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| 500 Rebuilt |
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Weekend Ride to Kalahati
Nice ride, with a mix of chilly night/off road/small trek/campfire and pardy....... :D
Nov 24th - 25th
Nov 24th - 25th
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| Kalahati |
Silver-Bullets [TVM-Riders] 5th Anniv Ride
Silver-Bullets 5th Anniversary ride to Mannavannor 35Kmts off kodai. I am not writing much. overall it was one hell of a ride with lots of rains! Around 20 riders, 3 from TVM and rest from Bangalore.
Oct 27,28,29
Oct 27,28,29
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| SB 5A Ride 2007 |
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Riding to Leh this Summer?
This summer I am not sure If I can make to Leh, due to some professional reasons have to stay away from India across the Atlantic.
I have enough free cycles this weekend and have been getting frequent requests from fellow rider brothers on routes and questions on how to ride to Leh. I hope to detail down the basic Leh-Srinagar-Manali-Delhi circuit which is of a 18 day ride and hope to answer most of the questions that will be helpful to the First time rider to Leh.
PS: The FIRST ride to the Leh is the BEST :-) one will never forget it!
Well I did ride to Leh twice (When I say Leh It means Khardung La is the Destination, the Highest Motorable Road in the World) and couple of times in Lahul and Spiti.
What motorcycle is the best for this kind of ride?
Anything with 2 wheels and a motor will do! I prefer the Royal Enfield with the AVL engines! (The one on the Thunderbird and the Machismo)
The itinerary.
One will need 18 days to cover the below mentioned route plan, or can cut short few places and reduce it to 15 days. I did manage with a 10 working day leave that works out with pre pending and appending the weekends and one sick Leave!
The Basic Route.
Delhi - Ludhiyana - Pathankot - Udhampur - Srinagar - Kargil - (Leh)
Leh - Nubra Leh
Leh Pangong Tso Leh
Leh - Sarchu - Manali - Changigarh - Delhi
Now if one is not from Delhi, the biggest hurdle is to get your Motorcycle to Delhi in good shape! There are 3 options.
1. Ride to Delhi
2. Use a Courier service
3. Indian Railways
Of the three I always use the advice to use the second option Use a courier service like Gatti or SpeedAge, I had a good experience with the speedage guys are they are reasonable. The Gatti and the SpeedAge office is at Okhla (Delhi) from where you go and pick up your motorcycle.
TIP: If there are more than 2 motorcycles then you can get a deal on them, you have to bargain a bit.
TIP: Carry fuel when you go to collect your motorcycle.
TIP: Take a Clutch and Brake Yoke In case it gets broken in transit.
TIP: While packing when you remove the rear view mirrors, losen the yoke on both sides a little so you have a better chance of saving it.
Lets get back to the Route now.
Leg1: Start as early as possible from Delhi, before you hit traffic in Delhi. Ride till evening and possibly stop before night, It is not really recommended to ride at night unless you are racing to get there. (Well the best part is the Journey itself, so forget about the destination and enjoy the ride) Get breakfast from some good dhaba near Panipat or Karnal. Well stay at Ludhiyana or ride further it depends on how much more daylight you have. Any ways there is no hurry so there is no real need to rush to Pthankot, but Its your call! Listen to your Butt and back :)
Leg 2: Start Day2 ride early, Its going to be fun as you will hit the mountains and will be riding the mountains for the next 15 days! The Leg2 can be done in 2 days or if you are starting from Pthankot you can do this in one day. At Pthankot you hit the mountains.
You really don't have to go to Jammu unless you really want to, or else you can take a deroute and reach Udhampur. Udhampur is a really nice cheap mountain town, now either you can stay at Udhampur or you can ride to Srinagar.
TIP: Do not ride to Srinagar too late, you will be asked so many questions by the cops and the Military.
One can spend a day at Srinagar at Dal (House Boat) it is worth it and don't forget to enjoy the food at Srinagar.
Leg 3: Srinagar - Kargil
Srinagar - Kargil is an awesome ride with two to three mountain passes to cross, the ZojiLa, FotuLa... make sure to start early, ZojiLa crossing is fun sometimes Military don't allow two way traffic, but make sure you cross ZojiLa as early as possible.
