I was in College, when I first started dreaming about a Trip to Ladakh, may be during 2007-2008. And then during Dec-2009, bollywood throws a movie, 3 idiots on us, watching which I become a day dreamer all over again. Leh-Ladakh was serene, the scenes/roads/views shown in the movie manage to take all my attention. Rather than the movie, I was now more engrossed in Leh-Ladakh. It took me some convincing, to believe that, I can do this trip only once I start earning which was still a good 6-8 months away as August 2010 was when I received my first paycheque.
Since 2007-2008, During every Booze party/Chicken Party or even a casual catch up in Bengaluru's parks, somehow I used to end up asking my friends, Bhai Ladakh Chalega ?
Bachelors-Families-Friends-Teachers-Cousins .. My neighborhood shopkeepers, my house hold help.. I literally ended up asking everybody. Ek group banate hai, Ladakh Chalte hai !
Over the course of years, I followed/joined some groups on fb, did a bit of researching on google baba, spoke to people who have done the circuit on Royal Enfield, and kept the dream alive. That's when I got to know, that June-Sep is the ideal time if you want to ride the beast and live your dream. During 2012-2013 a good 2-3 times we almost booked our tickets. But then next morning along with hangover, the trip plans would fade away too.
During 2014, one fine day the fire got ignited again. On a random day in office, I start calling up a couple of folks, discuss about it again. And to my surprise, they said, Yes, Lets do it.
I was like, Bro ! I have heard these Yusesssss a lot over last 5 years or so. But this time, these guys were like, Lets book the flights right away. Within 3-4 days, 4 of my friends were IN.. The plan was finally ON.. June 2014 It was..
Over next few weeks, my marriage date got finalize, 26/11. Yeah, Like always, Leh-Ladakh went for a toss again . If I take 2 weeks off in June, I wouldn't have enough leaves for wedding . If i spend an X amount in June, I would be short of X amount for my wedding. And there goes the plan in ditch.
Spoke to my fiancee then, wife now, and shared the dream. And she responded sportively, saying, don't worry, you can do it next year. And that indeed made the day.
Though for the first time, I was cancelling a Leh-Ladakh plan. The feeling was sick and it got worsen when all my friends cancelled the tickets too, that hurt the most.
Enter 2015!
One fine morning, I was riding my way to Office and started dreaming all over again. Stopped the bike, put my earphones on, made a call to Akram and this is exactly what transpired between us.
P.S- The coincidence was, both of us , were riding bike, on our way to office ..
J: Bhai, Ladakh Chalega.
A: Chal
J: Pakka ?
A: Pakka
J: Whoever comes/Whoever Doesn't come , We are going this year , Are we?
A: Yes
J: I am not kidding bro. you are saying yes for everything.
A: I am not kidding either.
J: Sale, Main aaj hi tickets book kar dunga
A: Karde !
J: Don't show me dreams again.. you better not be joking.
A: Let us reach office, check dates, check leaves, check ticket prices and let's just book.
J: Done Bhai, Talk to you in an hour.
I swear to God this is how we actually made our plan :)
Over the next couple of hours I re-read all the documents that I had searched/researched. Spoke to a couple of travel agencies, who organize Ladakh trips on Bike. Checked flight rates.
Though we wanted to go on our own, but we knew just the 2 of us would not be able to manage (I guess we would have been able to, but then didn't want to take the risk).
The problem with these tour operators was, they have fixed departures, which we were not okay with.
But then we decided to take a safer route. Lets book our flights first-up and then we will see the rest , as time comes. Why Safer ? Bec, we finalized a tour operator in our head, and booked our Bengaluru-Delhi flights assuming we will tag along with them, in the worst case. These guys had fixed trips from Delhi to Delhi and 1st-12th Aug suited us the best.
And then we crossed level 1 of planning again. Tickets Booked. Yes, We were going.. Finally (well , I guess so :P )
We decided, that now, whoever wants to join us, let them join on this fixed date departures and we are not going to change our plan for anybody, come what may. During the next couple of months, 3 more friends joined us. They booked flight tickets too. Now that we were 5, we knew, we could manage on our own. So we also went ahead and booked the Zoom cars, from Delhi to Delhi for our entire trip. A lavish XUV-500.
We small town boys were dreaming BIG. It may be a small thing for a lot of you out there, It may be just another trip for some of you, It may be a casual talk to a few.. For us, It was a DREAM. which we wanted to fulfill at ANY cost.
April-May-June we kept on discussing about it , bought travel accessories , kept on talking to ppl around us,telling them, yaayyy We are going to Leh Ladakh. Some were jealous.. Some were happy in our happiness. Some used to admire and listen to all the planning and just smile seeing me smile.
They were all becoming part of a journey.
But as the time got closer, few of them in the group started showing signs of breaking up :P
The wall of fame of 5 ppl was getting weaker. Yeah 2 bitches started giving excuses. The rest of us were feeling angered and frustrated. A week before the dream trip we couldn't afford to do any cancellations. Me and Akram spoke to each other, and we were firm on what we spoke, Whoever comes/Whoever Doesn't ! WE ARE GOING.
2 of them actually dropped out, But 3rd one shared the same passion.
Welcome, Yaseen ! a riding freak, my college junior, Said the same what me and akram wanted to hear. "Bhaiya, Whatever happens We are going :)"
Luckily, Zoom car gives you full refunds, if you cancel the booking 2 days in advance. Luckily, we expected, some ppl might drop out at the nth moment and remember (luckily) we had booked our flights in sync with a tour operator's itinerary. Off we fallback on him :)
All last minute calls, 3 bookings for 3 single riders (Royal Enfield), were finally done.
Yes it turned out to be doubly expensive, than what we would spend otherwise (if we had managed to execute the plan on our own).
Yes, we weren't ready for double the expenses. But Boy ! We were ready for Ladakh, and we were about to fly :) and this is what we were going to ride from Aug 1st-12th 2015.
Day 01: Arrival Delhi / Manali – Overnight Volvo
Day 02: Arrive Manali – Afternoon motorbike test ride
Day 03: Manali/ Rohtang Pass/ Keylong/ Jispa (138 kms/ 7 hrs)
Day 04: Jispa/ Baralacha Pass/ Lachung La/ Tsokhar Lake (210 kms/ 9 hrs)
Day 05: Tsokhar Lake/ Tsomoriri Lake (100 kms/ 4 hrs)
Day 06: Tsomoriri Lake/ Leh (240 kms/ 8 hrs)
Day 07: In Leh – Ride to Khardung La pass (5600 m)
Day 08: In Leh – excursion to Pangong Lake
Day 09: Leh/ Tanglang La/ Sarchu (253 kms/ 9 hrs)
Day 10: Sarchu/ Manali (222 kms/ 9 hrs)
Day 11: Manali / Delhi - Overnight Volvo
Day 12: Arrival Delhi – Tour Ends
P.S : 31st July was a sleepless night, We had an early morning flight to catch. So the tickles in our tummies and dreams in our head would not let us sleep.
P.P.S: This post was just about the pain in the planning.. the execution i.e the real journey would be continued in future posts..
as they say.. next episode :)
