to take any unnecessary changes. We ended up spending the night at Spangmik instead.

Dream Land Wooden Cottages

Pangong Lake Road

Contact: 094195 36311

http://www.dreamlandwoodencottage.in/

The mesmerising view of Pangong Lake from DreamLand

The cottages themselves

ADVICE: It was bitterly cold at Spangmik. You will need to wear thermals and preferably use a good sleeping bag even though they give you warm blankets. Do request for a bonfire! They will charge you a nominal fee for the wood but nothing like a good old bonfire by Pangong Lake!

KARU:

There are hardly any places to stay at Karu. We recommend you should stay at Hemis or even head back to Leh and get a comfortable night stay. At Karu we managed to get a homestay which the owners had basically converted their upper floor and 3 rooms to let out. There was just 1 bathroom so getting ready early next morning was an issue.

JISPA:

We managed to reach Jispa very late at night and everything was fully booked. We got lucky and got reference from another hotel for a place called Himalayan Guest House. We managed to get only 2 rooms for the 10 of us but got extra bedding so managed easily.

View from Himalayan Guest House at Jispa

MANALI:

Many stay options at Manali to suit every budget! We stayed near the Bus stand at Manali. However we would recommend you stay at any of the guest houses/hotels by the river side and away from the mad hustle bustle of main street.

AMBALA:

We had planned to stay on the outskirts of Chandigarh but ended up staying at a hotel just 10 kms away from Ambala. Countless options available at Chandigarh.

DELHI:

Can find any type of accomodation easily!

ADVICE: Don't prebook your hotels. Reach destination early, search for a place to stay and bargain hard!

Preparations for Leh Bike trip (June 2016): Physical fitness

As we gathered after our weekly weekend cricket matches, one of us suggested we go to Leh on bikes. Initially we had thought only 3-4 friends would be interested but as we asked the group, almost all were excited and eagerly said "YES"!

This was approximately 135 days before THE DAY. Reading various blogs and forums we concluded that since most of us were pot bellied, middle aged and some even approaching 'old age' we need to work on our fitness on priority. Leh/Ladakh has less oxygen coupled with biking 6- 8 hours of daily biking added to our anxities.

Enter ENDOMONDO!

Incase you don't know, Endomondo is one of the best fitness tracking apps available for both Android & iOS. It allows you to add friends, setup group challenges, watch and encourage friends fitness activities. It caught up fast among us and most of us were soon jogging 5 kms at a stretch. We even managed to reach 10 km jogging and cycling from Pune to Lonavla (45kms each way) and track our calories burnt on the app.

Nikhil was a leader in calories burnt for 2 straight months, burning 15000 to 25000 calories monthly. Praveen was our cycling expert and our most senior member.

Advice: Nitrojains really recommend Endomondo if you are serious about getting physically fit for the Leh trip.