Places of interest on the way:
Mattayan: Kargil war base camp, lots of memorials. Pay your respect to these brave men.
Drass: Second Coldest Inhabited place in the World
Magnetic Hill: Optical Illusion (check that out yourself)
From Kargil if you have 2 days more then one can explore Zanskar Valley, Zanskar is tough nice offroad and beautiful valley. After Zanskar you have to ride back to Kargil stay down for the night and then start to Leh the next day.
Leg 4: The next ride would be around 280kmts from Kargil to Leh. I bet this would be one of the most enjoyable ride, amazing scenic road green mountains fades away to grey and brown.
Guess if you start early by around 6am one should be easily in Leh by 5pm with enough photo breaks. Enjoy the mountain kingdom, read some books on Leh and its history :)
Enjoy the food and hike to places of interest when in Leh, don't forget to try out Mutton Thuppa :)
Leg 5: Leh - Nubra Valley - Leh
On the Leh - Numbra route you will cross the Khargung La, the highest Motor-able road in the World. It is motly snowed all around the year.
TIP: Do not spend a lot of time at the KTop, headache hits soon because of lack of oxygen.
Ride down to Sumur and stay there, there is only one Hotel in Sumur, but mostly you will get a room to sleep there, No phone or cell phone range here till you reach back Leh.
Places to see around
Nubra desert: bactrian camels, high altitude desert sand dunes
Hot water Spring
Leg 6: Leh - Pangon Tso - Leh
Leh Pangon Tso is 150kmts, and no petrol pumps on the way so get your tank filled up to cover 300+kmts. You will cross the Mighty changLa en-route this is the Second highest Motorable Road in the World, a pretty tough challenging ride, get ready to see some snow at ChangLa.
TIP: Take the red route on the map below. Live Search gives you a longer route the blue one
Click to enlarge the map to see the place names. Spangmik does not have hotels, but one can find good cheap accommodation with homely food, in the village (well Spangmik village is just 5 houses ) I am not acting the spoil spot here, Pangong Tso is amazing! I cant explain one has to be there to see the mighty Pangong Tso.
Well one really cant go from Kharu to Sarchu directly, because of unavailability of fuel en-route, so you have to head back to Leh.
Leg 7: Leh - Sarchu - Manali This is a two day ride with night stay at Sarchu, ride with crossing most of the mountain passes fun ride, the most tough ones are the BaralachaLa and Rothang Jot. Rothang is the shortest of all but geuss what It is really unpredictable when it rains there and when it fogs up really bad.
TIP: Don't do Rothang at Night, mostly It is fogged up and the Fog is "dense"
TIP: Tent camps at Sarchu is bloody expensive, so you can ride down to Bharathpur 30kmts from Sarchu to find some good cheap Tent camps, check out for 'Kathmandu Cafe' this is the last one that you see in a stretch of tents. (They are good friendly people, When you are there tell them my name 'Jayan' ;) )
Live Search route map, pretty accurate
Leg 9: Manali - Delhi
and back to Delhi! end of trip!
General Tips:
Luggage: Cramser or Panniers
Carry a Took Kit
Learn to Repair/Replace a Flat tire
some help here Flat HOWTO
AMS: carry diamox (Don't worry, Taking this route has a slower ascend rather ascending from Manali, so chances of AMS is minute)
Headache AMS related ( Diamox + Disprin) take twice a day, not more than that. (But I will strongly advice you consult your Doc before the trip)
Some useful Address and Information
SpeedAge Express Cargo Services
Dooravani Nagar, K.R. Puram, Bangalore East
Bangalore - 560 016, Ph: 32934596, 080-28514702
Manali
Hotel Beas (HPMC)
Just near the Bridge across Beas River
The Dove Nest
Hotel & Restaurant
Solang Valley, Solang Bridge
Manali - 175131
Distt. Kullu (HP) India
Srinagar
Lucky Peacock (Houseboat)
Ph: 0194-2459323
Leh
Overland Escape (Adventure Tour - Travel)
Tundip Dorjey
P.O. Box: 25, Fort Road
Leh, 194101, Ladakh, India
Nazer Inexpensive Adventure
Nazer View Guest House
Old Road Leh - 194101 Ladakh (J&K) India
Tel 91-1982-53083
I have enough free cycles this weekend and have been getting frequent requests from fellow rider brothers on routes and questions on how to ride to Leh. I hope to detail down the basic Leh-Srinagar-Manali-Delhi circuit which is of a 18 day ride and hope to answer most of the questions that will be helpful to the First time rider to Leh.
