To Leh From Kerala in Mahindra Bolero

[smooth rider]

Going solo has its own charm, but somebody from down south who has no much experience in driving in the Himalayas ,I would refrain him from doing it solo. There are several uncertainties involved the weather , the vehicle breaking down,the bad roads, AMS, the not so great food, our own health , availability of fuel , driving for long hours from down under, etc it's too big a risk to be tackled alone . Enjoing the beauty in the company of somebody is always far satisfying than alone. Ramji by the by who is the member ?

 

[AR Ram]

Going solo has its own charm, but somebody from down south who has no much experience in driving in the Himalayas ,I would refrain him from doing it solo. There are several uncertainties involved the weather , the vehicle breaking down,the bad roads, AMS, the not so great food, our own health , availability of fuel , driving for long hours from down under, etc it's too big a risk to be tackled alone . Enjoing the beauty in the company of somebody is always far satisfying than alone. Ramji by the by who is the member ?

He is Sankar Narayanan from Tvm.

This is what exactly I too mentioned to him

And here is the link

http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...4162-planning-trip-leh-trivandrum-my-car.html

 

[smooth rider]

17-06-2013. got up by 6.30 am with a throbbing head ache. went to our pal sali's home for breakfast. he then took us to a shop near by for further purchase. my wife again had a happy time. she & suresh bought bed sheets which were damn cheap. i was fidgeting out side as i wanted to hit the road. then i had a call from the shop where i had done the PUC check up of my storm, they informed that it has expired, so i had to have it done at jaipur. filled up diesel and took the storm to the bunk on the side of the petrol pump. the guys asked me to reverse so that they could capture the number plate. then they just printed the PUC certificate. they never even put the sensor in the tail pipe nor even asked me to start the vehicle. so much for reducing the atmospheric pollution we bid goodbye to our dear pal sali who again told us to come to jaipur when ever we drove up north. we hit the road by 11.30 am. our first destination was kishangarh. from there we turned into the bhilwarah- chittorgarh - udaipur road. there was heavy dust storm initially then there was rain. we saw a GJ registered pick up with roof with many a guys reclining on a mattress. they sure were travellers. they noticed our KL registration and recognized us as people more mad than themselves and waved to us.we stopped for dinner some where beyond bhilwara . there was a small barber shop by the hotel and I HAD MY LONG AWAITED HAIR CUT The hotel was run by bearded guys who were muslims. my son was overjoyed as we expected non veg. but were disappointed when they told us that it was shudh shakahari. i inquired how they had non veg when the guys told us that they had it only in their native village. then we hit the road for the night run. at 2am we had stopped for a piss stop just beyond some shops on the highway just ahead of a jeep. some guy asked suresh if he could help them push start their jeep. i forbade suresh as we were in some godforsaken place with wife and kids aboard. and drove on.

 

[smooth rider]

more snaps............

 

[smooth rider]

few more of the lot.....

 

[AR Ram]

SR, believe it or not; you look more young after coming down from Leh . Would you mind sharing the secret?

Good coverage and pictures. The roads in RJ looks good. When we were going from Shirdi to Jaipur, we encountered lot of bad and dusty stretches.

 

[smooth rider]

sure ramji, all of us had lost weight. the food mostly was maggi, poached eggs. omelette, bread butter, chopsuey, etc only. SO MATES IN ORDER TO LOSE WEIGHT GO TO LADAKH !!!!!!!!!!

 

[mukeshus]

Smooth rider: Thanks for sharing this unique driving experience with us.

Your remembering every details of pics is so lively.

 

[Fyzy09]

sure ramji, all of us had lost weight. the food mostly was maggi, poached eggs. omelette, bread butter, chopsuey, etc only. SO MATES IN ORDER TO LOSE WEIGHT GO TO LADAKH !!!!!!!!!!

Agreed SR, I too had put down a couple of kgs . Again putting on weight though

 

[AR Ram]

Woh!!

Wonderful tool for weight reduction, and I think I can settle down there rest of my life.

 

[smooth rider]

from udaipur onwards there was rain. monsoon had reached north india. we reached vapi by 10 am. took a room at sarvodaya hotel. freshened up & had breakfast at the restaurant. would recommend to travelers in that route as the masal dosa, idli and coffee are fantastic and the service is perfect. we had stayed in the same hotel in 2011 on our rajasthan trip. they have kept up their standards. suresh was sleeping it off in the back seat while wifey was sleeping in the co drivers seat.nearing bombay there was heavy rain. there was water logging of the roads at some places. in bombay our KL registration was spotted bya cop who had very poor marks in GEOGRAPHY. he waved us to a stop. suresh was driving in the city while i had been navigating with GPS in my hand. he had a happy smile as if he had netted some large catch. he asked for suresh's DL. when suresh gave him the attested copy he wanted the original which was in the bag i the boot. then suresh gave himm his lawyers ID. the his attitude changed and he wanted to know from where we were coming ? when we told him Kannur , he asked is it near rameswaram ? we corrected his geography and he let us go. it was raining cats and dogs on the expressway. in pune we had lunch and dinner.

 

[smooth rider]

more snaps..........

 

[smooth rider]

few more of the lot...........

 

[AR Ram]

Good coverage. A drastic change in weather

BTW, Europa Auto (Skoda) shown in the picture is located where?

 

[smooth rider]

ramji its in pune. the weather changed. the monsoon had set in north india. from udaipur onwards it was raining and from bombay on wards it was torrential.