PS: The FIRST ride to the Leh is the BEST :-) one will never forget it!
Well I did ride to Leh twice (When I say Leh It means Khardung La is the Destination, the Highest Motorable Road in the World) and couple of times in Lahul and Spiti.
What motorcycle is the best for this kind of ride?
Anything with 2 wheels and a motor will do! I prefer the Royal Enfield with the AVL engines! (The one on the Thunderbird and the Machismo)
The itinerary.
One will need 18 days to cover the below mentioned route plan, or can cut short few places and reduce it to 15 days. I did manage with a 10 working day leave that works out with pre pending and appending the weekends and one sick Leave!
The Basic Route.
Delhi - Ludhiyana - Pathankot - Udhampur - Srinagar - Kargil - (Leh)
Leh - Nubra Leh
Leh Pangong Tso Leh
Leh - Sarchu - Manali - Changigarh - Delhi
Now if one is not from Delhi, the biggest hurdle is to get your Motorcycle to Delhi in good shape! There are 3 options.
1. Ride to Delhi
2. Use a Courier service
3. Indian Railways
Of the three I always use the advice to use the second option Use a courier service like Gatti or SpeedAge, I had a good experience with the speedage guys are they are reasonable. The Gatti and the SpeedAge office is at Okhla (Delhi) from where you go and pick up your motorcycle.
TIP: If there are more than 2 motorcycles then you can get a deal on them, you have to bargain a bit.
TIP: Carry fuel when you go to collect your motorcycle.
TIP: Take a Clutch and Brake Yoke In case it gets broken in transit.
TIP: While packing when you remove the rear view mirrors, losen the yoke on both sides a little so you have a better chance of saving it.
Lets get back to the Route now.
Leg1: Start as early as possible from Delhi, before you hit traffic in Delhi. Ride till evening and possibly stop before night, It is not really recommended to ride at night unless you are racing to get there. (Well the best part is the Journey itself, so forget about the destination and enjoy the ride) Get breakfast from some good dhaba near Panipat or Karnal. Well stay at Ludhiyana or ride further it depends on how much more daylight you have. Any ways there is no hurry so there is no real need to rush to Pthankot, but Its your call! Listen to your Butt and back :)
Leg 2: Start Day2 ride early, Its going to be fun as you will hit the mountains and will be riding the mountains for the next 15 days! The Leg2 can be done in 2 days or if you are starting from Pthankot you can do this in one day. At Pthankot you hit the mountains.
You really don't have to go to Jammu unless you really want to, or else you can take a deroute and reach Udhampur. Udhampur is a really nice cheap mountain town, now either you can stay at Udhampur or you can ride to Srinagar.TIP: Do not ride to Srinagar too late, you will be asked so many questions by the cops and the Military.
One can spend a day at Srinagar at Dal (House Boat) it is worth it and don't forget to enjoy the food at Srinagar.
Leg 3: Srinagar - Kargil
Srinagar - Kargil is an awesome ride with two to three mountain passes to cross, the ZojiLa, FotuLa... make sure to start early, ZojiLa crossing is fun sometimes Military don't allow two way traffic, but make sure you cross ZojiLa as early as possible.
Places of interest on the way:Mattayan: Kargil war base camp, lots of memorials. Pay your respect to these brave men.
Drass: Second Coldest Inhabited place in the World
Magnetic Hill: Optical Illusion (check that out yourself)
From Kargil if you have 2 days more then one can explore Zanskar Valley, Zanskar is tough nice offroad and beautiful valley. After Zanskar you have to ride back to Kargil stay down for the night and then start to Leh the next day.
Leg 4: The next ride would be around 280kmts from Kargil to Leh. I bet this would be one of the most enjoyable ride, amazing scenic road green mountains fades away to grey and brown.
Guess if you start early by around 6am one should be easily in Leh by 5pm with enough photo breaks. Enjoy the mountain kingdom, read some books on Leh and its history :)Enjoy the food and hike to places of interest when in Leh, don't forget to try out Mutton Thuppa :)
Leg 5: Leh - Nubra Valley - Leh
On the Leh - Numbra route you will cross the Khargung La, the highest Motor-able road in the World. It is motly snowed all around the year.
TIP: Do not spend a lot of time at the KTop, headache hits soon because of lack of oxygen.
Ride down to Sumur and stay there, there is only one Hotel in Sumur, but mostly you will get a room to sleep there, No phone or cell phone range here till you reach back Leh.
Places to see around
Nubra desert: bactrian camels, high altitude desert sand dunes
Hot water Spring
Leg 6: Leh - Pangon Tso - Leh
Leh Pangon Tso is 150kmts, and no petrol pumps on the way so get your tank filled up to cover 300+kmts. You will cross the Mighty changLa en-route this is the Second highest Motorable Road in the World, a pretty tough challenging ride, get ready to see some snow at ChangLa.
TIP: Take the red route on the map below. Live Search gives you a longer route the blue one
Click to enlarge the map to see the place names. Spangmik does not have hotels, but one can find good cheap accommodation with homely food, in the village (well Spangmik village is just 5 houses ) I am not acting the spoil spot here, Pangong Tso is amazing! I cant explain one has to be there to see the mighty Pangong Tso.Well one really cant go from Kharu to Sarchu directly, because of unavailability of fuel en-route, so you have to head back to Leh.
Leg 7: Leh - Sarchu - Manali This is a two day ride with night stay at Sarchu, ride with crossing most of the mountain passes fun ride, the most tough ones are the BaralachaLa and Rothang Jot. Rothang is the shortest of all but geuss what It is really unpredictable when it rains there and when it fogs up really bad.
TIP: Don't do Rothang at Night, mostly It is fogged up and the Fog is "dense"
TIP: Tent camps at Sarchu is bloody expensive, so you can ride down to Bharathpur 30kmts from Sarchu to find some good cheap Tent camps, check out for 'Kathmandu Cafe' this is the last one that you see in a stretch of tents. (They are good friendly people, When you are there tell them my name 'Jayan' ;) )
Live Search route map, pretty accurate
Leg 9: Manali - Delhi
and back to Delhi! end of trip!
General Tips:
Luggage: Cramser or Panniers
Carry a Took Kit
Learn to Repair/Replace a Flat tire
some help here Flat HOWTO
AMS: carry diamox (Don't worry, Taking this route has a slower ascend rather ascending from Manali, so chances of AMS is minute)
Headache AMS related ( Diamox + Disprin) take twice a day, not more than that. (But I will strongly advice you consult your Doc before the trip)
Some useful Address and Information
SpeedAge Express Cargo Services
Dooravani Nagar, K.R. Puram, Bangalore East
Bangalore - 560 016, Ph: 32934596, 080-28514702
Manali
Hotel Beas (HPMC)
Just near the Bridge across Beas River
The Dove Nest
Hotel & Restaurant
Solang Valley, Solang Bridge
Manali - 175131
Distt. Kullu (HP) India
Srinagar
Lucky Peacock (Houseboat)
Ph: 0194-2459323
Leh
Overland Escape (Adventure Tour - Travel)
Tundip Dorjey
P.O. Box: 25, Fort Road
Leh, 194101, Ladakh, India
Nazer Inexpensive Adventure
Nazer View Guest House
Old Road Leh - 194101 Ladakh (J&K) India
Tel 91-1982-53083
Friday, February 02, 2007
HOWTO: International Drivers Permit from India
Wanted to share my experiences in getting an International Drivers Permit from an Indian RTO, well the procedure is really simple but the bureaucrats in the Govt office make is looks like an impossible task without a help of a middle man (an RTO agent/broker)
Mandatory documents required for the issue of an IDP from India.
1. A valid Indian Driving License
2. Passport with Visa stamped
3. Air Tickets (well an itinerary printout will do)
4. Medical certificate is required but I did not need it (I was not asked for one)
5. A fees of Rs 500/-
6. 3 Passport size photographs
Procedure:
My experiences with the Trivandrum (Kerala) RTO was not very pleasant, I had to spend 2 full days in the RTO office to get the work done. (Because I did not want to go through an Agent, Usually the Agent takes some amount of money extra and sometimes he demands for Rs1K extra, and says man I have to give this in the RTO office or else your work will take at least 5 working days. )First you have to go the helpdesk/PRO officer and ask him for a Form for IDP, after filling the form and pasting the photographs attach all the photocopy of the documents and give the form back to the PRO.
The PRO signs the Form and will ask you go and pay fees of Rs 500 at the cash counter.
Then submit the filled forms at the counter and he will give you a receipt.
The receipt will say which section did the file move to, you have to personally go to that section and ask the guy there that It is really important for you and please can you sign this for me.
The file then moves to the RTO desk.
Stand in a Q to see the RTO and get your documents verified (personally) He signs the document and then This file moves back the same guy on the previous section. This guy has to make your IDP, after that again this move to the RTO desk.
Again you have to stand in a Q to see the RTO to get it signed. (There is a good chance that the RTO will ignore you.. don’t lose heart, keep walking in front of his office and make sure that he sees you)
In my case the RTO got tired of my determination to get the IDP the same day, he called me in after making me wait for an hr and signed it for me :-)
Then you have to run behind the clerk who will take it to the Dispatch section.
That’s it.. collect it from the Dispatch and enjoy ...
ride/drive safe!
adios
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Hampi.... The Lost Empire
To the Ruins of Vijayanagara Empire.
No rides for the next three months for me :-( A small weekend ride to Hampi, the ruins of the mighty Vijayanagara Empire.
From the busy schedule in office and my travel plans abroad (for work) I managed to squeeze out a weekend for a ride with my buddies to Hampi. A quiet pleasant ride to Hampi and next day exploring Hampi was exciting. According to plan I had to ride back the same day doing a night ride to Bangalore 380Kmts, Parvez and Amit too joined me to ride back to Bangalore, Kamlesh and Shashi stayed back another Day in Hampi. Night ride was really cool except for Parvez's small toss rendering his bike in a non ridable condition to Bangalore, Parvez rode pillion with me to Bangalore and we left his bike at Hiriur near Shashi's home.
No rides for the next three months for me :-( A small weekend ride to Hampi, the ruins of the mighty Vijayanagara Empire.
From the busy schedule in office and my travel plans abroad (for work) I managed to squeeze out a weekend for a ride with my buddies to Hampi. A quiet pleasant ride to Hampi and next day exploring Hampi was exciting. According to plan I had to ride back the same day doing a night ride to Bangalore 380Kmts, Parvez and Amit too joined me to ride back to Bangalore, Kamlesh and Shashi stayed back another Day in Hampi. Night ride was really cool except for Parvez's small toss rendering his bike in a non ridable condition to Bangalore, Parvez rode pillion with me to Bangalore and we left his bike at Hiriur near Shashi's home.
Monday, January 15, 2007
2007 First Ride
I was thinking of writing a trip log, but Kamlesh already did it so I am not repeating the same.. Silver-Bullets Bangalore chapter first ride with me, Shashi, Kamlesh and Vaas.
Lying between Shivanasamudra falls and Mekedatu falls is Bheemeshwari, A perfect picnic spot, but we were not interested in that, it was just the ride, breakfast, lunch and the ride back. The twisting roads were not properly banked resulting loosing rubber from my foot rests :)
Lying between Shivanasamudra falls and Mekedatu falls is Bheemeshwari, A perfect picnic spot, but we were not interested in that, it was just the ride, breakfast, lunch and the ride back. The twisting roads were not properly banked resulting loosing rubber from my foot rests :)
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